Working for Fisher Investments

 Pictures from the Rose Garden on the Intern bus tour

some of the interns

Colby and I

Myself, Colby, and Maya at an entrance of the Rose Garden

We started work on Wednesday and had three days of training. We found out our rotations and lots about the company. I was ecstatic to find out in the first rotation I was placed in Foreign Private Client and my second rotation will be United Kingdom Client Services associate. During training I was able to meet all the interns and start planning how to spend the summer.  Friday was a couple hours in our rotation seat, one training class and then all the interns went on a bus tour of Vancouver and Portland. 

Since we arrived in WA time has been going by SUPER fast!

That first Monday, my mom, Eva, Colby and I went to Seattle. We  got an early start and had a super busy day. We started out at Pike's place market. It was fairly rainy that morning, but most of the market is inside, so it wasn't a huge deal. We tried lots of samples of fruit, saw the fish be thrown, and all the collections if flowers, art, and clothes being sold. The market was huge! We then visitors the bubble gum wall and of course added to it! Just as we were wrapping up at the market the SUN started to come out!! So we headed straight for the Space Needle! We took a monorail out to it. Every time I see the space needle I can't help but think of Grey's Anatomy. We went up into the space needle and had a gorgeous view of the city. The weather was fantastic! While up there we started our sampling tour of Seattle food. We tried some sweet potato baked chips with sugar on them. After walking around the park we headed back into the city center.

 From the Space Needle  we met up with Moira!! For my frequent followers you'll remember Moira from Thüringen, Germany. She was one of my great friends there that I talked to every day on the phone, and that I went to a pre Karnival festival, and Berlin for the first time, and many other adventures. To say the least I was ecstatic to see one of my friends who made my exchange the way it was, again. It was great how quickly we slipped right back into things with ease. It seems to be a pattern with seeing old friends again from AFS that no matter how long It's been since we last saw each other our friendship still stands and it's easy to slip right back into normal. 

From there we were hungry and decided to back to the market and continue our sampling tour. We got shrimp cocktail from the fisherman, peaches from the peaches guy, Mac and cheese from beechers, and a Russian pastry. After that we were stuffed, and couldn't eat anymore. We then walked around the market a bit more, and the decided to head back. I said see ya later to Moira, and we planned our last stop on the way out of Seattle. We had to stop at Kurt Cobain's house for Eva. Eva is a HUGE fan of Nirvana and Im pretty sure this was the highlight of her trip. She was so happy to see his house behind the gates, and to sit in the bench he used to write music on. After we headed home. 

On Tuesday Colby and I woke up early to drive to work to see how the traffic was. Then we started our day and got all the last minute things to be ready for work, went grocery shopping, and hit up an urban winery. The Winery was awesome! It was called Hip Chicks do Wine. The lady that worked there was super knowledgable and very friendly. We then dropped my mom and Eva off at the airport and Colby and I met up with some other interns for dinner. There we met Maya W and Lacie. 

After dinner Colby and I headed home and got ready for bed to be sharp for the next morning. 

Mom Eva and I at Pike's Place Market

The bubble gum wall... its super gross, but cool at the same time lol

Eva, myself, and Colby at the space needle

the original Starbucks!

Moria and I!

The market pig

Eva on Kurt Cobain's bench

Catch up post... Saturday and Sunday of the trip

Saturday was basically driving all day. 

We went to Multnohma Falls. It's a a huge double waterfall with a heart shaped pool at the bottom. It's the largest fall in the area, but there's several others all in the same area. I have plans to go back to them this summer and hike to several of them.

Not all of them! It was a gorgeous stop. Since we couldn't check into our hotel until later we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the England vs Italy World Cup game. It was a great match to watch! Afterwards we checked into the Hotel and headed back into Portland... The land of no sales tax! We went to Ikea since my mom had never been there before and we got a few things for my apartment for this upcoming semester that I could use in the mean time. 

We went to Voodoo donuts at 9 pm and still had a bit if a wait to get donuts. They were, however, delicious! 

Sunday we took it easy. We slept in for the first time since the trip started and then went into Portland to walk around a bit. We went into Powell’s bookstore. The weather was super rainy, so we went back to the hotel and just hung out. We checked into my place of residency this summer. Colby moved in later that evening. 

We then explored the area and went to target. Then we went into Portland to pick up a few more Voodoo donuts in preparation for our road trip the next day. It was fun to just be able to explore the area, and know that I am home for the summer. 

Is this real life?

Have you ever been somewhere and all you can think is... "Wow, am I dreaming? This can't be real. "?

