Playing Catch Up...Again.

For some reason I have been really bad at keeping this blog up to date. It was easy when I was in Europe because it was basically my reason for being on the Internet, besides answering emails.

In my last post, I talked about my spring break plans. For my final college spring break,and my 22nd Birthday, my friend and travel partner in crime, Hillary and I took off to the west coast. We stayed with Hill's friend, Angela in Seattle for a night before we rented a car and headed towards the Olympic Peninsula. We stayed in a town called Forks, (made famous by the Twilight Saga)for 4 days before heading back to the city for the remainder of our stay. Needless to say, we had many adventures, including, and much to our surprise, having to drive our rental car onto a ferry. Driving your first rental car across an unfamiliar, mountainous state is nerve wracking enough, but when our Mapquest directions had us drive it off land it was the beginning of quite a journey.

The Olympic Peninsula is absolutely breath taking. We made it to a few different areas of the Olympic National Park including the Hoh Rainforest, LaPush Beach, Rialto Beach, Ruby Beach, and Lake Crescent. It was such a good break away from school and society in general. We spent our days on the coast going to bed at 10pm, waking up at 9am, eating at kitchy diners, and venturing out to different areas of the park. We spent a lot of quality time together and were also able to have some time to ourselves in nature. I cannot explain to you how beautiful this place is. It was one of my favorite vacations thus far. For some reason, I feel like my time there is not finished. I will return to the OP someday, and hopefully many times throughout my life. It has been one of the places I traveled to which seems to have a hold of my heart.

I have posted some of my film photos in my other blog which you can see HERE. I will post some additional digital photos below.

Since our trip to Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula, I have also traveled once again to Nashville and Chicago. I have been both places 3 times now, and they just keep getting better, especially Nashville. The character and vibrancy of that city never gets old to me, and it seems it always has something new to offer, while at the same time, becomes more familiar and comfortable.

On Tuesday of this week, Dominic and I will be taking our annual summer road trip. The first time we went we traveled to Washington DC. Last summer we took a round about way through Indianapolis & St. Louis on our way to Memphis, Tenn. This time around, we will be heading northeast to Boston, a city I've wanted to see for quite some time. We will stay in Albany, NY for a night to break up the trip, and may stop and see Niagra Falls as well. We'll get into Boston on Wednesday and spend our first day in Salem. I'm so excited to see this part of America. It is one I have neglected in my travels, but one I think I will really enjoy. If I have access to a computer, I will post once while we're there, if not, hopefully I will update as soon as I'm home. However, as usual, I may get distracted by the incessant lull of daily life. Anyways, my encounters eventually end up here, so check it out once in a while.

Talk to you soon. Happy Travels.

New Bremen...there's actually a lot to see there....

St. Louis & Chicago

Nashville

Washington DC, Revolution Love

Memphis

St. Louis & Springfield

Update

Hello all.

I am so sorry I abadoned you before the end of my trip to Europe. Basically, Paris became a little insane, and Dublin was amazing, and Hillary and I returned back to the US safely.

I thought I would only use this blog to keep in touch during my summer overseas, but since I've been back to the states, I have found that traveling has become more of a habit than a privelege, and why not share it all with you? It's also a nice way for me to have a permanent record of my travels.

Since I returned to the US I've been a lot of different places. I went on a roadtrip with my friend Dominic to Memphis, TN. We took a round about way however in order to see a few other things and people on our way. We started by staying in Indianapolis with his sister. The next day we drove to Springfield, IL to visit Abe Lincoln's home and tomb, amongst other things. That night we drove into St. Louis to stay with one of my roommates, Kathleen. The next day we got a tour of the city, and went up in the arch, where we met many strange, strange people. After that, we drove to Memphis and stayed there for a few days doing the essential tourist things such as Sun Studios, Graceland, Beale Street, the Gibson Factory, and other cool things, like realllly good BBQ.

Memphis is really fun, and has a lot of character. The musical history there is enough to impress anyone, but there is something I find so charming about Memphis. I recommend everyone goes there at least once in their life...if not more!

On the way back we stopped briefly in Nashville, another one of my favorite cities. It is such a fun place to be, whehter or not you are into country music. I have been there a few times now, and always anticipate when I can go back. There is something about Tennessee (sp??) that I've fallen in love with. After stopping too briefly in Nashville, we made the rest of the trip back to Columbus.

I thought my summer travels would end here, but it turns out I was wrong. I went on an impromptu bus trip to Washington DC with my sister to rally for former presidential candidate, Ron Paul. The experience was incredible, hot, and moving. I have never in my life seen so many different people come together for one cause (and you probably haven't either given the lack of publicity his campaign received...) The daytrip to DC was awesome, and made for great photographic opportunities. Not to mention I got to visit the Native American museum. That was my 2nd time in DC, and it is definitely on my top 5 favorite cities. I would move to that area in a heartbeat.

Since returning to school, I have been on a few more trips including, Nashville to visit my roommate's family, Chicago for a PhotoClub trip, St. Louis for Mardi Gras, and a few other smaller trips such as Athens and New Bremen.

I guess my main reason for picking this back up again is the fact that it is FINALLY spring break of my senior year in college, and instead of sitting at home like a couch potato this year, my friend, Hillary (who you all should know well by now!) and myself decided to DO SOMETHING, meaning, go SOMEWHERE! We wanted to go to a city we have never seen before, so somehow we settled on Seattle, WA. Turns out plane tickets were pretty cheap, so we booked a flight! We will be staying with one of her friend's from high school for half of the trip, and the other half we will spend on the Pacific coast of the state in a sleepy town called Forks. Many of you may know this from the Twlight saga, but this is not our reason for going (even though I will admit that I'm a HUGE fan...) We want to see the state of Washington in all its glory, which means you CANNOT factor out Olympic National Park. Forks happens to be settled in the Olympic Peninsula, a perfect location to stay in order to get to many different parts of the natural landscape. We had to rent a car, which I am a little nervous about....but we should be fine. I am really looking forward to relaxing in a natural setting for once. Bring on the rain!!

I will post some images from some of my past travels in the next few posts, and will most likely update from WA. If not, I'll talk with you all when I return in time for Easter.

Enjoy!
and take a peak at where we will spend the next 7 days!