Hui!

I’m gonna start of with a video this time.  We’re driving makai, and those are the Sapphire Mountains to the left.  We’re still east of Missoula.

I love driving along Montana freeways!  It’s always hard to come home to the Portland area with all its traffic; our Oregonfreeways can look kinda like this, but not in the metro area. And it keeps getting worse every year.  So when we’re in Montana, I exult in the wide open roadways.

Getting close to Missoula.

We’re gonna cross the Clark Fork River again.

So nani da river.

Now admittedly, school wasn’t out yet, and I suppose the freeways are busier during the summer.  Still yet…

East Missoula coming up in one mile.

And here we are, coming into Missoula.

They have a wind turbine right in the middle of town.

Even more picturesque, lots of really old buildings.

We cross the Clark Fork River again!

This is the gorgeous Missoula Train Station.  I love the architecture of it.

Okay, I confess.  J and T had told us of a wonderful place to stop for snacks in Missoula, and I had ulterior motives as well.  Can you guess what?  C’mon. Guess!

You’re right! It’s a yarn store!  Oni easy, yeah? Joseph’s Coat Yarn and Fibers.  I’d read about them online and well, so long as we were in Montana…

We were welcomed by very friendly people who showed us around the store.  I found some omiyage sugar cane yarn for a friend.  Yup. Sugar cane. And oh, so soft.

I could’ve stayed there for hours.  There was spinning fiber, yarn that could be dyed,

Did I mention spinning fiber???

Oh yeah, baby.

I got some neat fiber that the store owner told me was the same as that which was used to chink cabin walls years ago. I got enough for me and for my friend who was keeping an eye on our place while we were gone. (I really need to spin that!)

Joseph’s Coat is almost directly across the street from the train station, so we took more photos of it and the mountains beyond.

The Clark Fork River was also nearby, so we walked over to it and yep, took more photos.

Looking mauka towards the freeway.

We enjoyed walking around for a bit after being in the car for so long. Besides, Nolemana wanted me out of that yarn store!

Try look this building. Can you imagine what it was like to watch it getting built?  Brick by brick?

And each tile ontop the roof?

Can you guess what this is?  Yeah, besides being a building.

It’s a condo, in the Historic Bob’s Building.  Pretty classy.

It was time to get back onto the freeway. We had to get all the way to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, so we couldn’t stay as long as we would’ve liked to.

We made a quick stop here for treats. Worden’s. Highly recommended by J and T.  We got more omiyage for our friends back home and then headed out of town.

Try look this cool old clock on the street.  My camera time stamp was off, so it’s good to know what time it was.

This the C.P. Higgins Bank Building.

Now here’s a place to go to…. yeah, another time…

More interesting architecture on the way out of town.  This is the Northern Pacific Building.

This one looks like it could’ve had something to do with feed or something similar.

We cross back over the Clark Fork River, saying “aloha ʻoe” to Missoula.

Next time, we sadly leave Montana.  We drive over Lookout Pass and then say hi to Idaho.  Bittersweet for sure.