So, I thought this would be the best way to post pictures from my trip this weekend to Hawaii, since it takes so long to email out pictures. Enjoy!

Two days and counting

Went to this bar for happy hour yesterday called The Science Club. It was so random, but pretty fun. You walk in and there is a microscope holding business cards and a case with some random science equipment in it. Then, the rest of the bar, just typical. Nothing science-ey about it. It was huge though, four floors I think, and these cool steep stairways and fancy booths. And these hooks on the bar that looked like you could tie a horse up to them, even though we eventually established they were to hang your purse on them. So, it was a nice, chill place to hang out and have a few drinks, and the bar tender made me something called a pomegranate lime something or another, which tasted like cranberry juice, and was quite good (he said it wasn’t that strong, but really, I think he had no idea). Anyway, can’t tell you what is in it past some vodka and a lime, but there was something red from the top shelf, so you know it was good.

In other news, I have now started saying good byes and packing up. I have one suitcase ready to go, and the second one on its way. I had dinner with my friend Tynia on Tuesday night. Tynia rowed crew in college, and we have kept in touch over the last six years or so. It was nice to catch up and see where everyone is now. I went shopping with Heidi over the weekend, we did justice to all of our favorite stores and then some, covereing K-mart, Walmart, Old Navy, Big Lots, Target, Cost Plus, and Kohl’s. 5 and a half hours, and we successfully bought some kitchen stuff for her, and some face wash for me. Yup, fun AND cheap. I also saw the World Trade Center movie this weekend, almost walked out twice, but highly recommend seeing it, possibly by yourself, or in your own home on video. It was very intense and draining, but worth it.

Also, I got a cupcake from this bakery here this weekend. The bakery is called CakeLove, and it might have the most amazing cupcakes I have ever had. Someone recommended it, and basically, it is good thing I waited until the end of my stay to try it, otherwise all my trips to the gym would have been in vain.

I have two days left here, and then I leave on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn. I am in the midst of cleaning out my fridge and room, and organizing myself for the long trip home. Basically, throwing away anything liquid and packing only the real essentials for the plane. Also, praying that I don’t miss my very short connection in Houston, since missing that will make it difficult to get to Karin’s wedding on time. Should be an edventure!

Girls weekend in AZ

So, this last weekend was Karin's bachelorette party in Scottsdale,
Arizona. It was nice to see the HS girls and lay by the pool. I guess
I forget that the bar scene just doesn't really do it for me (eh, who
am I kidding, never really did it for me), but it was nice to spend
the days relaxing and catching up. The flights there and back were
long, as was the commute home on Sunday night. It did take me until
Tuesday to recover from the jet lag and late nights, but I seem to be
doing ok, so apparently I am not as old as previously thought. Some
highlights from the weekend:

-The US Scrabble Open (national scrabble championship competition) was
being held at our hotel while we were there…I know, random.
-We were at a beautiful hotel, with gardens and 9 pools
-The dry heat
-Finding a dress for the wedding (for me, not the bride).
-Good dinner and company on Saturday night (and for free, too!)
-Finding a secluded pool without children screaming (most of the time).
-Massage chairs at the nail salon.

So yea, all in all, pretty good weekend, not too well rested, but I
didn't expect to be after a weekend of bachelorette fun. I made up for
it this week, by going to bed twice at 9:30pm. 8 hours+ of sleep helps
me be much more productive at work. Ah, and apeaking of work, I am now
officially a NSRC contractor for the fall, being paid some obscene
amount of money to do some statistical work on a survey I have
designed. Yup, I can now officially pay my bills again.
I had dinner with Heidi last night, and then some Coldstones, which we
decided was ok since we both worked out before dinner. We sat on the
fake grass in Silver Spring and dodged soccer balls, and chatted,
taking breaks to talk to Joy and Colleen briefly. Also helped K with
some fashion advice. Pretty much, we did it all. It was fun though,
always nice to catch up with an old friend.
We had an intern lunch yesterday, where they honored us, which was
pretty much the director asking each of us to go around and say what
we have learned this summer. I thought about telling her how I really
felt, but decided I needed to have all my paychecks before I piss off
the director. Don't get me wrong, the internship was fine, it is just
the fakeness of the whole discussion that annoyed me. I was good
though, and returned to my desk without incident.
Otherwise, the week has been nice and slow, just the way I like it. I
am looking forward to a relaxing weekend of sleeping in and doing all
my favorite DC things. Really, this just entails a trip to Alexandria
and some coffee and reading. Shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. I
also have to do some last minute gift shopping, so if anyone wants
anything from this area, speak now, or forever…yea, you know…

