That September "Family" Road Trip

Ok, it's now the final week of 2015 so I'm finishing and posting this bleeping blog post.

I'm now a college graduate.
Let that sink in.

Even more, I have a job--but more on that later.

The adventure that started it all took place more than four years ago, and I'm ready to embark on a new adventure: the work world.

So before all that happens, my parents and I decided to go on one final hoorah--a three week family vacation.

Only, the three week vacation turned in to a two week vacation after I fell and broke my knee. The Industrial Commission only allows Workers Comp recipients to leave the state for 14 days max, and since I broke my knee while I was on the clock...the vacation got cut short.

Which was ultimately okay.

The vacation also didn't end up being a family vacation because my mom got sick the morning she and I were supposed to leave for Las Vegas.

This vacation was also, like, two months ago.*

Mom's sick face.

So, when Mom realized she wasn't going to make it from Phoenix to Vegas to Sacramento, we enlisted my (now ex) boyfriend to help me drive to Vegas and Sacramento. So at 6 pm (way later than intended) Joel and I said goodbye to Phoenix and hello to the road.

We made it to Vegas at 11:30 pm, promptly dropped our bags off at the hotel room, and hit the strip--because there's no better time to see the Las Vegas strip than at midnight.

We slept in incredibly late, explored the strip during the day, went out for coffee and sushi and record shopping with a friend from camp who lives in Vegas, and went to bed relatively early that night with Mike's Hard Lemonade and HGTV because Vegas bars are gross and expensive.

Surprisingly, Vegas has cool architecture.

The following morning we ate breakfast burritos (and said farewell to Mexican food for the next few days, because the Pacific North West doesn't really have Mexican food) and headed out on the road.

We stopped a lot. This is the first road trip I've been on where we frequently stopped along the side of the road, because Joel is a photographer and loves capturing things on the side of the road, and I really enjoyed it. We got to explore an old abandoned road-side store as well as something called South Tufa at Mono Lake.

There were a ton of tall rock pillars that looked very supernatural. Unfortunately, we didn't get to explore them very much because we were a) hungry, and b) trying to get to Sacramento by that night. But they were gorgeous, and somewhere I really want to visit again.

Abandoned

Mono Lake

Our route went through Nevada into California, which meant we got to drive on the CA 120. It was gorgeous--we drove up and through the mountains, and I got to see an amazing alpenglow during sunset.

The goal, however, was to be in Sacramento by 9 pm to pick dad up from his flight. We ended up being at the airport a little closer to 10, but dad was fine with it. We were on an adventure, after all.

After picking him up from the airport, we went and checked in at the Delta King, an old riverboat converted into a floating hotel. The staff was alright. Not incredibly helpful or accommodating, but we were a few hours later than we expected to be. Ultimately, we got our room and got to sleep.

Dad!

Our reservations with the Delta King included breakfast (hallelujah) and we appreciated that very much. The meal was served in the restaurant, which overlooked the river.

This happened in September, and I'm now picking this post back up in the end of December* so I'm just going to summarize the rest of this.

We took my (ex) boyfriend to the airport that day, and then met with one of my former professors (who is also the former editor of the Sacramento Bee and an all around great person) for lunch, and caught up on life.

We stayed one more night in Sacramento, then we headed north to Portland, stopping in Redding, Calif. so I could visit my friends Heidi and Shane (whom I met in Eva's wedding) and my friend Sarah from camp.

In Portland, dad and I just chilled a lot. It was almost overwhelming, the whole being in Portland thing. Initially, mom was supposed to join us and I had planned that she and dad were going to spend time together reading or whatever, and I was going to go explore Portland more, but since mom didn't come, Dad and I spent a lot of time together, which was great, but I felt kind of bad leaving him alone to go hang out with friends a bit.

But that doesn't mean I left him alone all the time. We went out for dinner with my friends Andie and Liz one night, and checked out Olympic Provision co. We ate meats and cheeses and olives and goodies like that, and it was lovely.

I also saw Brenna a lot, who was her usual sassy self, and Rhea. It was so so good to see Rhea and her little baby Lucy (who is now a year old.)

The Redwoods are huuuuge and I'd like to live in the forest.

