July 27, 2011 - Waterton to St. Mary's

Our intent was to get up early this morning since we wanted to take the 10 am cruise on Waterton Lake and we would need to park the coach in one of the tour bus parking spaces (permission had been given the day before). However, we actually woke up about at about 8:30 am - which gave us a little less than an hour to bathe, dry hair, do my makeup and get the coach (and us) down to the harbor. Believe it or not, we made it. I drove the car so that I could get in line for the tickets as soon as I got there. Jimmy and The Bear drove the coach.

As I walked up to get our tickets, there was an older lady and her husband who were buying 38 tickets. Luckily, they sold me my two tickets while a second attendant was figuring out how much she would owe - since all of the tickets were not adults. I cleared out all but about 17 cents of my Canadian money buying the tickets for the cruise - so that was a good thing!!! The Bear attracted a good bit of attention to the coach, because he was intently watching what was going on, standing in the window so people could see him, and all around being cute. Peaches was asleep on her bath mat - so she didn't care what we were doing.

The cruise went south on the lake and actually crossed the 49th parallel - the border between the US and Canada. They actually cut down the trees along the border and put up monolith like markers where a hiker in the US (or Canada) can determine if they are crossing the border. If you had your passport (we did not), you could actually get a special stamp that the US Border Agents use which is the Goat Haunt entry stamp. We didn't even have a piece of paper on which he could have done the stamp. The trip up was quite educational about the mountains in the area. We spent about 15 or 20 minutes walking along the edge of the lake. Others on the cruise were actually taking longer hikes and catching later cruises to return to the harbor. On the way back, we sighted a bald eagle (I got pictures, but you can only see a white speck unless you zoom in on the picture) and a bear (again, you would have to zoom in quite a bit). The most interesting thing we saw was a rock formation which the guide called a V and an A. Essentially, when the tectonic plates hit up against one another to form the Rocky Mountains, in this plate the rocks bent but did not break. I got pictures of that which will be uploaded later. Really cool. He said that people getting married would frequently rent one of the cruise boats and come out there to have the ceremony conducted.



After a brief lunch on the coach in the parking lot, we hooked up the car and headed south to the United States of America. About seven miles before the border, there was a bear on the left side of the road. It is much more difficult to pull the coach over on the side of the road to get pictures, so we missed pictures of that one.

When we arrived at the border, there was a big bunch of motorcycles waiting to cross. We were next in line after them. So, we put on the brake and waited. When we were motioned forward, the border agent was on my side of the coach. So, I let him in the door. He asked pretty standard questions of us (where are you from, where have you been, how long were you there, are you bringing in any illegal aliens, etc.). All of the time he was asking questions, he was petting The Bear on the head. Peaches, once again, slept through all of the petting. He also came on the coach. He had to look behind every door on the coach to make sure there was no one hiding behind them. He looked in the freezer, but I think he was really looking for ice cream - at least, that is what he said he was looking for!!! They let us through, so we must not have broken any laws.

There is a section of road that you go through coming from the border to St. Mary where cows kind of roam free. At that point, we saw more cows than we had seen elk and moose combined. We pulled into the KOA at which we had previously stayed and got settled into our space. Nothing has changed. The wifi is satellite and it is really sketchy. Right now, I am updating using my air card and praying that it is not roaming!!! After I cleared up emails using their wifi, we headed off to a point within Glacier National Park called Many Glacier. We saw a bunch of people stopped to look at one bear on the way in. We checked out the campgrounds in the park. Then, we had a light dinner of soup and salad at the hotel at Many Glacier. Again, there are pictures coming. On the drive out, we did see another bear. Once again, with my point and click cameras, you will have to zoom in to see the bear - but he was definitely there. The ranger said it was a brown bear.

We are now back at the campground. We will drive the Going to the Sun Road tomorrow. Hopefully we will be somewhere with a strong internet connection when we stop on Friday evening and I can get all of the pictures uploaded.