Wisconsin Is So Chill

Wow, after another 12-hour travel day, landing in Wisconsin tonight took my breath away. Not the normal beauty of the Dairy State – but the quite chilly temperature! And it's going to get down into the 30s tonight? Can I go back??

Actually, I'm good not going back. Ever probably. I mean I saw and did the 3 things I really wanted to if free time allowed – ride a street car, see the Golden Gate Bridge, and tour Alcatraz. Beyond that, had a fact-filled and fun-filled conference (with personal appearances by SNL comedians Colin Jost and Amy Poehler). People will be jealous they aren't in marketing! 

I have so many pictures to get through, but I'll share a few from our after-conference trip to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It worked out perfectly because the other days of the week it was foggy or cloudy and we couldn't see the whole bridge.

It turned out to be a great view. I liked this view better than a straight-on end-to-end because that would be a long, skinny picture. This way we were up close and could see the actual orange color too. But wait, could we get closer?

Like ON it? Oh yes, it's a thing! For pedestrians and cyclists.

And yes, I faced my fear of heights (and sharks below) and walked out far enough I was definitely above ocean waters only – not land. Uff da! The trick? Look out, not down!

But yes it was cool to see it, experience it, and marvel at the construction of what is close to a 90-year-old structure. Just glad I didn't feel any swaying in the suspension bridge!

From there, we grabbed early dinner yesterday since our alarms were going off at 3:15 a.m. today for a 3:50 Uber ride to the airport for a 6 a.m. flight.

So long day, glad to be home, and especially glad hubby turned on my electric mattress pad hours ago! So good to home again.

Back at the Homestead

What a whirlwind of a week! I thought I'd be sharing highlights each day of my time in San Diego. But to be honest, I was exhausted trying to live on West Coast time while my body was mentally and physically 2 hours away in Central Time.

First of all, about the amazing marketing conference. It was good and I learned some exciting things. I've been to the San Diego Convention Center before – remember when I was there for Comic Con and met Erik Estrada? – but I forgot how massive the place is. And very interestingly designed.

You know how I love me some architecture pictures. This was coming down the escalator at the right moment and seeing the other escalators off in the distance.

For the conference, the final keynote was an interesting coincidence.

On the plane ride out, I just happened to finally watch the Barbie movie (worth seeing!). And it turns out actress Issa Rae – "president of BarbieLand" – was our final speaker! 

How interesting! Most times, we have no idea how hard people work – or what obstacles they must hurdle – to get where they are today. Probably like most of us. We're just not that famous!

In the evening hours, after grabbing a bite to eat, I could explore a little bit. But kept it close to my hotel since the sun sets there early, too, at this time of year.

Fun fact: The bar where the filmed the "Great Balls of Fire" piano scene in Top Gun was not even a half block from my hotel!

Piano is still there!

And plenty of memorabilia.

Also, service men and women have found it a place to hang their hats. Pretty cool.

Also, just a block or two in the other direction is the USS Midway Museum on the Navy Pier and some interesting statues.

The Unconditional Surrender statue – based on the iconic photograph – was pretty cool to see.

Especially when there was a couple replicating the pose while I was there! Gives you a sense of how tall the statue is, too!

In that same park, they also had a statue scene of Bob Hope entertaining the troops. If you're too young to know, you missed out!

Very well done!

Of course, I also had a chance to catch the sunset there before booking it back to my hotel before I got dark. Glad it was so close!

Yesterday was a super long travel day...

Leaving the marinas of the Pacific Coast...

To flying over snow-capped mountains...

To the beautiful fall colors of the Midwest!

Due to some delays and fun travel headaches, I didn't get back home 'til almost 11 p.m. last night. Glad to be home same and sound! 

And in the Central Time Zone. If you know, you know!

West Coast Work Vibes

This is my sunset view of the San Diego Harbor from my 9th floor hotel room. That's how I ended my day.

I started it with a 4 a.m. alarm to get up to Mosinee for a pre-7 a.m. flight. I get so anxious about getting up in time for airport trips that I had the worst time trying to sleep. 

Highlights from there...

Got to ride in the exit row for that 45-minute flight to the Twin Cities. That's like first class for short people! Had a 3-hour layover in Minneapolis, where a guy waiting in the gate area fell out of his chair and I got to witness a medical emergency. Close to empathy fainting but I stayed upright.

In the world of crazy coincidences, I got an exit row for the 3+ flight to San Diego. Poor 6-foot guy next to me was a bit cramped up but he didn't believe in trading seats (aka breaking the rules). His loss. I enjoyed a luxury viewing of the Barbie movie. Sorry I didn't see it sooner. Much better than I'd expect.

After landing in San Diego, my coworker Scott and I checked into our hotel by the harbor, then walked over the the Convention Center (where our conference is the next few days) to pick up our badges, etc. Our other coworker Jenn (on a different flight and different hotel) met us there and, with a free afternoon ahead of us, we proceeded to the San Diego Zoo.

Naturally, I have a ton of pictures that for some reason aren't uploading. So I'll share later this week. Got home, er back to hotel, from there and I'm exhausted. It like past 9 p.m. in my real life and they're just airing Wheel of Fortune. 

