For our first day trip we took Hwy 24 south out of Manhattan, which forms the Flint Hills Scenic Byway. We stopped at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve to look around for a bit. We then went on to Wichita where we saw the Star Wars Exhibit at the Exploration Place. It had a massive amount of Star Wars props! Needless to say we were both excited!
The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
The Star Wars Exhibit at the Exploration Place in Wichita
The next week I (Rachel) went to a conference in Chicago. The conference was for the International Association for Relationship Research, and one of my colleagues and I presented a poster titled "The Impact of Cyclicality on Cohabiting and Married Couples". We stayed in the Palmer House (a beautiful old hotel a couple blocks away from Millennium Park) and we had the opportunity to go to the Taste of Chicago, a food festival, eat at Gino's Pizzeria, and see the Field Museum. We also attended quite a few presentations about research that is going on in the area of romantic relationships. Overall it was a great experience!
A view of the Chicago skyline at the Taste of Chicago food festival
Rachel and her colleague, Kale, presenting their poster
Our next day trip was to Hutchinson, Kansas. On our way there we saw a sign for "Lindsborg" a small town touting Swedish roots, so we stopped to check it out. It was similar to Pella, but instead of Dutch, everything was Swedish. While we were there we bought a Dala sign with our last name on it. We then went to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, which a air and space museum affiliated with the Smithsonian. The outside seemed fairly small, but it was actually quite large! It has one of the largest collection of retired air and space craft in the United States. We saw a ton of interesting things, but the highlight was seeing the Odyssey, the control module from the Apollo 13 mission. We then went across town to the Salt Mine. The location is used to store old documents and movie props because of its extremely low humidity. It was carved out to be 9 feet tall and 2,500 square feet. So it was a lot different (and spacious!) from most caves!
Jonathan in front of the sign for Lindsborg, KS
The command module, Odyssey, from the Apollo 13 mission
Us at the Salt Mine
Our most recent day trip was to the Natural Stone Scenic Byway, which forms a loop south of I-70 between Manhattan and Topeka. Our first stop was the Echo Cliffs Park, which was out in the middle of nowhere. It was a fantastic slab of different sedimentary rocks showing some beautiful layers. We then continued through the rest seeing some amazing sights.
Echo Cliffs Park
The 4-mile long stone fence that first separated land that was owned by ranchers from the open range where anyone could let their cattle graze
I (Jonathan) have accepted a temporary position in North Dakota. I will be leaving for western North Dakota mid-September and hopefully arriving back home before the new year. My job title will be Environmental Inspector and I will be overseeing the environmental regulations of the oil pipes they will be installing along a 100 mile stretch of land. That pipeline will be transporting the oil that was pumped from the fracking they have been doing in northwest North Dakota. I really don't know much more about the position besides that. I will be with two of my colleagues (and friends) and we will be living in a small home out there that has been fully furnished. It should definitely be an adventure.
Finally, we have recently purchased a Digital SLR camera. This has come from a few months of saving and debating on a model but we finally decided on a Canon T3i. We both love it and have really enjoyed taking pictures with it. There is just something very satisfying about hearing and feeling that "click." We will be using it on our upcoming trip to Colorado!
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