Chicago 2012

Posted on by Jordan

A few weeks back, Heather and I took a (long)weekend trip out to Chicago.

The first noteworthy thing is that we tried out the Megabus from Des Moines to Chicago. I realize now that we didn’t take a single picture of the bus, or on the bus… I guess it didn’t seem that noteworthy at the time, but looking back it probably was. So imagine a double-decked charter bus at about 30% capacity. We left early afternoon Thursday   and got into Chicago just after dark.

The bus dropped us off at Union Station, more or less right where we wanted to be. After a little walking (a nice break after about six hours on the bus) we checked into our hotel.

Oh, before I go on I should note, a few great deals Heather hunted down. Thanks to early booking, the bus tickets were a grand total of $8 round trip for the two of us! The Hotel was booked using Hotwire, and while not quite shocking deal the bus tickets were, surprisingly cheap considering it was a great room, and the view wasn’t half bad:

The next morning we walked around down town for a few minutes, had breakfast in a deli/coffee shop kind of thing, and then found our way into a Chicago information center of some sort. The center was staffed by very patent people happy to explain the public transit system to those of us who don’t exactly have a handle on the turbulent mix of letters, colors, and numbers that guide the natives around the city.

A hand full of pamphlets, two conversations with the desk person and one page of notes later, we were ready to take on the rest of our trip! First stop the Museum of Science and Industry. Getting to the museum required walking about a mile, then catching a bus with the correct number on it. We got on the bus without issue, but started to worry if we were really going to know our stop as the maps we had lost considerable fidelity once you left the downtown area.

We got off ‘near’ the museum, but in hindsight we probably could have stuck with the bus for another mile. On the other hand it was a really nice day, and we were walking through a beautiful old neighborhood so I don’t think we lost much in the deal.

Once inside the museum, we wandered into the first exhibit that caught our eye, featuring the first steam engine to break 100mph, and a giant model train set of the city and approximate countryside :

The model came complete with day/night cycles… had we realized that sooner we probably would have taken our pictures during the ‘day’… oh well.

After the train area, we headed over to a weather exhibit, that had incredible potential, but was awash in grade school field trips. I still got to see some amazing things, including what I think is the first Tesla coil I have seen in person!

As it was after noon, and we were standing next to the cafeteria, a lunch break was the natural next choice. The exit from there dumped us into a large farming exhibit (sponsored by John Deer, as you could kind of guess simply by the amount of shiny green paint on display). You would think we could skip that one, given my background and Heather’s current job, but it turned out to be really interesting to see how things were being presented, and how other museum goers were responding.

We could have spent more time there, but we had an appointment to see a boat:

Let me just say that presenting the sub in a room that really felt like it could be a real sub pen was awesome! actually, everything about that exhibit was well done. It was sad that we rushed through the intro area, because our appointment was for the tour of the inside of the sub. After seeing the inside, we worked our way back through all the displays that were leading up to the sub. I suppose it helps that both Heather and I have a substantial interest in that era of history, but the U505 exhibit could have entertained us for another hour or two without any trouble.

Could have, but we wanted to catch a movie on the omnimax screen they had. It’s like imax, but a dome instead of a flat screen. The only problem was we realized about 2 minutes into the movie that we were watching an imax movie on the omnimax screen. It was still really neat to see, but perhaps not quite as unique as it could have been.

At this point we had been to roughly a quarter of the museum, and were just trying to figure out what to see next, when they paged that the museum was closing. So instead we started trying to decipher the bus map again. The good news is we were 2 of about 300 people planning to ride the bus back to downtown, so we didn’t really have to do much searching.

From downtown we caught another bus and headed over to the area marked “Little Italy.” As predicted, it didn’t really look any different from other parts of Chicago, with the possible exception that every restaurant was Italian. The good news is we just headed that way to try some Italian food. I don’t think I could properly explain the food, except to say it was good, and it wasn’t the sort of thing you would find at a chain type place, so I think we accomplished our mission.

