Southwest Living

SNOW!

2008-11-09T21:58:00.000-08:00

It SNOWED! It started this afternoon and was pretty steady all evening! It is beautiful out! I just went on a snow walk with Attie and Matt and now i'm all cozy in bed. Its been such a wonderful weekend! Friday evening Laurence and I played Risk till almost two in the morning. It was exactly what I needed, low-key, free, fun. Saturday we all had a yummy breakfast made by Devi. Laurence caught her dancing in the kitchen with her headphones. I love my house! After our yummy breakfast Laurence and I headed out to Red Mountain. It was beautiful and sunny out and I had my window rolled down a little bit on the way out. The hike was easy and flat, but spectacular. The side of the mountain has been melted away by lava tubes/melts so it looks like there all these faces watching you as you go. We spent several hours exploring the various allys and scrambling up walls and back down again. There may be a rather hilarious video of me stuck on the side of slope. I started up it not realizing that it was covered in gravel and ended up just lying down it...only to slide down it. Laurence being the oh so wonderful gentleman that he is decided to pull out the camera and film my demise rather than help me! (okay thats a slight lie, he asked if he could...and he did help me out in the end). Every saturday morning should be as blissful and wonderful as yesterdays. After exploring we stopped at our favorite pizza joint and stuffed our hungry tummies. I think dropped off mister Laurence because he had just a teeny bit of school work that he should have been working on all day...The rest of saturday was rather relaxing. I showered and then crawled into bed and read/watched tv for the rest of the evening.

Today I got to sleep in! I just layed in my bed with the sunshine on me. After a decent amount of lazying around I got myself up and out of the house. I put some gas in my car and went to the store. I carefully planned out my menu for this week before I left. Food here is SO expensive. That is my one complaint. With careful planning though I was right within my budget! It got really cloudy while I was in the store and realitvely soon after I got back to the house it started snowing! BIG huge flakes. I made hot chocolate for Devi and myself and started on dinner. I made this delicious Sweet Potato and Cabbage Soup from the Moosewood Cookbook that Linlin gave me for my birthday. That cookbook has given us some seriously tasty meals. Matt came home soon after and made a rather large pot of mashed potatoes. All in all the food this evening was superb and delish.

After cleaning up from dinner I made some breadpudding, we watched Devi's film about hippies she just finished (it was for a class, but was super interesting), and then Devi/Matt/Attie smoked hookah and we lounged around and chatted. Devi went back to her school work and Matt and Attie and I went on a lovely walk in the snow with Huxley (Attie's roomate's dog).

This weekend was perfection! I can't believe that I've gone from biking around in summer dresses to bundling up for a nighttime walk in the snow in just under three months! Its crazy!

There is much much more to update aboutt since I havn't updated in a month (oops...sorry). Importantly on the list would be: my trip home for Tracy's wedding and my parents coming to visit and oh yeah buying a car!!!

I promise I will try to update again soon!

And its fall!

2008-10-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well it certainly is fall here! While I love it in the afternoons it makes my bike ride into work (at 7:00AM) rather chilly! I came down with a pretty icky cold that hit last Friday while I was at work, which was a bit of a bummer because it was the weekend of the HUGE 10s Rugby tourney. Something like over 40 teams came to play.

I had really wanted to play but the cold hit me kind of hard and it also happened to rain most of Saturday. So in the end I slept, stopped by to watch the NAU mens team play, went home and hung around the house a bit, went back to watch the last game and then went to the social.

The social was lots of fun. You would all be proud...I talked to people who weren't friends of Laurence's...they were my friends! Yay! It was cool cause there was a live band and some really great dancing. The evening was excellently topped off with a trip to Dennys.

Oh also last week we had a rather tasty Vegan Potluck Dinner at our house. It was pretty small but a rather lovely evening. There were eight of us total and I knew all but three. One of the eight was an old friend from Yosemite! It was like a little mini reunion. Anywho, the food was delish and plentiful...and cleanup was disgusting. I lucked out though and Attie and Dev took care of most of it.

Hmmmmm what else has gone on. I finally opened my bank account here (yay)...I got my biked tuned up...ummmmm OH Laurence and I went swimming at the NAU pool. I totally expected him to kick my ass seeing as how he is almost 8 inches taller than me and rather fit...but nope! I beat his ass so bad! It was funny cause about halfway through when we were resting he turned to me and goes "so you uh weren't kidding when you said you knew how to swim." As most of you know I'm just a teeny bit competitive...and well kicking his ass totally made my night! Yes. I know I'm so mature.

