Exhibit Ahead

J-Tree - LADC - DC: Day 2

Joshua Tree is without a doubt one of the strangest places that I've ever visited. The oddly shaped trees and random rock formations jutting out of the barren ground made me feel as if I was in an alien land.

We spent the day hiking around and viewing the "exhibits" (aka: view points), but eventually we ran out of water, which I guess isn't so strange in the desert, so we returned to our campsite to hydrate and roast some dogs for dinner. I was feeling a little bit proud of my ability to rough it in the wilderness and cook over an open fire until I noticed that the neighbors on one side of us were having an elaborate Korean BBQ, and the neighbors on the other side were making Paella complete with fresh squid... I'm not kidding, they were literally pulling apart squid and making Paella at the next site over! It was bizarre, but seemed to fit the tone of the day quite well, and since I'm in love with the unusual, the entire day made made me incredibly happy. :)

Desert Campfire

J-Tree - LADC - DC: Day 1

My weekend extravaganza began on what would have otherwise been a typical Thursday afternoon. I collected Anne from LAX and, while sitting on the freeways of LA, we caught each other up on the stories of our lives and made plans to run amuck in foreign lands as soon as possible (El Salvador; September-ish. It's happening.). Both of us returned from teaching in Spain just over a year and a half ago and we're getting antsy to use our passports and speak some español again.

It was dark and relatively late when we arrived to the campsite, so we made a fire, drank some wine, and eventually set up the tent after we realized that despite being in the desert it was too cold to sleep under the stars.

These are the Moments We Remember

And thus, we arrive to one of the most fabulous, and slightly ridiculous, weekends of my life. It went something like this; two days of camping in Joshua Tree National Park, dance practice in LA, then a red eye flight and (almost) three days DC.

I know, it sounds crazy. I questioned my own sanity as I was planning this weekend, but there was good reason for the madness. A good friend from out of town, who I hadn't seen in months, invited me to go camping, but I had to be at dance practice on Saturday (especially after having missed the last two weeks of practice for work...), and then I was offered a free ticket voucher for a flight anywhere in the US that was about to expire... Those of you who know me have probably noticed that I don't like to let opportunities pass me by, and this was no exception. Plus, I'm young and these are the moments we remember!

A Weekend in the Lou

This already feels like ages ago, but after Minnesota I returned to the office for a few days before flying off to another conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference was held a bit out of the city and, despite my best efforts, no one wanted to set foot near downtown to show me around due to their fear of the crowds that had been drawn for March Madness.

I did, however, get to see the home and office of one of the coordinators I work most closely with, and met her adorable St. Bernard puppy who diligently tried to eat my pants and jacket.

The picture above is of their office building as it was years ago when it was a hotel in the early 1900s.

I also got to try a few regional specialties, including fried raviolies, and some Mavrakos chocolate which claims to be "a Saint Louis tradidtion since 1913."

Missouri was also overrun with geese! They were everywhere! None of my pictures really turned out, but if you look closely at the grey blobs in the picture above and use your imagination a bit you might get an idea. It was fascinating, although, according to the locals they are quite a nusance because they get in the roads and disrupt traffic, and also because they poo everywhere. I guess I can understand the animosity.

I had a free hour between the time the conference was over and when I needed to be a the airport so I decided to take the metro and see as much of St. Louis as possible in that time. I was told that I'd never make it downtown and back in an hour so I stopped somewhere in between at Forest Park, which is the ginormous park with multiple museums throughout. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in front of the Missouri History Museum as I exited the metro stop. Really, I can't think of anywhere that would have been better to spend an hour (40 minutes at this point...) of free time in Missouri. I had time to check out an environmental exhibit where different organizations had made pieces of art with food cans and boxes, and an exhibit on the Worlds fair (birth place of the waffle cone), before heading back to the airport to catch my flight back to LaLa land.

Minnesota in the Spring

On the first weekend of Spring, I left perfect 80 degree weather in Santa Monica, and arrived to a freezing 27 degrees in Minneapolis/St. Paul. For the first time in my life the purpose of my trip was "business" and I was excited to represent my office at the conference and meet some of the local coordinators that work for our organization. There wasn't a whole lot of free time on the agenda, but I was able to finagle a mini-tour and saw enough of the twin cities to make my inner traveler happy.

One of the coordinators brought a some German fig flavored vodka for people to try, but, unfortunately, it was all gone by the time I arrived to the post-meeting party so I didn't get to try any, but I thought the labels were pretty awesome.

Friday night we ate dinner in Uptown Minneapolis at a swanky place called Chino Latino that served things such as nacho plates with fried plantain chips. Yum.

My guides drove me through the neighborhood were Abby, as in the woman who wrote the "Dear Abby" newspaper column, used to live. This wasn't Abby's house, they couldn't remember where it was, but she lived in this neighborhood.

There was a high school hockey team staying on my floor at the hotel and all of their doors were decorated with these personalized hockey sticks!

We had dinner at a restaurant in the Mall of America on Saturday night. Oddly enough, the amusement park in the middle of the mall seems to have shrunk since I was last there when I was 12 years old. :)