An Evening In Missoula

A Winter Vacation Cozy

You did it!
You finally booked and took that solo trip!

No family, no friends, no laptop, ALL notifications silenced - just you, your walking shoes, a good book (one you’ve been trying to finish for months), and that new journal you bought four months ago and have never opened.

There is no plan, no itinerary; this trip is just to be alone with your thoughts and rest.  

Three whole days - no rushing, no planning, no packing or caring for anyone or anything other than yourself. 

You arrived after dark last night on the 9 pm flight, and you packed light, so you didn't have to wait at baggage claim. You were first in line for an old yellow taxi that smelled like old shoes and older car freshener, but the driver was a kind older gentleman who drove you directly to the little boutique hotel perched on the bank of the Clark Fork River, without preamble and just the right amount of conversation. 

When you checked in at the front desk, the person on duty was also the hotel owner, who took great pride in showing you the common areas filled with fresh flowers, bowls of fresh fruit for snacking, and then to your river-facing room.

As you unpacked and settled into the room, there was a gentle knock on the door. It was the proprietor with a small cup of herbal tea, appropriately named “Evening in Missoula,” and a few warm sugar cookies straight from the oven. 

You crawl into bed, fighting a mountain of extra fluffy pillows and a duvet as thick as a forty-pound marshmallow.
Once settled in bed, you sipped your tea, nibbled your cookies, taking care not to get crumbs in the bed, and read a few pages of your book.
It didn’t take long for the words to start dancing on the page and stop making sense, so you switched off the bedside lamp and snuggled down, allowing the duvet to swallow you whole.

You woke the next morning to a tiny sliver of sunlight seeping in through a crack in the blackout curtains. You look at the clock and realize you slept for a solid 10 hours, and you feel as rested and refreshed as the fattest bear in the woods waking from a 4-month-long hibernation.
You free yourself from the bed, and that duvet that may as well have been a former lover, to open the curtains to find the most breathtaking views.

First, you look east towards the mountains, and you see the bright, gleaming yellow ochre of the grassy hills positioned in front of the darkest, most beautiful purple-blue snow-capped mountains you have ever seen.

Then, as you watch the large chunks of ice floating down the river, you look up and to the West to find that you are equally as delighted by the view.
It’s just gold!
It’s almost blinding.

Golden mid-morning winter sunlight kisses the river and lights up the naked yellow tree bark with the deepest, richest, most luxurious golden light.

You had intended to linger in your room, reading and taking a long, hot bath in the antique claw-foot tub, but for now, you must go.
The mountains, the scenery, the crispy wintery air, are indeed calling.

With your walking shoes on, a hand-knit hat pulled firmly over your ears, a backpack with water, snacks, and plenty of additional layers, you set out for a long winding walk along the riverfront trail…that it until you spy a bakery with a line out the door!
You’ve heard of this place!

You find a seat at the window bar in the bakery with your breakfast goodies and dig out your journal and pen as you wait for your hot, steamy, frothy beverage to be delivered. 

You crack open the new cover, write your details inside, then flip to a new page and write the date at the top.

You start with the activities of the last few days, but as you write the details of your trip, more and more words pour out onto the page, your frustrations, hopes, wishes, dreams.
The projects you are excited about and the things you want to spend less time on when you get back to your daily life. As you finish writing the third page, you look up to see that your beverage has been delivered and apparently sat there long enough to cool to a very drinkable temperature.

You sip the sweet, spicy, frothy, milky beverage and savor the comfort of the bakery, with its delicious, fresh-baked smells and the low hum of conversation from the tables around you. 

Your breakfast finished, you head back out into the cold to walk along the river, and soak in all the beauty. After about four miles and 300 photos on your camera roll, you arrived back at the quaint hotel ready for a bath and a nap. You indulge in both and, upon waking, order room service for an early dinner. After which, you crawl back into bed with your book, and you read well into the night.

The next three days pass in much the same way. On the fourth day, you are up at 6 a.m., packing your things for an early flight.
As you take one final look around the room before leaving, you wish with every fiber of your being that you could stay for just three more days.

Next time you promise yourself.
Next time you will stay for a full week. Maybe you will come back in September and go on some longer hikes into the mountains.  

At the airport and waiting at your gate, you finally return your attention to the real world, switching on your phone for the first time in three days, and prepare to read the news and check your work email. 
To your surprise, you discover that a massive winter storm has hit the East Coast and is moving west, rapidly. Your flight from Missoula to Denver appears on time, but your connecting flight from Denver has already been flagged as delayed.

You sigh, disappointed that your luxurious, restful vacation is ending on a frustrated note, but then you open your work email to find that, due to the storm, your office has been preemptively closed for the next four days. And any work-from-home requirements have also been suspended as the entire executive team is snowed in at a remote hotel in Vermont, where they were attending a conference. 

You consider going back to the hotel in Missoula, but after chatting with the desk agent, she recommends continuing on to Denver, as the airlines will put you up in a hotel due to the delays. 

Upon landing in Denver, you and your fellow connecting passengers are escorted onto a large, warm, comfortable motor coach for the ride to your accommodations.
The airport will be shut down for the duration of the storm, and a newly constructed luxury spa and hotel at the edge of a golf course, about an hour from the airport, is the only place with any rooms left in the whole city.

Actually, not a bad turn of events, you decide.  

Your new accommodations are high-end luxury, crisp, clean white linens, and modern facilities. It’s not as cozy as your last place, but once you realize parts of the spa are included in your stay, you don’t mind one bit.
In fact, you decide to splurge on a 90 min massage to complement the other spa services you will be taking advantage of!

The view from your new room is beautiful, and it appears there is a small creek with a bike path right behind the hotel. You check the map on your phone, and sure enough, there is a walking path easily accessible from the hotel that goes for miles, AND there is a small shopping center about a mile from the hotel with a bookshop!

You check the weather app next and see that the storm is not expected to arrive for another 4-6 hours, so you should be safe being out for a few hours. 

You put on your walking shoes and grab your backpack, setting out for the walking trail.
It’s a busy trail with lots of bikes and people walking their dogs. You pet all the dogs that will let you, wave to the babies strapped into bike seats behind their parents, and take a ton more photos of the trees reflected in the creek and the deliciously cornflower blue sky.

You arrive at the bookshop and are delighted to find it attached to a small cafe, so you order a hot cocoa with extra whipped cream and begin to peruse the shelves since you have finished the book you initially brought. 
You decide that, since you will be snowed in for at least three days, purchasing two books is not extravagant, but just good planning. 

As you exit the bookstore and cafe, you notice that there is a thrift shop across the street. You check the time and the sky to determine that you’ve got another 20 min to shop before you need to head back to the hotel. And because you are clearly the luckiest person in a 30-mile radius, you end up finding a simple black swimsuit in your size, with the original tags still on it for $12. Your spa day tomorrow just became even more luxurious. 

As you walk back to the hotel, a chilly wind starts to blow, and some dark clouds gather on the horizon, you are glad you started to walk back when you did, but you can’t resist taking a few more photos of the creek and the surrounding natural areas as the lighting has changed dramatically with the dark clouds and it’s just as beautiful as it was before, but in a more mysterious and moody way.  

A giant gust of wind blows you back into the hotel lobby, where you see one of your fellow passengers from your Missoula flight.
You wave and start chatting. It's decided that the two of you will have dinner together, and you will bring your new friend the book you just finished.

You return to your room and turn on the rain shower to warm up as you unpack your shopping. A luxurious shower and a little lie-down before your dinner sounds just right.

You smile to yourself at your amazing luck.
An extended vacation is yours to enjoy, and you intend to do just that!