Seattle | Part 1 (plus a video!)

Oh, Seattle, you stole a little chunk of our hearts!

Here's the thing: I was convinced that the Pike Place Market wouldn't impress me... I was concerned that it'd be super touristy and not enjoyable. But, thankfully, it was lovely. There were booths full of endless amounts of fresh flowers, meat, seafood, fruit, and vegetables. And the more specialty offerings didn't disappoint, either: art, pasta, jerky, cheese, baked goods, locally sourced honey, and more. We could have spent all day just wandering around, snacking as we went. I can just imagine what it'd be like to live nearby - stopping by on the way home from work to pick up meats and cheeses for last minute company, or walking over on a leisurely Saturday to pick up fresh flowers for the week and supplies for an afternoon picnic. Heaven.

Be warned, I had a hard time editing down the number of photos.

-Amanda

Here's a quick video of the fish throwing (the fish is thrown right at the beginning of the video):

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Libby and Troy, MT (plus a video)

 We had a friend tell us about the little town of Libby and he gave us some tips of what to do there if the town ended up being on our route.  It was on our route, so with his instruction, this is what we did:

We started our day with an amazing breakfast at Libby Cafe and their huckleberry and potato flapjacks are seriously to die for (Taras still talks about them). The cafe was right out of a small-town movie - waitresses knew every patron by name and the guy eating beside us at the bar fell asleep while reading his morning paper (there were actually a few moments when we thought he might be dead... but then he took a giant breath in his sleep, thank goodness!).

After we stuffed ourselves, we went for a short hike to see the Kootenai Falls, train bridge, and swinging bridge. The falls were crazy - it wasn't a tall waterfall, but it was short and very powerful. The train bridge was on the way to the Falls and if you jumped really hard you could make it move (see the video below!). Then, we followed the trails a different way and came to the swinging bridge, where we got a huge rush of adrenaline crossing to the other side.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving a portion of the stunning Lake Koocanusa Scenic Byway, making it to the Libby Dam before heading back to town to get ready for the local fireworks show (it was July 4th).

This was our last day in Montana and just driving a small portion of the Scenic Byway was the perfect ending to our time in this beautiful state. Montana truly won us over with all its mountains, wildlife, and lush forests, and is definitely on the top of our must go back list.

-Amanda

Taras picked some flowers at our campsite ;)

Even though we're talking about swinging the bridge, this is the train bridge that moved if you tried really hard, not to be confused with the actual swinging bridge.
See more on Montana here.

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