Chicago

It's been quite a travel week for me! I've gone the furthest toward the middle of the country I have ever been. And I saw just a few states...

I survived my week of working in Toledo, Ohio, and Friday afternoon I hopped in my rental car and drove the 4 hours west to a city I can't believe I haven't been to yet....Chicago!

My good friend from high school lives in the Windy City so it felt like a good excuse to visit and explore.

We started off strong with some Chicago Deep Dish pizza

It was interesting, but nowhere as good as New York pizza! 

That night we went out in Wrigleyville, the bar area around the famous wrigley field.

The coolest bar we went to had dueling pianos, an arcade, and batting cages

The next morning we woke up early and got a full day of exploring the city. 

First up was the University of Chicago, where my friend's fiancé is a grad student. It was a beautiful campus that reminded me of Princeton

We then took a walk along Lake Michigan to toward downtown

There were tons of cool buildings in the main part of the city 

My favorite was the Tribune building

They had rocks from all over the world in the side of the building, from the coliseum in Rome, to a piece of the Alamo, to petrified redwood from California, to a piece of home

Next we walked back to the lake to explore the park and visit the famous shiny bean

At night, we went to a really good German restaurant that brewed its own beer and had giant pretzels. After that we went to a place called Geek bar, that was full of fun things I loved 

The next morning we woke up and rented bikes and took them along the Lake. It was a perfect day, 75 and sunny.

We decided to do the super touristy thing and go to the top of the Willis Tower, which is the tallest building the the Western Hemisphere, beating the Empire State by 3 floors.

It was a great view, but the coolest was the glass boxes you could go in....over 1500 feet above the street

After that, we continued to explore and fueled ourselves with some Chicago dogs

and continued to see classic Chicago sites

Over all between the two days, we biked just over 14 miles and walked about 18 miles! 

It was definitely a great first visit to the city, and was a place I would go back to...as long as it's not the winter

It's back to California now! 

Where in the US is Katie?

It was a busy week and weekend as I started my week and a half of travel for work. 

First up, I made my return to Baltimore for two big trials. They both went really well but resulted in two, 16 hours days and me getting covered in ingredients

Those are some dirty lab coats. 

Saturday I slept in and got a massage to recover from the two long days. Everyone that was with me left to go back home, so I was left all by myself. But that beer bothered me, so I took myself to Georgetown for the day to enjoy the sunshine

It was a beautiful day for walking along the river, window shop stores I can't afford, and eat some sweets. The best part was seeing all the green

Sadly the cherry blossoms were all dead.

The next day was back on a plane, this time heading to Detroit, Michigan.

I was a little nervous going to the "most dangerous city in America" but quickly found that it is beautiful and safe downtown

I got to wave at Canada across the river

I wanted to check out Joe Louis arena, which is where the Red Wings play and is the second oldest hockey arena. Since it's the playoffs, I somehow ended up with a free tshirt and a great picture!

I found out their tickets are super cheap, so I picked one up for Tuesday night.

Next up, I checked out the enormous GM building

The coolest part was they had all their cars in their lobby to check out

The sun started to go down, so I knew it was time to get out of there. So I hopped in my rental car and drove to my final location, Toledo Ohio

I am in Toledo all week for work, helping a comanufacturer learn our products I may die of boredom ere, as most of my time is spent hiding in a hotel room. But this weekend I have something so exciting prepared, it will be worth it. 

Not much....

Not much to report from this weekend...I had to stay in town because I am doing my final training for scuba diving to be a rescue diver.

The big news is I am now a certified first responder for CPR, AED, and first aid. Hopefully, I never have to use it but it's good skills to have. 

Saturday morning was spent practicing rescues. It was hard work but I feel good about it. 3 weeks until I have to do it in the ocean! 

Saturday night my friends and I went to the hockey game in town. It was the final game of the season and was against our rivals, so it was filled with lots of awesome fights! 

Sadly, my condors lost and are out of the playoffs. 

Sunday was a lazy day of cleaning the apartment, playing video games with my friend, and planning everything for the next few weeks. Lots of travel coming up! The rest of April will be crazy....I will try to keep up.

Arizona weekend

Sorry I am behind again! It was quite a weekend and I needed a few days to really recover. We had a 3 day weekend so that only means one thing....Road trip!!

(Taken by not the driver)

This was the most ambitious road trip I've done so far, as baby beetle finally left the state of California to go to Arizona!

My friend and I drove 7 hours Thursday night with only one real mission: to see the Grand Canyon. 

It was really amazing. I didn't appreciate the size of it until I was there and we hiked down into it. We only went 2 miles down and still couldn't see the bottom!!

The hike was very intense. We were going straight down...which means we had to go straight up to get back 

But it was worth the views

It was surprisingly cold in the canyon, which was really nice for a change!

That night we drove down the state to get to Pheonix area.

The next day, we took in some spring training baseball

Explored Pheonix, including the stadiums 

Went to a classic car show (shopping for a new beetle?)

Checked out old town Scottsdale 

And newer town Scottsdale

Sunday it was driving time again, though luckily this time my friend and I switched off so I could get a break.

About 4 hours in, we stopped for food and a break and stumbled on the best rest stop ever

Overall, a lot of driving and adventure. Totally worth it to see another state and finally experience the Grand Canyon!

The total miles on baby blue..,,

Vegas baby!

I'm getting very, very bad at posting on time so I have just accepted that most of my posts will now occur on Wednesdays. 

This weekend was another big out of state trip, this time to Las Vegas!

Luckily Vegas is not that far of a drive, only 3.5 hours through the open desert until you see all the bright lights!

The first thing we did, since we were all starving was check out Fremont street and old town Vegas and grab some dinner 

There were lot of strange characters and street performers. There was so many places to look at, it was overwhelming. 

Next it was off to The Palms to a really cool bar

Yes, the bar was 55 stories above the strip and all outdoor. It was quite a view. 

We didn't know the Mohawk guy, he just jumped in out picture.

The coolest part was the edge of the bar was all glass, so you could look straight down

The craziest thing is that the bar never closes. So though we left at 3:30am that was considered early, and the party was just getting started!

The next morning we (unhappily) woke up early and hit the strip to explore. It's crazy how much the city has changed since I was last there 4 years ago.

Luckily, my favorite part was still there, the bellagio fountains

After 6 hours and 30,000 steps, we were tired and ready to be done with exploring. 

Luckily, it was time for the reason I went to Vegas...Penn and Teller!!

They were amazing, doing all sorts of crazy tricks from making an elephant disappear to making a cell phone appear in a fish to an awesome cars trick with the whole audience. Normally I can figure tricks out, but so many of them I had no idea how they did it!

After the show, it was back to the Venitian where we were staying to go to Tao, some hip Asian themed club. It was packed with tons of people, including birthdays and bachelor parties. We had a lot of fun dancing and people watching.

The next morning we woke up and drove back to Bakersfield, where I took a very long nap. Vegas was a ton of fun, but I think I need a weekend off after all that!!