Road Trip, Part II

So, I arrived in Blowing Rock NC around 5pm. Seriously, this is the
cutest town I have ever been in, even cuter than Idyllwild (which was
pretty damn cute). It had two stop lights, one gas stations, and one
main street (aptly named Main St.) which several shoot offs with inns
and bed and breakfasts. I had my pick of places to stay, so I pulled
into a parking lot, turned on my computer, and hooked onto someone's
wireless to check out prices. Eventually, I found one that I liked,
and walked down to the Inn. The lady who owned it, Judy, was really
nice, giving me a discount because I was there alone, I guess because
she wouldn't be feeding two mouths. She sent me to this really cute
room, with a queen sized bed and a private bathroom, which worked out
wonderfully for me.


I pulled my large bag into the room (regretting
the big duffel by this point in the trip), showered, and then headed
out to find the namesake of the town, Blowing Rock. It was just
outside of the town, and of course, included a fee to see it. Typical.
$6 later, I was standing on this huge rock, over looking a huge
valley.


The view was amazing, even with the haze.

The rock is supposedly part of this old Indian legend where a warrior jumps off
and then the wind carries him back to his true love, who is waiting on
the rock. Whatever, I saw some kids spray some Mountain Dew over the
top of the rock, and all that did was piss off the guy standing below
them, who got Mountain Dew all over his head. There was nearly a throw
down, but the teenager apologized, and everyone went back to being
happy and enjoying the view. Anyway, so I checked that out, and then,
as is with the beauty of traveling alone, I left, didn't hang out and
ponder life, didn't really look at the gift store, didn't try to get
more out of my $6, I just left. I went back to the Inn, parked the
car, and then walked up to Main St.

I had dinner at this Mexican
place, which was actually pretty good for East Coast Mexican food.
Then I walked around, looking in all the little shop windows, since
most stuff was closed by this point in the evening. I stopped to get
some ice cream at this really cute ice cream parlor that had a line
out the door when I drove in, and was still packed inside when I went
in after dinner.

One scoop of English Toffee ice cream, and I was
happy to walk around the town park. This is where I sat to watch the
sunset over the mountains. What really struck me was the way people
gathered at this park. It was a Sunday evening, and there must have
been 30 kids playing in the park, and a whole bunch of teenagers
playing volleyball, while all the parents stood and talked to each
other. Everyone was happy, carefree, not worried, not stressed, just
seemed so different than the big city life. It was a nice change of
pace, and I enjoyed sitting and watching for quite some time.



Eventually, the bugs got unbearable, so I walked some more, and then
went back to the inn. Tried to stay awake to watch Desperate
Housewives, I don't think I quite made it to the end before I passed
out. Slept very well, and then ate a nice continental breakfast on my
front porch, in my rocking chair:

It was incredibly relaxing, and
pretty much exactly what I had in mind for this trip.

So, I eventually had to leave Blowing Rock to make it to my final
destination. I drove another 20 minutes and finally made it to
Grandfather Mountain. This mountain is one of the tallest in the Blue
Ridge Mountains, just shy of 6,000 ft.

Not too impressive by
California or Colorado standards, but still, standing on top of it,
you feel on top of the world. So, you pay at the bottom to drive up,
and then there is all this random stuff you can do. I was on sort of a
time limit, since I had to be back in DC the next afternoon, so I
couldn't just hike the entire mountain (can't say I would have been
that excited to start at the bottom, either). I drove up, stopped at
the animal sanctuary, where I was able to see some bears and a bald
eagle (and supposedly a cougar, who was hiding). This was cool, but
basically was just a zoo with a fancy name.





Then I continued up to a
parking lot, where I left Betsy and made the hike up to the summit.
The initial hike up was not too bad, although, with the humidity,
there was a lot of sweating going on.



