My wheels during my travels in Illinois!

Travel season has begun! I left Omaha yesterday morning on a Southwest flight to Chicago Midway. Our flight left a little late for some unknown reason. I watched my luggage get loaded on the plane from the windew in the terminal and then an announcement was made that we had to change gates. I guess they moved to plane too because my luggage arrive in Chicago safe and sound. I was a little concerned about my luggage because I had to pack about 20lbs of recruiting materials, plus my computer but it all turned out okay. Hopefully, I will give all of the materials away and won't have to lug it around on the way home.

I get to tool around Chicago in the most eclectic vehicle I have ever driven - a yellow PT Cruiser! I've always wanted to drive one and I actually like the fact that I am somewhat noticable on the streets of Chicago - hopefully other drivers will notice me and won't hit me!

After I picked up my vehicle and got directions from the nice van driver at National Rental I headed to Champaign-Urbana. I navigated through a hugh construction mess on my way out of Chicago and then got to see some beautiful Illinois farmland. I arrive in Urbana-Champaign, drove around campus to acquaint myself and the found my hotel. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign and found it to be a great hotel. Awesome staff, great fitness room, good location, and free wireless. It was a great hotel for a business traveler. I got some work done last night and then relaxed for awhile.

This morning I checked out of my hotel, enjoyed a little bit of reading time at a Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe with a cup of Malted Caramel Chocolate (heaven in a cup) and the headed over to the UIUC Health and Graduate School Fair. I met some great students at the fair - it was nice to be back in that environment again. I realized how much I have missed recruiting.

After the fair I packed up the Cruiser and headed back to Chicago. I navigated downtown Chicago while driving for the first time in my life. I made it to my hotel (the Ambassador East Hotel) safe and sound, got checked in, and have spent this evening relaxing.

Updates....

Quite a bit has happened since my last update. First, I started a new job. I'm now working at Creighton University for the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions at an admission counselor and I LOVE IT! Next week, I begin my travel season which will last the entire month of October. I plan on updating this blog throughout my travel season (hopefully - I'm not so great with the updating) so that I can keep all of my readers updated on my whereabouts and adventures. I have included the list below of where I will be and when - let the adventures begin!

September 30th-October 4th - Urbana/Champaign, Chicago and Rock Island, IL
October 7th-October 11th - San Francisco
October 12th-October 19th - Lincoln, Kearney, Seward, and Omaha, NE
October 22nd-October 24th - San Diego
October 25th-October 26th - Honolulu
October 27th-November 1st - Los Angeles

It will be a crazy month, but I am very excited about traveling and talking to students about Creighton and Omaha.

Oh, and Matt and I are buying a house. We put an offer in on one this past weekend and it was accepted. We plan to close on November 9th, so Matt will have alot to do while I am gone to get us ready to move. Maybe it will keep him from missing me too much :)

Gorgeous flowers for sale at Pike's Market!
Pike's Market Sign

Fresh Fish! Yes, we bought some!

Matt and I at lunch in Pike's Market - we had fish and chips and shrimp and chips - YUM!

I got behind on my updating near the end of the trip - we couldn't access the internet from the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at on Wednesday night and I just never got around to it while we were with Pell and Bren so I'll spend some time updating over the next few days. I may have to take a hiatus Thursday -Sunday as I am headed to Milwaukee to meet up with my college roommates for a girls weekend! I leave tomorrow evening and I am not planning on touching a computer while I am gone.

Last Wednesday (I can't believe it was a week ago) Matt and I were able to enjoy half a day in Seattle before we needed to take off to drive down to Corvallis. We decided to get up early and head to Pike's Market to avoid some of the crowds we experienced on Tuesday. We found a cute little French bakery called Le Panier where we enjoyed some fantastic pastries and a sat and watched the market come to life. We definitely made a good choice by arriving early because there was hardly anyone there and we were able to wander around without fighting the crowds. We shopped a little bit, purchased some Halibut to take the Pell and Bren's for Fish Tacos, and ended up eating lunch at a park near the Market before we headed out of town. I've included some of my favorite pictures from Seattle above. Pike's Market is a complete unique experience and one everyone should have once in their life.

As Matt and I were driving out of Seattle we got a great view of Mount Rainier in the distance, however none of the pictures turned out very well because the mountain faded into the sky. It only took us about 4.5 hours to get to Corvallis. We stayed at an adorable Bed and Breakfast called Harrison House. We arrived in town and called Sam. He came and met us, showed us around campus (Oregon State University), and then we had dinner at a "townie" bar that had great cheeseburgers. We ended up returning to the B&B early as we had more driving ahead of us the next day.

Pictures 7.21.07

Alice and I with the gorgeous beach and surfers in the background!

Recognize this? It is Haystack Rock and is featured in the final scenes of The Goonies.

