Favorite Places

Memories of my summer in Oregon have been coming up in conversation a lot lately. I think that is partly due to some new decor in my work office that included 2 inspirational posters (1 with mountains and 1 with an ocean) and my Oregon map converted to framed artwork. Plus, I love talking about traveling and each time I talk about the Pacific Northwest, I feel more and more confident that I will one day return to that area of the country. For today, I thought I’d relive some of my favorite travel memories from the past year and a half. I’d love to hear your stories too, so feel free to share in the comments!

Badlands National Park & the Black Hills

I first traveled in this area in May 2010. Badlands NP was my first ever visit to a National Park…and it did not disappoint. While in the Black Hills area, I visited Badlands NP, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse Memorial. Below are pictures of me at Mt Rushmore and sunset after the rain driving through the Black Hills.

Yellowstone National Park

I was also here in May 2010…about 2 days after I was at Badlands NP. I love roadtrips because you get to see so much, if you choose to. The day I was at Yellowstone NP the weather was chilly, windy, and snowy. It was all still beautiful. One of the cool things I saw was buffalo frolicking in the snow. The picture below is of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, located on the eastern side of the park. The river shown is the Yellowstone River.

Olympic Peninsula (Washington State)

I’m so happy that we (my friend Jenny and I – hi Jenny!) decided to include the Olympic Peninsula as part of our road trip (May 2010). Originally, our plans for the last 2 days of our trip was to do something in Oregon and/or Washington. We realized during the trip, that we’d be able make it all the way up to the peninsula. Our main destination goal was Forks, WA, because we’re both fans of Twilight and seeing parts of Olympic National Park, Olympic National Forest, and the Pacific Ocean were huge bonuses. The rest of Washington was also gorgeous. The pictures below were taken at First Beach on the La Push Reservation and in the coastal portion of Olympic National Park.

Oregon

I was lucky enough to live in Oregon for summer 2010 while completing an internship at Eastern Oregon University (hi all at EOU…miss you!). While I got to see and do quite a bit in Oregon, there was not enough time to do it all. Two of my favorite mini trips during the summer included a solo trip for a long weekend in Portland and a day hiking trip with co-workers to Wallowa Lake State Park. Those two spots are in the pictures below. I really could go on and on about my time in Oregon, but most of what I have say has already been put on the blog here. Check out the EOU Internship and Travel categories.

Terra Blanca Winery & Estate Vineyard

Another excellent side trip during my summer in Oregon was actually up in Washington. Southeast Washington has more wineries and vineyards than I could count. I picked one to visit that offered a tour and tasting for a reasonable price ($15!). Terra Blanca was beautiful. Plus, it was fun to learn about the process of making wine. The picture is from the terrace at the winery.

Madison, WI

I interned at UW-Madison for the 2010-2011 academic year. I had a great time being part of a university that is iconic and steeped in tradition. The picture below is from the Terrace at Memorial Union. The tables were stacked ready for winter storage and I just loved the colors. The other picture is of the WI state capitol building from the top of Bascom Hill.

Baltimore, MD

In March 2011, I had the opportunity to travel to Baltimore for a national conference. I was lucky enough to travel with a friend/co-worker (hi Steph!) who loved to travel as much as I do. Besides conferencing, we made a point of taking in all that we could in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore. The picture below is of me with the Baltimore skyline in the background.

Laura Ingalls Wilder tour

In May 2011, I revisited the Dakotas through a roadtrip with my sister (hi Julie!). Before we hit the Dakotas, we visited 3 different Laura Ingalls Wilder homesites (Pepin, Walnut Grove, & DeSmet). I loved this part of our road trip so much because my sister and I grew up reading the Little House books. It was cool to see where those stories actually took place. The picture below is from DeSmet, SD.

Return to the Badlands!

I loved my return trip to Badlands National Park this past May! I also loved that it wasn’t 90 degrees this time around.

Duluth, MN & the North Shore of Lake Superior

With my relocation to northern Minnesota, I became a tourist in my own city. However, this was necessary to start learning about my new home. I’m excited to keep exploring the city and the North Shore in the coming months and years. The pictures below are of the suspension lift bridge in Canal Park right in Duluth and also of Gooseberry Falls State Park about 30-45 minutes up the shore from Duluth.

