Lake Powell

Ben's sister and family were generous enough to invite us down to Lake Powell to stay on their new house boat over the 4th of July. It was just the getaway I needed and oddly enough, my first time at Lake Powell.

I got to soak up some sun, relax and read my book, climb red rocks (my favorite), learn to drive a wave runner, see American Indian ruins, get up on waterskis for the first time EVER, and hang out with some really cool people. I also learned a lot about boats and what can go wrong... Many fun experiences and stories to share. It was very fun. SO much fun, in fact, I took very few pictures. Turns out it is hard to keep a camera with you when you are always in or around the water, so most were taken on our hike.

Chicago

I got to do a quick work trip to Chicago to the American Diabetes Association scientific sessions conference. Our diabetes center did a study about continuous glucose monitoring devices and was chosen to present a poster on our findings at the meeting. There was some good interest in our study and we got to meet people from all over the world. They wouldn't let us take pictures in the poster hall but here is what it looked like.



I stayed a couple days to attend some of the sessions and learned a lot of interesting things about better diabetes treatment and upcoming research. (No we really are not that close to a cure...it's way more complicated than you think).

I took a few hrs to do a little sightseeing: shopping on the Magnificent Mile, a riverboat tour about the interesting architecture but it's really not as fun when you travel by yourself. I got a good feel for all the crazy traffic there riding shuttles to/from airport and to/from the conference each day-I soon learned to bury myself in my book rather than watch out the window...that is, unless you had to sit in the front seat with a very talkative shuttle driver that wouldn't let you. It is fun city right downtown and the building are very interesting.