southwest montana
Travel

Southwest Montana and Yellowstone – Our 2021 Spring Vacation

southwest montana

We were originally planning to go on an international trip this spring, but with recent events and travel restrictions, we opted for a cabin in Montana. It was an amazing trip and I’m so excited to tell you all about it!

We decided to fly into Bozeman, Montana since we found a great deal on flights from Des Moines. The Bozeman airport was very attractive, efficient, and not crowded!

bozeman montana airport
bozeman airport

We arrived in Bozeman around lunch time, so we drove to downtown Bozeman and found a place for lunch. We settled on Ted’s Montana Grill. I had the bison meatloaf sandwich and it was delicious! After lunch, we decided to do some shopping around downtown. We went to Schnee’s where I purchased a perfect pair of hiking boots with the help of their friendly staff. After visiting a few more stores, we decided to start making our way to Ennis, MT, where our cabin was located. Along the way, we stopped at this beautiful area of the lower Madison River.

lower madison river southwest montana
southwest montana
montana vacation
spring vacation montana

We arrived at our little cabin and realized how tired we were after a long day of travel, so we just rested and made an early night of it. Our Vrbo hosts were wonderful! They were so communicative, and even made us homemade cookies and muffins.

southwest montana cabin

The next morning we were up before the sun to make our way to Yellowstone.

southwest montana

On our way, we stopped at Night of Terror on Earthquake Lake. It was fascinating to read about the trajedy that happened here and it was so gloomy, you could almost feel the sadness in this place.

southwestmontana
southwest montana
montanaquakelake
earthquakelake

We spent the rest of the day in Yellowstone, entering through the west entrance, after we picked up some sandwiches in West Yellowstone to bring with us for lunch.

southwest montana
montana and yellowstone
yellowstone
yellowstone park
yellowstone wildlife

This was one of the first bison that we saw. We thought it was hilarious and so cool, but we later learned that this is so common and can often cause a traffic headache.

yellowstone geysers
yellowstone bison
yellowstone
yellowstone vacation
yellowstone
yellowstone
oldfaithful

After seeing so many geysers and buffalo, gorgeous mountains, springs, and the famous Old Faithful, we headed back to West Yellowstone to grab some dinner. We went to The Buffalo Bar, where I had a Huckleberry Lemonade. Montana is famous for huckleberries and you can find huckleberry flavored everything everywhere you go. On our drive back to Ennis, we saw more wildlife.

montana wildlife

It snowed overnight so we had some beautiful Montana views from our cabin. We decided to stay close to our cabin and have a slower day today.

southwest montana
southwest montana
southwest montana

We drove to Virginia City and Nevada City. Most all of the shops and attractions were closed since it was still off season, but it was still fun to drive around and look.

southwest montana vacation

virginia city montana
virginia city montana
virginia city montana
southwest montana sights

We then headed back to Ennis to explore town. First stop was Willie’s Distillery where I had the tastiest drink of all time! A Huckleberry White Hot Chocolate. I am still dreaming of this drink!

huckleberry montana

The next morning we headed out super early again to head back to Yellowstone.

southwest montana
yellowstone
yellowstone
montana mountains
yellowstone
yellowstone
yellowstone
yellowstone views

After finishing our day in the park, we headed back to West Yellowstone to grab some dinner. We found Canyon Street Grill. It was such a cute 50’s style diner with delicious burgers and milkshakes. Huckleberry flavored of course!

west yellowstone
huckleberry milkshake
west yellowstone

The next morning it was time to head home!

montana

Have you visited southwest Montana? I would love to hear about your trip! We had so much fun and I would highly recommend visiting!

travel st. maarten
Travel

Our Honeymoon

We were SO excited for our honeymoon. We had fun planning the wedding, and of course, we were looking forward to that, but I think we were even more excited for our honeymoon. We had our trip all planned out several months before the wedding. Flights booked, resort reservations made. We were so excited to be going to the Dominican Republic and spend a week just relaxing with each other on the beach. Then, shortly before our wedding, the news stories started appearing.

Every time we watched the news we heard about people dying or getting sick at resorts in the Dominican. We waived off the first few stories as flukes, but when there was a death at the very resort we were supposed to be staying in, we decided we had better cancel our trip. We just wouldn’t have been able to have peace of mind and relax while we were there.

st. maarten

This added just a bit of stress just one month out from our wedding and planned honeymoon. We turned to a travel agent to help us figure out where to go. Jamaica was in the running, but we finally decided on St. Maarten in the Virgin Islands, and boy are we glad we did! One of our best decisions ever!

travel st. maarten

We stayed at the Sonesta Ocean Point Resort and we absolutely loved it! They had complimentary drinks for us when we arrived and an adorable personalized plate of goodies in our room! They had also decorated our room since they knew it was our honeymoon.

guest welcome plate

We were on the third floor and had the most amazing view of the pool and the ocean! We loved our balcony and spent a lot of time out there. The great thing about the resort was that it was adults only, which we really wanted for our honeymoon, but it is also connected to a family resort that we had full access to as well. This allowed us to go to many different restaurants, even though our favorite restaurant was on the adults only side.

view from  st. maarten hotel room

Azul restaurant was so beautiful with such delicious food! The views were absolutely incredible! You were literally eating right above the sea, with the breeze blowing through the restaurant and the waves crashing underneath you.

stmaartenazulrestaurant

Throughout the resort we were so amazed by everyone’s kindness. We are from Iowa, which is known for it’s “Iowa nice”, but let me tell you, St. Maarten nice has us beat! The staff was all amazing! So sweet, fun, and personable! We enjoyed many evenings on the rooftop bar with our favorite bartender Ramon.

Most of our time there we just relaxed and enjoyed the activities on the resort, like yoga above the ocean and pool aerobics, or just laying by the pool getting endless strawberry daiquiris and reading countless books.

readingatthepool

However, one of our favorite days was the day we took an all day boat tour of the island. We did this through Billy Bones and we highly recommend it! Our guides were so much fun and we had a blast snorkeling, swimming with sea turtles, and just speeding around the island with an endless supply of rum punch!

stmartinboattour

I have always said that I don’t think I would ever take the same vacation twice since there are so many places in the world I’d like to go, but Alex and I loved St. Maarten so much that we both said we would definitely love to go back! If you have gone or are going to St. Maarten, I would love to hear about your experience! It is definitely one of our favorite places on earth!

honeymoon st. maarten