A Day Late

Sorry about that - yesterday I didn't have much time to jump on a computer because in the evening we went about a half hour or so to a town called Babbett to take our swim tests. I passed but I didn't realize how terribly out of shape I was. Yesterday, I worked a lot with John and Emmett getting our voyageur display ready. We built the tepee (which was a LONG process), moved come canoes (one of which was a voyageur canoe reaching over 35 feet long and 6 feet wide) and I did some sewing to mend a voyageur dining fly that had a tear in it. Other than that, not much has been happening. The early mornings are slowly killing me pretty much and the mornings are all pretty cold. I'll survive though :)

I'll try to get on later today to write today's happenings.

Sorry for the lack of pictures lately, I'm on the general staff computers and don't have much time to upload and fiddle around with pictures because there is always people waiting...

First Full Day in Ely

So as the title suggests, today was our first full day here. With another early morning behind us, I can't help but feel disgust at the fact that every morning will consist of such an early waking hour. The girls in my cabin are all really nice - Sara, Millie, Erin and I have already done a bunch of bonding. There is also a veteran staffer here whose name is Meghan - she wasn't around much last night to spend the girl time with us... I'm pretty sure she's much older than we all are. Its okay though, at least the four of us get along really well. (Picture at right - Good Morning base :D). After breakfast today, there was some "this is scouting" sort of training (but probably not as good as yours dad), a talk by the chief of staff (or whatever his title may be) and some paddle game thing that I didn't play because I had no crew - instead, I helped John (my boss, remember?) finish working on our garden. Its pretty make shift - or at least the beanpoles are - but it'll work.

Then was lunch and a few more trainings ... one of which I'm still not really sure why I went but I'll get over it (something about safe food prep in the woods ... I'm not going in the woods so ... ?). Then I helped John more, we finalized the garden, watered it and then did a lot of walking around getting things together until he had to leave (he had errands to run or something?).

I'm not hating it here ... but it's not the best time I've ever had ... maybe I just need to give it some time.

Day Three - more driving and arrival in Ely, MN

This morning was an early morning for us in Chicago - 5:30 AM with plenty of driving to follow. We took off at 6 and drove until about 10 AM when we decided we both needed some Starbucks (BAD). From there, we stopped at an Old Country Buffet for lunch at about Noon and kept on driving until we hit Ely, MN at around 5 PM. The drive had plenty of bug spatters on the windshield of the car and most definitely PLENTY of music including the completion of my Disney Soundtrack, HMS Pinafore, Phantom, parts of Enchanted, Sweeney Todd, a few random songs from Carl and then a bit of the Juno soundtrack. All in all, the trip took a good 11 or so hours (I napped for about 3 of those...) and Carl drove for every one of them (not that I didn't offer). I'm pretty sure we made some good time and also had a pretty good time singing along with the musicals. That was, until we hit Ely and I realized our imminent future.

Upon our arrival at base camp, we wandered around a bit until we figured out where to check in. While Carl was checking in, I met Angela Stuart (who knew who I was right away (somehow)) who had talked to Dad earlier in the day and found it funny that he knew staff was arriving today. After I had checked in, the two of us were shown around camp by my "boss", the history director, John. Then the three of us continued on to dinner which consisted of traditional camp food - noodles and sauce, bread and corn and then Carl and I took our stuff up to our cabins. I'm in a cabin with four other girls whom I haven't met yet. I'm on the top bunk and we have our own bathroom with shower; its even nicer than Draper or Trout Lake at D - A. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with a trunk/footlocker despite the list telling us to bring one. We had a staff meeting and met each other at around 8 tonight and told a bunch of jokes - some were funny, some were traditional "corny" scout jokes. Someone (whose name I already forgot) sitting behind us told the unique rabbit joke that Mr Cullin tells all the time in Geometry. I wanted to tell the hypotenuse one but I figured it would be lame to tell a math one (until some one told this one - "What's the integral of 1/a log cabin? Natural log cabin..."). Tomorrow starts early with some training at 7 am for my group and then breakfast. After that, who knows what. We'll see I guess.

The free floating, general anxiety is still pretty much very present but Carl has been really great about reassuring me how awesome and fun things will end up being - I'm just worried about how things will be after he leaves base.

I'll keep you all updated.

One Short Day in the Windy City

So today was the day Carl and I planned as cushion room in order to properly spend time exploring Chicago like the cute tourists we are. We started the day by waking 20 minutes later than we planned (because someone accidentally left their phone on vibrate all night (which I find odd - the fact that his alarm doesn't ignore the "vibrate" mode - mine does)). We dressed and downed some corn flakes - Carl thought I should add the fact that I felt it necessary to explore the kitchen for a pyrex in order to measure my cereal/milk. Hey, a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do. We then walked to the L (yes Josh, I checked, it is proper both as L and El) only to find that we needed to walk a few more blocks in order to obtain our "day passes" so of course, we did that and then backtracked to the station and boarded for the day ahead.

