A Much Better Weekend

Shabbona Lake, today.

Somehow, it has been a week already since the accident.  I can still remember all the details like it happened twelve hours ago, though... I have a feeling that will stay with me for a long time.  T. and I were both feeling a little bittersweet at dinner last night; on one hand, we know we are so lucky, but it also saddens us that we were not able to continue on.  We had been looking forward to that trip for months, and to have it end before it even really began, plus the additional loss of the Yaris... it has been a tough week.

There is one thing we know for sure, though: we've had a nice vacation anyway, just being together.  It's actually been a pretty great week!  And this is definitely a much better weekend than the last.

Yesterday, T. got a new car--a Honda Civic LX Coupe in black. It's sporty and super fun to ride around in!  After we finished up with all the paperwork at the dealership and came home for some lunch, we took the car for a ride out in the countryside.  Making our way west, we headed towards a small picnic area south of Rochelle.  It's tucked in amongst the pastures and grain silos, a small wayside there in the shadow of the wind turbines.  He and I first found it over four years ago, driving around and getting lost and seeing what we could find out there on the open road (one of our longtime favorite shared pastimes).

It was a lovely little stop.  We were amused to find traces of snow on the ground; it had been cold that day and I'd seen reports of snow via Facebook, but never viewed any flakes with my own eyes.  Afterwards, T. tried out some hills and curves, out there on those quiet and empty country roads, and slowly but surely we made our way back home.  We got dinner at a restaurant out by the airport, and I was mesmerized by the patters of different colored light bulbs, directing the way for incoming and outgoing planes.  We stayed up late, but not too late--it was Friday night, after all.

Today, we woke up early and went to the car wash.  There's a hand car wash place down on North and they did a fantastic job with the Sentra, as well as T.'s new car.  Shortly thereafter, we decided to leave and venture out to the western edge of Chicagoland again.  He navigated us towards the direction of Starved Rock in Ottawa, but we ended up redirecting and going to Shabbona Lake State Park, which was delightful and a most reasonable substitute.  From there, we continued to drive around in the country and get lost... it was a beautiful day, with bright sunshine and lots of white, puffy clouds.  Perfect for a long distance drive.

On the way back up towards DeKalb, we found a small empty forest preserve that neither of us had been to before.  It was stunning and we crossed the length of it alone, there in the woods and the prairie.  By the time we made it back to the car, our thoughts had turned towards dinner, and we continued our drive north and then west into DeKalb--the city of my alma mater, NIU, my home away from home.  We got dinner at one of our favorite local joints, satisfying as ever, and took a post-meal course around campus.

It's crazy how much has changed already in the four (FOUR!) years since I graduated, but there is, of course, much that is still exactly the same.  I was hit by waves of nostalgia driving up Lucinda, passing by Grant Towers, the townhouses next to the Casey's, where I lived my junior year.  No matter where I go, I will always consider DeKalb one of my homes.  And in a way, I'm glad things worked out and allowed us to visit today, because it had been a while and I always love coming back.  It was such a gorgeous day, and I felt, and feel, nothing but gratitude.

So... soon, life will go back to "normal."  Vacation ends tomorrow; back to work on Monday.  We'll go out for breakfast, relax, have dinner with family for his brother's birthday.  This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, but also one of the best, in a way.  I'm grateful for what I have learned and glad that everything worked out as well as it possibly could have.  I am a lucky lady with an incredible husband and a fantastic support system.  And I mean...

We relaxed, we ate out, we stayed up late and slept in late (as late as we sleep in these days, anyway), we saw some beautiful sights and spent lots of time together.  As far as vacation is concerned, what more could a lady ask for?  It certainly wasn't ideal, but it was damn near perfect.

Since then...

(Top: one final photo of the Yaris, taken by T. this last Saturday.
Bottom: On a brisk walk this afternoon.)

It's been a rainy week in Chicagoland but we've made the best of our changed plans.  Monday afternoon we drove out to the Greater Rockford Area and spent the night.  We had dinner with family outside on the porch, test drove a car, and got caught in a terrifying thunderstorm (like, pulled over on the side of the road because it was raining so hard and was so windy).  Tuesday, we drove up to Madison, Wisconsin.  While we were there, we ate comfort food at Perkins, test drove a few more cars, this time at the Honda dealership, and picked up some beer and snacks.  It was a relaxing night.

Yesterday, T. and I drove up to Gurnee Mills mall, got lunch and walked around and had some frozen yogurt.  Later on, we ordered Chinese take-out from a new-to-us local place and ended up with a veritable, delicious feast.  I started a new book and enjoyed a few drinks.  None of this is happening like I pictured it, but I keep looking at him sitting next to me, or walking across the apartment from the living room to the bedroom, and I know that I am just so lucky.

