Eldridge Trailer Court

July 29, 2017

Place: Bozeman, MT

Weather: 91 and sunny

Hours Driving: 8 hours

States Drive Thru: North Dakota and Montana

Miles: 433

Restaurants:

Movies:

Games: 20 questions (or 20 insults)

Books: Dunkirk (Matt)

Hotel: Marriott

We had a nice sleep last night. We had our typical free Marriott breakfast which really isn't all that bad (unless you are gluten and dairy-free). They had omelettes, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, sausage, Canadian bacon, all kinds of sweet rolls and breads, oatmeal, make your own waffles, coffee, juices, yogurts, fruits and more. Not bad really. We had a funny breakfast conversation about movie choices. Elizabeth has a very limited genre library due to the fact that most things are too scary for her. For instance, someone getting a paper cut or a lost puppy might stress her out. One of the scariest movies she has seen is Mall Cop. Mmhmm. Way too stressful. So Paul tells her to broaden her movie choices to include some more dramatic cinematic choices. I said that I don't love scary movies but they are kind of fun. (Wendy, you made me watch Friday the 13th) I said that the only thing that is bad is that the scary movies stay with me and chase me up the basement stairs. Ben whole-heartedly agreed. Elizabeth chimes in, "That's what I am saying! I can't sleep or put my feet out of the covers after watching movies like...Abraham Lincoln's death!" If you could see our faces when she said that. We were like, "What??!!" Your choice of movies that makes you feel like something is going to grab your feet is Abraham Lincoln? Four score and ten little toes. This is one of the most strong-willed and driven of our children and she shakes like a leaf at Home Alone.

Anyway, we are on a beautiful winding highway in the middle of North Dakota with rolling hills of Amber waves of grain and the occasional awe-inspiring interruptions of badland rock formations. Paul and I were cued up for a little "Home, home on the range." by some random words on the side of a roadside hill. How many weirdos sing that as they are passing. Blue skies, wind whipping through our open windows and the nerve jerking "STOP" coming from the back. Now entering Montana only divided by a large welcome sign.

We have been listening to the audio of the book "Lion" or "The Long Road Home". It is a 7 hour audio book. The title is appropriate for our travels. It is about a little East Indian boy who gets lost from home in India and ends up adopted by an Australian family. It is really good. It conjures up such images of his life and emotions of what he went through. We are enjoying It. The kids are listening while they play in the back. They seem interested every time we turn it on. The kids spent today making their own "The Office Game". Fun to hear them laughing and playiing and talking in the back. They really have been great for how long we've been in the car. They have not complained at all.

We arrived in Bozeman around 3:30. It was hot but not oppressive. We checked into the Residence Inn Bozeman. Nice hotel. We have a King bed, a pull out and a kitchen. We have a blow up mattress. It is a nice room. The freezer allows us to re freeze our ice packs and chill the food we have. Tonight, we drove to Main Street Bozeman. What a cute little town with many (lots) of nice restaurants. You could stay here a week and eat well every day. We ate, first, at a restaurant recommended by Stone (Paul's brother, Dave), Ted's Montana Grill. We decided to show the kids how Paul and I eat on trips. We like to go to multiple restaurants and sample food from each place. We ordered some bison nachos, grilled shrimp on a bed of greens in a spicy lemon dressing and their specialty fries. We asked our waitress Jacq where she would recommend for our next stop and she told us about a sushi (now we are talking) restaurant a couple of streets off Main that her friend's boyfriend owns called Dave's sushi. You might drive right by it if you didn't see the over flow of locals spilling out to the parking lot waiting for a table.

It was a cute little place filled to the brim with amazing plates of sushi, nigiri and other delights passing by our table. The boys were thrilled to find that some of the sushi was name Jack Sparrow, Black Pearl and White Tiger. Don't let the names cause concern for the quality of the sushi. The Jack Sparrow was amazing with levels of flavor, texture and temperature. All five of us fought for the last pirate bite. We all agreed that we will crave that forever. It was fried shrimp, advocado, and mango topped with spicy hamachi. The "Broad Comedy role" was yummy too. We had some kind of lettuce cups that were delicious too. Awesome place. My kids love sushi. That is good and bad. Good because we can all go out to eat sushi. Bad because I have to share. Hmph.

We enjoyed walking the streets and now we are back at the hotel and the kids are swimming. Even though most of the day was driving, it is has been soon forgotten by a great evening. Off to Seattle tomorrow. 10 more hoursRead more