Pacific Northwest: Part 1

If you follow me on Instagram (@lovelindsaywilcox), you've already seen all of these pictures. But hopefully you'll still find this post interesting as I explain the first part of our road trip!

We started off by visiting my family in southern Idaho and then making our way up to Montana, stopping briefly in Ennis before a quick visit to Virginia City and Nevada City. I've talked before about how much I love Virginia City and all the old buildings there — and you can see even more pictures of Virginia City from 2012 here.

From Virginia City and Nevada City, we drove to Butte, one of the most interesting places I've ever visited. Since we spent some time there last year during our road trip to Glacier National Park, we didn't stay there long this time — but we were there long enough for me to take pictures of the adorable historic homes I am obsessed with. I would love to spend a day in Butte just walking through them, some that were built in the 1860s!

Seriously. Are these homes not amazing? If Butte actually had job opportunities for Andrew and me, I would consider buying a home there. I go gaga for places that are teeming with history, and this old mining town fits the bill. You can see more pictures of Butte in this post.

From Butte, we drove another two hours to Missoula, where we spent the night at a KOA. This is ridiculous, but one of the main reasons I wanted to stay in Missoula was to get fish tacos from Taco Del Sol, since we discovered them last year. While I admit that they weren't quite as good as I remember, they were still delicious — and I had to replicate the picture from last year's trip (minus the braces, YAY!).

We polished off the night with a soak in the KOA hot tub and huckleberry ice cream cones. I eat huckleberry everything when I'm in Montana and Idaho, because you can't find it in Utah. It is my favorite!

Part two of our trip is coming soon! I'm already missing Montana and Idaho.

Virginia City

Yes, I know it's been a week since I posted the preview of the Montana pictures. I have been incredibly drained since then, unfortunately, and haven't been sleeping very well -- which didn't exactly make me motivated to spend hours going through pictures, editing them in Photoshop and deciding which ones to add to the blog.

Also, while we were gone to Montana, someone cut the chain on our porch and stole Andrew's mountain bike -- and left the other two bikes. Strange. And maddening. I no longer feel as safe in our neighborhood, and nighttime (which always freaks me out anyway, because I'm a wimp) now makes me paranoid.

But I'm feeling better now, and I've decided to do the pictures in more manageable chunks. Also, I'm going to make the travel blog I talked about starting last year a reality. So look for that link soon!

Here are the photos from the first chunk, taken in Virginia City, Montana. If you're planning a road trip to Montana, I recommend stopping here. It's not exactly an authentic ghost town (i.e. people live there and work in the old buildings), but it's fun and not too far from Idaho when you want to get away and do something really different. Plus, if you love old buildings and have a nostalgic heart (like me), you'll love it. It's quiet and quirky and always interesting.

That last picture, though it's kind of hard to tell, is of an awesome Gothic house near Virginia City (actually closer to Nevada City) that is chock full of stuff. And there are tons of old cars and a bunch of farm equipment in front of it. Talk about hoarding. This place would be a gold mine if they ever decided to sell the stuff.

Pictures of Butte and Missoula, Montana are up next!