Friday:
Great Northern Town Center/Helena/Montana
I now realize that Helena is much more interesting (and artsy) than I initially thought.  We took a drive downtown to a touristy area called Great Northern Town Center and discovered it was a history lesson....an art mecca.....a small shopping center and just a pleasant public gathering place.....all rolled into one.  The Square offered lots of interesting info on the Lewis and Clark Expedition that traveled this area. 

I entered The Holter Museum expecting much less than I found.....it proved to capture my interest with a variety of high end art beautifully displayed.  www.holtermuseum.org   Of course, Helena is the location for Montana's state capitol building so you have that aspect.  And we also enjoyed discovering The Painted Pony Ice Cream Parlor that housed a special carousel of delightful hand carved animals that is rated 'Best in the Nation' by the National Carousel Association.  You can take a tour of The Cathedral of St. Helena which is a church building that dominates the landscape. 

In general we found Helena appeared to be a healthy and well maintained small city....hopefully that's the actuality for it's citizens.  We walked around, window shopped a little, stopped for a light lunch and just generally enjoyed a side of Helena I'm glad we found before we left!
Photos on right under Montana.