That is how I would describe many of the sights inside of Yellowstone Park. While standing by the mineral pools and geysers the views were so breath taking I honestly thought I was going to wake up soon because it was just hard to believe they really existed. 

Early this morning we left our hotel in  west Yellowstone and headed to Yellowstone Park. We first went to the paint pots. These are famous for what my mom refers to as the pop and stinks. Something in the ground goes pop and a sulfur stinky rotten egg smell comes up. Of course Eva and I not knowing what they look like my mom tells us to stand by it and wants to take a picture. My mom and I are photo crazy, so normally this would not be an odd occurrence. Well she was taking pictures of us as we got a lovely whiff of the rotten eggs instead and stood far away enough that she wouldn't have to smell it lol. 

We saw a ton of bison in the park. They were all over the place. We were even stuck on the road for a good 20 minutes waiting for them to cross the street. There was a HUGE heard of them. I, as a member of Pi Sigma Epsilon -Zeta Kappa, was on the look out for a moose. Zeta Kappa has its own mascot given to us by our founders and we are known  as the moose chapter. I unfortunately did not see any real moose, but it was the effort that counted lol. 

We found out mascot for the trip today. With the amount of bison we saw it was only appropriate the have a bison as the mascot. We decided to name him Baby Bobo Bison. We are now taking him around everyone kind of like a flat Stanley and taking pictures with him lol. It's funny. 

After Seeing one of several things in the park we decided to head to our next destination... Boise, Idaho. 

The park has next to nothing when it comes to cell service. So as soon as we got outside of the park my phone started to vibrate quiet a bit letting me know I had several missed text messages. Upon reading them I realized that Spain's national soccer team was playing the Netherlands in their first game of the 2014 World Cup tournament.  I had received a text saying the score was 2:1. I didn't read the text very carefully size I had several to read, but because of Spain's history of being the current European and world reigning champions, I figured Spain was winning. Later I got a few more texts stating the score has escalated to 4:1 and I read the text more carefully. I was incorrect.  The Netherlands was actually in the lead! I watched my text messages like a hawk until the end with a final score of 5:1 the Netherlands won! I was so shocked and happy! I am a huge lover of soccer and especially the German team. My last night living in Germany four years ago was the night of the 2010  World Cup when Spain knocked Germany out of the tournament, so when Spain, a total powerhouse team, loses Im really happy! I celebrated (jumped around in my car saying "ohh yea! Ohhyea!") a bit while driving lol

I finished reading the best of me by Nicholas sparks today with two hours to go to Boise. I cried because it was a Nicholas Sparks books and all his books have something sad happen on them, but I'm now two books left of his and I will have read every heart wrenching books he has written so far. The Best of Me is coming out in theaters soon, and honestly I don't know if I'd be able to handle watching it in theaters. I think I cried just as much as when reading the notebook. 

Moose socks!

Mineral Pools

Ol' Faithful

Our Mascot with the real Buffalo!

Day 3 of driving

It's another long driving day... We will end up in West Yellowstone, Montana.   

We hit Wyoming adding another state for me.  By the end of this trip I will be half way to my goal of visiting every state!

Entertainment for the day:

-previously mentioned music 

-reading The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

-my mom's and my crazy antics

At a gas station we stopped and it happened to be a truck stop/travelers and RV stop. Since we have left South Dakota the bug level has decreased. So while we were stopped she had planned to clean the car. Well the squeegee was made for an RV not a car. It worked, but it was really funny to watch her clean the little car windshield with this squeegee that is taller than her. 

Back to my mom an Is antics... My mom and I compare ourselves to the Gilmore Girls... Lorelei and Rory. Mom and daughter club that are more friends than mom and daughter. One if the things they are known for are the way they eat. Lorelei doesn't cook, so they order out a lot. When my mom and I have Gilmore Girls marathons we always order Chinese food and have that for dinner. One episode they went on a road trip to Yale. One of their must pit-stops was at a taco place, known for its best tacos in the area. So since my mom and I are on a road trip we started looking for interesting places to eat. There isn't much in the middle of no where's along our journey. We started seeing signs for a place called Taco John's. they were advertising a burrito with Cheetos in it. After seeing many of these signs we figured it was a chain. So with the  disgusting sounding burrito and the Lorelei and Rory mindset naturally we decided to go there for lunch. It really wasn't bad. It was good and almost great, well for fast food. If I was in the middle of now where and only had the options of McDonald's, DQ, and Taco Johns I would probably choose Taco Johns. 

The rest of the day we just drive and made it to our destination of West Yellowstone. 