After lunch with Rhea on the last day in Portland, dad and I headed to Tillamook and then coasted down the coast. We saw redwoods, we saw ocean, we drove and we drove and we drove.

Battery Spencer, we shall meet again.

We tried really hard to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but the fog was horrendous from Battery Spencer for the most part. When we drove over the bridge, I got to see some of it, but I also got to explore the creepy and freaky and abandoned Battery Spencer, which was rad.

And at some point after seeing the Bixby Bridge, we decided we didn't want to see anymore sights. We were driving alongside the ocean as the sun was setting, and realized that we wouldn't see any more ocean until the sun rose the next morning. We'd had enough ocean. We wanted to go home, to the desert and to see mom, so we drove through the night and ended up in Phoenix right after sunrise and surprised mom and ended our road trip in the same speedy haze it began.

My dad is probably my favorite person to travel with.

I think I had a hard time writing about this because it's a difficult time to look back on. I'm not in the relationship that kicked off the start of the trip, I was still recovering from a broken knee, and my mom was unable to join us on what was supossed to be a family vacation. The trip itself didn't go as planned, and it was absolutely amazing to spend time with dad, but the trip is still a lot to process. I still haven't gone through all the digital photos from it, and I still have a roll of undeveloped film. I also feel like this was my last large Portland adventure for a while. The city just felt...fake. I remember getting doughntus at Pip's and seeing potted cacti and cliche-cute western decor everywhere and wanting to vomit. Tiny cacti don't belong in Portland, they belong in Phoenix--and so do I.

Michigan

Michigan Bound from Amanda LaCasse on Vimeo.

I went to Michigan and you can watch a short video about it.

The Questival

Pickle or cactus? 🌵 #QAZ #cotopaxi #questival

A photo posted by Amanda (@mandalyn93) on Nov 7, 2015 at 1:06pm PST

My friends Jackie and Dillon are currently participating in a 24-hour scavenger hunt with me! So far, we've climbed a tall, netted thing in Mesa; hiked to Hole In The Rock at Papago; ridden a snake slide at McDowell Mountain Regional Park area; and now we're finally going to go eat spaghetti. Because we're hungry. And we need to act out Lady and the Tramp ❤️

Farewell, Summer.

Want your life to change forever, in a good way? Work at a summer camp with amazing people.

My summer at camp ended not with a fizzle--but with a bang.

A bang into a rock, that is.

I was rappelling while working at UCYC and fell backwards over a cliff. It's a stupid little thing, and I only broke my knee. After I fell backwards, my equipment caught me, swinging me into the rock.

Mama Rachel fed me jello in the hospital.

That was about two months ago, and I'm all better now. I'm almost done with physical therapy, and I spent a solid month sitting around watching Netflix (I'm almost done with Breaking Bad) and walking around with crutches (Yeah! Arm muscles!)

In turn, I did not get to go on the mission trip to Ecuador, which is a bummer because I raised nearly all the funds I needed to raise. I will, however, be going on another mission trip to Ecuador or to the Dominican Republic later this year. I also didn't get to go to Texas to help Hannah move back or to see Natalie.

Another bummer that came with breaking my knee is that our family road trip had to be reduced from three weeks to only two weeks, meaning I only made it as far north as Portland, as the Industrial Commission only allows you out of the state for two weeks at a time when you're on Workers' Compensation.

I met so many encouraging people this summer, it's amazing.

But the road trip--that's another story for another post, which will be coming soon! For now, the summer (as great as it was) is now over.

Upcoming Adventures

Long time, no talk! I haven't blogged in more than a month.

If you haven't heard, I'm spending the whole summer adventuring in Prescott, Arizona. I'm working at the summer camp I attended as a child (United Christian Youth Camp, which is full of beautiful outdoors.) My job is to help kids climb a giant rock face at Watson Lake, and I enjoy it quite a bit.

Climbing, rappelling; day in, day out. It's a great life.

But this is my entire summer. I've been able to take day trips to Bartlett Lake and Flagstaff, and eat a few donuts, but I haven't gone many other places or done many other things.

However, that doesn't mean I'm going to sit around as soon as the summer is over. I have plans to go to Ecuador (yeah, you read that right), Texas and Canada.

