The Last Year and a Half

So, instead of writing a ten page term paper that is due tomorrow, I am going to share my last year and a half through pictures. The procrastinator way of life. I wasn't going to post much til the new blog is up and running, but oh well! (The picture above I took while driving under the Golden Gate in March 2012...yeah not the safest idea.)

After school got out last May, my sister, Irene, and I went on a mini road trip along the Northern California coast to the little town of Arcata. I love that place. The redwood forests up there are majestic.
Also, notice I finally had the balls to ombre my hair! Ye.

In June, I went down to Texas to visit one of my best friends. She lives in Houston so we spent a lot of time exploring the town, going to museums, the nearby Galveston beach, and a spectacular night in Austin (coolest place in the world I've decided). We ate a lot of oysters. We are oyster fiends. But really, I loved Texas. I would move there in a second. 

I also went REAL camping for the first time in my life over the summer. Twice. A bit sad that it took me twenty years, but hey, late is better than never! The first time I camped at Donner Memorial State Park. Here I am floating on Donner Lake. It is literally like swimming in a beautiful glass of ice water. So COLD! My second camping trip was in the Stanislaus National Forest, where I camped at the site of an old Miwok village. I stayed with a lovely Miwok family (and some ladies from the neighboring Mono tribe) and learned the ways of their ancestors. It was a pretty eye opening experience.

I went to San Francisco about a million times. Here I am at Jack Kerouac Alley, right behind the City Lights bookstore that first published his works. He is one of my favorite authors so it was a pretty cool experience for me. Though I'm usually not a tourist when I go to San Fran, it's fun to do it once in a while!
This is Point Reyes, the quietest bit of coastline I have ever been to in California. I went with some geologist friends of mine who showed me the San Andreas fault line on those cliffs in the background of the photo. We had a lovely picnic and froze our buns off in the ocean!
Fall semester I completed one of my life goals: I was a college radio DJ! I had a weekly show where I played indie rock/pop/dance/what have you, for an hour. I also got to interview some bands I LOVE like The Maccabees, Electric Guest, and Walk the Moon. They were all a lot of fun, but The Maccabees interview was beyond cool. As they're from England and the show was in San Francisco, they wanted to make new friends or something, I guess. As I had just turned 21 the week before, I was able to join them when they invited my friend and I out after the show. Pretty awesome way to celebrate my 21st birthday.  Really though, all of the artists were great, so check out their music. Also, you can listen to my past shows right here :D
In January, I went to visit one of my old friends in Colorado for a week. It was snowing when I first arrived. Gorgeous! We hung around Denver mostly where we went out for lots of yummy food, a few comedy shows, whiskey tasting at Stranahan's Distillery (delicious), and watched some good old fashioned football while chowing down tacos. One day we went to Garden of the Gods, where I finally got to see my beloved red rock formations. 

Simply breathtaking.

In April, I won a trip to Las Vegas for the Academy of Country Music Awards Show. Pretty freaking cool. I brought along my Texas friend and boy, did we have a good time! Luckily, we both secretly like country music, so going to a Jake Owen concert, a Tim McGraw concert (that will be on TV this month apparently), and the ACM awards was awesome. We also did a lot of people watching, buffet eating, poolside napping, and of course had to get our dance on. Also, we ate A LOT of food.

And last but not least, a couple weekends ago, my mother and I ran off for a spur of the moment trip to visit my sister in Humboldt. Here they're acting like goobers on the beach. It was a much needed weekend of relaxation and girl bonding time. 

So, looking back on my last year and a half, I actually did a lot more than I thought! I've always had a heart full of wanderlust and I seem to have fulfilled a lot of it. Hopefully the rest of this year will be just as adventurous! And now that I have a real camera, all of my pictures won't look like a terrible mess. Ah well, now that I have wasted an hour, back to the paper writing. Ugh.

P.S. Sorry for the appearance of my blog. It's SO old. Once I get the real website running, I'll fix this outdated thing.