Take me Back to Chicago

Location: London, Ontario, Canada

We had so much fun last night and I’m so grateful for our wonderful hosts!! London was such a fun town and the people were great and so friendly. We hit up a little sports bar after I finished work last night to meet up with some more of Dan’s Pano friends and to watch the Leaf’s hockey game and MNF. The games were pretty uneventful and after some wings and quite a few pitchers, we decided to head to a real club. For a Monday night, this place was packed – we actually had to wait in line to get in! The bar itself was great; had two floors with different music and vibes on each. We camped out in a booth upstairs and chatted, drank and listened to the live music. It was a really great time and we got home quite late.

After a long sleep, we left after noon and headed down to Chicago. Getting back into the US was relatively straight forward (although not nearly as much fun as getting into Canada) and the drive through Michigan and Indiana was… well… boring.

When we arrived in Chicago, it was raining, but not too heavily. We stopped by Sam’s apartment to drop our stuff off and Dan, Brian and Sam all headed to the Metro to see the show we were supposed to see. Unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to get a day off from work, so I’m missing the show to put in the hours I wasn’t able to earlier today. I’m really kind of over this whole work while on vacation thing. I was supposed to be on vacation all of last week also and didn’t break one day. I guess the only thing that’s good about this is that I will definitely have some vacation days to take and relax once I get back to Oklahoma – ok I guess that’s sort of good.

Anyway, I’m in a coffee shop down the street from Sam’s now. Just got done with the majority of the work I needed to do today and now I’m going to go meet the kids at the Metro to grab a drink and then drive with Dan out to the airport to pick up his friend Emma who is coming in town to meet with us today and drive the rest of the drive back to Pano with Dan.

XOXO

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How not to drive a stick...

Location: London, Ontario, Canada

It has certainly been a long day, but very productive. I stayed up all night last night, and more than anything, got all of my ducks in a row. I made about 20 lists of the things that I need to get done before Thursday, I scoured places for us to stay on Thursday and I did some thorough cleaning of my e-mail boxes. In addition, I made some substantial progress on my project for the Port of Long Beach; not enough progress to be able to relax and go out with my friends tonight, but enough progress to where I didn’t have to work in the car.

The drive today was incredibly short. We just had to pop down from Rochester to London, Ontario where we are staying with some of Dan’s friends from Panorama. We left Rochester at about 11 and headed for Niagara Falls. We ran into an anomaly at the US border when the border guard felt the need to chat us up and joke around with us for a couple minutes. He was so nice and I was glad to not suffer through the nerve racking interrogation that usually occurs when crossing the border.

We tried to find a parking spot near the falls so we could get out and walk around, but alas, we couldn’t find anything for less than $20. So I blurt out, “Well, why don’t I drive and drop you off and just come back and pick you up in like 15 minutes?” Great idea, Hesser… especially since you haven’t driven a stick in like 5 years. So Dan and I switch spots, he cringes as I kick the thing into first gear and we pull ahead… slowly… slow… almost… Yes, no. Stall. Ok, that’s fine, it was my first try in a while, and it’s a new car for me. Breathe. Alright, let’s try again. Breaks, clutch, first gear… slowly… ease… Ahhhh! *Jerks Forward*, *Jerks back* , *Jerks forward*, *back*, KEEP, *Jerks forward*, GOING, *back*… ahhhh… first gear :) And we’re off! I managed to circle the block while the boys jumped out to look at the falls, and didn’t completely strip the gears.

The rest of the way through Canada was smooth sailing. Dan got his first glimpse of Lake Ontario (I tried to tell you it looks like the ocean!) and then we turned south. We arrived into London in time for Trevor (our host for the evening) to take us on a nice leisurely drive through the hotspot that is London, Ontario. It was quite a pleasant place, looks a bit like Tulsa, actually. We’re back at the house now and watching a bit of TV (while I’m getting some more work done and hanging out with my new best friend, Trevor’s cat). Looks like we’re going to head to a sports bar tonight to watch MNF and the Leaf’s hockey game. Excited for a little relaxation!

XOXO

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