Montana Interlude
So Here We Are in Whitefish Montana!
Tuesday, I flew from Omaha to Chicago, and met The Colonel at a little motel by Union Station. After a truly delicious and delightfully expensive dinner at The Cape Cod Room at the Drake Hotel, it was off to beddy-bye.
The next morning, The Colonel headed off to his meeting, and I putzed around Chicago a bit. Blunch was at Lou Mitchell's by the station (A Chicago "must-do") I met the Colonel at the bar at the station, and we headed off to board the Empire Builder.
Everything about the train was perfect: The sleeper was new, clean, and staffed by a wonderful attendant. Dinner, while rolling along the banks of the Mississippi, was great, and I slept well. Woke up the next morning in North Dakota, and spent the day staring out the window at the view, which got progressively more interesting as the day wore on, and left the prairie in favor of the mountains.
During the afternoon wine and cheese tasting, I won a bottle of wine for knowing that Katherine Hepburn was in "A Lion in Winter".
As we started climbing into the rockies, it started to snow, which added to the whole festive atmosphere. After going over the Marias Pass, we arrived at The Izaak Walton Inn in Essex Montana.
The Izaak Walton is fantastic: Rustic as hell (no cell phone connectivity or TV) and literally in the middle of nowhere - but in a good way. Add to that a great dining room, and a fantastic little basement bar, and you have the ultimate getaway!
After a lovely stay at the Inn, we headed back on the train to Whitefish, and I spent another hour oggling out the window.
After the Izaak Walton, Whitefish was sort of a letdown: It's a city designed for tacky people with too much money. With that said, we did buy some wind chimes, which is so cliched on so many levels, but I don't care. They're really neat chimes. We also found thrift store where I got a fantastic California Pottery Lazy Susan ($3.95) and a Faberware "Open Hearth" electric broiler ($4.00). I'd been looking for one of these, as I found the Shish Kebob attachment back in Council Bluffs.
Tonight, we board the Builder for the final leg, which should bring us into Seattle at about 10am. And just in time: The Major Concern is now doing a background check on me, and I need to get them some paperwork. Hopefully, there will be some good career news to share with you in the near future.
In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of the inn. Here it is from trackside:
Here's looking across the tracks at these cute little cabooses you can rent.
Here's the lobby
And here's the bar!
More Bar! (There's skiing and snowbarding and things like that, but why bother when you have a bar like this?)
The pool and ping-pong room (off of the bar!)
Here comes the train to take us to Whitefish!
In case you are interested, the eastbound Empire Builder arrives at Essex at approximately 9am. The westbound Builder arrives at 7:40pm.
Tuesday, I flew from Omaha to Chicago, and met The Colonel at a little motel by Union Station. After a truly delicious and delightfully expensive dinner at The Cape Cod Room at the Drake Hotel, it was off to beddy-bye.
The next morning, The Colonel headed off to his meeting, and I putzed around Chicago a bit. Blunch was at Lou Mitchell's by the station (A Chicago "must-do") I met the Colonel at the bar at the station, and we headed off to board the Empire Builder.
Everything about the train was perfect: The sleeper was new, clean, and staffed by a wonderful attendant. Dinner, while rolling along the banks of the Mississippi, was great, and I slept well. Woke up the next morning in North Dakota, and spent the day staring out the window at the view, which got progressively more interesting as the day wore on, and left the prairie in favor of the mountains.
During the afternoon wine and cheese tasting, I won a bottle of wine for knowing that Katherine Hepburn was in "A Lion in Winter".
As we started climbing into the rockies, it started to snow, which added to the whole festive atmosphere. After going over the Marias Pass, we arrived at The Izaak Walton Inn in Essex Montana.
The Izaak Walton is fantastic: Rustic as hell (no cell phone connectivity or TV) and literally in the middle of nowhere - but in a good way. Add to that a great dining room, and a fantastic little basement bar, and you have the ultimate getaway!
After a lovely stay at the Inn, we headed back on the train to Whitefish, and I spent another hour oggling out the window.
After the Izaak Walton, Whitefish was sort of a letdown: It's a city designed for tacky people with too much money. With that said, we did buy some wind chimes, which is so cliched on so many levels, but I don't care. They're really neat chimes. We also found thrift store where I got a fantastic California Pottery Lazy Susan ($3.95) and a Faberware "Open Hearth" electric broiler ($4.00). I'd been looking for one of these, as I found the Shish Kebob attachment back in Council Bluffs.
Tonight, we board the Builder for the final leg, which should bring us into Seattle at about 10am. And just in time: The Major Concern is now doing a background check on me, and I need to get them some paperwork. Hopefully, there will be some good career news to share with you in the near future.
In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of the inn. Here it is from trackside:
Here's looking across the tracks at these cute little cabooses you can rent.
Here's the lobby
And here's the bar!
More Bar! (There's skiing and snowbarding and things like that, but why bother when you have a bar like this?)
The pool and ping-pong room (off of the bar!)
Here comes the train to take us to Whitefish!
In case you are interested, the eastbound Empire Builder arrives at Essex at approximately 9am. The westbound Builder arrives at 7:40pm.
posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay @ Saturday, April 21, 2007
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