Kiwis and Fairy Bread

21 June 2026

Mike and I both slept very well and awoke just before dawn. Still in my pajamas I wandered into the Swiffcurrent parking lot hoping to get a glimpse of the sunrise. I was rewarded richly.

It was a glorious sunrise. No clouds. No deep hues of pink or orange. Just one bright white disk emerging from behind a rectangular peak. Alone in the parking lot I sang, as always do, “…..when I fall on my knees with my face to rising sun, oh Lord, have mercy on me”. And as always, it moved me to tears.

Life is harsh these days. It can be ugly and cruel. But if you get out into the world, you see the best of it. A bright blue sky. A majestic snow capped peak. A chipmunk thoroughly enjoying the bud of a dandelion. A smiling child bouncing on his father’s knee. A friendly “good morning” from a stranger. The person you love best, beside you. Life itself, is beautiful. And worth living.

Oh I am feeling so philosophical today. Back to it….

Now one of the nicest things about the Swiftcurrent cabins is the coffee station. Stocked with tea bags, instant coffee, sugar, creamer, cups and a tiny hot water maker, we made tea every morning and afternoon. Lovely.

With tea in hand we ate our hearty breakfast at Nell’s and then watched a large group leave with a ranger to go on the difficult Iceberg hike. From what we hear, it’s a really good one to have a guide for. They certainly had a nice clear day for it.

Time to pack up our bags and load the car. Ben and Cary found newly arrived guests to take their unused bear spray and extra shower tokens (oh yes, the shower tokens. Upon arrival, each guest receives one token for each night’s stay. Each is good for 7.5 minutes of water. Honestly it was a perfectly satisfying amount of time with plenty of hot water in a good clean shower.)

One last trip down that awful gravel road and a quick pull out along Lake Sherbourne. Farewell Glacier National Park. And thank you.

Cary had a flight to catch early in the afternoon so we planned to only make short stops to get gas and change drivers. The town of Browning on the Blackfeet reservation didn’t look as sad this morning. I noticed a neighborhood of colorful homes with roofs of red, green and blue. The little stray reservation dog was at the gas station again, looking more content.

In Chocteau we changed drivers at a closed roadside attraction that had seen better days. Log cabins, a covered wagon and an ice cream shop that both invited guests in and warned there was no admittance without a ticket. The town of Augusta looked cheerier with people walking in and out of shops and cafes.

Pulled into the Bozeman airport in good time for Cary to catch his flight back to NJ. Hugs all around. What a great trip! Safe travels! “Text me when you get back to Somerville.”

Into town we pulled up to our rental and were a bit shocked. It didn’t look right. The single story half-a-duplex looked lackluster, nothing like what I thought we had booked for the wedding weekend. I immediately contacted the owner who assured me this was the place, but that check-in wasn’t for another two hours (why, then did VRBO text me at midday that it was ready?). Fortunately the housekeepers were there, let us in and it all turned out just fine.

The inside was gorgeous! Tastefully decorated and accented with indigenous dreamcatchers and artfully funky lights. Four bedrooms, comfy couches, a nice big kitchen, even a sauna! Truly one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.

As I may have mentioned before, this is our fourth trip to Bozeman. Three of those trips have been for weddings (my cousin, who at the time was getting her doctorate in paleontology from Montana State University was married here in 2012. Mike’s niece Kayla, who was raised here, married in 2014 ). Incidentally this is our third trip to Montana during the World Cup (1998 for Mike’s parent’s 40th anniversary family gathering, Kayla’s wedding in 2014, and now). The Parker fam does love The World Cup. Go England!

After a brief unpacking in the house, we went for a walk and encountered the next door neighbor who was having a difficult day. A woman named Joy was pushing a stroller full of papers down the sidewalk and a bunch of them fell off. We stopped to help and she burst into tears. These were her children’s school things she said. They are grown now and didn’t want them and she is moving. They had to go. I gave her a “mom hug” as Mike and Ben gathered the drawings, report cards and childhood homework assignments and put them back in the stroller (not sure why that was the chosen vehicle for transport, or where she was ultimately taking them). “Feel what you need to feel. Do what you need to do” I told her. She very much appreciated the kindness and later brought us chocolate chip cookies.

It’s these kind of brief friendships that I love most about traveling (and the views, of course).

Now aside from the altitude, the biggest adjustment for us “East Coasters” coming to the west is the scale of distance. In NJ, going sixty miles in any direction takes you to an entirely different place. Out here drive an hour’s drive is still considered in the neighborhood. Such was the case with the wedding venue.

By 6pm we were off to the rehearsal dinner. The drive to Garden Montana, a ranch in the town (well, we never actually saw a town) of Whitehall (an unusually British name for this area) took a full hour. Off the highway I did not believe there could possibly be anything out here. The valley was wide and blonde and enclosed by green mountains.

A scattered group of buildings in the distance, that must be it! Drove down a dry dirt drive, parked in a field, walked through a gate and were very happy to find Liz. The wedding party was chowing down on steamed crab under the awning of a barn porch. Sitting at tables covered in brown paper, people were surrounded by paper plates, vats of butter, and piles of shells.

Hugs all around. We met Rachel, the bride (a perfectly lovely person in every way) and her parents (absolutely glowing as the parents of the bride: I know the feeling!). Ben chatted with the Best Person, Steven’s dearest friend. Kayla’s three children were really loving the crabs, as well as running around the farm. She and her husband Kyle are more even more beautiful now than they had been at their own wedding twelve years ago. We finally met Liz’s very sweet boyfriend Brandon, and caught up with Randy, Steven and Kayla’s dad. Mike and Liz’s youngest brother Glynn arrived with his wife Joanna. They had just driven her all the way from Virginia in their EV. Bravo!

The smell of crab boil filled the air and took me back to my waitressing days working my way through college (those were the days that a person could do that!). Rachel’s family had had the crabs shipped from their own hometown in Maryland. Mike unsuccessfully attempted to extract meat from a them.There was a plate with a few grilled steaks, but precious little left for us late-arriving Parkers to eat for dinner. Still, the company was great. Everyone happy to be out on this beautiful evening.

Steven opened up the karaoke session and swooned like a real country singer. The kids all took a turn and I was so impressed! Even Ben got up, impressively singing Johnny Cash’s One Piece at a Time to much applause. The party was clearly just getting started, but twilight had begun and it had been a long day for us (was the sunrise I watched at Glacier really just that morning?). We drove back to Bozeman as the setting sun painted bright patches of pink, purple and orange onto a jet black sky.

Ben, Mike and I were hungry so we stopped at a grocery store on the way. Why did I know where everything was here? Why was this place so familiar? Duh! We’d shopped here before we went up to Glacier! Yes, I was tired.

Glynn and Joanna shared the house with us and they were just about ready for bed when we arrived. I have to admit that sleeping in the master bedroom with it’s very own spa bathroom was a luxury Mike and I were ready for. We sunk into the bed and slept well.