Montana State Fair in Great Falls, MT

We headed to Great Falls, MT for our third and last hotel stay on the trip.  Luckily, we checked out the visitor's center first and discovered that the Montana Sate Fair was starting that night and going through the weekend.  We quickly discovered this meant the hotels were already booked and had raised rates.  After searching for about an hour we finally found a room at the Comfort Inn.  I think the only reason we were able to find a room was due to all the construction around the hotel.  It was difficult to figure out how to get to it. 

We went to Rikki's Pizza and Pasta for lunch.  It didn't look that inviting from the outside but we all had good meals. 

 

We had a bruschetta appetizer

 

and a shrimp pizza.

My non pizza eater ordered the mac n cheese of course.

 

Look at that bumped and bruised face!  I don't think I mentioned it before but she managed to 'flop' on every single hike we did this trip.  They were always full frontal with maximum body contact flops too.   It was a running joke in the family about how long it would take her to 'flop' each time.

Someone had told us to go the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.  This was a great museum with very cool exhibits.  They also had a Junior Ranger type program so the kids earned another badge here.  This is a great place to take the family.

We ran out of time to try the bike trails in Great Falls but it looked like they had quite a few and it would have been fun to do if we had the time.

We stopped in for an early drink at the Sip n Dip Lounge in downtown.  This bar was part of a hotel that we had tried to stay at but was booked.  The hotel pool is showcased through the back bar window.  If you look closely you can see a boy swimming near the top of the pool.  It was great..him and his sister had their goggles on and would come down and stare at the people in the bar. 

We finally headed for the Montana State Fair.  They had your typical display's of tractors.  

We didn't see too much else besides the rides because the kids were having so much fun.  

 

 

We ran to get dinner at one point and passed the marines.  Chris couldn't resist challenging them to see how many pull ups he could do.  I don't think he did real well since he only got a neck lanyard.  He really wanted that water bottle!

Overall, we weren't that impressed with Great Falls.  The museum was worth a stop and the kids did have a great time at the fair but we didn't see too much else of interest to do there.