A break

Tomorrow is my last day of "travel" before a three day "break".  I'm not headed home, but I am headed to Alice and Nick's so I am headed somewhere very comfortable and familiar to me. 

The length and stress of this trip is catching up to me.  I love my job, but I have to admit that travel is not everything that everyone thinks it is.  From the minute I left the afternoon of October 12th, I have taken about three hours of "me" time.  Other than  a three-hour evening I spent walking around a mall in Honolulu, I have been sleeping, working, out, getting ready for the day, driving, sitting in at a fair/visiting a school, answering emails, returning phone calls, reviewing files, doing homework, writing a paper, reading for class, checking in for a flight, sitting in an airport, or on a plane every minute of every day.  I literally feel like I have worked 24/7 for almost three weeks straight.

And I need a break.  So, I am taking one.  And my husband is joining me.

Tomorrow evening at about 10pm PST* we will be reunited in baggage claim at the Portland Airport. 

And that moment cannot get here soon enough for me.

insomnia

I tend to suffer from insomnia while I am traveling which is a frustrating issue because I very rarely have insomnia when I am not traveling. The part that does not make sense is that I should be dead tired at midnight PST not wide awake. Sometimes I think it is because I am trying to keep up with so much while I am on the road that my brain just can't settle down.

Insomnia just makees the jetlag worse when I return to Omaha. Sigh.

I finally made it to San Francisco last night, about two hours later than scheduled. A
The flight was fairly uneventful, which is surprising because we had been warned that it would probably be bumpy because of strong winds. I slept for about half the flight finished up some reading for class and then worked on a project for awhile before a smooth, beautiful landing in San Francisco.

After a brief, unpleasant encounter with a jerk who worked at the rental car companyI was on my way to the hotel. I arrived, got settled in, did a couple of things for work, and headed to bed.

Today is a g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s day in San Francisco and that is a good thing because today's fair is outside. Parking was a little bit of a mess this morning, but I made it finally and now get to enjoy a nice day, some good comapny, and the opportunity to meet some really great students.

let's hope this is the one incident

I always hope that travel goes smoothly-but I am perfectly aware that often it is not a perfect process.


Today is a great example of that. Apparently there is some crazy wind tonight and some microbursts around Denver that caused our flight to be delayed. Then we finally boarded and pushed back, only to have to return because Engine 1 would not work.

We have now boarded another plane, let's hope the second time is a charm!

and do it begins...

I decided awhile ago that I was going to try really hard to blog throughout my fall travel. My job as an admission counselor requires me to travel during certain portions of the year- mainly the fall, which us admission folks loving refer to as travel season. This is the third year I have spent most of October traveling to different cities to meet student, but this is by far the most extensive travel I have done. Between today, Sunday, October 4th, and Sunday, November 8th, I will spend only four nights in my own bed. Typically, my travel involves leaving on Sunday or Monday of each week and returning on Thursday or Friday allowinf me enough time to spend a little time with the hubby, to unpack, repack and get back out on the road.

The way my travel falls this year, returning home just does not make much sense. My territory is the west coast (California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii) and a long trip home and dealing with jetlag (something I suffer from horribly) to get to spend less than 24 hours at home just isn't worth it.

And it all starts today. After attending the fabulous wedding of my equally fabulous friend Robyn (a wedding which included a MARCHING BAND!!), and then heading to work for our Open House, I got dropped off at the airport bound for San Francisco. I currently find myself in the Denver airport doing some quality people watching and wishing I had just checked my bag instead of carrying on.

Travel Nervousness

Travel begins Monday. I'm far more nervous and stressed this year that I was the first year I worked at Creighton. Two years ago I was traveling for the first time, had just started a new job, was getting ready to visit cities I had never been to, was living in Lincoln and work in Omaha, was trying to buy a house, and had a grandfather who wasn't doing very well. And I wasn't really all that nervous.

This year, I'm nervous. My travel is just strange this year - I'll be out on the road from October 12th - November 9th without returning home. I'm also gone October 4th-8th so there isn't much recovery time in between.

