True Love

I took engagement pictures for a couple of friends around this time, two years ago.

In the time since then, they've spent time in three countries and keep having their wedding plans foiled.

They're finally getting married tomorrow. Congrats Amanda and Iriapa!

Summa-summa time. Part II.

Along with one trip to Gunpowder Falls, I made it up to Patapsco Valley State Park a few times this summer, dragging along whatever friends or siblings were willing to accompany me. (I guess, more accurately, a friend who was preparing for a family hiking trip to Yellowstone invited me along, and then we kept going, bringing along whoever else was interested.)

We kept up the theme of getting terribly, horribly, hopelessly lost two or three of those times. One of the days, we planned to do the five mile loop and estimated it would take about two hours, then spent five hours wandering, before a mountain biker sent from heaven shared his water with us and pointed us back in the same direction we'd just come from in order to make it back to the car. The other times we stayed in the same area and just never quite made it to where we wanted to be, with no idea of where we actually were.

My last trip, I went up with a friend before he headed back to school and we wandered around a bit, then got soaked in an incredible downpour on the way back. Then there was that one time I was viciously attacked by a wasp and had to resort to the removal of clothing in order to get it off me.

All in all though, the park is full of fun memories- bounding up hills and exploring the train tracks and picking wild raspberries and stopping to do yoga and take pictures when we couldn't figure out which way to go.

Not to mention, it's beautiful! Check it:

 

If you look closely, you can see the deer on the train tracks. There was a family of them that we saw a couple of times. 

I was so excited to have my little brother back. He came along and was the official raspberry picker. 

This is the vicious wasp that attacked me, after I'd thrown it into the water. Not long after this photo, the other bugs you see attacked it. What goes around, comes around, sucker.

One day, as we were leaving, we turned the wrong way on Ritchie Highway and ended up in Baltimore. Lucky for us, it just so happened to be July 11th, so we hit up every 7-11 between Arnold and Baltimore. These aren't even all of our cups. No regrets. 

I admit, I'm a bit of a poser sometimes. These tunnels are all over the park and if I ever have to pick a place to park my homeless rear end (as a soon-to-be-graduated Anthropology major, that seems to be a growing possibility), this is it. 

Hopefully, I'll get my summer postings done before I graduate (IN SIXTY DAYS), so I can write about other things without feeling guilty for not being somewhat up to date.

Summa-summa time.

This summer was bundles of fun, and I took plenty of pictures and obviously never posted any of them. I'll remedy that a bit, starting right now, with some photos from the Gunpowder Falls hike I did with some friends. 

Some day, I will learn that things will never, ever, ever go like I think they will, especially if it involves reading maps, but that day is not today, and it definitely wasn't the day we went on this hike.

We were (over) prepared for a fifteen mile hike that was supposed to hit some nice falls at some point, but we never made it and ended up just turning around after we'd been out for a couple of hours, but it was lovely all the same. I grew up fully ensconced in typical suburban America and never did much exploring outside of a ten or fifteen mile radius from home, so seeing this part of Maryland was like a whole new world! 

I may have a slightly obsessive personality. Evidence: I spent a minimum of an hour trying to google this flower. If you haven't had occasion (or interest) to do so yourself, trust me, it's not exactly an easy task. Bugs may be even harder to google. This is a lanceleaf tickseed flower. 

We may have hopped off the trail a couple of times to climb around on whatever we thought looked interesting and non-life-threatening. If my friend Jessie sitting there on that little pebble gives you any idea of the scale, these were no tiny rocks. 

These were all over the place and I loved the shape from the back. Mountain laurel is indigenous to the Eastern US and is sometimes called Spoonwood, supposedly because Native Americans used to make their spoons out of it. I'm not sure if I believe that or not because it's poisonous. So: If you find some, look, but don't eat.  

This reminded me of Lord of the Rings. But I haven't seen the movies more than once each, nor have I read the books, so that may just be a me thing.

Crouching Lion

Crouching Lion hike is only a few miles down Kamehameha Highway from BYUH, but I hadn't made it out to hike it until a couple of weekends ago some friends graciously permitted me to join in on their fun. It took a little longer than planned, I ruined my shoes, got covered in scratches from prickly ferns, had mud all the way up past my knees and walked a little funny for a few days afterwards, but it was so worth it. The views were incredible and we laughed more than we cried, so we'll call it successful. 

Although, if you were wondering, jumping in the ocean after being viciously attacked by menacing ferns hour after hour is not at the top of my list of activities to repeat. It burns a bit.  

Bon Voyage!

Today my little sister is fleeing the country. I'll dedicate this post to her, because she's off on an incredible adventure. I'd say I'm jealous, but I'm still busy enjoying the fact that I have three months left here on this beautiful rock and then I'm finishing off my undergrad with a semester in Jerusalem, which will undoubtedly be quite the adventure in and of itself.

So basically, seester, have a grand time. Be safe (but not too safe), and we'll share our stories when we're back in the same town, on the same continent. You asked me to post beautiful pictures, and I can think of no picture more appropriate than this one in honor of you today.