White Water Rafting in Glacier Park, Montana!!!

White Water rafting in Montana!!! It was soo fun!!!

Glacier Park, Montana

Maria (Brazil) and Kayla ready to go rafting!

Me, Jan (Denmark), Melody, and Jacqui (New Zealand) ready for rafting too!

Wednesday was our second day in Seattle, WA. We only had until 2:00 pm until we needed to leave for the train, so everyone got free time to buy groceries for the 18 hr train ride ahead to Montana. They also wanted to do some shopping and relaxing together. At 2:00 we walked the two miles to the train station.

The scenery was breath taking! I wanted to read my book, but the view outside was so spectacular, I couldn’t. After about two hours, we went through the second largest tunnel in the world- 8 miles of pure darkness! (I just thought it was an interesting fact.) The night on the train was uneventful and restful for the most part. Some of the kids didn’t settle down until about three hours before they needed to be up. We are so far north; it doesn’t get dark until about 10:00 pm. The days are very long in the summer in the Northern states.

We arrived at Glacier Park just after 8:00 am Thursday morning. Our appointment with the rafting company was at 10:00. Some of us suited up in wet suits and wind jackets, others in just the jackets, depending on their cold comfort level (which is very low for me!) The ride was actually a bit chilly, and the water was FREEZING! Rafting down the river was SOOOOO fun! I know I keep saying this day was the best day ever, but this day really was the best day ever! We had a fun bunch in our raft, including Melody and the five chaperones, and five kids (Chris, Peter, Haruko, Mumbi, Kayla). There was a lot of splashing, falling off, jumping, and laughing going on in our raft! The river was exciting and really swift in some places. It was an exciting 2 hour ride.

After the ride, everyone was absolutely famished! They attacked the food, eating what they could until the hamburgers were cooked. It was a very good meal. Here’s something funny. They offered three different kinds of cookies; Oreos, chocolate chip, and peanut butter ones. The Oreos and chocolate chip cookies disappeared very quickly, but the peanut butter ones lingered. Peanut butter is such an American food; these foreign kids are not familiar with it or do not like it! It’s strange to think that something my own children ate almost every day of their lives is something that is only eaten in America, and not the rest of the world.
After the Bar BQ, some of us went back to our rooms and rested while the others (including Kayla) went on a SIX mile walk to get ice cream! No thanks- I watched a movie, got some souvenirs, and bought a coke, and took a nap. We are letting the kids stay up late tonight since they have 24 hours on a train to rest, but I think they are so tired from the day that they will be out soon.

We had another Bar BQ for dinner tonight then played a volleyball game against the local rafters! It was a full day. Now we have a 24 hour train ride ahead of us as we head to St. Paul, Minnesota; home of the largest mall in America!