I might have to watch recordings of The Voice when I get home. My body isn't in sync with the West Coast work (or play) vibes. I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy your week!

And March Comes in Like a... Pizookie

Whether you're in Wisconsin or Florida, I think March is doing a good job coming in like a lamb. Hopefully it's not required to go out like a lion.

Just to prove the point, I made sure I was poolside by 10 a.m. today. Also just to soak up the last bit of sun on my last day! It was tough putting on long pants again!

We stopped for late lunch on way to airport. And shared a "pizookie" for dessert. I've only had this in the south – Arkansas, Arizona, and now Florida. Just a freshly baked cookie with ice cream and other toppings. This one was a caramel one. And delicious!

Held me over through the meal-less flight!

Got back to Madison before 6:30 p.m. and hubby picked me up. Now we're home by 9 p.m. but my Florida body thinks it's 10 p.m. and time for bed. Thank goodness I have two weekend days to adjust before going back to work.

100 percent worth it! And I brought some warm weather back with me. You're welcome!

Love Stories

First of all, happy belated Valentine's Day! I was busy doing things I love yesterday. Sort of. I mean there was work first, but the our boss got us heart-shaped pizza for lunch. So what's not to love about that?

From work, I raced back to Rapids so I could practice choir a few minutes before our Ash Wednesday church service. Yes, Lent is here. The ultimate love story, right? 

Singing went well and then we had practice to learn a new song to sing this coming Sunday. By time I got home to see my valentine, it was after 8 p.m. We exchanged gifts AND he had a Shamrock Shake waiting for me. What's not to love about that? I will have to make that last a few days!

After that, I had a few hundred hockey photos from the night before to edit so it was definitely straight to bed and no blogging when I got done at 11 p.m. – on a "school night" as we say.

Woke up this morning to a sight I do not love. I know I shouldn't be surprised to see snow – it is February after all – but I was loving the mild temps and DRY commute. It was a bit on the slick side this morning!

Tonight, as I previously blogged about, we went the Rapids airport to hear author John Armbruster share his experience writing the book Tailspin – a nonfiction account of WWII vet Eugene Moran's survival of falling 4 miles in the air after being shot down by Germany fighter pilots AND being a POW. 

As I also mentioned previously, we got ahold of the book a few months ago because our friend's daughter is married to Moran's grandson. Tonight I got to talk to him and asked it he knew about any of this story before the book was done. He said his grandpa died when he was about 20 and all he knew was about the 4-mile fall.

Mr. Armbruster (I'm just going to call him John) had quite a display there tonight. Lots of newspaper articles about Moran and various artifacts...

Including a letter to Moran's mother when he was first declared missing in action.

Very interesting to look at.

And interesting to hear the story and see pictures and hear actual audio of Moran telling John about some of the things that happened in the Rikki Tikki Tavi aircraft.

Loved that John signed all our books and loved that there was a good crowd in the airport hangar to support him and learn more. As someone who loves reading (and writing), that was great to see and be a part of.

If anyone wants to borrow our book, you can. Otherwise it's available on Amazon and quite possibly Target and Wal-Mart. One of my sisters is reading it on Kindle right now and texted me how intense it is. I said, yep, and I feel badly that even though I say "Thank you for your service" to veterans, that I didn't give a lot more love and attention to those WWII survivors.

I'm sure there's a lot of untold stories out there. We're glad John was able to share this one.

Hug your loved ones! And appreciate them for their sacrifices – big or small. 

A Tale about Tailspin

I don't always talk about books I've read (because there's sooooo many), but once in awhile, there's a little more to it. Here me out – especially if you're in the Wisconsin Rapids area.

The premise of this book Tailspin according to the "book blurbs" online and our thoughts: World War II tail gunner Gene Moran (from Wisconsin!) fell four miles through the sky without a parachute and lived. Captured by the Germans, he survived a harrowing eighteen months as a prisoner of war, including a six-hundred-mile death march in 1945 across Central Europe.

When Gene returned home, he kept those memories locked up for nearly seventy years. His nine children knew little of their dad's war story. But when John, a young history teacher (also from Wisconsin!), learns of Gene's amazing fall, he's desperate to learn more. Finally, Gene agrees.

As the interviews go on, John faces an ordeal of his own. His wife is fighting brain cancer. What will happen to his wife and his two young children? John must continue uncovering Gene's story of survival as he himself confronts the greatest trial of his life.

It was really a captivating book. And even more so because we happened to get a copy of the book because Gene Moran's grandson is married to the daughter of some friends of ours. Small world.

But there's more...

The author – John Armbruster – will be at our Wisconsin Rapids airport at 7 p.m. on February 15 to talk about Tailspin, share videos, photos, historical artifacts and do a Q&A session after his presentation. The event is FREE, but books will be available for sale and for signing.

We both read the book and were so moved, we just wanted to share. 

Plus, you gotta support writers when you can.

P.S. Message me for my Venmo account. 

Adapting to Change

The first challenge at work today was realizing it was only Thursday, not Friday. Especially difficult when we work from home on Fridays. Still, I had a tee tine with ladies at TriCity so we powered on as if this was our best round of golf ever.

In other words, we teed off from the Reds, which were the same for Gold and White at times. If you know golf, you know I bragged up teeing off from the Whites to hubby.

My partner Marigene and I had a great time golfing and trying to follow our balls and not focusing on the airplanes in the sky.

You wouldn't catch me in one of those! Even though we dubbed our round the "We Suck Scramble," we'll stick to golf.

Finishing Strong

Good evening from Blue Jay Drive! Yup. Bean Town is just a recent memory. But boy did my week there finish strong!

Today was the last day of learning. And fun.

Had a full schedule of speakers and even ran into my Aussie airplane mate! Small world.

Our final speaker of the conference was appropriately called the "headliner."

Yes. No joke. I shared space with No. 44! Along with 45,000 others.  But still... same room! It was soooo awesome!

President Obama was as gracious and articulate and eloquent, really,  as you'd expect.  Funny too. 

There was high security so among other rules, we were told not to take pictures. I wasn't about to get hauled away by Secret Service when I had a plane to catch. But some people did take pictures and I'm sharing theirs.

Just so awesome!!

Anyway,  we really did have a plane to catch so we had to cut out before the end of his chat. I think I'll be able access it somewhere. In general he was talking to a room full of marketers and encouraging us to build community where we can and be positive.  He also shared some stories about the queen!

Again, I was starstruck over the whole thing.  Well, the whole 3 days actually.  Boston appropriately sent me off with a beautiful sunset, too! 

Feels good to be back home though. Not sure what time zone I'm in anymore but I'm pretty sure it's bedtime!

A Bit of a Whirlwind

When you're blessed with a rainbow on your way to the airport, you know you're going to have a safe trip home. Thank God.

It wasn't so much our flight from Phoenix to Minneapolis that had Mom and I worried. It was our hopes to beat the impending ice storm in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

We sort of have had a Mom relay to get her up to Grantsburg. I gave her to brother Ron via curbside pickup at the airport Then he gave her to sister RoAnn who met him in North Branch, Minn., and she got her the rest of the way north and home. All while I was driving in icy rain headed east, but lucked out after Eau Claire and Osseo with dry weather and decent roads.

Got home at 2 a.m. and woke up early enough to go to a funeral visitation for my friend's mom. Then hit the road with hubby to get up to Wausau for the sectional final game. The Lady Royals are going to state for the second year in a row!! Whoo-hoo! 

Didn't have time to linger as we had dinner plans in Rozelville at the Buck-A-Neer Supper Club with one of Jim's college roommates. Very nice visit with Big Guy and his wife. Drove home in rain and fog. Lots of fog. Glad Jim drove. I didn't need another stressful drive after last night! And we may get anything from a thunderstorm to hail and twisters tonight. Who knows?

Got home safely and I'm exhausted. I need to get through pictures from today but also need sleep! No wonder people say they need a vacation after a vacation just to rest. Pretty sure I'll be following the Sunday is a day of rest rule tomorrow.

I might have time to dig up some vacation highlights, too!

Be safe out there!

No-Fly Zone

What do your eyes see? Is it a housefly on the window? Or a stealth bomber? 

Yup it really is one of the noisy military jets. Who knew something so small could make so much noise? Ha.

The problem is that they travel faster than the speed of sound, so when you hear them and look up... they gone! I got lucky and there was two of them doing training exercises. So even though I missed the first one, I captured the second one. Barely.

Maybe I'll pay more attention on a nice sunny day once. And have my real camera with the big old zoom handy. 

Or I could just zoom in on house flies...

Something tells me I better keep my eye on the sky. 

Good Ol' Rocky Top

The landscape of America is so diverse. I am fortunate I've seen hills and valleys and both sea shores in my various travels through at least 36 of the 50 states. I might have to recount. My favorite landscape is the mountains – not so much the Green Mountains of Vermont or the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but he Rocky Mountains. And hopefully the those in Alaska. 

And in close competition is the rock formations and various color schemes found in area like the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Sedona and other canyon areas in the desert Southwest.

When we were flying out to Phoenix, we saw a bit of each. After I work up from my flight nap, that is. Since we were up at 4 a.m., I zonked out quickly on the plane. But suddenly I awoke and turned to Raylene and said, "We should be seeing mountains at some point."

I literally pushed up the window blind and this was our view! Whew. Timing!

So I want to share some of those Rocky top scenes since we don't always get God's view. 

See the juxtaposition of red desert and granite mountains? So cool.

And what's the deal with the crop circles? Is it secret code to aliens?

Of course I had to look it up and of course there was an answer on the internet. They're from irrigation systems that pivot in a circle.

Crack-a-lackin'! Is it sand or a river?

And this little mountainous area popped up in the middle of nowhere. Reminded me of pictures of craters on the moon.

I bet the river running through that horizontal "crack" in this picture is gorgeous to kayak on!

Desert sands. Reminds of Red Sands Beach right here at Lake Wazeecha. But bigger.

And we landed in the populous desert area with mountains in the distance.

There's so much to see in this beautiful country – from the ground up. Thanks for flying with Robyn's EyeView Tours! ha.