I really can't complain about 2011. This has been a year of risks and celebrations for me and though by no means was every day, or even week, a good one (some were even downright awful), on the whole it was a year of real growth for me and I can only hope that 2012 will be half as wonderful.
Some highlights of 2011 (I'd make it a "top 10" but I've just enjoyed so much and really can't rank it):
- Bungy jumping - Queenstown, New Zealand - this was so scary, but I gotta say, I was left with the feeling that if I can jump off a bridge and trust that I'd be okay, I can do anything.
- Kayaking in Halong Bay with my Alex's
- Missoni for Target Sale - Morgan and I even scored some new friends out of it.
- Dinner and a cab ride in New Orleans
- Wilshire Walk with my fearless companions Rob and Sidney
- Seeing Book of Mormon - yes I saw it and YES it is every bit as wonderful as is I'd hoped.
- Dodger Game with the German boys
- Super fun girls game night - this has become my moms signature party and is always a good time.
- Glow Worm Caves
- Tour of Disney Channel Animation (thanks Jill!) and lunch at the American Girl Place with cousin Bella
- Angkor Wat - wins the awe factor of the year
- Harry Potter Christmas Party - I literally went to Hogwarts. Hands down the best party I've ever been to.
- MONA Museum in Tasmania - the more I think about it the more I want to go back.
And that's just my short list. Tonight I rang in the New Year with Uncle George, Aunt Kathy, and sister Lisa in New Jersey as Lisa and I are about to head off on our first grand adventure of 2012!! Stay tuned as we will be posting as frequently as possible in the coming days.
Happy New Years!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
When your adventures follow you home...
Oh god how much I wish I took pictures of this! I have sunk back into my old habits of never having a camera with me, which is really too bad. Also, a really really frustrating thing just happened to me and you are reading the SECOND typing of this story. The first one was ALL deleted. Ugh. But here's the story...
So remember when I wrote about our hike in Abel Tasman National Park near Nelson, New Zealand? Well, so insignificant it didn't make it onto this blog, on the hike we stumbled upon a group of kids about my age while crossing a beach at low tide (it was very time sensitive because the beach didn't exist at high tide, so we were racing the clock!) They asked us to take their picture and so we did. They seemed like a really fun group. We ended up walking at about the same pace for awhile and ended up chatting with a young man from Germany. He explained that he was really only there with his one buddy from home and that the other three girls they had just met that day on that hike. Did we get his name? No, but he stayed back with us as we had to take off our shoes and cross the swelling ocean water "creeks" filled with sharp shells. He told us that he and his friend were on a world tour similar to the one I was just nearing the end of: Australia - New Zealand - Fiji - Los Angeles! Of course we had to ask their plans and it turned out they had none. I gave him my email address and told him to get in touch with me if he wanted any help trying to figure out what to do. And that was that!
Flash forward to about a week later when another kind stranger, Donna, put me up my last night in Auckland. When I asked her at the end what I could do to repay her, she simply said, "Pay it forward."
It was that day that our German friends, henceforth known as Marcus and Sebastian, sent me an email. They were in Fiji and needed an address to give US customs on their arrival and wanted to know of a good hostel. Hostel? Not in Los Angeles. After a few emails back and forth we determined that I would pick them up at LAX and that they could stay at Jeff's house for two nights while we all figured out what they should do to maximize their stay in the states. And oh how many people rallied to make it a good time in the states for the Germans! Their first night, my mom, Jeff, Scott, Melissa, and I took them to Mijares for their first Mexican meal. (When asked if they'd ever had Mexican food they answered, no. When asked if they'd had a margarita before they looked at us like we were insane.) The next day, my wonderful friend Rob took us on a tour of the Paramount Lot on a golf cart. Marcus and Sebastian were particularly stoked with their little gate passes with a map of the lot and a ticket that reads "Paramount Pictures Welcomes ___(name)___" Great souvenir, and I've got to hand it to Paramount for stepping it up since my days writing gate passes. We then did the touristy-ist thing - Hollywood Blvd and the Chinese Theater. Marcus and Sebastian really enjoyed picking out the other German tourists. That place is a zoo. That afternoon I had some work to do so Melissa met the boys in Old Town for a bit of shopping. They had some great success. That night, we went to a Dodgers game. Oh how I loved the look of, "is this for real?" on their faces during the seventh inning stretch! They did point out one thing though - why is the baseball championship a world series when the US is the only country in the world who participates? A bit narcissistic... And then to top it off, the next morning, Jeff's brother, Johnnie, drove the boys down to my grandparents house in the OC! Marcus loves the show OC (he also loves Gossip Girl...) It's not really my adventure at this point, but we've been getting really fun reports from my grandparents about their stay. Marcus was a sous chef and insisted on cooking a big dinner for them that my grandparents sound over the moon about, they got a picture I'm dying to see of my Grandpa (Poppy) sprawled out on a surfboard, my grandparents told them where to go one night when the were going OUT (and didn't get home until 3am!) Tomorrow my grandparents put the Germans on a train to San Diego (my grandmother is uneasy about the fact that they have no where to stay there) and from there they have an action packed week - Las Vegas AND San Francisco!
It's been fun seeing my part of the US as an adventure through their eyes... le sigh, I miss traveling...
So remember when I wrote about our hike in Abel Tasman National Park near Nelson, New Zealand? Well, so insignificant it didn't make it onto this blog, on the hike we stumbled upon a group of kids about my age while crossing a beach at low tide (it was very time sensitive because the beach didn't exist at high tide, so we were racing the clock!) They asked us to take their picture and so we did. They seemed like a really fun group. We ended up walking at about the same pace for awhile and ended up chatting with a young man from Germany. He explained that he was really only there with his one buddy from home and that the other three girls they had just met that day on that hike. Did we get his name? No, but he stayed back with us as we had to take off our shoes and cross the swelling ocean water "creeks" filled with sharp shells. He told us that he and his friend were on a world tour similar to the one I was just nearing the end of: Australia - New Zealand - Fiji - Los Angeles! Of course we had to ask their plans and it turned out they had none. I gave him my email address and told him to get in touch with me if he wanted any help trying to figure out what to do. And that was that!
Flash forward to about a week later when another kind stranger, Donna, put me up my last night in Auckland. When I asked her at the end what I could do to repay her, she simply said, "Pay it forward."
It was that day that our German friends, henceforth known as Marcus and Sebastian, sent me an email. They were in Fiji and needed an address to give US customs on their arrival and wanted to know of a good hostel. Hostel? Not in Los Angeles. After a few emails back and forth we determined that I would pick them up at LAX and that they could stay at Jeff's house for two nights while we all figured out what they should do to maximize their stay in the states. And oh how many people rallied to make it a good time in the states for the Germans! Their first night, my mom, Jeff, Scott, Melissa, and I took them to Mijares for their first Mexican meal. (When asked if they'd ever had Mexican food they answered, no. When asked if they'd had a margarita before they looked at us like we were insane.) The next day, my wonderful friend Rob took us on a tour of the Paramount Lot on a golf cart. Marcus and Sebastian were particularly stoked with their little gate passes with a map of the lot and a ticket that reads "Paramount Pictures Welcomes ___(name)___" Great souvenir, and I've got to hand it to Paramount for stepping it up since my days writing gate passes. We then did the touristy-ist thing - Hollywood Blvd and the Chinese Theater. Marcus and Sebastian really enjoyed picking out the other German tourists. That place is a zoo. That afternoon I had some work to do so Melissa met the boys in Old Town for a bit of shopping. They had some great success. That night, we went to a Dodgers game. Oh how I loved the look of, "is this for real?" on their faces during the seventh inning stretch! They did point out one thing though - why is the baseball championship a world series when the US is the only country in the world who participates? A bit narcissistic... And then to top it off, the next morning, Jeff's brother, Johnnie, drove the boys down to my grandparents house in the OC! Marcus loves the show OC (he also loves Gossip Girl...) It's not really my adventure at this point, but we've been getting really fun reports from my grandparents about their stay. Marcus was a sous chef and insisted on cooking a big dinner for them that my grandparents sound over the moon about, they got a picture I'm dying to see of my Grandpa (Poppy) sprawled out on a surfboard, my grandparents told them where to go one night when the were going OUT (and didn't get home until 3am!) Tomorrow my grandparents put the Germans on a train to San Diego (my grandmother is uneasy about the fact that they have no where to stay there) and from there they have an action packed week - Las Vegas AND San Francisco!
It's been fun seeing my part of the US as an adventure through their eyes... le sigh, I miss traveling...
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
An historic event...
A true blog worthy adventure - Missoni launches it's line for Target, September 13, 2011. Stores open at 8 am. Morgan and I were there at 7:05am.
Anticipating a line that might wrap around the building (we'd heard of such things happening on the east coast) imagine my surprise when this is what I was met with:
Yup. ONE lone super hardcore fan ready with a chair, chatting away on the phone, on the Internet. Morgan and I were shoppers two and three. Chrystal (our new shopping mentor) was really there for the bike (there were only two in the store and she was going to get it - the last designer bike target had sold she had narrowly missed out on). Just in case she was unsuccessful in her endeavor, her parents were in line up at a store in the bay area and ready to pounce as well. She instructed Morgan and I (total amateurs) and our new friends right behind us, Emily and Harry (also amateurs), that what we needed was a plan of attack.
By 7:50 the line looked like this:
Emotions were beginning to run high. A few people tried to cut the line (us hardcore folk were stunned that a person would bring such bad juju upon themselves). Morgan was a genius and insisted we go to a Target off the beaten path (I won't say which for fear that another super sale will happen and our hidden gem will be hidden no longer) and OH MY GOD was that the right choice. We wouldn't have standee a chance at say, the Hollywood location.
