*2005: Missoula

Our short two years in Missoula, Montana were so full of experiences.  There was something about our first years being married and the newness of it all: the place, the jobs, the graduate programs, the homes, the friends, the hikes, the visits from family, the restaurants...  It is strange to look back on it and realize it was just two little years. Dos añitos in the scheme of our whole lives.

There were many, of course, but one favorite meal was the time we took my visiting sister, Liz, out to Scotty's Table. We gave to her that year in the Christmas rotation and decided our gift would be a dinner out.  I feel like our engagement and wedding festivities ill-prepared us for real life: we continued in the celebratory extravagance a little too long - to the detriment of our savings and future loan repayment.  You know what though?  I kind of think it was worth it.  We enjoyed life: meals with just each other and with friends, conversation, wine, quality food and connection with the hands that prepared it.

Back to the meal at Scotty's - the wonderful place I was so lucky/blessed to get to work.  We - a poor graduate student and mostly day-time server - went all out.  Sadly I don't remember every detail of what we ordered, though I can picture exactly where we sat - that first booth near the hall.  I know we had at least two bottles of wine - I had many favorites - and definitely a glass of Prosecco or Saracco Moscato di Alba to start and port or that yummy late harvest white at the end.  I remember we had then-chef Paul's glorious, silky paté and one of us probably had the rib-eye steak with chimichurri or that beautiful flank steak dish they had, maybe the Cinque Terre seafood stew [so sad. why did I not write this down earlier?]...  We most definitely finished with dessert and noisette [our favorite espresso drinks in France] for Liz and I.  Regrettably I don't remember the details of everything we ate, but it was good.  It was good to treat my friend and sister to a fancy meal, to feel like grownups - good fun to feel rich and indulgent for a night and deal with the shock of the bill later.

How I miss that place and that time.

[different dinner (another great one - our last I think) but same place, same table even]