travel
- Devil’s Lake is a beautiful park. Dave, if you read this, yeah, it’s worth going for a day trip or an overnight. Lots of nice hiking, the water is beautiful and crystal-clear.
- What the park service considers “paved, flat, and level” in a hiking trail isn’t so much what I’d consider “paved, flat, and level”. It scares me a little bit what one of their “difficult” trails would look like. :-)
- Tent camping when it gets down to 40F at night is kinda chilly.
- Tent camping when it rains overnight is more of a pain.
New Orleans: FAA SW DER Conference
Today through Thursday is the 2007 edition of the FAA’s SW/CEH DER Conference. You can follow the link if you really want to know more about it; basically it’s a technical conference for those of us who work with the FAA to approve aircraft equipment and software. Good times. This year, the conference is in New Orleans, LA. It’s my first time in New Orleans.
The trip was a bit of a pain; my flights were from Cedar Rapids to Dallas/Fort Worth, and then from DFW to New Orleans. The first leg of the flight left about 40 minutes late, but no worries, I had a long-ish layover at DFW. Well, that long-ish layover turned into a very long layover, because my flight to New Orleans, supposed to arrive in NOLA at 9:20 PM, didn’t leave DFW until 10:15 PM. It seems to be a recurring theme when I travel to these conferences; last year I was driving through downtown Atlanta at midnight to find the hotel, this year, through downtown New Orleans.
Day 1 of the conference is always rather boring; it’s a general session where we get updates on the progress of various industry committees and information on what the FAA’s doing. We got 45 minutes this morning on how they’re gonna be using some new tools to do more uniform safety analyses of aircraft programs…. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Tomorrow and Thursday are more interesting when there are topical break-out sessions.
I just finished lunch at Ugly Dog Saloon, recommended by Scott as the best BBQ in New Orleans. It was pretty tasty. Now I’m thinking I’m gonna skip the next couple committee updates and go walk through the Riverwalk area across the street. Tonight I’m meeting Scott and Jacob for dinner. Tomorrow night I guess I’ll go hit the French Quarter and try to hear some live music. Should be fun.
Ah, Home
Becky and I arrived back home late in the evening Saturday. Travel was uneventful, though we did have a long-ish layover (4.5 hours) in Minneapolis. But hey, we got home, so no complaints. It was a fun trip, quite relaxing and enjoyable. I might post a few pictures to Flickr here when I get a chance, but it looks like they’re mostly of the beach, and all the beach pictures tend to look the same before long. There are a couple night-time ones that came out pretty well - gotta love the new DSLR camera. :-)
Now it’s back to work, trying to clean out the ol' email inbox and figure out where I left stuff a week ago.
Nine Years
Hard to believe it’s been that long already. Nine years ago tonight, on a hot, sticky night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I exchanged our vows and became Mr. and Mrs. Chris Hubbs. (Our first stop after the wedding was in a Home Depot parking lot that had an available dumpster, but that’s a different story.) God has blessed us greatly, and it’s been a wonderful nine years.
So today we are celebrating in Orlando. Becky woke up at 2:45 CDT this morning to finish getting ready so she could catch her 5 AM flight from Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis, and from there she headed down here to Orlando. I picked her up at the airport about 1 PM. We grabbed a little lunch and then came back to the hotel. I think she spent some time at the pool while I grudgingly attended the afternoon’s technical sessions at the conference.
Tonight we ate dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It was my first time at a Ruth’s Chris, and given the price I wouldn’t be able to eat there very often even if there was one close to Cedar Rapids. That being said, tonight I had what was hands-down the best steak I have ever had in my life. It was a filet, cooked medium, and just the smell of it on that sizzling plate as it came to the table was almost worth the purchase price. I will say this: Ruth’s Chris knows how to do service right. When we made the reservation online, the form asked if it was a special occasion, and I noted that it was our anniversary. From the time we arrived at the restaurant and gave our name, each staff member who spoke with us first wished us a happy anniversary. Then they gave us dessert “on the house”. It was tasty, too. Bravo, Ruth’s Chris of Orlando.
Two more days of conference and then we have two days on the beach before heading home. Nice.
Orlando
Made it with no serious travel glitches to Orlando about 7:30 pm local time. Gotta say this - that iPod with video capability is pretty great. I loaded Season One of Battlestar Galactica on it and made it through the first two episodes before my ears got sore from the headphones. You can bet I’ll watch some more this week. Good stuff.
