Hiking in PA

On Monday, 5/28, my sister, her friend, Julie, and I went hiking to a place called Peter's Mountain to Clark's Ferry.  Part of the hike was on the Appalachian Trail which I thought was fantastically cool!!  I can now say I've been on the AT!! 

Awesome views of the river (which unfortunately never really runs blue, but rather remains brown . . . still a pretty site to see).

Gorgeous green foliage (felt a bit like WA!). 

Observed ample poison ivy plants, but believed we all managed to get through the hike unscathed. 

Even with a hiking book and three intelligent, independent women working together, we still managed to find our way off the trail, remain perplexed for a significant amount of time (even tried cheating with a smart phone, to no great avail) but serendipitously came across someone on the actual trail as we were re-tracing our footsteps. Perfect timing.  Hooray! 

Biggest downside of the day: absurdly humid and hot.  Without really getting my heart rate elevated, I has dripping sweat.  Like a leaky faucet.  Oh my.  It was not a pretty site.  Bye bye sunscreen. 

Biggest perk of the day: WATERMELON for lunch!  =)

"Hiking" Gettysburg!

The next day, Tuesday 5/29, Julie and I went to Gettysburg for a 7 mile loop "hike" around the battlefield.  I must say, we use the term "hike" loosely (the book that details the hike also includes 1 mile walks and utterly flat River Front Park as part of its "hikes" if that gives you any idea).  The most significant chunk of elevation we gained at once in Gettysburg was (gasp) 200 feet.  Ha!  So I would call this more of a walk than a hike, but it was still a really cool experience.

It was hotter, but less humid, so actually more pleasant, in my book.  I would say it qualified as roasting, but the hike was a pretty fantastic at providing tree cover every time we thought we would melt on the exposed trail.  =)  Lots of cars and tourists doing the loop drive, but we were the only people on the walking trail.   Very peaceful and serene.

We started the hike near Longstreet Tower and of course had to climb up for the view.

The barn you see was actually near the end of the loop trail.  We walked between that gorgeous red barn building and the white farmhouse (that you can't see).  The whole things was very quaint and apparently the barn houses hundreds of barn swallows.  They were everywhere!

The little dirt path you see was part of the walking trail.  Do you see the grueling elevation gain?  It was a beast!  =)

Along the way we saw a multitude of memorials,

 a real life turtle on the trail!

Relics of stone walls

And an itty bitty snake in this stream while we were cooling our feet.  I think I would have freaked out more (snakes are one of my phobias!) but Julie's reaction was so reassuring that she helped keep me calm.  She was so entertained at all of the real wild life we were seeing, I would have felt a bit moronic running and screaming for my life.  So I stayed calm (the fact that it was itty bitty helped also) but still proceeded to exit the stream rapidly. 

That stream (perhaps one of my favorite parts of the day) was actually during part of our day that we realized we were off trail.  Yep, we somehow managed to go off trail here too.  Although we do blame a trail detour and closures for that.  And the fact that the path we were on was a well marked horse path, which we had been sharing earlier.  As it turned out, we were off the actual trail for a good amount of time, but my favorite part of our little detour was this gorgeous stone house with a movie-setting rural rocking chair:

Biggest downside of the day:  I got a heat rash in my "elbow pits" but didn't know what it was at first and was a bit disconcerted.

 Slight panic when I discovered my arms were covered with these red bumps.  We were wondering if it was a delayed reaction to the poison ivy we'd seen yesterday and I was super sensitive and super delayed in responding, but it ended up clearing up after a shower and removing the clamminess from my skin.

We decided you couldn't really see the nastiness that was my arms from our first picture, so here's the zoom in.  Thank goodness that cleared up before my flight . . . they might not have let me on the plane if I looked like that:  "Ummmmm, what is that?!"  "I swear it's not contagious!!"  Also very thankful for showers and AC.

Biggest perks of the day:  Seeing all of the wild life AND hearing about Julie's Around the World trip.  Very cool and inspiring person to be talking to before I leave.  Hooray for awesome people!

Hershey, PA!!

Apparently the sweetest place on earth.  =)

Though, if you ask me, that little chocolate-man-bar-thing looks a little creepy.  (And did you notice the lamp post at the bottom right of the picure with a hershey kiss as the casing for the street lights??)  Ha!

In any case, I spent a few hours on Friday 5/25 in Hershey - yes the town where the Hershey chocolate factory is.  It's actually a very cute town with a lot of history and a whole slew of random Hershey things, like Hershey Park, which is a huge amusement park, Hershey Zoo, Hershey Theatre, the Hershey Hotel, and (drum roll please) Hershey Gardens!  The latter is where I ended up spending the bulk of my day when my hopes were dashed to join the spotlight tour for the theatre (which my sister had raved about).