Lets see...what else...tonight Devi and I are going to pick up paint for our living room and tomorrow night we are having "date night" where we'll watch movies and paint the living room. Other projects have included gourd making (i'll post pictures when I finish mine), ceramics (Laurence is letting me use his clay!), rearranging a million times (well thats mostly on Dev...I come home and something has been moved), finally getting to do the real cleaning of the house (Attie moved out last weekend), and finding new plants to fill our home (most of the plants left with Attie :( ). There is certaintly always something to do around here!

I must say that it is definitely getting rather chilly around here. I am going to have to invest in some serious slippers and a space heater...and other things that will keep me toasty! Its so hard to get out of bed in the morning when its so warm under the covers and 40 degree in my room!

So here is my christmas list (i know its early):
anything and everything that will keep me warm

I think I have a bit of adjusting to do! There was supposedly snow on the Peaks this weekend. I kind of forgot to actually look at it until the afternoon when it had all already melted.

Okay I'm going to sign off. Just a reminder for folks in MD, I will be flying in on Thursday Oct 16 for Tracy's wedding. I think I'm going to head down to Fredericksburg for the night though to catch up with some school friends. So really I will be back in MD on Friday morning and I leave on Sunday for the airport around 11ish (I think)....SO I hope I get to see you, if not I will see you over Christmas!

Mary Wash RUggers are the Best!

2008-09-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

So today was the first time I've actually been upset since leaving home. I finally got my ass out to play with the NAU Rugby team. We played a team from Albuequerque who were really really good (they would have given Wash a run for their money (but we would have beat them :) )). The NAU team didn't have a chance, even with two full sides. As little fun as losing is, thats not really what bothered me. I felt so alone out there. So isolated. So far from home.

I know my family and I will always be close, I don't have to worry about them. I miss them, don't get me wrong, but they aren't going anywhere. My team, my second family...i feel like they're slipping away. I know I will never have those four years back. All i can hope is that someday I find another team that makes me feel a part of the family.

Anyway, I feel miserable now. When I got home i sat with Devi for a while and she stroked my hair and made me feel better, but amazing as she is she is no substitute for a real mom. I hade hoped that I could go out and enjoy my saturday night...but Devi is sick in bed and Laurence is in Yuma for the weekend, so Devi and I are going to watch Anne of Green Gables and I'm going to eat Ben and Jerrys.

Anyway, to recap...this last week was lovely! Last weekend was pretty low key but wondeful. Friday I met up with Becky and Marc's friend Jon for a hot sec which was really nice. He stopped by on his way to the Grand Canyon. Unfortunatly he didn't get in until 9:00 and Laurence and I were heading to a movie at 9:30, but it was still really nice to see him. Laurence and I saw Ironman which is a really really good movie (I highly recommend if you enjoy action flicks). He had a game the next day so we didnt' hang out too long afterwards. Saturday I watched his game. Its really interesting seeing other styles of play from an outsider point of view. It was fun to watch and lovely to lay in the sun all afternoon. After the game we went to the social which was pretty low key since the other team didn't show up. It was fun though. The older guys on the mens team (i.e. the retired players) are really fun to chat with. There are some real characters in the bunch. We stayed out pretty late and it was tons of fun. Sunday we slept in as late as possible (for the first time in my life i actually have a time clock...i keep waking up at 7:00 AM...even on sat/sun!) and then went to get some delicious omlets. It was a really lazy relaxing sunday, but sometimes you need those days.

I had orientation on Monday and Tuesday which was just a blast! I mean who doesn't love sitting in a classrom for 8 hours straight listeningto a bunch of "we here at NAH believe in blahdy blady blah"...but its over! I know I'm living a thrilling life, but the rest of the week was pretty low key. So entertaining. I know.

Okie...I hope you are all doing well!

Oh I'll be home the weekend of October 18th for a wedding. I won't have much time, but i'm super excited about getting home for a few days. I'm going to try to make it down to Wash for a few hours. I wish I could see the Longwood game, but the wedding is at 2...so its kind of impossible.

Okie dokie...love you all!

Photos

2008-09-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

For those of you who are not on facebook this linke should let you see my photos!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057698&l=216cd&id=26000139

Next installment of photos will be a walk through of my house...we're planning on painting a little more though, so i'm holding out! Till then...enjoy!

HUGE update...because i'm a terrible daughter/friend/niece for never updating

2008-09-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

SO! Its now been about a month since I updated anything for you guys. I'm sorry. I'm terrible. Alot has happened since I've arrived. I have gone on lots of adventures, applied to tons of jobs, moved rooms a few times, and started working! I guess I'll start at the beginning and go from there.

The first few weeks in Flag were spent enjoying myself and searching for jobs. I read alot and poked around town a bit. About four hours each day were spent in the library applying to a million and one jobs. On the weekends, when my roomates didn't have work or class, I got to see things outside of Flag. My first weekend I hiked Mount Humphreys with my roomate Laurence, Matt (Devin's boyfriend), and Amber (a friend of Laurence who also plays rugby). It was a great hike. We started out pretty early. Humphreys is the highest peak in Arizona and has an elevation of 12,633 feet. The hike starts around 7,500 feet and of course the hike is straight up hill. It was exhausting but beautiful! I will post pictures. While we were on the peak it started thundering a little bit and by the time we hit the tree line it started hailing and pouring rain. It continued to hail/pour the whole way down. Quite and adventure! By the time we got home it was def time for a nice long shower and hot chocolate.

I am skipping around a bit, so I'm gonna spin back and introduce you all to the various people i know/live with.

Devin: well I'm starting with the obvious. Devin is my roomate from Yosemite and she is the reason why I choose Flag. She is super duper awesome. Shes a book nerd and a wonderful artist and one of the most genuine and honest people i know. Its so lovely to see her on a regular basis again!

Matt (aka Devin's boyfriend): He is one pretty cool dude! He is a nerd just like Devi, and is just as wonderful. He loves working on projects. He has made sandles out of tires, and a pair of moccasins, fried grasshopers, etc. He is so enthusiastic about everything. For the next few months he is at outdoor adventure camp (it has another name...but thats what I have interpereted it as), but after that he will be living with Devi (in our house)

Attie: one the current housemates. She is a very lively, energetic and beautiful person. She lives life very differently from what I'm used to, but she does so faithfully/happily. While I don't think I'll ever fully follow the supplemental way, I do respect her and her choices. She knows alot about what she is talking about.

Laurence: he was subletting from our house during the summer and just moved out last weekend. He is a grad student at NAU and a rugby player. We've been hanging out a bit. He brought me along to a few gatherings/parties including a rugby party. Cool dude.

Anyway, those are the people I see/hang out with on a regular basis. The weekend after hiking Mt. Humphreys Laurence and I went down to Sedona. We hung out at a really cool spot where there were rope swings, cliff jumping, and swimming. After hanging out we got some food in Sedona and then went off road a little bit before heading back.

During the weeks Devin and I have been pegging away at redecorating our house. Lot of pillows have been purchased, random things from goodwill have been painted and hung, and general overhall has happened. Lot of scrubbing and vacuming. It'll be lovely when the house is in working order. In two weeks 2 of our friends from Yosemite are moving in with us and then it'll be settling down.

Oh one last bit! My job! I am working at the hospital. I'm a department secretary for human resources. Not at all what I want to do with my life, but it pays well and I get great health insurance. I'm hoping that if a position in the marketing department opens up that I can try for it. For now though HR is a wonderful department. Its a really positive envrionment. I leave work happy and engergized. So although I have little desire to be there in the long run, for now it works.

So i know that was all over the place and completly unorganized, but I figure its better then no update at all. Another one will come sometime soonish!

Life in Flag Week One

2008-08-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

So now I am in Flag for realz! I last left you in Santa Barbara. Bill and I spent another day there chilling with my Aunt Norah. We got a quick tour of the UCSB campus, and went up the bell tower in town, watched alot of olympics, saw the coast, and ate alot of good food. Jags, Aunt Norah's dog, is the cutest thing ever. She has the cutest paws I have ever seen!

Anywho, Bill and I hit the road for AZ Tuesday morning. We got into Flag right around dinner, picked up his nephew and get some food. After finishing up some food Bill dropped me and all my belongings off at my future home. 17 Paseo Del Flag. It was increadibly exciting to be "home" even though it doesn't realy feel like it quiet yet. Anywho, Tuesday night we (Devin, Matt (her boyfriend), Blake and Attie (the other current occupants of the house)) sat around hanging out. Attie just got Matt's drumheadthing redone so Matt, Blake, and Attie played around on their drums for a while, Devin fell asleep, and I watched. They were so into their playing, it was really cool to watch. After a bit I crashed since I knew the next day was going to be an early day.

So Devin, Matt, and I got up uber early (6:00 am...) and took Attie's truck to get Devin's bed and dresser from the storage unit. After successfully squeezing everything into the truck (in one load!) and dropping it off at the house Devin and I headed down to Phoenix (where her parents live). We spent the next few days chilling and hanging around with her parents. There was a trip to Ikea, a movie, some Wii, some shopping, some swimming, some setting the house on fire, and more! Never a dull day in the Smith household.

So after lounging for a few days and enjoing the AZ monsoon season, we headed back up to Flag at the crack of dawn (4:30 am....) because Devi wanted to wake Matt up with flowers for their anniversary. Anywho, since returning to Flag I've been appyling to lots of jobs, exploring with Devi, learning a new way to flush toilets, hanging with last roomate (Lawrence) who happens to play rugby too(!), enjoying some crazy thunderstorms, thinking of creative things to do with the house, etc.