I'm stressed about being away from home for that long and for being away from my husband, and family and everything that is familiar to me for that long. I'm stress about packing (how do you pack for a month and for climates from Hawaii to Idaho - which could have snow!?). I'm stressed about making sure all of my arrangements (hotel, car, visits, and air) are complete set so I don't have to worry about them on the road. I love many things about traveling for my job, but one of the hard parts is the loneliness. I tend to be an introvert anyways, but being on the road forces me to be alone alot and it can really wreck havoc on my mental state.

I'm trying to be excited about getting to go to the Bay Area, San Diego, Los Angeles, Idaho (which is beautiful), Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon. I'm excited that I get to see my cousins TWICE on this trip! I'm excited that I get to see some really awesome college campuses and always have the opportunity to meet some amazing students while I am on the road.

I'm going to try to update frequently during this trip as I would like to remember what this experience is like.

Back in Cali!

I'm back in California for a couple of days. I flew to San Francisco today and will be an exhibitor at a conference tomorrow and then fly back on Sunday. My trip was totally uneventful - no delays or anything like that. I flew into San Francisco International instead of Oakland this time. Flying into the SF Airport was interesting as you fly lower and lower and lower over the Bay because the airport sits right on the edge. So, it literally looks like you are going to land in the Bay and then all of a sudden there is land underneath you. I arrived mid-morning, picked up my rental car, and drove to an outdoor mall that is near my hotel (I stayed at this same hotel last time) for lunch. My hotel is a Hilton Garden Inn and I love the location, and the hotel is really nice, but there are not many options for eating nearby unless you pay to park at the outdoor mall. I wanted to grab some lunch and then walk around for a few minutes after sitting on a plane all morning so I had no problem paying it, but it is nice to stay near restaurants that are easy to get to.

After I wandered in a couple of stores I headed to my hotel and sat in the lobby and worked all afternoon. My room wasn't ready when I got there and they told me that they could get me in a different room, but it wouldn't be as nice as the one that I had reserved so I decided to wait. And the room is nice, but nothing out of the ordinary for a HGI, but the view is spectacular. The hotel sits on the bay and you can see San Francisco in the distance. While I won't be here long, it is nice to get a great view for the short time.

I gave a presentation this evening at Berkeley that went really well and then I returned for some quiet relaxation and some tv. My day is full tomorrow. I'm planning on arriving at Berkeley early so I can walk around a little bit. Both times I have previously been on campus I haven't had much time to walk around and so I figured I would do it tomorrow. Then the fair is during the middle of the day and I haven't decided what to do after.

The final stretch!

I'm heading home tomorrow! I finished my last fair and my last presentation today/this evening and now I am my hotel packing my bag to go home!

I'm incredibly excited. This has been a long trip - I've been gone since October 20th.

I'm ready to sleep in my own bed, cook in my kitchen, and have some normalcy again.

I do have to say that the last 7 weeks has gone by fairly quickly. I just have a couple of trips left. I head to San Francisco next weekend for one event on Saturday and then to Saint Louis the following weekend to visit SLU and WashU. I also have a two quick trips through Nebraska.

But, I'm headed home tomorrow. And that is great news!

Adventures in Traveling!

I'm in Riverside, CA tonight.

I got a great deal on a hotel last year in Riverside and was able to stay in a Marriott and get spoiled a little.

This year I could not find such a great deal and ended up in a Courtyard - which is still a good hotel, but...


the person in the room next door to me is snoring so loud that I can hear it as clear as day in my room! I would complain, except that it is almost midnight here and I'm fairly settled in this room and don't feel like leaving. But, holy moly!!

