Stowin' Away

Stowin' Away!

Mr. Fox had a very eventful and busy October!  In addition to his trip with Lisa and Linda, traipsing around New England in search of the ultimate covered bridge, he found time to hitch a ride with Steve on a few business trips.  After returning from Boston, Steve did not realize that Mr. Fox was still nestled down in the side pocket of his backpack.

We guess he thought all this travel was pretty exciting, so he hopped the next few trips to learn about the glamour of business travel!

Toronto, Ontario Canada

The first stop was Toronto, Canada.  Mr. Fox got a taste of yet another 'foreign' country!  The trip took us to Alliston, Ontario about an hour North of Toronto.  Not knowing that Mr. Fox was with him, Steve did not get a picture with the red wanderer.  However, he did take a picture of the sun setting over the Toronto streets.

A few days after returning from Canada, Steve was off to Portland, Oregon.  This time, he realized that Mr. Fox was in his backpack when he was preparing for takeoff in Jacksonville.

Hotel Window - Portland, OR

The next morning, Mr. Fox got his picture taken in the hotel window, his first taste of traveling for business. After the days work, they moved hotels to downtown Portland to be closer to the next days meetings.

Downtown Portland

Ah, the excitement!  Hotel room to meeting,  to hotel room to meeting.  Really, they did have an hour to walk through downtown Oregon, however, true to the climate, is started raining so they had to high tail it back to the hotel.

The next day they left Oregon behind, but not without a great parting shot of Mr. Fox on the plane with Mount Hood in the background.  Sometimes it can be pretty interesting!

Mr. Fox and Mt. Hood

The next stop on Mr. Fox's stowin' away adventure came the following week during Halloween.

Steve was scheduled to visit Sandy, Utah just outside Salt Lake City for two days of meetings. He once again was left in the backpack side pocket and on this occasion, they were going to get a little chance to play tourist.

Real Salt Lake Soccer Practice

Arriving in Salt Lake City and getting to their morning meeting, Steve was pleasantly surprised to see a soccer field across the street from the office.  When asked, our hosts explained that the Real Salt Lake professional soccer team practices on that field. During the meetings, cars started arriving and the players were making their way onto the field, stretching and preparing for practice.  The team was in the MLS playoffs and were preparing for a game two days later.  Mr. Fox insisted he get his picture with the team, so Steve made his way across the street during a break to oblige!

Utah by the way, is a very beautiful state.  The valley where Salt Lake City is situated has majestic rocky mountains on each side that provide wonderful views from pretty much anywhere along the valley floor.

Mountains near the soccer fields

Later in the afternoon, Steve's meetings were cancelled.  Trying to get early flights back to Jacksonville proved to be near impossible to prohibitively expensive.  This trip followed hurricane Sandy's visit to the North East, and the airlines were trying to get all the stranded travelers to their destinations.  There were few, and very expensive, seats that would get them home early, so they kept our reservations and decided to work from the hotel and see a little of the area.

On the road to Park City

The team, Mr. Fox, Steve and Steve's associate Sergio decided to spend the evening and have dinner in Park City, Utah.  Only about 30 minutes from the airport, it was a nice drive up into the mountains.

Something that they did not expect was that the entire city shuts down on Halloween and everyone shows up downtown in full costume to trick-or-treat along the main street. There were throngs of witches, goblins, princesses, pirates and myriad of other beasties out that evening.

Halloween in Park City Utah

They worked the next morning and then decided to downtown Salt Lake City to visit the Mormon Temple. It is a pretty impressive area and they spent a little time in the Family Research Center, trying to look up their history.  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Mr. Fox in the Mormon Tabernacle

Mr. Fox in front of the Temple