Life in the Cheese Drawer

after waking up to a perfect morning (of course) and sitting on the balcony a bit, nate and i packed up our junk and took off for sedona.
on the way out of town, we stopped at in-n-out. so when jane and i were in california, we stopped at in-n-out and were NOT impressed. i was a little more impressed this time around; we did get fries animal style. i ate a few fries sans animal sauce, and they were still more boring than 5 guys, but they weren’t like styrofoam wiht potato flavor. i don’t know if jane and i just stopped at some weird one or what. but this time wasn’t a bad experience.


on the way out of the valley.

since we bought the annual NPS pass, we stopped at two national monuments on the way: the motezuma castle and montezuma well. the american indian tribes that lived there were cliff dwellers, which boggles my mind. we saw some that were in cliffs up high and then also in cliffs that went below ground level (that was the well). they must’ve used ladders of some sort, but it still makes me do a double-take. well, i guess if that’s what you know.
 
then we hauled it up to sedona, which is pretty darn scenic, but OMG the traffic is insane. nate and i went to a mexican place and it took us half an hour to find a parking spot. and that wasn’t even the touristy part of town! the mexican was delicious. i had tacos and nate had a torta. then we did a quick (“quick”) drive through sedona and got angry at all the traffic, but the red rocks looked great in the sunset.
 
now we’re sitting back in the hotel – which we rate more highly than the place we stayed at the past couple nights! – drinking margaritas. MMMMMM. maybe later on we’ll head to the outdoor hot tub. YOU NEVER KNOW.
tomorrow is GRAND CANYON.

what a long day! i think it seemed long because i was awake at 8 a.m. and only got 5 hours of sleep -_-
nate and i had about three hours to kill between checking out of our hotel and meeting up with my family, so we went to target and got some drinkage and snackage for the next few days. then we just headed out and drove around phoenix.
the warmth! i wore a tank top! the car windows were open! amazeballs!
well, we headed south and ended up driving through desert (obviously) just to take a look. i guess i didn’t realize there were mountains in arizona, but then i also didn’t realize there were mountains in california, so take whatever i think with a grain of salt.
then i saw a sign for a national monument, so we decided to check it out.

this is the casa grande ruins national monument. i didn’t know anything about it before and i still don’t know a lot about it, except that the people who lived here mysteriously were wiped out.
and while we were at the nps desk, we decided to just get the annual pass since we’ll probably visit at least 2 more parks, maybe 3.

it rained today! so everything was sort of muddy while were trekking across this piece of desert. and then my flip flop almost got stuck, and it got super muddy. (don’t worry; i made it out.)
then we headed back to phoenix and met up with my fam n friends, and we hung out for a good 5 hours or so at the hotel restaurant. expensive drinks here , that’s for sure.
but the view from my balcony is nice!

here’s a delayed day one (sorta) of vacay.
last night, nate and i flew out at 9:30, so i worked a full day of work and then went home to a very antsy nate. fed the cats 3 heaping bowls of food (don’t worry – charlie’s coming to catsit for a few days!) and took off.
seriously, this is the most boring day, but we had one very fun part of the trip out: we flew first class!
i’d never flown first class before, and it was cheaper than flying out thursday cattleclass, so we took advantage of that.
the seats were nice and wide, the flight attendant was very … attentive i guess? and the mixed drinks were free!!!
so i got a margarita right off the bat.
then they were a little heavy-handed on my bloody mary (and it was an airplane bloody, so not that great), so i decided to stop after that.
we also got an in-flight meal – a wrap, chips, and some weird, smoky applesauce stuff.

it was dark on the plane. well, it was night.
i also read the entirety of “a wrinkle in time” while on the flight and tried to nap.
oh, and we hit some turbulence. so our flight was a little late.
we rolled into the car rental place around 1 a.m. (that’s 2 a.m. central) and got a REALLY SNAZZY nissan maxima. totally excited to take pics of that. the entire roof is covered in sunroofs!
then it was 20 mins to our hotel, and we rolled in around 2 in the morning. and i woke up at 7:30. i’m going to be so tired today. BUT IT’LL BE WARM.
(oh, and i have to say, i shoved all my camera gear in my backpack carryon and OMG is it heavy.)

so let’s talk about where nate and i will be next week, since my whole 3 readers will be watching for updates.
Feb. 14: we fly out at 9:30 at night, first class! fancy, i know. it was cheaper for us to fly first class and get a hotel than to fly out thursday. we’re picking up a rental at the airport so we can get around.
Feb. 15: this is the day off. i’m guessing i’ll be seeing liz this day and then hopefully checking out phoenix and maybe some local cuisine. maybe some pool time? maybe we’ll see our other relatives this day. not sure what’ll happen!
Feb. 16: wedding day! this is the day my cousin gets married. i love weddings! it should be a super fun time.
Feb. 17: nate and i are taking off for sedona this day. i have no plans for sedona itself other than people keep saying it’s beautiful. and kind of hippie, so i’m going to look into a yoga class while i’m there.
Feb. 18: grand canyon! we also have reservations for supper at el tovar, which pleases my dad to no end.
Feb. 19: heading to page, az, and antelope canyon. i have a reservation for a tour! i had an option for a photography tour, but i didn’t want to spend the extra bucks. also might be able to see the horseshoe bend.
Feb. 20: hitching across the top of AZ through monument valley and maybe checking out four corners. ultimately, we’ll end up in cortez, co, to check out mesa verde. i’m not sure if we’ll be able to see a lot of mesa verde, but i want to check it out.
Feb. 21: a longer driving day, but we’re heading back to phoenix this day.
Feb. 22: flying home! partly sad, but i do like coming home after some time away.
As an aside, i’ve packed my camera equipment, and it takes up my entire carryon backpack.

