Washington & Montanta Trip: Missoula Portion

Before I get into the details of the Missoula part of our trip, I have to say the drive from Spokane was one of the prettiest drives of our trip (maybe even in my whole life). We drove through Coeur D'Alene (where we stopped at a McDonald's with a play place for lunch so the girls could play and we could eat a lot for cheap haha). Unfortunately, we also drank a lot of water and before long I really had to pee and we couldn't find a stop with a restroom so we had to pull over in the woods for me to go. It rained a lot on the drive and being in the middle of a forest made it just so pretty. If we had found a cute neighborhood I would've put it on my list of places to move (but all we saw were trees and a lake, no homes whatsoever). We did end up stopping in a little town outside of Missoula (Frenchtown) for gas. Initially I thought it was too small and redneck-ish, but as we drove around it more I could see it as a possibility of a future home place.

I fell in love with ALL the trees

We got to our Airbnb, which was definitely the smallest and oldest of all of the ones we had stayed at, but the cleanest and most updated and cared for. It was in a big college town, which made me nervous when we first showed up (I do NOT want to live in a college town). We drove around that night to look for dinner (we stopped at an amazing bbq place) and to get some groceries. At Albertson's we found a Cat in the Hat Halloween DVD and I just knew we had to get it for Cara - she had done so well with all the driving and everything on this trip so far. That DVD ended up being a great thing to have when we were at the house, Cara wanted to watch it all the time, probably because it was so short (but luckily the owner also had a guest Netflix account so we could turn on some good kid shows for her too).

While in Missoula Larry had a brilliant idea to take one day to drive around the southern and eastern portion of the city and take the second day to drive around the northern and western parts of the city. I wish we had thought of this with the other cities because it really helped. Driving into Missoula and seeing how young the people were and how small the homes were (our bnb didn't have a yard or a garage and barely a driveway for us to park in) I wanted to write it off, but after seeing the real neighborhoods (in Lolo and French Town) I started to like it more and more.

Hard to believe people were paddle boarding on this the day before I took this pic

One thing I really loved about this area was when we drove in there is this very large river running through the middle of the town (apparently this inspired the movie A River Runs Through It) and we saw people paddle boarding on it (it was THAT warm when we showed up). By the next day it was snowing and people were still bicycling along the side of the road and had their kids out sledding. There was a book in our Airbnb that showed all the good outdoor things there were to do and we realized very quickly that this was an outdoor town and I loved that about this area! I loved the idea of being more motivated to take our kids out of the house.

One of the days, after driving around and going home for a nap, we went to a nearby park we thought the girls would like. Unfortunately, it got too cold for me so I took Gwen into a nearby shop to walk around, inside from the cold, and after Larry came in with Cara shortly after (she banged on some drums and realized it was too cold for her too) we saw there was a historical carousel in the building. We bought some tokens and decided to ride it (it was actually a long ride for a carousel). The girls loved it and had so much fun.

Ignore the fact that I didn't do my hair or makeup

Another thing I was grateful for on this trip is whenever we went out to a real restaurant (not McDonald's) we could just order for us and share with the girls and we all ate enough and it wasn't super expensive. We ate at a place called MacKenzie's where a lot of prom couples were going to. It didn't feel fancy, but it was yummy and we all ate really well there.

So as much as I really didn't want to care for this stop on our trip, I think it's been one of my favorite places we've been to. It's feels homey and close and perfect for what I'd want in a new place to start fresh.