This morning, we slept in--though I'd woken up much earlier on in the morning because my eye was bothering me, I think due to allergies--and then hung out around the apartment for a bit.  We got the call from the insurance company that we had been waiting for; the Yaris is a total loss and worth more than we thought.  Even though we are sad because it's official now... the Yaris is gone and we are never gonna see it again... it's also kind of a relief.  So now, sooner rather than later, we can get the ball rolling on finding T. a new car.  And today's only Thursday!  So we still have a lot of time to spend together.  Here's to a relaxing continuation of our staycation!

The Accident

So I'm sitting here, in Madison, Wisconsin, wondering how to even begin this post.  I guess the location is the biggest thing--Wisconsin.  Yeah, you read that right.  Wisconsin.  Not Colorado.  To say our plans changed is a huge understatement.

Four days ago, 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, we were traveling on Interstate 80 about 10 miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska, when a deer crossed our path.  T. was driving, going somewhere between 75 and 80 miles per hour (the posted speed limit is 75 through there) and he couldn't see the deer until it was right in his headlights.  At that point it was only about 10 feet away.  There was nothing he could do.  It was nobody's fault, except for maybe that stupid, stupid deer, just a chaotic random event.  

It was a terrible car accident, and somehow, some way...  we walked away.  We are so lucky.

(Continues below the jump for length reasons... thanks for reading.)

The Art of the Vacation

Last night, T. and I sat down and reserved the hotel rooms for our road trip to Colorado in a few weeks.  At first, we were going to book all but a few of them on the fly, but then we found some really good deals at locations that we just could not pass up.  Like... two nights at Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort, south of Buena Vista, and two nights at the Limelight Hotel in Aspen, for a few examples.  We also figured that booking ahead will keep us on schedule and pace.  To say this road trip is going to be incredible is a total understatement.  I am SO excited!  Is it May yet?

Anyway, I was thinking earlier, and over the last eight years, the husband and I have taken some pretty amazing adventures together!  Time for a walk down memory lane...

Another photo from our 2008 Colorado excursion.  God, I love the mountains, and I am excited to experience them for a whole week.  This will always be one of my favorite trips.

Sunset at the dunes in Michigan.  He and I had been planning on going camping for a week at Devil's Lake, but an unusually large amount of rain had flooded the place and the park was closed.  We spent part of the week in Chicago and the other part exploring Michigan and it was a fun alternative, even though we were sad about missing out on camping.

That's me, barely 21 years old, on our first trip to Las Vegas!  My parents took us out there as a birthday gift, a long weekend from Friday to Monday (between his spring break and mine) and as I had celebrated that birthday the night before last, I wasn't really able to consume any alcohol until the second day of our vacation.  Oh, to be young again, haha...  (I also took a midterm in one of my hardest classes at 8 a.m. the very morning after I turned 21.  This is a story for another time, but I managed to get a better grade than some of my classmates who were, let's just say, in much better shape than I was.  Good job, college Jess.)  Anyway, this trip instilled in me a love for Vegas and a desire to return and see everything I missed the first time around...

...which we ended up doing, spending a few wonderful days playing on the Las Vegas Strip with some of our dear friends...

...and then again, for our honeymoon, which was another amazing week in the desert.  Yes, that is a souvenir photo from the Hoover Dam.  No, we could not be any more Midwest.  I love this photo.  I also miss my long hair.  We both agreed that a week in Las Vegas was a long time, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We have also been to Charleston, South Carolina!  I really enjoyed our time there and I hope to go back soon.  We were there over New Year's Eve and got to attend a swanky party before heading back to our hotel room to watch Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin and throw our own little party with champagne and the Champagne of Beers.  We also took a carriage tour and explored an old plantation.  It was a nice little mid-winter escape from Chicagoland.

And finally, our most recent major expedition, a week in Costa Rica.  I wrote a few things about the trip here, on my old blog.  It was probably the most fun I've ever had on a vacation and one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.  I will go back some day, mostly because it would be a shame to never return to a place that is Paradise, in every sense of the word.  Plus, one of our closest friends lives down there!  I'd say that's an amazing reason to go back, too!

Soon enough, we will be making all sorts of new memories and enjoying what is certain to be another incredible vacation.  Here's to adventure and the open road!

(Honorable mentions also go to our Louisiana road trip, where we got stranded for a few extra days in Tennessee due to brake problems on the Volvo, and our less than 36 hour road trip to Washington D.C. for The Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear.)

The Road to Colorado: Part Two

In January 2008, I traveled back to Colorado for the second time.  T. and his brother J. came to pick me up early one morning and we set off on our journey from the Greater Rockford Area out to Colorado.  As it turned out, J. lived in Boulder and had been home for the holidays; T. decided that he would drive him back and they invited me to come along.  I was delighted for the opportunity.  My older brother was also living in Colorado again, up in Fort Collins, so we made plans to visit with him as well.

