ladybugblue

Back in Edinburgh

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 May 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Have we mentioned that we really liked Edinburgh? We started there, and it was great to wrap up our time in Scotland there. Coming back to a city where you know your way around (a bit), where you can finish up on a few things you had wanted to catch the first time around, and where you can return your rental car is a pretty sweet schtick. This time we stayed in a hotel near the railway station so we could leave early the next day, and we set off to pick up where we'd left off.

I'm guessing you know we're museum geeks by now... we'd shut down two already, and had a third opened just for us. The problem was that with the first one we'd shut down, the National Museum of Scotland, we'd only gotten through the first three floors that go through prehistory, the earliest humans in Scotland, and "Kingdom of the Scots". We had to FINISH! So we picked up where we'd left off, beginning with "Scotland Transformed", making it through "Industry and Empire", and wrapping up with "Scotland, A Changing Nation" right as they kicked us out for close.

Thankfully, it was still light out, so we had time to wander toward Arthur's Seat and make that lovely climb. Click on the photo to see MORE photos...

last bit of the car tour - Speyside

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 May 2014 23:53:00 +0000

We spent the last two nights of our road tour in the valley that surrounds the River Spey. Like half the distilleries in Scotland are based here - we only had time to visit one (Cragganmore - because they have a cool-shaped still that Patrick wanted to check out). Speyside was nice, and it was a great place to poke around. We got a lovely walk in - filled with lambs and flowers.

We also got to tour Speyside Cooperage - where they repair and make wine/whiskey casks. It's one of those arts that can't be done by machines... and it was just really neat to learn about and watch the artisans who keep the coopering craft alive.

We also had dinner at a pub called the Wash Tun where we met a really neat couple, Graeme and Lyn, from Queensland, Australia and had fun swapping traveling stories for the hour or so before the kitchen opened. We hope to visit them when we get to Australia - or have them visit us in Colorado!

More photos from Speyside: here.

The Battle of Culloden

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 May 2014 23:22:00 +0000

Telling us all about the battle - in this case - that the Victorians romanticized things a bit when they made memorials for the site!

We got so much fun advice from friends as they learned about our upcoming trip to Scotland. Not least was when our friend Beth suggested catching the museum and site of the Battle of Culloden.

This place really was neat - it not only included walking tours of the battlefield, but also had displays inside that included a timeline walk showing perspectives from both sides that fought in the battle, and a scaled map table that showed lights depicting the action during the battle as lines advanced and retreated... just really neat. More photos here.

Yep, that's our rental car...

'Member when I mentioned our museum geekiness in my last post?

So - we got to the museum, did a tour of the actual battlefield, left to go check out a cheese shop (a.k.a. lunch!), and then returned to pretty much shut the place down.

Yup, some people close down the bars... we close down the museums...

Clynelish Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 May 2014 22:39:00 +0000

Ok, where was I? The last we left our characters, they were bashing about the very north-est north part of Scotland. Let's catch up...

As we began wandering south again, I started looking for B&Bs near Brora... and I hit the jackpot! Victoria and her hubby Jason run Clynelish Farmhouse B&B a working farm right next to the Clynelish Distillery.

We both agreed later that this was our favorite part of the entire trip. We stayed there two nights and both evenings ended up, tucked in next to the fireplace downstairs, snacking on wine and cheese, and talking with Victoria about farming, Scotland, and pretty much everything!

We liked Brora (the nearby town) too; we took a lovely walk along the ocean to see seals... and actually saw them! We visited Dunrobin Castle - we honestly meant to just stop by quick on our way to a long hike... and-we-just-couldn't-leave!

Now is as good a time as any to confess: I MARRIED A MUSEUM GEEK. AND SO DID MY HUSBAND. We don't seem to be able to stop by any historical place without both of us wanting to make sure we check out ALL the rooms and read ALL the informational displays. I guess it's a really good thing that we're both that way - but it does mean that there's no such thing as a quick run-through... anywhere!

One of the highlights of our time at the castle was a falconry show; they have a professional falconer on site and he shared amazing facts about falconry as a sport and about the individual birds in his care.

I added a bunch of photos here, with more descriptions of our times around Brora.

utter north

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 May 2014 00:30:00 +0000

So it was time to get north. Really north. Like nearly as northwest and northnorth and northeast as you can get on mainland Scotland. We also needed to touch the North Sea - just to say we'd done it.

