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!

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!

Denver!

Dear me, oh my!

I haven't mentioned that I went to Denver for Thanksgiving!

I blame it on the crazy amount of final projects I had.

Sawyer + Sarah

So, yes. My final trip of 2014 was to Denver, Colorado. It was a short trip--I left Phoenix Wednesday night at 10:40 pm, and arrived back in Phoenix Saturday morning at 9 am. However, the brevity of the trip did not detract from the adventure.

This was my third (fourth?) and final year spending Thanksgiving in a different state than my parents. I initially was going to go to Tucson with them (to stay at the Hotel Congress and watch the ASU vs U of A game) but they stalled in making hotel reservations.

I found out in September that two of my friends, Sarah and Sawyer, would be unable to return to Phoenix for neither Thanksgiving nor Christmas, so I booked a plane ticket to Denver.

Life lesson: Consider checking your savings account before you book a plane ticket on a whim when you're in college. It may take months to recover. Not to say that happened to me.

As the weeks passed and as Thanskgiving drew nearer, I became increasingly excited to leave my homework behind for a while and head out to a new territory.

I've visited Denver once before, but this was my first time flying into Denver and spending time in the southern side, and my first time going in the winter.

It was basically freezing when I arrived. I'm so glad I bought a coat for this trip. When my flight landed, I took a moment to enjoy the art in the Denver airport (there are a lot of conspiracy theories about it) before getting in Sarah and Sawyer's car and going home and to bed.

I slept soundly on the most. comfortable.  air mattress ever. created. As soon as I awoke, we began drinking coffee and cooking food. I made my favorite dish, green bean casserole with fresh green beans. It was heavenly.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner picnic-style and discussed what we are most thankful for this year.

My list included my parents' house, Sarah + Sawyer, my boyfriend Adam, the ability to travel, and my education.

Because we ate so early, we had a full afternoon of time to kill. We sat around. We watched tv. We ate pie. We drank wine. We went shopping at 6 pm on Thanksgiving day.

Yeah, I just said that.

It was my first Black Friday experience, and it wasn't even on Black Friday. It was also incredibly tame--the line to enter Target had dismantled by the time we got there, and there were still piles of large televisions for people to purchase.

I bought two pairs of gloves and that was it.

We went to World of Beer afterwards and enjoyed the potluck there (our second Thanksgiving dinner) and local pumpkin ale. It was a very peaceful, low-key holiday, and I loved it.

Friday was spent crafting and watching the ASU vs U of A game on the air mattress.

Sarah has picked up watercolors as a hobby, and she's really good at it. Like, Etsy-good.

I, on the other hand, created glamorous stockings for Adam and I. They are argyle and metallic and shiny and spectacular.

Unfortunately, I awoke incredibly early Saturday morning to head home to Phoenix. It was a rough early morning, but the sunrise was beautiful from the Southwest gate and the view of snowcapped mountains under my airplane's wing really made for a gorgeous end to my trip.

I arrived back in Phoenix well rested and ready to finish the semester off.

Cali: Take 2

I can hardly believe it was only two nights ago when I was loading Jess and Dave's bags into the back of my car for my second weekend in California. I can confidently say, though, that it will be the first and last time I ever do an overnight road trip. Leaving Phoenix at midnight was brutal, but it was what we needed to do to make it in time. Not only did we make it in time, but we also made great time, and got to see a nice sunrise when we arrived at Jess' dad's house in California.

The mountain behind the house gave us a great viewing spot.

After our sunrise hike, we headed out to Venice Beach where I completely zonked out on a beach towel for an hour or so (I only slept an hour and a half on the car ride) and only got lightly sunburned. I think Dave used the term "splotchy." By the time I woke up, everyone else was disenchanted with the beach (which is a sentiment I completely do not understand) and wanted to sleep. All I wanted was coffee.

The crew.

Everyone was a good sport when we piled back into the car and I drove to Intelligentsia on Abbott Kinney. Intelligentisa is the first third wave coffee shop I ever learned about, so it was really nice to pay a visit and drink a cold brew.

Once we got home, we all rested, ate lunch, watched a movie and then headed out for second lunch. Because apparently we're a bunch of Hobbits who like to eat multiple meals.

Jess stayed home but we (it was her sister Sarah's birthday weekend, too, and her friends spent the whole time hanging out with us as well) drove into downtown Los Angeles to eat at Syrup, a coffee/breakfast cafe.

I was really hoping it was an old school soda fountain, but I was completely and pleasantly surprised when I saw it was a coffee shop similar to Samba Latte and Caffe Medici, narrow with multiple stories. I had a crepe that rivaled Jobot's, and we all played Jenga and enjoyed the air conditioning.