8am the doors opened. I made a mad dash for my designated point - SHOES. We ALL had our eyes on the flats so I had A TON to grab. Then I headed for the accessories and hair stuff, the homeware, and the clothes.
By 8:30am everything, and I mean really, ALL of it, was gone.
One of the many empty racks.
Our team had a powwow and trade off. Lasting friendships were made. And excessive shopping was had by all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Anticipating a line that might wrap around the building (we'd heard of such things happening on the east coast) imagine my surprise when this is what I was met with:
Yup. ONE lone super hardcore fan ready with a chair, chatting away on the phone, on the Internet. Morgan and I were shoppers two and three. Chrystal (our new shopping mentor) was really there for the bike (there were only two in the store and she was going to get it - the last designer bike target had sold she had narrowly missed out on). Just in case she was unsuccessful in her endeavor, her parents were in line up at a store in the bay area and ready to pounce as well. She instructed Morgan and I (total amateurs) and our new friends right behind us, Emily and Harry (also amateurs), that what we needed was a plan of attack.
By 7:50 the line looked like this:
Emotions were beginning to run high. A few people tried to cut the line (us hardcore folk were stunned that a person would bring such bad juju upon themselves). Morgan was a genius and insisted we go to a Target off the beaten path (I won't say which for fear that another super sale will happen and our hidden gem will be hidden no longer) and OH MY GOD was that the right choice. We wouldn't have standee a chance at say, the Hollywood location.
8am the doors opened. I made a mad dash for my designated point - SHOES. We ALL had our eyes on the flats so I had A TON to grab. Then I headed for the accessories and hair stuff, the homeware, and the clothes.
By 8:30am everything, and I mean really, ALL of it, was gone.
One of the many empty racks.
Our team had a powwow and trade off. Lasting friendships were made. And excessive shopping was had by all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Home sweet home...
Sadly, this chapter of my big adventure has come to a close. I cannot say enough how happy and fortunate I feel to have had the support and the ability to do what I have just come back from. It's amazing how big the world is and how despite how much ground I've covered, there is SO much more to see and do. The biggest thing I've learned about myself on this adventure is how much I do enjoy doing and trying new things and yet how lucky I feel to come from where I do. I'll post a longer "reflection" at some point.
As for the blog- I've really enjoyed keeping this and find that I am a lot better at putting something online than I am at holding myself to a journal. As you can tell though from my posts getting less and less frequent, when I'm doing less frequent "out of the norm" stuff, it is harder to motivate to write every day. It's also less interesting to read something when it just turns into a "dear diary" situation. So my plan is to update every once in awhile, especially with something blogworthy, so if you want to check in sporadically to see what I'm up to, feel free, if not, don't read!
As for the blog- I've really enjoyed keeping this and find that I am a lot better at putting something online than I am at holding myself to a journal. As you can tell though from my posts getting less and less frequent, when I'm doing less frequent "out of the norm" stuff, it is harder to motivate to write every day. It's also less interesting to read something when it just turns into a "dear diary" situation. So my plan is to update every once in awhile, especially with something blogworthy, so if you want to check in sporadically to see what I'm up to, feel free, if not, don't read!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Milford Sound and the All Blacks...
We took a day trip to the Milford Sound. It was so beyond beautiful and proof that we just completely lucked out with the weather. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Mom and I at the start of the day.
The mountains perfectly reflected in the Mirror Lakes.
The perfect natural mineral water rivers.
Because we got there within 24 hours of a rainfall we got to see all the waterfalls that form. This little quartet is called the "four sisters."
Interestingly enough, the Milford Sound is actually a fiord not a sound because it was carved out by glaciers.
That night, though exhausted from the long trip to Milford, we found our way to a pub to watch a big New Zealand/Australia rugby game. We are shocked at how easy rugby is to follow! Sadly, our team (chosen because we are in New Zealand and we like the chic-ness of the color black and silver fern mascot) lost. But fear not, they are still one of the favored teams to take the cup that starts in two weeks!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Mom and I at the start of the day.
The mountains perfectly reflected in the Mirror Lakes.
The perfect natural mineral water rivers.
Because we got there within 24 hours of a rainfall we got to see all the waterfalls that form. This little quartet is called the "four sisters."
Interestingly enough, the Milford Sound is actually a fiord not a sound because it was carved out by glaciers.
That night, though exhausted from the long trip to Milford, we found our way to a pub to watch a big New Zealand/Australia rugby game. We are shocked at how easy rugby is to follow! Sadly, our team (chosen because we are in New Zealand and we like the chic-ness of the color black and silver fern mascot) lost. But fear not, they are still one of the favored teams to take the cup that starts in two weeks!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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