Ask and ye shall receive

Remember this post I wrote last September? Well, in the time since I wrote down my Christmas list I have gotten five of my six wishes. Imagine! If you would have told me the results of my list four months ago I'd never have believed you. Here's the wishes that have been fulfilled and how long after I posted the blog I received them:

• #4. Warm water for my showers - electrician came to fix the heater a week and a half later
• #3. Books - found large supply at the Cradle of Love apartment a 30-second walk from my cottage mere days later and discovered a fairly good bookstore in Arusha a month and a half later
• #2. A safari trip - went on one with three other volunteers three weeks later and another this month
• #1b. To see my family - traveled to Cairo, Egypt during Christmas to visit Bryn nearly three months later
• #1a. To see Jonathan - he randomly and very surprisingly showed up in my office three and a half months later

I am so blessed. Jonathan surprised me by traveling all the way from snowy Maine to burning Tanzania for two weeks. We went on a two-day safari before he whisked me off on a trip to the coast and Pemba Island in the Indian Ocean. And there he proposed! So, in four more months wish #1a will again be granted and I'll get to see Jonathan again. And at a yet-undecided date this summer I'll be privileged enough to be able to see him for as many years to come as God sees fit to give us together. I'm hoping it's decades!

(Because of the five granted wishes, I'm almost wondering when wish #5, the trampoline, will arrive :)

Fairmont vacation

On Wednesday, June 23, my family took Bryn to the airport and said farewell to her until the end of next June. She's going to be the new director of a preschool in Heliopolis, Egypt. She decided to leave before the date she had to be there by so that she could get used to her surroundings and get some training before the current director, a girl named Ana who I think is from California, left for home. It was sad sending Bryn off, but I know she'll have a great time in Egypt and have tons of pictures and stories to show and tell when she gets back.

Two days later, my dad, Ty and I set out for our annual vacation in Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, a five-hour drive northeast. My mum stayed behind for a few days to look after my grandma who had to go back into the hospital a week after getting out. (She's been having mysterious pains in her abdomen that the doctors can't figure out.) Fairmont was awesome, as usual, except for missing my mum and Bryn. Since there's no Adventist church for at least an hour in any direction, Dad, Tyler and I spent a quiet Sabbath morning and early afternoon having our own church service and making lunch.  Then in the afternoon we went on a hike up the road to the hot springs, spent some time exploring the old Indian baths, and then hiked down a trail back to our villa. Just as we got back to the resort, we noticed three deer-shaped objects lying in a empty building lot between two houses. Ty discounted them as fake deer, but I wasn't convinced and walked closer. Sure enough, they were three quite real and quite unafraid young deer, who got up when I got near them, but just strolled around nibbling plants once they were on their feet. Dad noticed their antlers were still in velvet. It was a nice Sabbath surprise.

Indian bath house

Ty relaxing in the hot spring-fed bath

View across the valley

Deer in velvet

My dad returned to Kelowna on Sunday night to attend a funeral and brought my mum back to Fairmont after it was over on Monday. Throughout the rest of the week, we went boating in nearby Windermere Lake, visited both Fairmont Hot Springs (developed, requires entrance fee) and Lussier Hot Springs (natural hot spring pools beside a glacier-fed river, free), enjoyed the views of the Purcell and Rocky Mountains from our villa porch and had a relaxing family time.

Admiring the Rockies

When our awesome week of vacationing was over, we headed back home where we enjoyed hanging out with my Auntie Sandy (my mum's sister) and two of her kids, Conner and Alex.  They had arrived a few days before from St. Georges, Manitoba and stayed in the Okanagan Valley long enough to visit my grandparents and our family before continuing their journey to the Fraser Valley to see their other set of grandparents/parents-in-law. My dad offered to take them on a boat ride and so this afternoon, about half an hour after unloading our stuff from the truck, we picked them up and headed out to a local lake for a few hours. We were greeted with some strong winds and lots of waves, but we still had a great time with the relatives and a few daring souls even braved the chilly early-summer water.

Enjoying a protected cove

Eating and talking

Wet cousins on a boat

All in all, we had a very enjoyable week of relaxing and then fellowshipping with relatives!

Banff, Lake Louise & wildlife

Well half of our plan for last night worked out.  We drove down the mountain into town, found a parking place (which, to my surprise, were absolutely free.  In a tourist town like Banff, I thought that was really cool.), and walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory.  The food was great, as it always is, but they had already run out of spimoni ice cream so we didn't get our free dessert, which is sad because I really love that stuff.  Anyway, we hurried out of the restaurant as soon as we were done and drove up Sulpher Mountain to the Upper Banff Hot Springs and walked up to the pool, but just as we got near the top, some people coming down told us that the hot springs were closed for the evening.  We were really surprised to hear that because my mum had looked in the Banff N.P. guide that we got when we drove into the park and said that the hot springs were open until 11 p.m.  It was just after 10 when we got there.  So we walked the rest of the way to the top and found a sign that said the pool was closed at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights, but was open until 11 p.m. all the rest of the nights.  So, we didn't get to go in, but made plans to come back today.

We drove back down the mountain and then drove to the Banff Springs Hotel so we could look at it.  It's one of several really huge chateau hotels that were built for the fancy train travelers coming to tourist spots back in the day.  The most famous of these hotels, now owned by the Fairmont hotel chain, are the Chateau de Frontenac in old Quebec City and the Chateau Lake Lousie, another 45 minutes down the Trans-Canada highway.  I would LOVE to spend a night in any of the chateaus, but they're super expensive, even for the cheapest room, so I probably never will.  But it is fun to walk around in the lobbies and pretend you're staying there.  But last night, we just drove around the perimeter before heading back to our campsite.

This morning was beautiful and my mum went outside to take pictures early before the rest of us were up.  Later on, while we were waiting for other people to be ready to go back into town, Jonathan, Ty and I watched some ground squirrels play.  Ty got some good pictures of them and then people were ready to go.  We headed back to Sulpher Mountain, but before going to the hot springs, we went to the gondola that took us to the top of the mountain where there is some observation decks and an indoor restaurant.  We got a LOT of pictures up there of the Rockies surrounding the Banff valley.  The hike up to an old research hut was closed for construction, so we didn't get to do that, but it was fun being up at the top of the mountain again.  The last time our family did that was when I was in grade 10 and we took the Japanese girl who was staying with us that year to see all the tourist sights in the Rockies.  Once we (meaning my mum and Jonathan) had had our fill of taking pictures, we went back down the gondola and then visited the hot springs.