Bendix building. I have no clue what it is.

With time to kill and food to walk off, we jaunted down to the fashion district on a hunt for gym shorts and a suit for Dave. All we really found were overpriced USB drives and gangsta' basketball shorts. And a lot of fabric. And a lot of crowds. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but the old buildings, populated alleyways and general skyscrapers pleased my eye.

Once we returned home, I did homework and napped a sweet, sweet nap, bringing the total amount of time I slept up to approximately four hours.

Our evening was spent preparing to see Rocky Horror Picture Show for Sarah's sweet 16th. The show started at midnight (a short 24 hours after we first left Phoenix) and the movie didn't actually start until 1 am, leaving us leaving the theater at 2:45 am.

I fell asleep as soon as I got home (and washed the red lipstick off my face--apparently it's normal to draw on people who are seeing the show for the first time) and then woke up at 10 am this morning, a short hour before we planned on leaving to return to Phoenix.

Oh, right. The other point of this trip was to move Jess home to Phoenix. It took a grand total of twenty minutes to load all her stuff in my car, and she did most if it while I was still asleep this morning.

Los Angeles, I love you so.

And so, we left after a fun/amazing/crammed/spectacular weekend in Los Angeles, and returned to Phoenix with a rat, a bike and a few boxes of other things Jess owns. And a lot of stinking great photos on my phone.

I honestly feel like I've done more living in the past 48 hours than I did from Monday through Friday, which makes me wonder how much living I'll be doing in Portland over fall break. Now, excuse me as I go take my laundry out of the dryer and finish packing. I leave again in three days.

Cali: Take 1

I'm back from the first of two back-to-back weekends in California. I've been back since Sunday, and I'm heading out late tomorrow night for my next adventure.

Last weekend I went to Santa Clarita or Valencia or somewhere in that region for free with my friend Mitch, because he's a great person and knows I love travel.

He also knows I'm a dependable person who enjoys offering a helping hand, which is what I did. This was a volunteering trip, although it didn't feel like much work to me!

My weekend was spent brushing elbows with influential TV set designers and movie producers and head animators and all sorts of people I'd probably never meet otherwise.

Me+my camera+ocean

I helped out with the grunt work associated with a Disney art and wine auction, where the proceeds will go to scholarships for CalARTS students. Let me just say, it was a blast, but it felt SO weird being surrounded by so many "influential" people.

I'm really comfortable bumming around in my Birkenstocks, and while I enjoyed getting super dressy and seeing a Salvador Dali print, I was much more comfortable when I got to go to the beach the next day with Mitch and his family.

Who, by the way, are incredibly nice people. I love his parents. They're so witty. And generous.

So, yeah. That was weekend one. Art+famous people+beach. Now, weekend two!

Oakland/Berkeley/San Francisco

I've been asked before "How do you travel so much? It seems like as soon as you're back from one trip, you're planning another one."

The answer is prioritization.

Traveling and exploring are high on my priority list, right up there next to breathing, eating and loving people.

That's how I ended up in the Bay Area.

I had a few very important things before I began planning this trip

Marcos, whose extra bed I slept on.

1. A jar of money
2. An offer from a friend (to sleep on his floor "If you ever make it out to the bay area")
3. A desire to travel to the northwest

and, well, the rest is history.

I found myself at the Oakland Airport one morning at the end of June, and spent the following days exploring the Bay Area.


Oakland

I think, for the most part, Oakland has a bad rap. It's really not as terrifying as everyone thinks it is. I mean, we did accidentally drive through east Oakland on the way from the airport to the house, but we survived. It was fine.

My favorite part of Oakland was the people. It was my home base for the five (six?) days I stayed there. Much of what I did in the Bay Area, I did alone, but I got to spend a few evenings with Marcos, Adam, Jess and Chris and they were spectacular. These times were spent outside, with fire and pipe tobacco and craft beers, which, in my opinion, is the best way to spend time with people. Not to mention Jess picked me up from the airport when I arrived and took me to the train station when I left.

Adam, Chris, Jess. Sweet people.

The walkability (which I also found in Berkeley) of Oakland was pretty sweet, too. It was an easy jaunt from the house to Telegraph, where I was shown a really cool store (East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse) that sells pretty much any and every odd, end or craft supply you will ever want or need. I bought a box of old photographs, a Beanie Baby trading card (Nannook is my homie) as well as an ancient DC Talk and more recent Jack Jonhnson CD. The grand total was less than $2. Easily the coolest store I have ever seen.

