Today we drove into Kalispell where first we went for a tour through 'The Conrad Mansion' built in the 1890's. This house was originally owned by Charles E. Conrad who along with his brother founded the town of Kalispell which means 'grass above the water' to the indians. He and his brother started working as clerks for a shipping and freighting company in Fort Benton and after 4 years bought the company. They then opened their own bank and by this time became very rich. After Charles died his son took over the house and sent it broke and tried to turn it into a casino and brothel. His daughter Alicia had saved enough money to buy her brother out and took over the house. She was a huge hoarder and the whole house was full of everything you can think of including all the original furniture and appliances. They say that towards the end of her life she had so much stuff in the house that she had to live in a trailer at the side of the property. She passed away in the 1970's and left the whole lot to the city of Kalispell. It took them 4 years to clean it all out and restore it to it's original state. We were not allowed to take photos of the inside of the house but it was very beautiful and an interesting tour.
The outside of the house
The front garden
By the time we'd finished the tour it was lunch time so we went to nearby Woodlands Park for lunch and a walk. A very active park with water slides and all sorts of things for families plus heaps of ducks, geese and swans in the pond.
We've been really fortunate since we arrived in this part of the country as this weekend they have heaps of things going on and one of them is the 'Big Sky Weekend' which is a whole weekend of swing dancing so of course we had to stick around to catch some of that. It was held in a convention centre and the cost for the 8pm dance was $20. A tad expensive but we didn't mind. Mostly young people some of whom had travelled a long way to participate. They also had lessons at extra cost. There was no food or drinks on site except for water. We snuck a drink in inside an empty coke can. It was actually good to see young people having a ball with no alcohol involved. They were all clean cut nice young people. They only get to dance about once a month. They couldn't believe how good we have it with free bands on up to 4 nights a week for free. And by the way we weren't the only old people there but there was only about 3 other couples anywhere near our age.
This young lady got us both up to dance. She does female and male part equally well.
Quite a few cool dudes on the floor
Saturday 23rd June 2018 - Cars and Boats
Well, we're still in Kalispell as there is a car show on in town.
Another only in America, a mobile ATM
Check out the hunk in the band
Now this one is not in the show. This is a registered vehicle that somebody drives around every day. We see many cars like this on our travels, motorhomes as well. How they get away with it I do not know. I do know that in some states they don't have to get inspections every year.
The last thing we did today was go to the wooden boat show at Whitefish Lake. After that we're off back into Hungry Horse Dam for another lovely night amongst the magnificent scenery. We will head into Glacier NP tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment