Mini-vacation…

That’s what yesterday was. And I didn’t know how much it was needed until I now look back on it =o)

A nice perk of working at a University is some down-time in the summer when the majority of the students are gone. HR give the ladies and men on staff a day to plan some sort of outing…and NOT have to come into work for a day! Yesterday was it, and God gave us the perfect weather, although it was a bit H-O-T (it didn’t rain). They encourage us to bring along a friend or family member….so my roomie, Amber, got to come along…..yay for roomie-hang-out-time!

After filling ourselves a bit too-full on a breakfast of amazingly fresh fruit and pastry confections, we hopped in my car to drive ourselves to our next destination….a local raspberry farm. 45 minutes of driving further and further out into the country until we happened upon the entrance to the sprawling farms. We embarked upon the gift shop laden with sauces and dips beckoning to be tasted. Sampling done, it was time for our tour of the plant….finding out we had to wear hair nets for the whole thing! (Hehe….sorry, no picture of that! You should have seen the bearded worker sporting the ‘beard net’!) Answering our stomachs, we head off to eat…we were served a calorie-rich croissant filled with roasted red pepper, eggplant, and Portobello mushroom…a side of Tara vegetable chips (we had fun trying to figure out WHICH veggie the red chips came from, you tell me…), washed down with some delectable cold green tea, and ending with a soft chocolate chip cookie. We wandered through the quaint herb garden and posed by the pool fountain, complete with FROG LEAVES (as my uber-cute roomie refers to lily pads). As we were heading to my car, I thought I saw a goat out of the corner of my eye…so I asked Amber if that was a goat…to which she replied, “Uhh…a goat? I think you’ve had too much green tea…” I was on a mission now, to FIND that goat. I didn’t have to look too far, because on the side fenced in area there were 3- I guess green tea doesn’t have that effect on me ;o) So we spent some quality time with the animals, and I put in a quarter to have the pleasure of feeding them a little treat. This excursion ended about 1:00 p.m. with plenty of the 90 degree afternoon to enjoy…OUTSIDE my office. We hop in the car and cruise on home serenaded by Mr. Mraz.



Once home and pictures were uploaded we gave into the sun that was begging us to bask in it. But it was sooooo completely hot lying there under the rays that we were forced to call a few friends of ours who live in apartment complexes with POOLS to see if they would mind us pool-crashing. To our dismay both didn’t answer and we left messages as we waited on the edge of our too-hot lawn chairs for our phones to ring. Then it happened, mine started it’s little ditty and we had it made….off to the most awesome pool ever! Once there, we were elated that we were the ONLY ones there the whole afternoon. Our own bit of paradise in Dayton…so we had a little fun with the camera and lounged around in utter relaxation, hitting the hot-tub up above the waterfall to end the afternoon.



Our stomachs were talking to us again, so we decided to answer with a Subway run. Mmmm… nothing like the chicken teriyaki on Honey Oat! Perfect day, perfect weather, perfect timing….. Everyone should have the chance to take a mini-vacation like that once in awhile. It does the soul good. Now it’s time for Amber and I to work hard to prepare for the min-vacation we’re giving to a bunch of our friends this Saturday night at our house during our first Ladies’ Spa Night. Yep, time for us to pamper some others who deserve it…and partake of some sweet, much-needed fellowship ourselves. Stay tuned for a recap of that night.