Later the kids splash around in the heated indoor pool. We grab lunch at the nearby Bagel Company and the kids take one last spin on the Great Northern Carousel, just a block from the hotel.
At 1 p.m., we hit the road and drive to Bozeman.
It’s a stormy day and only a two-hour drive so we decide to plow forward and skip stops along the way. But we're actually forced to stop about halfway through the drive when the rain starts falling so hard we can't see through the windshield. And then hail, the size of small pebbles, starts pelting down onto the car. The freeway comes to a stop. Wow! We're stunned. We've never seen weather like this. And then it stops...and we drive on.
Bozeman
We roll into Montana's fourth-largest town (pop. 37,000) in the evening, and head right for Main Street.
Art galleries, coffee houses, fly-fishing shops, and even wine bars line the main drag of this Old West town. This is a place where you can pick up a Stetson cowboy hat, and then buy a bottle of French wine. It's chic and stylish but still has that Montana cowboy charm.
On this night, Main Street is blocked off to traffic and food booths, serving everything from kettle corn to wood-fired pizza, have taken over. There's a huge row of bleachers and a stage in the middle of it all. We learn that we've stumbled upon Music on Main, when live bands perform outside on Thursday nights.
The Garage: Soup Shack and Mesquite Grill
It's still an hour before the music starts so we grab dinner at The Garage, a casual spot dishing up burgers, salads, and homemade soups in a former garage. The car theme is carried throughout with license plates serving as the covers for the menus, and all sorts of car parts—from hubcaps to bumpers—hanging from the walls. The kids order mac and cheese, and I try the barbecue chicken salad. The prices are reasonable and the food fresh.
Music on Main
By the time we're done with dinner at 8 p.m., the sun is still shining and a country western band has started to play. There's a fiddler and a guy on banjo and a lead singer belting out the Beatles' "Octopuses Garden" to a bluegrass rhythm. The entire town seems to be gathered outside and many are dancing wildly.
We stay until the end, and on the way back to the car my son spots some horses. The owner asks if he'd like to ride bareback and before I know it my son's on top of a horse and smiling big. "I need a cowboy hat," he tells me.
Bozeman
We roll into Montana's fourth-largest town (pop. 37,000) in the evening, and head right for Main Street.Art galleries, coffee houses, fly-fishing shops, and even wine bars line the main drag of this Old West town. This is a place where you can pick up a Stetson cowboy hat, and then buy a bottle of French wine. It's chic and stylish but still has that Montana cowboy charm.
On this night, Main Street is blocked off to traffic and food booths, serving everything from kettle corn to wood-fired pizza, have taken over. There's a huge row of bleachers and a stage in the middle of it all. We learn that we've stumbled upon Music on Main, when live bands perform outside on Thursday nights.
The Garage: Soup Shack and Mesquite Grill
It's still an hour before the music starts so we grab dinner at The Garage, a casual spot dishing up burgers, salads, and homemade soups in a former garage. The car theme is carried throughout with license plates serving as the covers for the menus, and all sorts of car parts—from hubcaps to bumpers—hanging from the walls. The kids order mac and cheese, and I try the barbecue chicken salad. The prices are reasonable and the food fresh.Music on Main
By the time we're done with dinner at 8 p.m., the sun is still shining and a country western band has started to play. There's a fiddler and a guy on banjo and a lead singer belting out the Beatles' "Octopuses Garden" to a bluegrass rhythm. The entire town seems to be gathered outside and many are dancing wildly.
We stay until the end, and on the way back to the car my son spots some horses. The owner asks if he'd like to ride bareback and before I know it my son's on top of a horse and smiling big. "I need a cowboy hat," he tells me.
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