on my way
Well, I'm officially off on my journey. My uncle dropped me off at the airport yesterday afternoon, where I sat around for hours before they finally figured out which plane they wanted us on, and which gate we'd be loading at. Once we got on the plane, of course, we were fifteenth in line for the runway, which had planes landing on it too...so it took us awhile to actually get into the air. Then the flight seemed to take f o r e v e r. Every time I woke up, I figured we'd be almost there, but every single time, I was wrong. I'm a little worried that if I can't handle a four hour flight half way across the country, I won't be able to deal with a thirteen hour flight half way around the world. I guess I'll manage somehow.
I just about fell over laughing when Bradley pulled up to the curb in his 1971 Spitfire convertible. I'd totally forgotten that he'd be picking me up in this thing. I'll try to get pictures up on my picassa site soon (I've given up on posting pics in my lj-I've tried it all, picassa, snapfish, photobucket...I'm hopeless). I was super excited when he told me it didn't have brakes. Or seatbelts. Then he handed me the earplugs...Needless to say, catching up was difficult on the ride home, but it was a beautiful day for a cruise along the PCH. The sunset over the ocean was really pretty.
Once we got to Bradley's, we pretty much had to turn around and go pick up Jackie at the San Juan airport, but we took a real car this time, so we actually had the chance to talk. We went out for some mediocre Thai food after the airport, then went home to crash. This morning Bradley's roommate, Chris, fed me a yummy breakfast of granola and yogurt and coffee, and we chatted for a bit before he had to run off to work.
Once we all get up and get going, we're going to move Jackie to Berkley for school, then Brian's going to pick me up and bring me to his place, and tomorrow we'll spend the day exploring Point Reyes National Seashore before he brings me back to SF to catch my flight to NZ. Good times will be had by all.
After I was done in Illinois on the 17th of August, I took my sweet time getting home. I spent the weekend at Kat's with everyone which was awesome, then I went to Sarah's for a couple of days so we could hang out on her lunch breaks. Next stop was Denise and Larry's, where Denise and I sat around and watched Matlock and Murder, She Wrote between shopping escapades and family bbqs. Sunday I headed up to the Audubon Center to see everyone there. I met the new birds and interns, saw the new mews, and played around on the repainted climbing wall.
Once I finally got home, it was time to start getting ready for my trip. I had to unpack all my stuff that I've been dragging around for the past two years, pack up everything I didn't want to take with me to NZ so I could put it all in storage, and then finally I had to pack for my trip. I could have done a lot more, but I decided it was important for my sanity to take a little me time, so I grabbed a kayak and took it down the river one day.
Once Evan and MaryAlecia got home, things got much more interesting. We had a lot of family time over the weekend, hanging out, playing games, eating tons of food, the usual Labor Day stuffs. Tuesday and Wednesday, the three of us headed up to the North Shore so we could give MaryAlecia a proper introduction to MN (and to sate our own cravings, of course!). We stopped in Duluth first, for a bit of lakeshore walking and Taste of Saigon eating, and of course, the mandatory stop at Hepzibah's for dessert (this time it was a bag full of Jelly Bellies that sustained us for the rest of the trip), then we headed up to Gooseberry Falls. We'd heard rumors that it was pretty dry, but we weren't entirely prepared for the lack of water. It was little more than a trickle, really. But that made for some really fun climbing and playing around in the water, so all in all, it wasn't a downer.
After Gooseberry, we just drove up to Tofte for the night. Got dinner and a hotel room, then went between the pool, the hot tub, and the sauna for about an hour until all three of us were so utterly relaxed we could hardly keep our eyes open for the never ending game of Scrabble that ensued afterwards.
Wednesday was the real highlight of the trip. We started at Temperance River State Park, which none of us had ever been to. We walked up the river, stopping frequently to check out the gorgeous views of the many falls, then we played around in the water at the top for quite awhile. When we were done, we decided we'd head down to the lake so we could jump in (despite the fact that it was a cool, very misty morning). When we got down to the lake, however, we discovered a beautiful pool where the Temperance River flows into the lake that was just calling our names. So after much hesitating (that water was freezing!!), we finally jumped in and swam through the pool and up the river so we could play in the first couple sets of falls. We finally let ourselves get swept back down the river and into the pool for the long, cold swim back to shore, so we could hop out, run across the beach, and jump into the lake. It was an incredible morning. After that, we hit up Tettegouche State Park for some hiking along the shore. We couldn't see much, cause of the fog, but it was still beautiful. We took one last stop at Palisade Head for the breathtaking views of the wall of fog five feet from the cliff (we could hardly even see the water straight below us!), before heading to Betty's Pies for lunch, and Russ Kendall's for a yummy smoked salmon snack. We headed back to Duluth for some more lakeshore walking, and a couple of beers at Fitger's before finally leaving for home. Overall, a wonderful trip, and a great opportunity to get to know MaryAlecia a little better.
The rest of the week was filled with more games and spending time with family and friends, and late night, glow-in-the-dark frisbee playing in the lake.
That just about sums up my last month or so...
It's kinda weird. All this preparation and saying goodbye to everyone all seems so final. In reality, I'm not going to be gone all that long. six months, maybe a year, tops. I've definitely had stints where I haven't seen people I really care about for six months at a time. So why does it feel like this time I'm going away forever? Maybe it's a distance thing. Maybe it's just cause this time I don't know when I'll be back. Whatever it is, it's weirding me out.
