Billy Goes to DC, Followed by Our First Foray into the Green Mountains

Billy went to DC to meet his business partner, Tony for the Tech Stars Patriot Boot Camp conference that took place over the long weekend. Tech Stars is a company that supports start-up companies in their endeavors, usually via fairly substantial investments and by fostering a "think tank" environment to help mentor entrepreneurs. They hosted Patriot Boot Camp as a condensed version of the mentorship experience and invited veteran/service member-owned businesses to attend. 

There was an application process, but naturally since Military Traveler is AWESOME they got in. Billy had an awesome time, did a lot of great networking and got to meet some very cool people. He also really enjoyed all of the speakers and overall just had a blast being in that environment with so many other creative people. Plus, he hadn't actually seen Tony in over a year, since he moved to DC and then Tony was in Afghanistan. They got some time to catch up, which I think Billy really enjoyed.

 If you're wondering about the "Base Directory" t-shirts, let me explain! Military Traveler recently launched the website version of the app, which is called www.basedirectory.com. The website is great (and so are the t-shirts-they are extremely comfy...), so tell everyone you know about it!

Billy came back with lots of stories and new contacts and was really encouraged by all the positive feedback they got from already established start-ups and well-known companies. I missed him a lot during the week, but I am so happy that he got this opportunity! It's led to another great opportunity this fall that will need a post all on it's own...

He also sent me lots of cute photos and videos of Hannah, which was great because I've been suffering from major dog withdrawal not having any canines of my own in Vermont!

Enough with the pictures...put down the phone and rub my belly

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I did nothing but watch Law and Order and eat Easy Mac while Billy was gone, so when he got back I was eager to get out and enjoy Vermont. We settled on the Lye Brook Falls hike (Billy naturally found this gem on Trip Advisor while I haplessly Googled). It was all up hill on the way out, which definitely kicked my butt. We had a great time just talking and catching up from the last week, though, and it was nice to actually get out and do some physical activity. Not to mention the forest was absolutely beautiful.

Even more spectacular was the reward at the end of our hike...the Lye Brook Falls! I'd never seen anything like it. It was awesome, and totally worth the butt burning few hours we'd spent climbing upwards. Full disclosure, I did not take this picture but instead Googled one since mine came out absolutely awful thanks to funny lighting.

As we are admiring the falls, it begins to POUR. Fortunately, we found a giant boulder to sit under but we didn't get to spend much time actually looking at the falls. We stayed pretty dry, though, which was good because it cooled off quite a bit after that and being wet would have been pretty miserable. I can say that for certain because we passed a pair of hikers on our way down that had gotten stuck in the rain and they looked like they were completely miserable.

While it was wetter than expected, we still had a great time and it was nice to be disconnected from work and just have some time to catch up with each other and talk about life. This was the first time we hadn't been around each other all day everyday for a few months, and the cell service in Vermont is horrible, so we were really happy to just be able to spend time together. On that note, it's also been great to figure out that we don't hate each other after spending all day everyday together for extended periods of time ;)

That's enough nauseating couples talk for now. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update...our trip to Burlington for Billy's birthday!!