It was a fantastic trip.  There is nothing quite like winter in Colorado--I think it was sunny every single day--and we had so much fun.  I remember so much about that trip… passing through the “140 zone” in Nebraska; being so enamored with my surroundings; adventures to nearby mountain towns and drives up and down winding roads with occasional vast drop-offs; playing Radiohead’s In Rainbows on my iPod as we drove around the metro area; walking around in Boulder and exploring Pearl Street; hanging out with his brother and with mine; listening to one of the Presidential Debates as we fell asleep; leaving the Rockies listening to the White Stripes and wishing we didn’t have to leave.  This trip to Colorado inspired The Centennial State Series, a collection of poems I wrote while traveling.

I’ve been back to Colorado only briefly since that trip.  In May 2010, T. and I took a road trip out to Las Vegas with our dear friends and neighbors J. and C.  That trip was another one for the books, too…  I had just graduated from NIU and we had only been engaged for a few weeks and we had a beautiful time out in the desert.  We drove through Colorado on the way out, of course; I actually had the portion where we were driving through the mountains, late at night, and we encountered snow which made the adventure all the more exciting.

On the way back home, we decided to stay in Grand Junction, Colorado.  We got dinner at an Applebee’s and stayed at a cheap hotel for the night.  I hadn’t been feeling great even before I fell asleep, but by the morning, it was evident that I’d come down with something.  Needless to say, by the time we hit the Denver metro area I was feeling pretty miserable and had never been happier to see my bed once we finally made it home.  Though I hadn’t really been able to enjoy it, I really loved that we got to traverse through Colorado.

So… that brings us to today.  In just a few weeks, T. and I will be embarking on our first vacation since our expedition to Costa Rica in March 2012, to… Colorado!  A road trip around the great state that will include national forests and hot springs resorts and running in the mountains every day.  I am so looking forward to it!  I’m planning on documenting the trip through words and photographs, as usual, and I can’t wait to experience everything Colorado has to offer.

Only seventeen days.  I cannot wait!

The Road to Colorado: Part One

My love affair with Colorado first began many years ago.  As a fourth or fifth grader at Stone Creek--bright eyed, enthusiastic, and talkative, of course--I was given an assignment to create a presentation about one of our great 50 states.  As soon as the teacher announced it, I knew exactly the state I wanted to choose--Colorado.  A number of things had led me to be interested in the Centennial State; we had family friends who lived there (and still do), my older brother resided there as well, and I thought it was just beautiful, with the mountains and the gorgeous scenery.  I hoped that no one would pick it before I could, and when the teacher came to my name, I ended up lucky enough to get my first choice pick.

I traced the outline of the state onto a piece of white posterboard and checked out a few books at the library to learn everything that I could.  The capital of Colorado is Denver.  Colorado joined the Union on August 1, 1876.  It is known as the Centennial State.  The state tree is the Colorado Blue Spruce.  The state flower is the Rocky Mountain Columbine.  I was fascinated.  There was no doubt in my mind… someday, I would travel to Colorado and see it for myself.  I only hoped that day would come sooner rather than later.

A couple of years later, I got my wish.   My parents planned a road trip to Colorado to stay in a condo belonging to our family friends and to go sightseeing around various parts of the state.  I was so very excited.  I also remember this vacation quite distinctly because less than a week beforehand, I got braces.  That whole experience was rather unpleasant, but I was still looking forward to the trip.  My brother and I kept ourselves occupied on the long drive by books, our Game Boy Colors, and our CD players.

On the first night of our road trip, we stayed in Nebraska and left early the next morning.  When we finally crossed the state lines and when I finally laid my eyes on the Rockies, I was hooked.  Later on that day, we reached our destination--the Denver Metro area--and spent one night in Golden before making the drive up to Silver Creek.  My brother and I slept in the living room/second bedroom, separate from my parents (which made me feel really cool) and I really enjoyed staying in the condo.  There was a kitchenette, and a balcony with a beautiful view, and a cool swimming pool that was half inside, half outside.  I can remember my dad making us breakfast with chocolate milk before the day’s adventures began.

We spent that week adventuring all over… riding the alpine slide in Winter Park…  going to a music festival in Evergreen on a gorgeously sunny day, way up in the mountains… driving through Rocky Mountain National Park.   I took a ton of pictures and soaked it all in.  The surroundings I was experiencing were so different from the ones I saw back home, and I felt legitimately sad when it was time to leave and head for home.  I remember staring out the back window of the car, watching the mountains get smaller and smaller as we drove on eastward, hoping and wishing I might be able to come back soon.

It would be almost eight years before I made my return.