Just a note: I have had the good fortune to travel more places in the past 1.5 years than I’ve mentioned in this post. Luckily, I have enjoyed each of the places I’ve visited and would recommend any of the locations I have listed on my Travels page.

Second note: links for all of the locations I talked about are located on the Travels page.

Happy Birthday To My Blog!

Today is my blog’s 1st birthday!

On March 4, 2010, I decided it was finally time to start my blog. This timing also happened to coincide with a summer internship offer from Eastern Oregon University. Since I was going to be far away from home for an extended period of time, I thought setting up a blog would be a fantastic way for family and friends to keep up with my adventures while I was out in La Grande, Oregon. Another bonus for starting my own blog was to take my blog writing experience from my ”professional” life and utilize it for my ”personal” life. For work, my blog topics are generally decided well in advance of the actual writing. I have found for Student Affairs Intern that I generally think of my topic right before I write about it. This blog has given me the opportunity to stretch my blog writing muscles.

My blog has definitely evolved through the past year. Initially I wanted to have a space to reflect about my internship experience in Oregon and continue that reflection as I completed my grad program internship at UW-Madison. I also wanted to be able to share my experiences for other grad students as they approached or were also completing internship experiences. Since travel and photography were huge components of my overall summer internship experience, those came through on the blog, too. Ultimately, my blog has become a place to share my internship experiences, travel experiences, photography, and other pieces of my life. I believe that there isn’t a way to separate “professional” life from “personal” life. True, there are boundaries, and I don’t think there is a clear, definite separation. If I were only to share the “professional” experiences in Student Affairs, I don’t think I’d be giving an accurate picture of who I am as a person and as a future Student Affairs professional. Therefore, my blog presents a composite picture of my life.

My internship experiences will be coming to an end soon (on May 14th to be exact) and that means the blog title of “Student Affairs Intern” is no longer valid. :( Don’t worry though, I’m not going anywhere! I don’t plan to stop blogging for a long time. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how I would like my blog to grow/change/reflect the next chapter of my life after graduation. So far, the next chapter just has some foreshadowing…I’ll be starting my Student Affairs career. For right now, I’ll just worry about what the new name should be. I plan to still highlight experiences within student affairs/higher ed, traveling, hiking, photography, and life in general. If anyone has title potentials, do share! I’m willing to entertain all the possibilities.

For now I’ll leave you with this little nugget of inspiration I found while reading an article for work yesterday: Be remarkable!

Top 10 of 2010

With it nearing the end of 2010, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect upon my top 10 experiences of this year.

10. Put in another good year at my graduate assistantship in the Career & Leadership Development office at UW-Whitewater. The past year at UWW has been pretty good. I’ve had several opportunities to work on various projects, attend conferences, and pursue new ideas for the office. I’ve been a co-author of our blog for about 1.5 years now and in August we started working on Facebook and Twitter accounts (all of which I manage). When I took on my internship at UW-Madison, I had the opportunity to shift my assistantship into a more project based position (which I love!). I’m working on some neat projects involving: social media, creating web content, job searching, green careers and others. I’m going to be sad to see this position end in May when I graduate.

• Reflection of the 2009-2010 school year

9. Started my Blog (and other social media adventures)! When I started my blog, I wanted to have a space where I could reflect on my summer internship and traveling. I also wanted to have an easy way for family and friends to follow along on my journey. I then added reflecting upon my UW-Madison internship. While that reflection has been a little slower, I still appreciate the time I give myself to do such reflection. I love what my blog has turned into. It’s about my adventure into the Student Affairs profession, along with the other things I love in life. I don’t think it would be fair to have just all student affairs stuff because that isn’t the only thing I love in life. I hope that my blog and my blogging abilities continue to grow as I search for and settle into my first professional position. I also love that I jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon. There are so many cool people out there and it makes the world just a little bit smaller and more accessible. I look forward to some day meeting people in person that I know through online connections.

8. Favorite Book: Eat, Pray, Love. I enjoyed following someone’s journey as they find happiness in life.

7. Starting my Master’s program internship at UW-Madison in the Letters & Science Career Services office. So far, my internship has kept me busy. I’ve enjoyed finally getting to know the flagship university of the UW-System. I have had the opportunity to work with some great students this past semester. I’m looking forward to the next couple months of working with more students as they figure out what to do with their lives.

• I’m a Badger Now!
• New Internship, New School Year
• Internship Day 1, Post-Training
• UW-Madison Internship Update

6. Spending time with family. In one word, my family is awesome! I honestly don’t know what I would do without them. They have been my number one supporters through this grad school journey and taking my internship out in Oregon.

• My Family Weekend!

5. Worked on improving my photography skills. Photography has been one of my hobbies that has grown this past year. I loved that I had opportunities to work on my photography skills. This is a hobby that I am looking forward to expanding once I’m done with school in May. Besides my photography tagged posts, my photography interwoven throughout the blog posts.

• Photography tagged posts

4. Hiking. Hiking is something I had only done a tiny bit prior to this past summer. My sister and I had done a hike in Devil’s Lake State Park in WI a few years ago, and that was about it for my hiking experience. While I was in Oregon, I had the opportunity to hike at a couple of state parks (Catherine Creek and Wallowa Lake). Once I was back in Wisconsin, I decided to explore the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest near Whitewater. My plan is to start hiking again as soon as Spring rolls around. Should be fun!

• Catherine Creek State Park
• Wallowa Lake State Park
• Nordic Trail & Scuppernong Trail
• Scuppernong (Laura’s Post)

3. Traveling. While I have had the opportunity to travel before, it hasn’t be quite so extensive. I was truely bitten by the travel bug while I spent my summer in the Pacific Northwest. I now have an extensive list of places I want to visit (or re-vist) in the future including: several National Parks (Glacier in MT, Yosemite in CA, Crater Lake in OR, Mt. Rainier in WA, Acadia in ME, and several others), New England, and several spots in Wisconsin. My sister and I have already started tenative planning for a trip we want to take in May. We’ll be traveling through several of the Laura Ingalls Wilder historic sites (Pepin, WI; Walnut Grove, MN; and DeSmet, SD) on our way to the Badlands/Black Hills area of South Dakota. We’re both super excited about the trip and can’t wait to take it.

2. Roadtripping with my friend Jennifer from Milwaukee, WI, to the Pacific Ocean at the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.  These 8 days were amazing! Prior to this trip, all the further west I had traveled was central Minnesota. We past that point half way through day 1. Some of the highlights of the trip included: Sioux Falls, SD; Badlands National Park; Mount Rushmore; Wyoming in general had breathtaking scenery; Yellowstone National Park; Grand Teton National Park;  Forks, WA; Olympic National Park; and the world’s largest Spruce tree in the Olympic National Forest. Here are the blog posts that recapped our trip.

• Road Trip: Day 1 and part of Day 2 (South Dakota)
• Road Trip: Rest of Day 2 (South Dakota)
• Road Trip: Day 3 (Wyoming)
• Road Trip: Day 4 Yellowstone National Park
• Road Trip: Days 4 (end of) to 6
• Road Trip: Final Days
• Road Trip: Lessons Learned

1. Living in Oregon for June and July and interning with the Student Affairs division at Eastern Oregon University. This experience was beyond amazing. In reality, the experience was life changing and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. I learned that I can survive and start a new life in a place where I don’t know anyone. I also learned quite a bit about student affairs and how different it can look at a smaller school. This was one my best summers so far. I had the opportunity to travel, to make new friends, to experience new things, and to enjoy a relaxed version of life. The summer spent in Oregon recharged me and prepared me for my final year of graduate school. While I don’t know quite yet if I’d want to live out west, I will definitely be visiting again (and hopefully soon!). Check out my weekly recaps of my time at Eastern Oregon University.

Now that I’ve figured out the awesome events of my life for 2010, I need to nail down my resolutions and goals for 2011. Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that 2011 is even better than 2010!!

Sharing the Experience Contest

A few weeks ago, I solicited your help in deciding photos to submit for the Share the Experience photo contest being sponsored by Olympus and the National Park Foundation. Thank you to those who voted. I’ll be submitting my photos to the contest later this week. If any of my photos are selected for the voting portion of the contest (the top 100), I will let you know! Regardless if any of my photos are selected, voting takes place between January 16th and January 31st.

Here are the photos I have chosen to enter into the contest. Besides being among my favorites, they were the 3 top vote-getters. Thanks again for helping me decide!

Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (near Portland, OR)

Columbia River at Crown Point in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (Washington is to the left of the river, Oregon is to the right of the river)

The top vote-getter!!

Sunset after the rain in the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota.

Internship Day 1, Post-Training

Today marked the first day of my internship, post-training. It was exciting and low-key all at the same time. I’m not seeing students on my own just yet, but I got to observe other counselors in action. It was fun. The big thing for me today was managing the Madison Metro system all by myself! Getting to work is important! The last few years I’ve been fortunate to walk 4 blocks to work. It’s been a bit of a shock to have an hour drive, some walking, and a bus ride to get to the office for internship. With some help with my friend Steph last week, I’ve gotten myself comfortable with the bus system. Yay!

In a slightly different area, I have found myself missing my time in Oregon lately. I think I’m missing how relaxing the whole summer was and just the atmosphere of Oregon. My summer internship has been on my mind because I’ve been talking about it quite a bit with various people. What I love is that I can take everything from that experience (finding it to the execution of the internship) and apply it to different areas of my work with students. I love that I can use my own experience to show that internship positions can be created just by asking.

To Portland and Back!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their 4th of July holiday. I had an excellent time during my couple day trip to Portland. A friend from back home was actually suppose to come out and visit me over the weekend. Unfortunately, finances got in the way. I decided to not waste the long weekend and went to Portland on my own. It was actually great going there on my own. I got to do everything at my own pace and I didn’t feel the least bit guilty about returning to my hotel at 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday (after spending 6 straight hours on foot in downtown).

Before I got into Portland, I drove on the Columbia River Gorge Historic Highway again. It was nice to see all of the waterfalls again while it wasn’t raining. I actually was able to see a few of the waterfalls that I had missed the first time I drove through there. What I love about the interstate drive between La Grande and Portland is that over half of the drive is along the Columbia River (and another big part is through the Blue Mountains). You can’t really go wrong with scenery that includes the Columbia River/Washington State to one side and the cliff faces from the Cascade Mountains on the other side.

Latourell Falls on the Columbia River Gorge Historic Highway.

I stayed at the Crowne Plaza in the Llyod District of downtown Portland. I will admit that it was a little spendy for this grad student’s meager income. The decision came down to knowing that I (and my car) would be safe and that almost everything I wanted to do was accessible from the hotel by foot. I highly recommend staying there if you’re ever in the Portland area.

On Friday evening, I checked out Washington Park – which is the huge park near downtown Portland that houses everything from hiking trails, to a zoo, to the most authentic Japanese Garden outside of Japan. On Friday, I took advantage of the hiking in the Hoyt Arboretum. It was a little misty/humid and it felt great to hike after being in the car for over four hours.

One of the many trees in Hoyt Arboretum.

Portland, itself, is a great city. I did my research on downtown through this website: Travel Portland. I found maps and a great deal of information about things to do in the city. The main activity I wanted to do was the “Best of Portland” tour with the Portland Walking Tours company. It’s rated as one of the top walking tours in the country. It was a great time for the 2 hours we were with our tour guide. He talked about how the city was named after Portland, Maine, through a coin toss (the other option was Boston). He talked about how the downtown is designed to be reminisent of a European city, about the large craft brewing industry, that the city is nicknamed “The City of Roses,” how Portland has the most sunless days, and many other things. They even can boast to having the world’s smallest park.

View of Portland before I crossed over the Willamette River.

World’s Smallest Park

I ended my Saturday in downtown at Powell’s – one of the largest independent booksellers. I wish I could say that I spent hours walking around the huge store. I didn’t though. I had to remove myself from the store before I did too much damage to my limited money supply. I did get some great books though. It’s another must-see, if you’re in Portland.