UCYC is taking a group of summer and full time staff members to Ecuador to build a sustainable farm and share the love of Jesus. The trip itself is about $2000 dollars, and I am starting to fundraise for it (which is rough. But, hey, God will provide, right?)

In fact, you should check out my gofundme and give me a few dollars. Please. Pretty pretty please.

After Ecuador, I'll be going to Texas to visit my friend Natalie in Austin and help Hannah move back from Dallas when her internship ends. I'm really stoked for that trip because Hannah's mom paid for my airfare to get out there, and I'm going to get to ride an Amtrak from Austin to Dallas. And we all know I love Amtrak.

A gorgeous alpenglow shot during sunrise last time I was on an Amtrak.

Despues de Texas, I'll be taking a three week long road trip with my parents. We're starting to plan it out, and it will include Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver BC. The outsetting trip will be me and my mom, and then my dad will fly to join us, and then my mom will fly home and my dad and I will drive back (visiting as many national parks as we can on the way).

To be honest, I'm a little skeptical as to if my parents are actually up for the trip, as they haven't started making reservations for hotels or anything, but I'm hoping they jump to that and do it. Because I'm ready to finally make it to Canada, and take a stop in the Bay Area, and see all my beautiful Portlandites, and visit Yosemite.

But we'll see where this all goes!

Calischmorina || I'm done with college.

I'm freeeeeee

I celebrated the end of my senior year of college by driving to California by myself to visit Mitch and Jess. The trip was borderline not-going-to happen, but I decided to go after my depth reporting professor told me my story on immigration patterns in Nicaragua was at a great next-to-final-draft stage, and that I would only have minor edits to do.

hallelujah for finishing that on time

As soon as I got the email from my professor, I texted Jess and Mitch and told them it was a go. That was Thursday, and I left Phoenix the following Saturday.

It was the first time I'd ever driven to California by myself, but it was great. I spent time listening to podcasts and music, and stopped to take ridiculously great photos of myself like the one above.

When I finally arrived at Mitch's house (the traffic in Azusa and Pasadena was horrendous) I quickly set up my laptop and realized I had a paper due in my photography class the day I would return to Phoenix. (Spoiler: I didn't write the paper until the night before it was due.)

Mitch and I hung out, caught up, and just enjoyed seeing each other. He moved back to California from Phoenix in October or November, after getting a really sweet job in television production.

Saturday was spent hanging out with his parents at Taste of the Town, a local food and wine event to benefit charity. The best food there was tri-tip barbecue and these ridiculously delicious chocolate covered strawberries and sugar cookies. And cold brew coffee. And cupcakes. And other delicious sweets that I ate W A  Y  too much of.

It was also really sunny that afternoon and I got ridiculously burnt, but I loved spending time with Mitch's mom and dad; they're an absolute riot. My family isn't particularly good at back-and-forth banter, but his parents are, and I really enjoy that I can make humorous, sarcastic, funny comments with them without offending anyone.

Monday was spent at Disneyland and California Adventures, which was the original intent of this trip. Mitch told me he wanted to take me to Disneyland before I graduated, so I made it happen by wrapping up all of my homework before I left.

We started the day off in Disneyland and hit up all of the necessary rides (Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean) and made dinner reservations for the Blue Bayou.

At that point, we hopped over to California Adventures and ate at Carthay Circle, a historic and delicious restaurant I was unaware existed. We had deep fried cheese-filled biscuits. It was awesome.

My favorite part of Disneyland was, by far, visiting Cars Land.

this ride is my dream. CARS LAND IS MY DREAM.

Here's a fact about me: I'm a Cars fanatic. It is, without a doubt, my favorite Diseny-Pixar film. I love the soundtrack, the plot, the characters, the colors, the lights, everything. I love everything about that movie, and being able to ride Radiator Springs Racers (complete with ANIMATRONIC CARS CHARACTERS. I GOT TO SEE MATER AND LIGHTNING MCQUEEN) was a dream come true.

That's the magic of Disneyland--your wildest imaginations can come true.

