Feeling American . . .

Nothing like spending time in one of America's most historic cities to leave you feeling patriotic-- corn fields, waving flags, historic sites, apple picking, Amish country and family fun. I spent about five days in Philadelphia (although my trip was over a week with driving and time w/ Deaner in P-town. . .the other P-town). Catherine and I even found ourselves singing "I'm proud to be an American" while grocery shopping (for Mexican food ironically). Here are a few photos:

The first day we went to Independence-- the most historic 1/4 mile in all of the US. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written and signed here. We saw the liberty bell, Congress Hall and the quill that was used to sign the document.

Cath and I pledging allegiance to our country in Indy hall.

I must admit that all of my current knowledge came from the stellar Disney flick, National Treasure" and it's hero Nicholas Cage (oh dear). Yes, we rented it following our downtown tour.

Another highlight was getting to meet my adorable nephew Spencer and niece Allyson. They are SOOOOO cute and so much fun. Emily is five years older than me and has been the heart and spunk of our family for as long as I can remember. She's tiny, but packs a punch (and makes the best cinnamon roles ever), has a lot of energy (but always denies it) and is so much fun!

Catherine also came up to meet us in Philly. Catherine loves fun (as do I) and we can be equally as intense. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Cath is hilarious, gracious and an incredibly happy person. She doesn't like to miss out on anything and lives life to the fullest. It was so sweet to get to see both of them!

At the arboretum.

Apple pickin'!

Allyson discovering the bad apple in the bunch.

Amish country, Lancaster, PA

The old barn was full of birds including two peacocks! It was on a dairy farm where we ate the best ice cream EVER-- maple walnut. It was run by an Amish family.

Ally and I sitting on the hay. How cute (and posed).

Cath, Ally and I spent time playing the corn fields while em fed Spencer. The perfect chance for cheesy photos.

I had a great time! If there was one thing I could change, it would be to have Brian come with me. For those of you who don't know, B and I moved back to Moab about three weeks ago. I love being here. It felt like coming home. I love this place. Seriously. And it is so nice to have friends in the area! Alvin and Laura came down last week and so we all got together (with Clay and Leslie too). Big thanks to Clay and Les for the awesome meals and teaching me how to boulder. It was SO fun!

Ignore my buck teeth and the next photo is pretty cool:

GO Phillies!!

Apple picking in Pennsylvania


Last week I went to Philidelphia to visit my sister Emily and her family that live there. Catherine flew up from NC and we had a great time! I forgot to bring my camera down to Moab, so this is the only picture I have from when I was there-- more to come!

What's a vacation?

Brian and I have a problem. We don't know how to relax. We had a conversation recently where we jokingly questioned whether our mutual intensity was a benifit to our realtionship. We were kind of worn out and exhausted after our season at Rocky and so we decided we wanted a vacation. My stipulations were that it had to be 1)warm and 2)beachy (after wearing my puffy in every week of every month of the year I wanted at least a short stint of being down rigtht hot). We decided on Hawaii b/c it met my request and we could also visit Brian's dad in Oahu. Here's the breakdown in photos:

The first couple are just scenery shots:

We went kayaking with Brian's dad out to a sandbar. It was beautiful!

After two days in Oahu, we flew to Kauai. It's a much smaller island and has a totally different feel. It is very polynesian and called the "garden island" b/c it is a straight up jungle. Seriously. Complete with thousands of feral chickens and goats. I really loved it.

We wanted to hike the Na Pali coast (several movies were filmed here including South Pacific). 22 miles of up and downs (5,000ft one way-- the same as hiking out of the Grand Canyon), but in 100% humidity. It was actually tons of fun. The trail follows the cliffs and you're in and out of the jungle, crossing streams, lots of waterfalls, jungle vegetation, turquoise water crashing below, the smell of rotting guavas all around, torrential rains, red mud and beautiful beaches.

The beginning.

Brian show-casing beads of sweat. I was soaked too. I haven't sweat like that since I was trying to mow lawns in North Carolina in July. Wow.

The trees and plants were incredible! They were all huge and looked like something you'd find in a Dr. Suess book.

Part of the trail.

This is a photo of Kalalau beach-- our destination. It was honestly the most beautiful beach I have ever seen! On the cliff side there was a really tall waterfall (which you'll see in a few photos) and towering cliffs above the beach. So cool. We camped right on the beach in the photo below:

we've arrived!

So the next morning when we woke up, Bry and I were walking along the shoreline and found this coconut that had washed up on the shore. It had an adress label with illegible scrawl and on the bottom was a hole that had been glued shut. We were determined to open it-- expecting to find goodies from a new Japanese pen-pal or something. Scroll down to find out the real contents.

Yeah, so we finally got it open and realized that they were creamated remains! YIKES! Brian freaked out and chucked it back into the ocean. Ha!

We also found this amazing fresh-water cave right on the beach. I'm imitating Ariel.

We snorkeled several times and saw the COOLEST fish! They were all so brightly colored. This was the least colorful of all the fish I saw, but the only one I could photograph b/c it had died on the sand. I still think it's quite pretty. I even got to see sea turtles swimming while I snorkeled.

This is our shower. Pretty sweet, ey? Someone even carved a soap dish holder in the rock. It was 30 seconds from the beach where we camped and so tall you could see it from anywhere!

After we got off the Na Pali coast, we headed to Queen's bath. It is a lava bench with these amazing pools that you can swim and snorkel in. The surf was really big and the waves were crashing over the pools, but Brian was brave and jumped in while everyone else just watched! Eventually me and several others jumped in too. It was one of our favorite parts! You can see the Napali coast in the background of this photo.

This is the pool behind me. It was also full of tropical fish so we borrowed someone's snorkel mask to check them out for a bit.

Brian and I attempted to surf with the locals. Brian acutally did pretty good-- but the waves were pretty darn big and intimidating! I tried several times, but couldn't get up. I think my board was a little short.

We hiked to the bottom of this 170ft. waterfall. It was soo cool. Plus we were the only ones down there. For the Full House fans out there, this is the waterfall that Jesse "jumps" off of when the family goes to Hawaii on vacation. They say locals jump off to prove their man-hood, but Brian wussed out (just kidding. I would never let him do that).

Feel free to make fun of this last picture. Haha!