Family Road Trip - Day 9 - Friends, Grizzly's and Drive Home (Sunday, 7/2)

I had never even heard of Bozeman until about six months before this trip when my tennis partner, Erin, told me she was moving over the summer to Bozeman, Montana because her husband had taken a job transfer. I knew since we were there, I had to reach out to her. Luckily for me, she was available to meet up with me for breakfast Sunday morning. We met up at a local bakery and had a great visit over some delicious pastries. It was great to see her, even if I couldn't convince her to come back for a couple tennis matches for the fall season. Erin and I played together for the Spring season and went undefeated together, 6-0. After breakfast I headed back to the hotel to pack up the boys so we could hit the road and head back to Inkom.

We packed up the hotel and loaded the car. The last day of our trip had finally come upon us. I was pretty sad about it. It was an amazing nine days with my precious family. I didn't want it to end so I tried to continue to make the most of it on our drive back to Tutus. What else could we see along the way? I found a neat Grizzly park near the Yellowstone west entrance. It had a few other animals to see but the main attraction were grizzly. On our way to the park we stopped for lunch at a pizza place in a tiny town. We we got to the park, there was only one grizzly out playing. Luckily for us, she decided to put on a show for a few minutes so we saw her swimming, jumping around in the water and playing. It was fascinating to watch an animal of that size move like that.  A short while later, they switched that one grizzly out for five others. They hunted food that the keepers had hidden around the enclosure. They climbed trees, swam in the water but mostly just ate. It was neat to see them in action.

After the park we headed straight home to Tutus. We had to get unpacked and cleaned up and ready for the week. I had to work Monday but thankfully with July 4th on Tuesday, I would get a bit of a break mid-week to help recuperate. I couldn't have asked for the trip to go much better. Yes, I wish Lincoln didn't get sick (because as a parent that is super stressful to watch your child go through) but it all turned out to be fine and we did everything we wanted to do...and more. It was a packed week but I still felt someone relaxed at the end of it. We made a lot of fun memories as a family. I'm very thankful that we are fortunate to have the means to travel and provide these types of experiences for the boys. I had never done any of these things either so it was neat to experience them as a family. I love my little family and we are all so blessed. 

After nine days we're headed back to Inkom.