And, of course, the second best part of visiting Disneyland was visiting with Mitch. He's one of my best friends, and he knows so much about the park (and a lot of park employees). It was a great experience with him--also because we both agreed that riding the train around Disneyland for 45 minutes was a good idea when we were 210% exhausted.

Disneyland closed at 7:30 that Monday night, and California Adventures closed at 9--right after we got off Radiator Springs Racers for the second time that day.

But the early closing times were alright, because Mitch had to catch a flight the next morning, and I had plans to meet Jess at her coffee shop in the morning as well.

I surprised Jess when I walked into Holy Grounds. She greeted me as a customer, then realized .5 seconds later that it was me. Before long, we were on our way to the Grand Central Market for lunch.

We got giant burritos.

I hadn't been to the Grand Central Market in 8 years, which was the first time I was in LA. I actually attribute my love of cities to that 2007 trip; maybe I'll write a post about it sometime.

Jess had never been there (or at least didn't know how to get there) so we let her sister Sara lead the way. After walking through the glorious city, we arrived and it was just as I remembered. Crowded, delicious looking, and very urban. The Grand Central Market is something I dream for Phoenix to have someday (and I think the new DeSoto Central Market is the closest thing we've got.)

After scoping the place out, we found a burrito place and each got giant burritos. We sat outside, in the breezy weather, and ate our burritos. It was amazing. It was also, coincidentally, Cinco de Mayo.

Purely coincidental.

After the market we visited The Last Bookstore. If you haven't been there/heard of it, I highly suggest you check it out. It's like the Powell's of LA, only smaller and less industrial looking inside. It's like Powell's and Bookman's got together and had a baby.

I bought two David Sedaris books (he's one of my favorites, partially because I had to write a long paper about him during my senior year of high school) and we decided to go to Starbucks/Glendale Galleria (a mall where famous people hang out) and read.

We stopped and bought really fancy chocolate because coffee and nice chocolate on a cloudy day with a good book is a great way to celebrate time with friends.

We also played a really great game called try-to-guess-the-famous-person, and in one instance, it went like this:

There was a guy with red pants who walked past us with a camera slung over his shoulder.

We all stared at him, figured he wasn't famous (but was handsome) and continued staring.

He stared right back and continued walking.

Ten minutes later, he came back, introduced himself, and asked Jess if he could take her photo because he liked her sundress and sun hat and book.

We died laughing because we had been talking about him, and now here he was--taking Jess' photo! Like she was famous or something!

That was the most LA thing to happen to us while we were at Glendale Galleria. We didn't see anyone we absolutely knew was famous, but we saw pretty people being pretty.

And there were a lot of man buns, which is my personal favorite.

Our calm afternoon turned crazy when we hit up the rock gym.

Jess is a devoted member, and is very good at it.

And by "very good" I mean much better than me.

I saw her climb walls I probably wouldn't be able to climb anytime within the next few months, no matter how much I trained.

She's been at this for a while, and is really good at what she does.

I, on the other hand, fell ~10ish feet from a 12 foot wall with no ropes.

Relax, there was a mat to catch me.

But when I got up, I reflexively started crying because that's what your body does when it thinks it had a near-death experience.

I redeemed myself by climbing a different 12-foot path without ropes.

It was such a good workout; I was sore for at least 4 days afterwards. I think I may get a rock gym membership when I get a job after camp this summer, because my parents live very close to a rock gym, and I like the sort of full-body exercise you achieve from rock climbing.

After we tired of that (after I couldn't climb or stand any longer) we went on an adventure searching for chips and guacamole and headed home where Jess and Sara went to bed and where I wrote a three page paper on an amazing photographer named Kevin Russ.

There are far worse topics I could have written on.

I eventually went to bed and woke up the next morning to Maroussi, Jess' dog, in bed with us.

Jess warned me that Maroussi was super cuddly in the mornings, but I didn't know that meant he liked spooning and pawing and kissing whoever was in bed. During one of the pup's wiggle and cuddle sessions, I took a very solid paw to the face and laughed it off. Soon after, we all got dressed, loaded the car, and headed back to Phoenix--with Jess and Sara in tow, of course, because Jess wanted to visit Phoenix and for goodness' sakes, driving alone is nowhere near as fun as driving with another person.