Got my rental car (a 2007 Mustang, pretty spiffy, though a little lacking in the headroom department) and found a restaurant to stop for some dinner before heading to the hotel. I guess hotel is really the wrong word - this thing is a full-blown resort/convention center. Got a good room without a hitch, finished my week’s worth of ironing, now I’m gonna finish a book and try to convince my body that it’s really almost 11 pm instead of the 10 pm that it is back at home.
Tomorrow morning should be fairly slow, no meetings until 11 AM and then just afternoon sessions. Good times.
Heading home from DC
Having been in DC since Monday night, I’m good and ready to be heading home. Our meetings have been useful but are winding down, and my flight leaves Washington Reagan at 2:30. I’ll head out of here, find some lunch, and make my way down to the airport. I heard a rumor that our next quarterly meeting might be in Seattle instead of DC, which would be nice for an August meeting. If not, I’ve got a couple hotels scoped out that would be nice to stay at when we meet back here in August.
It will be good to get home.
...leaving on a jet plane...
I’m headed out of town today; assuming that Northwest Airlines does their thing, I will be in Washington, DC by mid-evening. I’ll be attending two and a half days of RTCA committee meetings. Such fun! I should be home on Thursday night.
Happily, my in-laws are arriving this afternoon to visit. They will be good company for Becky and the girls while I’m gone, and since they’re staying for two weeks, I’ll get to see them too when I get home.
Devil's Lake Camping Trip
Yes, as promised, we went camping last weekend up at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. My brother Andrew pretty much organized the whole thing; his girlfriend Heather is visiting and it was good to get to see everybody. Some thoughts from the weekend:
Now, mind you, I don’t want to sound whiny. It was a fun weekend, a good time was had by all. Many pictures are available on my Flickr site, and I’ll append a few of them here. We had a fun time just crashing around the campfire, playing on the beach, and hiking. We enjoyed watching the rain whilst sitting indoors at McDonald’s eating breakfast on Sunday. :-)
Overall, it was a good weekend, but good to be back home, too.
Camping!
When I was a kid, we went camping as a family all the time. I think some of my siblings enjoyed the out-of-doors more than I did, but still, it was a good time for the whole family and a cost-effective way to go on vacation. :-) After we got married, Becky and I went camping a few times; most notably we were in Colorado camping when 9/11 happened… but that’s a different story.
Fast-forward to today. Well, to tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we will pack the van and head out to Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin for two nights of camping with my family. Andrew’s girlfriend Heather (hi, Heather, do you still read this thing?) is visiting for the next 10 days, so Andrew has organized pretty much the whole camping trip. (“Remember to bring your softball equipment” x 100 or so. :-) ) I’m hoping the girls will enjoy it; they’ll certainly enjoy seeing all the uncles and grandparents again. How well they sleep in a tent will be an entirely different story.
I’ll be sure to take a bunch of pictures and post them here once we get back. This weekend starts what will be a whirlwind month and a half for us; this camping trip, I have a trip to DC, Becky’s folks visit for 2 weeks, I run a couple of 5ks, and then we go to Orlando for the better part of a week while the girls stay with their grandparents. It’ll be fun, but it’ll also be a relief to have it slow down in July.
(Yikes! Did I really just say July?)
Back home... at least for a day
Got home last night from a quick business trip to Salt Lake City. I haven’t been to SLC since a family trip many years ago. It’s a beautiful place, and the weather was fresh and warming to spring. My co-worker and I spent 2 days in meetings before flying home. All in all, a good, worthwhile trip, uneventful flights, not bad at all. It was sure good to be home and see Becky and the girls again.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading out for Wisconsin to see my folks over Easter weekend. It will be good to see them again - it’s only been a few weeks, I guess, but still… the girls change so much in just a few weeks, I’m sure they’ll be amazed.
That’s the basic update from the home front. I’m debating pre-buying (and then downloading) the new Derek Webb album (on Amazon or check it out at www.theringingbell.com) so I can take it along on our drive tomorrow. I’m listening to it streaming right now and it sounds really good. I’m also shopping around for a Digital SLR camera. At the moment I have my eye on a Nikon D70s. I’m hoping in the next few weeks I’ll be able to put in the order.
Well, enough for now.
Entering the Whirlwind
I feel like I’ve been in it for a few days already, but I know there’s still more to come this week.
Friday afternoon I drove four hours to Omaha to see Andy Osenga in concert at a little place called The Foundry. It was a great show, fun to see Andy again and visit. There was a 7:00 Saturday morning elder meeting scheduled at church, so I had to turn around and head back home right after the show. What I did learn from that experience was that the right combination of diet pop, sweet tea, Red Bull, and candy will keep me wide awake on a four-hour drive in the middle of the night. Good to know.
