This past weekend was the last of my three trips for the month of February — it’s been an incredibly wonderful month, getting to see so many friends I hadn’t seen in a while, not to mention running the half marathon. At the same time, though, it’s been incredibly busy and I will be ever so grateful to spend some time cozy at home and in my own bed this coming weekend.

This last trip took me up to Kentucky. Several friends were heading there for a conference, but instead of staying in the conference hotel, we stayed with our gracious host E., who lives nearby. I drove up with my friend B., and we also got to see D. and K. These women were all once employed here, but have moved on to other jobs far away. They were all, in addition to our friend Golightly (who couldn’t make the trip), a big part of making this job as great as it is. We all went through orientation together and became fast friends. It has been sad to see our group from that first year break up, but it makes it doubly worthwhile to attend conferences, which is where I tend to see them most these days.

The road trip up North with Brunbec involved a lot of wrangling and second-guessing her GPS, which we eventually convinced, after great effort, to take us up there the long way, adding an extra hour to our travels. Yes, we are geographical geniuses. On the way back, though, we got the correct route, found a caravan of fast cars to join as we sped through the twisty Tennessee mountains, cranked up the stereo, sang along, and enjoyed the trip.

While in Kentucky, it was just a pure pleasure to hang out with good friends in a cool city. I didn’t manage to get a photo of us all together (and I forgot to ask them whether they minded their pictures appearing on my blog anyway), so here’s the weekend in photos of: too many drinks; fancy, historical downtown Louisville hotels; strange diners; and roadtrip scenery. As usual, click through to flickr for more details and the rest of the trip pictures.