Last weekend we walked around Missoula a little and managed to walk in and see the last 5 minutes or so of the MSU Bobcats against the University of Montana Grizzlies.

Cat-Griz is certainly the big rivalry around here and usually a big deal, too bad we got blown out something like 35-3. Nothing like walking in on the waning minutes of a football game to observe a real slice of America. As far a rivalries go I think Carolina-Duke basketball is still my preference.

These were all taken with a Canon Powershot SD 850. I like that little guy.

As we were coming home on I-90 the Cascades around Snoqualmie pass were really reminding me of North Carolina. There was plenty of moisture and before you got too high the elevation was just right for lots of deciduous trees. One thing is for sure, this understory was anything but sparse.

We decided to stop and walk around a little before the rest of the 480 mile trip back to Missoula. I turned off at the next sign for a state park and we ended up at a lake about 3 miles from the interstate (I didn’t get the name).

The weather was lightly raining and not overly hot, which in its own special way added to the atmosphere a little I thought. Despite the grayness it was nice to see something other than a Rocky Mountain pine forest for a change.

It is late and I need to go to bed, but I couldn’t resist taking a picture out my bedroom window of the snow that is falling. I love how snow makes everything so quiet.

These were all taken the last day we were there. It was a big day, I’ll tell you what.

I hope there are plenty more aquariums in my future because I really like the Seattle Aquarium. It has a lot of species that you would find in Puget sound, which is neat-o.

Yesterday we went for a short and sweet bike ride up on the hills around Bozeman. We did a loop starting on the Story Mill Trail, crossing Bridger Canyon Road, going up and around to Sypes Canyon Road, and then coming back on some other road that definitely wasn’t Springhill. There was basically no traffic, warm weather, and amazing views of the Bridgers and Gallatin Valley.

Despite being a little ritzy Fremont was pretty sweet. There was a lot of activity in a couple little blocks, and the leaves on the trees lining the street were in prime fall colors. It was a little bit like a fairy-tale land, with a troll and everything.

To get to the Ballard Locks you had to go through a neighborhood called Fremont, and we stopped and walked around a bit on the way back. It was an eclectic place with some fairly well to do folks around. Wikipedia says

Sometimes referred to as “The People’s Republic of Fremont,” and at one time a center of the counterculture, Fremont has somewhat gentrified in recent years.

Definitely not your average neighborhood though.

The second day we went to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (aka the Ballard Locks) and the accompanying Carl S. English Jr gardens. Two places every bit as spectacular as their names.

I would have happily made the 3 mile trip from Capital Hill to Ballard for either some locks or some gardens and to have both of them together was an unstoppable force the likes of which I may not encounter for a long time to come.

All these pictures are in chronological order.

Hilary and I just came back from an extended weekend visiting her friend Stephanie in Seattle. She has a sick crib in a super-neato part of town (Capital Hill) and was nice enough to show us around town and let us harass her for a while.

Seattle is a city with an impressive amount of things going on for its size. I am fond of it.

I just found out that Bozeman’s neighboring Ultimate team, the Mental Toss Flycoons from Missoula, Montana beat Shazam Remains 15 to 11 for the Club Ultimate National Championship in the mixed division earlier today.

In case you aren’t totally familiar with competitive club Ultimate in the states, there are three divisions, Mixed (co-ed), Open (basically Men), and Women’s. The Club Championship, a four day tournament held once a year in Sarasota, Flordia and, has teams from all over. The two other teams to win national championships were Jam (Open Division) and Fury (Women’s Division), both from San Francisco. Shazam, the team the Flycoons beat in the finals, is from Seattle, Washington.

Montana Ultimate is the bomb! We (the Bozos) played the Flycoons in September and lost a close game 13-10. The Flycoons are a spirited team with some excellent chemistry. They play super hard every point, but still seem to manage to have fun, which I definitely appreciate. For some teams, an intense desire to win can block out what is great about Ultimate.

Beating a team from Seattle is especially impressive, given that Seattle is one of the premier cities for Ultimate in the nation and therefore have a much bigger pool of talent to pick from than Missoula.

Another key feature of their National Championship is that no less than three local Bozeman Ultimate superstars, Emily Kimmel, Camas Key, and Dominic Benincasa joined the team late in the season and helped bring this one back to Montana.

Oh yeah, not only did The Flycoons win a National Championship, they did it in impressive style. With seven wins and only one loss over all four days, against some of the best teams in the nation. They won their last three games (where a single loss eliminates you) 15-5, 15-11, 15-11.

As a tribute I scoured the archives for a couple more pictures of their game against us at sectionals. (Pictures already posted can be viewed here)

**Update** For a much more in-depth account of the tournament see Flycoon player Tim Murray’s blog here