The house won't really be Devin's and mine for another two weeks. So untill then we're kinda just squatting. Its no biggie but it means that I can't really use my time to settle in, and since I have no job, and Devin went camping (and shes basically the only person i know) I have been filling my time with books and Gilmore Girls...oh and the interent. I think I've applied to 100000 jobs. Craigslist is stupid and annoying and all i get back are those stupid automated messages that send me to another page. Bah. Oh well, I have plenty of cushion...I just hate sitting around. I want to get out and meet people! I want a regular schedule. I want to actually cook my own food (I have not really used the kitchen at all since we're just squatting for now).

I really do like it here. Everybody i've met thus far have been wonderful, I just want to feel in place. I am sure I will in time, but for now I'm just antsy! Well I'm going to go sit in the square downtown and write some letters and whatnot. Toodles!

2008-08-11T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay in updating this. I've had some difficulty finding free internet and our adventures leave me exhausted by the end of the day. Anyway enjoy!

Day Five, August 3

We started off today getting breakfast at a crepe place in Flag for breakfast before heading to the Grand Canyon. We got to the Grand Canyon around 11:30 and walked along the rim for a little bit to take pictures and enjoy the view. We wandered through the museum a bit and read up on how the Canyon was formed. After finishing up in at the Grand Canyon we headed towards Las Vegas. We got in around six and drove north on the strip, then called and got reservations at Excalibur and then drove back south on the strip to our hotel. We grabbed dinner and we’re about to head out and see the town.

Later:
We walked around A LOT. The casinos are huge, much larger than I ever anticipated. I think we walked a couple of miles. We checked out MGM Grand, the Monte Cristo, and New York, New York. It was pretty hot out but not horribly unmanageable. Since it had been a long day we crashed pretty early (well, I did at least).

Day Six, August 4

Bill got up and did his own thing in the morning but I guess I must not have been feeling wonderful because I slept much later than I have been lately. Anyway we got moving and out of the hotel around lunch time. We got food at Mc Donald’s because it was the only slightly reasonably priced place (yay dollar menu!). We started off the afternoon by taking the tram from Excalibur over to Mandalay Bay Casino and explored their Shark Reef Aquarium. It was really cool and I got to pet a sting ray! They feel so cool, kind of slimy and squishy. I also loved the jelly fish and the puffer fish. After spending some quality time at the aquarium I called my cousins Brendan and Pat to let them know that Bill and I would be crashing on their couch the next night up in Lake Tahoe. We then headed back north on the strip with our final destination being the Bellagio. I had heard that there was a free tram between MGM Grand and Bally’s, a casino right across the street from the Bellagio, but it was a lie! So we spent a lot of time trying to find said tram and walked a lot more than we probably needed too because in the end we just walked the mile to the Bellagio. I really wanted to see the dancing water fountains there, but alas they were not going, so we walked around the inside a bit before heading back to Excalibur. We chilled a little before heading down to the Tournament of Kings dinner show.
The show was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed the horses, our King (or Norway!), the staging of everything, and the really cool acrobats. The horses were so well trained and beautiful. Our King was gorgeous! He had the most beautiful eyes and smile. Damn. Totally made cheering for him that much more fun! I think my favorite part of the evening was just thinking about how it was all put together. I mean, how many different casts do they have? Do they switch up the story line often? Do the Kings switch it up and play different countries? Do they rehearse often? Etc. Anywho, the meal itself was a well run event. It is pretty amazing how quickly they fed and cleaned up after several hundred people all at once. Towards the end of the show they had a ridiculously talented young acrobat. Two guys were holding a bouncy 2x4esq board on their shoulders why the girl did flips and twists at least 15 ft in the air landing on the board every time! Pretty spectacular. I would really like to see a Cirque de Soeleil someday. The dinner was the last of our activities in Vegas. We crashed soon after the show since we had a long day of driving ahead of us.

Day Seven, August 5

Today was mostly a day of driving. We left Vegas early in the morning headed towards Death Valley first. Such a cool place, but definitely gave me the jitters. It was so hot outside that even with the AC running like crazy when you put your hand against the windows they were super hot. We drove north through the valley on our way towards Lake Tahoe and right when we left the park the car started bucking. My heart started pounding because there was nobody around us and the car just started slowing down jerkily. We flipped off the AC and slowed down as it started raining. We still don’t know for sure why/what happened but after a little bit the car started working fine again, but it was definitely a little nerve wracking. We think it might have been some crappy gas since we haven’t had any more troubles since.

After those events we kept on toward Lake Tahoe where we met my cousins for dinner at this delicious lake side restaurant. It was a pretty chill relaxed evening, which was quiet nice after Vegas. The air was so fresh and the lake is so beautiful! I kind of felt like I was on the set of the second Beethoven movie (the one about the dogs with Steve Martin). I would love to have a lake house some day. There is such a wonderful vibe while at the lake. I like it so much better than the beach.

