Madison

I've had these photos in a draft for a while but of course I keep forgetting about them. Instead I've been writing really inspiring case studies and papers on the topic of supply chain risk management! I know, great right?

This is Camp Randall. I did buy football season tickets this year (sorry Spartans) and probably will again, but they're in the student section and lets face it - I'm too old for that mess. So I'll sell most of them again (if I get them, tickets sold out in 15 minutes last year.)

Downtown from Lake Menona

Union Terrace on Lake Mendota. It's really too bad the two lakes in Madison have such similar names. I get them so confused...

Union Terrace again at sunset. If ever in Madison this is a really lovely spot to sit. There's frequently music, you overhear some really amusing conversations, and you get to have drinks on a lake. Nothing bad there!

2012 = Year of the Roadtrip

January was Florida, April was Ireland (partial road trip at least), May is to California, August is from California... I need a November or December trip! Any suggestions?

Actually a group of us were discussing a post-Christmas December road trip to Central America but Mexico seems too iffy. So we're potentially flying instead. Problem solved!

This is becoming a bad travel blog rather than a my-life blog... or is it that I have no life outside of travel??

Road Trip Finale

Apparently I never posted this... I'm the worst. And now it's kind of the worst too.

Ok so, the last bit of the trip was actually the part I wanted to see most. We were going to Graceland!!! I was very, very (much) excited for this. First we stopped in Mississippi at the petrified forest, mostly out of curiosity. It was a nice walk. There were plenty of petrified logs, but they look like regular logs so... yeah. Neat anyway. This is an ancient log:

Petrified in the Petrified forest?

Next stop Memphis! Beale Street is pretty short, which is a bit surprising given how much it's advertised. There were a bunch of great music spots though and we did hang out for some very good bar shows.

But the main attraction was this place. It was everything I'd hoped it would be. I was prepared for it being small because a number of people had mentioned that, but I wasn't prepared for the all out gloriousness of the 70's time stop. I knew it would be great, but I didn't imagine THIS great.

Creepy monkey statue with mirror ceiling? Check.

Crazy carved wood chairs and carpeted ceiling? Check.  (no flashes allowed, boo.)

And there was more. So much more... folded fabric wallpaper, so many  mirrors.... 

Obviously there were the suits. Ryan and I were planning to get matching jumpsuits, but sadly they didn't have my size.

Best. Trashcans. Ever.

To even out my Elvis tour (which Ryan enjoyed, despite his initial skepticism) we also toured the Gibson factory. Unfortunately it was Sunday so my supply nerd tour loving self couldn't see anyone working, but there was WIP lying around so I pretended. I'm definitely impressed that there's so much manual work still put into making the guitars while maintaining high quality. If the quality is bad they destroy them - I'm imagining people rock star smashing them at lunch. In which case I'd like to apply for a job.

Word.

The remainder of the trip was fine... until Illinois. Of course. There we met intense fog followed by snow in Wisconsin. Uggggghhhhh.  

Grand total: 3,874.8 miles of fun! (and creepy monkey statues)

Where is my mind?

I signed up with a team for the Tough Mudder in September. I don't know why! I can run about a mile right now... at least it'll give me incentive to get it going?

Freezin for a Reason

Madison's Polar Plunge was last weekend and, for some crazy reason, I decided to join the MBA team to do it. Luckily it was a gorgeous day out! Almost 40 degrees, sunny.

People lining up to torture themselves

  

A number of people brought out their costume A Game. The first year supply chain ladies dressed up as a Viking team.

Still happy and dry 

Unfortunately the ice had gotten thin by the afternoon so we couldn't all go together.

Therese, Nhien, and Claire 

 Hannah and I questioning our decision far, far too late.

It was cold. The fur was heavy wet.

It was ridiculously fun!

NOLA

Initial impressions were that "it smells like pee" and "I haven't seen anyone normal yet."

