Chicago Recap

Ah, coming back from vacation is always so sad.  Having to go back to work and getting back to healthy living routines can be such a drag.  We purposely take our vacations so that the start and end in the middle of the week so we only have to work a couple of days when we get back before we have a weekend.  This year we lucked out and have a three day weekend because of the holiday.  Hooray!

 I thought I'd share our itinerary and pictures of our trip.  Overall, I though Chicago was an excellent place to travel to and I highly recommend checking it out.

Day 1:

Museum of Science and Industry - by far our favorite museum of the trip.  Lots of cool things for kids and adults. 

Day 2: 

Shedd Aquarium - another favorite.  We just love looking at all the different kinds of fish and aquatic life.  We're like little kids at places like this.

Day 3:

Farmer's Market in Lincoln Park - this was a farmer's market that I wish I had in my backyard.  It's really something for the locals, but it was neat to check out.  A lot of vendors had samples and delicious goodies for sale.

Millennium Park/The Bean - The Bean is one of the coolest things in the city.  I loved taking all kinds of pictures with it.

Navy Pier - a tourist trap for sure.  But it's fun to walk down and check out.  Plus, there's a free stained glass museum in the middle of the pier that's worth a look.  There's a ton of neat stuff.

Day 4:

Gay Pride Parade - unbeknown to us, we came to town during the Gay Pride Festival weekend.  The parade came right through where we were staying and we were able to watch it from the balcony.  It was very neat.

Taste of Chicago - this was some of the best eating we did.  If you've never heard of this giant food festival, you need to go look it up.  A bunch of local restaurants serve food and 'taste' portions, which are cheaper, so you can try their grub.

Day 5:

The Field Museum - this museum was just ok for us.  We're not big into the natural history stuff as much.  Although, they do have some cool dinosaur exhibits.

The Adler Planetarium - this museum was also small and didn't take much time.  We enjoyed the planetarium show the most.

Day 6:

Art Institute - this museum is huge.  You could spend hours and hours.  We prioritized and only checked out a couple of the wings and found some of the most famous pieces.

Gino's East - this was our experience with deep dish pizza.  And it was amazing.  It is simply a must on any trip to the city.

Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) - we did the new Skydeck and stood out on the Ledge.  It was really cool.  But probably not so much if you're afraid of heights.

Cubs Game - and since we were stay a few blocks away from Wrigley Field, how could we not go see the Cubs?  We had perfect weather for it and it was a great way to finish up our trip.

Have you been to the Windy City?  What's your favorite thing to do in Chicago?

Greetings from Chicago!

Well, we are already on day 3 of our trip to Chicago and we are loving it! 

 We've had a blast exploring the neighborhood we're staying in and venturing out to other parts of the city.  So far we've hit up the Museum of Science and Industry (obviously a must-see for the chemist!):

And yesterday we went to the Aquarium:

We also found a delicious local frozen yogurt bar and a cupcake shop (yum & yum!):

The gay pride festival is going on this weekend on the street below us and the parade is tomorrow.  Totally looking forward to that!  Lol.  Today we're off to a farmer's market and then to Millennium Park to see the Bean and then to Navy Pier!

Finally: Kansas City Recap

So back in October I went to Kansas City, MO for a conference.  I was doing a poster presentation on some of my research, but I also had a lot of free time to explore the city.  Here I am with my poster, Vanna White style:

 And this is Aron Ralston.  You know, the guy who had to cut his own arm off.  He was one of the speakers at the conference and he was amazing.  Not only was his story amazing, but he is an excellent public speaker.  I normally sit in the back for these sorts of things, but I was in the second row for this one!

We flew in on a Wednesday and left super early in the morning.  Once we got to the hotel I made the executive decision to go for a run and see the city.  I'm really glad I did and I'm proud of myself because I normally would have taken a nap.  Unfortunately the run reminded me of why I hate city running.  Too many cars!  I saw lots of neat things, so I came back with my travel mates to check things out.  Here's the view of the city from the hotel:

One of my favorite sites was this dinosaur.  I saw it on my run and couldn't wait to have my picture taken with it.

This dinosaur was at Union Station:

Which is right across from the WWI memorial, which is atop a giant hill, which I stupidly ran up my first day in town.  Whoever said Kansas City was flat was a liar.

We also went to the Federal Reserve Bank.

Ever wonder what $40 million in cash looks like?  Wonder no more:

The other things I saw included that Power and Light District, which is essentially a couple of blocks of town that were bought up and developed and they put up a bunch of lighting.  Unfortunately it's really the only decent place to eat withing walking distance of our hotel so we ended up there a lot.  And I also went to a jazz nightclub with some friends.  That night it was a guy who played the trumpet, who also sang, and also tap danced.  Not exactly jazz, but it was funny!  And it was really just nice to be out with people enjoying a couple of drinks, which is something I don't get to do often when I'm home.

