Boy is Packed

Off to college!

Graduation

It was graduation night tonight at work. I kind of hate giving up Drunken Knit night at Merlin's Rest, but graduation is lots of fun too, so by the end of it I was delighted to have been a part of the celebration.

These are some of my favorite students who walked tonight:

More Travels

The irony was not lost on us when it snowed in Santa Fe...Boy-child wanted to go to school somewhere waemer than Minnesota...when we went to Arizona in November, it snowed, and now in Santa Fe.

When we went to Chicago in February it did not snow.

He'll be going to school in Chicago.

The Long Way Home

Did I mention that Boy-child is in town? Yes, I believe I did.

We went to visit a couple of schools last weekend - one in Chicago and one in Santa Fe. The Chicago visit was part scholarship competition. Since we travel stand-by we took the MegaBus there (weren't going to take any chances - wouldn't want to miss out on a scholarship opportunity!).

The school in Chicago was great. He really liked it. We'll know about the scholarship in a couple of weeks.

Then we set out for Santa Fe via Atlanta (I know, the hub and spoke system does not always provide us with the most direct route). We kind of wondered if we should even go, given that the school in Chicago seemed like such a great fit, but Boy-child and I kind of like adventure. Plus I've always wanted to see Santa Fe.

We got as far as Atlanta and then we got bumped. We hung out a little trying to decide if we should go to Santa Fe, even though we would miss a big chunk of the planned activities, or go home.

It was decided we would go home.

All the flights to the Twin Cities were full.

So we went through Washington, D.C.



We had a long enough layover at DCA that I could have even gone to Alexandria to pop into my favorite yarn shop there, Fibre Space.

But I didn't. I was actually too tired by then to even care.

On a positive note, I got a lot of knitting done.

We're home now. Recovered. Rested.

Wondering where we should go next.

(Oh, and if he ends up going to the school in Chicago, it's a lot easier to travel standby, and there's always the MegaBus for backup).

The Best Hotel and a Cute Town

We stayed at a fabulous hotel in Prescott - it's called The Motor Lodge. It is the most amazing retro place, plus the service is outstanding. Wonderful all around.

You can't tell so much from this, but see the lamps? That's a start.

Cool prints on the walls, a mini-fridge, a full sized coffee pot with real mugs or paper ones to go, and a truck full of condiments.

Literally:

The bathroom had a truck full of goodies too:

And a poodle waste basket

And we had our very own tub toy:

I don't think this is a functioning phone, but I liked it anyway. We had a little sitting area with two chairs and a table, and free wireless.

The town of Prescott is charming too, with lots of Victorian-era buildings and houses.

And art galleries

An old fashioned diner.

and various saloons on Whiskey Row

It was a successful trip, in spite of the snow.

The School

The school itself is very nice. It's not a traditional campus, like Macalester or the U of M, but rather a mish-mash of buildings in a small, Victorian town.

Right now they have a little bit of construction going on. Progress and all that:


There are beautiful views all around, though, from the library (the best building on campus, as it should be):

cacti growing on the roof of the cafe across the way:

And, of course, there are books and journals.

They live their philosophy, reusing and recycling as much as possible. The library building has a lot of re-used material and the bike cage below was a student project that basically collects bikes and bike parts so that folks who need one can have a bicycle available for their use.

The bathrooms have bottles which were excavated from a building site worked into the walls, along with collected stone (the old clinic burned down years ago, the refuse and remains plowed back into the ground) .

I like this sort of thing. You know you're not in Minnesota any more when there's vegetation like this.

There is a creek that runs through town, although it can be dry at times.

Interiors can be quite bright and creative, like this Seuss-inspired wall:

I find cactus and snow to be a bizarre combination.

The grazing horses are an art project made of "trash"

I hope Boy-child can deal with the hippies ;-)

Planes and Automobiles (no train)

Boy-child and I went to Prescott, Arizona over the weekend to check out Prescott College.

While the pilots were diligent about a clean windshield (very reassuring), and everything was a go, we had a few problems with flights being too full for us to board.

I think we were bumped a total of six times (three to Phoenix, two to Las Vegas and once to Cincinnati. Yes, Cincinnati. Don't ask.

Good thing I had plenty to do during all that airport time

We ended up flying to Albuquerque and driving half the night to Prescott

The area is beautiful

Boy-child liked the place, in spite of the fact that they're all ultra-liberal

More tomorrow