The sun was brightly shining, so it was kind of warm to be in the hot water, but if you sat where you could catch some of the mountain breezes, it wasn't too bad.  Hot springs are definitely better to experience in the evening/night.  After our soak, we got dressed and drove back into town to find my favourite candy store, which wasn't too hard.  This store is absolutely packed with all kinds of awesome candy. Some kinds you find in other candy stores, but there are many that I've only seen in that store or in olden day candy stores in ghost towns turned tourist attractions.  We had a great time pushing past other candy store visitors to see all the sights and by the end, most of us had bought something, some (me and Bryn) more than others.  We also were treated to ice cream since we hadn't been able to eat any with our meal last night.

Then it was back to the campsite to load up the trailer and get moving again.  About halfway to our next stop, at Lake Louise, Jonathan saw something down the river that flowed right beside the road.  He quickly pulled the car onto the shoulder and I declared the tall, stately blob in the distance a moose.  He confirmed that with his long camera lens and took lots of pictures before we continued on to see the sights of Lake Louise.  Once we parked, we jumped out of the car to tell my mum we had seen a moose.  She was really sad since she said she had seen it too, but my dad wasn't able to pull the whole truck and trailer off the road, so she didn't get any pictures of it.

Then Bryn joined us, and we walked to the lake, which is definitely prettier in the summer when the snow and ice on the lake melts and the glacier on the mountain behind the hotel contrasts beautifully with the turquoise water of the lake.  But it was still pretty and Jonathan and my mum took quite a few pictures in our 20-minute stop,  Then Bryn, my dad and I walked to the hotel to show Jonathan the lobby area.  It really is a unique place, especially if you've never seen it before.  I've been inside a ton, but it still never gets old for me.  After that stop, we kept on driving (through lots of construction) until my mum pulled over to the side of the road.  Concerned that something was wrong with Bryn's car that she was driving, we pulled off and parked in front of her.  She didn't get out of her car or anything so we were confused until I noticed a shape moving up near the railroad tracks.  "A bear," I shrieked to Jonathan and he grabbed his camera, quickly changed to his long lens, and started snapping.  When we looked back at my mum, we saw she was doing the same thing.  We stayed there for a big until the bear wandered off across the tracks and we lost sight of him.

Then, just before we got to Golden, we stopped at a construction site to take pictures of a group of mountain sheep, who didn't seem to mind the attention.  There are almost always mountain sheep on the east side of Golden, so I was sure we'd see some, and I was right.  After the pictures and a quick stop for gas and food at Subway (a place we ALWAYS stop to eat at during our road trips through the Rockies), we were on our way again.  A ways down the road, I saw two black bears, what looked like a mother and a cub, way down a railroad track as we came around a curve and down a bank, but there was nowhere to pull off the road since we were on a built up part with no shoulder, so we couldn't stop and get any pictures of those bears.  But later on, my mum pulled off the road again, turned around and drove to the shoulder on the other side.  Jonathan and I were right behind her.  There was  silvery-looking bear chomping on some greenery or berries right near the woods.  When we drove up, he looked up, stared at us for a second and then dashed away into the brush before Jonathan could get a picture of him.  We waited a bit, but he never returned.  Later we found out that my mum had gotten a couple, fuzzy pictures of him on her small camera.

Soon we were off driving again and saw no more exciting wildlife, except for some soaring birds, for the rest of our trip.  But Jonathan still used his time wisely and took a bunch of pictures of the impressive mountains (I think we were in the Selkirk mountain range by then).  Soon it got darker and I was sad Jonathan wouldn't be able to see all the scenery of driving into Kelowna, but I was also pretty happy our trip was coming to a close.  We finally drove into our driveway around 11 p.m. and it felt great to be home.  Now I think I'm going to hop into bed.  I've decided to keep up my commentary of my life at least while Jonathan is here.  So never fear, there will be more to read in the coming days.  Good night.

Border crossing & Rocky Mountains

Yesterday afternoon we traveled north on an apparently little-used highway.  We didn't see too much other traffic, which was a nice change from the big interstates.  I really enjoyed watching the land change as we drove and decided that not all parts of North Dakota are stark and endless plains.  The sunset, especially, was quite beautiful, but I was glad to use an extra pair of Jonathan's sunglasses.  We got to the town of Minot around sunset, so we pulled into a shopping center parking lot and had a sundown worship and quick meal of sandwiches in the fifth-wheel while my dad and I figured out the best route to take to the border.  Then we continued on our way and finally got to the border town of Portal a bit before midnight.  We parked beside the road and Bryn and I ran in to the American customs office to turn in our I-20 and our I-94 student visas now that we were graduated.  I made sure to mention this to my parents and Bryn earlier since I had had some problems with my I-20 the year that I worked at home and didn't want the same thing to happen this time when I went back to Canada.  We turned in the I-20s without any hassle and only a few questions from the officials.  I asked several times if we were all cleared now and they assured me that we were.

Once that was taken care of, we ran back to our cars and got in line to go through Canadian customs.  Only one line was open and there were quite a few cars in front of us, so it took awhile, but finally Jonathan and I, who were first in our group since my parents had to go in the taller-vehicle line-up, got to the window.  The guy asked us all kinds of questions that, in my 25 years of going through the Canada/U.S. border, I have never been asked before, as well as the usual ones about firearms, tobacco, etc. coming back with us.  He seemed most interested in the fact that Jonathan and I were dating and made sure we weren't engaged (nope, for sure not) and that Jonathan had a plane ticket already made back to the U.S.  Finally, he wrote stuff on a yellow piece of paper and said that he would have more questions for us inside.  So we had to park and come in to the customs office where we waited and waited for someone to talk to.  The rest of my family had to come in too and my mum told us that the lady they had talked to told her that Bryn and I would have to make a list of every single thing we had ever bought during our time in the States that we were bringing back when us.  I got annoyed, since we had brought many of these things back with us every single summer between school years, but there's not much you can do about stuff like that when you're trying to get through customs and back into your own country again.  Finally, the lady appeared and looked over some papers and then told us that we didn't have to make our lists "this time."  Then the guy came out of some back room and said that he actually didn't have any more questions for Jonathan and I, so in the end, we were all clear and free.  We got back into our vehicles and kept driving for another half an hour until we got to Estevan, Saskatchewan where we found a grocery store parking lot to stop in and finally fell into our beds, completely tired out.