For the second day, our main attraction was the ‘Chinatown’ area of Chicago. Getting there required that we use the subway system, another first for us. (we used the elevated train network extensively during our last visit, but the two networks are separate). Again the stop we got off on wasn’t real close, but we had a rough idea where our desired destination was, and eventually found this:

It was very authentic I guess, not real touristy in that it was mostly grocery stores and hair salons, neither of which had an abundance of english signage. Eventually we talked to a shopkeeper who gave us vague directions to “Old Chinatown” that was apparently just down the street, and was the place with the gift shops. After a few minutes of walking we did in fact find it:

That street was made up of nothing but more grocery stores alternating with gift shops all selling exactly the same stuff. It was fun to look through for a while, but we quickly felt like we had seen everything. We looked around for a place to get lunch, but the wait time at the only pace that didn’t have chickens hanging in the window (Heather’s only stipulation for making the selection) was over an hour, prompting us to just head back to the train station.

We then had a very American lunch of hot dogs, and spent a few hours gawking at large buildings before catching our bus back to Des Moines.

-Jordan

The Zoo

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I took advantage of the unusually nice weather this spring to make a little trip to Omaha and visit the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Actually, it’s a little bit of a misrepresentation to say that we took advantage of the weather, we did get amazing weather, but we had booked the trip almost a month in advance and were just hoping the weather wouldn’t be too bad.

As it turns out the weather was beautiful! Great news for us, except everyone else thought it would be a great day to go to the zoo… even then it wasn’t too terribly crowded.

We saw Gazelle!

And a rhino under the ski lift Skifari

Then some other rhinos, this time in the mud!

We wrapped up the day in the jungle area, complete with a rope bridge:

The bridge was still pretty cool. I remember it being the highlight of a trip when I was much younger and wasn’t sure how well it would hold up.

As per the plan, we had time left to take a nap before heading out again to walk around the Old Market area. I cannot over state how nice the weather was! We ended up eating outside at one of the sidewalk seating areas restaurants have in the Old Market. Not bad for March!

The next day we were able to attend the Omaha Vineyard, and see lots of old friends there. After church it was on to Lincoln for a family gathering!

It was a sort-of baby shower for one of my cousins on the Nelson side. Well, I suppose I don’t know what does and does not qualify as a baby shower, except to say that I typically don’t attend them. Whatever the case may be, that group doesn’t get together too often, so it was worth making the effort to meet up.

Also, Heather got to hold a baby out of the deal, so maybe it counts as a shower after all?

I really don’t know 🙂

-Jordan

Staying Busy Before Christmas

Posted on by Jordan

It’s probably a bad sign that every time I sit down to write a post now, I have to fight hard against the urge to spend a paragraph explaining why I am so late in getting the post up…

Anyway, remember that pile of butter from before?

We baked it into hundreds of cookies, and then invited friends over to help decorate!

The event quickly demonstrated we could probably use more variety in Christmas themed cookie cutters, and decorating widgets. On the other hand, Christmas cookie accessories more or less match the “only get used once a year” type of thing I have been known to complain about storing (and moving). I could probably make an exception for things cookie related however.

I did make it clear that there were lots of cookies right?

Everyone took home a heaping plate, and we still had enough left over to represent the Nelsons in two cookie exchanges!

The following weekend, Heather and I made a quick trip down to the KC area for a wedding shower. It was a nice shower, and I wound up having some really interesting conversations with a number of the guests. All the same, if you are planning a shower don’t worry about hurting my feelings if you made it girls only. I am perfectly content to entertain myself 🙂

Because we were going to be in the area Sunday, we headed over to Liberty MO. to meet up with some friends and attend their church. In a rare turn of events, we were running way ahead of schedule when we parked the car in Liberty. I had seen a few of these on the way in:

It was a beautiful old neighborhood, so Heather and I both were eager to walk around and explore… if perhaps for different reasons. You will have to indulge a small tangent here so I can comment on the fact that it was a beautiful day, worth noting mostly because I don’t know how many weekends in December lend themselves to walking around outside for fun.

Back to the mysterious silhouette! A few blocks down the road we found a former presidential mansion!

It may be impossible to see in the small picture there, but the plaque explains that this was once the home of Harry S Truman. A few blocks farther and we were in the historic square and downtown area. It would be difficult not to notice the signs of decline creeping into the area, but it was clear that large amounts of energy have been expended to make the square inviting to walk around in. They have historical site markers and plaques explaining the significance of the area at a density unrivaled by any town square we have ever toured.

