Education and Fun in Little Rock

When I was in my first year of grad school I decided to go try to go back to the National Council on Family Relations Conference with my classmate and professor from undergrad. Luckily we were all excepted and able to go!

That lead to a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas :)

On the ride from the airport we were introduced to the Arkansas River. Or the Big Ditch, as the cab driver called it:

Once we made it to The Peabody Hotel, we found out they had this strange tradition. Every day they set up some red carpet and steps and select...

...an honorary duck master. They have the duck master ride the elevator down with a sting of ducks up the red carpet. The ducks walk up the red carpet, and then continue up the steps alone and spend the rest of the day swimming in the hotel lobby fountain.

Katherine is from the mid-west and was SO EXCITED about the BBQ. It was delicious. And there was a lively debate about what mid-western state does BBQ best/ right. I just enjoyed the tastiness :)

We went on a walk one evening along the river and found some great gems. I still love bridges:

I thought this was an ingenious sculpture - I had to touch it. Metal kind of blows my mind sometimes.

Along the rivers edge there was this cool "Medical Mile" that had health tips - it was great. It was also likely especially cool to me as someone who was studying Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning & Child Development and as someone who has an interest in social education.

And, of course, there was the "main" reason we went - presenting information and connecting with others in similar fields! I was pretty proud of the work I did in putting this poster together and enjoyed talking to others about my work and their work.

After the presentations were done, we had some time to do some exploring. A few of us decided to go visit President Clinton's Presidential library. It was the first one of a currently living US President that I had visited.

There was a neat motorcycle exhibit that I think my Dad would really have liked. And while, I can't say that I'm a huge Bill Clinton fan, I loved the quote below that was posted from his first inaugural address - despite it's faults, America really is a pretty great place!

Right around the corner from out hotel/ convention center was the Old State House - it has a pretty neat museum inside, or at least if you're the nerdy history loving type it's pretty great. Perfect way to end the trip to Little Rock - learning about Arkansas history!

Amazing. Waterfire. Rhode Island.

One of my classmates at Tufts was from Providence and told everyone about Waterfire. I mentioned it to a couple of my friends and that turned into a road trip!

So fun to experience this wonderful thing that happens every year in Providence Rhode Island - a bunch of floating bonfires in downtown Providence:

Gas lamps and bonfires:

Yay for good times with good people!

Wyoming - Girls Camp Style

You know those times you look back on and wish you'd appreciated more at the time? This is one of those. Picture this:

Single lane road. 

Full bladder. 

Lots of sheep.

In my lonely, never feel like I fit in, teen years this was a rough experience, but looking back if was an adventure.

It was a longish ride from our chapel to our girls camp location. Just my luck I got 'stuck' in the car with the leaders instead of my peers. All I wanted was to be with the other campers. And it seemed that might never happen.

We were in a car that was too close to the ground for the terrain so we were forced to drive VERY slowly. 

Just when I thought I might explode:

We sat. And sat. Nothing else we could do.

Perhaps that long wait is part of what made that year at camp so meaningful. All I know is that I still cherish the memories made. The pranks pulled. The camp songs sung.

Ooo ooo I want to lingerOoo ooo a little longerOoo ooo a little longer here with you.
 Ooo ooo it’s such a perfect nightOoo ooo it doesn’t seem quite rightOoo ooo that this should be my last with you.

Sweet Home Alabama, I’m Comin’ to Visit You

Road tripping to Alabama was great because I got to see the “Sweet Home Alabama Welcomes You” sign as we drove in. Sorry that song is now stuck in your head :)

I’ll just say up front that the drive to Alabama was great – baby Owen was a great travel companion (sleep most of the time we were in the car) and catching up with Stephanie and talking about random and meaningful things was awesome.

Traveling on Black Friday was also awesome because there were not that many people around. The only down side is a lot of things were closed that would have been cool to explore in Montgomery.

Never fear, we found some great gems anyway!

Walking around State Capitol buildings is very fun for me. I don’t know why they are so fascinating to me, but they are. And they are usually beautiful. This one was no exception. And in addition to the building being interesting, they also had something I hadn’t seen before – flags from each state with a stone in front with the state name engraved, and the stones appeared to come from the state. Like lava rock for Hawaii. Very cool.

Then came the best part - meeting Santa at the first White House of the Confederacy!

The man in charge of the White House of the Confederacy was Santa. He even Skypes with kids these days if he has to stop working on their toys to encourage them to be good so he can finish and deliver them! 

He also let me take a picture of his key to the North Pole workshop :)

The rooms and other artifacts on display were pretty neat! Every time I see things like this I wish that I lived in that era. And then I think about being covered in so much material all the time and I change my mind.