Click on the collage for more photos and mini-blurbs of our loop - this part of Scotland was just incredible.

Single track

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 May 2014 02:00:00 +0000

We left Portree and headed up the western coast. Essie, the proprietor at the Portree B&B, had told us about the highest highway in Britain - a single track that went over the mountains to Applecross and some of the best pub food in the country.

It was soooo good - though after the drive there, I wonder some of the taste had to do with just being glad to be alive.

Video clips:

Sheep!

And... photos of this drive... just fun

a bit a boot clan warfare

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 May 2014 04:30:00 +0000

See this church? As we walked passed it we ran into an English couple who were birdwatching for corncrakes. We stopped to chat and learned a bunch about flowers and birds from them, and then they pointed back at the ruins we had passed.

"Do you know the story of that church?"

"No, we liked the look of the ruins, though"

"It was burned down by the MacDonalds. They barred the doors while a bunch of MacCleods wee inside and burned them alive."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. And then the MacCleods came after the MacDonalds and killed every one of them."

Yup. Apparently it's called the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke.

It really is amazing to think about... and sad.

Ballachulish and the Isle of Skye

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 May 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Ballachulish

So, Ballachulish (pronounced "balla-hu-lish) is actually far less famous than up-the-road Glencoe, but isn't it more fun to say?

Glencoe is famous for a massacre that occurred in 1692 - but also for the beautiful hills that surround it. We took an incredibly beautiful hike there, and wandered around an old slate quarry for quite a while.

Our Bed & Breakfast was run by John, who is pretty much just toying with the idea of setting up a B&B, so it doesn't even have a name yet. He made awesome food, had neat stories of his time in Australia, and also had cool themed art throughout the house. Our room overlooked the water so we were sad we were only staying a night before moving onto...

the Isle of Skye!

Wow. We were told that if we could catch the weather right, we would have the best views in Scotland at Isle of Skye. It's hard to compare awesome against awesome, but it really was incredible. We stayed at a sweet B&B called Almond Bank and Essie, the proprietor has lived on the Isle of Skye her whole life. We had to make sure we were there before she left for her Scottish folk dance class. We ended up spending a lot of time on the Waternish peninsula, and later went left for a beautiful walk near Dunvegan. Waternish had views, a place called SkyeSkins (where they process sheep skins!), and a yarn shop that dyes all of their yarn, much of it with plants harvested right there.

There are a ton of beautiful photos from our time in these two places: check 'em out here.

Rosslyn Chapel & Inverary (say it fast, roll the "r"s)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 May 2014 04:00:00 +0000

By Monday we were ready to get out of the city.

Car

After spending over an hour in "queue", we were finally in our home for the next 1 1/2 weeks: a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2, complete with steering wheel on the right side of the car and manual transmission. Woo hoo!

Rosslyn Chapel

We wanted to head west, but our friend Shane had told us about this amazing chapel just south of Edinburgh called Rosslyn Chapel - so we just had to check it out. This one was established in 1446 and is also still an active place of worship. We spent several hours, wandering in and around the chapel and grounds. The carving is amazing, and flowers all around it were beautiful!

But, it was time to head west. We barreled through Glasgow and up along the shores of Loch Lamond before landing in...

Inverary

Inverary was one of our favorite places. It's a small town at the top of the Kintyre peninsula. Turns out there's a beautiful, famous castle there (where Downton Abby was filmed - huh!), but down on the peninsula was a whisky distillery we really wanted to visit. One of the best parts was the bed & breakfast - The Claonairigh House (pronounced "cloon-er-ee"). We were met with tea, served grilled grapefruit and homemade rolls in the morning, and really had a great time talking with the proprieter Fiona.

The Springbank distillery tour was really fun and interesting - and a great place for a first tour. For one thing, they let us take photos! For another, it's the only distillery in Scotland that does the entire process, from malting the barley on, right on site. Our tour guide was... well, listen for yourself and you'll see how lovely:

Another highlight of our time here almost didn't happen - we debated about stopping by Inverary Castle, and ended up going for it as we were heading out. It was beautiful and interesting - a great place to wander about. Once again, they allowed photos, which not all castles do.

So... without further ado... click here for photos of our time in Rosslyn, Cambeltown, and Inverary. Next stop: Ballachulish!