This morning we woke up pretty early and gassed up before having breakfast at Tim Hortons.  It was awesome to be eating there again and it was fun to listen to the conversations swirling around us as we waited in line.  Lots of farmers and workers come in to Timmy's early in the morning for their coffee fix and it was great to hear the mid-Canadian accent again.  After Timmy's (again, Jonathan's first time eating there even though there's a Tim Horton's in his hometown), we piled back in our cars and drove through western Saskatchewan.  Just around Swift Current, we encountered a lovely spring snow storm and stopped to get gas and buy some new windshield wipers for Bryn's car.  Then we kept driving until we crossed the Alberta border and stopped again in Medicine Hat for a small snacky supper of sandwiches and other random foods we could find in our trailer.  We kept going and got to Calgary several hours later, where Jonathan, Bryn and I somehow missed seeing the fifth-wheel and Ty's car stop at a gas station on the west side of town.  We were already past the 1988 Olympic ski jumping park when we got ahold of them and found out they were back in town, but fortunately I knew the place they had stopped at and it wasn't too far to go back and meet them.  After that mishap, we continued on into the foothills of the Rockies.  I drove because I knew Jonathan would want to be taking pictures as we got into the Rockies and I was right.  He snapped pictures left and right, front and back (with the help of my sunroof).  Finally we got to Banff and found a campground to stay the night at with a spectacular view of the famous mountain of Banff.  Now we're just about to leave for supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then hopefully a dip in the Upper Banff Hot Spring pool.

Church mix-ups

The grown-ups (my parents) slept in the hotel last night and the kids (us young adults) slept in the fifth-wheel.  We got up and showered in the hotel before putting on church clothes and getting ready to experience a brand new church in North Dakota.  We headed out, following my dad's GPS, which was a bad move.  It took us all over Fargo on a wild goose chase for the elusive church.  Finally we tried out using Jonathan's phone, which got us to the right address, though once we were there we saw warehouses, a police station, and a residential area, but nothing resembling a church.  Finally we decided to go to another church in the area and the GPS got us to that one fine.  Just as we were walking up the stairs to go into the church, I noticed their signpost hanging beside the door: Church 9:30 a.m., Sabbath School (which I will hereafter refer to with the initials, SS) 11 a.m.  Yep, you guessed it.  This church had their services backwards.  So we went in, broke up a SS class, introduced ourselves, and settled into the class as best we could.

 The group was super friendly and it turned out that the SS leader for the class we were in was the father of a Southern graduate and another Southern student, Jessi and Krista.  Both Tyler and I knew Jessi from classes, and Bryn and I both knew Krista from SM class.  Wow, the Adventist world really is small.  When SS was done, many members talked to us and the SS teacher invited us all over to his house.  So we went back to our hotel, changed into comfier clothes, and drove out to their farm.  His wife made an amazing lunch and we got to know them better.  Their girls weren't back from Southern yet, since they stayed an extra few days to do some fun after-school activities.  They were planning to get home the next day.  After lunch, we talked a bit longer until we realized we had to continue our journey.  We took pictures of each other and then drove back into town.  Now we're just about to check out of our hotel room and leave.  Wonder how far we'll make it this afternoon and evening.

Hubble 3D IMAX

Yesterday evening we got to Jonathan's sister Becky's apartment in time for supper.  She knew we were coming and had made really great chili and rice for us to eat.  We parked behind the building and then crowded into the living room of Becky's and her husband Kent's apartment.  After Jonathan introduced us all and we had a tour of their place, we ate supper and then headed a few minutes away to get ice cream from Cold Stone's for dessert.  We got there just before they locked the doors so that was good timing on our part.  I got the best thing in the store, a mint chocolate chip shake.  Yum, mint is so great!  After we got back to Becky and Kent's place, we lounged around in their living room on their really comfy bean bags and I found my sister-in-law, Terrie, and her sisters in Kent's elementary year books.  It was super amusing.  Then it was getting late and we were getting tired so us Q's left to go settle down in the fifth-wheel and Jonathan stayed to sleep on one of the two bean bags that made into queen-sized beds.  Yeah, they were pretty cool.

This morning we ate breakfast in the apartment before heading into to Minneapolis and managing a whirlwind stop at the Mall of America.  We had about 45 minutes there before we had to leave for our next appointment.  Bryn left the group to look at stores and my mum and I bought tickets for the rides that we soon found.  I texted the guys who had gone to Radio Shack or Best Buy or something like that and they soon met us at the rides.  Ty and I and my dad went on this awesome ride that looked like a giant skateboard and spun us around.  Then Jonathan and I went on one of those huge swings while Ty went on the skateboard ride again.  We met up with Bryn and raced to a rollercoaster to use up the final tickets.

With our time at the mall over, we briskly walking back to our parked cars and drove into St. Paul to the IMAX theater at the zoo.  We got tickets for the 12 p.m. showing of Hubble 3D and Becky managed to get there before it started after she finished working.  It was an awesome IMAX.  My dad said it was the best one he's ever seen and my mum and Bryn kept saying how much it made them think about God.  I'm so glad Dr. Nash told us about it in our last Literary Journalism class.  I loved it.  After the movie was over, we browsed the gift store and bought a couple older IMAX's that we hadn't seen before on DVD.  Then we all went back to the area that Becky and Kent live in and were going to go to this one place for lunch, but then found out it wasn't there anymore, so we walked down the street to a burrito place that was amazing.  After that, my mum went with Becky to a bread store and a grocery store, while the rest of us went back to the apartment to load up the fifth-wheel and we all met back at a gas station before saying good-bye to Becky and continuing on our drive.

We made it to Fargo, ND before finally stopping for the night.  We were actually on our way traveling north to Grand Forks, but the winds were really bad and it was raining too, so my dad turned our parade of cars around and we drove back to Fargo.  We tried to find the KOA campsite our GPS found, but when we got to the address, there was nothing there, so finally my parents decided to stay at a hotel.  We drove across the street to a La Quinta and my dad made arrangements for a room and also for a place to park the fifth-wheel for the night.  Now we're all in the hotel, about to start Friday night worship, so I'd better sign off for tonight. Adios.

Wisconsin Dells

I wasn't really bothered by trains during the night, but I sure heard them early this morning long before I wanted to be awake.  They seem to come through the area with surprising frequency.  Finally everyone was up and I decided to hop off the top bunk, too (with some help since it's pretty high up).  We showered and ate breakfast, then headed out for some fun in the Dells.  We left the fifth-wheel at the campground and drove our cars through the city, looking for something that  would be open at this time of the year.  Finally we found an indoor adventure center.  My dad got us all wristbands, which let us do anything that we wanted to inside the center.

