Going to Glacier National Park - Part 1

I love planning trips. I love anticipating what we’ll do and where we’ll go. And I love when something comes up while we’re there so we do something totally unanticipated. I’ve already written about the sandhill cranes and Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska in March. Next up: Glacier National Park in Montana in August.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Booking accommodations at Glacier was a revelation. I thought January this year would be soon enough to get the place and dates we wanted. When I called however I was informed in no uncertain terms that people begin booking in March of 2010 – nearly a year and half in advance!

We didn’t get our first choice. We got what they had: Rising Sun Motor Lodge in St. Mary on the east side of the park. The cabins are duplexes and I’ve booked three rooms – requesting one whole duplex and another half we hope is somewhat nearby. I’ll let you know what we got after the trip.

I have since found out that the first week of August is the biggest week of summer travel: because most of the children’s summer sports conclude at the end of July. Families then may have only three weeks to take a vacation together before “back-to-school” planning and shopping begins or, in fact, school itself starts. That’s certainly true for us. Our two older grandsons both have soccer every weekend until the end of July.

What's good about the Rising Sun is that it will be a new place for all of us. My husband and I visited Glacier in the summer of 2004. We stayed at the Village Inn on the west side of Glacier. We liked the place and the view so we wanted to show it to our family. Instead we will all have a new experience of the park. And, I repeat, that's a good thing.



2. When using credit card points for plane tickets, choose the desired flights before calling to redeem the points and book the flights. In our case, we need five tickets from Newark to and from Great Falls, Montana, via Salt Lake City. Then find the right person at the company who can book the flights and redeem the points. In our case the fourth person was the right one (thank you, Nicole).

Nicole and I spent about 40 minutes together on the phone booking the flights, spelling the five names (for example, Jean: Jump Echo Apple Nancy), inputting birthdates and repeating information, as needed, so we were both certain we had everything exactly right. That’s crucial now because it costs a lot of money to change plane tickets and for security issues, the names and birthdates on the reservation and on the “government-issued” ID must match exactly. Nicole even had me check my email to review the confirmation before we disconnected. Better to check too often than not enough.

We don’t need five tickets for ourselves. My husband and I are driving from New Jersey via Canada. We will spend some time in Banff and Waterton before meeting his son (my stepson), daughter-in-law and three grandchildren in St. Mary for a week of hiking, rafting and who knows what all.

All seven of us are already excited.