Missoula

We awoke this morning to the sound of rain, and a fair amount of it, at that.  Since the weather was miserable, we watched the Vuelta a Espana.  It was a grueling stage, 6 hours and 19,000 feet of climbing, part of which was in the rain.  Those guys are so tough.
We finally got ourselves up and out.  We went to the Smokejumpers Visitors center and looked at the exhibits.  This is a smoke jumper mannequin.  I am so grateful that there are people who are willing to fight fires.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the museum we went in to downtown Missoula.  This is so cool.  They had an event called Sunday Streets Missoula.  Much of downtown was blocked off to cars and there were various events going on.  This is a beautiful old building.

 

You can't really see it, but there is an oompah band under that tent.  People were dancing and singing along.

 

Street of funky shops.

 

The skateboarders had a practice course  The kid bottom right has just ridden his board up that steep little ramp.

 

Now he is stepping off the skateboard.

 

A huge draw was community drumming.  There were people of all ages participating.

 

The old Milwaukee Missoula depot.  Is that not a lovely building?  It fell on hard times for awhile, but has been brought back by the Boone and Crockett Club.

Then the rain came back.  The weather here is just fascinating to watch.  Seattle mainly gets days of gray with rain.  Here, there is weather.

 

NBC is carrying the America's Cup.  Up until this year, watching sail boat racing was about as interesting as watching paint dry or the grass growing.  This year it's unbelievable.  They are racing catamarans with rigid main sails that act as wings.  The boats get up on a foil and go like stink.  It's really worth watching.  The on screen graphics and commentary make the tactics totally understandable.  The boat speeds are incredible - closure rates of 100 mph are not unusual.  I took this picture of the TV when I started this post.  The New Zealand team is now up to 3.  USA is minus two due to a penalty for cheating.  Larry Ellison, the major sponsor of the USA boat, is having his head handed to him.  Try it, you'll like it.

 

Missoula is a pretty cool little town. We enjoyed the day walking around looking at stuff.

Updated:  USA beat New Zealand in the second race today.  So now the score is 3 to -1.