Wild and Wonderful

Anyone who has gone to more than a few conferences know that the one thing about them is that they don't always look at the location based on the time of year they are holding the meeting. Take for instance a conference I went to in December in Vancouver, or August in Miami. Flip those two dates and you've got some good weather, but otherwise those of us who are temperature regulating challenged have some issues. Well, the conference I was at last week got it right - West Virginia in October! The trees were beautiful and even though it rained the better portion of the week the temperature was perfect.

I also like conferences in the mid-Atlantic because that means I get to go home either before or after the meeting. This time I went home the Thursday before and got to stay at home for 4 days! I went shoe shopping and got manicures with my mom, went rock climbing at an indoor rock gym with my dad, helped my grandmother finish planting her garden, visited my friend Melanie who recently moved up near my parents, and had a glass of wine with my aunt who I haven't gotten to visit in the past 3 or 4 times I've been home! It was a fun filled weekend.

On Sunday my mom and Nikole drove me down to my conference, and we decided on the way to stop by and visit Harpers Ferry since my mom and Nikole had never been there, and although I have a vauge recollection of it from a middle school field trip, I don't remember much. It was beautiful!

the fall trees and the Potomac River

The meeting was at the National Conservation Training Center, which is a beautiful little training center out in the middle of nowhere. Mom and Nikole stayed Sunday night and Monday morning my mom and I got up to take a walk around the training center trails before they left and I headed to meetings. We took a walk down to the river, which was all covered with fog where could hear the bald eagles across the river. And of course I forgot my camera because it was the only morning walk I got to take not in the rain!

an aerial of the training center I stole off the internet :)

the lodge I stayed in

a picture I took when I got back to my room one day - we decided there were no predators in a 100 mile radius based on how many deer we saw :)

The meeting was great, although my brain was about dead by the end of it. It rained on and off the rest of the week, but the training center had umbrellas that anyone could use at each of the buildings so you could just grab an umbrella to walk to your next meeting spot - quite ingenious! Although I had fun, I was happy to head home. We landed in Charleston at midnight Friday night, where Sandor and Kaylinn were waiting to take me home (Miss Kaylinn was not very happy about my absence and decided to eat 2 pairs of my shoes in protest). The next morning we got up and took the crazed girl to the beach to run off some energy, which we think she greatly appreciated :)