Edinburgh - Take I

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 May 2014 04:00:00 +0000

We're here!

It's funny to actually be here after all of the anticipation and planning.

Friday: arrival & first explorations

Our bed and breakfast is simple and clean. Claudia met us at the door to let us in and willing answer all of our questions. A lot of folks in the service industry here seem to be from other countries - it's so fun to try to decipher accents.

Had dinner at Tempus - a lovely restaurant and our waiter was from Poland. She had fun suggestions for enjoying the city while we were there.

One of the very highlighty-highlights was wandering the streets and just getting used to the idea that we really ARE in Europe... and then we wandered into an Irish pub that was actually in the middle of a sing-along! We sheepishly hovered till someone moved over and offered us seating, and ordered a pint each. We sat and joined in when we could. The quality isn't good - but listen for a bit of what we heard... so, so fun!

Saturday: the castle! and random Edinburgh meanderings

The castle is really just a cool place - amazing history, amazing stories. We had a 1/2 hour tour and then wandered about for hours. Both ended up being a great way to get to know the country a bit - knowledge that we get to build on as we spend more time here. Click on the photo for a few more pics.

We also did a bit of shopping - LOTS of woolen shops here and it's fun to try to get a feel for what is good quality, and what is there just for tourists (e.g. polyester kilts made in China vs woolen ones made here. And no, we're not actually kilt shopping!). We got to tour one place where they actually weave tartan fabric - very cool.

Sunday: old church, cool museum, Wee Folk Club

We thought it might be fun going to a church in Edinburgh, and we picked a beautiful cathedral called St. Giles. Turns out it was founded in the 1120s. For real. The really-cool part was that this church (and one of it's most famous churchmen, John Knox, was a huge part of the Reformation - so much of the history we'd been learning (and would keep learning about) centered (or would that be centred?) on this place.

After more fun times bashing about the city (I learned how to SPIN YARN! And we spent way-too-much time in the National Museum of Scotland) we wound up at the Wee Folk Club in the tiny basement of the Royal Oak pub. Really just neat times.

Here are a few photos of our time in the city: click here.

Scotland!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 May 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Sooo, there comes a time for all good newlyweds to go to Scotland. I think it only applies to folks married in Oct of 2013, so most of you are off the hook, one way or the other. But you still should try to get to Scotland at SOME point. For real.

We had planned to go since late last year, so when I got a job right before we left, we hoped there wouldn't be too much problem with a 2 1/2 week vacation. They let it go - yayy! So, it was unpaid vacation, of course, but we were glad there weren't too many problems with that.

We took off on May 1 and landed there May 2... a day of travel we'll never get back... until we return of course.

Rosie the Riveter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 03:13:00 +0000

So - I am now a week in as Manager - Organizational Training and Development at a really neat organization called Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System. Here's a link to their web site: http://www.sclhealthsystem.org/

Basically, they have hospitals and clinics in Colorado, Kansas, and Montana, and around 15,000 employees. I'll be supporting mainly on the clinic side of things. As I was interviewing with various folks, I just got a really neat sense from each person I talked to. They all seem to really like working there, and they all are working hard to fix a lot of the challenges that have come up because of recent growth. In some ways, ThedaCare was further down the road, so I think I'll have something to offer - even as I'll have SO MUCH to learn. It's a different business, they've done things differently, and it's in a division that I have a lot to learn about - good challenges!

It wears me out, though! I come home with my brain buzzing... acronyms, faces, names, and org charts dance in my head. Someday the alphabet soup will sort itself into meaning, but until then I keep thinking I can wrestle them all into submission - and that is really exhausting.

Patrick and I are trying to figure out our schedule with me working.

The PLAN

he cooks Monday
leftovers/team work Tuesday
out to eat Wednesday
I cook Thursday
cleaning happens magically when neither of us is here

This week's REALITY:

Patrick cooked Monday
Patrick cooked Tuesday
we went out to eat Wednesday
Patrick cooked today
ha!

We both gave a few things a lick and a promise, but real cleaning may take a while to figure out. How did I do this when I was single? I'm hoping that work won't take quite so much outta me once I've hit my stride again. In the meantime, he suggested getting in a cleaning person now that I have a job... might not be the worst idea!