After dinner we headed over towards Pats and Brendan’s house, unloaded the car of any bear-tempting items, and hung out for awhile. I got to meet Poppy, Brendan’s dog—she is absolutely adorable. She was still a little wet from her swim in the lake earlier so from behind she kind of looked like a Norwegian Elkhound, but from the front she looked like a Husky. More and more I want a dog of my own. It is kind of bad. I need to stop visiting people who have such awesome dogs. Anyway after a bit of chatting we all passed out.

Day Eight, August 6

Since Brendan had to be at work at 10am we grabbed breakfast at a local restaurant before he had to beat feet to work. Then Pat took Bill and me to Emerald Bay. When you get there you’re about 100 yards above the water looking down (like a cliff), it was such a beautiful site. We took a few pictures and then walked to mile long trail down to the water. We looked around a bit before heading back up the hill because Pat had to work at noon and we didn’t want to make him late. So we got back to the house and Pat ran off to work and we packed up the car and hit the road again, this time heading towards Yosemite!!!

I was a huge mixture of nervous and uber excited. This was my first trip back to the valley since I left two years ago. We drove in on the 120 through Tuolumne so we stopped at the Mobil to have some lunch. I tried the fish tacos and I must say I was a little bit disappointed. The mango salsa was fantastic but the “coleslaw” was far from it. After grabbing some grub we continued on into the valley but we got stuck behind various slow trailers and drivers. Fun. It took a little longer than usual, but coming into the valley was almost as amazing as usual. Unfortunately, and I know I should have expected it, the waterfalls basically looked like somebody was peeing off of them. It took forever for me to even spot them because they were so little. El Cap and Half Dome were majestic as always. Those granite walls make me feel so at home and relaxed.

We went immeadiatally to the Curry Village check in, then emptied the car again of all bear-tempting items, and then I left Bill in search of Thera and Paul. After swinging through Boystown and finding very few English speakers and nobody who knew of Thera at all, I headed over towards Huff to ask around over there. I finally found a girl at the bike stand who knew she was but informed me that she was actually up working at Tuolumne (lucky Thera!), but that she had been at Terrace the night before hanging out with her sister. I swung by Terrace to see if maybe she was still there, but I had no luck finding her or her sister. After that I called Dev to see if maybe they would answer their phone, but alas they did not, so I gave up and headed to the Lodge Bar in search of Paul.

Not gonna lie I was incredibly nervous about seeing him. Its been so long and we had not talked since before Christmas, but it was fantastic seeing him again. He is now working at the lodge bar as a bar-back, so I hung around and doodled while he finished up his shift. A bunch of people came through the bar while I was sitting there and most of them remembered who I was. I felt really bad because they were all only vague memories for me, but they were all nice to chat with. After his shift we biked through the meadow towards “New Housing” (the creative name they’ve given for the new housing development they built for employees…which I had forgotten about so it was bit of a shocker to see them when we drove up), but we stopped in the middle so I could star gaze (yay!) and we could chat. It seems that practically everybody I used to know from the valley is either a) married b)pregnant or c)both. Weird. After a long while we raced back to his place (yeah I’m still that competitive…) and I showed him my photos from the past two years. For as worried as I was over seeing him again we completely synced up again very quickly. I’m glad that we really do just get along fantastically and that it was not all a mistake. Anyway, since I’m such an old woman and have to go to bed early I went back to my tent and crashed.

Day Nine, August 7

I woke up today to children playing around my tent, such wonderful sounds. I got dressed, filled up my camelback, and headed towards the mist trail. I powered up the hill fairly quickly enjoying the workout and hoping that at the end Vernal Falls would still have a decent flow. The flow was a bit better than Lower Falls or Bridal Veil Falls, but still rather pathetic. So, a bit disappointed I climbed up on a rock a bit of the trial to read for a little while and enjoy the sound of the water rushing by. I love sitting by the falls. It is so easy to just sit and meditate about whatever. I was thinking about heading back down since my butt was starting to go numb (rocks just aren’t that cushy) when I looked up and Paul was walking towards me. Now for those who don’t know Paul, he is a night owl and typically sleeps in till two or three in the afternoon. Also, he is not a big hiker. He loves nature, but he doesn’t like to go super out of his way for it. So it was quiet a surprise to see him trucking towards me. Since he had just showed up we sat around for a while longer. It turns out he woke up early and decided to see if he could find me along the trail. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to do something else, or head back down earlier, or keep going farther up the path.