Near the far end of the square we finally encountered the man himself:

Then it was back across the square, back to the church, and then back to Des Moines!

-Jordan

Western Nebraska Week Recap

Posted on by Jordan

I always find that when I try to cover something as big as a week away from work it’s an overwhelming thing to try and post about.

So I will just hit a few highlights:

First it was great to just spend time with my family. The fact that we had plenty of work to do was nice too, it made the start of the week feel really productive.

The other highlight was getting to share so many things from my life with Heather that she hadn’t ever seen or done before.

Heather was a really good sport with everything, despite the fact that she was able to attract every bug within five miles of wherever we happened to be.

Things Heather did with me:

  • Rode in the tractor while I was moving dirt
  • Paddled around in a canoe on a lake that I camped at lots as a scout
  • Went geocaching (not a childhood activity for me, but got us out on a hike and we found plenty of bugs)
  • Hiked around the farm taking pictures of things
  • Floated down the Medicine Creek with me in a canoe

I should expand on that last point. As you can see from the picture it was cool enough to be comfortable wearing a sweatshirt. Still ok weather to be on the water as long as you stay dry.

The trip marked only the second time Heather had been in a canoe, and the first time on moving water. I really should have been giving more instruction during the lazy areas as we started out. I had somewhat naively hoped that there wouldn’t be any downed trees blocking our path.

On the other hand, I did make sure Heather packed an extra change of dry clothes before we headed out that morning.

As you can probably guess, we didn’t make through our little trip dry. After a few close calls with tree branches we finally met one that was going to be really unpleasant to get past. There are a number of things I should have done at this point. One, I could have aggressively back-paddled to get some space between us and the tree, then landed at shore letting Heather out. Two I could have  jumped into the water and guided the boat to shore by walking in the water. Three I could have told Heather to lay down the the bow of the boat so the trees wouldn’t hit her.

Instead I only sort of explained that she should get down, and tried to get us lined up on the spot I figured we could plow through.

What happened next wasn’t so surprising: Heather didn’t realize I was planning to ram into the tree and got caught off balance, falling into the middle of the boat(on the upstream side). I wasn’t going fast enough to actually plow through the tree, and we were instantly swept crosswise of the current, and the canoe rolled.

Did I mention Heather was a really good sport about everything I wanted her to try this week? Because she got dumped into some very cold, very brown muddy water and managed to laugh about it!

We completed the res of the trip without much excitement, but I think I ruined my chance of instilling a love of canoes and or the Medicine into my wife. 🙂

-Jordan

Back In Town

Posted on by Jordan

You probably never even knew we left… but Heather and I just got back from a week in western Nebraska!

We have a camera full of pictures, I just haven’t gotten to them yet.

The downside of being gone for a week: Heather had over 1000 e-mails waiting in her work inbox Monday.

On the other hand, we had a really nice break!

More details to come
-Jordan

Geocaching

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I made this past weekend into a long weekend, and headed west to McCook.

I don’t think we could have gotten luckier when it came to the weather… absolutely perfect the entire time we were there. We tried to get outside to take advantage of that, and my parents provided a number of great opportunities for us to do that.

The first was geocaching. I was familiar with the basic idea, but hadn’t really thought much about it before the weekend. So first off, what is geocaching? Somebody leaves a cache somewhere, and then posts the GPS location of the hidden container on a website. Then we go to the website, take the coordinates and go look for the cache. The trick is that GPS will only get you with 10-20 feet at best, and the containers can be tiny! They seem to often only have room for some paper so you can sign the log before moving on to the next find.

Better description here: Geocaching

I should mention, we were well equipped for this in part because I got a new phone! (More on that later, back to geocaching for a minute)

So we loaded some points into our phones, and headed out to do some geocaching, or “treasure hunting” as my brother calls it.

Our first find!

They are holding the cache container in that picture… and I am going to guess you didn’t notice it before I said anything. We ended up finding quite a few points/caches… I don’t know the proper terminology. Heather and I really had fun with it, and hope to try doing more of it around Des Moines as the weather continues to improve.