Stay tuned for post-college adventures, like living in a different city for three months!

What next?!

I forget where I was or who I was talking to, but somebody asked me what my next big adventure is.

Well, let me tell you: It involves living in northern Arizona for three months.

I'm going to be a CAMP COUNSELOR! Or, something like that. I could also end up doing photo/video for the camp, but counselor is a close enough description.

When I applied for an internship with the Associated Press in January, I also applied for a position at United Christian Youth Camp--where I went basically every summer between fourth and eighth grade.

This was probably fourth or fifth grade. Can you find me?

I've wanted to be a summer staff member there since I was in eighth grade (maybe even before then) but it hasn't worked out until this summer.

And, so, that's my next adventure! I'll be moving to Prescott in about a month, and will remain there until the beginning of August.

While I'm there, I hope to:

• Do some outdoorsy stuff (kayaking, biking, swimming, etc?)
• Be the cliché camp counselor with a ukulele, yoyo, fanny pack and cowgirl hat
• Take photos/video for UCYC promo material (and to make this look good on a journalistic resume)
• Complete an online history of photography class so I can officially graduate in May

Before then, I'll also (hopefully) be taking a quick trip to California to go to Disneyland with my friend Mitch and to climb some rocks and eat crepes with my friend Jess (who moved back to California after I helped move her back to Arizona...)

And after camp, I'm going to help move my friend Hannah back from Dallas and visit my friend Natalie in Austin while I'm in Texas.

Later, I'm road tripping with my parents.

As you can see, I've got a lot of adventures planned for the rest of the year :) It's really never a boring moment in my life, so brace yourselves for a summer of adventure with me!

Oh, right, I went to Nicaragua.

Everything is so bright.

Everyone keeps asking me...

"How was Nicaragua?"
"Oh my gosh! You're back! How was it?"

And, really, all I remember is doing a lot of walking and trying to figure out what I'm going to write about. Because, by the time I left the US, I had two weeks, maybe three max, to start up a new story and make a new, different set of contacts in Nicaragua. It was like the entire first quarter of the year had disappeared and I was starting fresh.

I actually have detailed logs of the trip, because we needed to send them to our professors to send to the school to show that we actually spent the money we said we did, and the professors didn't just use the money to buy things unrelated to the trip.

My logs are great, and became a little sassy by the end of the trip.

• Thursday: Took an airplane to Managua then a bus to Granada, and then used our feet to go to dinner, exchange money and purchase a cell phone.
• Sunday: Woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel, walked to Pan de Vida and spent ~1.5 hours photographing and talking to Andrea, a 39 year old Canadian expat. Walked to hotel. Walked back to Granada cathedral square. Ate lunch. Walked back to hotel. Watched Lightroom tutorial videos. Organized photos in Lightroom. Contacted Nica gov't (again). Found address for office of immigration in Managua (planning on stopping by on Tuesday and requesting to speak to someone. Preparing to be turned down.) Attended group meeting. Assisted organizing after group meeting. Walked to grocery store and pizza place. Walked back. Ate food. Read a book. Now going to bed.
• Friday: We flew back.

Film photo after our group dinner on the last night.

I didn't get to complete an interview for my story until Tuesday, which was really late considering we arrived in Nicaragua on the previous Thursday. But! I still learned a lot!

I learned a lot about photojournalism, mostly in light of the fact that it's really hard to do photojournalism and written journalism at the same time. I was able to identify that writing comes naturally to me, while taking photos is a skill I definitely need to work on. It is also incredibly difficult to focus on photographing, improving my photography, and writing at the same time because the story I'm working on is incredibly nascent and needs a lot of attention.

So, while my camera is still my baby, I didn't take a lot of photos I can show people. I got to photograph a Canadian expat who owns a bakery with her husband, and I got to take some photos at a wind farm, but I also was very, very preoccupied by the issue at hand--I had no clue what I was going to do with my immigration story, and trying to figure that out took precedence over driving hours to the border just to take a few photos (because I really actually wanted to drive to the Costa Rica border and photograph it, but that didn't happen.)

Film photo of Andrea Pellegrino, co-owner of Pan de Vida bakery. Their cinnamon buns are amazing.