Saturday was the aforementioned meeting and then time at home to catch up a bit - cleaning, spending time with the family, watching some of the Final Four on TV. Also watched a pretty cool SciFi channel miniseries that I’d TiVo’d back in December called The Lost Room. Becky even enjoyed it. Good stuff.
Sunday morning I led music for both services, then we had an afternoon elder meeting, then the church’s annual meeting in the evening. Thank the Lord most of that stuff is done with for now.
Now it’s Monday morning, and I’ll be at work for a few hours before heading home, eating lunch with the family, and then flying out to Salt Lake City for a quick trip for work. I’ll be back home on Wednesday night.
Friday morning I get off work (Good Friday) and so we are taking the girls up to my folks' place for the weekend. The girls will have fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa again. By the time I get back home on Sunday night, well, I’ll be ready to be home for a while. :-)
Welcome to the Whirlwind. It’s a wild ride.
Thoughts on Washington DC
Last week I traveled for business to Washington, DC. While my original plans left me little time for sight-seeing, I still managed to take a long evening walk and see the memorials along the National Mall. Then old man winter intervened and pushed my flights around, giving me an unexpected whole day to visit museums. Now, I could give you a step-by-step itinerary of my trip, but it would likely bore you to death. (Now I’ve set myself up to have to write something non-boring. Uh oh.) What I’d rather talk about, though, is the overall experience I had.
This was my first visit to Washington. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been a history and government junkie, so I was excited to get to see some of the places for real that I’d only seen in pictures. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s even more impressive to be there and see them. First, because many of the buildings are massive in a way that a photograph just can’t communicate. (The Supreme Court? Unbelievably immense.) But second, because all the buildings are so close together. You come up from the Metro, and bam! there’s the Library of Congress. Walk past it and bam! there’s the Supreme Court. Then turn the corner and whammo! the Capitol building. And on and on. Amazing.
As I started my journey down the Mall, I felt a little bit sheepish playing tourist; I seemed to be the only tourist around, everyone else was just finishing up work for the day. Still, I had fun snapping pictures and marveling at the architecture. Halfway down the Mall you reach the Washington Monument. Some 500+ feet tall, it’s a massive obelisk that dominates the skyline. I took a few pictures to try to capture the sunset off in the west and the ring of flags that surrounds the monument. I’m sure I didn’t really capture it, though - it’s just too much to take in with a camera lens. (At least, too much for me and my camera lens.) At the Washington Monument I finally saw a few other tourists, all doing the same as me, gazing up at this massive two-tone tower.
I continued my trek westerly across the Mall. From the Washington Monument you have a long walk past the reflecting pool until you reach the Lincoln Memorial. Coming from the east like I did, it isn’t immediately apparent what exactly the reflecting pool reflects. The pool is long, fairly wide, a few feet deep, and made semi-famous as the pool that Forrest Gump wades into at the end of the movie. (I heard two separate tourists that I passed on the walk mention this fact, so it must have been more memorable to them than it was to me.) It was also drained for the winter; there was just a little bit of water in the center of the pool where the snowmelt had run. It was anything but impressive as I walked by it in the winter dusk, but it made a comfortable walking path as I headed toward Lincoln.
The guidebooks all describe the Lincoln Memorial as the most popular of the memorials on the Mall. This was evidenced to me as I walked toward it that night - the frequent camera flashes reflecting off the inner walls of the memorial lit it up beyond the already-bright normal lighting. When I reached the Memorial, there was no shortage of tourists, even though it was nearly seven pm. Adults, small children, families, a school group, all in awe of the massive man of marble. And then I turned around.
As magnificent as the Lincoln Memorial is, what really captured me (and many of the others) was the view back across the Mall. So that’s why they have a reflecting pool: from the Lincoln Memorial you can see the whole Washington Monument reflected. Even in the snowmelt a patchy reflection lit the Mall. Far in the distance the Capitol was lit up brightly. What an amazing scene.
Now why do I keep bringing up the number of tourists there? Wouldn’t I have preferred there were fewer so there would be less crowding? Well, crowding wasn’t really an issue. But what got to me was this: even in these contentious political days, a diverse group of visitors could all stop for a few minutes and share the wonder. We could all appreciate the beauty and truth of Lincoln’s words engraved in the wall of the memorial. We could all feel thankful for past leaders like George Washington. We could all stop and feel the love of a free country, this country, our country. Amazing.