Chai Tea Lattes

I'm enjoying some time at Panera this morning/early afternoon. I basically had a "free day" today with no events scheduled, but there are often prospective applicants who have a hard time seeing us while we are on the road because of scheduling and the fact that some universities restrict their events to just student (not that I blame them - universities do not need random people wandering around campus looking for recruiters), so I made it known that I would be at a Panera not far from my hotel for awhile today and so here I am. I usually pick Paneras for such events because they are usually located in very populated areas, they are cozy, they have free Wi-Fi (although I have discovered that in very populated areas they limit the amount of time you can be online and I can enjoy a Chai Tea Latte (or a bowl of French Onion Soup, which I will probably enjoy in just a little while) while I wait for the people to come to me.

I'm going to Disneyland!

Well, sort of. My hotel for the next couple of days is located just down the street from Disneyland and I plan to visit Downtown Disney sometime while I am here. Downtown Disney is a retail and food district just outside of Disneyland that you don't have to pay entrance fees for. I was going to go tonight, but ended up falling asleep for awhile and decided that I will walk down their either tomorrow night or Sunday afternoon/evening. The brochure I picked up said that Downtown Disney has a House of Blues which I have only been to one other time - in New Orleans with Kari, Rach, and Mike. It was a fairly eventful trip last time as Mike go the brillant idea to eat a habanero pepper that was included with our jambalaya. Probably not a great idea - especially when the waiter warned us beforehand not to try eating it and then added, "and if you do, make sure you let me know so we can have milk and bread ready to go in the kitchen, because you will need it." He was right, Mike did need both milk and bread to sooth the burning.

The rest of my Idaho trip was tough. I drove a ton (from Boise to Pocatello to Rexburg and then back to Boise), did not get much sleep, and met with a whole bunch of students. I ended up connecting with a girl who is now working for ATSU who tranferred to Truman when I worked there. I recognized her as soon as I walked into the first fair and we ended up having lunch a couple of times during the week. It was nice to have someone familiar to talk to during the trip.

I'm in California again for a week - in the LA area this time. I'm hoping the trip goes by quickly as I'm ready for some routine again. I feel like I haven't "worked" in a long time, even though I feel like I am working all the time, if that make sense.

Beautiful Country

One of the best parts of my job is being able to visit parts of our country I have never seen before. Prior to working at Creighton, I had never been to San Diego before, and in the last year I have been there five times. I had also never been to San Francisco before and now I have been there twice and will visit again next month.

I am currently in Idaho - the first time I have visited this state or really this part of the country. I've never been to Montana, and have only flown through Salt Lake City and drove through Wyoming one time when I was young on our way to South Dakota. I flew to Boise yesterday morning. I was in a horrible mood all weekend because I wasn't really looking forward to this trip. I've been traveling for over a month now and the idea of spending more time away from home was really weighing on me. I also miss my husband. I missing spending time with him, hanging around our house, cooking, running errand, etc. So, I was not in the best of moods on Sunday as I was packing and getting ready to leave. And I was really not in a good mood when Matt and I left our house at 5am so I could catch my flight.

However, I'm enjoying my trip to Idaho a great deal. I landed around noon yesterday and had a little bit of time to drive around Boise before my appointment with a couple of students. Boise appears to sit in a little bit if a valley and is surrounded by hills. The setting is gorgeous! I spent the first 8 years of my life being able to look at the mountains everyday so perhaps I am just always drawn to them.

The Boise State fair was this afternoon so I slept in a little this morning (which was great since I was up so early yesterday), and then made my way over the campus. The fair took place in the student union which was a really fun building. Right when I walked in the door I was greeted by the sound of a bowling alley and about 2 seconds later walked right passed the bowling alley that is in their union!

After the fair, I jumped in my mini-van (more on this later) and headed to Pocatello, which is about 3.5 hours west of Boise. Tomorrow I will be attending a fair at Idaho State. I'm looking forward to my trip back across southern Idaho on Thursday (I fly out of Boise on Friday) because I didn't get to see much of the scenery before it got dark tonight.

