Red River Gorge, Kentucky

Last weekend, Austin and I headed off to Kentucky to finally get back outside and on some ropes!  I was starting to forget why I even liked climbing but once we got outside where it was quiet, away from any sounds of traffic, and the air was clean, it all came back to me.  

The weather was perfect, the rock was gorgeous (and hard), and the company was great.

These pictures were from a climb called "Too Many Puppies" which was on some of the prettiest rock I have ever seen.  Beautiful red sandstone with black veins swirling through it...not quite Navajo Sandstone, but I'll take it!

This trip inspired me to get outside even more, so we are off to Shenandoah National Park tomorrow for some hiking and bouldering, but mainly to see all the changing leaves.

Uncle Don

This weekend, Austin and I went up to my aunt's house and visited with all of my family.  Unfortunately the reason for going up there was not a good one.  My uncle passed away a couple of weeks ago and his house and the weekend felt lacking because of it.  We had a nice service and and spent a lot of time reminiscing about all that Uncle Don taught us.  Most importantly for me personally, he taught me to love and appreciate nature.  It always felt like we were out in the wilderness at his house in the woods, and he really did start my passion for the outdoors.  I am so grateful for all of the wonderful memories and I will miss him always.

Catoctin Mountains

On Sunday, Austin and I went up into northern Maryland to the Catoctin Mountains State Park for a long day hike.  We have been a little afraid to hike here because so far it has paled in comparison to Utah, but we were pleasantly surprised by the trails through the park.

It was a nice 8.5 mile loop that had some really nice overlooks.  The best part was that it was about 10 degrees cooler than DC and most of the time the trail was far enough away from roads that you couldn't hear the traffic.  I'm sure it would be a beautiful place to visit again in the fall when all the leaves are changing too!

It's about an hour and a half outside of DC and completely worth the drive! - which is easy for me to say since I slept through the whole thing :)

the 2nd installment

the first bundle of pictures

Here is the first sampling of pictures from Nairobi and all of the camps that we went to (Amboseli, Ol Pejeta, Ol Kinyei, and Olare Orok) - they are organized in that order, as best as I could remember.  I hope you enjoy the pictures even just a fraction as much as I enjoyed being there!

A Taster

We made it back safe and sound from our safari (well, most of us - but I will explain later) and it was even better than I could have ever imagined!

We saw almost all of the animals, including the big 5!  Plus some cheetahs and some giraffes, a bunch of zebras, and about a million wildebeest!  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get all of my pictures organized yet but here is a little taster for you.

More to come soon :)

The Wild West

Remember how I told you I would post the rest of my pictures soon.  Well, I lied.  Working really gets in the way of everything else.

Yes, you read that right, I am now working - well for one more week, then I go on Safari!!!  I didn't want to get to too overwhelmed, you know :)  Yesterday, Austin and I spent the majority of the day in Target getting the last of the stuff that I need for Kenya.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find clothing that is not bright or white.

Anyway while I was at home, I went to Gage's graduation (Austin's brother) and his graduation party.  It was a pretty standard high school graduation, but it felt weird to see Gage finished with high school!  I first met him when he was only 12 years old and since I am the youngest in my family, I've never experienced that before :)

Other than that, I went for a walk on one of the trails by my house and took some pictures:

Then on Saturday afternoon Austin, his grandpa, his dad, my dad, and I went out to Echo Canyon to go shootin'!  I shot 5 pigeons this time and I got to fire a muzzle loader!

Other than it being too short of a weekend, it was pretty perfect :)

a recap of last week

Last week my Mom came to visit!  By far the hardest part of living on the East Coast is being so far away from family, so it was so nice to have my mom here.

Unfortunately, we saw everything there is to see so she has no reason to come back.

Happy Late Memorial Day

This Memorial Day I remembered how nice it is to breath fresh air and see the stars.

New York, New York

My sister got to come to NYC for work for a couple of days last week and for less than the cost of her taxi ride from the airport to her hotel in Manhattan, I got a roundtrip bus ride from DC to New York.  I do love the public transit out East.  I am glad I didn't try to drive myself!  Austin and I complain a lot about DC traffic, but it is really nothing compared to New York.  Sure, our bus driver hit the toll booth but who's to blame him...that's a small hole for a big bus to fit through.

New River Gorge

Right after I got off the plane from Utah, Austin picked me up and we headed back west.  West Virginia that is.  We spent the weekend at the New River Gorge climbing and camping.  It was a completely different landscape than the areas that we are used to climbing in but it was beautiful in its own right.

why it was so hard to leave

After a great week at home...it was hard to come back to DC.  Here's why:

Those blue skies, jagged mountains, and fresh air have been calling to me since we got here!

Graduation

Austin and I flew home last week for our graduation and were lucky to have a beautiful weekend for it.  In the morning Mitch Albom spoke at the commencement ceremony.  He was a great speaker and had a great message (think: condensed version of Tuesdays with Morrie).

Lewes, DE and Ocean City, MD

After our day in Rehoboth, we found our campsite in Cape Henlopen State Park.  The park was nice and we were happy to not be surrounded by RVs.  One problem we had was with the campers across from us.  Apparently, Smoky the Bear doesn't visit Delaware, or people are under the impression that "only you and your neighboring campers can prevent wildfires."  So they just left their foot-tall flames a-blazing as they went to sleep on their big air mattress in their giant Coleman tent that was the size of our Salt Lake apartment.

Anyway, we didn't get burned alive which was a good thing or else we wouldn't have gotten to visit the secluded beach.  Sure, we had to hop a fence to get there, but it was worth it!  It was quiet, the sand was soft, there were good shells to collect, and we got to see at least a dozen dolphins swimming by!

Late morning, we left the campground and drove down highway 1 to Ocean City, Maryland.  We read about a kite festival there for the weekend (supposedly one of the biggest in the world, which makes you wonder if the other ones are really just a guy outside with his kite).  They did have this gigantic whale kite though which was later beached.

Once the storms rolled in, we headed back to the city this time ignoring Daniel's directions and cutting 1:40 off our estimated time of arrival. 

Rehoboth Beach, DE

Friday as I was sitting around doing nothing, I decided to look up the weather at the beach for the weekend, then I found us a campsite...then I found out if Austin was interested.

Saturday morning we got in the car, turned on Daniel (the GPS) and trusted him to get us there.  He did.  We just didn't specify that we were not interested in the scenic route.  And by "scenic," I mean kind of sketchy.  So I have faith that next time we can get there in 2.5 hours.

When we first got there we did exactly what you're supposed to do at the beach: nothing.  We sat, we read, we napped.  It was perfect.  Austin, being newer to the beach experience hasn't quite learned to just sit yet so we walked along the boardwalk, looked in the surf shops and later went to the outlets to get some tax-free jeans.  (Did you know Delaware has no sales tax - Gas is still expensive though, don't get too excited.)

I will post again later about our first Eastern Seaboard camping experience and Ocean City, MD.  Stay tuned :)

Waterfront Walk

Seafood market down "at the Front."

The Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial with all their ducks in a row :)

Playing Tourist

Since Austin and I just moved to DC a little over two months ago, we still play tourist quite a bit on the weekends, going to museums and the monuments and all of that.  But this weekend we kicked it up a notch.  Austin's family was in town so we packed a lot in.  The Cherry Blossom Festival, the Japanese Street Festival, the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, the Kite Festival, etc., etc.

It was so nice having his family come stay with us for the past few days.  It gave me something to do for one thing, but it is just always nice to be around family!  When is everyone else coming to visit?