After transferring lines, we ended up near Shedd Aquarium - only not near enough Shedd to know where we had to go. We guessed which direction to walk and walked the wrong way 2 - 3 city blocks (to Target!) and then a nice lady on a bike told us we had to turn around - so we did. At Shedd, we of course saw plenty of fishes and other interesting animals (including a PYTHON and Iguanas). Here is Carl standing next to a replica of the biggest fish ever caught - he is a 10 foot long, 350 pound Arapamia fish that was caught in the Amazon (if I am not mistaken). We also saw sea otters which were actually very playful and were as always very cute (at the Zoo, they're usually pretty sleepy...). We saw dolphins (but not the dolphin show because I dunno why...), some beluga whales, sharks and plenty of penguins - but these weren't as cute or as lively as the ones at the zoo. They didn't swim at all and they just sat there. But there were two penguins in particular that were actually the most adorable ones I have ever seen...

After Shedd, we made our way over to Bin 36 - a restaraunt Aunt Jenny shared with me on my first trip here with her. We had some delicious Hummus and both had a wonderful corned beef sandwich with their excellent fries and (hard not soft) bread sticks. I'm pretty sure Carl really enjoyed it (I know I did). We decided we would then walk our way down to Navy Pier (mostly because everyone is always ranting and raving about it - we wanted to see what all the excitement was about for ourselves!). The only thing that was particularly interesting to us (and worth the walking - our feet were TIRED by this point) was riding on the ferris wheel - so we did. Carl was a little uneasy about the trip up to the top of the wheel (he's a little afraid of heights) but it was still a pretty enjoyable ride with a beautiful view. The wheel apparently runs nonstop so you have to jump on and off while its still moving ... that was great fun! It was in the plan to show Carl Millenium Park but after the Pier, we lazy Michiganders decided we would rather just head back "home" so we contacted Ted and set up a key exchange in the lobby of his work so the two of us could do that. Then Carl and I watched some CASH CAB (HOORAH!) and waited around for Ted to come home which then began the evening of Hockey (via my laptop because no channel is showing it here?) and chinese food for dinner (dispite our HUGE lunch and lack of extreme hunger) which is ALWAYS good.

Now, showered and exhausted (with pains in my head), I believe I leave the world to the hands of others while I attepmt to sleep for about 7 hours (for we are leaving at 6 tomorrow morning and needless to say will be getting up before then...). Who knows how long it will be before the next post ... hopefully not too long :)

(travel) DAY ONE

Today, Carl and I left Livonia at exactly 9 am EST (I swear, the clock in the living room was chiming as we left!). After a short trip to the credit union (to pick up traveler's cheques) and a stop at Madonna (to register Carl for fall classes), we were on our way down I-96, M14 and onward down I-94 toward Chicago.

On the way, we stopped in what I think was a silly town (Paw Paw) for lunch at ARBY'S :D where the lady proceeded to "super size" (as I would say) Carl's meal despite his desire to cancel that option. Out the window we could see what was called the St Julian's winery (but we're thinking it wasn't the St Julian's). This particular instance in Arby's also consisted of a shortage of Arby's sauce - the bags here are the replacements of Arby's sauce... which I fould a little ... let's just say interesting. I at least enjoyed my Arby's ... Carl seemed a bit impartial (especially since they forgot to put the bacon on his beef and cheddar). Once we finished lunch, we continued on our way.

Soon, we arrived at the Chicago Skyway (which Donald cautioned us about going exactly the speed limit on ... which we may or may not have done ... but we survived nonetheless) - the inital stretch (of about 16 miles) cost us only $ .50 while the second stretch (of about 2 - 5 minutes) cost $1.25 and the final stretch of the skyway (which was a rediculously SHORT amount of travel time) had a toll of $3.00. Outrageous? I think so. We both do. Once in The Windy City itself, we drove to a spot near Ted's apartment (to park for the few days time) and then walked to the "el" station where we would jump on the brown line to get to the Art Institute of Chicago - I saw this ad and thought it was pretty funny.

At the Art Institute, we saw a lot of amazing paintings and other works of Art. First we checked out the men's restroom ;) okay, well Carl did. For real, we first checked out a photography exhibit which was half decent I suppose ... some of the work I wasn't too impressed with ... but maybe I'm just being a snooty photograper, I dunno. Then we did some exhibit set up especially for kids and it was full of interactive things - I think it was called the touch exhibit or something. Carl and I "became" knights (in one of those face cutout things you pose behind) and did some rubbings they had set up; one of a knight and another of a lady. We also saw an exhibit of a bunch of miniatures which were like rooms in a doll house, plenty of famous paintings (some by Monet (including the water lily one that hung in the hallway at home for a long time), VanGogh, and Seurat (the one who did "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte")).

After the institute, we headed back near Ted's apartment and grabbed our stuff to stay the night. (Then we moved the car closer to the apartment...). We waited outside for maybe 5 or 10 minutes and then hung around inside waiting for Andrew so we could go to dinner. We went to a deep dish place called Giordano's which was DELISH (this picture of Andrew holding a napkin ring is proof that we were indeed there...).

Being stuffed full of yummy pizza (and bruchetta), we recieved our bill (of EXACTLY $40 thanks to Andrew's milk) and walked back to the apartment in the rain (which was a first for the day, it's now storming outside but was luckily gorgeous the rest of the day for our touristy walking and museuming) to figure out what will happen tomorrow and to dine on fine desserts such as ICE CREAM. :) One day down ... many more to go. Hopefully tomorrow will be full of plenty of fun and sight seeing (including me taking Carl to Millenium Park) and the next day will be full full of driving and probably hysteria... (hysteria due to the nearing of the three months in Ely... by myself (most of the time)).

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