Spring Break Etc.

Well last week was spring break around here and it was quite the hectic one for the Baldauff family...for my part I had a trip down to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Two of my co-workers, Mike and Ryan, and I decided to head down south to do some hiking. We spent four days on and around the Appalachian Trail. We had a great time, had wonderful weather, had great hikes, met great people along the trail, and had a ton of fun camping out. A super trip with good friends, good camp food, and good views. The Appalachian Trail is a special place and we certainly felt that.

While I was in Tennessee Leah headed over to Chicago to spend time with the family and to search for possible areas where we would want to live. Lo and behold she actually found us a great apartment!!!! It is actually the second floor of a cute little house that is owned by an older couple that live on the first floor. It is in the Evanston area about twelve miles north of the city. This means Leah is about a half hour train ride away from school but it puts us closer to a lot of things and that made it worth it. It is a huge relief to have this already done. Our lease starts April 15th but we have a half month free so it works out pefrectly because we are moving in May and this allows time for our Dear Mother to completely furnish and decorate the apartment before we move in!!! Thanks mom, we'll take a king size bed!

So when Leah and I both came back from out trip we still had a weekend before students arrived back on campus. Spontaneously we decided to head to the Laurel Higlands in PA for the weekend. Our weekend there was wonderful. We rented a little cabin which was kind of dingy but it had a great fireplace where we had a fire going all weekend. We also did some great bike riding along the Youghagheny river...it was beautiful. The highlight of the weekend,however, was definitely our visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Both of us being FLW fans it was a pretty special experience to walk through Fallingwater. What an amazing home and piece of history. This was something that Leah and I have had planned for a long time so it was special to finally make it happen.

So that was our crazy spring break week...lots happened and we had a ton of fun...this is not typical for us. We normally always have fun but usually that means doing crossword puzzles or playing rummy and watching Lost...it was fun to have a life for a week and a half! Here are some pictures of our trip: