Treehouses, Lake Cabins, and Other Distractions

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My blogging pace has slowed down lately as some summer time distractions have limited my time for this activity.  Given that it’s Friday afternoon before a long weekend, maybe it’s time for a post that ventures off of software development to some of those distractions…

 

One recent distraction was a week’s vacation in Oregon for my family.  We spent the first five nights along the coast of Oregon.  The coast is a beautiful place and we had a great time hiking in the forests, walking on the beach, and other exploring.  We even survived a Tsunami Warning.  We Midwesterners know what to do with a tornado warning, but a Tsunami Warning?!?!  Give me a break…  Fortunately, it turned into a no-op and our beach side hotel was safe.  The few people sprinting to their cars with their luggage were probably disappointed to hear that.

 

The most interesting part of the trip, and the primary motivation for it, was our stay for two nights in a treehouse.   Down in the southwestern corner of Oregon is a place called the Treesort (https://www.treehouses.com/treehouse/treesort/home.html).  It has several treehouses to stay in, plus several bridges, ladders, and swings to navigate.  It was a pretty unique experience. 

 

The treehouse that we stayed in

 

Back in Fargo, summertime has been a mix of warm, beautiful days mixed with days of thunderstorms and rain.  One of the main benefits of living in Fargo is the access to Minnesota (aka – “The Land of 10,000 Lakes”) lake country.  We share a lake cabin with a couple of my extended family members about one hour from Fargo.  Note - this is the same lake cabin that I drove almost 4 hours to get to from the Minneapolis area, fighting traffic going out on Friday and back in on Sunday.

 

We spent last weekend ‘at the lake’, and I commuted back and forth for about half of this week.  We’re looking at some nice weather for Fourth of July weekend and most of it will also be spent at the lake.

 

I’m sure I’ll get back to some software related posts in July.  I just signed up to attend the Agile 2005 conference in Denver later this month.  I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to learn from and hang out with the leading agilists in the industry.

 

Have a great Fourth of July!!