Saturday, September 18, 2010

Vacation to Happiness

So I spent the summer in Baltimore, which is actually a much cooler city than I ever would have given it credit for without living here. But there were definitely parts of me that suffered from being so separated from the outside world. My three week vacation after the first quarter gave me back all of those parts of myself I had been missing all summer, and will go down as possibly the three most amazing weeks of my life. It started off with a backpacking trip to the Dolly Sods in West Virginia with my friend Amanda.

Couldn't have been a better kick off to the vacation....despite the fact that we got lost....and got all of our food eaten by a bear and had to come out a day early. It was just amazing to sit in the dirt and grass and not worry about sitting on a hypodermic needle.

After we woke up to our ransacked stuff sack and realized we were lost we were a bit disgruntled...

...and then we happened upon this diving board that some fellow hiker was kind enough to construct in the middle of the woods. So we chucked our packs and shoes and took a much needed swim.


After that excursion I turned around and got on a plane to Seattle.....where everything was right in the world for a week :) Here's why:

















That last one was the view from the plane as I was leaving, as if to say "don't forget how much you love it here, we will be right here when you come back."

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Struggles Goes East!

So I left Seattle at the end of April to trek back across the country, spend some time with friends and family in New England, and then head down to Baltimore to settle into my new home. After initially hating Seattle when I first moved out there, I grew to love it and in the last few months it started to feel like home. So leaving that was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but thankfully I had a friend to drive and explore with from Seattle to Minneapolis. That and some amazing send offs from my friends helped to lighten the blow. We hiked Lake Serene after diggin into some ribs from the BBQ Pit (BBQ served from a school bus- amazing), then camped out in Leavenworth with all of my favorite people. We left from there and headed to Missoula Montana and had some amazing pizza, stayed at a friends house and then had a tasty delicious breakfast (and everything was SO cheap! sweeeet). Drove down to Yellowstone and explored some sulfur springs, drove around a bit and set up camp......in the freeeezing cold. Then we sat in the car and ate dinner because it was too cold to sit outside. We also tried to drink coconut milk but we both thought it tasted like suntan lotion- I later found out its not meant to be drunk on its own. We got up the next day, walked around some geysers, saw the grand prismatic, and watched Old Faithful blow. Then we drove down to Jackson Hole Wyoming, got some much needed exercise, followed by an even more needed shower, and treated ourselves to a delicious dinner and the luxury of a mattress instead of a flat piece of ground. This of course, was all after my ford focus (which we lovingly named 'STRUGGLES') chugged up the rockies in second gear. We were relieved to get to the top except that on the way down, my friend Joe said 'I just heard a funny noise, and now I smell a funny smell'....mmm comforting. Struggles, Joe and I all made it safely down and the good ol girl was ready to go again after a good nights sleep. We spent a day in Jackson Hole, I tried to hike in the Grand Tetons, but it turns out that 4 feet of snow and no snow shoes isn't exactly conducive to getting anywhere. So I hung out at the visitors center and learned stuff while Joe sat in a bar nearby to write a paper. Then we drove to Casper Wyoming, oh boy is that place a joy. We camped in a hurricane (super) and got up the next day to go to Wall Drug in South Dakota. BISON BURGERS!! mmmmm and homemade donuts...and cherry pie...and bison hot dogs..and maybe more homemade donuts. And a mechanical T-rex?? yeah. Then we drove to the Badlands, set up camp and toured the park just before sunset. A-mazing. Got up the next morning and had the most epic bike ride of my life. Then for the last stretch into Minneapolis. Spent a few days there and had a great time with friends. Then I picked up my dad at the airport, we took a walk around Lake Calhoun, ate dinner at a bowling alley and left for Chicago the next morning. What a cool city!! We walked downtown and went through the park, saw the bean, and went out to dinner at Kinzies Steakhouse mmmmmmmmmm. Our destination for the next day was Buffalo, which conveniently let me see one of my favorite ladies, who I haven't seen in two years! Lovely :) Then finally home to Maine. Oh, lovely Maine.
North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park

An elk following directions.

This guy was called the doorman, because he stood guard in front of an amazing sulfur spring.

mmmmm purty.

View from the top of the sulfur spring.

The Grand Prismatic.

The Grand Prismatic....with me in front of it.

Those are some Grand Tetons.

Jenny Lake boathouse in Grand Teton National Park....this was as far as I got on my "hike"

The view from the bar Joe was writing his paper in. Rough.

Mobile home. Parked in the Badlands.

Ooooooh. Dried earth.

Cacti!

Sunnnnnset

Holy moly



The corn palace, which serves as the state house of South Dakota. Hmmm.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

My new home!

So it appears its time to do this cross country move again. I'm moving to Baltimore for school, starting in June, so I figured I should take a trip out and get a sneak peek at Baltimore and see if its really as gritty as everyone says it is. It is. But, its also a beautiful city with tons of really cool stuff in it, AND amazingly friendly, genuine people, both at the school and in the city. I've been dreading this move for some time now but now I'm really excited! I'm leaving Seattle on April 23rd for a roadtrip and will be spending the greater part of may bumming around New England and eventually driving down to Baltimore to start this thing off. Woop woop! Anyway, here are some shots from my new home!! I've been freaking out about being so far away from mountains and leaving the nature that is everywhere out here to go to an entirely concrete city....turns out there's beauty in really unsuspecting places...maybe my new hobby will be finding it :)

These two were taken on the street next to where my Kate lives (hopefully where I will also be living)


















Baltimore here I come!!