Okay - the mini-van story. I arrived yesterday and got the details for my rental car that I had reserved in advance inside the airport, and the walked outside to pick up my car. Then, when I got outside I was informed that the type of car I had reserved was not available, but "would be given a free 'upgrade' to a mini-van". An upgrade? Are you kidding me? The only reason I took the mini-van was because it came with Sirius radio and I figured it would be good with all the driving I am doing in remote areas during this trip. However, I always reserve small vehicles because I drive a small vehicle so it makes me nervous to drive an unfamiliar and much larger vehicle. However, I was too tired yesterday to pitch a fit about the fact that my "reservation" was pretty worthless. This is NOT the first time I have had issues with this particular company and it is not looking good that I will be using them in the future. It seems to be the case with rental cars that you get what you pay for because I have never had issues with my reservation with the "more expensive" company I usually rent from.

A little bit of home and then a trip to Illinois

My trip home from Seattle was fairly uneventful. Kim and I got up at 3:30 to make it to my flight, which left at 6:10am. We got to the airport with plenty of time, but we wanted to make sure. Sometimes you can run into a crazy airport when you don't expect it. I flew through Denver with a short layover and Matt picked me up from the airport. It was good - so good - to see him again. We headed home where I quickly got cleaned up and we picked up my mom to head to Council Bluffs for Marcia's retirement party.

The party was nice - I spent some quality time with Ruby, although she seems to prefer to be in her carseat untouch rather than being cuddled. Marcia was surrounded by lots of family (I think all of the Fischers were there) and friends. My family went to The Matt after the party because our monthly dinner was scheduled for Sunday evening and we decided to have it anyways.

I spent Monday at work and then had dinner with the Deveneys on Monday night. They were passing through town and had dinner with me before heading home to KC. I got to meed the adorable Addie, who tolerated us for awhile during dinner, but then let her unhappiness with the situation be known. Poor kid - she had to have been exhausted from traveling and the lack of a good nap. It was great to see Tim and Sarah - I hadn't spent much time with them since we were all in Kirksville about a year and a half ago.

I left Tuesday for Illinois. I flew straight to Chicago, got my rental car and took off for the University of Illinois. I enjoyed a quiet night last night including a great workout.

I visited the University of Illinois today and saw a decent number of students. The location of the fair changed this year and it seemed like we had fewer students who passed by the fair and remembered that they wanted to go because it wasn't in the Union. I love the U of I campus and I got to walk around a little bit between the fair and a PT forum I participated in this evening. I also enjoyed some Malted Caramel Chocolate from Moonstruck - YUM!

I am headed to Chicago tomorrow to visit Loyola University Chicago and then the Chicago Grad/Professional Fair. Then I fly home!

Last day in Seattle

My last day in Seattle and in the Northwest. Part of me is a little sad because I love this area of the country, but I’m very ready to go home for a few days. And I literally mean a few. I arrive home at about 2pm tomorrow afternoon and depart on a plane headed to Chicago at about 1pm on Tuesday. So, two nights in my own bed and in my own house – I’ll probably spend most of my time doing laundry, repacking for Chicago, and preparing for our guests who will arrive on Wednesday. Jason, Sara, Samuel and Lauren will be visiting us for a couple of days and I have full confidence that my husband has our house all ready to go for them. We have never had to child-proof before so I’ll have to double-check all the things we never have to think about. I’m planning to make some banana bread before I leave so that the kiddos have something to snack on (not to mention the fact that my husband loves banana bread) and my butter making experience with Alice has inspired me to give it a try. I’m planning on trying out a cinnamon spice butter (with cinnamon, nutmeg, etc – I might just use pumpkin pie spice to make it happen) and I think it will work well with the banana bread. Jason, Sara, Matt and I will be attending the Nebraska-Mizzou game next Saturday. As Jason and Sara are both huge Mizzou fans and Matt definitely leans that way, I will be in the minority in our group. I believe we will be meeting up with some of Jason’s college friends (more Mizzou fans) so hopefully the Husker “hating” is kept to a minimum. We are thrilled that they are coming to visit and really look forward to showing them a little bit of Omaha. The last time they were here was for our wedding which was a short trip, in the middle of the winter (it rained all day on our wedding day which turned into an ice/snowstorm the morning after as everyone was leaving town) and we kept them a little bit busy with wedding activities, so this will be a great time for them to visit. Matt and I both arranged to have Friday off from work so we can show them a little bit of Omaha. I’m thinking a trip to the zoo might be in the cards for Friday, or perhaps a trip to the Children’s museum. I’m going to recommend they do both while they are here, it will just depend which one they want to do on Thursday by themselves and which one they want to do Friday when we are around. The game Saturday is at a horrible time – 8pm! A great time as we won’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, BUT the trip back to Omaha is going to be interesting. Even more interesting considering I have to work the next day for our Fall Open House. I don’t have to be at Creighton until 11am, but we likely won’t arrive home until 2am or later. And that might be hopeful thinking. Lincoln and I-80 can be a little nuts on game days. It will all be worth it though – I haven’t been to a Huskers game in a long time (3-4 years) and it will be great to have guests at our house.

