We received a text message from Dan’s former co-worker, Laura, stating she would be in Bozeman, MT for her nieces wedding. Laura is a high-school science teacher, and once a year I would take over her anatomy classes for a “career day” and talk about a career as a Radiologic Technologist, and go over the various areas (X-ray, CT, MRI, etc. that you could specialize in). I think both the students and the teacher enjoyed having a “day off” from their regular classroom studies.

Dan and I made plans to get together for a short hike with Laura and her husband Mike in Bozeman, at Drinking Horse Mountain. In the photo below, there is an “M” on the hill. (upper left)  That is another hiking trail, but we opted not to do that one. Our hike had both  ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ options. We chose to go up the ‘easy’ route, which was also the more scenic of the two options. The trail is very dog friendly, and we encountered many off-leash dogs along the way. Sorry Makena, but you weren’t invited on this trip.

The beginning

We have had several months to adjust to the altitude, but it does catch people by surprise when they first arrive to the area. We stopped for several breaks and photo opportunities along the way.

Mike and Laura

The ‘easy’ portion of the trail.

The ‘easy’ trail

When we arrived at the top, we noticed someone had built a make-shift ‘shelter’. The view of Bozeman from the top provides a nice contrast of the “big city” living in a rural setting.

City of Bozeman

view from the top

The crew is still looking fresh at the top!

Ready to head down

We had a wonderful hike with Laura and Mike. Dan was able to get caught up on many of the happenings at the high school for the past two years. After our hike we decided to check out downtown Bozeman for lunch. The downtown area, despite the usual big box stores and a mall, has many unique and thriving businesses. We had a great time for lunch, and then checked out the local distillery and micro-brewery that was also located downtown.

cheers to lunch downtown

Montana is known for Huckleberries, and the distillery makes a huckleberry vodka, for use in Moscow mule drinks.

my new ‘hiking’ outfit!

The brew pub has what they call a “frost line” on the bar that you can set your beverages on. We all thought that was a nice feature to keep your beverages ice-cold.

the frost line

We tried a little sampler platter of local brews

We said our good-byes for now, and made the 90 mile drive back ‘home’. Mike and Laura’s kids were going to be flying into Bozeman later that night. A few days later, they made the drive down to West Yellowstone, along with a number of other relatives. They rented out a bus and did an all-day tour of Yellowstone National Park.

Before heading back to Bozeman, they stopped in to our store, and Dan was thrilled to spend some time catching up with their kids, Rachel, Michelle and Ryan.  Dan had all three of their kids in his math classes.

Rachel, Michelle, Dan and Ryan in the store

It was nice for all of them to take some time out of their busy “wedding week” to spend some time with us. We look forward to catching up with them again in the not too distant future.

Quote for the day:  “Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us.  Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.” – Andy Rooney