Oregon is so green and beautiful!!

Matt and I at about 4:30 am on 7.21.07 at the KC Airport..tired, but ready to leave for Oregon!

Just a small taste of the 250+ pictures I have taken on this trip so far! Enjoy!

Seattle

I got to cross another state off of my list today! Matt and I rented a car early this morning and drove up I-5 to Seattle. We are staying at the beautiful Westin in downtown Seattle - about 3 blocks from Pike's Place Market. We managed to find the hotel (side note: this was actually quite an adventure - apparently Seattle is putting in some sort of light rail or street car system in their downtown area and the streets around the Westin were complete torn up) and checked in. Our hotel room is beautiful and we have a great view of the down town area. We dropped off our stuff and headed down to Pike's Market for some lunch. We found a little oyster bar where we enjoyed fish and chips and shrimp and chips. I swear I will never be able to eat the seafood served in the midwest again now that I have eaten such fresh, wonderful seafood on the coast.

We walked around the market for awhile, got trapped by the pepper jelly lady (who was serving beer jelly, merlot jelly and all other crazy kinds of jelly) and saw some really interesting people. We decided to plan to return to the market early tomorrow morning to do the rest of our shopping and headed to the Space Needle. The Space Needle provided some really incredible views of Seattle and the surrounding area. None of the peaks were really visible today even though the weather was clear and wonderful - which makes me think they never really are visible because today was so gorgeous and we couldn't see them. The view looking out into Puget Sound was really incredible though!

We headed back to the hotel to relax for a little while and then left for our dinner. We spoke with the concierge earlier today who recommended we eat at Ponti's Seafood Grill. We decided that since this is technically our honeymoon that we would splurge on one meal while we were traveling. We were not disappointed - Ponti's provided fantastic atmosphere, excellent service, and the food was to die for. I had Arctic Snow Crab with Risotto and an Heirloom Tomato Salad and Matt had Salmon with Spanich and Whipped Potatoes and a bowl of Tomato Bisque. We then shared a decadent chocolate molten cake with strawberry and mango puree. Ponti's sits right next to the water and we were able to score a great seat outdoors so the view was perfect. The restaurant kindly provided outdoor heaters so I didn't freeze on this cool evening.

We plan to get up early tomorrow morning and head to Pike's Market for some breakfast and some shopping before heading to Corvallis.

I've decided that it takes about three days to become comfortable with a city. I think that Matt and I finally feel today like we have a little bit of a clue about where we are going in this city...and we leave early tomorrow morning. Ironic, huh?



We got going pretty early this morning and headed downtown. There isn't much available for breakfast around our hotel besides Starbucks and fast food so food was on our minds the minute we got off the MAX. Luckily we quickly found a Rock Bottom Brewery. I first ate at a Rock Bottom Brewery in Indianapolis last fall when I went to NACADA and really liked it so I was excited to see one here and I knew that Matt would like it. The atmosphere is really nice and we enjoyed just being able to sit for a little while - I think we both felt like we have been go-go-go since we got here. Rock Bottom Brewery has the most fantastic pint glass sundaes made with Starbucks Mud Pie ice cream, homeade Stout Hot Fudge, chocolate wafers and candied walnuts = heaven in a pint glass. We shared.

After lunch we walked around downtown for awhile and the headed up to the Nob Hill area of Portland which has everything from local boutiques to large nationwide stores like Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma to restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses. It was a really neat area and actually just up the street from where Alice lives. I shopped at a store called SameUnderneath and found a couple of fantastic shirts that I cannot wait to wear. Amazingly we got to meet the owner and the clothing designer while we were there! They are completely down-to-earth genuine people. Take some time to read about their products - it is made out of bamboo and is incredibly soft and comfortable.

It started sprinkling while we were shopping so we caught the streetcar back to downtown and stopped at a pub called Henry's Tavern - where they have over 100 beers on tap! It was incredible to see. Matt enjoyed a Honey Orange Beer while I opted for a Mojito that was made with pineapple juice - delicious!

We headed back to our hotel after finishing our drinks and relaxed for awhile. We both spent a little bit of time doing some research for out trip to Seattle tomorrow. I've heard so many good things about it - I cannot wait to see Pike's Market and the Space Needle. I've also heard the drive up there is beautiful and I am excited to experience it!

It is strange that everyone here complains about this weather - it is either too hot for this time of year, too cold, they are tired of rain or it is too humid. Matt and I offer them so sympathy as we have loved the weather here. Saturday was cool and rainy, but we thought it was such a nice break as we have not seen rain and cool weather in Nebraska for quite some time. And I can't hardly feel the humidity here as it is nothing like the 100% humidity we have in the midwest sometimes.

