Unfortunately, I only spent one full day in Missoula. Below are some pix to behold.
Oh, I’m such an artiste. First stop was a hand-carved carousel with Beth, Josh, Oz, Beth’s mom Marcia, and obviously Em & the boys.
It’s one of the fastest carousels in the world.
It was pretty difficult to get any decent pix, but I took about fifty so at least a couple came out decent.
You could look into the workshop. Here is a bunny in the process of being carved and sanded before being painted. He is waiting patiently for someone to give him a second eye. This somehow reminds me of the Velveteen Rabbit: “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” Though the rabbit’s in the process of being beautified, it still makes me think of the reverse order of things.
Beth, her mom, and darling lil’ Oz, chilling in his sling.
Papa Josh with his pumpkin.
The Clark Fork River, winding its way through downtown Missoula. Beth works right behind that other building. She said that people like that guy in the kayak come there for lunch.
I like how this place was called The Wilma. This is on Main Street. Of course, right after taking this picture, I got hit up for spare change.
Oh really? Anything? I was bummed because this place was closed. I really wanted to test them to see if they really would buy anything. But it was a Sunday. Josh told me that it was a weird place anyway, that they wouldn’t sell anything. So apparently they buy everything, but won’t sell anything. Sounds like good business to me.
Because I got distracted by the train tracks, I missed the few shops that were still open. That’s okay. Check out the rainclouds to the east and blue skies to the west.
Cute lil’ Missoula and its Big M. Beth said that doesn’t stand for Missoula; rather it’s for University of Montana. The campus is over by the M. I wish I would have walked over there that day but I didn’t realize that’s where it was.
Here ya go Em – Red’s Bar: home of the White Sox.
I love old signs. And, Go Griz!
I didn’t get a lot of good pix in Missoula. That’s a shame. We went for dinner and a drinky-poo to The Iron Horse on Main, which was very Missoula-ey according to the Aronoffs. A good day. Not enough time to explore it all, unfortunately.
