The Scenic Route

Yesterday I returned to Springfield from a two-week-long trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota. I've often lamented the fact that in order to get to all of my favorite places (and some of my favorite people!) I have to drive at least six and a half hours. Backpacking on the North Shore of Lake Superior? Try ten hours. So, in an attempt to explore some of the areas I normally drive past as fast as possible, I decided to take the scenic route to return home, following the Mississippi River south from La Crosse, WI. While it added a few hours to the trip, it made it interesting and broke up the drive.

My first stop was Beaver Creek Valley State Park outside of Caledonia, MN:

After a nice hike along the creek in the lush, green woods, I continued south until I found this:

I've always wanted to visit the Field of Dreams from the 1989 Kevin Costner movie, so I was thrilled to stumble upon the film site outside of Dyersville, IA. After wandering around and taking some timer shots of myself pretending to hit home runs, I stopped for evening Vespers with the Trappist Monks at New Melleray Abbey outside of Peosta, IA:

It was a lovely day, a nice way to meander through the countryside on my return trip, and a wonderful way to wrap up two weeks away from home. 

A Season Ends

Prior to the dress rehearsal for Sunday's concert.

Yesterday was my last concert as Music Director for the McHenry County Youth Orchestras, a position I've held for the past three years (plus one concert, which I wrote about here). It was an amazing three years during which I learned a lot about conducting, music, teaching, and relating with people. It has been fun to watch the orchestras grow and change over the years, and I really hope for the best for everyone involved as the organization moves into the future. Yesterday's concert: Holst Jupiter from The Planets, Bernstein Overture to Candide, Copland Hoedown from Rodeo, and two very talented concerto-competition-winning student soloists. It was a good way to go out.

As much as I will miss the orchestra in Crystal Lake, I definitely look forward to not making the 344 mile round trip drive from Champaign each week. Next year my life will be more centrally located in Springfield, IL as I move into my second year as Music Director for the Sangamon Valley Community and Youth Orchestras. What will I do with all that extra time not spent on the road you ask? Well, there still is that minor detail: my DMA dissertation project.

Life is all about balance.

Summer Begins

Tent... Check

Cookstove... Check

Sleeping bag... Check

Tuxedo... Check

Today I leave on a thirteen day trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a stop along the way to conduct my last ever concert with the McHenry County Youth Orchestras. After the concert, I will spend a couple of nights in LaCrosse visiting my parents and then head way, way up to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park in northern Minnesota for four days of backpacking along the shores of Lake Superior.

I'm looking forward to a little R and R on the heels of an incredibly difficult and stressful year which has brought a lot of change to my life. It will be nice to get out into the woods and allow Mother Nature to wrap her arms around me for a while. 

Last. Class. Ever.

Today I Skyped into what will hopefully prove to be my last grad school class ever. It was German 501, a class designed to help grad students overcome translation difficulties in academic articles by German language authors. As with everything this semester, I struggled to be attentive to the very end, but I've now crossed the finish line. I don't remember what my very first day of school ever was like but I'm fairly certain it was more ceremonial than this, my very last day of school ever. I was quite literally "phoning it in." 

Now it's on to dissertation writing and qualifying exams, but at least I can check having to attend class off the list.

Stopping to smell the roses

Today I decided to take advantage of my proximity to Wisconsin. After a youth orchestra rehearsal in Crystal Lake, I enjoyed a lovely, albeit windy, walk through Moraine View State Park in the very northern reaches of McHenry County. Afterward I popped across the state line to buy a couple of six packs of New Glarus beer. A pretty nice day if you ask me.