Missoula

When we started looking at the path we were going to take from Glacier National Park to Yellowstone (spoiler alert, the post for that that park is next after this post) we saw that Missoula, Montana is kind of halfway between the two. We both love the movie "A River Runs Through It," which is a true story based in Missoula and the scenery looked gorgeous. So we decided to stop there.

Ann has a former work colleague who lives in Missoula; we asked her what fun things there are to do and the response we got made us decide to extend our stay to more than just an overnight. It was well worth it.

From a political standpoint, Missoula is a bright blue dot in the middle of the red sea of Montana. The city's flag is a Pride Flag. The University of Montana's main campus is there, and it has a very collegey vibe, a bit like Austin when we lived there 40+ years ago.

Missoula also has a strong labor union tradition, primarily built around railroad workers and building trades. It was comfortable for us.

We found a really nice VRBO apartment right on the Clark Fork River, which "runs through" Missoula. It's in the house that was built to be the University President's house more than a century ago. They've moved the house from its original location close to campus to where it is today. We had a balcony overlooking the river, where we could watch the parade of rafters and tubers float down the river.

The Duniway home from across the river.

View from the VRBO's porch.

That looks like fun!

Which gave us an idea -- we could do that! And we did. Our 2-hour float trip the next day with River City Brews was so much fun! Some beers from River City were included in the cost (shocking!). We had our own guide who steered the raft and we just had to sit there and watch the world go by while we floated down a pretty tame river. The other people in the raft were very friendly -- it was a great way to relax for a few hours.

That's us in the back.

We had dinner that night at 1889 Restaurant, the premier steakhouse in a steak city. It represented Montana food very well -- Ann had elk -- and we couldn't finish it all. So we took some home to have with eggs for breakfast the next morning.

From all we've read and heard the fishing is amazing around there in the spring and early summer, which is incentive enough to practice more with the fly rod and go back for some of that. There are outfitters and fishing guides by the dozens there.

Even though we really only had one full day there, Missoula struck us as a place we would like to go back to. Only, again, as we have mentioned in previous posts, at some point when the weather is nice and there isn't smoke from northern fires.