My little town

Well, maybe it isn't quite so little any more. Our downtown is very nice and old fashioned. A little expensive to shop there, but fun anyway.

A couple of months ago my friend Elizabeth had a little mini album she of places around town where she likes to shop. I'm inspired to do something similar. I'll use these pictures to help with that a bit.

So, here is a bit of a tour of our town and my connection to it.

The first time I visited Bozeman with Andy, a year or two before we got married, we had lunch at this little restaurant. It is very nice, and since we moved here it is our restaurant of choice when we want a nice dinner out to celebrate something. It is where we went for lunch after Daniel and Stacy got married. We've been there for birthday and anniversary celebrations. The food is always first rate.

This is where I grocery shop on a regular basis. It is an independent grocery, and has great prices. Not super up scale, but reasonably clean, with good selection. And every year they give away turkeys at Thanksgiving to those who spend a certain amount of money in October. Yesterday when I did grocery shopping I got signed up for the program, and am now working to earn our turkey by buying things we need.

This is the Law and Justice Center where Andy does a lot of work. The little slant roofed building behind the flag pole is one my brother helped to build. There is a jail back there too (behind the slant roofed building), and that's where Andy visits with many of his clients.

This little "Main Street Over Easy" is a restaurant in down town that does breakfast and lunch only, and is a bit famous for being great. I happen to know the wife of the owner, and like to go there to help support their family. Andy and I had a really neat breakfast there together, kind of as a date, where we took our voter pamphlets on voting day and went over where we stood on issues while we ate breakfast. That was a couple of years ago, and I hope on election day this year we can do the same thing - make it kind of a tradition!

We end up at Looie's own under from time to time because some friends of ours have a relationship with the owner such that they get their meals for free. The food is frankly hit and miss. If it is good, it is great, but if it isn't so good, it's just disappointing. But we always enjoy our friends' company, so we go there with them once or twice a year it seems. And the arrangement certainly fits our budget.

This little toy store is totally cool. Also totally expensive, so I only go there for one or two special Christmas gifts for J. But I just love it.

Back when I wanted to be a quilter this was a store I thoroughly enjoyed. Their display quilts in the windows is always beautiful. I still would love to make beautiful quilts some day, but that seems more expensive than scrapbooking, so, for now I'll wait.

This, I think is Andy's favorite store in the world. It's a pretty 1950's style hardware store, and he loves to go there, even though it is not convenient or even the least expensive store in town.

This is the store where I got my camera and printer and where I go to drool over lenses and other accessories. I hope to spend lots of money in there once in a while. But for now, just window shopping and buying colored inks.

This is a cool book store, with a loft upstairs and everything. Nice children's book section, and very knowledgeable staff. A good place to go hang out if you have extra time down town some day.

The streets south of Down Town look like this. It is amazing to see all those big trees with their leaves turning and falling. Not typical of Montana, but very romantic to drive around these neighborhoods. Lots of Arts and Craft style bungalow houses, as well as some really big mansions. Its near the university, so it just has that special college town look to it.

That's it. Taking these photos yesterday helped kill time while waiting for Andy to get out of court - we've only got one car right now as the truck is in the shop for a couple of days. Isn't it wonderful that a digital camera provides all this free entertainment!?! I love that aspect of it.

Have a great Tuesday.