Interviewy and Jobby stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:34:00 +0000

Does anyone like to interview?? I think it's just plain hard. First to get them in the first place, and then to actually do them! I had three in the last 1 1/2 weeks. Two in person, one over the phone. There's such a mix of emotions, even when you know your stuff. Figuring out what to wear (really not something I love!), making sure I know where to go, making print-offs of work samples (going through stuff and figuring out what makes sense to bring)... yuck, yuck, yuck! On the drive to both of the in-person ones I had to keep reminding myself to BREATHE. I would hold my breath and then make myself more nervous.

And then there's this whole beautiful (mostly!) hiatus I've been on. It's good and hard and crazy to think about jumping back into the workplace full-time. In so many ways it will be good. I'm just grateful for the slower time as well.

And... I got a call this morning with a job offer - a Training Manager job with a local healthcare organization (well, mostly local. They have sites in a few other states as well). They want to know if I can get all my stuff in and start MONDAY! Eeeeh!

So I'm going for it. I can't get over the timing. Saturday is my last official day with ThedaCare (I've continued to do mini-projects for them for maybe 5-10 hours a week). Sunday is our six month anniversary.

I'm thankful and bewildered and excited and looking forward to the "getting to know ya" part of the new job to be over. I'm hoping I hit my stride sooner rather than later - we'll see!

hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 01:59:00 +0000

So - what do you do when you haven't blogged in a year or so? Do you just start right back in again where you left off? Or do you try to catch up in bits and pieces? Or write a big summary blog?

I suppose there's no exact right answer, so I think I might try some kind of crazy mix of all three. I will try to post a few posts of fun stuff that's happened in the past year, and I will back-date it... but that may be confusing for any of you who get my posts via email. Pshaw, you're smart. You'll figure it out.

So - today I had the first of a second round of interviews for a Training Manager position with a good-sized health care organization based here in the Denver area. Since moving out here in October I've been playing housewife, of all things, so it's weird to be talking business-speak again and thinking about all the stuff I was doing professionally before I left Wisconsin. I've been doing some work for ThedaCare remotely since I left, so I have sort of kept my hand in - but I've mostly been getting a feel for all things Colorado. I have to say it's been pretty fun. Getting a real live full-time job will be good - but a big change. We'll see if I have that chance soon!

Engaging

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 03:55:00 +0000

Patrick had a plan. We had talked about rings and looked at them a bit, and he had talked to his dad about making one. And his amazing goldsmith dad did exactly that - he hand-carved a ring out of wax and had it cast, and then he and Patrick figured out a diamond to go into it. Once it was ready, Patrick called me and talked about coming out the first weekend in August. I was happily surprised - I had seen him just the week before at Rockygrass, but my friend Lori was getting married in Appleton and this way he could come with me. I picked him up in the airport in Milwaukee, we stayed at his parents (where he picked up the ring!), and Saturday we went to the wedding. Afterwards, we drove on up to Door County for a bit of camping and exploration. It was beautiful - we drove the car from one side of the peninsula to the other, and finally landed in Ellison Bay in a little city park. We had time to watch the sun set as Patrick had made dinner reservations for 8:00 at a place called the Wickman House. It had just been raining, so we walked around and once we figured it was dry enough to play a board game on Patrick's ipad he ran back to the car to get it. Only he got the ring! I was excited about some beautiful flowers growing in the park and turned away from them just as he approached and he grabbed me and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I looked at him and said, "Seriously?" and he said, "yes"... and we repeated that about 2-3 more times. Finally he said, "Yes, I'm serious!". I was like, "I know you're serious... but seriously??!". And then I said yes! It was just so crazy to get my brain around because I had known it might be happening but it felt so unreal. Getting engaged, getting married... those are things that everybody ELSE always seems to do. Were we really going to do this ourselves??!

We sat on a bench and watched the sunset, ipad game forgotten. Then we headed toward the Wickman house... and they had a BLUEGRASS band playing in the garden! We had time to listen (they were great fun, washboard and all!), and then wandered in and had the most amazing locally grown food.

The next day we called family and friends to let them know all about it, and then it was time to head back to get Patrick on his plane. We DID have time to stop by a cherry orchard and had fun wandering around a bit before getting back on the road. All in all, it really was quite an engaging weekend.

