Travel

I took two trips in May: the first was a long weekend in Traverse City during the middle of the month. My parents, Kellie, Zach, and I stayed at the Tamarack Lodge again and attended a wine release party at Left Foot Charley. We also had a great time visiting with the Acres (Steve is a former coworker from Steelcase) and my aunt and uncle who live up that way. It was Zach’s first road trip and while not without it’s challenges, we all had a great time.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/TraverseCitySpring2010

I returned last weekend from Las Vegas where I was with a bunch of guys for a bachelor party/getaway. It was my first time to Sin city and my expectations were exceeded despite the number of people who talked up the city prior to my departure. The size and scale of everything there is unbelievable and the fact that every morning when I got up for breakfast, there were people just getting in from the night before astounded me. I wasn’t able to get a lot of pictures but it really doesn’t matter because the pictures can’t do justice to how massive the place really is.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/LasVegasSpring2010

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated so here’s what I’ve been up to. The weekend of the 10th, I attended Hope’s Homecoming activities and my class’ five year reunion. It was a full day packed with fun things to do and catching up with several old friends. We had brunch in the morning followed by our class picture. After some exploring of campus, we headed to the football game and tailgating/picnic’ing. Some warm hot chocolate was in order afterward so we patronized JPs before attending the class party at New Holland Brewery. Here are some photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HopeHomecoming5YearReunion

Last week went by in a blur. I had two quick days in the office and spent Wednesday and Thursday working out of the High Point, North Carolina office. I caught the corporate jet down and back so it was a breeze but still very busy… I even made it to class Thursday night. Friday morning we left for Traverse City on our annual wine and color tour. It was a beautiful weekend full of wining and dining, shopping, visiting friends, and of course, relaxing. For photos, check the following link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/WineColorTour2009

Sorry to keep it short but I’m writing this between running jobs at work. Yes, still working at 10 PM!

Kellie and I just returned from a fantastic weekend in North Carolina with her extended family. Her cousin Trista was a gorgeous bride and all the festivities were magnificent. My personal highlight of the trip was creating a dance routine to Thriller with two other guys, teaching it to 20 of the family, and then dancing for the bride and groom in wolfpack masks. It was a blast!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HesterTellierWedding

Kellie and I just got back from a wonderful week in sunny Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We went Saturday to Saturday covering the week of labor day and stayed at the Riu Palace right on the beach. We enjoyed a couple outings to Las Caletas (Rhythm of the Nights sunset cruise and dinner/show) and Swim Life Park (think Michigan’s Adventure water park plus swimming with the dolphins) and of course, lots of Tequila! I’ll post pictures sometime over the next few days.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/PuertoVallartaFall2009

It’s been a busy week: last Thursday and Friday I worked in Waterloo, Canada and flew on the corporate jet for the first time. I was home Saturday but spent the whole day drywalling the garage with some dedicated friends. Sunday and Monday were spent gone on vacation to Frankenmuth and Tuesday through Thursday I was gone working in High Point, North Carolina. I enjoy the busyness of go-go-go weeks for the most part but it’s always nice when you get back home and have plans to stay a while.

While in High Point, I had dinner with Bryan and Hayley Williams (cousins of my wife) at their new home in Thomasville – about ten minutes away from my hotel. We had grilled chicken and pineapple, beans, and potatoes – a nice meal and a welcome reprieve from the usual on-the-go food typical of business trips. I also had dinner with a coworker of mine (Suzanna) and her husband and son. One conversation that I enjoyed was about geocaching – using a GPS device to find hidden treasures planted by other geocachers. It sounded interesting and I’d heard about it before but never met someone who was involved. Mark convinced me to give it a try so I checked out the website when I got back to the hotel room and was surprised to see that a cache was planted near the Fairfield Inn where I was staying! This couldn’t be just coincidence, right? Using the Nuvi and doing some searching, I found the cache. All in all a neat experience and I’m sure this won’t be the last one I find.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/NorthCarolinaJuly2009

I may or may not have mentioned this, but last Thanksgiving while in Frankenmuth, I submitted a guess for the number of Christmas lights on a giant 40 to 50 foot tree in the main lobby. There were tons of entries submitted so I thought nothing of it – until early January when I received a letter from the Bavarian Inn stating that I had won the weekly drawing. Nice surprise! I had won free brunch certificates for two. A month later, I received a second letter from the Inn, this time stating that I had won the overall contest and as a result, was given a gift certificate good for a free night’s stay for up to four people. Now we really had to revisit Frankenmuth before the expiration dates in 2010! This past weekend provided a good opportunity to do so.