First up was a couple rides on an indoor ferris wheel.  Then we all went go-karting before Bryn, Ty, and Jonathan decided to try some wall climbing.  After that we headed downstairs to play laser tag.  It was my mum's first time playing and she had a grand time shooting at the many people darting around the darkened room, only to find out at the end that she had her gun turned the wrong direction and had successfully shot herself myriads of times.  For her sake, we played again and she did much better that round.  Next my mum got us to go on a carousel ride and then Ty begged Jonathan and me to go into a kids indoor crawl/play place with him.  We did and realized that they are definitely made for kids, not young adult-sized people.  It was still fun to climb through the area, though.  Finally, we went to play a game on mini-golf.  It was a really cool course, designed like a real golf course, with greens, rough grass areas, and sand traps, which made it pretty challenging.  About halfway through, I somehow got two holes-in-one and a little later my mum decided that whoever won would have to pay for lunch.  I ended up winning somehow (I hardly ever win when I'm playing with Bryn and my dad) so I said that we should go to Taco Bell.  Having done most of the activities in the center, we decided to head off for lunch.

Right across the parking lot from the center was a Cracker Barrel and the rest of the family convinced me to go there for lunch instead of Taco Bell.  I agreed, even though I was really in the mood for some soft tacos.  It was Jonathan's first time ever eating there (which is inconceivable since he went to school in the south for five years) so in the end I was glad we went there.  I really wanted him to experience Cracker Barrel before being back in New England again.  After lunch we drove back to the KOA and loaded up the fifth-wheel.  Now, we're about to leave for Minneapolis where Jonathan's sister lives.  I'll write again when I have Internet.

Traveling

Well, we actually got away from the Cleveland KOA around 7 p.m. yesterday evening and then drove north on I-75 until close to midnight, when we stopped to sleep in the parking lot of a Sam's Club in Lexington, KY.  With four vehicles (a truck pulling a fifth-wheel and three cars) in our entourage, we had a fun time trying to stick together through the cities, but somehow we managed to end up together by the time we wanted to stop.  Once we parked our cars and got our beds ready in the fifth-wheel, we were all tired and fell asleep pretty fast.

Today we got up and headed out of Kentucky and into Ohio for a short time and then on to Illinois.  We skirted around both Cincinnati and Indianapolis, making our way to Bloomington, IN, then north to Rockport, IN, and finally to Wisconsin Dells, WI.  Now we're happily parked in a campsite at a KOA and enjoying the free wireless Internet for a few minutes before we head to bed.  I wonder if any of us will sleep very well.  There are train tracks right across the road from the KOA and I'm sure a train is bound to come through sometime during the night.  I guess we'll see what happens.  Night from Wisconsin.

Packing & leaving

Wow, we're FINALLY going to leave.  Phew, today has been a LOT of work and I'm really glad it's over.   I woke up early to finish grading and went to the SJ&C to drop all the newsletters off in Ms. Chamberlain's office and then texted her to let her know they were done.  I said bye to Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Ball, and Mrs. Herod, who were all talking in the SJ&C office and they all said that I better come to Ty's grad next year to see them all again.  I said I would try my best.  Then I drove to the house that Emily (our photographer for the family pictures) was staying until she left for home and picked up the pictures from her.  And then it was back to the apartment to pack.

When our apartment was pretty clean, Jonathan and I took a bunch of stuff away to the Samaritan Center and then to recycling.  We stopped by campus on the way back and helped Ty finish up his room.  I also went dumpster diving to find Ty's old shoes.  My dad had convinced Ty that they were awful and needed to be thrown away, but later Ty had second thoughts and wanted to keep them until he could get another pair.  I felt bad for him because I know what it's like to love clothes or shoes that are really comfy like that, so I went and found the garbage bag we had just thrown out and saved the shoes.  Ty was happy and so was I.  And I found out that dumpsters aren't really all that gross or smelly.  At least that one wasn't, but maybe it had recently been emptied.

Ty and my dad went to get the last few things out of Ty's room and so Jonathan, my mum, and I went to the Campus Shop to get some last minute things.  Then Bryn and Josh met us at the ABC and we spent a happy bit of time looking at our favourite kids books.  All of us had enjoyed all the same good old Adventist books and tapes as children and it was a lot of fun to reminisce together.  Then Ty and my dad met us all at the Village Market as we got some final food items to eat as we traveled.  We went back to our apartment to put the last few things in the vehicles and give the keys back to the Martins.  And now we're about to leave so I'd better pack up this computer and get going.  We still have to stop at the KOA in Cleveland to hook up the trailer and THEN we'll finally be on the road to home.

I'd rather be traveling

Right now, as I type, my dad and my older cousin Nathan (who is basically like a big brother to me) are flying from SEA-TAC to Seoul, South Korea. From there, they'll take another plane or two to Borneo. My dad first went to Borneo when Tyler was a senior at Upper Columbia Academy. Every year some UCA juniors and seniors go to Borneo and in 2007 my dad went along with Tyler. The next year the administration at UCA asked my dad to go back there with them. He did. Then last year my mum was planning to go along with him, but at the last minute she got ill and both she and my dad decided to forgo the trip. So when my dad was invited to go to Borneo again this year, he asked my cousin (who was going through a job shift when the lumber mill he worked at decided to shut down) to come along. So, they'll soon will be in Borneo for two weeks of mission work and building churches. Each year my dad goes on the UCA trip I get jealous, but this year I'm extra jealous because I'm in the midst of some major fifth-year-senioritis. I'd give anything to be heading out on that adventure. But alas, I'm stuck here in Happy Valley.

Also, I got another interesting Captcha when I was commenting on Janelle's blog. (How come the interesting ones only seem to show up when I'm making comments on her blog and no one else's??) Anyway, when I hit the Post Comment button, the word "aliscrou" appeared for me to type out. I found that extremely amusing. I mean the first four letters of that fake word are the exact same as the first four letters of my name (which I'm sure you all caught). Anyway, I was trying to figure out a way to use that in a blog post, but it's been really rainy and cloudy lately and I don't seem to have the gift of creativity when the weather is so gloomy. If any of you have an idea for that word, you can let me know in a comment on this post. Or, feel free to make up something on your own blog using that word.

Sunny Louisiana

After making several stops in the Collegedale/Ooltewah area to pick up people and their luggage, pack the luggage (and the people) into the car, and get gas and a gallon of drinking water, we finally were on our way. Five people stuffed into a five-person Honda Accord. We chose to take Josh's car cause it's extremely good on gas. By the time we crossed into Louisiana very, very early Saturday morning, I had learned that the seats were not as good on humans' bottoms as the engine is on gas. But we made it to our campground alright, although quite tired, around 2 a.m. Collegedale time (which was 1 a.m. Louisiana time). We drove around and found the open area that the campground manager had told Jonathan we could pitch our tents when he'd called before we left and then got Josh's car stuck in the mud. Josh got out and pushed the front of the car while Jonathan steered. When Josh couldn't move the car on his own, Ty put on his shoes and went to help. The two of them managed to get the Honda unstuck and then we parked in front of a grassy knoll.

