Off to Bozeman

Left Missoula after a great visit.  Got to our fave restaurants, saw some sights, did a milonga, and just hung out.  The great weather didn't hurt.

Some driving geography.  We got onto Interstate 15 in southern Utah, the best north/south route through Utah, Idaho & into Montana.  I-15 crosses I-90 in Montana & continues north.  I-90 is the primary east/west interstate & traverses all of Montana.  Missoula, Butte, Bozeman & Billings are all on I-90.

Our first stop in Montana was Butte, six miles east of that I-15/90 intersection.  While in Butte, we read about State Route 1 that heads into the mountains but rejoins I-90 to continue to Missoula.  We did it going to Missoula.  I wrote about our stop in Philipsburg.  We decided to do that bypass again since our Bozeman check-in time was 3pm.

OK, now that you're bored stiff, here's a bit of Philipsburg.  A great shot of one of the restored buildings.

Sign in a chotchka shop.  Very contemporary.

Philipsburg is home to the Montana State Law Enforcement Museum.  It ended up in this little town cuz no one else wanted it.  It's one room with alot of law enforcement memorabilia.  Of course, Montana is rich with old west history.   As I read the history of the state, it turns out things got going in the West in the 1850's just before the Civil War and really took off during the war and on after.

Here is a display including an authentic "Wanted" poster of John Dillinger, this one hung in the office of one of the local sheriffs for many years.

No more police stuff.  After Philipsburg we drove through a canyon (in MT, there are lots of them) with snow melt gushing from a wall of rock.  Unfortunately, my acrophobia kept me from getting closer to the action.

This vid gives a better idea, although still not close enough to see where the water flow goes...down, way, way down. (To see vid on the web, click on the blog title.)

I just noticed, the video quality at full screen is terrible.  I've reset to 1080p.  Hope that improves it but not for this post.

After leaving this canyon, we approached Georgetown Lake, a quite large lake with lots of summer homes & cottages along the shore.  It is man-made in the 19th century to provide power to the mining operations.  We took a side road winding way back, then came upon this worthwhile why-we-love-Montana view.

Here's a vid from the same spot.

OK, this post closes out Missoula & the trip here.  Bozeman is coming.

Missoula Days Dwindling Down

Yesterday we hit the road north to Seeley Lake, then on to Big Fork, then headed back to Missoula.

The weather became overcast so color went out the window.  Took alot fewer pix.  You know I'm a sucker for mountain/lake shots.  Here are three of Salmon Lake, on the way to Seeley Lake.

Seeley Lake turned out to be not much of anything so we pressed on.  For those of you who enjoy ballet, here is a very partial shot of Swan Lake, Montana.  Couldn't get closer to the shore.

Shhhh...artist at work.

A tiny piece of Flathead Lake, by far the largest lake in Montana and actually the largest west of the Mississippi, larger than Tahoe by surface area but not by volume.

This pic doesn't give it justice.

The snow is melting on that peak visible from our apartment.  Here's a shot the day we moved in, June 21.

And here is is today, June 27, we leave for Bozeman tomorrow.  By summer's end it'll be all or mostly all gone, then the cycle begins again.

Ceramics from the Missoula Art Museum.  A teapot.

A gawd-knows-what.

Nice little animal (note the shadow on the wall).

We left Missoula today & zipped over to Bozeman.  Took some pix along the way but I'm too tired to process them.  Will rejoin our Montana yoga community with an early morning yoga class tomorrow/Thursday.

Moving Right Along, Missoula-Style

This morning we did the weekly Farmers Market.  Such lovely produce; our regret is that we're here a relatively short time & not eating in much.  Will do more in Bozeman cuz we're there two weeks.

When we participate in the local goings on, that's when I experience the sheer joy of just being where we are.  The museums and mountain scenery are nice, but to me just being in my favorite places is the best thing of all.  This market reminds me of the Place d'Aligre market in Paris where the path is much narrower, hence much more crowded and the vendors are shouting out their specials.  That scene, that place engages all five senses.

OK, back to reality.

Here's the market scene taken from the bridge.

Colors, we have colors...

Even the bottles have colors.

And the cosmetically challenged tomatoes.

More veggie stuff (last night is was cars).

Morels, poisonous unless cooked, we're told.

OK, moving along.

Uncle Bill was so proud of his self-made sauerkraut, we had to buy one of his jars.  Will go with our Sunday morning ham & eggs breakfast.  There is one German restaurant in Missoula; Uncle Bill gave it his blessing so we'll give it a try.  (a later P.S. We tried it with b'fast.  Being homemade with an authentic recipe, it has many new flavors, but overall it was great.)

A young lady with a welcoming t-shirt.  A snail with his friend, the scotch tape dispenser??

This ink was interesting.  My Hebrew is very minimal.  Can someone help me out, what does it say/mean?  I'll post it next time.

Π on a stick.  Never saw that before.

As we were getting ready to go out, the rapids surfers had gathered.  In ocean surfing, you find the sweet spot then ride the wave.  In rapids surfing, there's that same sweet spot, but once you find it, you hold it while the water rushed beneath you.  That is, unless you lose focus.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you are seeing this blog by email subscription, you'll need to click on the blog title "Moving Right Along, etc." to get you to the web version where this & all videos are stored.

