Amanda's Alaskan Adventure

One girl, one big journey

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Thursday, August 26th

More fun


Tuesday went up by Grandma and Grandpa's. Little bit of fog on the way up, and a few sprinkles while we were there, but otherwise great weather (if a little mosqitoey). Got to check out the pontoon pier at the lake, and saw an eagle flying off as I walked up (flew away too quick to get a picture of :( ). No more bear floating around, by the way.

After we got back Buddy stopped by to watch the Brewers, and I got a chance to show off some of my pictures. :)

Today went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. Their presentation and upkeep blew the ones in Milwaukee out of the water. Even though a lot of stuff was past peak, you didn't walk around seeing a bunch of dead flowers, you walked around seeing how a lot of the foliage has different colors and textures, and all of the grasses... And a lot of the roses still looked nice. The Thai pavilion was really cool too, amazing that gold leaf manages to stick through all of our goofy weather.

One of the coolest things about this garden: all of the outdoor stuff is free, and the little bit of indoor tropical stuff is only a buck (except for during special events, like the butterfly hatching extravaganza a couple weeks ago) with donations greatly appreciated, of course. Its also not far off the highway, so you don't have to mess with any of the one-way street silliness. I highly recommend it, and would love to go back during other seasons to see what it looks like. That place may have to become a bit of a ritual whenever I come home.

After we got done wandering around there (3 hours later) we grabbed some lunch, then raided the Bethesda in Horicon while waiting for Kris to wake up so I could go check out his place. Pretty nice, you definitely wouldn't know that it was in rough shape just a couple months ago. Good work guys!

After the grand tour we played some Guitar Hero / Rock Band. I think I like drums a lot better than guitar. :) (The fact that they don't kill my wrists the way the guitar does kinda helps)
Amanda on 08.26.10 @ 06:48 PM AKDT [link] [2 Comments]


Monday, August 23rd

Home Sweet Home...


So much to tell...

The last couple weeks of class were pretty insane, largely because we had our field exercise, and they had just changed how they did the field exercise, so nobody, least of all the people running things, knew what was going on. And that was my scheduled turn for class leader. Ugh.

Let's just say that I didn't get beat up too bad.

Finally graduated after 12 long weeks as honor graduate (2nd highest grade in class). Sweet.

More confusion ensues after graduation because they hadn't had us sign our paperwork yet, and then we had to wait for people to get back from lunch to print everything out... *shakes head*

Get to the airport, and find out that my puddlejumper is actually small enough to have props. Ew. The pilot did a good job and there was good weather, so it wasn't a rough flight at all. Just very loud. And it was kindof odd seeing lightning what seemed like not too far away. It was definitely cool being able to see the puff of smoke when the wheel hit the ground, and sparks flying off the brake.

Sitting at airport awaiting my next flight, a couple of troops walk off the plane wearing headgear, so I have to snap back into NCO mode and correct them *sigh*. They looked to me like they were going from BCT to AIT, since they had no unit insignia.

Next flight has a jet engine, and it wasn't really full so I got the seat next to me open, and I passed out at some time during takeoff, and woke up just in time to get something to drink.

After landing, got picked up by Dad (thanks Dad!), got stuck in detour-land as soon as we got out of the airport, so had a slightly scenic route home, but otherwise uneventful.

Spent Wednesday zoning out. Thursday went to Boerner Botanical Gardens (pictures to follow) and took Mom out to dinner for her birthday (on the condition that we wouldn't do anything to embarrass her).

Friday I made myself a new bag, cuz I was trying to travel light and didn't bring something that I could just toss a camera in. Overall it turned out too well, just don't look too closely at any of the hand sewing :) Considered going to the Artist's Showcase dealy in Hartford, but the storms rolling through put an end to that. Later heard from Patti that power was lost, so there wouldn't have been much point even if we did want to brave the storms.

Friday went to Irish Fest. I think that's my quota for dealing with big crowds for the next year or so. Other'n that, was pretty cool. Would almost have to go all four days in order to see half of the acts performing. I did get to see Seamus Kennedy (absolutely hilarious - if you ever get the chance to see this guy, jump at it) and Gaelic Storm (good energy, kept the audience on their feet all evening long). Absolutely pooped by the time I left, but had a good time. :)

Yesterday headed over to Allenton to check out Fireman's Parade (some cool classic cars) and food afterwords at Patti's, then over to Port Washington for the Maritime Heritage Festival. AKA the Tall Ships. Three of them you could tour, a couple more you could have gotten tickets on to sail for a while, but they were all sold out, so we just toured. And my camera died while I was trying to take pics of one of the ships sailing around (what I get for trying to go to multiple events in one day, one of which where I keep trying to keep the camera from going to sleep). I hope I still managed to get some good pics. Haven't really had time to sort through most of them yet.

Today will probably be spent recovering and trying to work ahead on some college homework. Or napping. *shrug*
Amanda on 08.23.10 @ 05:42 AM AKDT [link] [No Comments]


Monday, August 2nd

TWo weeks...


Only got about two weeks left in this place. Woo hoo!!!

That being said, I'm looking at stuff to do when I get back. Apparently the weekend right after I get back is Irish Fest in Milwaukee. Hmmm...

And I know that at some earlier point it was mentioned that I should go here one of the times that I go on leave again. And checking out one of these places looks good too.

Decisions decisions...

Any other suggestions?
Amanda on 08.02.10 @ 02:29 PM AKDT [link] [14 Comments]