Horse Camp, September 4, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Labor Day Weekend
I got home from Chicago Thursday night, slept, packed and headed down to my parents. Mom and I got a few more things ready for our weekend and away we went to Upper Sioux Agency State Park to go horse camping, with Connie, my Mom's neighbor. The trails are in a mix of the Minnesota River valley and the uplands making for a hilly mix of prairie and forest. We had a great time riding. Laura Bell was great. She was, and I'd expect to always be, a bit on the antsy side. Chance did great too. Mom was a bit nervous at first, but they did great. Connie's horse, Hoot, was a great lead horse, so calm. We had a really great time riding and hanging out together and with our horses. I rode Laura Bell bareback during two of the rides and that was so nice. It gave her a break from the cinch and increased my riding confidence - she spooked once and I sat my seat (stayed on). I think I could have stayed there much longer. We had such nice weather while we were there too - upper 70's during the day with a nice breeze and comfortably cool in the evenings. The moon was also while we were there - it was a full moon. We got back on Monday evening. We were all tired from the perfect weekend. I crashed when I got home hard. I felt bad for Erik, because I came home and didn't spend much time with him, but I was exhausted. I didn't have time to upload any pictures before leaving again, but I will when I get back home later this week. Now I'm back to work and wishing I was back horseback riding and camping.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Chicago
I'm in Chicago for work, for training to be more specific. A co-worker and I drove down here. He did the driving, and I was exponentially grateful for that the further we got into Chicago. I'm not much of a city driver and really don't plan on becoming one, although I think Erik might think I should become more comfortable driving in the city, but the roads just get too tight. Yesterday, we had to take a detour to get to the hotel and at one point there were no lines on the roads, cars just went where there was room and went around other cars/buses and people walked right in front of cars and bikes went as they pleased. There was no order to things, not that I need that, but with that many things in a confined space, I think there maybe should be a bit of order.
So we got to our hotel about 5 and it is really fancy, or fancy for someone like me. They have a dress code. Yep, you read correctly a dress code. Yikes. Both myself and my co-worker were not dressed up to code, but we left and went out to see the lake. We also say the Buckingham fountain, Millennium park with the fountains with the faces and the giant bean. Then we at dinner at Miller's Pub.
I had a bit of culture shock when I got here yesterday. I felt like I didn't belong in this fancy city. I feel like that is so weird that I felt that way, when I didn't have very much culture shock at all in Australia, but oh well. I'm over it and moving on.
I had a great day today. I got in alright for our fancy breakfast at the hotel even though I was not wearing the appropriate footwear... I was wearing my Chacos. And the breakfast was really good. We went to training and the training went well and I enjoyed it - that is always a good thing! I had lunch in a little cafe under some building (I really have no clue where I was). Then when training was all done for the day, I was off to explore more of Chicago. I walked through some gardens and out to the lake, then along the lake shore, over the Chicago River to the Navy Pier, walked the Pier, enjoyed taking some pictures (I'll post them when I get back to Minnesota), I talked to Katie on my way back from the Pier into the loop area, then I had dinner at the Corner Cafe (kind of like a Panera), and then I headed up State Street for some shopping. I did not make it to the Magnificent Mile, but I did make it into Macy's and that was kind of cool, because of the large mosaic in the ceiling a few stories up (maybe 5 or 6).
So we got to our hotel about 5 and it is really fancy, or fancy for someone like me. They have a dress code. Yep, you read correctly a dress code. Yikes. Both myself and my co-worker were not dressed up to code, but we left and went out to see the lake. We also say the Buckingham fountain, Millennium park with the fountains with the faces and the giant bean. Then we at dinner at Miller's Pub.
I had a bit of culture shock when I got here yesterday. I felt like I didn't belong in this fancy city. I feel like that is so weird that I felt that way, when I didn't have very much culture shock at all in Australia, but oh well. I'm over it and moving on.
I had a great day today. I got in alright for our fancy breakfast at the hotel even though I was not wearing the appropriate footwear... I was wearing my Chacos. And the breakfast was really good. We went to training and the training went well and I enjoyed it - that is always a good thing! I had lunch in a little cafe under some building (I really have no clue where I was). Then when training was all done for the day, I was off to explore more of Chicago. I walked through some gardens and out to the lake, then along the lake shore, over the Chicago River to the Navy Pier, walked the Pier, enjoyed taking some pictures (I'll post them when I get back to Minnesota), I talked to Katie on my way back from the Pier into the loop area, then I had dinner at the Corner Cafe (kind of like a Panera), and then I headed up State Street for some shopping. I did not make it to the Magnificent Mile, but I did make it into Macy's and that was kind of cool, because of the large mosaic in the ceiling a few stories up (maybe 5 or 6).
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