As we were unloading the tents and sleeping bags from the trunk, a man drove up on a quad, wanting to make sure we were supposed to be there. Jonathan told him that we had already called and made arrangements to check in later that morning and the man showed us the best places to camp before driving off. Jonathan set up his tent, while the rest of us wrestled to put the tent we'd borrowed from John together. Finally our camp was set up and we gratefully crawled into our sleeping bags for some well deserved rest, Bryn and I in Jonathan's two-man tent and the three boys in John's three-man one.

The next morning I woke up to a cold nose (the sign of a real night of camping) and the sun attempting to shine right through the tent fly. Before long I could hear stirring from the other tent and soon we were all up, making trips to a very under-construction bathroom not too far away to change. Jonathan found the granola and powdered soy milk he'd packed and we had a standing-up breakfast around the car eating the granola, rustic bread-wrapped-around-hunks-of-Prosage-sandwiches, and a couple oranges I'd brought along. After eating we packed away the sleeping bags and tents, loaded the car and drove off.

Bryn and Josh wanted to go to Baton Rouge, so we drove west for half an hour. Josh managed to find his way downtown and we parked at the Capitol building and looked around the grounds, enjoying the sun and taking pictures as gusts of wind whipped at our hair and clothing. Then we ventured inside the building where we were required to go through a mini metal-detector. An old man who had just put down his meat-filled sandwich, handed us a slightly food-encrusted brochure, and told us a little about the building. He mentioned that if we went back to the elevators we would see a glass case with information about the shooting of a former governor (I think) right at that very location way back in the 1930s. I went there first and managed to find what I believe was the hole in a column that the man had said still housed a bullet from that event. It was all very thrilling. Then we looked in at the senate room and the house of representatives room. Since I know about 0.1% about U.S. politics the only thing that really inspired me was the fancy marble floors and intricate ceilings and that sort of thing. We left the building, returned to the car, and tried to find our way to a bridge we had seen from the Capitol, but alas, it eluded us. Instead we got on the highway heading for New Orleans. Just on the outskirts of Baton Rouge, Josh pointed out a huge gathering of people, most of them wearing green. We figured it was an early St. Patrick's Day celebration since we decided that Mardi Gras was either long over or not yet arrived.

When we finally got the New Orleans, I was kind of disappointed. It's small. From everything I heard during and after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, I expected it to be a mega-metropolis. In reality it's population is about two Spokane's, not terribly large. We drove through the heart of the city, trying to find our way to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway but somehow got on a different bridge instead. Ty used the GPS to figure out our way back across that bridge and to the causeway. Then we had to wait in a huge line of traffic while three roads converged into one. When it was finally our turn to go, we got to the causeway rather quickly and were soon driving our way across the middle of Lake Pontchartrain on a 24-mile bridge. It was neat to be on a highway going straight across the lake, especially since the causeway is apparently the longest bridge in the world.

After that thrilling adventure, the rest of our trip was rather ordinary. We drove all the way back to TN, only stopping for gas, bathroom breaks, Subway, and changing drivers, and got back to SAU around 2:30 a.m. Once all our stuff was unpacked, I fell into my bed, exhausted from the 16-hour round trip drive, but extremely satisfied at finally being able to say that I've been to all 50 U.S. states.

Note: I did, in fact, post this upon my return from our trip. I did not bring my computer along on the trip and even if I had, I couldn't have posted anyway since I wasn't in the vicinity of Wi-Fi.

Opry Mills Mall

What an interesting day I had today. I woke up just after 9 a.m. and texted Jonathan to find out when we were going to head to Nashville. He had to get some stuff done before leaving so he told me to just stay in bed as long as I wanted to and he would let me know when I should get up and ready to go. Then he said that I should unlock the door though. That got me a little skeptical and I remembered Jonathan texting a lot during the night before. A little later he called me and said he was outside the door and that I really should let him in. I wasn't completely convinced I should, but finally I dragged myself out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt, opened the door and trudged back to my room. Mysterious noises drifted into the room under the door. Awhile later there was a knock at the door and when I said he could come in, he opened the door, turned on the light and then there was some laughing and whispering going on right outside the door. The door was shut and more mysterious noises sounded outside the room. I was pretty sure by then what was going on. Then the knock came again, I gave a second all-clear and the door re-opened. Jonathan and Josh brought in a slab of board wrapped in our table cloth laden with breakfast food, including eggs! So they made Bryn and I breakfast in bed and it was delicious. I ate a whole bunch of eggs, a veggie sausage piece and a piece of French toast. Then I was stuffed and convinced Jonathan and Josh to eat breakfast, too. We got a few pictures and then they cleaned up (which was super nice of them) and then left so we could all get ready for our Nashville day trip.

We left the campus after finally locating one of our travel-members around 1 p.m. and drove to the Opry Mills Mall. Then we walked around looking at all the awesome stuff, mainly the Rainforest Cafe, where the gorillas and other jungle animals woke up every now and then to put on a show of their strength and skill. Then we ate lunch and Cinnebon's for dessert before finding the Glow-in-the-Dark mini-golf place and playing a round of 18-hole mini-golf. I think I was second last or something unimpressive like that. Either Jonathan or Bryn won if my memory serves me correct. Then we looked at a guitar store for a bit before Bryn and I branched off to run to another store. We rejoined the group on the other side of the mall and looked around the Aquarium restaurant. I watched the sharks for while, which was awesome. The only bad thing about the aquarium adventure was that there was this poor red fish swimming tail-up-head-down near the top of the tank. His eyes were all bugged out and he would have looked comical if he hadn't looked so near death. After that we browsed through Barnes & Noble (and I didn't buy one thing...yay for self-control!) and then some people bought Marble Slab ice cream before we loaded into Jonathan's van for the drive back to school. Jonathan drove super fast the whole way back so that his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend could get back to the dorm in time for curfew. We made it with a few minutes to spare and without getting pulled over by a cop, so that was good. Then Jonathan dropped Bryn and I off at our place and went home to sleep. Now that I'm done writing this post I think I'll maybe read a little bit before going to bed myself.

