Sabbatical

Posted Oct 16, 2023

I decided this morning I’d put (proverbial) pen to paper and write up a little on how my sabbatical has been going. We’ve been in the States since September 20th, not working. It has been almost a full month, and we have a bit of time left still, for which I am thankful — I’m enjoying this immensely. We’ve spent time with family and friends, and have taken a road trip to see some new places and spend time in nature. I could say a truly uncountable number of words about all of it, but they say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so…

I should probably add the MDX integration to this project, because I am sure it would be nice to have this flexibility, but frankly I can’t be bothered right now. So for now, I’m just going to go the easy route.

Step 2: Actually choose the pictures

Because I have like…a LOT of pictures. So many. I’m not going to dump them all here, but I want to give a bit of a feel for the variety of what we’ve gotten to do.

Step 3: Shut up and add them already

Ok ok ok. I’m on it. Most of these will be from the road trip, but trust me when I say we’ve been doing really fun stuff everywhere and I’ll write more about it some other time.

Sunset over MN from the plane

Beautiful fall colors in Lutsen

Connor and I riding the cable car up Connor and Jillian riding the cable car up

Gooseberry Falls, running strong after a ton of rainfall

Split Rock lighthouse from the Lake Superior shore

One of the amazing 10-foot-tall skeleton Halloween decorations I’m seeing everywhere

Matchy matchy for Homecoming Connor and Jillian wearing matching Brainerd Warrior t-shirts

Road trip, starting with North Dakota (not pictured) and Montana

Makoshika State Park in Montana A rock formation against a blue sky in Makoshika State Park

Makoshika’s “Twin Sisters” Makoshika's "Twin Sisters" rock formations

Art on the wall of one of the local coffee shops Art on a white wall in black paint of a dog in a sweater holding a coffee mug

View from the window of our 2-night cabin stay in Montana, just outside of Yellowstone View from a window of snow-capped mountain peaks against a cloudy sky

View from the back of a horse (my first time riding a horse ever) View from the back of a horse, showing another horse and rider leading on a trail in a hilly area

Coffee views View from a window of snow-capped mountain peaks against a cloudy sky, but this time with a cup of coffee on the windowsill

Yellowstone National Park

Devil’s Thumb White, brown, and gray steaming rock formations with a sign labeling part of it as "Devil's Thumb"

A pool of water that’s steaming and, in some places, boiling A pool of water that's steaming and, in some places, boiling

Beehive Geyser, which goes off only once during the daytime park opening hours and which shoots water higher than Old Faithful A geyser shooting water and steam high into a blue sky

Beehive Geyser and me; the geyser erupts for several minutes at a time, so you can snap quite a few photos while it’s going off! Jillian in the foreground, a geysher shooting water and steam in the background

Just so many geysers, so many hot springs, so many strange and beautiful landscapes A steaming hot spring in the background with orange and brown thermal ground in the foreground

Connor and I at sunset between Yellowstone and Grand Teton Connor and Jillian in front of a mountain range with the sun setting behind the mountains, making the sky orange

Grand Teton National Park

Near the shore of Jenny Lake, which we intended to hike around Snow-capped mountains reflecting into calm water

I couldn’t get a good picture of them, but there are 2 moose in this picture, which really wanted to stay on the trail and ultimately prevented us from hiking around the lake entirely; we turned around and went back the way we came A wooded area with 2 difficult-to-see moose in the distance

Another photo of the mountains reflected into the lake Snow-capped mountains reflecting into calm water

Sunset behind the mountains Sunset behind the mountains, creating a dark silhouette against the sky and the water

Custer State Park and Badlands National Park

Have you noticed yet that I really like rock formations reflected in calm waters? Rounded rock formations against a clear blue sky reflecting into calm water

There were tunnels to walk and to drive through in the rocks on the Needles Highway Connor standing at the entrance to a small tunnel in the rocks

This time it’s trees and water, from a hike around Center Lake Sun shining between trees and reflecting off the lake

The layered and eroding formations of the Badlands are hard to describe or capture Colorfully layered and eroding rock formations in the Badlands

Bison crossing (and a buggy windshield) A bison crossing a gravel road, photo taken from the inside the car

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