Mini-vacation to Southern Indiana
Stephan and I went on a mini-vacation on Wednesday and Thursday which consisted of a 12 mile canoe trip down the Blue River in Southern Indiana, one night in a nice B & B, some walking near Patoka Lake, visiting the newly refurbished West Baden Springs Hotel and having lunch at the French Lick Springs Hotel.
The canoeing was fabulous. The weather was slightly cool, but pleasant, and the water level high enough to make for some fun little rapids. We took a picnic lunch and pretty much had the river to ourselves. We saw lots of birds, including the obligatory blue heron sighting.
We ate at the Overlook Restaurant, which has a nice view of a horseshoe bend in the Ohio River. It also has lots of bird feeders and attracts all sorts of birds. We saw grackles, doves, carninals, blue jays, starlings, goldfinches, purple finches, white breasted nuthatches, tufted titmice, an indigo bunting, a brown-headed cowbird, various sparrows, and a pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks, a bird I had never seen before! I wasn't able to identify them until consulting my bird book today. Must remember to bring bird book next time.
One assignment we did last summer at Odyssey was to eavesdrop on conversations of strangers and write them down. I'm not a terribly nosy person, but I do often listen to bits of conversations around me if they are interesting. I didn't hear what came before this fragment, but my ears picked up the following from a couple at breakfast in the restaurant:
Woman: She can talk to anybody about anything.
Man: (something mumbled)
Woman: I guess that's why she doesn't fit in with this family. She's too ... (hesitates) versatile.
Man: That's a nice way to say it.
I lost the thread of the conversation after that, but later caught a snatch of the woman complaining about some couple they knew who talked about the taste of the food and its ingredients when they ate.
I'm not sure how to put my finger on exactly why I found this interesting, but I suppose my mind did a minor boggle to think that there are people out there who think that being "versatile" and being able to talk to different sorts of people is a bad thing. You can't judge a person based on a fragment of conversation heard completely out of context, but in my mind I'm building a small-minded character who may show up in a story some day.
In other news, I decided to select a new, snazzier lj theme. Like it?
The canoeing was fabulous. The weather was slightly cool, but pleasant, and the water level high enough to make for some fun little rapids. We took a picnic lunch and pretty much had the river to ourselves. We saw lots of birds, including the obligatory blue heron sighting.
We ate at the Overlook Restaurant, which has a nice view of a horseshoe bend in the Ohio River. It also has lots of bird feeders and attracts all sorts of birds. We saw grackles, doves, carninals, blue jays, starlings, goldfinches, purple finches, white breasted nuthatches, tufted titmice, an indigo bunting, a brown-headed cowbird, various sparrows, and a pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks, a bird I had never seen before! I wasn't able to identify them until consulting my bird book today. Must remember to bring bird book next time.
One assignment we did last summer at Odyssey was to eavesdrop on conversations of strangers and write them down. I'm not a terribly nosy person, but I do often listen to bits of conversations around me if they are interesting. I didn't hear what came before this fragment, but my ears picked up the following from a couple at breakfast in the restaurant:
Woman: She can talk to anybody about anything.
Man: (something mumbled)
Woman: I guess that's why she doesn't fit in with this family. She's too ... (hesitates) versatile.
Man: That's a nice way to say it.
I lost the thread of the conversation after that, but later caught a snatch of the woman complaining about some couple they knew who talked about the taste of the food and its ingredients when they ate.
I'm not sure how to put my finger on exactly why I found this interesting, but I suppose my mind did a minor boggle to think that there are people out there who think that being "versatile" and being able to talk to different sorts of people is a bad thing. You can't judge a person based on a fragment of conversation heard completely out of context, but in my mind I'm building a small-minded character who may show up in a story some day.
In other news, I decided to select a new, snazzier lj theme. Like it?