It was actually kind of amusing.  I get there Friday morning around 10 am, get  a couple of brochures to figure out how I want to spend my day, and am disappointed when I realize the theatre tours are only Fridays at 11 am (I have completely lost track of days at this point).  So my first thought is: "Dang, I can't believe they only do tours on Fridays, I guess I can't do that."  And I continue looking through brochures, when suddenly, the light bulb where my brain should be, suddenly blazes with light and I realize IT IS FRIDAY!!  And it's early enough that I can make it.  So I head over, only to see . . .

Sad day!  They were doing something with the lights and I couldn't even go in to see what the theatre looks like inside.  From the brochures, it looks phenomenal.  So that is for another day.  Instead, I spent about 3 hours walking around the roughly 28 acres of Hershey Gardens that are celebrating their 75 years!  It was incredibly gorgeous and I totally lost track of time as I strolled and took over 120 pictures!! (yes, I'm serious, I really did take 126 pictures of flowers . . . . they were stupendous and this is an instance where I do love technology - no need to be stingy or careful with digital cameras!)

Just some of my favorites for you  . . . .

The start of the tour, in the Rose Gardens.

Amaaaaaaazing!!  You might be wondering if I stopped to smell the roses. ....

INDEEDLY-DO!!!  But THEN, you might be wondering how I took that picture?  (no I didn't ask a random stranger, though that is what I would have done before my sister gave me one of the coolest gadgets of ALL time.)  =)

It's called a "gorilla" and is one of the most fun, useful, and creative gadgets I've seen in a long time.  It's basically an "all terrain tripod" for your camera!

Can you tell how impressed I am?  I'm holding the gorilla in that picture, though it kind of blends in with the rose bushes.  Anyways, I had a lot of fun running back and forth and using my self timer.  I also took THIS picture (below) with the gorilla on the lamp post.

That umbrella is really cool because it's no rain umbrella.  Oh no.  Nay nay.  =) (Who's seen the "I don't do ups" comedy bit??)  Haha, but back on track - focusing on that umbrella, it's actually designed to protect our skin from the sun, and they were available for free at the entrance of the park!  Heck yes!  I totally toted that around all day.  Thank you Penn State! =)

Back to some of my favorite plants / leaves / flower / pictures:  Not everything was labeled, so I don't know what everything is.  Sorry.  Just thought it was really cool-looking.

One of the unlabeled ones.  But I adored the color combination and texture, so click goes the camera!

This was at the very edge of the garden's property, growing on the fence.  I have no idea what it is but it had ENORMOUS thorns on the stems and seems to share some characteristics with climbing vines . . . it was a spectacular combination of red and white.  I loved that they encouraged people to explore the gardens off the paths.  Allows for much more fun and discovery!

Found a new favorite tree to add to the list.  This one was labeled.  =)  It is a Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar.  Score!!  Love it!  And notice the blue sky?  It was a gorgeous day, but insanely hot and muggy (by my meagre Seattle standards).  I had sweat rolling down my body as I strolled at a 1 mph (or slower) pace.  That was the downside.

Here are other examples of the upside though.  Holy cow, they had thousands upon thousands of spectacular plants.

This one I knew!  It' s a Foxglove! Soooooo pretty!!  Another favorite.

HAHAHA!  OK, funny story.  I once saw "lovage" as an ingredient and my first thought was "Are they joking?  Is that their way of saying they put TLC into the making of their product?  Is that legal?  Can you put a joke on an ingredient list??  That's got to be against some kind of FDA standard, right?"  (I am easily provoked, what can I say?  It takes very little to get those cogs going)  =)  Anyways, I had to look into it, and I learned that it's a real actual plant called lovage.  Seriously?!   But it is true.  And here it is.  My first experience with being face to face with a lovage plant.  It was exhilirating.  Just kidding, but I did have to take a picture.  That plant is taller than I am.

They didn't have this tree labeled, which I found incredibly disappointing as it's one of the coolest trees I've ever seen!  This one was nearly shorter than me.

A place I would normally stay away from (and that was my plan as it was overrun by a school field trip. . . . or two??  Too many kids, in either case. . . )

However.  THIS beautiful flower caught my eye through the fence, and I decided I had to go get a closer look.  It was gorgeous.  And there ended up being a couple other worthwhile flowers in the children's garden as well.  =)  I was happy that I had braved it!! 

One of the other worthwhile children's garden flowers.

Back to the Rose Gardens . . . .

And the grand finale!  FOOD, of course!  This was my lunch at the Hershey Pantry and it was quite splendid!  A "Caprese-like salad" that also had lettuce, chicken, roasted red peppers and chick peas.  I was very satisfied. 

AND my closing comment . . .   I was about to say that I am still, currently, very satisfied, but that is no longer the case.  Why??  Because I had another spat with technology. . . .

I'm giving an official "heads-up" that I may not actually keep this up through all of my travels.  I sort of had a bit of melt-down midway through this post when some pictures I'd uploaded disappeared . . . I can't handle those kinds of things!!  I was actually having a grand ole time up to that point (despite the fact that I was on a computer) but once some of my work got erased, the shit seriously hit the fan.  That is one of my biggest pet peaves.  I can't handle stuff going hay wire with technology that I don't know how to fix. 