The Pearl Café, considered to be the best restaurant in Missoula (and I'd add Bozeman) is our favorite.  But when you ask the waiter to take a photo & he's rushed, this is what you get.  I cropped out most of the ceiling.

Using flash for food pics is not recommended, but in an atmospheric French restaurant, there's no other option.  So I'll just show the charcuterie plate we shared.  In the center, under the squiggly pickled pepper strips is a house-made paté, bison of course.  You're not allowed to forget you're in Montana.  The liver paté under the apple sticks was surprisingly sweet and very, very good.  Too little of it, unfortunately.

We went on to a milonga held on the third floor of a community theater building.  Very nice room.  I only shot the birthday dance.  Here is the hostess, Laurie, introducing Mr. Birthday.

He's evidently quite popular.  Look at the line, with guys in the back.  Sitting on the left in white pants is Laurie's husband, Patrick.  They are the leaders of the Missoula tango community.  The weekend after 4th of July they're bringing Thomas Howlin to Missoula for tango workshops & a milonga.

Sure enough, the guys also do the birthday dance.

Today we're just going to hang out.  Tomorrow, Seeley Lake or Fort Missoula or maybe both.

In Missoula

Our first dinner in town just had to be at Iza, an Asian restaurant I discovered online that offers two Indonesian dishes.  I can't tell you how difficult it is to find Indonesian cuisine in the U.S.  Our next opportunity will be in Paris later this summer.  But I digress.

On the right is Rendang Daging, a beef dish (but in Montana, it's buffalo), in a delicious distinctive Indonesian red sauce, somewhat spicy hot served with rice and a cucumber salad. The cucumbers are intended to cool you off.  It's "Yummm!" all the way around.

On the left is Nasi Goreng, a rice dish...the rice buried under the topping.  Another wonderful sauce.  We added the tofu which fit right in.

Another food thing.

Dinner the next night at one of our two "must-dine" restaurants in Missoula turned into a Why-We-Love-Montana story.

The restaurant, Ciao Mambo, serves wonderful Italian. We told the hostess it's our third annual visit. We were seated; the server was ready to take our drink order. We mentioned that Cold Smoke was our all time favorite beer (available only in western Montana) but since we were dining Italian, we'd each have a glass of Chianti.

Only in Montana would the server see to it we had both.

Susanne's dinner was certainly picture-worthy, a veritable clam tower topped by a sprig of rosemary.

My linguini dinner with a red clam sauce was delicious but pretty ordinary photo-wise.

The other "must dine" place is the Pearl Café; considered the best restaurant in Missoula.  The owner is Pearl, of course.  We stopped by to make a reservation with her for Saturday evening, before a milonga.  We can walk to both.

It turns out our apartment is right in the middle of many things.

Near our apartment was a food truck & music fair.  There were college kids determined to register new voters.  (Missoula is home to the University of Montana Grizzlies.) This young lady greeted us on arrival.  Note her stick-on; very straightforward.

Here's Susanne asking for several stickers for us.

Her organization is Forward Montana; actually, a serious minded group.  For a link to their website, click HERE.

We are seeing lots of ink here.  Sometimes it make no sense to us ancient folk.  Take this pretty blonde who has a skull at the base of her neck in addition to one arm-full.  She'll get to the other arm when she has the cash.  Think of what all that money would be worth in 40 years when she'll need it if she stuck it into a Roth IRA now.

We did the Missoula Art Museum, contemporary art, that is.  We really resonated with this piece, done as embroidery, entitled "What Lies Beneath".  We're all the same once the skin is off.

Among the goofier pieces is a muzzled Montana steer plastered with shoes.  The meaning escapes me.

This poor fellow appeared lost & was searching for something.  Susanne offered him some comfort but his personality seemed a bit wooden; he said nothing.

 You know how some folks think Asians look alike?  This artist codified it. The piece is titled: "All Look Same", artist Beth Lo.

The next piece sat at the entrance; Susanne loved it, especially how the tires seem to dip below the support.

OK, we'll move on.  I can sense you're bored.

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Tonight's dinner turned out to be a bit of a bust.  There's a nice restaurant on the ground floor of our building.  Our landlord put a bottle of Chardonnay in the fridge as a welcome gift.  The plan was to crack open the bottle, get a bit looped, then stagger down the elevator to dinner.  I figured there's no such thing as a DEUI where E = Elevator.  Got to the restaurant, seemed to be not busy.  The host said he had alot of reservations & showed us what was left.  Not a decent table in the lot.  Scratch that.

OK, quickly configure a plan B.

Return to the apt., break out the leftover Indonesian, throw together a salad & have at it...we did.

Still needed dessert.  We hit the street and found a place, had a dessert assortment on a board, sort of the dessert version of charcuterie.  Forget to take a pic, dammit!

As we're walking we discovered that Friday night in the Missoula summer is the time for all the vintage car owners to cruise up & down Higgins, the main drag.

I couldn't resist taking a few shots; here are some of them:

Note how most of the drivers brought along the whole fam damily.  Not only that, but the street and bridge were lined with spectators.  Two pics.

The man's shirt was interesting.  The last word is "ride".

OK, enough for this post.  See ya later!!