We were staying at the Holiday Inn on King Street which I was a bit disappointed about because 1) I wanted a cute boutique hotel but the Chase points site was being a b**ch about what was available and 2) based on the map I thought it was going to be kind of out of the way. Everything in the French Quarter is really close together though, so concern #2 wasn't an issue. Night 1 we wandered around and of course stumbled onto Bourbon Street. It's hard to miss - loud and people-ful! It was exactly as I was expecting, just a mess of drinking. I can't imagine what a disaster Mardi Gras is... In two off-season days we saw a girl flash for a hot dog, flashing for beads of course, sidewalk peeing of course, a guy get punched out by a bouncer and left on the sidewalk (very near to horse crap too, ick. Note: don't wear open shoes on Bourbon St). One of the best was a police horse freaking out about something and (literally) butting into a guy. He acted like he was going to start something for a second but then decided that "it's cool." Not sure what he thought he was going to do in the first place?? The horse will crush you. All of this is I'm sure completely standard and tame compared to what goes down most of the time.

From this it probably seems like I didn't enjoy New Orleans which is not the case. I really liked it a lot. The people watching is great! The scent gets better after the streets are powerwashed. The thing I really liked, and not in a drunk way, was that you could walk around with drinks at any time. It was nice to get a drink then continue sightseeing without trouble.

During the day we did the standard French Quarter touring as well as drove over to the Garden District to see the historic mansions. People were starting to decorate for Mardi Gras which I really enjoyed. The colors are so much fun! I might start decorating for it myself. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to do - the WWII museum and film were reported to be excellent but the timing was bad - but we will get back eventually. We ate some beignet, muffaletta, gumbo, jambalaya, red beans, crawfish, king cake... I gained like 5 pounds... We went to the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel where mixed drinks were supposedly invented. Sazeracs aren't really my thing...

Overall it was a great relaxing stay. I think I love NOLA :)

Delicious!

Also delicious! One of our tour guides insisted we get some King Cake as it was now in season.

Misc. French Quarter pic

Masks, beignet mix and stuffed alligators. Apparently all are standard purchases.

I would love a horse to tie to the horse horse-tie-up!

Florida Gulf Coast

Every time I try to start this one I get overwhelmed by picture selection and give up - there are too many! So I pretty much did a mini scan and that's what is here.

This was my first time in the Florida panhandle and their beaches. I was surprised at how white they all are! They feel very nice on the toes, even if the water was very chilly. Like Lake Michigan really, maybe softer. Definitely not shelly like on the Atlantic coast. We stopped at quite a few places along the way; Bald Point State Park, Carabelle, Apalachicola, Panama City, Destin along with some that I don't know the name of. Highway 98 is a really beautiful drive. It actually went faster and was along more water than I was expecting. I definitely recommend it if you have some time!

Of the "Panama City" section Destin was our favorite. The beach was as beautiful as the main drag but was quieter (we're all old and stuff now), didn't have porn outfits in the t-shirt shops and no broken bottles in the walkway up to the beach.

Panama City Beach

And the reason I will never go on season......

We were thinking we'd get a chance to sit and watch the sunset at Bald Point State Park but it was facing the wrong way so we just wandered a bit. If you're in the area Alligator Alley is a fun jaunt from the main road. There are some really cool stilt houses and the road is like driving into the ocean

Shells, but no sunset

Alligator Alley



We were sure we wouldn't find a good sunset spot when this oasis appeared! Not only was it perfect timing, the old school picnic overhangs were amazing! (what are they 50s? 60s? I'm terrible with architecture). An added bit of fun, it was a WWII D-Day training site in the 40s.

I've never seen so much pink before! The sky was pink, the water was pink. The flamingos should consider hanging out here.

Now that the sun was down it was time to stop for the night because what's the point of driving along the Gulf if you can't see it? Crossed a giant bridge and saw this seriously cute hotel (though it was dark at the time) and went no further. Gibson Inn in Apalachicola was built in 1907 and is supposedly haunted. (I saw nothing. I'm sure I'm happy about that.) The room was seriously cute and coffee on the porch in the morning was a great way to start the day!

Say no more! I'm in.

They.Were.Delicious.

Apalachicola oysters are rumored to be the best in the world so obviously I had to eat some. I was not disappointed! I want some right now... Ryan wasn't a fan, but he's crazy and that meant more for me :) This trip also made me a really big fan of Gumbo which I hadn't really enjoyed before. If anyone knows of a good place up here please tell me where!

Not a part of Florida, but we also stopped in Mobile on the way to New Orleans. It was cute though we didn't stay long. Bienville Square has SO MANY squirrels. People feed them so they come right up to you. It's a little freaky - I do not need a squirrel jumping on me because it thinks I have some snacks... 

No snacks here!

This doesn't really do it justice...