Portland

We spent a fantastic day in Portland today! We woke up this morning feeling well rested - appropriately so as we spent as much time sleeping last night as we spent with Alice, Nick and Larken yesterday. CRAZY!

After getting going this morning we jumped on the MAX to the Portland Saturday Market and spent a good chunk of the day wandering around. We had lunch at a great little restaurant called Capt. Ankeny's which served great pizza. The Market is mostly artisans of all types. You could purchase clothing, jewelry, crafts, pottery, and there was also a huge selection of food to choose from. There were also outdoor musicians and other entertainers (magicians, balloon sculpture makers, etc). We had a great time looking at everything, buying a couple of items, and then sitting and enjoying some iced tea (for Matt) and Strawberry Lemonade (me), listening to the music and people watching.

After we left the Market we took the MAX to Powell's Bookstore and spent awhile looking around. Powell's takes up an entire city block and you could literally find any book you could possibly want there. Believe it or not, I actually purchased a book about Omaha/Council Bluffs there.

Alice, Nick and Larken offered to cook dinner for us tonight so we walked from Powell's to Alice and Larken's apartment. They made a fantastic dinner of Sicilian Swordfish, Lemon Spaghetti, Grilled Brussel Sprouts and then Larken made a chocolate molten dessert that is a family recipe. The food was fantastic! We ate outside on the patio and enjoyed a beautiful Portland evening. It is amazing to be able to sit outside on a July evening and feel a cool breeze hit your arm. That doesn't happen often in Nebraska.

We don't have specific plans for tomorrow, but will probably just play the day by ear. We haven't been disappointed so far!

Pictures soon...I promise!!

OREGON!

Matt and I have arrived in Oregon for our long-awaited honeymoon! We left Lincoln on Friday around noon and drove to Andrew's parents house where we met Andrew and Amy who had graciously offered to drive us to the airport. We arrived mid-afternoon and were greeted by Andrew, Amy, Andrew's brother Thomas, and Andrew's parents Charlie and Judy. We chatted for awhile and then went for an early dinner at El Guapo - a tiny hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant about 10 miles from where they live. The food was wonderful!

After dinner we headed back and Andrew and Amy introduced Matt and I to a Nintendo Wii. Andrew's parents purchased one after playing Andrew and Amy's. We played golf, bowled, hit baseballs, played doubles tennis and then Matt and I boxed each other. The Wii is pretty incredible! The technology is amazing and I would be interesting to see what some of the other games are like. We tried to head to bed early Friday night, knowing that morning was going to come very early.

Our alarm went off at 3:15am Saturday morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:15 and we had about a 45 minute drive to the airport. It is one of my biggest fears to be waiting in line at security when my flight is leaving so I wanted to be there plenty early. We arrived at the airport, got checked in, had a little adventure at security (we forgot to remove our laptop from our carry-on so it got searched), and then relaxed a little before getting on the airplane. I spent most of the flight listening to my iPod and reading the Order of the Phoenix in anticipation of seeing the movie in the next couple of weeks. Our layover was in Salt Lake City so the flight was about 2.5 hours total. Flying into Salt Lake City was incredible. It seems like the airport sits a little bit out of town so we were able to get arial views of the lakes and landscape. GORGEOUS!! Our flight was a little early, which was nice because our layover was only 30 minutes to begin with. I grabbed a smoothie and we stretched our legs a little and it was pretty much time to get on the next plane. Our first flight was a regional airline so the plane was pretty small, but our second plane was large and more roomy. Our second flight also arrived early - about 25 minutes so we had good luck with our flights yesterday! We landed in Portland, got our luggage and jumped on the MAX (light rail system) to our hotel.

Portland is serious about their coffee - particularily Starbucks. Between the time that we got off the MAX and walked about 6 blocks to our hotel we walked passed three of them! Isn't that crazy?? We were not able to check into our hotel room yet as it was as about 10:00am Portland time and check in is a 3:00pm so we checked in our luggage and called Alice. We decided to head to the coast for the day since Matt and I would not be able to do that alone from Portland because we aren't renting a car until Tuesday morning. Matt and I headed over and grabbed a little lunch because it was lunchtime to our bodies and then relaxed a little in the hotel lobby until Alice, Nick, and Alice's roommate Larken came and picked us up. We all piled into the car and headed for the coast. The drive was beautiful - rolling hills and green everywhere. We passed many roadside markets selling fresh produce on our way - so cute! We arrived a Cannon beach which is a touristy town right on the coast and walked around for a few minutes and then decided we were hungry and drove to the southern, less touristy area of town to a brewpub for lunch. It took us a little over an hour to get to the coast so Matt and I were hungry again by this time because we had not really eaten that much before. The brewpub served awesome food! One thing I should mention is that it was about 65 degrees and overcast/rainy in Portland yesterday and cooler closer to the water. We were all wearing jackets the whole day which is a change for the month of July! The brew pub served clam chowder and had bean and ham soup and all of us had it except Matt. I had a meal that was 1/2 a salad. 1/2 a bowl of soup (so a cup of soup) and 1/2 a sandwich. I had the reuben and the ham and bean soup and it was delicious! We enjoyed some good conversation and some great food!