welp i’m back on my couch. it’s 65º outside, breezy, the sun’s heading down the horizon. birds are chirping, wind in the leaves, and i just heard a couple loons overhead. 
i <3 traveling, but it’s really something to come home. 
day four of the work trip to dc was a half day of conference, and then we took in some sights before heading home. we went back to a small cafe for lunch where i almost had a bloody mary and am now regretting not getting it. then headed to the library of congress on the metro. the library closes at 4:30, so we went there first.

the architecture was great, and i wanted to buy every book in the gift shop. but i resisted and instead bought myself a hermione granger shirt that i’ve been wanting for some time now. 
after that, we headed out into the sweltering heat (i would bet the heat index was 100+) and took the metro to the monuments instead of walking the mile.

walked past the US forest service! so far they haven’t been completely defunded and decommissioned. 
headed to the washington monument first, which was actually taller than i thought it was going to be.

we sat in the shade for a while so i could let the sweat evaporate. i was actually starting to get worried about heat exhaustion. 
the reflecting pool was drained due to some parasites that were killing the duckling, but we headed down past the WWI or WWII fountain memorial, then to the lincoln memorial. i didn’t think it would be so powerful, but it was. reading the gettysburg address kind of choked me up.

after that, we luckily just hopped into a cab back to our hotel. half the crew had lousiana seafood again, and another and i went to a pizza place. familiarity was kind of nice. we headed back to our hotel rooms and packed/chilled. around 9 a.m. i went down to the outdoor pool and stuck my feet in the water. should’ve put on the suit and jumped in. 

you can see how swanky our hotel was by this long corridor of chandeliers. 
this morning was early – our flight left at 8:50, so we were at the airport by 8, and i somehow got TSA pre-check, so i sailed through security. that was ok – i stood in line at starbucks for the entire time the others were in the TSA line. 
plane ride was uneventful and we got in a little before 11 a.m. i was home by 1:30!
then i took a 2-hour nap, and it was a HARD nap. like i didn’t want to get up. i forced myself to, and tonight i will sleep well. 
i’m glad to be home though 🙂

today was a full day of conference, with at least one helpful session (it’s so difficult choosing a session). i did take the afternoon off sessions so i could get a run in. the fitness center here is HOOOOT and there were NO FANS on the treadmills. i slogged through 4 miles and was soaked by the time i got through, but i did it!
after the sessions and my hot run, we headed to king street/old town for some sightseeing and thai food. we got off the metro and headed down toward the potomac. king street has a lot of little shops that vary all over the spectrum with goods. there were bookstores, paper stores, furniture stores, kitchen stores, adult stores, cigar stores, etc. etc., and it was cobblestone and very east coast feeling. we stopped at a bar for a pitcher of beer, then headed to the thai place. mmm the curry was good! i’ll have to see if i can find a place in st. cloud (or make my own i guess). 
one thing i don’t necessarily like about the east coast is the humidity. oy! i was sweating just standing around, and it was mid 80s. i choose the wrong clothes to bring – should’ve brought nothing but polyester. the thai place had no AC, but i did sit right in front of the fan. 
after thai, we headed back up king street and stopped at a cupcake store, where i got a red velvet and a chocolate chocolate. if they’d’ve had the pb chocolate, i would’ve gotten that one. 
headed back to our hotel by way of sherry’s liquor and stayed up for a bit. fun day!

today was PRESENTATION DAY. the reason we are in DC. but you don’t want to hear too much about that. we presented on our eorientation and flipped advising we’re doing at the college, and my part was the creation of it – content and web dev side. i had to talk for a solid 10 minutes or so, which was ok. and i knew what i was talking about, so that was good. my first practice run-through was awful, but i practiced four times today and felt good about it.
here’s what i know about me and public speaking. it’s like math. i am good at it, but i don’t enjoy it and would rather not do it. but i always end up doing well. and based on the questions afterward, this was a pretty good session. there was some humor, it was interesting, and at one point i turned to the deal of lib. arts and said “WOW bob (our web dev) is a GENIUS”. i hadn’t really paid attention to the back end stuff he’d done for advising, and some of the stuff he did was just amazeballs to me. 
ANYWAY…here’s what you really want to know about: we went to a nearby diner for breakfast, where i had eggs, hashbrowns, and toast, as well as a giant latte. the hashbrowns were a square! just a friend square of hashbrowns. kind of like a mcdonald’s hashbrown, but bigger and beefier. (and better.) the jam was home made and delish. 
ended up not eating lunch, but we did have “light fare” at a conference reception, which was pretty decent for conference food. 
then we took the metro to an uzbek/russian restaurant for supper, and i think i ordered the wrong thing 🙁 it was pretty much giant beef tortellinis in broth with some sour cream on top. other people’s food looked much more appetizing. oh well. i will not be going back. 
on the way back, i went up perhaps the most giant escalator i’ve been on, and the escalators at universal were pretty dang giant. 
now i’m on the way to sleepytime, which i need after today. i’m not sure what’s happening tomorrow after the conference, but i found out that the library of congress is 25 mins away via metro and foot, so i might zip over to check that out either on saturday. we’ll see how things pan out.
OH and i found out my room looks over the washington monument, and it lights up at night! (this is a horrible pic, but oh well.)