Oddly related to geocaching and to my new phone… if you were to download the larger version of that picture I posted, and then use any sort of tool that will report to you the detailed information about the image you would find a few things:

  • The brand, model, and operating system version on my phone
  • A ton of information regarding the camera’s abilities and settings at the time the picture was taken
  • and…
  • The exact GPS coordinates of the phone when it was taking the picture.

Mind you, I didn’t add any of that… my phone just decided it would be fun to tack that all on. I didn’t realize the GPS coords were being added until I loaded the picture up in Picasa, and it offered to show me on the map where the picture was taken…. Lets just say you could find our first geocache using that picture if you were sufficiently determined.

I don’t want to sound too outraged, I don’t really think this is a terrible thing… I was just a little shocked.

Going back to the phone, I will talk about in more in a few weeks… maybe a miro-review or something, but I am still figuring it out!

-Jordan

Colorado 2011 Part Three

Posted on by Jordan

Our last day at Copper Mountain began much like every other day we had spent there; Heather got up far too early and headed to another meeting. Unlike prior days though, instead of skiing, I packed the car and did some reading.

We were on the road heading west by mid morning, and hoping we wouldn’t have any weather surprises as we climbed the remaining miles to the top of the pass. I know the natives get used to it, but I don’t think the steep up and down while going 70 MPH will ever seem normal to me.

After a few more hours of uneventful drive, we made it to Grand Junction, home of our friends DJ and Vanessa. It was getting hard to remember what day it was at this point, so for my reference and yours, it was Saturday. We spent the remaining day on a little hike, and then went to Saturday evening church.

Before I go much farther, I should mention one of the many highlights of our trip: Ingrid! DJ and Vanessa, are parents now! We enjoyed getting to see our friends exploring parenthood, and seeing that they were really enjoying it.

I sort of wish I had pictures from Sunday, as we had a really great time hanging out that afternoon around the house with a few people from church. Given that all we did was talk and play boardgames maybe the pictures wouldn’t be that interesting… all the same it was a great time. For the record, both “Settlers of Catan” and “Ticket to Ride” are great games. If you have the opportunity to play with someone who can help you learn the rules, you should!

Monday was a special treat of sorts, as DJ and Vanessa were both able to be off work, and were willing to spend a day of vacation with us! As appears to be the custom in Colorado, we used our free time to head into the Mountains again!

What you can’t quite see in the snow around their feet, are the snowshoes they are wearing. There was well over five feet of snow on the ground where that picture was taken, and without the snow shoes it would have been an entirely different picture. As you may recall Heather and I had the chance to play with some snow shoes back in Iowa a few months ago, but there were only an inch of snow. The experience is entirely different with meaningful amounts of snow.

Our plan was to hike straight out into the fresh snow, eventually crossing the trail to a lookout, allowing us to really experience the serenity of the fresh snow in the woods. It was beautiful, it was peaceful, it was also a LOT of work. Even with the snow shoes, the lead person in our group had a big job breaking a trail for us. We rotated the job around quite a bit, and were making pretty good time. Ingrid however, thought it was time for a break.

After a short break, we found a blazed trail. Walking on it felt a little like cheating, but I was ready to have an easier time walking. I should mention that Heather was doing great! Snow shoes may be more her speed, and hikes through the mountains seem to be more interesting to her than flying down the mountain on some fiberglass slats. On the road, we took a more leisurely pace than our guides:

Heather and I were mostly content to just enjoy the atmosphere, although I have to admit we did disagree somewhat as to the proper pace when walking on the road. Ingrid again asserted herself, announcing that the hike needed to end. We reverted back to traveling cross country, although it only ended up being a few hundred yards over to the main road, and from there we were practically in the parking lot where we began the trip.

We stopped through a small coffee shop on the way back to Junction, getting some coffee and enjoying the views. It really is amazing how much more pleasant winter can seem when you drape it over a giant pile of rocks!

After that, home, bed, getting up waaay too early, driving half-way across the state, a plane ride to KC, driving half-way across two other states, and we were back in Des Moines refreshed and ready for a new day at work! 🙂

-Jordan

Colorado 2011 Part Two

Posted on by Jordan

Hey look! An actual picture! Part two actually starts a little before that picture was taken, but it’s a fun place to start.