Anybody else use blogger and know why some of the pictures you upload turn to pictures of a camera?  How do I stop that from happening? 

Anyways, I've calmed down again now.  =)  Off to get ready for a "white" party.  I'd never heard of such a thing, but it's apparently an all white theme, from clothing to food.  Good thing brie is white.  =)  Happy Day!

Realizations

Warning: This is a picture-less post.  Proceed at your own risk......

I have come to a few realizations recently.  Four to be exact:

1.)  I leave for Iceland tomorrow night!!  Holy Shlamola!!  This still doesn't feel real.  When will it feel real?  Do I have to land in Paris?  Do I simply have to be on the plane?  It's ridiculously bizarre.  I feel like I've only been off work for a week and I still feel like I'm just going to be back at the club any day now. 

Hard to believe that my grand "European Adventure" is about to begin . . . though I definitely had another melt down today, so part of my brain recognizes the reality at hand.  This one was not due to technology (although I was definitely frustrated after 5 hours on the computer today), but I feel like all of the prep work I did to avoid those "oh shit, I need to take care of that" moments have not been as successful as I had hoped.  In part due to my own ignorance, in part due to unexpected crap...... Getting doctor bills from January that insurance won't pay (NOW you tell me) and letters about changes to accounts taking place that are our of my control but that need to be taken care of now.  Why now?!  Why right before I'm about to leave?!  Chalk it up to Murphy's Law.

2.)  Lining up work with farmers for WWOOF-ing is going to be more challenging than I was expecting.  I got incredibly excited last Friday when I first started looking at farms in Ireland, and emailed a few of the ones that entice me the most, but have yet to hear back.  After reading a lot of forums, it appears this is one of the biggest challenges / gripes for people: waiting to hear back from farmers (who are sometimes waiting to hear back from other WWOOF-ers.  Vicious cycle).  In any case, I still have very high hopes, and almost every farm I've read about sounds appealing.  As I read the descriptions, I just want to shout out: "Yes Please!" with my hand waving wildly in the air.  (There is even one small family farm that just started an at-home bakery . . . heck yes!!!) We'll see what happens!!

3.)  8 hours of sleep is still simply not possible if I want to do everything I want to do.  That sounds weird, but basically 16 hours is not enough time.  As ridiculous as that sounds.  It's true. And I realize that even though none of those 16 hours are spent working, when I will be in a new place with tons of explorations at hand, spending 8 hours sleeping will not fly (I've already been struggling to get 8 and I'm not even in Europe yet!!).  SO I'm modifying to 6 hours of sleep 5 days/week, as I know that I still feel good on 6 hours of sleep with 2 nights/week of 8 hours.  There.  That is my compromise!

4.)  My ankle is STILL really bugging me.  GRRRRR.  I'm so frustrated about it.  4 weeks with NO running didn't fix it, so I've been gradually progressing back up from 5 x 2 minute bouts of running to 4 x 7 minute bouts.  It's incredibly disappointing to have to limit my running so much, but I realize that right now I need to focus on getting my stupid ankle back to 100% rather than a time goal for a 5K.  So my new immediate running goal is to have all my runs be pain free, and all the walking, standing, balancing, etc . . . of the rest of the day be painless as well.  PAIN FREE here I come!   As part of this goal I've become very diligent about icing.  I will maintain 3 x 15 minutes/day of icing.  There. I hold myself accountable.

Loves

I felt like there were too many pictures to put in my last post, which was quickly becoming monstrous, so I decided to do a post simply about some of the things I love!  =)

1.) Beautiful Parks

2.) Willow Trees

3.) Ducks (and willow trees again.  I belive that watching ducks is one of the most relaxing things of all time.)

4.)  Blue sky with cool clouds

5.) Cool Bridges (especially making cool bridges look fuzzy in the background, when you have a cool plant to focus on in the foreground.)  Score on both counts!  =)

6.)  Cute dogs (yes, I had to put another picture of her up.  Remember, I have over 20, so I'm still restraining myself.  Ha!)

7.)  My sister's cats (this one is Siao-Pao . . . . she is like a dog in a cat's body)

and very inquisitive =)

Can you tell I was on a photo kick?  She is SO CUTE!!!  I have been distracted many times the last two days, and spent lots of time petting her (hours, even, perhaps??!).  She is a little bit of an attention whore, and incredibly loveable.  The other cat, Mai-Tai is much more prissy and has decided that I am yet unfit to pet her.  We'll see if she warms up to me before I leave.

OH and I'm going to make this my number one love, even though I don't have a picture of it and technically already have #1 on this list (though this list is in no particular order).  But!!!  One of my all-time favorite things to do is run in the rain, which I oddly have not done in far too long (I know, bizarre, even living in Seattle).  So yesterday I went for a run and got to experience a good old fashioned downpour.  I was drenched and it was fabulous!!  The only down side is sweat in the eyes.  Ouch, that stings a wee bit.  Speaking of running . . . this will bring me to my next post . . .