After lunch we drove a little bit farther south, parked the car, and walked about 1/2 mile down to the ocean. It was gorgeous! I'll try to post some pictures soon, but the Oregon coast is breathtaking. The water was cold so we just dipped our feet in, but there were about 100 people on this one little beach surfing. It appeared to be a great day for it and it was fun to watch them enjoy the water. The walk to the beach was gorgeous too - just green everywhere!

We decided to head back into Portland and as we were heading back into town the fog/clouds/rain burned off enough that we could see Mount Hood, which is quite a site! As promised, I will post pictures! Alice and Nick drove us to a point in Portland called Council Crest where you can look out over Portland. It was a beautiful evening and just unbelievable weather for July - although those from Portland seem to be disappointed that it isn't warmer and that it has been raining. Matt and I aren't disappointed at all - the cooler weather is a welcomed change from the heat of Nebraska.

We decided to grab a quick beer at a local brewery called Amnesia and then Alice, Nick and Larken dropped us off at our hotel. It was just before 10pm local time, but 2 hours later for us and we were pushing hour 19 of being awake. We checked into our hotel, retrieved our luggage and headed straight to bed.

We have woken up this morning well-rested and ready to enjoy a day in Portland! We are headed to "The Saturday Market" which is open on Sundays as well and will eventually be making our way to Alice's apartment tonight for dinner.

Updates!

I need to be more dedicated about updating this. I just wish I knew if anyone was reading it...the only person who has ever commented is my sister...so if anyone else is out there reading, leave me a quick message just so I know you are there :)

I visited the Farmer's Market with friends (Joan and Beth) yesterday morning. I purchased a couple of items for the care package I am preparing for Jamison. I have a few more things to prepare before I am ready to send it off to Qutar. I also purchase these wonderful treats called "Loveknots" - which are wonder puffs of dough folded into knots with cream cheese frosting on top. Worth every second on the treadmill to burn them off :) Next time I'm hitting the market earlier because the lady selling the berries was sold out!

After I returned home from Joan's house, I ate some lunch and laid down on the couch to watch some TV. I woke up a little while later and moved to the bedroom for a more comfortable nap. I woke up 3 HOURS LATER feeling not really all that refreshed. I probably could have fallen back asleep except by then it was 5pm and I was afraid that I would not go to sleep last night. I often nap, but usually only for a half an hour or less. Three hours is completely out of the ordinary for me. Let's hope my body was just catching up on some sleep.

Matt and I are making plans for our "honeymoon" - we bought our tickets last week and are finalilzing our itinerary. I think we have decided to drive up to Seattle for a day or two. This wasn't orginally in our plans, but we are so close and it would be really fun to visit another city. I ended up getting out tickets on priceline.com and got a relatively good deal. Flying to the Northwest is really expensive - the cheapest tickets Matt and I could find online were around $400-450 each. Because we really didn't have a specific time we needed to arrive or leave Portland, we could go with priceline and see what kind of deal we could get. It ended up being an okay deal and actually extended our trip by a day because we are taking the red-eye out of Portland and won't get into Kansas City until about 9am the next morning. I've been doing research online and planning out all of the places for us to visit. Thank goodness for the internet!!

My friend Sara's husband Kenny arrived back in Lincoln today..he has been in Iraq since October 2005 and is finally home. Sara and Kenny were married mere weeks before he deployed so you can imagine how much she has been waiting for this day. She was trying to keep herself busy this entire last week to keep her mind off of the fact that he was finally coming home. They held a huge celebration at Haymarket Park this morning for all the Nebraska Army National Guard members who were finally returning home to their families. It really puts the idea of sacrifice into perspective.

I stopped by work for awhile this afternoon for some peaceful work time before my busy week begins. This week shouldn't be too bad, but I have training for at least half a day 4 out of 5 days this week so I won't be able to get much quality work time in. I actually love working when the office is quiet - I feel so accomplished!

Anyways, my point was to mention that wall of our office is only windows, which is great for getting a great view of a beautiful day - unfortunately, those floor-to -eiling, wall-to-wall windows also face west, which means that post-noon everyday it really starts to warm up in here...especially in my cubicle because I face the windows. The last time I checked our thermostat said 85.5 degrees..I'm sure it is warmer on my side of the "wall" (the partial wall created by our cubicles). Let's hope it cools down by morning!! Oh - yeah - forgot to mention that the university practices energy efficiency and turns off our AC every weekend and evening.