Once at the top, I walked across
the mile high swinging bridge and over to one of the peaks, which gave
some amazing views.







I then decided to hike down the opposite side of the mountain.

Now,
the original reason I didn't come up this new trail was because I
didn't want to go up on cables by myself. Yea, forgot about that on
the way down, until after I had scaled three large rocks and then came
to the cables. Lovely. Little nervous about my knee, but it seemed to
work out, and I made it out alive.





I did get into a fight with a tree
that left my shoulder cut up nicely, and I think bruised, but I was
fine otherwise. I have realized I make poor decision when it comes to
mud, consistently placing my foot in the muddiest possibly area of any
puddle. Thank goodness my shoes are water proof. I made it back down
to Betsy, and enjoyed the A/C for a few minutes before trekking back
down the mountain and heading north again. Well, at least north was
the plan. Did I mention that I did this entire trip without an
official map? My only resources for this trip (after the initial yahoo
maps map to get to the parkway) were those random ppamphlets you can
pick up in hotels. This was not the original plan, but by the time day
three came and went, I decided to not buy a map and to attempt to make
it home based on signs and hotel maps. It worked, with a slight hitch
when trying to get to a major highway in NC, and instead going through
a random town called Wilkerboro (Colleen, this is when I called you,
while staring at the cow in the truck in front of me). Anyway, made it
back to the highway, and then eventually to the 81, which parallels
the parkway up to the top. I stopped for lunch at Shoney's (Cara's
favorite restaurant ever), which is basically Sizzler (didn't realize
this until I sat down, but by then, it was too late). I ended up
spending the night in Staunton, VA, which is, at first glance, a truck
stop type town. However, once you go into it, there is a lot of rich
history, and a really cute downtown with lots of red brick and white
pointy roofs. I ate at this restaurant that looked dead from the
outside, but was in full swing inside. It came highly recommended from
the hotel staff, and did not let me down. I had stopped at WalMart in
NC earlier and bought a book…it's funny, Walmart looks the same in
North Carolina as it does in California, but the southern accent just
cracks me up, it somehow matched the whole scene. So, I sat, read my
book, ate some salad (I figured I better get some sort of actual
healthy nutrient on this trip), and just relaxed. By this point in the
trip, I was completely used to eating along, and in fact, can now say
it is quite liberating. Sort of along the same lines as going to a
movie alone. You can eat whenever, as little or as much as you like,
and you don't have to worry about the bill at the end (well, I mean,
you do have to pay, but no splitting or figuring it out). I then went
back to the hotel and just hung out Caught up on some emails and made
a couple of phone calls, and then went to bed.
Tuesday morning was pretty much all about driving. I made it back to
DC in about 3 hours, which included a nice stop at Old Navy along the
way. I then stopped in at Trader Joes before dropping my stuff off at
home and then returning the van. Oh, and of course, I arrived just in
time for the heat wave to hit DC, so, since I have been back, the heat
index has yet to go below 80 degrees (I think the low might have been
like 77 last night, but with the humidity, the index was still higher
than 80). It is supposed to drop this weekend, but I will be in
Arizona, enjoying the heat there (which, I might add, I am looking
forward to, being that it will be dry heat…), so any temp drop here
does nothing for me.
Anyway, yea, so that is my trip. It was one of those trips that I
won't forget about any time soon. I highly recommend getting out by
yourself and just driving, with no real plans or destination. You have
a lot of time to think, to figure stuff out, and you learn to be more
comfortable with yourself as your only company (well, and Betsy). I
saw part of the country I probably would have not otherwise seen ever,
and got out of the city to enjoy some fresh air and great views.
Definitely a summer highlight.

And now, I leave you with some failed wildlife pictures:
Obviously a deer:
And, even more obviously, a bear:
Caterpillar hanging in the trail:
A flower on the move:

Road trip, part I

So I will attempt to write about my extended weekend roadtrip in two parts, since otherwsie, the whole thing become too daunting. I know I never really finished writing about last week’s Biodiversity Academy, but basically, it consisted of lots of lectures about things I don’t know much about, lots of fancy lunches and dinner, and lots of happy hours to survive the week. Anyway, on with the trip...

