My mom and dad went to Chicago, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

A few weeks ago, we were on our way to Flaming Gorge, when Doug's cell phone rang. It was his boss, and he needed to send Doug to Chicago to do a trade show. There was a discussion, then Doug hung up, turned to me, and said, "I have to do a trade show on the 19th through the 24th in Chicago. Dale asked if you would like to help me, I told him yes." Ummm, OK. Whatever. One thing I have learned from living with Doug, is that you have to go with the flow. I just had to learn everything I could about a product line I knew almost nothing about, and then be able to sell it to professionals in that field. No problem.

This is the view from our hotel window. I took this picture on Sunday, and I'm glad I did. The entire time we were there, it was cloudy and rainy. No wonder, with that monstrous Lake Michigan right down the street. See that blue line hidden behind the buildings? Look closely, that's it, in the very back. Beautiful, but big. I guess that's why it's called a great lake. Duh!

This is the view from our room on the 19th floor. The most entertaining thing to watch from our window happened to be the tour boats running up and down the river. I think they came by about every 45 seconds, and were usually full. Then there were the kayaks. Tons of them. I just can't say I would want to kayak in that river. It was filthy, I think I'd rather swim in Utah lake for a couple of days, thanks.

To the right side of our hotel was a better view of the city, if you don't count the roof top we had to look down on. See the tallest building that is black? It is the John Hancock building. We had so many people tell us we had to go there to get the best view of the city. Yes, the Willis Tower (used to be the Sears tower, name was changed this past summer), is still the tallest building in North America, but apparently, the best view is from the John Hancock building.

There is an observation floor that has a fantastic view, but I got the scoop from the guys a few booths down. Apparently, you need to go to the 95th floor (that's a restaurant, in case you were wondering) and enter the ladies room. Yes, I said the ladies room. I know what you are thinking, get your mind out of the gutter. Sheesh!

You see, there is a big picture window in there that has the greatest view in the city. The view is of the lake and the city of Chicago, obviously, but I guess the restaurant staff are constantly dragging the men out of the restroom, because their wives keep taking them in to see the view. (Out the window. Good grief, do I have to keep clarifying this for you?)

This is what we went to Chicago to sell. Tablecloths. I know, that has got to be the last thing in the world that Doug would be interested in, right? Doug is actually developing medical products at the moment, so who better to send to sell tablecloths to outdoor furniture companies, right? I know the next thought you are about to have: Isn't that why he took me? To have a girl there to sell the girly things? Wrong. Oh, so wrong. First of all, I own only one tablecloth. It gets used maybe 4 times a year, at best. Although, I have to admit, they have a cheetah print table cloth that I sorta liked. Still......

Grandway Honduras is the company that Doug works for, and they carry a line called "Windtamer". They make table cloths that have weights in them so they don't blow off the table. Sweet! That almost made me want one. Almost. After 4 days of giving the sales pitch, not so much.

As if tablecloths were strange enough, we had to sell these:

I know, right? The last time I owned a pair of kitchen gloves was in the early '90's, a few years after I got married. I think I used them to strip some furniture. Or maybe it was to grout some tile, I forget.

On the up side, we met some really fun people across from our booth. We were fortunate enough to be across from "Lechuza". They make the coolest planters EVER! Self watering, need I say more? We had a blast with them. There was much laughter at the amount of interest in our sassy kitchen gloves and tablecloths. None of us were so crazy about them, but holy cow! So many people just loved them. More power to them, I say.

We had so many members of the press stop by and ask questions because they wanted to write articles about our products. Ok, whatever. Insert sales pitch here. One woman, Diana Durkes, writes a blog about re-purposing things. She described herself as a diver lady, meaning "dumpster diver". She just started writing for the Chicago tribune and the Chicago Sun Times about her passion.

