Beautiful Bozeman

Last week I met The Cyclist (TC) in Bozeman, Montana for a week of vacation. TC grew up in Montana and has raved about it since we first met. I’ll be honest: when I first met TC I had to check a map to confirm that I actually knew where Montana was (I did, but if you don’t, see below).

Not sure what to expect out of Bozeman, I landed at o’dark thirty at night and even though I couldn’t see anything the air smelled so clean and the stars were out and I was already at ease. We crashed with TC’s brother, KC and KC’s crazy super cute girls. They live next door to TC’s other brother, his wife and her son. The families are super close, have weekly dinners together and they even have a zipline between the houses. It was awesome. TC’s family was exceedingly welcoming to me and made me feel so at home. Meeting the family is easy when it’s his family.

When TC invited me to Bozeman he promised me fun in the outdoors. We went on three hikes as part of Amazon training, one in Big Sky, one “mercilessly steep” one up to the “M” and another to  one of the three highest peaks in Montana. Everywhere you looked was breathtaking, the hikes were spectacular, the people were kind and fit and it is one of my new happy places. I also went fly-fishing and caught a cutthroat trout on a dry fly in Paradise Valley on the Yellowstone. What a way to catch my first fish! Seriously, Montana was amazing and it was even more amazing with TC.

Check out some pictures here (my favorite below):

Panorama with Tyke

Also, my news from a few weeks ago has been announced– I was nominated and recognized as one of Pittsburgh’s 40 Under 40. This means that I’ll get to use a feature in Pittsburgh Magazine to promote i2P and in November I’ll trade in my sneakers for stilettos at a gala for the honorees. In cool news, one of TC’s good friends, Scott, is another honoree for his work with Bike Pgh, a cycling advocacy organization in Pittsburgh. Go people promoting fitness!