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Tessa’s Final Marching Band Performance
Tessa concluded her senior season of Marching Band as the Drum Major for Flathead High School with a performance in the school theater. The band put on an amazing show, it was awesome to see how much they improved in such a short time. Tessa won several awards, two of which puts her name on a plaque outside the band room. She split both the Outstanding Senior and the National High School Marching Award with her buddy Chollman, in addition to making Montan’s All State Band for the second year in a row. This was a perfect ending to a great marching band career at Flathead High School.
Bridger’s Freshman Homecoming @ Stillwater
Most of the Freshman class at Stillwater met up at Game & Taps prior to their homecoming dance to play some pool and hangout. Here are a few photos of everyone dressed up.
2024 MSU Showcase of Bands
On Saturday, September 28th we made the trip down to Bozeman for the next installment of the Montana State University Showcase of Bands. This is an annual event hosted by the Spirit of the West Marching Band where they invite about 10 high school marching bands from across the state to present their performances. This is an amazing event complete with custom graphics and displays on the stadium scoreboard and the in stadium announcer. This is such a fun event and of course this year was special as Tessa is the head Drum Major for the Flathead Marching Band. Flathead looked and sounded amazing this year.
Tessa Homecoming
Tessa got dressed up and ready for the Flathead High School homecoming dance, we took a few portraits before she headed out for the night.
Flathead H.S. Homecoming Parade
For the first time in a few years, Flathead High School held their Homecoming Parade on Main Street in Kalispell Montana. The parade was led by the marching band. Tessa is the head Drum Major for the band, they looked great and had a blast.
Labor Day on the Flathead
We got up early on Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend to head up the Flathead River. We spend the first hour motoring across the lake and up the river. We then spent the rest of the day puttering back down the river and enjoying the peaceful water and fewer boats than we encounter on the lake. We went all the way to the mouth of the Half Moon Slough before turning back. We went for a swim in Fennon Slough before re-entering Flathead Lake.
A Day in Bonners Ferry
We spent a short day in Bonners Ferry checking out the downtown area before Bridger’s Soccer game at the high schoo. The downtown is small but fun to visit as it is nesteled between the Kootenai River, the BNSF train line and the Union Pacific train line. This makes for a fun place to take some photographs.
New E-Bikes on the Rail Trail
We purchase some new bikes this summer and have been exploring some of the bike trails in the Flathead Valley. These things are so much fun, they give you some extra help when you need it, but don’t do everything for you. So far we love them. We went for a ride on the Great Northern Historical Trail from Somer’s to a little spot where we often see Bald Eagles hanging out along Alternate 93. No Baldies today but that just means we have to ride it again. We did stop and take a few photos of a couple abandoned structures on our way back.
Wildlife on Flathead
We spent the day boating on Flathead Lake and River as a family. We started off by boating past a Bald Eagle hanging out on a piece of driftwood in the middle of the lake. We saw several more Bald Eagles along the Flathead River. We anchored up at the mouth of Fennon Slough for some swimming where we released our wildlife into the river.
Sunset over Mission View Bay
We had some amazing light after one of the largest thunderstorms we have experienced living here.
Up the Flathead River
We spent a few hours boating on Flathead Lake and decided to travel up the river into the Flathead Valley. We visited the Somer’s Bay and old railroad facilities before turning north. The river was very calm and peaceful and turned into one of our favorite new spots. Throughout the day we saw 4 to 5 Bald Eagles, what a great way to spend a summer day.
Olympic National Park
For our summer vacation this year, we decided to drive to Olympic National Park and spend a week exploring the Olympic Peninsula. We went all the way the first day and stayed at the Log Cabin Resort on Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park for the first three nights. On the fourth day, we took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, British Columbia, for the day. In Victoria, we had tea at the Empress and revisited Abigail’s Hotel, where we had honeymooned 25 years earlier and enjoyed shopping. For the next three nights, we stayed in the Lake View building at the Lake Quinault Lodge. Here, we took a boat tour of Lake Quinalt and explored the Lake Quinalt Rain Forest and the coast around Kalaloch. Finally, we drove through Mount Ranier on our way home.
State Music in Helena
Tessa had her state music festival in Helena this year for her Jazz Band at Flathead High School.
Spring Break in Calgary
We decided to stay close to home this spring break and make the drive to Calgary, Britsh Columbia. Our route took us through Eureka, Fernie, over the Crowsnest Pass and Burmis before turning north on Highway 22 on our way to Calgary. This was a really beautiful drive with lots of scenery, however, most of our photos were taken in Calgary instead of on the drive. We did stop at the Lundbreck Falls to check out some passing trains behind the waterfall. Besides spending a few days in downtown Calgary, we also made a day trip up to Banff. The weather was a littel heavy during this day so our views were limited, however, you can clearly see why this is a world class destination.
University of Montana Campus Visit
We drove down to Missoula on Friday to visit the University of Montana campus with Tessa. This was a great visit and really sold her on attending school here. Not only is she familiar with the campus and the music program, but then we stopped into the Chemistry office for an impromptu visit. The three ladies in the office could not speak highly enough of the Chemistry program and all the professors. This really seems like her #1 choice for college at them moment. Then next day Tessa then took the SAT exam over at Sentinel high school.
Whitefish Skatepark
I wandered around the Dave Oseth memorial Skatepark in Whitefish in order to kill some time while Bridger was at practice. The park was empty and filled with snow, quite the contrast from visiting on a summer day. There was some nice light for a few minutes. However, it did get cold once the sun went down.
Parkline Trail Again
We went for a short walk along the East end of the new Parkline Trail in Kalispell. This trail is very wide and is surrounded by plenty of green space. They kept an old Great Northern locomotive on a short section of track along the trail. This is completed with a couple of crossing gates standing sentinel over the trail.
A Somer’s Walk
We went for a short walk through Somer’s along the Historic Rails to Trails path. We started out at the Somer’s Bay swim beach and walked to the middle school. We grabbed a few photos of town and some of the historic buildings in the area.
A Clear Day @ Glacier
The rarest of events happened yesterday, I woke up to the Flathead Valley without a cloud in the sky during winter. With such rare conditions, I cut out of work early and we headed up to Apgar on the shores of Lake McDonald to capture a few images. We spent about an hour walking along the shore before driving through Apgar Village. On our way out we drove to the old bridge that starts the South Boundary Trail and watched the ice chunks flowing down the river.
Parkline Trail
On our way to Home Depot, we stopped by Somer’s Bay to take photos of the half-renovated houseboat. Next, Bridger and I parked in the Kalispell Mall parking lot outside the old Herberger’s location. We walked along the new Parkline trail, heading west until the junction with the Alternate 93 trail. The Parkline Trail was recently completed and is very lovely. The path goes along several new apartment complexes that are being built. This trail goes underneath the bridges built for the old train wye that comes together over Spring Creek.