The last day of NACAC was fun. I sat in on a presentation that I didn’t expect to be very good which turned out to be a great presentation. It was such a great presentation that our office is going to order the CD of the presentation so that everyone who was not able to attend the conference will be able to hear it. It was a panel discussion that discussed the basics of admission counseling. It was a good reminder for a seasoned admission counselor, but would also be a great resource for someone new to admission counseling.

I ran into a former co-worker at NACAC today - Chris Ramsay. Chris and I worked together at Truman for 2 years and then he left for a couple of years and then returned last year to work in the office again for a year. Now he is a college counselor at a high school in Saint Louis. It was great to see him and catch up for a little while. He will be visiting Omaha next month for a visit at Creighton and hopefully I will be able to see him again.

Kim and I attended the membership meeting for NACAC this afternoon, and then the conference ended. Before the membership meeting we walked down to Pike’s Place Market. Kim had never been there before and was as amazed as I was last year when Matt and I visited for the first time. We got to see some fish being thrown, and she picked up a couple of souvenir items to take home. The membership meeting was fairly uneventful, although it seems that there was anticipation that it might be. NACAC was voting on reincorporation in Delaware and away from the current incorporation in Iowa and I got the feeling there was the possibility of protest because the Midwest tends to feel that they always get ignored in favor of the coasts. However, this situation had nothing to do with the location of the state and rather with the political climate, rules and regulations for non-profit organizations. So, the amendment passed without protest and we got out of our meeting an hour early.

Kim and I headed back to the hotel after the membership meeting to drop off our stuff and change into more comfortable clothes. Then we headed out to find a sports bar with the Nebraska-Virginia Tech game and found a great little place where we could actually sit in comfortable chairs and relax while watching the game. At halftime, I received a phone call from the mom of a friend of mine from high school that I had run into earlier at the conference. Callie lives in Washington with her husband now and they drove up to see her mom at the social event that evening. I haven’t seen Callie since sophomore year of college and it was great to be able to catch up! We wandered around the Experience Music Project (where the social was held) and caught up on 7 years of life – crazy.

Back in Seattle

I've been back in Seattle for the last two days. I'm attending the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) national annual conference. The conference brings together college admission counselors who work for colleges, and high school college counselors who advise students entering college. The conference does have some presentations and information that is applicable for graduate admission counselor, but it is much more applicable for those involved in the high school to college transition. However, it is nice to hook up with others in my profession and gain new ideas.

Kim and I wandered down to the coast last night for some seafood. We found a great place called The Crab Pot where you can order a meal that is literally dumped onto the middle of your table for you to dig in. Ours included clams, mussels, andouille sausage, corn on the cob, potatoes, and shrimp. It was delicious but far too much food.

I took off from the conference for a little while today to visit with students at Seattle University. I really enjoyed seeing campus and it reminded me alot of Creighton. Tonight Kim and I will be attending an event hosted by Hobson's, which is a company that provides recruitment products for universities. It is free event at an Irish Pub a little ways from our hotel. Hopefully it will be a good time.

I've been trying to keep my eating in check during my trip. I have been good about exercising, but my diet has been a little more liberal than I was at home. I figure that if I keep exercising I should be able to at least maintain my weight and then continue once my schedule is settled again.

