Vacation Recap, Part 1

I'm recapping my recent vacation so I can remember some of the details.

Friday, July 8th: Morning flight from LAX to Buffalo via Philadelphia. Some delays in Philly got me into Buffalo around 10:30pm. Rented a car and headed to Bill and Suzanne's (good friends from college) in Ithaca (~3 hour drive). Everyone was sleeping, but Bill and Suz got up and we chatted for awhile. I got to meet their sweet dog, Chimay, the fourth cutest dog I know.

Saturday, July 9th: Maura (yet another good friend from college) and Xavier were also at Bill and Suzanne's. I was so happy to finally meet Maura's sweet little boy. We went to the Farmers' Market and lunched at The Glenwood Pines (yum!) We headed back to the house just to hang out and alternated between indoors and outdoors as the rain came and went. We had a fabulous grilled dinner with some lovely sangria and cider. Good food, good friends, good times.

Sunday, July 10th: Went to the Ithaca Commons, drove around, photographed the Ithaca Falls, driving tour of IC campus. Lots of reminiscing of stupid college days. Maura and Xavier headed back to NJ and I napped before driving to Niagara Falls. Checked into my hotel.

Monday, July 11th: Day 1 of the conference I attended: the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ). Saw some old friends and made some new ones. Inspiring international research is happening in the field of human-animal relations. In the evening, I drove to Lewiston and met up with Susan (my college roommate for 3 years and great friend) and her daughters. She reminded me we met almost 18 years ago as college freshmen. Yikes! I was a little bummed not to see Chris, but I did get to see Aunt Joannie, Jeanine, Russell, Tiffany, Tommy, Joey and the dogs Ginger and Lucky. The visit was amazing and way too short. I'm just happy to have seen everyone!

Tuesday, July 12th: Day 2 of the ISAZ conference. Afterwards, I napped a bit and then walked around Goat Island to see and photograph the falls. It was very humid. I grabbed some dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and returned to the falls to see them lit up at night. What a sight!Since my flight was so early Wednesday, I just stayed up and packed.

Wednesday, July 13th: Drove to the Buffalo airport around 2:30 am. Returned car and waited in the lobby for the airport to "open" (!) I got on my plane that was due to leave at 5:30 am, but due to some kid who dropped a backpack, they evacuated the airport and held all planes. I missed my connection in Philly. I did get put on a later flight, but there were delays there too and I arrived much later than planned to LAX.

to be continued...