California Dreaming

Water skiing nationals has certainly taken us to places we would likely not have experienced - Zachary, Louisiana; San Marcos, Texas; and now El Centro, California. El Centro is a small desert city a few miles from Mexicali, a border city of one million. It is also downwind from the Salton Sea - a lake below sea level which is drying up and the winds blow the salt toward the city. The landscape is desert with rocky hills that rise to 4,000 feet in the distance to the west (where it was chilly enough for hot springs). It is a hard place to describe really. 

While in very Southeast California, we ate dinner in cute downtown La Mesa, worked from the Home2Suites, soaked in the Jacumba Hot Springs, saw the wall, went through a border check point, enjoyed some fun cocktails and dinner with Drake one night, watched the Huskers lose, strolled along Mission Beach and had fish tacos at the beach park in San Diego.  I feel we did pretty well making the most of our time in California.

cute downtown La Mesa

Jacumba Hot Springs - very cute! 

art at Jacumba Hot Springs

Friday afternoon beers cheering on the Huskers (sigh) 

Drinks at D'Poly Taco, Grill & Beer

Friday night dinner with Drake 

Desert Tower

View to the West/South from Desert Tower

Border Checkpoint 

Walk along Mission Beach before heading home

Shucked

A needed night of laughs seeing "Shucked" at the Buell Theatre on Thursday to kick off our new season of tickets to the Denver Center of Performing Arts. I worked from downtown and Marshall joined me around 5:15. We then had a drink and apps at 54thirty Rooftop on a warm evening. The show was full of puns and just what the doctor ordered. Seems also appropriate we saw a show about corn after returning from my midwest. Aw - shucks! 

sunset over the Rockies

The "Home" Stretch

The last portion of our midwest adventure took us home to Pender on Wednesday night.  We enjoyed playing cards, some delicious meals together, watching football and just time together. Marshall and I were able to enjoy an evening nightcap with Cam, Jaima and Grant in the whiskey room on Thursday night and we all traveled to Beemer to cheer on the Pender Pendragons football team to victory on Friday night. 

We had a nice day on Saturday with Mom and Dad running some errands, driving the new car, playing cards, watching Nebraska win and making a nice salmon dinner together. After coffee and brunch on Sunday, we made the eight plus hour drive home to Louisville. Of course, we got Runza in North Platte before the home stretch to arrive home around 6:00. It was a great last stop on our trip across the midwest. 

Go Pendragons! 

Go Grant! 

at the football game 

sisters! 

Go Big Red! 

 A wonderful time with Mom and Dad 

Iowa City Adventures

Sunday night took us from Decatur, Illinois to the home of the Iowa Hawkeyes! We arrived early enough to stop and see Tanner and take a quick walk around campus with him. We worked for three days from Iowa City and had a great set up in our hotel room right downtown. We were able to have dinner with Tanner on Monday night at Basta (sitting outside), make a Target run with him, go to lunch on Tuesday (also sitting outside) and watch his ultimate frisbee practice on Tuesday night. We were able to meet a couple of the captains and just see Tanner be in his element. It was so great to be able to catch up in person with him and hear all about his friends, classes and his activities. 

We moved to a co-working space on Wednesday morning that was right outside our hotel. It had a couple cubbies in the back that worked for a more private space which was wonderful. I was able to cut out around 3:30 and walked over to meet Tanner at his dorm. We stopped at the bookstore for a couple of things and then walked to downtown to meet Marshall. I'm already looking forward to coming back in a few weeks for Family Weekend! 

Sunday night walk around campus

downtown Iowa City

Soooo good to see Tanner 

Our hotel 

happy hour

Dinner at Basta 

oysters on the half shell happy hour before practice 

the less glamorous part of digital nomad life 

Merge coworking space 

One last goodbye 

On the Podium at Regionals

I tried to think of a clever title for this blog, but I went with the headline for the weekend. It was a joy and a pleasure for us to be in Decatur, Illinois to watch Drake jump over 100 feet yet again! He ended up beating every one that beat him the prior weekend and was able to clinch a spot on the podium with a jump of 103 feet. What a story of hard work and perseverance and seeing your efforts pay off. 

This was a 3-day tourney so we left on Thursday night with Drake is tow once again (after working from Farmer School of Business for the afternoon and watching the Homecoming Parade). We worked from the hotel on Friday and besides spending time at the lake, we took in a little hike at the nature preserve, tried out some local places and explored the downtown. While it was the end of September, the temperatures  reached into the upper 80s all weekend and certainly felt like summer at the lake. 

The team took home 3rd place, earned a spot at nationals and took home the spirit award for the 4th year in a row! What a way to wrap up our time with Drake before we headed on to Iowa. 

Seniors 

3rd place for the team and Spirit Award Winners! 

5th place at Regionals! 

PB tackle! 

flying high! 

Farmer School of Business 

Homecoming Parade (both Miami and the local high school) 

fortunately, a big table at the hotel we could both work from 

on our hike 

a day at the lake 

downtown Decatur 

cheering on the skiers