A Madman's Dash of a Summer

The time since graduation has flown by. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. A quick summary of June:

I spent eight days in glorious Hawaii with my family. It was a bizarre feeling of knowing that we were in America (as evidenced by road signs, Walmart, and McDonald's) but not believing that it was actually America (islands, volcanoes, and flowers, oh my!).

Am I in America, or is this a ridiculously realistic dream?

Less than 24 hours after arriving home, I set out for Chicago. Bernadette rode with me, and we spent a wonderful weekend with Becca, Kate, and Kate's family. Between Rose's pickled beans, coffee cake made with rhubarb the size of my arm, and authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza, we were well fed and blessed with the Sullivans' perfect hospitality. We had several excursions into the big city, and we even saw part of the Chicago Gospel Music Festival. I also had the unfortunate luck to run into Jake; I was forced to have lunch with him. What a moron.

The Chicago Gospel Music Festival in Millennium Park

Since then, I've had a few weeks of fun with friends here in Rochester. One of our most frequent activities has been sailing on Lake Pepin. Unfortunately, the wind always dies down by the evening time when we get there; we've been lucky some nights to even hit 2 knots. Fortunately, the sunsets over Lake Pepin more than make up for the slow sailing. In between, we find other ways to amuse ourselves. For example, throwing small pieces of food at one another can be fun, especially knowing that the ones that go overboard might just lure Peppy, the ferocious monster that inhabits those parts, to rear her ugly head.

Sunset on the Mississippi can be surprisingly peaceful.

Of course, everything gets shaken up when we have visitors. Hugh came to visit, so we wanted to make sure we entertained him while he was here. Essentially, he was just a great excuse to go to a Twins game, go camping, go to Rochesterfest, and go sailing yet again.

Matt is a creeper, and Hugh is not amused.

Now I am realizing that my summer is essentially over -- and I'm pretty darn pumped about what comes next. On Monday, I will begin my Commissioned Officer Training at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. I will try to update the blog when I get a chance, so hopefully I can give a taste of what training is like. Until then...

Peace out from the Midwest.