Great Falls, Montana (11 August 2015) – There is a reason why a family with children who just turned two years old, a wife/mother who is 35 weeks pregnant, and a husband/father who changes diapers as a full-time gig decide to travel for five hours from the city of Kalispell to a small town called Great Falls in the state of Montana. 

The reason is: the diaper-changing father had a job interview for a tourism position in Great Falls. It’s a job that he is not particularly excited about but since all expenses are paid and it will give the family a chance to leave Kalispell for a two-day trip, we decided to pack our bags and take another road trip.

What is great about Great Falls?

While the Great Falls Tourism Business Improvement District’s website says that the city “sits along the beautiful Missouri River”, the tourism plan seems to be all over the place. By the looks of it, the “come on” factor seems to be in the outdoor activities but I am reading a website that says that “Great Falls, Montana is your destination for conventions, trade shows, and sporting events.”

Jeff and I were thinking about a “hook”, the very reason why people will say: “Hey, let’s drop everything and head on to Great Falls”. Two days is not enough to extensively know the entire city but two days IS ENOUGH to get a feel of what the city is. I have always felt that a city’s soul is in its downtown but during the Monday afternoon drive that we had I didn’t get any of that soulful vibe. I might be wrong (if anyone of you reading this from Great Falls, please feel free to correct me.).

The following day, Jeff, the twins, and I met up with a platoon of officers and members of the city’s Chamber of Commerce for a morning “meet and greet”. Afterwards, they were kind to reserve tickets for me and the twins to spend at the local children’s museum while they “grilled” Jeff during the formal interview.

I know my husband when he is completely excited with an opportunity. This one was clearly not one of them. I knew it from the expression in his face the moment he fetched us at the museum. To confirm my thoughts, he actually told me that he’s hoping that the hiring committee will go ahead and hire somebody else. And they did – and my husband gladly closed the Great Falls file and took me out on a Mexican dinner when we got back to Kalispell.

So… there was nothing tourist special about Great Falls. Let me blunt about that. But…as an old flame (ha!) said about the essence of travel: “It’s not ALWAYS about the place. It’s about the person(s) you are with.”

That is the main reason why this trip – although not as exciting as seeing Winnie the Pooh walking around Fantasyland or jumping off a cliff in some remote area – is worthy to be posted and shared in this blog. With me in that trip were four creatures who are and will always be part of my travel adventure. They can be difficult to manage but they’re family and as Lilo would say: “Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”

Here are top highlights of that Great Falls Adventure from this pregnant lady who managed to survive a long drive without getting any cramps:

 

1. The Drive

We left Kalispell around 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning and arrived at the Best Western Plus Heritage Inn in Great Falls at around 3:00 p.m. The five-hour drive was smooth in the sense that the twins didn’t scream or whine for us to take them off their car seats. We made one short stop to buy water and one longer stop in a rest area so the twins can walk around while I empty my bladder.

Three nights before we left Kalispell, our bags (including the emergency suitcase where all of my delivery-related essentials are placed) were ready. I packed coloring books, some crayons, and four books for the twins. Wheat thins and Ritz peanut butter sandwiches (without high fructose corn syrup) were their snacks paired with water. As you might have expected, there was a great deal of storytelling in this trip. The ones I grabbed from their BOOK BOX (read about the book box in a separate post come September) were: Rachel Fuller’s Waiting for Baby (Nicholas’ ultimate favorite and bedtime companion), the tear-jerking Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (and yes, I was sobbing before I even said “The End”) and the current house favorite, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which I personally love because it’s short and yet, teaches children numbers, days of the week, and the life cycle of a butterfly).

I’ve never experienced storytelling inside a moving vehicle so it was a brand new experience for all of us to have me reading stories while we passed valleys and mountains. Jeff chimed in when he knows the line and I turned goofy on some parts needing comic action, which made the twins giggle.

Before reaching Great Falls, we passed by a small town called “Bynum” where there was massive road construction giving us a slow, five-minute bumpy ride. No worries, I was sure Baby No. 3 wasn’t shaken inside. Jeff is a great driver and the people manning the traffic are road experts.

