Recent Travels

I haven't been blogging much lately, and it's partly because I need a new laptop and can only go upstairs now to blog, which is Saleen's territory these days... I probably have 5,000 excuses though, so let's not go there. Instead, I think I'll share a little update about what's going on around here lately! I recently went on a business trip for a few days with my boss and his wife. It was a busy few days, with a lot of getting up early, conference time, and flights. It was a completely new experience for me, but I think it was good as well. It was also my first time flying since I was ten and went to Disney World with my family. I was a little scared I admit, traveling without Trent there. It was hard to leave him and I did miss him (just a little bit) on my trip!

Normally I don't like to share much about my work or the town I live in, etc. But I will share a few photos I took of the places we went. Granted, we spent most of the time in planes, airports, and hotels. So I didn't get to see much but the views from the hotel and the plane. I have to say though, living around flat land and corn fields, it was nice to see a change of landscape.

The first location we went to was San Jose, CA. We had an event there and stayed there for a couple of days. I enjoyed sitting by the pool at those tables you see in the photos, soaking in the sunshine. California was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I only wish I could have seen more!

Palm trees! I was pretty excited to see those again. Last time we saw them was in Corpus Christi, Texas earlier this summer.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this trip was the landscape outside my window at this hotel. It was so pretty and I could have looked at it all day! 

Beyond the highway, it was just this mountainous landscape that went on and on...and the best part was that it changed throughout the day, with the sun in different areas of the sky - the shadows on the mountain changed, the sky changed, the light.... These three photos (the one above, and the two below) - are all from this same spot, and yet they look so different.

And here is a panorama photo I took on my phone. So did not want to leave this sunny place!

From San Jose we flew to Portland, OR for another conference. Of course we didn't get to see much while in Portland, as we were at the conference for the two days we were there, but on the flight there the sky was really clear, and there were a few extremely tall mountains along the way.

Not sure which mountains these are, though! I was thinking one was Mount St. Helens, and another one was Mt. Hood, but I'm not really familiar enough with this area, so not sure.

Flying into Portland, it was beautiful. There was a lot of water, boats, and greenery.

The one time we spent outside in Portland was at our hotel restaurant - we ate breakfast outside on the balcony of the restaurant our first morning there. The hotel was right on the Columbia River, and the view was amazing.



It was a little chilly that morning, but the weather was actually the same here as in California - it got very hot in the afternoon, and it was sunny all weekend.

I picked up a few postcards and some candy from the hotel gift shops as mementos from the trip, but I am fairly certain Trent and I will have to make a trip out here next time! I'm sure we can find lots of areas on the west coast to explore.

I am extremely grateful to have gotten to travel to these places, and add four new states to my travel map! Yes, we went into Washington on the way to and from the airport in Portland, and our flights to and from Illinois both connected in Denver. That makes 4 new states in one weekend - Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington. And beautiful states at that! All places I would like to revisit and explore. Here's my updated travel map:

33 states now - up from 25 states last year. Here's last year's map:

Pretty awesome! So that encompasses how I've spent this past week - getting up at 2:00 am and 3:30 am to catch flights, spending all day at an exhibit booth in conferences, and then getting home and trying to recover with sleep! It's been a long but interesting week!