Once we did get back we hopped in the car with intention of heading up the Glacier Point because one of my favorite coworkers was still up there and Paul hadn’t been back up since his last day up there two summers ago. Right before the tunnel we hit a rock and popped the back right tire. Thank goodness we hadn’t started going through the tunnel yet because we pulled in the parking lot right there and started trying to figure out what to do as we had a jack, but it was broken, so it was of little use. Promptly a group of people were returning to their car and asked if we were in need of some help. Thank goodness for them because they had a working jack and were super patient as Paul cranked it up. The first location he chose to place it apparently was a very poor choice because it slipped out. So, thank goodness again, it was a really good thing we had not taken off the wheel yet because Paul was under the car when the jack slipped. I think we made some of the people around us pee their pants a little when that happened. So we (by we I mean Paul) had to re-crank up the car (oh btw it was a huge expedition/explorer (?) SUV thing) again. After round two it didn’t take long to finish changing the tire but after crawling around on the dusty ground we both looked a little ridiculous. When we finally did make it to the Glacier Point Store, Dana thought that we had hiked up there (ha!). After chatting for a bit and meeting Dana’s fiancé, Paul and I headed out to Over-hanging rock, the old public spot that is no longer public and generally only employees hang out there now. We sat around there for a while chatting, but I was not wearing sunscreen and most of you know how I can burn, so we headed back to the store. We grabbed some ice cream and said goodbye to Dana and headed back down the mountain.

After making it back down the mountain we changed into swimsuits and headed towards the river. The spot by the stables was hopping with people so rather than sharing the water with those silly tourons we headed down the path to Fantasy Island. I crossed the log just like always even though the water was low enough that it was an easy walk. Once we got on the island it turned out one of Paul’s neighbors was hanging out on the huge log meditating. We chatted with him for a bit, and then just sat on some rocks in the middle of the water cooling off. I tried to wash some of the dirt and grim off of me but did not really succeed. Since the sun was setting it was getting cold so we headed back, dropped off our stuff and headed to the village store. We got stuff to make mac’n cheese (the real stuff, Paul makes a mean mac’n cheese) and I got some Hornsby’s (its hard apple cider and it’s the best stuff ever). Once we got back to Paul’s and had started the food I took a shower to finally get clean (not going to lie I had gone a little to long without a shower). He also cooked some of his parent’s tamales (which are so amazingly delicious—as in I think they ought to sell their food). We watched the movie Georgia Rules which I thought was supposed to be a comedy. Wrong. Nope. Its about child molestation—such a happy light subject. Anyway, even though the movie was a bit disturbing, it was a very lovely evening filled with yummy yummy food!

Day Ten, August 8

Bill and I left Yosemite fairly early and headed on our way to San Francisco to meet up with Katie Wilson! (for those non-mary wash folks, she played rugby with me and graduated a year ahead of me). We got into the city a little early since Katie didn’t get out or work till three, so first we drove down Lombard Street before heading back towards Katie’s apartment where we found some free parking by a grocery store with a Starbucks. So we grabbed a USA Today and Bill worked on the crossword while I worked on the Sudoku. Katie came over pretty soon with Pipa (her awesome dog) and we moved the car to the parking lot under her apartment. We sat around for a while and caught up on life before heading out to dinner. We were talking about Cajun food so we really wanted to get Cajun for dinner but our internet searches were yielding very little. We found one that was near Katie’s apartment called Café Elite so we set out for it. It was pretty fancy schmancy and the service was not amazing, but the food was fantastic. Bill ordered an appetizer of Fried Okra. I’ve never had Okra so I tried it…delicious! Really how could fried food not be tasty. After dinner we watched the opening of the Olympics we crashed for the night.

Day Eleven, August 9

SATURDAYS A RUGBY DAY! We got up early and had yummy cereal (the cheapest Trader Joes stuff with rice milk…tasty combination) and headed towards Treasure Island to watch the men’s club sevens finals tournament. I’ve never watched sevens before, but man its SO much fun to watch! The play is more back-esq oriented. It was great fun to watch but it was cold and not sunny at all. We got there around nine and stayed till five. That is a full day of work! My butt was so numb and cold by the end of the day (really by the middle of the day). We got to see the NOVA team play and they’re pretty amazing. I would not want to have to play them. Anyway, the sun did finally come out, so I put sunscreen on, but hot damn did I get burned. Its kind of embarrassing. Plus, it’s a funny looking burn. It looks like I’ve spent too much time in the tanning bed or something, and my skin feels leathery. Ugh. I feel like such an idiot! I’m going to be meeting everybody in Flag and be all gross and peeling. Yes, I’m 22 and still manage to mess up putting sunscreen on.

