Hello from Helena

Even though I'm going to be back here in a week, I wanted to make the most of what we shall call my layover in Helena.

First off, I have managed to catch up on a frightening amount of TV. Thank you, WiFi. Next, I have also managed to map out a good chunk of what I'd like to do in Seattle. Thank you again, WiFi.

After making wonderful use of the WiFi, I went to Perkins for breakfast -- I know, it isn't the most Helena place I could have gone (there are a few diners I'll be driving to next week) but pancakes! I love pancakes!!! After that, it was time to unwind with some yoga and after yoga, it was time to explore Helena.

We stumbled across the Helena Visitor Center and pioneer house so I got to see lots of old Helena stuff and got a free booklet on all things Helena.

I don't think that it is any secret that I love wine -- my birthday was only a week ago after all -- and that I enjoy going to wine tastings when I can. I also enjoy liquor and hard cider (don't even get me started on Savanna Dry...). What I do not love is beer. For some reason, I managed to convince myself that visiting a few of Helena's breweries would be fun like a wine tasting. WHEN DID MY JUDGMENT BECOME SO HORRIBLE? I despise beer. It isn't fun. It makes my burps taste weird for like three days. In the future, I think that if I were given the choice between drinking a beer and licking a toilet seat, I'd go with the toilet seat! (But please don't hold me to that because I'm sure I'll be at another brewery in no time). So anyways, Helena's breweries.

Free coaster!

We started with Blackfoot River Brewing Co. Tap Room where I brilliantly walked up to the bar and said "I don't drink beer, what should I get?" The bartender suggested I get the Cream Ale, so I did. No. No. No. No. I. Hate. Beer. Considering that it is a beverage I hate, this beer was tolerable-ish.
There was free popcorn which made me much happier than the beer did. I enjoyed the sign that said "Blackfoot River Brewing beer on tap!" Um, why are you so excited about this? Of course Blackfoot beer is on tap, we're literally sitting in your tap room! What else would we be drinking? When we left, I took a coaster as a souvenir for enduring their poisonous barley concoction.

POINT!

The next brewery we visited was the Lewis & Clark Brewing Company. Having learned my lesson, I didn't actually get a drink here. I did enjoy watching the canning process however, which I could see from my bar stool. Spoiler alert: they spin the cans really, really fast! Side note, do you think Lewis's arm ever gets tired? Every logo/photo of them I see has one of them (I'm assuming Lewis) pointing out into the distance. He's been holding his arm up for 211 years. That's a really long time. I can barely hold my arm up for two minutes.

We also visited the Great Northern Carousel. The last carousel I went on was A Carousel for Missoula (strange name, I know) which is one of the fastest carousels in the world. This carousel wasn't one of the fastest (not even close) but it was unique in the animals one could ride. Yes, they had the traditional horses, but they also had bears, big horned sheep, mountain goats, a rhino, rabbits, a hippocampus and the animal I decided to ride, an otter. I picked the otter because I knew that my mother and sister would kill me if I went with something different and truth be told, it was one of the cutest. Riding the otter meant that I couldn't grab for the brass ring that would have given me a free ride but it was worth it -- mostly because it meant I wouldn't be murdered.

Look at that face!

In other news, Couchsurfing is going well and I just checked in for my flight tomorrow and I'm so excited!!!