Slippery sidewalks, falling snowflakes, people shuffling downtown...
Yummy food, but it's too cold to eat....
(sung to the tune of Silver Bells)That pretty much sums up the Stroll last night! It was 14 degrees out, but people still showed up to walk the streets of downtown Bozeman and enjoy celebrating the holiday season with food.
We stopped first in a little place called La Tinga for some Mexican food. It was pretty good. We had a few little tacos (pork, steak, and chicken/potato) and warmed up a smidge before going on our way. Ellie expressed her dislike for the crowds by informing me that there were "too many people in this place!!"
At La Tinga, the lady gave Ellie a popsicle that she tried to devour, despite the cold. She did a pretty good job eating it with gloved hands, but it made her cold, so we made another stop to warm up. This time we stopped into F11, Leif's favorite downtown camera shop. Ellie finished off her popsicle and Leif played with camera equipment, using me as his subject.
After a bit of a warm up, we headed back down Main Street. Due to the cold and the slippery sidewalks, Leif ended up carrying Ellie pretty much the entire time.
(Aside from the snot that I'm going to ask Leif to photoshop off Ellie's face, this is my favorite picture from the evening!)
More walking, more cold, and another stop by a booth for some fry bread left us needing another warm place to stop in... so we stopped by Bangtail's new location on Main Street! For those of you who have visited Bozeman, you might recognize the building as the "horse" building. Of course, I live here and when Leif mentioned that they moved into the horse building I had no idea what he was talking about. Ha ha! But we stopped in there and looked at skis for Ellie (because bike shops are also ski shops around here) and finished off the fry bread and warmed up.
After Bangtail we decided it was time for us to head back down Main Street to the car. It was just too cold and too late to make the full loop. So we shuffled back down the street, stopping once to buy a pulled pork sandwich (which I scarfed as we walked - I've never eaten a hamburger bun that cold before!!) and once to gawk at the S'mores stand. How do you make S'mores in sub-freezing temps? Like this!
Our last stop before hitting the car was at The Leaf and Bean, a local coffee / tea house. We ordered some coffee for Leif, Montana Gold tea for me, and some hot lemonade for Eliana. It was too hot to drink while we were in there, but made for a nice way to warm our hands!
Despite the cold, I was glad to get to attend the Christmas Stroll this year. 2 years ago I was in Texas, last year I was sick... I was not going to miss it this year! And once again, I'm glad we didn't! It's one of the Bozeman traditions worth attending.