Rich Mullins summed up my feelings toward my country so well in his song Land of my Sojurn:
Nobody tells you when you get born here How much you’ll come to love it And how you’ll never belong here So I’ll call you my country But I’ll be longing for my home And I wish that I could take you there with me…
Off to the market to buy a fat pig...
…home again, home again, jiggety jig.
I always seem to forget the beginning of that rhyme, but I quote the end of it often enough. I made it home last night from Washington (via Minneapolis) thanks to the skill of the Northwest Airlines pilots who drove our DC-9 through snow and 30 knot landing winds to get us to Cedar Rapids. Still, it was a late night - got home about 12:30, and many thanks go out to Daniel Garner for graciously agreeing to pick me up at the airport so Becky could stay home with the girls.
When I get a chance to stop and think, I’m sure there are a couple more blog posts to be written about this trip, but for now I’m just glad to be home.
Visiting Uncle Sam
This week is time for my first business trip in a while, and yesterday found me heading out of Cedar Rapids for Washington, DC. While here I’ll be participating on an industry committee that will be developing guidance for Synthetic Vision and Enhanced Vision Systems for aircraft. While I’m not in meetings, I’m hoping to do some sightseeing, since this is my first visit to Washington. Most of the museums and stuff are closed after 5 pm, but at least I’ll be able to walk the Mall and see the memorials and such.
My flight made it in to Reagan National airport on time and I rode the Metro up to my hotel. As I was nearing the hotel, I was thinking it looked a little dark… when I reached the hotel lobby, I found out that the power was out for this and a few nearby blocks, and would be out until midnight. Sigh. They checked me in with pencil and paper, and sent me with a couple of glowsticks to my room. I dropped off my stuff and then went down and asked for directions to a restaurant that would still have power. I ended up at Pizzeria Paradiso, where I had a very tasty “Atomica” pizza and read a book for a while. Then I walked back to the hotel, sat in my room in the dark, and had just enough laptop battery left to watch a couple of hours of Battlestar Galactica. As BSG was wrapping up, the lights came back on, so I was able to really check out the room (very nice!), iron some clothes, and head for bed.
The combination of a late night and an unfamiliar bed made this morning come a little bit too soon, but the complimentary breakfast was tasty. In a few minutes I’ll be headed out to walk the five blocks over to RTCA for the meeting. It’s supposed to be up to 50 here today, so it should be nice for walking after we’re done today. I’ll take lots of pictures, but won’t have any way to upload them until I get home… so keep coming back here and eventually you’ll see some!
Heading Home
So I’m finally caught up with my trip posts. It’s 10:20 PM and we’re in a hotel room in Dayton, Ohio. We traveled from Waxhaw this morning, picked up my sunglasses from the Cozart’s where I’d left them last night, then headed up through NC, Virginia, West Virginia, and most of the way through Ohio. It was actually a pretty good drive, not too tough, went pretty quickly.
We stopped in West Virginia at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. I’d never been in West Virginia before today. Well, not quite true; I think our college choir bus went through that little arm of WV and the little arm of Maryland on our way to Pennsylvania one year, but that hardly counts. Anyway, maybe the Cracker Barrel experience today wasn’t totally representative of WV and its people and culture, but maybe it is… I’ll just take it as a data point. So, we’re all familiar with the stereotypes of West Virginia and its people; of uncultured inbred toothless hillbillies… you get the idea. The funny part today was this: had I gone into that restaurant with no preconceived stereotypes about West Virginians, the ideas I’d have picked up in that hour would have pretty well matched the preconception I already had. I saw more people without teeth, in bib overalls, and/or just plain scary looking in one hour in that Cracker Barrel than I have seen in a month of Sundays at home. (Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t fearful or anything… more just amused.)
Over the Rhine graced the CD player this afternoon in honor of our Ohio travels, and tonight we hit a shopping mall to stretch our legs and eat some supper. Tomorrow morning I think we’ll be hitting the local Tim Horton’s in honor of my favorite Canadian *Dan (who speaks so highly of them!), then it’s back onto the interstate through Indiana, Illinois, and finally into Iowa. It will be good to be home.
The Penguin, and New Friends
Thursday was get-ready-to-head-home day. We picked up a cartop carrier that Ernie had salvaged for us. It is in excellent shape, and with all the post-Christmas shopping Becky did, it’s a good thing we have it! There’s no way we’d have fit all the stuff into the van. Then we started packing up to go home. Can’t believe we brought so much stuff along. Seriously, we took the back seat out of the Caravan, and it’s still packed up nearly to the ceiling, then we have the cartop carrier almost full, too. Goodness.
