the upside of my ridiculous travel schedule...

...is that i get to see friends who have scattered around the country, explore cool places, and log running miles on many random dirt trails. 

i've been getting lots of quality time with this crew in seattle:

 morgan and melina at the ballard locks

 tish, melina, and i at the seattle center

i managed a stop-over in boulder on my way to and from fort collins and got to see two friends who used to live in santa cruz - 

 hiking with yuri to see the flat irons

i spent five days in fort collins for a science working group and was completely surprised by the city - great food, fantastic bike paths, and great dirt trails close to town. (there was also a lot of country music to be had, though.)

 a hike to grey rock with science colleagues in fort collins

we hiked all the way to the top of this promontory (you can just see the trail that we started from just beyond the rocks in the center of the photo) - and then quickly got off as the afternoon thunderstorm approached!

at the end of june, pete and i started an epic adventure in spokane that eventually ended in seward, nebraska (more on the in-between later). part of my family rendezvoused in spokane to cheer my sister on in the coeur d'alene ironman. and we got to visit with some of my favorite people... 

 a long anticipated visit with roly, christine, and kiddos in spokane

 time with madeline and my mom in spokane
and coeur d' alene (above the spokane river)

 cheering on my sister sarah in her 4th ironman!

 she wasn't waving to us by the end...i think she
only had eyes for the finish line!