So after a very very long, but fun Rugby day, we headed back to Katie’s apartment before heading out to dinner. We were all in a mood for pizza so we hit up this place called Extreme Pizza near Katie’s place. We got a super duper tasty and super duper spicy pizza. It had black beans, tomatoes, jalapeños, and chicken…oh my gosh it could have had about 1/3 of the jalapenos that it had. Nothing a little picking could fix, but my mouth was burning by the end of the pie. Regardless, it was incredibly tasty! After dinner we headed back to Katie’s apartment and watched the Olympics for the rest of the evening. Quiet a lovely time has had by all. Katie just got the most adorable cat ever. I am becoming more a cat person with every cat I meet! She is so adorable. I want one of my own now. Oh and I want a dog too. Yeah. Pipa and Callie were so much fun! Animals are the best. Also, I loved loved loved Katie’s apartment. Great layout and lots of Ikea furniture which I loved. Sweet set up there. So despite how cold San Fran was and the fact that I got badly burned, it was a great weekend!

Day Twelve, August 10

We got up pretty leisurely, ate our cereal and rice milk, and packed the car to hit the road. Today’s destination, Santa Barbara! I really wanted to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, so we head towards Santa Cruz, arriving there around 11:30. When we went Nationals when I was a freshmen we ate at this place called Emily’s Bakery all the time. Their food was perfection, so we really wanted find it again. We did so pretty easily and I got a delicious grilled chicken and avocado sandwich plus a bunch of delicious treats from the bakery. After we finished filling our tummies we continued down Route One through Monterey and Carmel. We drove through the town of Carmel but didn’t actually get out of the car. It looks like a really neat town to explore. We continued down the coast enjoying the beautiful views through Big Sur. The coast line is gorgeous. It was really foggy though which added the beauty but made the day very cold. We stopped just inside the SLO county line to look at some Elephant Seals. I could watch those guys for hours. They’re like grumpy old men. They fight, wiggle around, and throw sand on their back, moan and snore. Overall, they were pretty hilarious to watch. It was freezing out so we hopped back in the car and continued on our way towards Santa Barbara.

We got in to my aunt’s house in Santa Barbara around 6:30. My cousin, Anne, is leaving for Austin on Tuesday morning so their good family friends, Walt and Diane, came over for dinner. Everyone was great company and it was so wonderful to sit around outside sharing each other’s company. Anne headed out to say good bye to friends so Aunt Norah, Bill and I have been watching the Olympics and I’ve been catching up with my journal entries. We’re not sure what out schedule will be for the next few days but we’ll be back to Flag pretty soon. Anyway, I’m exhausted and going to head to bed. I promise to post pictures soon.

2008-08-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

Day One:

Bill and I set out today from Garrett Park around 7:45. We headed down 95 so we could stop in Fredericksburg to pick up something Bill forgot and continued on our way. Our goal was to make it too Jackson, Tennessee for the night. We didn’t stop again after Fredericksburg until 1:00 when we stopped for some sandwiches and gas. After filling up both our tummies and our tank we set out again hitting Tennessee about 40 minuets later. The Tennessee landscape is beautiful. The road was lined with leafy green forests. Every now and then it would rain a little bit, but nothing unmanageable. We stopped again for dinner around 8:00, grabbing some sonic (yum!). An hour or so later we were in Jackson so we found a hotel and crashed for the night. Not an incredibly thrilling day, but we certainly made plenty of progress!

Day Two:

We woke up pretty early today. I rolled out of bed pulled on the same clothes I wore yesterday (why should I spoil clean clothes to just sit in a car all day long?), and checked out the continental breakfast. After getting enough energy to make it till lunch we climbed back into the car for day two of the journey. I would just like to note that many many popular songs mention cities along Route 40. Bri would probably kill me because I keep getting those songs stuck in my head. For instance you have “Jackson” sung by Johnny Cash and June Carter, and then there is “take the last train to Clarksville, and I’ll meet you at the station” by the Monkees, and then there is “Take it easy” by the Eagles. Luckily they’re all songs I like thus far. Oh except Oklahoma, the whole state that makes you want to sing songs from the musical! I do not like said musical.

Anyway, that minor tangent over…we made our way through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and all the way to New Mexico today! I have to say that driving across the country is like flipping through a flip book. The scenery slowly and gracefully changes with each state. I absolutely loved Texas’ landscape. I wish I could have stopped and taken a bunch of photos, but we were trying to make it to at least New Mexico by bedtime. I also rather enjoyed Arkansas and Oklahoma; I just absolutely loved the flat green fields going forever with the clear beautiful blue sky, with a few trees here and there silhouetted against it.

We did make it to New Mexico around 11:00. Changing time zones is so awesome when traveling by car. We had an extra hour each night to sleep/drive. It is such a relief when you pull into the hotel and you realize that instead of it being 10:00 it is really 9:00. Anywho, we stopped at Tucumcari which is the traditional stopping point between Amarillo, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. We stayed in an old motel that was clearly built about 40 or 50 years ago. I loved the vibe. You kind of feel like you slipped back in time a bit. I rather enjoyed the stay!