Anywho...I'm off to take a shower and get packed up again (there was a lotion explosion yesterday, so I had to unpack quite a bit to clean it up).
All of my trip pictures will get posted here, so check it out every once and awhile if you want to see what I've been up to lately!
I just about fell over laughing when Bradley pulled up to the curb in his 1971 Spitfire convertible. I'd totally forgotten that he'd be picking me up in this thing. I'll try to get pictures up on my picassa site soon (I've given up on posting pics in my lj-I've tried it all, picassa, snapfish, photobucket...I'm hopeless). I was super excited when he told me it didn't have brakes. Or seatbelts. Then he handed me the earplugs...Needless to say, catching up was difficult on the ride home, but it was a beautiful day for a cruise along the PCH. The sunset over the ocean was really pretty.
Once we got to Bradley's, we pretty much had to turn around and go pick up Jackie at the San Juan airport, but we took a real car this time, so we actually had the chance to talk. We went out for some mediocre Thai food after the airport, then went home to crash. This morning Bradley's roommate, Chris, fed me a yummy breakfast of granola and yogurt and coffee, and we chatted for a bit before he had to run off to work.
Once we all get up and get going, we're going to move Jackie to Berkley for school, then Brian's going to pick me up and bring me to his place, and tomorrow we'll spend the day exploring Point Reyes National Seashore before he brings me back to SF to catch my flight to NZ. Good times will be had by all.
After I was done in Illinois on the 17th of August, I took my sweet time getting home. I spent the weekend at Kat's with everyone which was awesome, then I went to Sarah's for a couple of days so we could hang out on her lunch breaks. Next stop was Denise and Larry's, where Denise and I sat around and watched Matlock and Murder, She Wrote between shopping escapades and family bbqs. Sunday I headed up to the Audubon Center to see everyone there. I met the new birds and interns, saw the new mews, and played around on the repainted climbing wall.
Once I finally got home, it was time to start getting ready for my trip. I had to unpack all my stuff that I've been dragging around for the past two years, pack up everything I didn't want to take with me to NZ so I could put it all in storage, and then finally I had to pack for my trip. I could have done a lot more, but I decided it was important for my sanity to take a little me time, so I grabbed a kayak and took it down the river one day.
Once Evan and MaryAlecia got home, things got much more interesting. We had a lot of family time over the weekend, hanging out, playing games, eating tons of food, the usual Labor Day stuffs. Tuesday and Wednesday, the three of us headed up to the North Shore so we could give MaryAlecia a proper introduction to MN (and to sate our own cravings, of course!). We stopped in Duluth first, for a bit of lakeshore walking and Taste of Saigon eating, and of course, the mandatory stop at Hepzibah's for dessert (this time it was a bag full of Jelly Bellies that sustained us for the rest of the trip), then we headed up to Gooseberry Falls. We'd heard rumors that it was pretty dry, but we weren't entirely prepared for the lack of water. It was little more than a trickle, really. But that made for some really fun climbing and playing around in the water, so all in all, it wasn't a downer.
After Gooseberry, we just drove up to Tofte for the night. Got dinner and a hotel room, then went between the pool, the hot tub, and the sauna for about an hour until all three of us were so utterly relaxed we could hardly keep our eyes open for the never ending game of Scrabble that ensued afterwards.
Wednesday was the real highlight of the trip. We started at Temperance River State Park, which none of us had ever been to. We walked up the river, stopping frequently to check out the gorgeous views of the many falls, then we played around in the water at the top for quite awhile. When we were done, we decided we'd head down to the lake so we could jump in (despite the fact that it was a cool, very misty morning). When we got down to the lake, however, we discovered a beautiful pool where the Temperance River flows into the lake that was just calling our names. So after much hesitating (that water was freezing!!), we finally jumped in and swam through the pool and up the river so we could play in the first couple sets of falls. We finally let ourselves get swept back down the river and into the pool for the long, cold swim back to shore, so we could hop out, run across the beach, and jump into the lake. It was an incredible morning. After that, we hit up Tettegouche State Park for some hiking along the shore. We couldn't see much, cause of the fog, but it was still beautiful. We took one last stop at Palisade Head for the breathtaking views of the wall of fog five feet from the cliff (we could hardly even see the water straight below us!), before heading to Betty's Pies for lunch, and Russ Kendall's for a yummy smoked salmon snack. We headed back to Duluth for some more lakeshore walking, and a couple of beers at Fitger's before finally leaving for home. Overall, a wonderful trip, and a great opportunity to get to know MaryAlecia a little better.
The rest of the week was filled with more games and spending time with family and friends, and late night, glow-in-the-dark frisbee playing in the lake.
That just about sums up my last month or so...
It's kinda weird. All this preparation and saying goodbye to everyone all seems so final. In reality, I'm not going to be gone all that long. six months, maybe a year, tops. I've definitely had stints where I haven't seen people I really care about for six months at a time. So why does it feel like this time I'm going away forever? Maybe it's a distance thing. Maybe it's just cause this time I don't know when I'll be back. Whatever it is, it's weirding me out.
Anywho...I'm off to take a shower and get packed up again (there was a lotion explosion yesterday, so I had to unpack quite a bit to clean it up).
All of my trip pictures will get posted here, so check it out every once and awhile if you want to see what I've been up to lately!