Spokane

I flew to Spokane this morning for a quick visit to Gonzaga. My trip to the airport was a little interesting as Seattle is installing a light rail to the airport and they had huge portions of the route into the airport closed today for some work they are doing in preparation. I had issues finding the rental car return facility, but eventually found it on the third round around the airport :)

My flight was nice and short (about an hour from gate to gate) and I made it to the hotel without a problem. I didn't get a rental car because I found a hotel close enough to Gonzaga where I could walk to campus and the hotel also offered a free shuttle service to the airport. I arrived early enough that I had time to walk around downtown Spokane for a little while before I had to head to Gonzaga. Spokane is an interesting city because it has a population of about 200,000 (about 1/4 the size of the Omaha metro), but it has a huge downtown shopping district, an INTERNATIONAL airport, and does not feel like a city of that size - it feels much larger.

I headed over to Gonzaga in the afternoon and met with some fantastic students and then hosted a presentation on campus this evening. Gonzaga is a pretty campus and actually reminds me alot of Creighton's campus - except that it is flat :)

I walked to a local mexican restaurant tonight for dinner and then returned to the hotel because I have an early flight out tomorrow back to Seattle.

One intereting note about my hotel - it took me amost 10 minutes to walk from the lobby of the hotel to my room. The hotel is a long, flat (two levels) hotel and my room is about the farthest away from the lobby. When I first walked to it today I just kept walking, and walking, and walking.

YUM!

I found a great restaurant for dinner – Duke’s Chowder House. I enjoyed a great Cesear salad and some crab dip while reading my book. I enjoyed a short walk around the mall before heading back to the hotel for a quiet evening.

Seattle

I left Portland yesterday afternoon and headed north into Washington. I was able to set up a visit at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma yesterday then today camped out at a Panera Bread Co. near the University of Washington campus because they are not yet in session so I couldn’t set up anything on campus. Panera has the most amazing internet access. I have had zero problems with the network all day and got to enjoy a fantastic atmosphere. I love the sound of great conversation and laughter.

This is the lonely part of my trip. I got to spend 5 days with Nick and Alice, along with visits with Stasi and Sam, and Kim will join me for NACAC on Thursday, but I’m by myself right now. It has been awhile since I traveled by myself and it is amazing how much I miss having someone to talk to. Being on the west coast is difficult for Matt and me because he is two hours ahead of me so I always have to remember to call early in the evening or I catch him after he has gone to sleep. I ought to get used to being alone because most of my trips after this (including my marathon Idaho-Los Angeles trip at the end of October) will be solo. It is also difficult to communication during softball season because Matt is so busy.

I plan to head to a mall after I leave Panera so I can walk around for awhile and grab some dinner. It is always really strange to walk into a restaurant and have the host/hostess say “just one this evening?”. “Yes, just one” – is my typical response. I am looking forward to getting a good walk in before I head back to the hotel for the evening.

Last day in Portland

Alice worked today, Nick nursed his hand and I headed out to enjoy my last day in Portland. Nick has been keeping ice on his hand pretty constantly since he burned it, but says that it is still bothering him. Alice and I both tried to convince him to go to the emergency room, but he says it is fine and just needs to heal.

I slept in a little and then walked up to the Rose Gardens that are about a mile from where Alice and Nick live. The Rose Garden is actually the International Rose Test Garden and features just about every variety of rose out there. It is incredible! I spent about an hour walking around admiring the roses and taking lots and lots and lots of pictures. I’ll post – I promise! The Rose Garden is a can’t miss in Portland!