There were also fun facts and pictures and things like the "pocket pistol" pictured below:

 

It was also interesting to walk around town and see some of the historic buildings and learn a little more about the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery.

On our way out of town I also saw this gem - a sign for a Daddy-Daughter Diamond Princess Ball! 

It brought back good memories of doing similar activities with my father when I was younger. I hope it was well attended and many great memories were created!

Missouri: Double Arches and Amusement Parks

By double arches, I don't mean this:

I mean seeing this twice:

St. Louis is one of the relatively few places I've been to more than once. On one of my families cross country road trips we stopped in St. Louis and I remember getting out and walking around the Arch. When Amber and I stopped there on our road trip it was really fun to see a familiar thing.

Our plan for St. Louis was to stay with Amber's cousins. It turns out they had some water damage in their kitchen and had to do some unexpected remodeling...so, they put us up in a hotel for the night. So we had dinner with the cousins, watch some of the Olympics, and got a good nights rest.

While I enjoyed St. Louis both times I was there, I have to say that my favorite Missouri memory is related to Branson, Missouri.

We stayed in a time share that was walking distance to Table Rock Lake. It is a GORGEOUS place!

I remember feeling so grown up because my parents entrusted me with helping my youngest brother and making sure he didn't slip and fall on the slippery rocks on the lake bed.

The best part was that my parents found out that the local amusement park, Silver Dollar City, had this great deal. If you go after 4:30pm on one day, you get back in the second day for free! It was perfect. My parents dropped the three older kids off (approximately 12, 9, and 7) and we rode as many rides as we could so we'd know the best ones to repeat the next day.

The worst part is that I wore shoes that ended up giving me a blister - between going on lots of wet rides, and walking back to the time share, I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, there were no rides that required close toed shoes, so for day 2 I just put on flip flops and stuck bandaids over my blisters and we were smooth sailing! (the bandaids ended up being a BAD idea...but that is a sad story involving swimming in the lake later in the day with the bandaids still on, and seeing really cool silver, spiny fish using goggles, and getting back really late and not thinking about taking the bandaids off after the quick shower - so, I ended up with infected blisters. Sad, very painful few days followed - but back to happier things!).

Our favorite ride, hands down, was Wildfire - an awesome roller coaster that the Silver Dollar City website describes like this:

Silver Dollar City's WildFire®, the high-flying, multi-looping, cobra-rolling coaster that travels up to speeds of 66 mph

We rode it again, and again. Often multiple times in a row. Not only was it fun - the view was great:

Our parents always gave us a roll of quarters that we could spend on trips like this. Our money to do whatever we wanted with (and a great way for them to not have to buy us souvenirs - they would say "if you still have money, go ahead!"). We pooled some of our quarters to try our first funnel cake. Yum!

Between the increased trust and freedom of having some adventures just us kids and the actual events - all day amusement park sandwiched with lake swimming - I look back at Branson as one of my fondest family trip memories.

And, we topped it all off by seeing the the Dutton Family perform. My dad bought a CD from them, and I always wish it was mine...

Great Wall of China

People keep asking me what my favorite part of my trip to China was. Honestly, there were so many unbelievable/ incredible elements that I don't know if there is an answer to that question. But, since I have been forced to pick "one" over and over again, the answer I go with is the Great Wall of China.

When I was young, I used to play this electronic game where you would match pictures of famous places to the geographic location. The Great Wall of China was one of the places (along with the Colosseum and the Hanging Gardens). At that time, I never even dreamed that I would be able to see any of those places in person. 

Arriving at the Great Wall was surreal. In part because it was one of the first things we did in China, and mostly just because of what it is. And how long it has been there. All of the buildings where we explored the wall were really neat:

At first I was nervous. Their were so, so many people climbing the wall in front of us that I didn't know how we could even join them. Luckily it thinned out after the first hill.

The steps were all different sizes, which made for an interesting, and challenging climb. And slow going!

We met some fun people - who ended up staying at the same hotel as us! Such a small world. The wife of the pair is in the top right of the photo below

We also came across some interesting signs - graffiti we couldn't read, a sign we laughed about, and then we made one of our own:

At the top, we climbed up on the desk structure. Some nice Chinese man helped push me up from below while my friends pulled me up from above.

Going back down was also interesting - particularly because of the differences in the sizes of the stairs. I ended up running down most of the way, for some reason that was easier for me...

Of course we had to have some photo ops before we left - below are two of my favorites:

One thing I have to mention about the Great Wall of China is what our tour guide kept saying about it: "If you want to walk the whole thing, good luck. We'll pick you up in 5 years. It is the same length as going from New York to San Francisco and back again."

And just because I really can't choose one best part of the trip - this was pretty cool too!