Kansas - conferences, friends and roadtrips

So my summer was pretty packed from July to August. We got back to Bakersfield on Saturday night after the big hike. I got up early the next morning and drove Lindy and Jonathan's car (they had both their cars in Bakersfield) down to LAX airport for an early flight back to Salt Lake. I arrived, picked up my luggage, and promptly got back in line to check in for my flight to Kansas for a business trip.

Earlier in the year my boss had let me know that some of us were going to a conference this summer. She told two of us they were going to Santa Cruz, CA. This got me excited. Then she looked at me and told me that I got to go to Lawrence, Kansas! Ummm...where is that? First of all its in Kansas. Secondly....Lawrence sounds like an old man. I wasn't too thrilled about the location but the content of the conference seemed interesting and I was grateful for the opportunity.

Due to my busy summer, there was no time to drive home after the hike. So I had to take my Kansas suitcase with me to Cali and I likewise had to take my backpack with me on the flight to Kansas. Since this trip was for work, I didn't get to schedule the flight so the flight was
Sunday morning. I met my co-worker Heather at the airport. We flew first to Denver and met some interesting people in the airport and then on to Kansas City. We rented a car I'd never heard of before (Nissan Versa) and then we drove the 45 minutes to Lawrence and to our comfy hotel rooms in the Hampton Inn there.

Heather and I with our schnazzy Nissan Versa. Its a tiny car!

Turns out Lawrence is a hip little college town with a very cool downtown area. They have tons of local restaurants which I LOVE. Chains are fine but I love to try new things and be adventurous. While there we had yummy greek food, Italian food in a converted bank, wings at a fun diner, Indian food that was delicious, some regular American food at a converted old house, and I'm sure some others. Very fun.

Our conference was at the University of Kansas and was on Instructional Coaching. I stayed for a second conference on Coaching Classroom Management. Heather went home and I stayed on for three more days. Most people at the 2nd conference were also at the first though the first was much bigger. Heather and I met three other teachers there from Granite District in Salt Lake who were also LDS. Very fun. We also met another LDS woman from Texas who was very excited to be so close to Liberty Jail, Independence, and Adam ondi oman. I just went to those places or I would have gone again! :)

I made a lot of friends at the conference and its fun to see how things work in other places. I met these three women from Pennsylvania who, after 3 days, finally had the courage to ask me if polygamy really existed because they'd been watching the series "Big Love" on dvd in their hotel room every night. They had the funniest questions and were slightly embarrassed but it sparked the beginning of a great friendship and they were at the second conference so I got to spend more time getting to know them, plus I got to answer all of their polygamy/Mormon questions!

This is me with Devona and Lynn, two of the main presenters at the conferences. That's Amy in the background thinking she's being funny hoppin in on my picture. She is one of the Pennsylvania friends (the Big Love addicts).

After Heather (my co-worker) left I was just planning on having quiet afternoons and evenings to myself in the hotel room. NOT. Those of you know me know that I can't be without people for two long. As luck would have it, a few weeks prior to this trip I reconnected with my old Ricks College friend Angie Debusk who now lives in Topeka. We went to dinner one night and realized I knew a girl in her current ward in Topeka. So we all got together one night for games at Lynette's house in Topeka. Lynette (Jones) Gifford is a good friend from Ricks as well...sort of. Her brother and I served our missions together and have maintained that friendship so I became friends with several members of his family. Well Lynette now lives with her husband Alan in Topeka. It was very fun to see old friends and spend time with them.

Lynette Gifford, Me and Angie Debusk
This picture makes us look like giants!

Another adventure I had was an unexpected road trip. I was chatting online one day during the conference and my friend Stacie Pabst from Ricks got online and we began to chat. She mentioned that Kansas isn't that far from Arkansas. I looked it up and their house was about a 3 hour drive. So we made plans and I drove down to Bentonville, Arkansas that afternoon. It was so much fun to see Matt and Stacie and their cute little boys. We chatted, Matt gave me a tour of Bentonville (birthplace and home of Wal-Mart), and then I stayed the night on their couch. I got up early the next day to drive back to Lawrence for my class. Why I didn't get a picture of the Pabst family eludes me now!

I loved driving across new country and seeing things I hadn't seen before. Missouri is pretty much the same the whole way though so not much change. The sunrise over the Missouri landscape was beautiful so I had to pull over and take a picture.

All in all this was a very fun trip where I learned a lot, made new friends and connected with old ones. Ahhhh Kansas!