Other things I enjoyed about Oakland:

• Hidden alleys with coffee shops and succulents (I'm looking at you, Temescal Alley)
• Organic ice cream in flavors like geranium, allspice and rooibos (Tara's is taaaasty)
• AC Transit! I got to use a public transit bus system for the third time in my life

Berkeley

The Berk was cool. I had a really difficult time not calling it "Beserkeley" in keeping with The Princess Diaries. The first day I ventured into Berkeley, I took AC Transit from Oakland (read: North Oakland) and underestimated how long it would take to get to my stop. Once at my stop, I didn't know how to request for the bus to stop. So I ended up waiting two more stops and then had to walk half a mile or so to the UC Berkeley Art Museum.

The museum architecture is stellar.

No matter, though! I got to wade through crowds of (what were presumably) incoming freshmen and prospective students walking around with their parents! I laughed inwardly at the young'uns who have no idea what college is about to be, and pushed on toward the museum.

Once I arrived, I sat, wrote, read a book outside, sketched and then finally went inside.

Nothing about this trip was rushed, which I enjoyed. I got to sit and do whatever the heck I wanted.

Inside, there were a few really sweet gallery exhibits. Long story short, one was about color (intriguing. Very intriguing. Made my eyes happy) and the other was by a Texan artist named Forrest Bess. His art was very surreal, his story was very...strange. Look him up.

My second jaunt into Berkeley was a little more well organized. One of Marcos' co-workers drove us in so we could get lunch before he had to go in to work, and we hit up a delicious Mexican restaurant. It definitely wasn't street food, it was heavy-cheesy-bean-and-corn Mexican food, but man. I had the chilaquiles and they were good. Afterwards, we went to Savers and I got two shirts that walked out of the '80s or early, early '90s. They look really good on me (IMHO), but I still have to cut the shoulder pads out. My mom is going to hate them.

Post-Savers, we walked the mile-or-so to Artís Coffee, which is in the swanky part of Berkeley. (Right? Who knew Berkeley had a swanky side? It's like Scottsdale, but really close to water!) Marcos went to work behind the bar (he does coffee things. I think it's cool.) and I went to virtual work behind my laptop for a few hours for my internship. After that, I tackled the AC Transit system and took a bus home.

San Francisco

I didn't know it when I booked my ticket to go to the Bay Area, but I was visiting during Pride. Which was cool and all, but I don't. like. crowds.

That made enjoying San Francisco a little difficult.

I like the acoustics of stations.

Taking the BART from Oakland to San Francisco was also a little difficult. I overshot the BART station by a few blocks (which is a lot on foot) because Google Maps told me to turn left on 39th street, when in reality it was 40th street. Whatever, Google Maps. Whatever.

When I finally got into the city, I got to do a few cool things. I visited Four Barrel Coffee and had the La Cabaña pourover (the slow bar barista couldn't talk about anything else--I guess that's called passion?) and sat and wrote, read, and shot photos for a while. I actually had someone approach me and ask if she could take my photo because "Photographers rarely have their photo taken."

I was pretty stoked about that. Of course I said yes.

Afterwards, I stopped by a little empanada shop I passed on my way to Four Barrel and ate (an empanada, duh) and watched the World Cup. Because why not. It was delicious, too.

That same day, I went down to the Embarcadero and saw the piers. I read somewhere online (Yelp, maybe) that Pier 14 was a beautiful place to see the city from. While I found Pier 13 and Pier 15, I didn't exactly find Pier 14. I did find the Exploritorium and a really sweet view from where Pier 14 should be, though, so I'm calling it good. Ultimately, I would have liked to see the view at night, but I didn't really like the walk from the BART station to the house, so I tried to keep my exploring to daylight hours.

Cue that Journey song. Lights.

My second trip into San Francisco was on very short notice. It was Sunday, when Pride was in full swing, but I had two really sweet (free) tickets to see La Traviata at the San Francisco Opera (thank you, Alex, you're amazing). The catch was that I wouldn't know if I had the tickets until one hour before the show started. Adam (Marcos' friend) and I, clothed in more fabric than the majority of San Francisco (Pride dresses you down. We were dressed up.), braved the massive crowds and made it to the opera in time to be seated during the first intermission. That's right, it took us an hour and a half (give or take a little while) to get from Oakland to the opera.

The opera itself was rather wonderful, and I'm happy to say I've now witnessed San Francisco Pride. But I honestly never want to witness it again.

The best part of that second trip into San Fran was probably taking the BART back into Oakland and getting dinner with Alex and Adam. We ate some sort of amazing ethnic food. I'm not sure what it was but I've never been so excited to eat with my hands before in my life.

I want to eat this again.

I know, I probably don't sound too enthusiastic about San Francisco. I'll give the city another shot. Next time I visit, it will NOT be during Pride. I will also have a bike with me, and a better idea of how to ride the BART. Let's just say these two days in the city were a trial run. There will be another trip there.