Friday after work I headed up to the Thrifty Car rental agency in Silver Spring, MD, and checked in for my reserved economy car. The lady ever so nicely told me that all she had were mini vans. So, after making sure I wasn’t going to have to pay anything extra for my new found spacious vehicle, I headed off in my new Silver Dodge Caravan, Betsy. So, Betsy and I make a quick stop at home to pick up my bag and snacks, and then spent the next two hours trying to get out of DC and past the Nissan Pavilion in VA where Kenny Chesney was playing. Eventually I made it out of the traffic and through most of Virginia, to Front Royal, which is the top of Skyline Drive, the road through Shenandoah Valley. I got onto the road around 7pm, and immediately hit some amazing views:





And here is Betsy, in all her glory:


The sunset was amazing, and totally set the tone for the entire weekend...



I also quickly became that tourist who takes pictures through my car windshield:
I did get to see some bears in the forest, in fact, two bear cubs and what I assume was their mother playing around...very cute, and amazing to see them see free and playful so close to the road.

I finally made it to my hotel around 9:30, checked in, and grabbed some Chili’s for dinner. I then had some amazing ice cream from the local ice cream place in Harrisonburg (Harrisonburg: not as cute as originally thought, but the hotel was nice and the town was safe, so it was fine).

The next morning I filled up on gas and headed back to the Shenandoah Valley (following a nice waffle at the hotel continental breakfast). I stopped once into the park and hiked down to a waterfall. The hike was really nice, despite the bugs flying around my head, and the bee sting that occurred once I made it the waterfall. The forest reminded me more of a rainforest than a mountain forest. I guess I am just used to brown plants and dust, which is what California generally consists of.





As can be seen in the pictures, this waterfall is not quite as impressive as some that I have seen, in say, Hawaii or Yosemite, but it was still a nice view.

The next hike was up to something called Black Rock Mountain, which was basically this huge pile of black speckled rocks with a pretty amazing view.





(That last one includes the really annoying Chinese family who insisted on hiking right on my heels most of the way up, while the little boy decided to yell at every little thing. I also saw them like 100 miles further south...thrilling, and still loud).

I then decided to take a break from the hiking (mostly due to the nastly looking cut on the side of my foot from some heels I wore to work last week that were too tight around the toes, and have thus left me not too comfortable in hiking shoes). Flip flops back on. I drove out to the main highway to find something to eat for lunch, and ended up at this really cute little hole in the wall restaurant named The Whistle Stop Cafe. They had homemade blackberry cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream. I figured it was ok after the morning hikes.
I then worked my way south to a rock formation called Natural Bridge. Oh! And on the way down I passed the most random thing:

Yup, that is right, Foamhenge, Kinda like Stonehenge, but made out of foam. What would motivate anyone to do this is beyond me, but it was worth a stop, just to see what it was really all about. I passed this girl on the way up to the foam, and we had this funny conversation about how random this was. And yes, random it was.



Anyway, so Natural Bridge is basically this 200 foot tall hole in a big rock. The website and pamphlets say it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, despite it not being on any list I could find on Google. Whatever, it was cool. It was also my first opportunity to see something really cool be turned into a tourist attration. Totally capitalizing on nature, and charging an admission to see nature...something doesn’t seem right. Anyway, the pictures don’t do it justice, it was beautiful, as was the creek coming down from the Lace Waterfall. In case you are wondering, I am getting pretty good at taking pictures of myself. =)




I met this random couple on the way down from the falls, they were from Ohio and they were telling me about their kids and their weddings, and how they had been to California to watch their daughter play basketball...they were funny, the mom was totally into talking, and the dad just wanted to bird watch...it could have been any of our parents...

So, Saturday night I stayed in Christiansburg, after searching for a place to stay for a while and finally giving up and going back to the main highway. I called the Holiday Inn home for the night, and enjoyed another random continental breakfast in the morning. I drove up to Blacksburg to see Virginia Tech, which is a beautiful school. Blacksburg is totally a cute town, I can see the draw to the area just from driving through. A good part of my morning was then spent driving south, toward my southern most destination: Blowing Rock, NC. Really, the southern most point was Grandfather Mountain, but Blowing Rock would be where I was going to spend the night before I got to the mountain....