Zip-lining and Tea in Montana

Saturday Day #8:  Jeremy made 10:00 a.m. reservations for two hours of zip-lining fun for Izzy, Landon and himself.  Zip-lining was a little too exciting for me, but Jeremy and the kids loved it!

Whenever I travel I always look for a tea experience in either a tearoom or hotel.  But sadly there were no tearooms or hotels that served Afternoon Tea in any of the areas we traveled.  Billings, Montana is the largest city in the state, but they didn't have a single tearoom or hotel that offered Afternoon Tea.  A friend told me before I left home that the west was a different culture and not into 'fine tea experiences'.  So I made sure I took my electric kettle and tea so I wouldn't go into tea withdrawal!   ;-)

While Jeremy and the kids were zip-lining, Samantha, Ellie, Jerry and I went to a nearby town called Big Sky.  After looking in some of the shops we decided to go in a cafe called Toast, and lo and behold they had a small tea bar!  This was as close to Afternoon Tea as I was going to get.

I chose Earlie Grey Dawn by Tumblewood Teas, essence of the west.  The company is located in Big Timber, Montana, on the banks of the Yellowstone River.  Of course I had to research the company and discovered it's owned by two women who are persistently generating a tea revolution.  Hooray for Riza and Laurie!  Maybe someday there'll be tearooms in Montana!  Here's a little tea tidbit that I learned when reading about the company: "The Chinese who built western railroads escaped dysentery because they drank tea." The Chinese certainly knew what was good for them!

I got a blueberry scone to go with my mug of tea, served on a galvanized high-top table. Afterall, this was the rugged west and beggars can't be choosy!  ;-)  I was happy to finally have something tea related to share on this western travelogue.

It was soon time to pick up our adventurous zip-liners and get back on the road traveling through Yellowstone Park to the town West Yellowstone which is the western entrance to the park. 

We admired beautiful scenery along the way.

Thousands upon thousands of evergreen trees that grow right out of the rock.  Amazing!  

   

We arrived in West Yellowstone around 4:30 p.m.  The western entrance to the park was a lot larger, had more tourist shops and lodging, and was bustling with a lot more people than the north entrance.

Jeremy, Landon, Jerry and I went in one of the tourist shops, while Samantha and the girls checked out a couple of other shops.  I thought this picture of a stuffed bear wearing a face mask was worthy of a picture.  ;-)

As you can see by the overcast skies in the picture below, this was one of the times on our trip that it rained.  The downpour didn't last long, but it dropped the temperature considerably.

We had a Mexican dinner in a western restaurant - chicken tacos at Bullwinkle's!

After dinner we got in our vehicles and it was soon time to say good-bye to Montana, "The Treasure State".  We drove about an hour and a half to Rexburg, Idaho on the eastern side of the state, where we spent the night in a motel. 

to be continued...