My engineer friend and benefactor

Towards the end of the summer, friend LH invited me on a work retreat up to the North Woods this last week. She told me very little about it other than it was to take place at a well-known nice resort, the dates we were to be gone, and that it was all expenses paid by her company.

Well, last Saturday- the night before we left, she finally confesses that this trip is a reward for good performance at work. A group of her peers nominated and then chose her to be one of twenty people to get an all-expense trip for her and a guest for 4 days up North. Sadly, her teacher husband had to be left behind, but happily she thought of me to fill in.

We had a great time. It was a beautiful resort, we had a big room on one of the four golf courses, we were wined and dined(probably too much judging by the scale), and we were given money to spend doing what ever we wanted. We played lawn games on specially manicured lawns, we went for a boat ride, we went horse back riding, we golfed the social nine golf course (I have to say we were pretty good for the fact that I have played about 5 times in my life and L had never- after 8 holes we got rained off the course), and we spent an afternoon at the spa.

Along the way, we talked to a lot of L's co-workers, we played electric fence as a team building exercise, our team won the scavenger hunt, we went on walks, we read, and we did some champaign drinking and watching *gasp* some TV in our room.

On the last night was the awards ceremony, and we had a fun dinner sitting with some of L's co-workers (my favorites except maybe the sisters and the twins). At the end of the evening, one of the head honchos in the company got up and presented awards to each of the people picked for the honor. Even though he read word for word off of a sheet while presenting them their awards, I found it really touching. I realized quickly that this was my favorite part of the whole trip. I was so happy to see these really nice people honored, but especially pal, L. She works so hard, does an amazing job (I got a tour of the lab and saw the crazy, complicated machines she works on before our trip-wow), and does it all in her very modest, wonderful way. She does things at work that I would never dream of.

I was reminded that it was through her work and her friendship that I was a part of a really great trip. I enjoyed all the benefits of her hard work and really, really enjoyed her company.