Sailing, Sailing over the brawny waves...

Anchors Away!

Captain Annie!

I never look every cute, but I have a good time.

It's me again!
To Catch a Thief... Anyone?

I can't say much more. The pictures say it all. :) Brother Monson was kind enough (and crazy enough) to invite the Relief Society sisters (all of us) out to his parents house for a day of sailing and water fun. Most of the sisters when down the night before to the Monson's house near Solomon's Island MD, however I promised Melanie I would take her to the airport so she could fly home. So Annie and I left after dropping Melanie off at the airport at 5 am. I unleashed a very awake and happy to be alive Annie on a room of still-asleep-not-fully-functioning girls. It was fun to watch. They couldn't understand how we could be so awake, but 2 hours of driving will do that to you :) After a quick breakfast and application of sunblock Annie and I joined the first group of girls sailing with Brother Monson. Oh it was so beautiful! We sang songs to Brother Monson the whole way out and back, but he said he didn't mind. I want a sailing boat. I can understand how people will get addicted to it.

Later Annie and I went Kayaking. I promptly fell out of my kayaking while trying to get in and scraped up my poor little knee, but once I was in, I loved it. I need to get me one of those too. It was so refreshing. Next stop of the day was a quick trip out to the Cove Point Lighthouse. We got a little lost, but found it, eventually. Oh what a wonderful day!

South Carolina – Here we come!

My roommate and Catherine and I decided that South Carolina, Myrtle Beach to be exact would be exciting this time of year. Cat had the weekend off so we found a good deal on a hotel, packed up our bags and….waited. Catherine was detained at work, but don’t worry…we finally made it off about 8pm or so. And we drove. It was a 7 hour drive, but we ran into some traffic. Despite the traffic over all it was a nice drive. We took a pit stop in North Carolina, napped a little, next to guy with a grandfather clock in the front seat of his car. We arrived in Myrtle Beach about 8 am. We went to Wal-Mart – I know, not the first place you usually go when you arrive in a new town, a beach town no less, but my driver’s side headlight had gone out while we were driving through North Carolina and, truthfully I wanted to get it fixed as soon as possible. Wal-Mart’s open at 8am, but they didn’t know if they knew how to change the headlight on a Malibu. Fortunately there was someone who knew how to change the light bulb. I watched them do it…and could have done myself, but they were willing so I let them. I was so happy that I learned how to change the light bulb that I wanted to call my dad and tell how proud he should be. For those of you who know my dad, you’re aware of the fact that he doesn’t want his daughters to be stranded on the side of the road, helpless, because of a small incidental car problem, like a flat tire. He has always insisted that his daughters learn how to change a tire, the oil and even the break pads. Useful things. We never covered headlights…probably because they don’t need fixing as frequently as the other things. However it was 8 am and therefore 5 am in California and I didn’t think my dad would appreciate a call the early in the morning, no matter how excited he might be.

One quick stop at Wal-Mart, one new headlight and new skill learned and we were on a way to the beach. It was beautiful and peace, being so early in the morning. We set out our blanket and ate breakfast from the food we packed with us. Perfect and relaxing. We went to the beach right next to the World's Largest Sand Castle

During the course of the day we check in to our hotel, played in the water, which by the way is a lot more salty then the Pacific Ocean. I never knew that, but it’s true! The Atlantic is warmer was well. We went to went to the Ripley’s Aquarium. It was so cool! I’m sure most of you have seen the commercials where the kids are walking under a dome of class with sharks swimming over head…yeah…that’s where we were! Sharks, turtles, fish all swimming above us. It as awesome.

It has inspired within me the desire to learn how to scuba dive. I want to swim with the sharks, in a steel cage of course.

That night we decided to go to a famous (or at least well known) all-you-care-to-eat real Southern cooking buffet. It was quite the ordeal to get there, wondering if we were lost most the time and finally calling for directions, but it was worth it. The food was amazing the atmosphere enchanting. After dinner was wandered downtown. There were tons of little shops and thousands of people. We left about 10:30 to go back to our hotel and the town was still hoping with activity

The Epitome of the Beach

I heard that there was store called Piggly Wiggly and now I've seen it and been inside and bought ice.

Rommate Bonding time :) If you are still friends and can stand living together after 14 hours (or 19 if you count the time we slept) travelling in a car together then you have experienced some serious Roomamte Bonding.

Luau

Our insitute threw a luau. I drag Catherine and Mel along with me. Of course we had to have flowers in our hair.

Capitol Fourth

Happy Fourth of July!!!

This is one of my favorite holidays! Spending it in DC seemed like such a good idea, yet it wasn't all that I expected it to be, but STILL fun. I'm going to try again next year, since I heard that this year wasn't up to par.