Back at school

This morning our alarms (all three of us set our cell phone alarms and then we got a wake-up call from the hotel as well) went off within five minutes of each other around 4 a.m. We finally got ourselves up and ready to head to the airport. While Bryn and Ty took showers I went downstairs to the hotel lobby to check-in all three of us online and print out boarding passes. It was nice there was a computer all set up to do that. Then we did a last minute sweep of our room before carting all of our bags/backpacks down to the lobby to catch our shuttle. Then we were on our way. The shuttle dropped us off close to our airline and then we had to take the elevator up to the skywalk and then take another one up to the ticketing level. Then we got in the line to just drop our bags off. I was really glad I had checked-in online earlier because it was a lot faster that way. We got through security without too much trouble. Then we left Bryn guarding all of our carry-ons while Ty and I walked to the food court area and ordered some more of that delicious pesto penne that we always get when we come through SEA-TAC. We brought the food back to where Bryn was sitting and ate as much as we could right there. Then we packed up the extras for the next time we would be hungry and took the train to the S terminal, found our gate and hung out until our flight boarded. We got more comments about all our instruments as we boarded the plane. Bryn and I sat together in the middle and aisle seats and Ty sat in the middle seat of the row behind us. I slept almost the entire flight. I did try to read more of my book, but I only got about 10 pages before I had to put it back down and continue sleeping. I'm SOO glad we had a nonstop flight straight from Seattle to Atlanta. I've never had that flight before, but it's sure nice. Connections just make air travel take a whole lot longer than it should. We got to Atlanta at 2:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than scheduled so that was nice. It didn't take too long to get our bags, but then we had a little difficulty finding where to get our shuttle to the car parking place. Finally Ty went back in the baggage claim area and found a sign so we followed him and made it back to our car fine. Then we had to load up the car, put our destination in our GPS and start the last part of the journey back to school. We got here just after 6 p.m.

After dropping Ty off at the dorm, Bryn and I went to the music building to put our violins away. Well, I put my violin away and Bryn met Emily, a current SM who was back for Christmas and wanted to use a violin for the evening before she had to fly back to Ukraine. Bryn let Emily use her violin and then we headed back to our place. Jonathan called just as we were leaving campus and wanted to come over and hang out so soon after we got to our apartment he came over. It was great to see him again. Then I had a shower and just when I finished Jonathan's grandma called and said they wanted us to come over for supper so we went over there and I met his aunt, uncle and little cousins. We stayed there visiting for a bit and then I came back here to write this before having to head out to pick up Stephen at Groome Transportation. He gets there around 1 a.m. so I'm really happy we don't have school tomorrow!

Gogo Inflight Internet

At this moment I am blogging from the skies. Yes, that's right. I'm trying out Gogo Inflight Internet. So far I'm quite impressed with it. Seeing how I didn't actually get to bed last night, I was planning to sleep through this entire flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis, but the idea of writing a blog post from the air was too enticing an opportunity to pass up. So here I am. Blogging in a plane. (Try singing that to the chorus of "Woke up in a Car." It works quite nicely.)

Anyway, like I said, I didn't go to sleep last night. Instead I spent some pre-break quality time with Jonathan and then spent the last few hours before leaving for the airport packing, doing last-minute cleaning, checking in to our flights online and, subsequently, wrestling with Bryn's printer to print out boarding passes, flight itineraries and directions to the car-park place. It was exciting to get all that done in two hours, but somehow we did it, all while managing to keep our checked luggage to one bag apiece, each less than 50 lbs. Then Bryn and I drove to the dorm to pick up Tyler and Stephen. We let them try to rearrange the bags so that they'd all fit into the trunk, but eventually we had to agree that Ty's bag just wouldn't be able to stay in the trunk. So Bryn and I set it between us on the middle of the back seat. About halfway through the drive south we realized that was a mistake, since we couldn't sleep on each other's shoulders, so I managed to scoot around the suitcase and then shove it to the right side so I could sit in the middle next to Bryn. We were a lot more comfortable and a lot warmer after that.

We got to the car-park place around 5:45 a.m. and took a shuttle to the airport. Since we were already checked in, it was easy for us to check our baggage right where the shuttle dropped us off. Then we just made our way through the very short lines at security and took the train to our terminal. It was definitely the easiest traveling experience I've had at Atlanta airport in my life. Usually Atlanta airport hates me and everything goes wrong when I travel to/from there, but today things were great. The only annoying thing was that it was cold enough that our plane had to be de-iced before we took off, but it didn't take all that long. So that's our travel history from 3:30 a.m. up to now. Hope you enjoyed. I might add more to this post throughout the day. Next stop, Minneapolis!

Update: Now I'm sitting at the far end of the C terminal in Seattle. The rest of the trip to Minneapolis was fine. When we de-boarded there our next gate was right across the hall so we didn't have far to walk at all. Then I tried to find an outlet to plug in my computer and recharge it, but sadly didn't see even one. Meanwhile, Ty had found something odd printed on his boarding pass so went to ask the lady at the gate podium. She said for him to bring all of our boarding passes up there so Ty did and she called some people and did some stuff and got us all new boarding passes. Then just a few minutes later the lady came on the loudspeaker and said that our flight was changing gates. So we packed up and went over to G terminal and settled in there. I found an outlet in a McDonald's and charged up my phone until we boarded about half an hour late. Our new plane was an Airbus 330, which was amazing to travel on. The captain got on the speaker and said that we were lucky because that plane isn't used for domestic flights, only for trans-oceanic flights. It was really nice and comfy and roomy so I was happy about that. And plus, because we were in a bigger plane than we were going to be in, there were extra seats and the seat beside me was empty. So the three of us had all four middle seats to spread out on. Each seat also had a TV screen, like on overseas flights so I spent the last part of the flight watching "The Time Traveler's Wife." It's kind of a weird movie, but it got stopped just before I was done cause we were getting close to Seattle, so I guess I'll have to find it somewhere and finish it.

We got in to Seattle about 12 minutes earlier than we were supposed to originally, which was surprising considering we left Minneapolis half an hour late. We got off at the S terminal, which is the one we always fly in to. Then we had to take the train back to the main terminal and to get our luggage. Once we finally found all three bags we walked all the way to ticketing and then to the very end where Alaska/Horizon is. We tried checking in with the booth things, but they kept saying there were errors so we just went to the desk and it was way faster since there wasn't anyone else in front of us. Then we went through security. It was pretty quick, at least for Seattle, which has some of the most strict security rules of any airport I've been to in North America. After that we were pretty much right around the corner from our gate so we took the time to eat at our favourite pasta place in the world. We all got pesto penne and it was delicious. I finally got my computer working with the new wireless they now have at SEA-TAC and then we headed over to our gate. There were absolutely no plug-ins though so I wandered around the terminal with my almost-dead laptop in hand until I finally found a place at the very end of the terminal that had an outlet that wasn't being used. Yay, my computer is almost all charged up now so I should head back to our gate for boarding. Then just a 50-minute flight and I'll be home. Oh and going through customs, but that doesn't take long at our airport. Talk to you next from BC!