Among the highlights were a trip on the Bavarian Belle, dinner at the Frankenmuth Brewery, and the discovery that Frankenmuth holds the only other Oktoberfest sanctioned by the German government. That sounds like another reason to go back!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/FrankenmuthSummer2009

I took a quick trip to Waterloo, Canada this past Thursday to Friday to do some training and work at a subsidiary there called Softcare. While everything went smoothly at the office, the highlight of the trip for me was actually the plane ride there and back. I was able to catch a ride on one of the Steelcase corporate jets and it’s an experience that I’ll never forget! We were treated like royalty and it’s quick! I left my house and 90 minutes later, we touched down in Toronto. Try that on commercial! Here are some pictures as usual…

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/Toronto2009

I’m happy to be home today.. back from what feels like a month of traveling. I’ve had two or three week long business trips plus a week long vacation in Alabama all sandwiched together and it feels like I’m flying from here to there every third day. I’m back home for this week and fly out again next week for Dallas. No trips for several months after that please. I’m worn out! I’m only looking forward to Dallas because I’ll get to see John and Jenni down there!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/NewOrleansOrangeBeachSpringBreak2009

A lot has been going on lately and today feels like the first day I’ve been able to breath over the past week. Kellie and I have been making progress on the kitchen remodel as we had the new countertop installed last Thursday. We chose Crystalline Dune from the WilsonArt HD line and it turned out beautifully.. a marked improvement over the leather-textured Formica we had from the late 80s. The new American Standard sink is in too. On Saturday morning, we had part one of the tile backsplash installed and this morning that was finished as well. Our drywall repairman was in this morning too and will be doing some touch up work later this week or next. The new appliances have been ordered (Whirlpool range and refrigerator) and will be delivered next Thursday (since we are gone this Thursday). Kellie’s also working on a date to get the floors balanced and laid with new Faus laminate tile flooring.

I’ve also started another project, a home gym in the extra space in our laundry room. After some research, I ordered a 5-50lbs dumbbell weight set and rack by VTX and picked up a Hoist adjustable bench and 3, 8, and 12lb VTX dumbbells for Kellie. We picked up a stability ball and some foam flooring too.. and now I’m working on getting some mirrors for the walls. This should allow us to drop our gym memberships and save seven or eight hundred dollars a year. Over the course of our lifetime, that will add up. The real reason for doing this is to make working out a more integrated part of our lives. We mean well when we set the alarm for 6 AM to get up to the gym in the morning but our bodies don’t always obey when it’s really cold outside. My hope is having the gym downstairs (with a bar for mixing shakes 10 feet away) will leave us no excuse.

Kellie and I are also heading to Tampa, Florida in a few days for a long weekend with some good friends, the Semeyns. Ben is running the Tampa Bay marathon on Sunday and I’ve signed up for the half marathon. We also hope to see Ryan Hall on Saturday as he’s racing the 15k. We’ll be gone Thursday thru Monday… hitting the Tampa Aquarium and Busch Gardens at some point during the weekend too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/TampaMarathonTrip

After wrapping up the conference on Wednesday, I took the rest of the day to visit Epcot with my parents (who flew down Tuesday night). We hit all the major rides and enjoyed the wine and food event going on at all of the countries. Thursday, we visited Hollywood Studios and stayed for the fantastic show Fantasmic. Friday, we wrapped up with Animal Kingdom. It was an awesome trip!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/DisneyWorld2008