I Wonder as I Wander…

This summer flew by and included a fair amount of travel, but short trips which didn’t include much time for seeing any sights. So I’ll try and catch up on my blogging in one post.

In June, we did a quick trip to Minneapolis for Ross and Richard’s graduation—they both earned MBA’s. It was a lot of fun because Kara, Paul and Naomi and Richard’s mom and Tom were there as well and we always have a good time when we are all together.

The first week in July, we spent time with Naomi and back to the cities for chapter visits. As soon as we got home, we packed and left for meetings in Columbus Ohio. We flew into Dayton, which is about an hour and half drive from Columbus. Following the conference, several of us went out to eat at a wonderful German restaurant named Schmidts—so many different kinds of brats and sauerkraut. And their special dessert is cream puffs—HUGE cream puffs, with chocolate drizzled all over them. The next morning, we had to leave early to catch our plane and it was so foggy that we could hardly see anything, but it cleared in time for our flight.

The second week in July, we first did a quick trip to Hibbing/Duluth for a doctor appointment for mom. Then we flew to Boston for an advisor meeting. We got there Friday afternoon, ate supper at a great little seafood restaurant (I had New England clam chowder), went to the conference on Saturday, and went back home Sunday morning.

The last week in July, we went back to Ohio—this time Pique, which is a little north of Dayton. We had a little more time on this trip, so we were able to see a few things. The first was the Longaberger Basket office (which is an eight story building that looks like a basket). Then we went to their plant which wasn’t in production due to their annual convention being held. But we were able to look around and I got to make a basket (with a little help from a weaver)

One evening we went to a concert in the town square in Troy, Ohio—it was a group from Canada who specialized in music by the Eagles. There were thousands of people and most had their own lawn chairs—since we didn’t have chairs, we ended up sitting on a curb—it was a beautiful evening and really great music.

I went directly from Ohio to Jackson, but Bob went home, so we went to the airport together and went two different directions—although both our flights were late. I went through Atlanta and had to really hurry to make my flight—I think I was the last person on the plane.

The first week of August, Jackson was hot and humid—although the locals kept saying, ‘it’s not bad—you should have seen it the last few weeks’. Every day was packed with meetings and I ate breakfast and supper at the hotel most of the time. I did have a couple of fun evenings. One was with the International Officers. They decided to cook for some of the staff members—and it was a lot of ethnic foods. It was great getting to know them and be with some of the staff members.

I asked Saralyn if she wanted to go to Cock of the Walk for supper—she did and then asked Susan and Jeff and West to go along—we had a lot of fun and laughs—along with really great catfish.

Later in August found us heading back to Duluth for more appointments with mom. Ross and Richard came up for supper one night and Naomi, Kara and Paul ate with us and then stayed over one night. We got in a few games of cards and in the morning, I sat outside at the hotel holding Naomi while she was sleeping. It was perfect—a nice warm sunny day with a view of Lake Superior and cuddling my sweet granddaughter. We even got to walk along the lake walk which is one of my favorite places for a walk.

We went back to Duluth in Sept. for another appointment with mom and felt pretty good after this trip—she is responding well to the medication and has to go back in three months for a vision check and six months for the next MRI. The best part is she is feeling so much better and back to her old self.