Long distance muckety muck

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 03:26:00 +0000

So - long distance dating. Talk amongst yourselves.

...

I'm guessing you pretty much came to the same conclusion we did. Tough! How did we do it? We tried to travel one way or the other every 2-3 weeks. Both of us were grateful it was that often, but it still was just plain hard in many ways. Between visits we talked or face-timed, sent each other random pics of what was going on, played Ticket to Ride on our iPhones, and just did our best to stay in touch. We also had decided right away that either this was going to happen - or it wasn't - either way we wanted to know sooner rather than later. So we started going through a book of pre-marital questions. We would both write down answers separately to the questions, and then we would discuss them weekly - comparing answers and working through differences. I'm happy to report we agreed on EVERYTHING. (Hah - made ya look!). Seriously though, it was a good way to figure things out. We'd been friends for so long it was easy to overlook many things we didn't know about each other.

We definitely had a fabulous times on the weekends we were able to be together - hanging out with friends and family, catching the Rockygrass bluegrass festival, tromping in the mountains, playing in kayaks, and cooking yummy food.

St. Louis Work Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 02:58:00 +0000

For the last several years I went with our church's youth group down to St. Louis where we would hang out and serve in the inner city. It's a pretty amazing deal, and I've loved doing it - but this year there was a dilemma. Patrick had tickets to Telluride - a 4-day music festival in Colorado - during the same week. I told Mike I would't be able to help him, and he was troubled because he needed the help and the driver. Patrick also had some question as to whether work would be sending him off to China for a bit during that time, so in the end he sold his tickets and I went to St. Louis. It was a long time to go without seeing him, but it was great to be back in the City, with the kids and the leaders, and help out in various ways. I did some work for my job back in Appleton, and I watched a LOT of sick kids - a crazy 24-hour flu took out most of the kids and leaders. Here are the blog posts I wrote during our time there: http://appletontruenorth.blogspot.com/search/label/St%20Louis%202013. It turns out it was the last trip MIke would lead before leaving his role as Youth Pastor at Appleton Free Church, so I was doubly glad I got to be a part of that last trip.

Backpacking the Ice Age Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:36:00 +0000

I used to think that if feelings were ambivalent, it meant they were neutral and could go either way on something. I then learned that ambivalent means "the simultaneous existence of two opposed and conflicting attitudes, emotions, etc" and I love that definition. There are so many experiences and situations where no single, overriding feeling emerges. There is the good, there is the bad, and they simply don't average to "lukewarm". So here are both accounts of the trip I took this past weekend with my college-age friends Ryan and Sara.

