Last week we took a drive north to the Adirondack State Park to see the fall foliage. Unfortunately we were late and the leaves up north had already fallen to the ground. A bit disappointing.
We did see several of these signs during our drive. No snow here yet, but I hear it is coming soon...Lauren and I try not to use the "S" word in hopes that it stays away as long as possible.
It's the time of year for the girls to take a road trip to Austin! Of course we couldn't make the trip without stopping in west for warm kolaches. Look how happy Valerie is with her tasty treat!
First stop in Austin was for Mexican Martinis at Trudy's.
We met some fellow sorority sisters out downtown and then we headed to Sixth Street to show off our dancing skills and hit up some of our old haunts.
As always, we ended the night at Logan's.
Saturday was game day! After brunch at Magnolia's we headed to the Alpha Xi Delta tailgate. We were able to visit with lots of old friends. That's me with my big sis/best friend Allison. She made the trip all the way from North Carolina. 
Here's the crew again!
Allison and I with her parents, Bobby and Sherry. They were my second set of parents when I was in college.
My dad and I went to the football game while the girls watched it at the Alumni Center. After the game, my dad and I went to dinner at Matt's Famous El Rancho with Allison and her parents. We got a big kick that both our dad's had on the same shirt.
There's my bestest buddies on their Blackberries. They were on them as soon as they woke up until their heads hit the pillow. Blessing and a curse they say...
Sunday=Sorority Day
We went to the Alpha Xi Delta house to celebrate 80 years at the University of Texas. There were also major renovations completed on the house which were very exciting to see. The biggest change was the front exterior of the house.
Thank you ladies for a super weekend in Austin!
I made a quick trip back to Texas to visit in Dallas and then make a stop in Austin. I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon at the Texas State Fair, the best fair in my opinion.
It's not the fair without a Fletcher's corn dog! Love those! Please note how perfectly the mustard is arranged on my corn dog. Big Tex is watching over my shoulder. I heard he was supposed to be giving out information about the flu this year, but I didn't hear anything other than "Howdy"!
We made the usual rounds to the Top Dog Show, Birds of the World, Baby Petting Zoo, Butter Sculpture, Elsie the Cow...it goes on and on! We also made sure to try the Fried Butter, this year's winner of best new food. It was like a ball of uncooked biscuit dough with melted butter that was fried and drizzled with jelly. Not too bad! I would eat it again. 
We wanted to do a little whitewater rafting before the weather turns. We only had until October 12th before they stop rafting in the area. So this was at the top of our list to get done ASAP.
We went rafting in Watertown NY on the Black Canyon River. Which is a little more than an hour north of Syracuse. We had to be there at 9am. It was close to 40 degrees when we left Syracuse. I was not thrilled about getting in a river.
We rented all of our gear there. We had a full body wet suit, booties and a splash jacket. They said imagine being soaking wet and standing outside. It had warmed up to 48 degrees by 9am. YIKES! That's me above in my gear next to 2 rafts.
After we got instructions on self rescue, got paddles and life jackets, we boarded this big purple bus which we rode to the drop in spot.
Our guide was Tom, located in the back of the raft. Ed and his wife are in front of him, Lauren and I in the middle and then Buddy and his friend from Ithaca in the front. We all became pretty tight after riding the rapids together.
The rapids were class 3 and 4. Class 5 rapids are the hardest you can ride on and Class 6 are too dangerous to navigate.
The water temperature was 55 degrees. I was afraid my hands might fall off, but they didn't!
There were two other rafts that went down the river with us and another guy in a kayak who went with us to help rescue anyone that might fall out.
I'm happy that nobody fell out of the raft all day. We did rescue someone that fell out of another raft and then returned him to his raft.
This is us going into a taco. Basically folds the raft into a taco from front to back. It made all of us fall off the side and into the middle of the boat.
After we went through all the rapids, we were able to jump in the water and float down. If you followed the blog at all while I was in Hawaii, you know how much Lauren and I like to jump off boats! So of course we went in the water...wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. Those wet suits do a great job. Getting back in the raft was interesting. Tom pulled both of us out of the water. We looked like a seal coming out of the water when we fell back in the raft. The three rafts were then towed the rest of the way by a pontoon boat for several miles down the river. We were able to enjoy the fall scenery and take a rest.
After putting warm dry clothes they fed us a nice chicken dinner before heading back to Syracuse. That's a picture of us with Tom. We had a GREAT time and I can't wait to whitewater raft again...hopefully in a warmer climate next time. 
The front door opens in the living room. The picture is taken with the front door behind me.
From the living room looking into the kitchen area. Door on the left goes to the basement.
From the top of the steps. Laundry to the left, kitchen is to the right. Door straight ahead is the bathroom.
Kitchen area. I recommend wearing house shoes in this area. The kitchen floor is the yuckiest thing in the house.
Different view of the kitchen. Kitchen sink is behind me.
Here's Lauren cleaning the kitchen floor.
This is the nasty range that was in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure it's older than me!
It was filthy! I would never cook food on it. We told the landlord they must remove it and they did! They agreed that it was disgusting...why would they leave it in the house???
This is the "dining room". But really it's just the hallway to the stairs. There is a "master bedroom" through the door on the left, but it's an odd shaped room. We just leave it empty.
At the top of the stairs there are two bedrooms. This is my room. The windows face out the front of the house.
Lauren's room. Her windows face out the back of the house. Both rooms have big walk-in closets.
After spending a few days in Delaware. On our way back to NY we decided to stop by the offices of MedStaff and meet our recruiter, Steve, in person.
This picture is a little blurry, but this is where the magic happens, Steve's cube! Steve gave us a great tour of the cubes and we even stopped by the housing department. With our recent housing issues, it is needless to say they all knew our names.
After the tour, we headed out to breakfast in Newtown Square PA. I needed eggs.
There's Steve dipping into the MedStaff wallet to treat us! Thanks Steve!
We really enjoyed meeting the crew in Steve's aisle of cubes. Seems like a great group of people and they kept popping up from their cubes to say hello. Can 'kinda catch you off guard if you're not used to being in a cube city. But I still think we are lucky to work with the best! I mean...Steve dressed up to meet us on Casual Friday. I think somebody might be getting a nice gift for Boss's Day...
We told Dotti, our soon to be land lady, that we would take the house on the spot! It's a 3 bedroom house/1 bathroom. We quickly lined up furniture, electricity, cable and internet. The picture above is taken from the street.
A closer picture. The living room is to the left. Master bedroom downstairs in the front. My bedroom has the windows in the front of the house and Lauren's room faces out the back of the house. We moved out of the hotel the next day. Dotti let us unload our cars and leave a car at the house while we headed to Delaware for a few days.
