Adventures of the Waning Days of Summer

Various people have started to wonder aloud why I haven't posted in three weeks and the answer is I can't keep up! Much has happened since the bat incident, which followed a perfectly fun weekend in Pipestone with my grandparents and parents. We spent a lot of time in Luverne, MN, visiting the Jim Brandenburg Gallery (he's amazing!) and Blue Mounds State Park. The highlight of that visit (besides seeing everyone) was hiking to the Visitor's Center, which is built right into a cliff with a beautiful look-out tower that used to house a writer's study. One whole side of the house is a quartzite wall, and that includes the bathrooms!

The Cliffs at Blue Mounds with some Contemporary Rock Art

The family - minus Grandma who is hiding behind the camera

The next weekend, ten of us headed back out to Split Rock Creek State Park for what promised to be a great camping trip. Good friends, tents, delicious camping food, kayaks, and yes, even a few perfectly legal beverages (if you're outside the park). However, reality hit when we couldn't leave our tents Saturday morning because of the rain. It finally subsided enough for the creation of what was henceforth known as the "party pod", which was my tent plus two giant IBM umbrellas plus four people MAX plus games! I got to introduce everyone to the best game on the planet, Werewolf. This is a psychological game I learned about from my colleague, Dirk Spannaus, in Tanzania. With a group of no less than nine people, you split the crowd secretly into wolves and villagers. The wolves silently kill one villager per round and the villagers discuss amongst themselves, trying to figure out who the wolves are. It's way more fun and interesting than I can make it sound, so if you help me gather up nine people sometime, you can try it out for yourself.

It was nice for everyone to finally go on a tour with Nathan at the park and Jess, Jackie, Amanda, and Danny earned their Junior Ranger Badges (lovely pictures of pipes and wildlife were produced by all)!! Later that night, the rain, thunder, and lightening were so horribly close, I decided to bail and headed toward our dry apartment in Pipestone at 12:30am.

Amanda, Jackie, Jess, & Danny with their Badges

Everyone, including Marie & Kris, had fun taking their pictures with the ranger

And that brings me to this weekend! Friday I went to Madison for lunch with my friend, Jas, who I hadn't seen in 500 years. The day was a PERFECT day to be there. After a two-hour lunch outside on State Street, I wandered around campus and enjoyed some delicious Babcock Hall Ice Cream on the terrace. I really miss that city.

Bascom Hall

I took a trip with my parents up to Horicon Marsh on Saturday. What a spectacular place! The scenery is beautiful and if you're into bird watching this place is heaven. We saw Sandhill Cranes and Egrets among a plethora of other birds. There were also frogs parked every 10 feet on the trail, a muskrat that ran a few feet in front of us, and a pair of River Otters in the marsh.




On our way back, we stopped at an unlikely roadside attraction: the Honey Acres "Honey of a Museum". Complete with a 70's era video that taught us everything about bees and beekeeping, this place was kind of funny, but kind of sad. I guess after visiting so many National Parks, I expect interpretation to be a little more artfully done, but I do admit that I learned something and will probably check for the Honey Acres label when I buy my next jar of honey. You can try out some honey and stare at a working beehive if you can get the little kids out of the way first.


A little preview of what's coming up soon - we've got a two-week vacation planned in October to the East Coast and I'm bringing my laptop to blog. Lucky you.

Four Years

What's your address? seems like a funny thing to ask your husband the day before your fourth anniversary, but that's exactly what I asked last night! Nathan started at Pipestone National Park on Wednesday and is busy learning all about sacred rocks.

Last Thursday I DID pass my PMP Certification exam, so I am officially a PMP! (I always pronounce that "PiMP" in my head, which makes me chuckle.)

Three weeks ago, I finished my Hiking Challenge strong with a hike along the Round-Up Horse trail, Jones Creek, and the Loop Road for about 6 miles.


I didn't see anything out of the ordinary: some horses, but no bison on the trail. When I finished, the entry above mine in the register said they saw a scorpion. When I got back to the Visitor Center, I found out a guy had brought in a picture of a Rattlesnake sunning itself from the day before. I was not quite as lucky to see such exciting things!


Nathan's brother, Justin, graduated on May 16th and we went to Madison, WI to partake in the festivities. Lucky for us, we didn't have to be crammed into the Kohl Center waiting for 2,000 names to be read off. Nope, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs has their own, intimate ceremony in the Assembly Chamber of the Wisconsin Capital. We were in and out in an hour - now that's what I call a graduation!

Justin and his Wizard Sleeves

It also gave me a chance to marvel at how amazing their capital is (take note, North Dakota!) - a fact that I just don't think I appreciated as much on our 4th grade trip to visit it. Now that I've been a few places and have seen works of art like St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and Chichen Itza in Mexico, I agree that Wisconsin's capital really is something special. And to think - you can walk in any time from the Farmer's Market on Saturday just to use the bathroom!


It was really good to see all of Nathan's family. We almost didn't, save the last-minute trip to Milwaukee to see Nathan's mom. We even got the chance to stop into Buraka for some delicious East African food.

Which reminds me! I had a chat with one of my African Wildlife Foundation buddies and found out that they have not only secured funding for the Eco-Lodge I worked on, but they plan to start construction in June. Who wants to come with me to the Grand Opening?!

Munchies

I owe everyone who reads this blog some great pictures from my final hike (yes, I DID complete the hiking challenge last weekend) and Madison (my brother-in-law's graduation), but you won't get those until next week.

This week, I'm studying for my Project Management Professional Certification (a.k.a my PMP credentials). This is something I've been working on since last December. In order to even apply you need a full 4500 hours of Project Management experience and some education. I got that taken care of and my application was accepted without audit (phew!). Now comes the fun part - I have to take a 4-hour, 200 question test with laughably ambiguous questions based on 100's of Project Management, Management, and other resources. Ok, so it won't be that hard - 80% of the test is based on the Project Management Bible (Project Management Body of Knowledge - PMBOK) and there are a lot of books out there that help you prepare for the exam without reading every last reference resource. I started studying for this in February and am finally taking the exam on Thursday.

I have Monday-Thursday off and, although, I visited my alma mater this weekend, I forgot rule number one about exams - you need snacks. Exams were always my favorite part of the semester (wait, don't leave - hear me out!) - you got to sleep in most days, no more classes, you ONLY had to worry about a handful of exams, the dining halls served delicious hot breakfasts for $1.09, and once you finished each exam - YOU WERE DONE FOR GOOD! Nothing hanging over your head - free to move on to another painful semester - or worse - the real world. Ahhh, those were the days!