The fabulous	The "challenging"
	Originally, 6 of us were going to go to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for Memorial Day weekend, but schedules and plans changed for a bunch of us and in the end, Sara, Ryan and I took off Friday night for the Blue Hills segment of the Ice Age Trail for roughly a 2-day hike. Getting out of town was somewhat of a challenge as all of us had been running like crazy so we still had quite a bit of stuff to pull together.
We found a camp site near the end of our intended trail and stayed there - which gave us a great chance to do a final check on all our gear, and for Ryan to try sleeping in a hammock before committing to using that instead of a tent for the rest of the trip. He loved it.
	Saturday early afternoon found us in the other car, back at the trail head and on our journey. We had been slowed by the fact that the Ice Age Trail is maintained by volunteers, and the series of maps and directions to access the trail from different points are by no means the clearest. (We had pieced together screen shots of zoomed in maps because no other detailed maps were readily available online).
There were trillium flowers EVERYWHERE. I'm pretty sure they're taking over the world after seeing the vast, beautiful quantities we saw throughout our trip. We also saw yellow, purple and white violets, Forget-Me-Nots, Jack in the Pulpit, Marsh Marigolds, Blue Bead Lilies, Solomon's Seal and Star-flowered Solomon's Seal, and Bellflowers in beautiful spreads throughout the weekend. Oh, and ramps (leeks, wild onions). We found lots and lots of ramps. Too bad none of us are fans or we could have eaten them alone all weekend and survived quite nicely!
	Right away on our journey we started to realize that ticks - wood ticks, and even a few deer ticks - were going to be a problem. In order to keep ourselves from going crazy with the huge numbers that kept collecting on our shoes, socks, legs, pants... and on up, we started having a contest. A counting contest that NONE of us wanted to win. All of us had at least 100 by end of day Sat, and our total Sunday night was at 880. For real. And that's not counting many we found on our tents, packs, and gear. As I sit in the hospital writing this Monday morning, we keep finding more. I'm at 15 or so just with the ones that made it with me out of the woods. Eee-YUCK! Yes, there are no words for the creepiness of it, and it is only with the greatest of effort that we have been able to maintain humor rather than uber freak-out-ness with the entire situation. None of us can wait for a shower.
It turned out to be a great trip in so many respects. Bugs (other than ticks) were annoying but not terrible. And the weather couldn't have been more perfect. No rain, cool temps, nice breeze throughout. One of the neat things about the start of the trail was that it led over several different stiles. They're basically stairs that go over a fence, so cows can't get out, but humans can easily enter and exit at will.
	At one point Saturday we had navigated a stile and walked quite a way along before seeing a bunch of cows across the creek from us. It took some casting about before we realized that our trail led right through the middle of the herd - up an open hill and then who-knew-where. Only - they weren't cows. They weren't even steers. For some reason, a local farmer was keeping 20-30 bulls together in that pasture. Assuming the farmer wouldn't do so if they were in any way dangerous I ran at them yelling and waving my hiking poles. They scattered off and we started through the pasture. One of them thought Ryan was really, really interesting (and let's face it, he is!) so kept coming up behind him. We yelled and chased him back enough so that we could get through the rest of the pasture in peace. Uff da!
Toward the end of the day Saturday we found a likely spot for a camp site. Ryan took off his pack, but went ahead to see if there might be a better spot further down the trail. After some thought, Sara and I decided to push on after him, figuring we would just be that much further along when he got to a better site.
	Except that... we couldn't catch up with him. We kept walking and walking and then worrying a bit and walking. He wouldn't have left the trail, right?
Just as we had decided to start shouting his name, we entered a huge wooded valley. As we looked ahead on the the trail, there was movement! It was him! No it wasn't. It was... a bear!.. with a cub! Wait, there were two little cubs with her. Make that 3! We maintained a loud level of talking and she headed off to our left. The cubs would startle at our noise, tree, and then when "mom" kept walking they would hop back down and follow her. We kept talking loudly and continued down the trail.
	We began shouting in earnest for Ryan and finally got to the point where Sara said, "He wouldn't have come this far". So we left our packs, left an arrow with twigs pointing back the way we came (in case he had gone further), and turned around. We kept shouting his name every few seconds. After 5 minutes or so, we heard the best sound in the world: a deep-pitched "Sara!" in response to our call. Sure enough, in another 5 minutes he came panting up the hill toward us.
Back at the camp site, Ryan had gone just a little way down the trail, realized that our spot was just fine, and had gone along a creek a bit and circled back to the original site - where he had been all the time. He set up his hammock, but when we still kept not showing up, finally left a note, and took off down the trail after us, hoping he was going in the right direction. Miscommunication!! After an hour or so of being apart, we were pretty happy to be together, even though it meant carrying our packs all the way back to the original site. Sunday was a really nice day for hiking. Other than the ticks, of course. I ended up needing to sing nearly all the silly songs in my repertoire to keep our brains from thinking too much about the ticks or about our tired bodies. Singing about having a tattoo of a daisy on your toe helps any situation, right? This is what I tell myself. The trail really was beautiful We got to see a scarlet tanager - wow! - and followed a chain of four beaver ponds - crossing dams and watching the beavers slap their tails in alarm as we got too close. Toward night, we found a beautiful, ramp-filled valley to set up camp near a wandering creek.
	Which brings us to Monday morning. We were awakened at 5:30 or so by noise outside the tent. I asked if everything was ok, and Ryan said his Crohn's was acting up and we needed to get going. By 6:00 we were completely packed up and on the trail. It was a nightmare. Ryan was fighting intense pain. Every few hundred yards he would double over unable to move, and then we would take off down the trail again. Sara and I did our best to keep up with him, and then would wait while he fought the pain. We began to discuss what we would do if he couldn't go any further, so when that moment occurred I dropped my pack and took off down the trail and Sara stayed with him. There was a logging road that crossed our trail 1 1/2-2 miles down, so I ran as much as I could toward that road. About half way I tried to call 911. The connection was sketchy, but I was able to convey enough of where we were for her to say, "oh, you're in Barron county - that's a different system. Let me transfer you over". I asked if she could tell them everything I had just told her (where we were, Ryan's situation) and she said, "what?". I tried again... "what?"... Click. My phone battery was getting low (I'd been using it as a camera throughout the trip), so I turned it off and took off down the trail again. I finally reached the gravel road, turned on my phone, and... no signal. So I started running up a long hill that stretched a half mile to the west. At the top of it, I was able to get a bit of a signal, but it came and went. So I texted my friend Joce, giving her the critical information, and asking her to call 911 with it. Then I tried calling again, and finally got through. After explaining again where we were and what was going on, they assured me they had figured out where we were and were on the way. I hung up so I could run back to the trail head to wait, texted Joce back to let her know all was well, and.... my phone battery died.
I ran back to the trailhead, and waited maybe ten minutes before a caravan of vehicles arrived. Local sheriffs, local first respondents in beat-up pickup trucks, emergency rescue folks and an ambulance made up the team. They were great. They backed an ambulance-style ATV off one of their pickups and took me back into the woods where Sara and Ryan were waiting. We loaded them and our backpacks up on the ATV and after plenty of bouncing made it back to the main road.
	I forgot to mention that while Sara and I were planning what to do if Ryan couldn't make it out, we started asking him where the key to the car was. You see, we had parked one car at the end of the trail and driven the other to the trailhead where we started. Ryan had the key to the forward car. So while I took off down the trail, Sara went through Ryan's pack trying to find it. It turns out the key had been left in the car at the trailhead. While Ryan and Sara took off in the ambulance, I asked one of the sheriffs if there was any chance he could give me a ride back to the starting car, 45 minutes away. He (very kindly) agreed, and I spent the 45 minutes in small talk with him and in dropping ticks that I found on myself out the window.
By the time I arrived at the Emergency Department Ryan was stabilized and doing fine. Sara and I waited with him, tracking down ticks and flushing them down the hospital toilet, until Sara's parents arrived. At that point we could retrieve the second car, and make plans for returning home. Ryan ended up being hospitalized through Wednesday but in the end recovered completely.