We made it to the Copper mountain ski area with a few hours of sunlight left, and time to explore before the kick-off dinner for the conference. It was sunny and clear, making the day one of those amazing winter days you seem to only get in the mountains. It should have felt cold, but it wasn’t bad walking around with a coat on. Sunshine is an amazing thing, I know we technically get sunny days during February in Des Moines, but they just don’t have the same kick.

After a beautifully scenic walk around the little resort area, we headed into the ski shop to pickup our rental equipment. About two minutes into that process, Heather had what she continues to describe as the most shocking revelation of the entire trip. I had frequently said things like “Heather and I are going skiing next week.”  Internally I knew I meant “although I will be using a snowboard” but apparently I didn’t communicate that with Heather. To say she was surprised would be an understatement! She quickly adapted to the news, but did insist that I add a helmet to my rental load-out. As a side note, the helmet was a good option, and I would recommend it to everyone.

The next morning, Heather had to be at meetings really early, although she did get a great breakfast out of the deal. I slept in as best I could (this trip was rough for me… as you can no doubt tell) and then wandered over to a little coffee shop for a “waffle” and some coffee. I put quotes around waffle, because they were running some sort of pastry dough through a waffle iron, and selling it as a waffle. Not that I am complaining really, I just don’t know if that counts as a waffle. Anyway, the coffee was good and the pastry thing was good too once I accepted it’s true nature. It was kind of strange to just be hanging out waiting for things to start around the base camp area. Every other skiing experience I have had had started a long ways from the actual ski area, so mornings were rushing to get everyone and 50 cubic yards of winter-sport related junk loaded into a car and over to the mountain. I don’t know if it’s worth it really, but if you have to stay at the base of the mountain expect a much more peaceful morning.

Eventually Heather got out of her meetings and the lifts opened up. We started to gear up to get in line, and found that Heather was having issues with her boots snapping into her skis. She graciously encouraged me to make a run without her while she went back into the ski shop to figure out what the issue was.

I know it wasn’t her intention to make me look awesome by the time we skied together, but it was the end result. I hadn’t been on a snowboard for… about five years, so I was a little bit rusty. On the bright side, Copper Mountain is huge. By the time I made it back down to the base-camp area, all those old reflexes were starting to work again. You might think this would make it harder for us to stay together if I was starting to ramp up to competency, and Heather still needed to warm up, but really I find it harder to take it slow than run at a moderately fast speed, so the warm-up run was beneficial in a number of ways.

After our initial run, we figured out a system for skiing “together.” We would ride the lift up, then split up at the first fork in the trail. We would each continue at a comfortable pace, I would ride the lift up, ski down again, and then Heather would be ready to ride the lift up with me again.

Beyond that, there are only a few other skiing related notes left to mention. First that Heather really did enjoy it after a little practice, a fact that made me glad. Before our first run, I think we both were a little concerned that she would hate it, and it would just take a lot of fun out of the trip. I don’t know if Heather liked it enough to put it on top of her ideal vacation destinations for next year, but she at least enjoyed it. The second note is that I had one truly bad crash (and only one) the end result of that is a rib that still hurts when I laugh two weeks later.

Off the mountain, we just enjoyed getting to spend more time together than we would during a normal week. Our room ceased to be a quiet little hangout on the second day, when our neighbors arrived. We quickly learned that the walls were paper-thin, and that our neighbors consisted of a “guys trip” intent on cutting loose for the weekend. Ideas like “inside-voices” were not something they brought with them for this trip. Lucky for us, skiing wore them out as much as it did us, so everybody spend most of the time indoors sleeping.

That covers most of what is noteworthy about the second portion of our trip.

-Jordan

Colorado 2011, Part One

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I seem to be on a trend of going cold places in winter.

I don’t quite know how that happened, except to say that we aren’t rally devoted to the idea… it just happens.

Our trip to Colorado at the end of February was initiated by a work conference Heather had been asked to attend.

