Business travels

My business travel seems to come in spurts. I'll go several months without much travel at all, then I'll have to travel a lot all at once. This month is no exception. I haven't done much traveling since February, but I've now had to travel for business the last 3 weeks in a row. Last week, I went to Cleveland to testify at an arbitration. Then, at the beginning of this week, I had to go to Wisconsin to give a daylong presentation (combined with 2 days of travel) on the effects of earthquakes on buildings. Finally, at the end of this week, I had to go to Cincinnati for a seminar.

But, this last trip was different. The seminar was in a new resort next to Kings Island that has an indoor waterpark, and David and Elizabeth got to come along with me! While I would have preferred to just spend the day vacationing with them, it was still very nice to have them there in the evenings and to sneak out to spend some time with them throughout the day. Definitely the best way to travel while on business!

On Friday, David and Elizabeth spent most of the day playing at the waterpark while I was at my meeting. Elizabeth really loved playing in the wave pool with David:




We also convinced her to go down one of the mini water slides once, but she really didn't like that as well. She wasn't very fond of the water splashing all around her. But, she did really like a big bucket that filled up with water and dumped it out on other people standing below it. I think she would have been happy just watching that all day!

Then, on Friday night, we all went over to Kings Island for a few hours. Elizabeth absolutely loved going on the carousel. I think she'd still be on it if we hadn't finally made her get off!





She also enjoyed trying out all the other kiddy rides. She really wanted to go on all of them - all by herself, of course - but with all the height restrictions, there were only a few that she could go solo on. One of those was the little racecars, which she really enjoyed "driving." The first time she went on them, she got paired up with another little girl:



After that, she asked if she could "drive" with her little "friend" again, but before we knew it, the little girl's big brother had jumped in the car with Elizabeth!



Elizabeth didn't mind at all, but it sure seemed to make David nervous to see how the boys already want to be around his little baby girl! :)

Here's a video of her showing off her driving skills on the Diego jeep ride. I found this video particularly amusing because Elizabeth didn't look around for David or me one single time - after all, she had to focus on her driving! - while the little boy in front of her kept screaming and waving at his mom and dad!



Other highlights of the evening were getting to ride some trains and seeing a BIG Dora:



So, although I had to work, it was still a great way to do it!

I have to go out of town for one night next week, then I'm hoping all the business travels will stop for a while!