I'm not sure how you might describe this experience, but in my book "ambivalence" - the true definition - does quite nicely.

FRIEND-ZONED

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 02:44:00 +0000

Not sure exactly where to start... but while I was in Mexico I was teasing Jamie that she should go for Patrick (the guy she was dating at the time was... not working out). She asked me, "why don't you date him?". The question knocked me silly: Patrick had been FRIEND-ZONED. He was this wonderful, safe, great friend in my life and I had very intentionally *not* thought of him like that since almost the begining of our friendship 9 years ago. It took me a while (like a month or two after the Mexico trip) to work up the courage to say something to him about it... and then it took him a bit to figure out that he really was up for trying a long distance relationship with quite a bit of risk to it (neither of us wanted to lose the friendship). But... we went for it! Oof!

Sweet beach wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:38:00 +0000

Michelle and Justin's wedding was just beautiful. For one thing, it was conducted in Spanish! There was an interpreter, but it sure was neat to hear in a different language first. For the exchange of rings they each wrote an extended tribute to the other person - just simple and beautiful and funny. They got married in a gazebo- type thing out over the water - a bit windy and splashy, but all the more beautiful for that. The ceremony was not long, and then we were in celebration mode. A mariachi band serenaded us before dinner, and then we went to Oceana, one of the resort's restaurants, for dinner and dancing. People stayed and celebrated for quite a while before calling it a day. A very, very fabulous day.

Random beachy bits

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:37:00 +0000

Beach vacations are fun. Especially when you can have them with good friends. We made friends with a couple, Keith and Laurel, throughout the week, and on Wed night Aaron and Laura flew in so we had the remainder of the week with them. They're also fun if you can enjoy lovely food of all sorts!
We saw crabs and gulls and pelicans and iguanas, and - my personal favorite - lots of frigate birds. If you haven't heard of them, look 'me up! They're super cool!

Catamaran!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:37:00 +0000

Justin and Michelle treated all of their guests to a sunset catamaran ride on Thursday. The waves were strong (which made it rather exciting at times) but it was a beautiful, beautiful ride and a great way to have all the guests together for some ore-wedding celebration. So fun!