Thursday evening we headed in to Charlotte to meet some of our “weird internet friends” for supper and to hang out. We met Brandon, his wife Sarah, and Andrea at The Penguin near downtown Charlotte. The Penguin is a nice hole-in-the-wall place; very small, very loud, very eclectic. The jukebox would be playing heavy metal one minute and jazz the next. Very unpredictable. The burgers were good, and the specialty that we had to try was deep-fried dill pickle chips. They were fantastic.
After supper we went back to Brandon and Sarah’s apartment for dessert and to watch Brandon’s beloved Texas A&M Aggies who were playing Cal in a bowl game. The Aggies ended up losing. Sorry, Brandon. We ended up getting back to Waxhaw about 11 PM. It was a fun night, fun to finally meet some people we interact with online all the time. And yes, they’re normal people… not weirdos… just like I’m a normal, non-weird person. Heh. :-)
Christmas!
Christmas morning dawned and we packed up four adults, two small children, and lots of presents and luggage into the folks' Suburban and headed up to Faith and Ernie’s home in Conover, NC. It was just about a 2-hour drive from Waxhaw - not bad at all. This gave Laura the first chance to meet her cousin Brandi, and oh, did they ever have fun. Brandi is almost 5. Faith and Ernie adopted her from China 3 years ago. She is a sweetie.
We opened presents and presents and more presents. Every time it seemed like we might be done, Ernie would find some more presents under the tree and we’d keep opening them. I can’t begin to keep track of what all I received; Becky is actually sitting right now documenting it all as I write this blog post… at least that way I’ll be able to write thank-yous! The one memorable thing I’ll mention here is a refrigerator magnet from Becky’s sister Cynthia; it has a cartoon of the Mona Lisa holding a fish in one hand, with the title “The DaVinci Cod”. Hehehe. [Edit: Becky corrects me that this magnet was given to her folks, not to me. :-( Still, it is pretty cool.]
After that came Christmas dinner, and Faith had prepared enough for an army. We ate leftovers again on Tuesday and there was still far too much left over. But it was sure tasty. The rest of Christmas day was just a crash day; we watched some football, took naps, and enjoyed watching the girls play. God has certainly blessed us richly with family, friends, and material goods. I, for one, need to step back more often and realize how blessed I am.
Christmas Eve
Sunday morning of our trip brought us to Calvary Church in Charlotte for the Sunday morning service. It is Becky’s folks' church, and she attended and was an intern there while in college. Then in 1998 we got married in the chapel there… so I guess we have a little history at the church. :-) We got there early so Becky could see a few people she hasn’t seen in a while… and of course she could show off the girls.
After church we pigged out on Sonny’s BBQ, which has some phenomenal sweet tea. Then it was back to Waxhaw for an afternoon nap, and then the traditional Christmas Eve feast with Becky’s folks. Then it was off to bed for the girls as we packed up to head to Faith & Ernie’s for Christmas…
Never buy a Unicorn when it's Sleeping.
Day 4 of our trip (Saturday the 23rd) was a nice day to catch up. After sleeping in, we had a late breakfast with Becky’s folks. Or, I should say rather at Becky’s folks' place; I’m sure they had eaten hours before we got there. :-) The girls had some time to play with toys, and we helped prepare some food for Christmas dinner. Then in early afternoon while the girls were taking naps, Becky and I headed in to Charlotte to do a little shopping.
Charlotte is growing like crazy these days. There are new Target stores and Harris Teeter grocery stores seemingly every 2 miles or so. We stopped at one of those Target stores to pick up a few things. While there, Becky and I were browsing the toy aisles and noticed a little girl probably 4 years old with her parents in tow. She noticed a large stuffed pink unicorn slouching on the lowest shelf and told her father she wanted to get it. Without missing a beat, her father replied, “oh, but it’s asleep. Never buy a unicorn when it’s sleeping.” And that was the end of it. No questions why, no discussion; I imagine the little girl had something to think about for the rest of the afternoon. It was all Becky and I could do to make it ‘round the corner to the next aisle before breaking into hilarious laughter. I can only hope I’ll be that quick on the mental draw when Laura gets a bit bigger. :-)
Saturday night after supper we put the girls to bed and then Becky’s folks came over and we played games for a while; first several rounds of Sequence, then a few games of Pass the Pigs, which was a new one to me, but is basically a little dice game with specially-designed plastic pigs in place of dice. Then it was off to bed in preparation for church on Sunday.
