Travel Season

This fall we have been a little short staffed in the office so I have been on the road again traveling to exotic locales like Tucson and Kansas City.

I started my travel season in Tucson in September. I had volunteered to go thinking we would have a new staff person in place to take over Tucson but alas that did not work out. (Good news is we now have a rep for the area so I am no longer our Tucson rep).

Everyone assumed I would be staying with my parents but they were still gallivanting about in Alaska. I did however get to have dinner with a couple of our newer reps - taking them each to eegee's for their first dinner and getting to talk to them about the job and our office. It was fun!

My next trip was to Minneapolis and Kansas City in October. I was in Minneapolis just for the weekend to help train a new staff member on how to host one of our recruitment events. It happened to coincide with a big football game so I found our alumni chapter's viewing party and got to cheer on with about 15 fellow alums. The alumni association holds up to its purpose - you really can make friends for no other reason than having gone to the same school.

Since I was only in Minneapolis for two days and it was my new coworker's first trip to the city I got to take her around to my favorite places. If you go to the Twin Cities have breakfast at Key's Cafe. They have pancakes bigger than your head and amazing cinnamon rolls. Dinner has to be at Ciao Bella. Hands down the best Italian food I have ever had and I go there EVERY time I am in Minneapolis. And for some fun shopping you have to go to Fringe Accessories in downtown Edina. They have beautiful and trendy jewelry and all of it is under $40.

After Minneapolis I flew straight to Kansas City. I was there for the week visiting high schools and attending fairs. I did get to cross off two more states off my bucket list of visiting all 50 states, and the city is more hilly than I thought it would be. Other than that it wasn't any place special. I got some barbeque at Oklahoma Joe's, which is the recommended spot everywhere I went. Even Jason Sudeikis, who is a Kansas City native, suggested eating there. I thoroughly enjoyed my pulled pork sandwich. I found the sauce more sweet than spicy and their baked beans were delicious! I did have a couple mishaps where I forgot I was in the middle of the country. I ordered a "west coast" omelette at one place and the avocado that came with it was pretty brown and then I went to lunch with another rep I had befriended and she wanted Mexican food...it was as lackluster as you would expect. What was I thinking?!

All in all it was a good, but mostly uneventful trip.