2013 Western Trip – Meeting Vickie

      

Last year’s semi-aborted western trip was to include a meet up with fellow blogger Vickie (from Part Three –Life After Kids) in Bigfork, MT, but as I’ve reported, we didn’t make it that far.  Vickie is on a blogging hiatus, but we kept in contact and still wanted to put a face with the cyber words.

The plan was for all of us to meet her for breakfast (she knows I love breakfast) at the Echo Lake Café but my girls had to stay at the RV and I went alone.  The Café is located on the Swan Highway about 8 miles northeast of Bigfork and very near Vickie’s home.  I didn’t get a shot of the café but one is available on their website or Vickie's blog.

The place was a little crowded and we had to wait a while for our table on the deck, which gave us time to visit and become acquainted - her step son came out after eating and snapped a photo of us.

After checking the specials board and seeing Cowboy Benedict, I didn’t bother to look at the menu and only had to decide on a whole or half order, I picked the half and glad I did.  It was composed of a biscuit, slice ham, poached egg and topped with sausage gravy.  You know how I dislike the liberties folks take with food names and the only thing benedict about this was it was stacked and contained a poached egg – I ordered it anyway J

It was served with fried potatoes and some sweet cherries that Vickie said were grown all along the eastern shore of Flathead Lake.  We'd been eating a lot of them and the Rainiers since arriving.  Another local favorite is huckleberries which we've learned makes outstanding ice cream and everyone seems to serve it.

I enjoyed my meal and would go back to the restaurant again if in the area.

After the meal, Vickie invited me back to her place where I met husband Dana and her MIL.  She lives in a great location with a view of the mountains and plenty of room to garden and enjoy nature.  View from the deck with the unfortunate smoky haze from the forest fires.

A couple of shots from the deck lifted from Vickie's blog.

They are avid gardeners and while sitting in the nice breeze on porch watching their dogs chase squirrels, they made the mistake of asking me a gardening question.  If you’ve been around this blog very long, you know this is one of my favorite subjects and I could have probably spent the rest of the day talking about it – I love helping people improve their gardens.  This is me with my eyes and ears closed and mouth open.

Vickie and Dana are doing a little pruning on a troubled Honeysuckle.

It was a pleasure to meet both of them and I’m flattered at being invited to their home – I look forward to our next visit with them.  I might have posted one more photo of Vickie save for this email from her which I obviously took seriously - "the shot of me with food in my mouth better not get on the interwebs or I will hunt you down.”  J

Vickie – Just let me know when you need to directions to our place for your southern visit.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/25/2013 event date