Giants Win the Pennant!

Out in Big Sky Country

Missoula Updates

There is nothing like hanging out with four kids, aged 20, 19, 18 and 15, to make you feel both old, yet much more in touch with your younger self at the same time.

Here at this U-M, I am reminded of my early years at another U-M.

Yesterday we drove up to Flathead Indian Reservation and the National Bison Range, where we saw elk, bison and antelope, including one big elk drinking in a river. We also passed by mighty mountains capped with snow under a sky that occasionally sent out some rain or hail but also bright sunshine, leading to some of the most fantastic cloud formations I have seen anywhere outside of the South Pacific.

As Aidan, said, "This is what they mean by 'Big Sky Country.' The sky just looks bigger here."

Today, Julia went to a class with him, while I visited Dylan's counselor.

Tonight, we visited the mall where Zaira works at Payless and got winter boots and thick socks for the boys. The locals say winter will start by the end of the month.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant last night and an Asian restaurant tonight -- both quite good. The kids talked about their classes, their readings, their professors in ways I never remember them doing in high school.

They seem genuinely engaged, serious about their studies, and reflective about the ideas being raised in class.

This is a charming college town, in a green valley with a rushing river and trees now sporting a variety of fall colors -- yellow, orange, red and green -- and nice little houses that look like cozy places to live. The people are friendly and happy to tell you bout the best places to go and things to see.

Mixed in with the locals are ranchers, with their big belt buckles, red faces, jeans, boots and reserved expressions, driving big trucks and talking about fishing, hunting, and fixing those trucks.

There are a lot of older people here, like all over America, mainly whites but also quite a few Native Americans. It seems like a peaceful, safe place. Locals tell me they do not bother locking their front doors or even their bicycles out front.

The campus is nestled at the bottom of a precipitous cliff that sports a block M halfway up, rather like the famous Hollywood sign out west. The boys claim they are going to climb up there one day.

The river has bridges across it and the campus sits on the other side of the river from most of the town. Our hotel is exactly one mile from campus. People in the town tend to smile and nod when you pass on foot. On campus, the students, boys and girls, smiled at me, probably assuming I am a professor.

I met a young man, Chad, while waiting for Dylan's counselor to be free, who is a sophomore, attending on the GI Bill. He is just back in school after leaving Fort Bragg, and says he is having a rough time adjusting. I talked with him for a long time.

He grew up in Butte, so this part of the country is home, more or less. But he is 25 and feels so much older than the other students. He says his main comfort is to work out in the gym every day from 4-6.

I told him about Aidan, whose main comfort is to work out at the gym every night, sometimes starting at 6, sometimes later.

I think they might like each other, so I hope they meet.

Unlike my boys, who are still hesitant and a little ambivalent about their new lives here so far from home, Zaira has embraced Missoula.

"I like it much better here. It's so clean and the people are nice. It is a *lot* better than the Mission." Like most San Francisco kids, she does not describe the city as an entire place but as the neighborhood she knows best.

Zaira, a first-generation American, always has to worry about her parents and their status as immigrants in a country that treats them ambigously.

But she is a person on a mission, majoring in International Business and Business Administration, with a emphasis on Event Planning. She is an intern in events here, which means she works the concerts. Saturday night she worked the country music concert, and said "It got crazy, way too much drinking."

She also works at Payless three days a week.

And keeps an eye on the boys and encourages them in many ways. She is trying to get Aidan a job in security at the events, so he can see concerts for free too.

Well that's my report from Missoula, Montana tonight. Tomorrow morning at a frightfully early hour, Julia and I will reverse our route of Saturday and head back to the City by the Bay.

I will post better photos tomorrow or on the days to come.

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Hello From Rainy Missoula

Well, this is a first. I've never been to Montana before, let alone Missoula. But Julia and I landed in our prop plane today after a very bumpy ride over the Cascades on our connecting flight from Seattle.

She barely noticed the bumps; Julia has traveled by air ever since she was a baby, and never seems to concern herself with turbulence or much of anything else on these trips.

We got up at 4:30 am to start our journey.

To say it's been worth it is an understatement. We met up withe Aidan and Dylan at a local joint, Bridge Pizza, and toured the campus, saw their dorm rooms, and heard all of their news.

As they talked -- and they talked a lot -- it reminded me of when I was a freshman in college 49 years ago and I told my parents about how things were going. I hadn't yet found any real friends or developed my self-confidence about living on my own. Everything was new and fresh, scary and exciting, especially because I really hadn't tried much of anything yet.

To me, the remarkable thing is how well these two tall redheaded boys get along, so different from each other but enjoying each other after all these years living in the same room -- now, for the first time, in separate rooms. They are such great friends, it makes me wonder what it would have been like for me to have a brother.

One 20, one 18. One works out every day and one loves to read history. One thinking about a career in physical therapy, the other wondering what the hell he can do with a degree in history, because he sure does not want to teach high school students.

But both boys seem to genuinely like Missoula, a sleepy little Western town, set in a wide basin surrounded by majestic mountains. They seem slightly perplexed by the local fixation on the college football team, the Grizzlies, given the team plays in a minor conference and is, at best, pretty good.

But it is hard for the kids who have grown up fans of a professional sports team, the San Francisco Giants, who play on the world stage, to immediatley grasp the local pride a sports team can generate in a place like this.

I get it because I grew up in Bay City, Michigan, where the biggest show in town was the Friday night high school football team.

Trust me, Missoula has orders of magnitude of sophistication over Bay City.

Here, there are great academic programs, libraries, museums, plays, shows, galleries and some of the leading environmental studies opportunities in the nation.

But compared to where they come from, to the boys, it's a small town. What is so very nice is they seem to be loving it.

Except for the food. There is some Mexican, some Chinese, but compared to what they are used to, it's...not so great.

"I think San Francisco must be the best place on earth for food," ventured Dylan.

Since it was stormy, we decided to stay in tonight and order room service as we all watched the San Francisco Giants win a big playoff game over the St. Louis Cardinals. (My post.)

Just as we would have done back home.

Weekend Story

I ended up finding tickets for $309.20 each for Aidan, Dylan and Zaira to come home for their six-week Christmas vacation. That's a pretty good price, given the limited options on the MSO-SFO route.

Julia and I are set to fly away and visit them next weekend in Missoula, my first trip anywhere in a long time, and I'm excited. I am hopeful we can take a road trip next Sunday to Glacier National Park. But mainly, I just want to see my two youngest sons for the first time in two months.

We've never been apart from each other for this long their entire lives.

Aidan wants to take Julia to his Psych class on the Monday, which will be her first taste of college. Given how well she is doing in high school so far, as a sophomore, she may have more options as to where to go than the boys had, possibly including U-C, Berkeley, where her three oldest siblings earned their undergraduate degrees.

Despite that, maybe she'll choose Montana also? All good.

The Giants are up two games to none in a five game series with the Nationals.

Enjoying the heat.

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Tropical Night

It is so hot here tonight -- 86 degrees -- that it feels more like Florida than Northern California. We relaunched our main websites this week at KQED and tonight the first show airs with me as interim executive producer on KQED TV.

Julia and I are chilling (not really) on a Friday night. I'm searching for air tickets for the boys & Zaira for their Christmas vacation.

She's watching her show and I'm watching playoff baseball. The Giants won a big game today, 3-2 in the first game of the Division Series against the Nationals in Washington.

Every baseball fan knows the recent Giants history is all about even years. World Champs in 2010 and 2012. Could there be a third?

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Big News From the Weir Family

My oldest son, Peter, has just had his important research work validated by a major federal grant. Read the news here, in the fifth paragragh.

I am so proud of Peter!

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