Tulum

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:36:00 +0000

Wednesday was Tulum day! Tulum is the biggest Mayan ruin site in Mexico (I think) A bunch of us from "the wedding crowed" including Justin and Michelle went on a guided tour of the ruins. I think everyone really liked it but it did end up feeling pretty "touristy" - there were TONS of buses and tour groups when we got there. I guess it's a good thing that that many folks are interested in history, but I couldn't help wondering if there are some days that are less busy. It was hot and sunshiny and a bit hard to concentrate with all the crowd about.
It really is an interesting site - Tulum was clearly built for primarily religious reasons; almost all of the standings structures are devoted to some aspect of religious practice - baths to 'purify' the human sacrifice victims, altars to various gods, a tower to drop the victims down to their deaths, and a "palace" a really big building designed for worship. Some of the structures don't even have doors - they're just meant for the gods to come and go. Humans lived there - but only the upper class ones and only in homes made of perishable materials. All that remains of them are the platforms where they were built. All of the buildings are built in line with phases of the moon, stars and sun - and the Mayans knew exactly where they were in terms of latitude - 21 degrees, I think it was. Amazingly advanced knowledge, so I think it's just interesting that the focused so much on keeping the gods appeased and happy.
After wandering about the ruins, we were all ready for the next part of the morning's tour - time on the beautiful beach at Tulum. White sands, huge rolling waves, and clear beautiful water - what's not to love?? We played there for quite a while before it was time to pack it in and head back to the bus.
Wednesday afternoon and evening were more beach and being mellow time. Ahh, the life!
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Ruins

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:25:00 +0000

On Wednesday a group of us went off site - to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. It was neat to see and our tour guide was very friendly and helpful - if he did wander a bit in his presentation. The size of the ruins is just amazing

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Scuba and other nice things about Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:17:00 +0000

Monday was a blur. A blur of staring at the wind coming off the ocean, reading, exploring different restaurants, and catching up with folks. It's amazing to be forced to slow down like this. The food has been great but (and??) the service is SLOW. In the US the main goal is to get you in and out and your table cleared for the next group. Just not a priority here. We wait 1 1/2 hours after being told the wait will be 45 minutes. We wait ten minutes for the waiter to appear once we're at our table. The food is lovely, the waiters are really pleasant - but we're FORCED to slow down. To talk to people. To savor the food. You know, human sorts of things that we forget when activity and obligations (self inflicted or otherwise) boss us around continually. I'm enjoying this new approach. I find that I'm actually EARLY to stuff! Ha.
Justin and a bunch of his family has really been looking forward to SCUBA diving as part of this trip. I was open water certified in 2006 (we got to go when we were in New Zealand) but I hadn't been on a dive since. So while I really liked the idea of going diving with them, I was really hesitant. I'd forgotten so much, and knew they would all be much more experienced than I - I really didn't want to slow them down.
In the end, they were so friendly and welcoming about it that I decided to go. And gosh was it fun. I really did forget some pretty important stuff about it, but our instructor was patient and got me back on track - and it really wasn't too difficult after all.
On the first dive we saw a huge lobster waving his long spiny arm-things at us, and then we found a sea turtle! He was smallish but we followed him around for a while. Later we found a bigger dude - even more fun! The sun wasn't shining, so there wasn't quite the color there might otherwise be, but even so the variety and color of what we saw was just amazing.
Hand signals are really important when you're diving, since you don't really have another way to communicate with each other down there. So when the swim instructor came near me to check in and I gave him a "thumbs up" he gave me additional weight for my weight belt. I didn't know how to tell him that I didn't think I needed it since I felt fairly comfortable with where my buoyancy was at. Once we surfaced I asked him about it. Turns out "thumbs up" means "surface" - so he thought I was letting him know that I couldn't stay down and was going to need to go up - hence the additional weight! We laughed (me sheepishly), I gave him the weight back, and I was sure to use the "OK" sign on the second dive.
In between dives we took a safety rest in a hidden cove that was pristine and beautiful - and featured a Mayan ruin! We explored around, found iguanas and hermit crabs to poke at, and generally amused ourselves until it was time to return to the open water.
On the second dive we saw another sea turtle and this time I was brave enough to swim up next to it and reach out my hand just as it was swimming with its flipper and "high five" it. I think they caught it on film - if so, I will share it later!