Fellow Canadians

Yesterday afternoon was awesome. After packing up our cars we set off for Virginia Beach and Cape Henry Lighthouse. My dad used his GPS to find his way and it led us in a huge circle all over Norfolk before finally bringing us to Virginia Beach. (Later in the evening my dad called Ty and told him he realized what the problem with the GPS was. He had put it on pedestrian mode several days earlier during a walk and had forgot to change it back to vehicle mode therefore the GPS kept trying to tell him to get off the road and wouldn't give him the right directions until way after he passed the turns.) When we got to the lighthouse we found out it was in a military base, Fort Story. We had to stop at the entrance, open up all our car doors, the hood and the trunk and stand to the side while officers did a quick search of the car, even using a mirror on wheels to check the undercarriage. I thought the whole procedure was quite fascinating to watch and kind of wanted to take some notes, but thought that might be a bad idea. My notebook was in the car at any rate, so I just took mental notes. After our vehicles were checked we were let into the base and parked near the lighthouse. We didn't get to climb up to the top since there was a fee and we didn't want to pay that on Sabbath, but we made up for it by getting tons of pictures in front of the old Cape Henry Lighthouse (which I don't believe is actually used anymore) and the new one (which is made entirely of cast-iron). Then we drove to the Cape Henry Memorial and read the information signs to figure out what the whole place was famous for. (You, too, can learn more about the Cape Henry Memorial.) After that we walked over the sand dunes to the ocean and spent time playing in the sand and surf. My mum, of course, took numerous pictures of the whole affair. When my feet were about frozen off from the frigid water, we headed back to the cars and made sure all of our stuff was in the right vehicles. Then, just as our parents were going to say good-bye to us and have a prayer for safe driving, this lady who was standing with her husband and grown-up children at the car next to ours walked behind our car, looked at the license plate and exclaimed, "Ils est Canadiens!" to the others in her group. Then she turned her attention to my mum standing beside me at the passenger door and asked, "Tu est Canadiens?" to which my mum responded in English, "Yes, we're from British Columbia." I wondered for a second if the lady could speak English cause she kept on blabbering away in French, but then she made the switch to English and had a lengthy conversation with my mum. Her husband and sons engaged my dad in conversation, too, and I spent the next little while people-watching/listening. It's always cool to meet fellow Canadians while traveling and find out where each other are from and compare notes about the part of the country you live in and where you are traveling to. These people were originally from Gatineau, Quebec (which is right across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Ontario), but they'd moved down to the States 30-something years ago. The lady said that she and her husband always go "home to Quebec" in the summer and that, even after becoming American citizens and after all those years of living in the U.S., it's still home. I was encouraged to hear that because I know exactly how she feels. As soon as I get across the border in any part of the country, I give a sigh of relief and think to myself, Ahhh, I'm home! Since coming to Southern I get the same type of feeling (although to a lesser extent) when I land at the Sea-Tac airport and know I'm back in the Northwest. I've often wondered if I'm crazy for feeling that way, but this lady made me know that I guess I'm not the only one to feel like a foreigner in this country. Anyway, finally my parents said good-bye to their new-found friends and we said our good-byes and had a prayer before starting out on our respective journeys. We stayed traveling behind our parents truck for almost two hours and then they took a road going up to Washington D.C. and we kept going west to hit I-81 and come south. We three took turns driving and finally made it back to our apartment at 1:45 a.m. Ty was still checked out of the dorm until later today, so he just slept on our couch. And that ended the great Virginia coast Thanksgiving break Q. trip 2009. It was awesome while it lasted, but now I have to gear up for another two and a half weeks of school. Christmas can't come soon enough!

Cape Henry Lighthouse

This morning we're packing up the hotel room into our two separate vehicles and then setting out to find the Cape Henry Lighthouse. We'll look around there for a bit and then each vehicle will be leaving Virginia. Bryn, Ty and I will start back to school and my parents will head up to visit my aunt and uncle in Berrien Springs, Mich. The end of breaks - especially really awesome and fun breaks - is depressing, but at least Christmas break is less than three weeks away. I'll be oh-my-goodness SO super happy to be done with most of my classes this semester. Some were just plain bad (entrepreneurship), some were alright and actually fairly informative and useful (Web design, world religions), and others were pretty good but I'm just ready to move on to other classes at this point in the semester (creative writing, children's lit). Anyway, I'd better start helping my family get all packed up so we can finish up our break in awesome fashion.

Nauticus

This morning we got up drove down the road to the waterfront. The wind down there was amazing because it was coming from the ocean in front of us and also from the Chesapeake Bay to the left of us. It was awesome to try to walk forward into it, but was a little chilly too. We walked to Nauticus, the Hampton Roads Navy Museum, which has a battleship attached to the museum. We got tickets and then went to the Real Pirates exhibit in another building first and took about an hour to walk through that. It was packed with National Geographic pirate items and information, but there was just too much to read and see to get through everything. I read most of the signs and looked at all the exhibits and videos at the start, but then just skimmed as I worked my way through the building. After that we went back to the main building and started at the top floor with all the U.S. navy exhibits. There was even more information in the actual museum, but there was some cool stuff to see. Bryn and I tried out one of those pictures that have the faces cut out. The pictures were of sailors, but whoever made the face cutouts did something strange with their shoulders so the pictures of us my mum got are quite amusing. We also got pictures of us in a rope exhibit. There were all these different types of ropes hanging from a rack and I got the bright idea to hang from them. Bryn and I did while my mum took a few pictures and then right after that she saw a sign at the top of the rack that said "Please do not hang from ropes." She scolded us for disobeying and then took a picture of the sign and we moved on. There was a whole section with some marine animals like some kinds of rays, some small sharks like dog sharks, and a moray eel. I tried to have a conversation with the moray eel, but he wasn't too responsive. Then we went to another part of the museum that dealt with more science-y type of stuff. There was a dust tornado that taught us about how tornadoes are made and then a lightning exhibit. Then Ty and I found this deep-sea diver submersible thing that we thought looked awesome. The back was cut off and we could go inside, so we did. We found out that you could use some controls to move the robotic arm and so we took turns controlling different aspects of the arm, trying to pick up some objects in the sandbox outside the submersible. We found out rather quickly that either the machine was semi-broken or just most of the controls were turned off so you couldn't actually do much. Then two little boys came into the back and we decided to leave and let them try it out and learn for themselves that the thing didn't really do much of anything. We continued on downstairs and out to the USS Wisconsin. The Nauticus is built right beside the water and the battleship is moored right alongside the building with a walking bridge for visitors to walk on the deck of the ship. It was really neat to actually explore a battleship. It's part of the U.S. Navy's Inactive Fleet, but if the navy needs it, it needs to be ready to be used, so we couldn't go into any interior spaces, just walk along the outside. I thought it'd be really cool to go inside and see what a ship like that looks like inside, but alas, we couldn't. We did get to look in a few of the portholes and get an idea though. In any case, I liked being able to walk around the ship even though the wind was pretty crazy strong. After that we were pretty much done at the Nauticus and then we spent the last hour and a half or so of daylight at the mall right across the road from our hotel. We wondered if there'd be the whole Black Friday craze of people at the mall, but it just seemed like a normal mall day. Maybe all the rush was in the morning or something. I spent most of the time in the mall at Barnes & Nobles (a two-floor one!) reading Dr. Seuss books in the kids section. It was great. Have I mentioned yet that I love books? Right before we left the mall we stopped for food at the Cheesecake Factory Bakery Cafe and got sandwiches, salads and, of course, slices of cheesecake. We got the food to go and then walked back to our hotel for a yummy supper to start the Sabbath. Friday nights are awesome!