She flipped over our products, but specifically, Gloveables. She came by a few times for info, but came to take a picture of my hands in a pair of the gloves. Then, as I was goofing around with Susanne (the Lechuza lady), Diana took another picture. It was terrible, but she posted it, anyway. You can check out her Fine Diving in Chicago blog, if interested. FYI, Gloveables have even been used by Paula Deen, as well as on Desperate Housewives. Apparently, I am seriously out of fashion.

We did get a chance to take a few pictures of the city, but not much else. One bridge looks so much like the next; if you've seen one, you've seen them all, right?

Here I am on some street next to the river.......

And here is Doug at the same place, wherever that is......

We spent all day, every day, at our booth in the Merchant Mall. By the way, if you ever have a chance to go there, you should. I just love the design stores in there. We had to be there about 8:30 in the morning, and had to stay until it closed at 6 p.m. Then off to find a restaurant for dinner, and the evening is over. It got dark so soon after we were done, that we never even went anywhere fun. We were so tired, I think it was all we could do to get ourselves back from dinner, anyway.

One night, I woke up after sleeping about an hour, and felt wide awake. I went to the window and saw this:

That is the top of the John Hancock building, all lit up. It was beautiful in the fog, but in a very short time, you couldn't see it at all. The cloud base moved down to the top of the building on the right, (with the white lights) and the top of all the other buildings completely disappeared. Very cool to see in person, but not very photogenic. I moved to the other side of the window to photograph the other side of the city. Meanwhile, Doug slept peacefully for hours while I pace and take pictures. Some people are just so inconsiderate.

We spent 5 days in Chicago, and we didn't see anything that people go to Chicago to see.

Did we visit the shops and sites along the Magnificent Mile? Nope, no time. Did we see the Willis (Sears) Tower and the observation deck that is clear glass and places you directly above the street? Ah, no. Missed that. How about Millenium Park and the mirror art? Darn, missed that too. What about Wrigley Field? Didn't even lay an eye on it. Did we at least get to Navy Peir? Can't say we did. Thought about it, but not so appealing in the dark.

So, what did we do? We had pizza. Not just any pizza, the best pizza I have ever had in my life. Doug agreed. It was the only vegetarian pizza I have ever seen him agree to eat, and still enjoy. He liked it so much, we had to go back again for our last night. All hail, Lou Malnati. They will even ship it to you, if you are so inclined. I think I just might be.

Miriam went to stay with grandma for the weekend, and then her cousin came to stay with her during the week. She had a blast, and I'm not sure she even missed us. We only had time to find her a shirt while we were there, so when we came home, this is what she got:

Sorry, sweetie! Better luck next time?

Finally getting around to Labor Day.

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Flaming Gorge with Ron, Sandy, and their son, Taylor. I know, I am really behind in my blogging, so hang tight, I have a lot to say about this trip. We had such a great time, and Taylor was a great model for most of my pictures. Personally, I think he liked it. Good thing he is very photogenic. And a good sport!

We spent most of the weekend in the boat. If it wasn't watersports, it was sight seeing or scubadiving. Mostly sight seeing. We went through Horseshoe Canyon several times. I must have taken a thousand pictures of the scenery. This is where I publicly admit that I love landscape photography. L-O-V-E it. I am addicted. Have been for years. I am beginning to think I need a 12 step program to deal with this problem, but thankfully, digital cameras can easily handle high volumes of needless photos that I will someday delete for more hard drive space on my computer. And before you give advice, yes, I do have external hard drive space. I just tend to fill things up quickly. I mean really, who needs 12 shots of the same sunset when you can have this:

Ok, Zeus, if you have to go, now is the time! And, of course, I took multiples of this, too, just in case one didn't turn out. You just can't miss an opportunity like this one.

On one of our tours, we took the opportunity to check out the bridge. Pay careful attention to the ominous clouds overhead. We didn't.