And we shall name this trip: The Adventures of Mary Kay and Jess: the road trip saga with Eva

For those of you who know me you know that my mom is one of my best friends. Yes she I my mom and the rule maker, but normally she doesn't have to pull the mom card out. This road trip is actually really long and for the most part boring with all the flat lands of farms around, but with my mom we make everything an exciting adventure!  It doesn't take much to amuse us. 

The reason I bring this up now is 1) it will help you understand the stories Ill be telling and 2) well this trip she decided that we needed a mascot. We were going to find something that reprinted the trip and that would ride on our dashboard the rest of the way. 

On our trek across South Dakota we stopped at a place called Wall Drug. We saw about a billion signs leading up to it so we decided why not make a little pit stop. It was a cute little place to stop and stretch our legs. It was like an old time pharmacy. The small strip around it was several different shops that all looked like an old western set. Wall drug is known for its free ice water and 5 cent coffees   They started the tradition and even to this day they still offer free ice water and 5 cent coffees. It provided many great photo opportunities! 

We searched for a mascot, but nothing really seemed to work... So the search continues. 

We flipped time zones today. We gained one hour. 

We saw Mount Rushmore! It was one of mom's bucket list items. It was cool to see! We learned how they made it and why. It was honestly built just as a tourist attraction to stir up the economy in the 1920s and 30s. 

Afterwards we went alpine sliding. It was cool! We took a chairlift up to a garden area walked around a bit saw my Rushmore from up above, and then slid down on Toboggans. Eva ended up going so fast that she flipped over on one of turns. Luckily she wasnt hurt too badly, but she did lose a pair of leggings since they were ripped

Afterwards we were tired from continuously driving, so we just headed to the hotel and order out Chinese food. It was so nice to have a night to just relax before another long driving. Although there wasn't much distance in driving it felt like we were in the car all day. 

While in the car we've been listening to my iPod... Although it doesn't have all my music on it it has a good length. It has 1031 songs. We have been listening to it straight through the alphabet. We ended the day at the beginning of the Hs. 

Today's destination: Keystone, South Dakota. Location of Mount Rushmore. 

Traveling Jess heads out again!

Today, I left for a massive road trip. We are traveling with an exchange student from the Czech Republic who will stay with my mom for the remainder of her stay after the road trip! her name is Eva. This summer Ill be interning for Fisher Investments in Camas, Washington.  Over these next four days ill be driving from Missouri to Washington while making some cool stops along the way. I'm so excited for this summer. A new city and an excellent job with a plethora of learning opportunities! 

Aside from working everyday Monday-Friday, ill be going on many adventures. For those of you not familiar with Washington geography the closest large/well known city is Portland. My roommate and I have plenty of adventures planned for the summer! I also have plans to see many people that I havnt seen from... You guessed it... My exchange year!! Almost four years after I still think about my year very day, and the people I met and now call my friends and family! Getting see some of those friends again will be a highlight if the summer! 

5 am woke up (Gosh I hate early mornings) 

5:30 am played Tetris to fit all my things in the trunk

6 am left the STL

6:45 am no more STL radio stations until August for me ( anyone who had been in the area and knows me, knows I love those stations because there are 6 different stations where at least one always has music playing)

8:15 am stop in Columbia for gas and a few errands! Showed Eva campus, and she was so surprised by how much of a little city campus alone is! Stopped by and showed her the columns an took the obligatory picture :)

1245 pm stop and take a picture at Iowa sign... That's a new state for me! 

2:00 lunchtime... Although not a super event we saw a farm museum... My mom also thought it was funny to check us in at the cornstalk cafe 

5:55 pulled into our hotel in Mitchell, South Dakota

Upon arriving it was a huge relief of not having to be in the car anymore for a while. Today is our longest driving  day. We drove for just under 12 hours. 

We headed over to the corn palace which is just conveniently  located about 5 minutes away. It provided pretty great entertainment for the three of us that were super tired after driving all day. It was neat to see how proud everyone was of the building and the history of the city and state that it represents.

While on the tour that lasted 5 min tops I was just tryi g to contain my laughter. The poor tour guide didn't really know the script completely, so she was talking super slowly. It was a nice little thing to see for a short bit. It's under a full re-model, so it wasn't completely covered in corn, but enough to get the mental picture. 

Today's Destination: Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. 

Today's lesson: South Dakota has lots of bugs. How did I learn that? The amount if bugs that were killed on the front of my car and windshield ... Yuck!  

We traveled 648 of 2348 miles to the final destination in Vancouver, Washington. 

I'm excited for what this summer has in store for me, and to write about it along the way! Stay tuned for the adventures of my road trip and the summer to come! 

View of Driving in South Dakota