Other Cool Things

I spent a lot of my time writing and reading. A LOT. It was really nice to kick back and be introspective for a while. I finished reading Prodigal God by Timothy Keller and started reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. When I started reading it, I had no idea AHWOSG was set in the areas I was exploring, so it added an ethereal sense to the novel. It was like I was able to understand the setting in the novel in a brand-new way. Rather than imagining the mountains north of Berkeley, I was able to picture them as they were.

I walked. A lot. I have been walking a lot in Portland, too. I really enjoy walking as a means of transportation, and truly wish I could walk more in Phoenix, but it's just too dang hot outside.

I also did a nifty little photojournalism project. I shot a photo of everyone I met on my way to/in/leaving the Bay Area. Adventuring on my own made me more susceptible (disregard any negative connotations that word may have, I was perfectly safe the whole time) to talking to strangers, and I actually did stop and talk to quite a few. At the end of our conversation (starting with the man at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport [which I am never flying out of, ever again]) I requested to take a photo of everyone I spoke to. And so I did. I'm really excited to get that roll of film developed. Update: Photos available here!

In summary, I really enjoyed the Bay Area portion of my trip because it was a little difficult and a little lonely. As an extrovert who is also an only child, I really enjoy actively being around people, but I also really like doing things on my own, by myself, for myself, and that's pretty much what this portion of the trip was all about. It was great!

And now... I am in Portland, enjoying my time here.

Click here to read about Portland. 

Travel Etiquette

I have my latest adventure post in draft stage! It'll be out soon.
Until then, I'd just like to note how much of a culture difference I have seen at NAU vs. U of A, and what has been floating around in my mind.

Correct dorm host(ess) etiquette:
Do you have someone from your childhood, home town, high school class coming to visit? Here are some guidelines for you as a host(ess) to make sure your guest's trip ends happily, and a good time is had by all.

• Understand price limits. Your guests are most likely paying for the gas to come visit you, and that's not cheap. Talk before about budgeting, and plan your half as a host or hostess accordingly. Don't expect your guests to want to pay $10 for a mediocre burrito at the campus Mexican restaurant, because 9 times out of 10, they won't want to.
• Be ready to entertain. Your guests just came to visit you! They want to see what is exciting on your campus. Plan a walking tour of the campus, go chalking or stargazing, or go out to dinner at a cheap (but yummy) restaurant.
• Prepare a sleeping station. It may be on a rug, on your extra comforter, or on a beach towel, but have something set up for your guests. Nobody wants to sleep with their sleeping bag or pillow directly on the icky hairball covered ground.
• Plan to pay. For one meal a day for your guests, bless them with food. We understand, you're all in college, and money is sparse and food is expensive. But be it through meal swipes, dining dollars, an interesting dorm-made pasta dish, or that money your parents send you each month for groceries, cover a meal a day for your guests. It's the proper thing to do.
• Return the favor! If someone traveled a long distance (long enough to spend the night in your dorm room), plan to visit them, and actually go through with it! Don't just expect your friend to come visit you because he or she had "a great time" the previous trip. Return the favor of a visit, go sleep on their dorm room couch for a few nights. Chances are, if whoever you are visiting happens to be a conscientious human being, he or she will follow these guidelines of dorm room host(ess) etiquette.

Backstory: I traveled down to U of A last year to visit some friends, and I was rather blown away by their etiquette. I and my travel buddy, Becca, had budgeted out our entire trip, and purchased groceries to take down to U of A so we wouldn't need to eat at the expensive campus restaurants. We also expected our hostess to have a few day time plans which didn't involve spending money.
As events progressed, it appeared we had a bad case of miscommunication. I ended up spending $30 more in meals than I had planned, as well as about $15 on jewelry I felt rather pressured into buying. (They were best friends necklaces, each a Hamsa hanging from a short silver chain. Ironically, I don't really regret buying mine, it's cute, and I'm the only one who hasn't lost it yet, but I was rather unhappy at the moment as I felt pressured to buy it.) Thus representing nearly $50 over my budget set forth, as I had expected our host(ess) to graciously cover our meals on campus, in exchange for the groceries we bought her, or in addition to eating from the groceries we had purchased.
Meanwhile, at NAU (where I put my lesson learned at U of A into practice, and over-budgeted) I was greeted with generous hands, only paying for two meals myself over the entire two weekends I visited, and one of those times was only because the meal-swipe system wasn't working with the card I was trying to purchase a meal on (so the generosity was still there in spirit.) I was honestly impressed by my friends (and even friends of friends) who bought me meals, shared desserts, and made iced tea lemonades for me for free while visiting NAU, so these five simple guidelines simmered in my brain the whole drive back to Phoenix today.