I then headed to the Portland Saturday Market for some shopping. Now that I have been there a couple of times I started recognizing the vendors. I purchased Matt some of the honey roasted cashews that he loves and found a great sterling necklace for myself. I promise pictures soon! The Portland Saturday Market is basically a huge marketplace that assembles every Saturday and Sunday from Spring – December. There are food vendors, jewelry makers, clothing, pottery, woodworking, metalworkers – pretty much anything you could possibly want. I enjoy just walking around and people watching. I stayed for a little while and then began walking back – and got caught in a huge, sudden rainstorm. It absolutely poured and I wasn’t anywhere where I could jump under an overhang or anything like that. And, because it was Sunday, most of the office buildings were closed. So, I got soaked. Luckily it didn’t last too long and I was able to dry out while I waited for the streetcar to take me back to their house.

We decided to cook tonight so Alice and I headed to the market when she got home from work. We picked up some pieces of sole that we breaded in potato chips, fried lightly on the stove and then finished in the oven. We had black pepper potato chips, spicy thai potato chips, and buffalo blue cheese potato chips that we used to coat the fish and then we shared. (The spicy thai proved to be the favorite, btw – and I’ll be making this sometime at home because it was super easy and delicious!). Alice also made a sage and mushroom risotto that was very good, and we made some broccoli. Alice also shared her secrets for using the a Kitchenaid mixer to make butter! We made dill butter that we used tonight on our bread and I found it to be really good on the broccoli, and we made honey butter to use later – especially on the English muffins we bought for breakfast tomorrow.

Wine Tasting

Nick, Alice, and I did not get as early of a start as we had hoped this morning. Alice is still recovering from a cold, and Nick is still recovering from his finals this week. I got up and went for a long walk/run this morning. I pretty much wandered the streets around where Nick and Alice live. It is a neat area and easy to get around in because the streets in one directions are numbered ( 20th, 21t, 22nd, etc) and the streets in the other direction are in alphabetical order (Hoyt, Irving, Johnson , etc). So, I can wander all I want and not really get lost. We headed out a little before noon for the Dundee Hills for wine tasting. Alice drove as she was taking cold medicine and didn’t want to drink. We visited Sokol Blosser first, which is not a winery we typically would have stopped at (we all like the smaller, more family-oriented wineries), but I love their Evolution blend wine and really wanted to go. The tasting room was crazy, but we did get to taste a couple of excellent wines and I purchased a bottle of the Evolution #12 to enjoy later.

We then continued down the road to Methven Family Winery – which was smaller, and we were the only ones there during our tasting. This was quite a contrast to SB which was packed. We again tried some wonderful wines and our pourer was a hilarious guy who kept us laughing the whole time. I love wine tasting in Oregon because they tend to have a good mix of white and red wines. I really only like white wines while Alice and Nick (and most other people) are partial to red wine. It makes tasting more fun for everyone. Methven has a winery cat (as opposed to a farm cat) who enjoyed visiting us.

We then visited one final winery whose name I cannot remember. This winery offered some very interesting wines including a Tempranilla Rose' that was very good. All three of us liked it and Alice and Nick ended up purchasing a bottle. We then took the recommendation of one of the guys at that winery and headed to DaVinci’s in Salem. DaVinci’s turned out to be a great recommendation – Italian food, but not traditional Italian. I had a seafood fettuccini that was wonderful (with shrimp and scallops), Nick enjoyed a pasta with sausage dish and Alice enjoyed a stuffed pork. We shared an appetizer of blue cheese scallops with pears that was incredible! The nice part about the restaurant is that they offered two different sizes of meals so Alice and I could get the smaller one that was more suited for us. All three dishes were incredible and I would add DaVinci’s to my list to visit again.

Nick and I were both in desperate need of haircuts so we decided to head to Alice’s salon to get that taken care of. I really wanted my hair shorter and darker and I totally trust Alice to take that explanation and do a good job. And she did a great job. My hair is now just below my shoulders and not as dark as I pictured it, but I think it was good that I did not do a drastic change – a gradual change will be better. And it is super easy to style and will dry much more quickly than my long hair! Before we got our hair cut, Nick and I walked down the street to grab some hot tea from a cute pastry place that just opened. As Nick tried to hand me my tea it tipped and he ended up burning his hand. It didn’t look that bad in the beginning, but got redder and more irritated as the night wore on.