And the highlight of the trip was the rodeo we went to.  I don't even know where to begin in explaining that.  It's unlike anything I have ever done.  I'm not sure that it's something I would want to go to all the time, but it was certainly an experience.  It was hard to get good pictures since everything was moving!

You get the idea.  Well, that's it for now!

Packing

So, I just finished packing for a trip to Kansas City, MO.  I'm attending the annual National Collegiate Honors Council Conference for the third year in a row.  Last year it was in Washington, D.C. and the year before that it was in San Antonio, TX.  I'm really excited for the trip (mostly because the trip is free!!!) and I'm looking forward to presenting a poster on some of my research.  And what would a conference be without a little networking?

So I'm the type that saves the packing until the last minute.  I like to do everything all at once.  I suppose I run the risk of forgetting stuff when I pack this way, but it's almost like a stream of consciousness.  I know some people that start packing weeks in advance for a trip.  Not this kid.  We packed for our honeymoon the day before we left for Mexico.  How do you pack for a trip?

Well, I'm signing off for the next few days.  The hotel charges $10 a day to have internet access (such a ripoff!) so I will be unplugged until Sunday.  And I'm off to be because I have to get up at 3:45 AM for my 6 AM flight!  Yikes!  See you on the flip side!

All Over the Place

I'm going to warn you ahead of time: this post is going to be all over the place.  So many things to share!

First, I got confirmation from the National Collegiate Honors Council that my poster has been accepted to the fall conference.  Yay!  This will be my third year in a row attending this conference.  I love traveling to these and this year's is in Kansas City, MO.  The first year I went it was in San Antonio, TX:

 And last year is was in Washington, DC:

I just love having the opportunity to travel, especially when I don't have to pay for much of it.  Besides, I wouldn't be able to afford it any other way so I really try to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to me.

The negative part of my day was comprised of two different things.  The first was that I TA a general chemistry lab on Wednesdays.  I co-teach with another TA and it's pretty functional.  She's been grading all the lab reports because she's the grad student, but she asked me to do this week's, which was no big deal.  However, once I got down to reading them, I was beyond shocked.  I guess this was a dose of reality.  I just couldn't believe some of the crap the students handed in.  I don't mean to be hard, but some of it was just awful.  I think the thing that bothered me the most was that it seems some of them just don't take pride in their work.  So we had to have a little chat today about what is expected of them when doing a lab report.  I felt bad because they're all good kids, but some of them need to develop the skills to write lab reports for their upper level classes.  I figure it's better they get one bad grade in gen chem than to get more bad grades down the road.  I don't like giving out bad grades, but I know it's what they earned, not what I decided to give them.  But that doesn't make me feel any less like the bad guy.

The icing on the cake today was that I lost my MaineCard on the walk back to my apartment.  Oh yeah, my MaineCard is the key to my apartment and all my roommates are gone right now.  Great.  I retraced my steps and couldn't find it.  I had to get a replacement.  That cost $15.  An awfully expensive piece of plastic indeed.  Then I had to get it reprogrammed to gain access to my apartment.  Once I got in I checked my email to find one waiting that said some girl had found it in the Chemistry building and had it with her.  Too late.  Oh well.  Now I have a nice, new, expensive, shiny piece of plastic.

San Fransisco Recap

I hope you're all ready for tons of pictures of my awesome trip to San Fransisco.  I hope I don't make you too jealous.  ;-)

One of the first things we did was ride the trolley car.  This was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip!  

You could really see how intense all the hills were.  I was also surprised by how closely all the houses were packed together.  I've never seen anything like it.

Of course we visited the Golden Gate Bridge and we got to go be the Painted Ladies, which are the houses you see on the opening credits of the show Full House. 

 We also went up to Napa Valley and did a wine tasting at one of the vineyards.  It was so pretty out there!

I got to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  To bad it's not a good place for swimming.

I was also really impressed by the kinds of flowers that grow out there that we can't here.  In particular, calla lillies are abundant, which are one of my favorites.

I think that's enough for now.  I'll try to include a few more at the end of my posts throughout the week.  Hope you all had a good Monday!

Home

Well, after two weeks of being in NH, I am happily back in Maine.  I rained for most of the ride up, which kind of sucked, but I wasn't driving and I was traveling with other people, which always helps to pass the time.  I've also been looking forward to coming back because I knew I would have a lot of mail waiting for me.  Can I just say that I LOVE mail?  Like, a little too much.  I've got some great stuff to review and other things to share as well as my San Fransisco recap that I'm planning on doing tomorrow!