My weekend ended on Sunday with another trip to Washington Park. I checked out both the Japanese Garden and the International Rose Test Garden. Not only did I want to stroll around the gardens, I also wanted to work on my photography. Here are some of my results. I fought with the light most of the time (it was overcast) and had quite a few unusable pictures. I did take some gems though. Let me know what you think!

Flowers in the Japanese Garden. The rest of the pictures are from the Rose Garden.

 

  

Portland Preview

I’m spending my holiday weekend in Portland, and I am loving it. Today I spent around 6 hours walking around downtown – specifically the Cultural, Pearl, and Historic districts. I’ll be writing a bit more in depth post once I’m back in La Grande. I’ve gotten several opportunities to work on my photography – a growing hobby of mine. I just wanted to give you a quick preview of some of my favorite shots.

Looking up the trunk of a Giant Sequoia in Washington Park

Rose in the South Park Blocks area of Downtown Portland

Road Trip: Lessons Learned

This is my last post about my road trip from Wisconsin to Oregon. Jennifer and I had an amazing time. We’re already thinking about where we could go next summer. We learned some good lessons along the way. These “lessons” came from our experiences and observations. I wanted to share them with you.

- Every town has a Chinese restaurant. Even Forks, WA.

- Best road trip food includes: original flavor Jolly Ranchers, Cool Ranch Doritos, Fruit by the Foot, and Quaker Mini Delights – Chocolate Drizzle

- GPS is amazing! Especially while driving through Yellowstone NP in the dark and it’s snowing.

- Road trip music is a vital component to a trip’s success. Most of our music was upbeat and included the likes of: Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, the Twilight soundtrack, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, and several other awesome artists. Low-key music is also needed. The snow in Yellowstone mentioned earlier was set to Alison Krauss to help easy our anxiety.

- It’s okay to get off the Interstate once in awhile.

- Do research ahead of time, even if you want to have spontaneity on your trip.

- Bring a tote bag for electronics and cords.

- The bugs are HUGE in South Dakota. It takes some serious muscle power to get them off the windshield – and the rest of the car.

- No matter how much sunscreen you put on at Badlands National Park, you will still get a nice tan started. Sunscreen is highly recommended!

- When looking for various license plates, parking lots are like hitting the jackpot. Make the walk back to your own car go through the whole parking lot.

I’m sure there are more “lessons” and these are probably the most important ones. You can bet that my road trip back to Wisconsin will include Jolly Ranchers, Cool Ranch Doritos, and a kick-butt mix of music.

Oregon Here I Come

 Photo by: SarahMcD

I am so excited about the prospect of spending my summer in Oregon. The internship has been official for barely a week and I am already starting to plan what I all I want to see while I’m out west. I found some great books on Oregon: Frommer’s Oregon and Off the Beaten Path Oregon. I just started looking at them the other day and I am already finding fun places to travel to. The picture above is of the Columbia River Gorge that runs along the Oregon border with Washington. I have a feeling I’ll be taking multiple trips here because there is so much to see.

I will be living in La Grande, OR, which is in the northeastern part of Oregon. It’s between the Blue Mountains and the Wallowa Mountains. I am looking forward to exploring the mountains and near-by areas. The historic Oregon Trail also runs through the area. I will definately be checking that out as well.

I have already started a list of places/things I plan on doing while living in Oregon this summer. I’m sure this list will grow as I do my research.

• Make connections with people I work with at Eastern Oregon University during my internship.
• Explore the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and for sure seeing the Multnomah Falls.
• Take a gondola ride on the Wallowa Lake Tramway going up Mount Howard.
• Travel by train from Portland, OR to Vancouver, British Columbia.
• Check out Wineries in Central Oregon
• Explore Portland
• See the Pacific Ocean

I am really excited about spending my summer in Oregon. I’m also a bit nervous because I’ll be across the country from all of my family. It will be a true test if I will be able truly “go where the job is” when I am looking for a professional position in a year.

Does anyone have any recommendations of things/places I should see while I’m in Oregon or as I travel from Wisconsin to Oregon?