Kalispell, Montana

We recently enjoyed a very fun adventure in Kalispell, Montana.  

We went to three bookstores on this trip: Good Girls, The Bookshelf, and Barnes & Noble.  

Good Girls Bookshop, a romance-specific bookstore, had a fun indie bookstore vibe but wasn't really the store for me (no Christian section, no children's section, and romance isn't my thing anyway) or most of my rreaders. There was also a lot of usage of the word slot all throughout the store, primarily as Book Slut, which was a bummer since I had my girls in tow. 

The Bookshelf was a truly delightful indie used bookstore with a great Christian section, a great children's section, and a very kind, friendly, helpful woman manning the counter. (I didn't ask if she was the owner or not). 

Barnes & Noble is probably boring for most of you but we don't have one in our general area, plus this is a newer one with a completely different esthetic so we found it fun. We are just a bookstore kind of people and love checking them out. I had mixed feelings about the new B&N style. The clean white lines are very appealing in some ways but I also feel it was missing the warmth and charm of the old style. I didnt feel nearly as much desire to stay all day and browse, browse, browse. 

Non-bookstore things we enjoyed: 

- The views! 😍

- Downtown 

- Kalispell Thrift 

- Smith's (a Kroger grocery store) 

- Hobby Lobby 

- Natural Grocers + Target because, again, we live rural and don't have these in our county or even the next county over and bigger toen Travels almost always include errands for us. 

This was a fun, family-friendly trip and we definitely plan to return! 

I was in the middle of a Christiansen family book on this trip so didn't actually read any Montana stories but Montana books we've previously enjoyed: All That Fills Us (adult, Christian fiction, trigger warnings) // The Alliance (adult, Christian fiction, trigger warnings) // Bear Dogs (secular, picture book, nonfiction) // Goodnight Montana (secular, board book) // I Survived: Night of the Grizzlies ( secular, chapter book, fiction)