Back on the Road
Day 3 was another travel day; Nashville, TN to Waxhaw, NC. It doesn’t look that long on the map, but it winds through the mountains a good bit, which makes it longer. It’s a very pretty drive.
We got packed up and left the Opryland resort about 8:30. Taking I-40 east, we headed through Knoxville and then wound our way through the mountains to Asheville, NC. It was rainy and foggy all day, which made for some beautiful views of clouds hanging low in the mountain valleys, but it also made for some difficult driving. Still, we made it to Charlotte in time for supper and then drove the 40 minutes on to Waxhaw to see Becky’s folks.
We hung out at their apartment for a little while and had some dessert (Laura just loves her ice cream!), then they took us over to the little JAARS apartment that we’re staying in. The JAARS headquarters here actually is set up with several lodges and apartments to house folks that come in for training and the like. They’re also available for visitors, which works quite well for us. We’re actually in an apartment that has two bedrooms, one bath, living room, dining room, and small kitchen. Laura slept in a real twin-sized bed, a real step up from her toddler bed at home. She did really well. It’s nice to have a little home-away-from-home where we can just settle down at night. (It even has DSL so I can get my internet fix!)
Fortunately we won’t be doing much more driving for a day or two; Sunday we’ll head into Charlotte for church, then Monday we head up to Conover to visit Ernie, Faith, and Brandy for Christmas. I’ll try to keep my blog posts up-to-date since I know some of my family will be reading them while they’re together in Chicago at Ryan’s place. Hi guys!
Nashville
Day 2 of our Christmas trip landed us in Nashville. Becky’s brother Bob and his wife Holly and daughter Taylor live just south of town. Holly works for Gaylord Entertainment, which operates the massive Opryland Resort there in northeast Nashville. As such, she gets a phenomenal discount rate for rooms in the hotel, and we took full advantage of that to stay there for two nights.
We slept in (a necessity after staying up ‘til midnight) and then went with Bobby and Taylor to a local Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Then it was back to the resort and we started walking around. The place is amazing. They have two domed areas with multiple levels of attractions, shows, shops, and gardens. One has an indoor river with boat tours! Bob had lined up a boat tour for us and off we went.
At lunchtime I was able to get together with Andy Osenga to grab lunch. He was getting ready to record some background vocals for another guy that afternoon, and they were heading out for lunch first. I joined them for lunch at a local Irish pub-type establishment (I call it that knowing that Ryan would be happy to tell me how different a true Irish pub is from that place!), then went back to the studio and hung out for a while while Andy recorded. Mitch Dean (who has worked on albums for Jars of Clay, among others) was doing the recording, and it was an education for me to see just how the process works. It was difficult, if not impossible, to resist the geek appeal of all that sound recording and editing gear, and that doesn’t even begin to address the enjoyment I had as a musician seeing how songs get sculpted into a finished product.
I headed back to the resort mid-afternoon and we walked around and saw more of the sights. The place is just designed to soak your money out of you. They have a Chick-Fil-A inside one of the domes. The price for a basic CFA sandwich? $6. At a normal CFA, it costs about $2.50. Add on the $10/day to park, the add-ons for the extras in your room, and I know I couldn’t afford to stay there at normal prices. Oh, a word about the room we stayed in. It was actually a three-room suite, two bedrooms, each with two double beds, and then a connecting sitting room that was huge; perhaps 20 x 30 feet. Each room had windows that opened out to the dome with the river, so you could hear rushing water all night. Amazing. Bob said it usually runs about $550/night. He got it for just a tiny percentage of that price, I’m sure.
That night after Holly got off work we went and saw the “Ice” show right next door; it was a big building full of ice sculptures, and included two big ice slides! They issued you large coats at the door; the single-degree temps inside were in stark contrast to the 60-degree temps outside. Laura was a bit scared, but went down one of the slides. Unfortunately, the picture didn’t come out. There was an amazing ice nativity scene, of course an igloo, a bear ice fishing, a train… very cool stuff. (Pun intended.)
Finally, we went over to the massive shopping mall next to the resort to grab dinner. We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe, which has a waterfall, massive aquariums, animatronic elephants and apes, simulated thunderstorms, the whole bit. The food was pretty decent, too. We finally made it back to our room and collapsed into bed. Well, I guess I collapsed; Becky went down with Bob to hang out for a while and listen to a band.
I’ll just add the rest of the pictures here at the end; the descriptions on Flickr will fill in any info you need.