Chincoteague

Well now I can say I've been to Chincoteague. It was awesome. We started the morning by checking out if the places we found to visit in Norfolk were open on Thanksgiving. None were, so we decided to do outside stuff today and then do some of the inside stuff tomorrow. We decided to first go to a lighthouse that my mum wanted to see and piled into the truck. Then Ty asked if we could go across the "Brunnel" (the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which Ty renamed the Brunnel after we went across it on our way back to SAU last spring break) so we did that first. After that adventure, we took a turn right on the other side of the Brunnel that led to a state park and had fun exploring the area. My mum went picture crazy at this bird blind we found and so the rest of us found some fun things to keep us busy while she took her bird pictures. Oh and I also drove the truck around a bit. It's a huge diesel and I usually don't like driving large vehicles, but it was kind of fun driving around the area, especially because there wasn't much traffic and I could pretty much take up the entire road.

After my mum had taken her fill of bird pictures and Q-children pictures (and also a picture of a deer in mid-stride), we took a vote and decided to keep driving north to Chincoteague. I was thrilled. I got less thrilled when the trip that was supposed to be only 64 miles, stretched longer and longer. I was sitting in the middle seat of the front and it wasn't the most comfy place to sit, but I figured it was better than being in the middle of the back and having Bryn and Ty's legs resting on my lap. Finally we got to the turn off and I got really excited. We drove by this NASA place with bunches of satellite stuff all spread out across a big field and surrounded by a high fence topped with barbed wire. Then we went across this bridge and then we were in the village of Chincoteague. We drove around for a bit trying to find out where all those wild horses are and passed a school. Bryn piped up, "Whoa, guys! I bet that's the school that Misty went too." I turned to stare at her and she said, "You know, the Misty in Misty of Chincoteague." I burst out laughing and so did my mum. We laughed so hard and Bryn kept saying, "What, what's so funny?" which just made us laugh harder. Finally I caught my breath enough to explain to Bryn that the Misty in Misty of Chincoteague is a horse. Then Bryn laughed too. I just kept imaging Misty being like the lamb in "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and would start laughing again. It was all highly amusing. Anyway, after getting over the hysteria I got out the GPS and found the Assateague National Wildlife Reserve and we headed there. By that time it was almost dark so when we got to the reserve we found a trail to a lighthouse and hiked that trail and took a bunch of pictures by the lighthouse. Then we drove around the rest of the reserve trying to figure out where those elusive wild horses were. It was too dark to see by then, so we never saw any wildlife other than birds, but I still loved being there.

We left the reserve and went to a little cafe that Ty had seen on our way to Assateague Island. It was about the only eating place we'd seen open pretty much the whole entire day and so we investigated. It was having a special Thanksgiving meal where you just paid a flat rate per person and then could order any Thanksgiving meal-type item from a menu. It was amazing food and I almost felt like a true American by the time I was done my food and stuffed to the gills. We hobbled out of the cafe and managed to climb back into the truck for the drive back to the hotel. So that's what I did today. Sorry if that account was boring or too detailed, but I figure I might as well write down what I did over Thanksgiving break my senior year in university...you know, for when I'm old and grey and am trying to remember all the awesome trips I used to take but can't because I'm old and grey and can't remember things.

Virginia driving

Last night we didn't get going until after 6:30 p.m. My parents didn't realize that it would take so long to get the 5th wheel winterized and put in a storage place. They decided to leave it here and then when they come out for grad, we'll use it to bring our stuff home. So finally we left and we drove until Bristol where we got a hotel. This morning we slept in (something I definitely needed) and then continued on our trip on some not-main roads. We stopped at a D-Day Memorial and then found out it was $5 a person to go see it, which we all thought was ridiculous. What is the point of a public memorial if the public can't visit it for free?? So we just looked at it through the car windows as we made a U-turn and kept going toward Norfolk. We got here tonight and now we're planning what we'll do for the next couple days. I want to go to Kitty Hawk or Chincoteauge, or a place like that, but we'll see if we have time. I'll let you all know what we decide to do in tomorrow's post.

Mid-term Break

Early this morning I was having really strange dreams about spiders crawling all over me. I kept waking up and trying to brush spiders off. I would have been more concerned if I'd been more awake. So, like I was saying, I kept waking up every couple hours or so. Finally, around 5:30 a.m. I woke up and was actually not really tired anymore. Then I went to watch the Orionids meteor shower. It was pretty cool and something I haven't done for a really, really long time. I couldn't actually see any meteors for a long time, but finally I started being able to see them. Then I went to Tim and Jonathan's apartment for a potluck breakfast. They have potluck breakfast every Friday morning, but moved it to Wednesday for this week because of mid-term break. Anyway, it was French toast (my suggestion) and some other tasty foods. Then I went to my first class. After that Bryn and I met Ty in the parking lot behind Talge and gave him his birthday present. We had some siblingly talking time before going separate ways for mid-term break and then Bryn and I went back to our apartment. I quickly packed my stuff and got ready to leave and then went back to campus for my last class before break. Then I met up with the people I was traveling with and we headed out for New Market, Virginia. Six of us came to Tim's brother's house for break. So we're here now and I'm looking forward to a great break.