Day Three

It is about six hours to Flagstaff from Tucumcari, so Bill and I decided to stop at various points along the way to do some touristy stuff. Our first stop was Albuquerque. We went to the Historic District (read: the railroad was built 2 miles away from this part of town, so it went relatively untouched or noticed until 1950s when somebody realized what a great tourist attraction it would be). The architecture was beautiful but walking around in the sun and heat (even if it wasn’t humid heat) was exhausting so we decided to grab some lunch. The food was delicious, but the sopapillas were definitely the highlight of the meal. I’ve only had sopapillas at a Mexican restaurant in Fredericksburg where apparently they totally missed the mark. These sopapillas were amazing! We got some that came straight from the oven so they were piping hott (read: I tried to pick it up immediately and dropped it on the table about ½ second later). To eat them you bite (or rip off the top if you’ve already had one negative experience with the hott sopapilla) and then you pour honey on the inside. Usually I am not a fan of honey (yes, I know, I’m weird), but the combination was perfection. I’m so stoked about all the food I get to eat while living out here.

After finishing up our delicious sopapillas we hit the road again, stopping about three hours later at the Petrified Forrest National Park. Bill purchased is senior park pass for $10 which allows him to go to any national park for the rest of his life anytime he would like. We poked around the various vistas and took some pictures of the Painted Dessert before hitting the road again. Our next stop was Meteor Crater. We browsed through the museum and saw the movie about the meteor and the creation of the crater. It only took 10 seconds for the meteor to create the crater, pretty crazy. After learning about craters we went out took look at the actual crater. I must say that the crater was pretty spectacular and unbelievably windy (the kind of windy where you were literally being blown backwards so you had to hang on to the railing). Overall, it was a really interesting excursion.

We finally rolled into Flagstaff around dinner time. We drove straight to downtown, found parking ridiculously quickly, and immediately went to find food. There was live music going on in the square so we decided to grab some food from the Pita Pit and sat outside to eat it. It was such a lovely evening. We just sat and soaked in the community and air. I have to admit that I was nervous about the move, but sitting there eating dinner I felt completely at ease. This is going to be a fantastic adventure!

After dinner we went in search for internet and then in search of a hotel for the night. Finding a hotel was a little bit more difficult then it had been the last two nights, but eventually with the help of the kayak.com we found a motel and crashed for the night.

Day Four

Today was errand day. We slept in a little since we had no where we had to drive. For breakfast we head to Martenas (sp?) a café that Devin suggested. The food was seriously delicious. They seemed to serve mostly egg-based meals with a Mexican twist. I order Huevos Mexcianos. The meal came with your eggs and then beans, rice, and potatoes. It felt a lot like being back at the Garrett Park Café, but with the Mexican twist. I am in love, and may get terribly fat because they use a lot of cheese and I am probably going to eat there more than I should.

After eating we stopped by my future house (!) to pick up the key to Devin’s storage unit. We went straight to the storage unit to unload the car. Everything fit quiet nicely into the unit but when I was shutting the gate I managed to slice my largest vacuum-seal bag--bummer. From there we went to find me a bike. After checking out a few bikes I purchased a sweet mountain bike. It cost a little more than I wanted to spend, but its brand new, a really smooth ride, and I get free tune-ups for the rest of its life (which should be long and prosperous). Bill and I were anxious to get some physical activity (sitting in a car for three days straight makes you want to move as much as possible when you can). We changed into workout clothes and went in search of a trail the guys at the bike shop recommended. Upon finding we set out on the trail which was something entirely new for me. I’ve never really biked anywhere other than a bike path, so riding the trails was nerve-wracking but exhilarating. After biking uphill for a bit we were rather out of the breath. The combination of being really out of shape and then the whole 6900 ft elevation thing kept us from continuing the uphill/rocky trail. We turned around and returned to the parking lot and continued to bike along the road for awhile. In total we biked for about an hour. It felt great to get out and do stuff and I plan on going for exhausting bike rides regularly.

We’re heading to Vegas either tomorrow or Monday.

Preparations

2008-07-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all! In roughly 34 hours Bill and I will embark upon our trip to the southwest/west coast. My preparations have proceeded relatively smoothly and I am almost ready to go. For those who don't know, the first part of our trip will take place over three days. We will be traveling from my house in MD to Flagstaff, AZ where we will find some place to store all of my possessions, purchase a bike for me, and visit the Grand Canyon. After that the tentative plans are to then head to Vegas, Yosemite, San Francisco, drive the Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and then back to Flag. This portion of the trip will occur over about 10 days.

I'm incredibly excited but still have things to do before rolling out. Stay tuned for (hopefully) much more interesting posts!