It just feels good to be back in my own space.  I'm really starting to get accustomed to being on my own and it's hard for me to go home where I now have to live be someone else's rules again.  It's hard to bounce between two worlds like that.  To go from making your own rules to having someone else make them for you is not an easy transition.  Not having Patrick around doesn't make it any easier. 

Granted, we have spent a lot of time apart during our relationship.  He's a year older so he went off to college while I was finishing my senior year of high school.  It was really tough to be apart all the time, but we stuck it out and we made it.  And I'm so glad we did.  But I still hate being apart for anything longer than a week.  I just suck at it.  I'll be the first to admit that I start getting really grumpy when we're apart.  As soon as we're together again, my mood improves by 100%.  That's how I know that home for me is really wherever he is.  We're going to be living in a tiny apartment without a lot of money to spare, but I don't care.  I'm just looking forward to having a place we can truly call our own; home.

Three Things Thursday

1.  I'm back safe and sound from San Fransisco.  My mom and I had a great trip, but I'm happy to be home.  I took tons of pictures and I plan on getting them organized and doing a recap post on that.  I will say that we saw a TON of stuff in the four days that we were there!  We did a lot of driving around the city and just seeing what there is to see.  I would say that my favorite part was the trolley car ride!

2.  I have been getting a lot of wedding stuff done while I've been home over the last two weeks.  I'm glad I'm getting this stuff done now because it puts me in so much better a place when the end of my semester rolls around.  However, because I've been using my afternoons after work to do wedding stuff and visit family, I haven't had much time for exercise.  I'm looking forward to going back to Maine so I can get back into my exercise routine.

3.  While in San Fransisco, I discovered that I have seasonal allergies.  It was spring out there already and the whole time I was there I was sneezing and blowing my nose.  Now that I'm home, I'm fine.  However, wehn spring hits here, I think I'm going to need to start taking something.  Any good suggestions?  I've never had seasonal allergies before so I'm a bit at a loss as to what I should do.

Heading Home

In a little more than an hour I'll be catching the bus to Portland where I'll meet up with my dad and he'll bring me the rest of the way home.  I just can't believe that I'm already half way through the semester!  It feels like every year goes by faster and faster.  I am excited to be going home though.  There are lots of fun things planned, most of them revolving around the wedding.

Tomorrow my mom and Patrick's mom and I will be heading out to try and find them dresses for the wedding.  Keep your fingers crossed that we find some good deals!  I'm looking forward to spending time with them both.

I'm supposed to be working part of my two week break, but I still have not received confirmation from my boss that my paperwork has gone through.  As much as I'd love to not have to work over break, I really need the money.

And next Thursday, my mom and I will be leaving for San Fransisco.  We'll be there visiting her half-brother and picking out wedding flowers.  I'm hoping we get to drink some good wine while we're there.  We're staying until Tuesday and then I should be working the rest of the second week.

Finally, the last weekend of break, Patrick will be coming down with two of his groomsmen.  They're going to get fitted for tuxes and Patrick's best man is throwing his bachelor party that night.  He didn't want to do it this early, but all the boys won't be together again until the rehearsal, so it just made sense logistically.  While the boys are out, I have scheduled a massage for myself.  I figured it's only fair that I get to have fun too!

Somewhere in between, I'm hoping the weather cooperates and that I get some good workouts in.  I have been missing my bike and I'm hoping to get a few rides in, as well as a few warmer runs.  We can all dream can't we? 

What's everyone else up to?  Any big races?  Any upcoming travel plans?

Washington D.C. 2009

So now, as promised, I have pictures from my trip.  First, I'll start with the lovely hotel we stayed in.  And it really was lovely, but it was so expensive!  Thank goodness we didn't have to pay for the rooms!  But it meant the internet and even the gym cost $10 per day each!  I went running outside instead.  To the left is a picture taken from the lobby.  And yes, we were inside.  The second picture is the piano in the middle of the fountain.  Clever, isn't it?  We took our group picture on it and thankfully we didn't get in trouble!And here I am with two of my lovely roomies!  We had so much fun hanging out and watching TV together at night.  We laughed a lot!

The first day I was in town, I went over to Catholic University of America to visit my friend Katelyn and to ask her to be a bridesmaid (she said yes!).  They have a beautiful basilica on campus, as seen below.  Here is the basilica, the alter, and one of the many shrines off the the sides.

We went into Geortown and just went shopping, although we only bought ice cream.  He're me at the mall:

I feel like I should say that this is not the first time I've been to D.C. which is why I didn't spend a ton of time sightseeing.  I'm also not telling you everything I did, otherwise we'd be here all day!  I did, however, get to try a couple of nice restaurants, see the Capitol Steps perform at the conference (love them!), and bond with some fellow Honors students.  There were definitely some ups and downs to the trip, but overall it was an enjoyable experience.   And finally, I'd like to leave you with a beautiful picture of the Capitol building at night.