Breakfast at Tim Goode's: We all met at 10am for some good ol' fashion pancakes before all of us split up for our various 4th of July activities.













After breakfast we took off to the Metro to head up to DC to begin the 4th of July Festivities. Darin and Sydney left before us, but due to a malfunctioning Metro train we ended up arriving before them. We joined the throngs of people watching the 4th of July Parade.
With plans to see the concert on the Capitol lawn, we devised a plan of divide and conquer. Splitting off into groups of at least two we sent Melanie and Adam off to save us a place in line. Sydney, Darin, Sandy and I wandered around the Folk Fair on the Mall and found some food to eat. Arriving a little late (okay very late...Sorry Mel and Adam) we took over the long wait in the line.

Sydney and Sandy's ice cream run helped sooth the heat...just a little :) Sadly all our (Mel's and Adam's) long waiting was for nothing, for soon after our whole group joined together once again, the throngs of people came pushing their way towards and front and if that wasn't bad enough we were told that we need to evaluate the entire area. They moved us all into the Legislative parking garage to wait out the threatening storm coming our way. The garage was hot and muggy, but relief came in the form of a palate of free water bottles givento everyone. Oh happiness on a hot, hot day is a bottle of water.
Oh fear not little friends. We were not to be deterred by the long wait, the horrible heat and mugginess and a 'few' rain drops! As soon as they allowed us to leave we got back in line to go onto the Capitol Lawn. Mel and I got separated from the group due to a small detour to a restroom, but thanks to the miracle of modern technology (in this case cell phones) we were reunited and found us some 'comfortable' seats on the steps of the Capitol building.


I love this photo by Adam.

Williamsburg, VA - A Touch of History

(November 2006) Just outside of Jamestown

I think that I might have already mentioned that I love history. It intrigues me. As author of Roots suggests, everyone has a desire to know where they came from. We are not individual islands, but affected by everyone and everything around us and that means to me that finding out as much as I can about other people's stories tells me more about myself. Needless to say that when my ward announced a their annual trip to Williamsburg I jumped on the chance to go. We left about 4pm on Friday. Freda, Nancy, Brian and I all piled into Brian's car, braving the traffic we headed across 495 to 95 South. although several things happened along the way two of the most memorable were 1) passing the car with MR RIGHT as the license plate and then finding two women in it and 2) the traffic slow down caused by an arm chair on the side of the road.

Brian, Nancy, Chris, and Annie (above)
Yorktown battlements (side)

Funny enough we never made it to Colonial Williamsburg, instead we went to Jamestown and Yorktown. This is the 400 year anniversary of Jamestown and merited a visit for that reason alone. When you add the fact that we are all still pretending to be poor college students the $25 to go to colonial Williamsburg vs. the $8 to go to both Jamestown and Yorktown the choice is obvious. I enjoyed Jamestown, especially the glassblowing, but loved Yorktown. It's amazing how history can come to life by the excitement of one very enthusiastic Park Ranger. I don't remember the Ranger's name, but I remember his passion as he described to us the Revolutionaries critical win at Yorktown. He painted a picture for me and I fell in love with the story.

My first 'outside of Institute' interaction with Chris Terrill happen on this trip. He and Freda managed to get us a tad lost. It wasn't completely their fault. The map and the signs gave conflicting information. And to be fair, I told Brian to take a wrong turn while we were trying to find our way back to a main road to come back home. However our ending up on 395 and in the middle of DC can be blamed, not on our faithful driver, Brian, but on the horrible Virginia Road signs.

View from the Top...

of the Capital One building.

I work at Capital One in McLean just off the 495 on the top floor and it has a very impressive view...as long as the weather coraperates.

Some Catching Up to Do

This is a two fold catching up...

1) I realized that I haven't posted anything for more then a month. There has plenty that needs to be posted. So here I am.

2) So it all started when my friends convinced me that joining facebook would be a good idea. It was just after the 4th of July and everyone wanted to swap pictures. (Don't worry I'll post some...I'm just a little behind) I joined. We all 'became' friends. They posted their pictures and then who should if find on my friend Adam's friend list? Anneliesa Hamish. From Anneliesa I found other friends or they found me, such as Sarah Galbraith (Doan) and Melanie Michaelis. It has been forever since I've talked to these people. Techonolgy is amazing. Also about this time my sister Sarah was found by Jeff Barber. We were friends way back in day, out in the San Antonio Trailer park. The last time I talked to Jeff was at his dad's funeral when I was about 9 or so. We've been chatting through gmail for the last few weeks or so. It's funny to see what we remember. Random memories.



More posts to come...more catching up...promise