 

2. The Handwritten Welcome Letter

We arrived in Great Falls a few minutes pass 3:00 p.m. and there was a package waiting for Jeff from the lady who arranged the trip and the interview. It was nice of them to give us a comfortable suite room and make sure that we are well taken care of in this short stay. The hotel is old though and you know that the moment you enter the lobby. Stepping inside the elevator is like being in the set of Spy Kids and I was sort of hoping that we will be in another island the moment the door opened signaling that we’ve arrived on the second floor.

I was in the bedroom with Antoinette when Jeff opened the package with Nicholas. Nicholas became our instant messenger as he hustled from the living room to the bedroom and vice versa to deliver one sheet of paper after another to me from his Daddy.

The usual itinerary and tourism brochures were there but what really caught my attention was a handwritten note from Keren. Because really, how many people actually do handwritten notes? I still do so it was a pleasant surprise to know that someone actually took the time and the effort to do that when she can just type words on the computer and use a printer to transfer those words on a sheet of paper. So Keren, I don’t really know if you will be able to read this, thank you very much for the letter. It is a warm gesture from your end and we deeply appreciate that.

 

 

3. The Waitress

We had dinner in a family restaurant called JB’s where we met a wonderful waitress named Brianne, who lived and worked in Great Falls for all of the 24 years of her young life. With two kids and a boyfriend, she said there is not pretty much exciting tourism activities in the city. She mentioned some bars where people her age go to. But other than that, she said and let me quote her: “There is not much happening in this city.” She lamented about the sorry state of most of the hotels, which needs major renovation. And she can say this with authority because she worked as a a housekeeping staff for six of them. She recommended the La Quinta Inn and Holiday Inn if one wants clean rooms and good service. We were the last ones in the restaurant before they closed at 10:00 p.m. and Brianne was generous enough to spend a considerable amount of her time asking questions from Jeff and yours truly.

Aside from bartenders and taxi drivers, waiters and waitresses are the great sources of information in any city so don’t dare miss NOT talking to them.

 

4. The Shuttered Shops

I contemplated about not including this one as a “highlight” but… there were too much closed shops on the Interstate that I think that warrants a discussion.

A few things comes to mind when I see shuttered shops: (1) the idea/concept didn’t click; (2) the competitor(s) killed the shop; and (3) the location is terrible or not meant for the kind of business that was operating.

OR the economy is just bad that nobody is buying – or visiting.

This is not to say that Great Falls is a terrible city. I am sure there are several great spots for outdoor activities which I would have enjoyed if I wasn’t pregnant and had time to experience them. I sure want to get back on my hiking routine and Great Falls may be offering that option. I read about at least five hydroelectric powerplants in the area, which could be a “bundled attraction” for informative tours about how water produces power.

 

5. The Children’s Museum of Montana

This one I enjoyed very much because the twins and I spent three hours in here as Jeff had his interview. It’s a two-storey building with areas where children can learn about the water cycle, grocery shopping, flying a plane, puppetry, dressing up, digging dinosaur bones…the list continues. And it’s affordable too! Although we got our tickets free, I did take a peek on the rates and non-members only pay $4 each to get in. You can basically spend an entire day in the museum. The twins love the area for children below four years old where they played with Legos, read books, arranged wooden letters of the alphabet, and “interacted” with Teletubbies.

Antoinette’s favorite was a tunnel where she got to crawl with Pooh tucked in her armpit. Nicholas was mesmerized with the control tower and the airplane.

I was so tired after three hours that I almost fainted. It was certainly not the best three hours of my life, bending and picking up toys to rearrange them because I can’t just let my children walk away from one station to the other leaving behind a big mess. Thankfully, they were helpful in picking up some Lego pieces but of course, it was a playground (!!!), they wanted to get to the next spot, so Nanay (Mom/Mama) had to do most of the cleaning/fixing.

But… they really had fun! Jeff fetched us after three hours and the moment they were strapped in their car seats, they immediately went to sleep.

 

Homeward Bound

We left Great Falls at around 2:00 p.m. and was back in Kalispell by 7:00 p.m. Mother Sun was still up and showed no signs of retreating behind the clouds. Meanwhile, I was nursing a painful lower back and sore legs.

The kids woke up and asked for water. The Dad provided them some. After about 30 minutes of crying, we were able to get them to change into their house clothes, put them in bed,  read a story, said our prayers, whispered “good night” , and turned off the light.

Another road trip that came full circle.

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