Ultimately, I think I'm also in a little bit of shock from the trip. It was crazy. Being thrown in to another country, hanging out with people for 24/7 for a little more than a week, trying to figure out what I'm going to write about and who I'm going to talk to....yeah. It was crazy.

In the end, I made some really great contacts that are yielding fruitful interviews and I will be able to pull off a story on south to south immigration, from Nicaragua to Costa Rica.

As I type that "I will be able to..." I just kinda can't believe that it's going to happen. I have so much work to do. SO MUCH WORK. Even as I type this, I'm listening to an hour long interview I completed in Spanish with the assistance of my friend Molly. The homework never ends, and I really don't want to think or talk about this trip until, like, EVER, because it's so deeply associated with how much work I have to do for this class. It's like a stress trigger.

So is the word "canal." OMG plz don't mention that around me.

We named her Rosie. She had street smarts and followed us around for a few days.

Ok. Deep breaths. Look at the picture of the puppy. In light of the stressed homework-y tone of this post, I did have some very good times. There were plenty of chances to bond with my classmates, and learn who likes who, who is scared of who, who is the craziest egg in the basket...the normal stuff.

I sat on the roof of our hotel many nights discussing life and religion over Toña and Victoria, two of the local beers in Nicaragua. I also got to eat a lot of really good food, namely gallo pinto, tostones y queso, and guyaba jam on toast. But mostly, gallo pinto. I also had my first macuá and got to use a burner phone for a week. I felt like such a secret agent; it was great.

What I got most out of this trip was 1) the ability to speak Spanish in stressful situations, 2) the understanding that I shouldn't compare myself to others too much when it comes to progress, 3) the general acclamation that comes with going to a foreign country for a few weeks. days. whatever.

It felt like weeks.

By the time we flew home, I was ready to be in Arizona. If I go to Nica again, it will be as a tourist--and I will surf.

Nicaragua

✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️

Here we go! 

I'm writing about immigration from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, and have interviews set up. I have two bags (a massive backpack that weighs 24 pounds and a checked suitcase that probably also weighs 24 pounds) and am so ready for this.

I'm also incredibly nervous. This is my first major journalism adventure out of the country. I'm still working on what I'm focused on, and will probably be refocusing as the trip goes on.

But it's also a learning experience, so that's okay.

I went to Welcome Chicken and Donuts this afternoon and told Michael (the owner) about my trip, and he said he's proud of all us journalism students; that we're hard working and willing to get dirty while reporting. He called us the kitchen workers of the journalism world. We make great product in a stressful, intense environment.

And that is some encouragement I needed to hear.

Preparation: Nicaragua

I leave for Nicaragua in two weeks, and I am quickly realizing just how short a span of time that is.

I have so much to do in preparation, mostly including outlining the story I'm writing, receiving my extra camera battery and LED camera-top light in the mail, and packing 3/4 of my things in my carry on. Mostly because I'm bringing a lot of equipment, but also because I need to bring underwear and toiletries in case they lose my suitcase.

But, on the bright side, I get to flex my journalist muscles and enjoy one of the most beautiful an (someone told me) one of the oldest countries in the western hemisphere.

I need to fact check that before I write it somewhere.

2015 Plans

2015.
The year is here.
I am graduating, which means I need to find a job and start saving for things like an apartment and cell phone bill and food.

That doesn't mean I'm not traveling, though.

I'm hoping to head out to a few different places this year, including

Nicaragua
I think I've already mentioned this, but I'm going to Nicaragua to get journalism stuff done.
And a grant is paying for it.

HALLELUJAH AMEN

Canada..fo real this time.
Remember last summer when I said I'd be road tripping to Portland/Seattle/Canada with my friend Natalie? Well, that's actually happening this summer. Me + Natalie + Adam (my boyfriend) and a few of his friends.

We'll take his 1991 Izusu Trooper and a bunch of camera equipment, and film a documentary. Which I should start working on now.

Sacramento? Los Angeles? Prescott?
I applied for an internship in Sacramento/LA, and a job in Prescott. I could end up working for the Associated Press this summer, or with UCYC--a summer camp for church kiddos.