Riding Reno

That's me riding Reno! She's 21 and full of life. The whole ride she was trying to gallop and wanted to turn in different directions than the rest of the group. She's the biggest horse that I rode on this trip. I think Elvis from my first ride in Phoenix was larger. Yesterday I rode Val, which is all black and very slow. It's all good. My ride count now totals 4 and I wish I could do this every morning. But for now I'm glad I have had the chance to ride as many times as I have. :-)

In Ottawa..... Illinois!

No, still didn't leave the country. I love how most town names here make you think you are though. :-) This statue and fountain are in Washington Square where Lincoln and Douglas had their first debate for a US Senate seat. The first time Lincoln said all men are created equal and it was central to his argument.

Riding Casper and Avoiding Biting Lady Bugs

No, not the ghost. Although I can see how you might be tempted to think that given it's that time of the year. I got to ride a pretty horse name Casper today on the trail ride right on the Fox River resort property. The weather was great for it too. It's probably 75 out, and there's a nice breeze along all the time. I got on the 2:30 PM ride so it wasn't in the dead heat of high noon. I will definitely do it again tomorrow, and the day after, and possibly even the day after that if I can get away with it.

So the one weird thing is the lady bugs here bite. That's right, you read that right. They BITE. Those things are mean and they swarm! I'll find out later just how many chunks they took out of me.

The embarrassing thing is I wore a v-neck tank top today, and they kept going down my chest. I had to reach into my shirt more than once to get the bug out of my tank. Good thing the other riders were mostly women or girls. If I can stand the heat, I am definitely wearing a long sleeve tee tomorrow.

In the mean time, I'm going to go enjoy my jacuzzi after I figure out what to do for dinner. :)

Chicago

The primary reason for coming out this way was for Bill and Yelena's wedding. They held it in the Architectural Artifacts building, which is a very cool venue. It was great to see lots of familiar faces from our days back in the dorm, even though we're in all parts of the country now. I'll get around to uploading all the photos later when I have a better internet connection.

It was actually rainy on Saturday, the day of the wedding. I managed to get myself up to the John Hancock Observatory. It was worth it because the wind was blowing hard enough that the rain was going side ways up there (94 floors up). I almost thought it was snow given the way it was floating, but it was only rain. Crazy physics!

Of course Chicago is known for all the great architecture. I have a ton of pics, but it'll be too much to show here. This is the Cloud Gate in Millennium Park. Everyone here calls it the Silver Bean. I'm on the left side of the photo, wrapped up in a hat and scarf because it was actually kinda cold.

Visions of Eternity by Salvador Dai

One of the coolest things was going to the Art Institute of Chicago. True to all my friends' and colleagues' recommendations, it has the largest amount of Impressionist art I have ever encountered in one place. I took many photos (totally allowed) of many great works by Monet, Renoir, and Degas. Additionally there were a lot of great Dali work like the one at right. The "Melted Clock" wasn't here, but it was still great. I also bought myself a very expensive canvas tote, but it had The Gashly Tinycrumbs by Edward Gorey on it and I couldn't pass it up.

I went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum as well. It was really cool to see one of the most complete T-Rex fossils in the world (Sue). It looks so real! I was definitely in a Jurassic Park moment here.

I learned a bunch about the world on this trip to the Field Museum. I learned that there were actually 5 major mass extinctions, not just the one 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs were wiped out. I'm still wondering how they figured those other ones out given the first one occurred something like 430 million years ago (there abouts). It's amazing what we can learn these days through science and technology.

I got to do a little comparison between my own feet and that of a dinosaur. I think I would have been road kill within 30 seconds if I lived in that era. That's just ridiculous!

All in all, it was awesome to see the city. I finally got a sense of where East was by the end of my 3 day stint there, and then it's off back to Norway (boonies) for some R&R before heading to Indiana.

In Norway...... Illinois! :-)

Arrived without getting lost just before midnight. I've forgotten how the lodges are set up and am glad to see the jacuzzi in the room. My turtle is wearing his new gift from Slava in front of the nicely folded 4 leaf clover towels. I'm ready for a good night's sleep!