So, let me back up for a second… You remember the speeds we each used when cross-country skiing? I know it’s a single data point, but it stands as a clue that Heather might not be as interested in high-speed winter sports as I am. That being said, when there was a trip to a ski resort in the middle of winter, I was kind of excited. Heather thought it would be fun… in her defense though, she had to work part of the time, so I had a lot of reasons to be more excited than she was.

Anyway, exceptions aside, we were both ready for a few days away from work.

Heather actually managed a few more days away than I did, heading down to KC two days early to visit some friends and then spend an entire day babysitting our one and most favorite nephew ! By all accounts it was fun, but more work than she expected! Who knew an 11-month-old could be so much work?

We boarded a plane from KC to Denver bright and early Wednesday morning. Thanks to the time-zone weirdness, we landed almost the same time we took off. Then off to the rental place. Apparently rental cars are in high demand leaving from the Denver airport on a Wednesday, not a problem though, we have a reservation! Only, the lady at the desk told us our reservation didn’t exist.

This is the point where you would expect the customer service person, the closest thing to a rental car expert we can find in the moment, to spring into action, providing us options and ultimately a car.

We got a blank stare. With some prompting we were assured that there “aren’t any cars left… at any of the companies here” when asked “you mean there isn’t a single car left to rent in Denver?” she said yes. The next question was just “so… what do we do now?” She pointed us to the shuttle-bus stop, and said that we could get back to the airport on the next bus, “maybe one of the other companies has a car I don’t know about”

Back at the airport, we power-walked our way to the only rental-car booth with a huge “cars available” sign sill showing. (it really felt like we should run… but one doesn’t want to stand out in the airport, who knows what they might mistake you for.) Let me tell you about the booth, unlike the other booths, this one lacked a few key items: name we had ever heard of before, a computer, a phone, any furnishings beyond the counter and a chair for the solitary staff member working the booth. The guy assured us “don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of ‘us’ ether, before I got this job… but I guess ‘we’ are big out west” He then assured us they had cars left, talked from memory about the price and options we would have, then wrote our desired car on a scrap of paper. Scrap of paper in hand, we headed out to yet another bus stop. After watching every other rental-car bus pass about three times, our bus finally arrived. The ride was normal, until we got to the ‘T’ intersection leading where you would turn to go into the rental car row. Our bus turned left instead of right. About a mile in the wrong direction and we were in the parking lot for a mostly vacant industrial strip. There were rental cars though! Dirty rental cars, but rental cars. Inside we learned that they were having problems with the car wash, but not to worry the car would be fine. A few sheets of paperwork later, and we had some keys! The instructions were to: “just wander around pushing the panic button on the remote, you will find it eventually”

Low and behold, that tactic worked perfectly, despite it’s lack of professionalism. Once in our car, we found that it had less than 300 miles on it, and was wonderfully clean– on the inside. After that, we stopped for a quick and uneventful lunch and headed up to check into the place we were staying.

hmm sorry I didn’t make it to a part where we have a picture, but the wall-of-text is sufficient to make me think I should close part 1.

-Jordan

Winter Camping

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The past weekend saw Heather and I apart for a large amount of the time.

I went camping with the Boy Scouts, and Heather had a movie night with some girls from church.

In the days leading up to the weekend, Heather was making phone calls and sending e-mails to entice people to come over. I meanwhile, was rapidly eating through my Christmas gift money buying cold weather camping gear. The premiere purchase:

A sleeping bag rated down to ZERO degrees! The picture isn’t from the camping trip, but Heather thought she should record my testing the bag for proper fit.

By all accounts, Heather’s movie night went really well… and the camping was kind of cold 🙂

Actually, it wasn’t so bad. We had access to cabins, so weren’t out in the cold the entire time, nor did I really need the ultra cold weather bag when we were sleeping inside. I am prepared now though!

It was my first trip camping with the troop as an adult leader. The trip back in November was a training event and I didn’t camp with the troop.  I had fun, but it was challenging to know exactly how much guidance I should be giving.  Doubly hard when many of my meals were being cooked by 14 year-old boys. In the end though, I think the boys had fun, and hopefully learned a few things.

I had fun, and learned a lot, even if the boys didn’t! I don’t know if I can quantify it as easily as saying “I learned square-lashing” but I am sure I will be better at working with the troop next time we go out.

-Jordan