Here we are, hanging out underneath. We were able to watch a few people jumping into the water from underneath the bridge. Apparently, I am the only one that thought we were more interesting than the jumpers. And, yes, I have about 20 pictures of the bridge. Some are really cool, and I would post them if it was at all interesting to anyone but me. I just don't have that kind of time or space on my blog. Lucky for you! Pay attention to how dry and comfortable everyone is at this moment. It won't last long.

Remember those ominous clouds? Well, being the adventurers that we are, we were totally oblivious to the fact that it was getting darker and darker every minute. The clouds were moving in, and we were too busy enjoying the scenery. On the other side of the hill behind us in the picture above, is the dam. We drove over to check it out when the mother of all rain storms began.

First there was a clap of thunder, and just like in the movies, rain instantly began to pelt us in our tiny little boat. The fact that we were looking at a little island called "Gilligan's Island" started becoming a bit too realistic. Here we were, in our little boat, when the weather started getting rough; The tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of my handsome man, the Amber Waves would have been lost! Ok, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but it was plenty wet and wild on the lake at that point. This is what it looked like after the rain had stopped:

I wanted to get pictures of the rain pelting down on us, but unfortunately, my camera was not water proof. We huddled down under our tiny bimini top and prayed that we would somehow stay protected. Riiiggghhhhtttt. Wishful thinking. It's hard to stay out of the rain when it is coming at you sideways.

We hid under towels and jackets until Doug could drive us out of the rain. Then we took a minute to have a good laugh. We were completely soaked, not to mention the towels we had to wring out.

That being said, it was nothing to how wet Doug was. I felt so bad for him, we all hid while he drove, and I'm not even sure he could see. He had water streaming down his face, and pelting him right in the eyes. He grabbed his sunglasses at some point, but by the amount of water dripping from his eyebrows, I'm not sure it did him any good. I've always said he was my hero. Here's the thing that made me the most nervous: Doug put on a life jacket. (Pause for effect while this sinks in....) The man can hold his breath underwater for almost 3 minutes, and frequently has to save his scuba students, yet when I looked up after things calmed down, there it was. Even after all the rough water, THAT was the scariest part. I can't tell if that face is because he was having fun, or if he is just relieved.

While everyone went scubadiving, Miriam and I hung out in the boat. Miriam was playing in the water, and I saw a great opportunity to take pictures of the divers. We realized that the water was clear enough to see them as they explored the lake. I'm not sure who this is, but it was fun to watch them. You can see their bubbles, and then a yellow tank with black straps. When I took the picture, I wasn't sure you would see anything. Turns out, you can see more than I did when I took it. It's just too bad you can't see everything when it's this small.

On Saturday night, there was a city celebration happening on the lake. They decorate boats with lights, then drive them around the lake. After that, there are fireworks that you can watch while you sit at the water's edge. The coolest part was how they reflected on the water. I think I missed most of them because I was too busy with my camera. Like I said, I have a problem.

We spent that evening around a campfire. We had smore's, and laughed at old memories of childhood. We were with Doug's sister and her family, and her best friend's family, as well. It was such a great evening. I can't even find anything to make fun of. Maybe we didn't do it right.

There was so much fun on the cliffs. The kids had a blast jumping from them, and I just had to have a picture of them, but Miriam was a bit angry that I made her get out of the water to take a picture. She just refused to smile. Moms are so mean.

I also took way too many pictures of everyone jumping into the water. I had so many fun photos, but had to pick just one to post. So many pictures, so little space. Out of gratitude for Taylor posing for me, I chose to post my favorite of him. He has some serious hang time.

Then there is Doug. He drove the boat the entire weekend, saved us from becoming the remake of Gilligan's Island, pulled us around the lake on the tube, made water runs so we could take a shower every day, cooked dinner for me, played pirates with us, and was generally one cool dude. Oh, how I love my handsome man.

We had a great time with our family. These are the times that you realize how grateful you are for the incredible people you get to be around. The more I spend time with them, the more I love them. You would think that I would take more pictures of these people because they mean so much to me, but, alas, I can't get rid of the urge to photograph the world around me. Even in the dark.