Bookish Montana Adventures

I recently shared that my family and I got to enjoy a bookish Montana adventure around some work for our homeschool curriculum, Teach Homeschool Finance. I shared an adorable Christian bookstore in Libby, MT and today I wanted to share some photos from the rest of our adventures.

First, a (far too smoky) picnic at Little McGregor Lake. 

We hit at least four different Kalispell thrift stores (plus their library's used bookshop) and found a few books from our lists... 

And then turned in summer reading sheets at a Barnes & Noble! These are the prizes they picked. I'll check them and see what we think! 

We also liked this cute health food store :) 

Good News Christian Books in Libby, Montana

This weekend my family and I got to enjoy a very bookish Montana adventure! We went specifically for some work regarding our homeschool curriculum, Teach Homeschool Finance (if you live in Kalispell, check the free shelf in your mall, on the Red Lion side, for a free copy of our curriculum!), and we took that opportunity to hunt for some of the books on our lists.

Today I'll just share all the photos I took at Good News Christian Books in Libby, MT. This was a cute small-town bookstore and the owner was sweet. 

Discount cart

So many cute mugs! 

My personal favorite 🐝🍯 💛

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 slut 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 town 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) 

Kindred & Co

We recently went to an event in Post Falls, Idaho and ended the event with a stop in Kindred & Co. 

This was such a cool, quirky bookstore! Even the light fixtures were unique and fascinating. I really appreciate that in our sea of blank rectangles these days. There were also a few beautiful workspaces and reading areas I didn't photograph. 

 

There was a pretty standard curation of secular titles but we were happy to see a small faith-based fiction shelf! I even learned about a new book in the Deep Haven series which I plan to continue the Christiansen Family series with! The Fox Family?! You know I love a family saga. 

I almost got a peppermint tea in the café but decided I probably shouldn't drink tea before starting the drive back home.

My husband did find the finance section disappointing but we were all quite enchanted by the children's section! 

The pirate ship chandelier among cloud lights! The dollhouse bookshelves! Peter Pan, right? 😍

We purcased a lovely new copy of King Arthur, a nonfiction on the history and breeding of dogs, and the first Nancy Drew book... but I was hoping one of my kids would choose this beautiful Peter Pan since the cover was so pretty and the room was so inspiring! 

As is the case in so many modern bookstores, we did see a few book covers we didn't love. We didn't see any in the children's section though and I very much appreciated that. Overall it would be a fun visit for most. 

Spokane, Washington

My family and I recently attended an event in Spokane, Washington. We didn't actually have as much time to explore (and Christmas shop!) as I had hoped and expected to but some of us did manage to squeeze a few things in so I thought I'd share those here. 

I always pay attention to downtown outdoor art and architecture when I travel. Downtown Spokane has some seriously gorgeous old architecture. I will warn though that this downtown area does not feel safe for me as a woman unless my husband is with us. 

The only thing I had time to do downtown was nine minutes in Auntie's Bookstore, almost exclusively spent un the children'ssection. I would have loved a longer adventure in here (is there a Christian section?!) but maybe next time. How fun are these teas?! Chapters Tea Co. 

The first evening had along enough break that we were able to run over to the mall. We live in a rural small town so travel often involves errands we can't do back home lol😆 

We got new planners + a stocking stuffer at Barnes & Noble, got a stocking stuffer at a Pokémon card store, and spent a few minutes browsing Faithful Chocolates & Christian Bookstore. 

We primarily eat food brought from home / prepped in our Airbnb these days but we did get a few things at Huckleberry's and we had planned for our last dinner to come from Method since we didn't have the airbnb kitchen anymore. My husband got the spicy ranch rice bowl, my son and I got chili (he got his over rice, I got mine without), and my girls got Blue Magic smoothie bowls. We also split cannellini cookie dough cups as an afternoon snack with apples. Everyone liked their meal. 

There are Little Free Libraries all over Spokane but only three it made sense to check out.

The event was very cool and overall it was a fun, though very hectic trip. We'll be back, and next time we'll explore a bit more!

I also have a previous Spokane post here.