Outdoor Challenge Returned

Outdoor Challenge

From (Monday, July 26, 2010)

Since its nice weather out there Im blogging about my challenge to get outdoors! To get moving and to try and see more pretty sights while exercising.

I hope that at least once a week I can take a new picture of somewhere I have been, doing some kind of activity. 

Anyone who wants to take this challenge with me feel free to comment and we can work some kind of posting out! :)

POST ONE:
Kayaking at the Great Dismal Swamp

Happy Birthday Tessa

21 and Counting

There are certain events in life that force one to reevaluate your actual age.  You may still feel a certain way but sometimes the reality of how old you think you should be still, and how old you are sneaks up.  Having three younger sisters, most of my events revolve around their “big events”, as in when my youngest sister turned 18, the reality that I was no longer a teenager (and hadn’t been for a while) sank in.  

This last week my next youngest sister turned 21.  Again reality slapped me in the face and woke me up to the fact that a few years have now passed since I have been 21, and still in most ways I feel no more grown up then when I was enduring my “special night out”. 

With all that aside, we went out for her birthday and had a blast.  We made her do the pub crawl (luckily for her is was only two places) and did the 21 shots/drinks for 21 years.

Hawaiian Getaway

When I was younger my parents would take us weekend trips to visit relatives in another city, or take us on week long camping trips to the lake.  They would haul all four of us girls out to a campsite, or packed into my aunts house for the weekend and these would be our getaways, our mini vacations from home life and school.  With that being said I had never really been on a true vacation before this trip. 

Never had I traveled to a distant state and/or country with the sole purpose of nothing but leisure and fun.  I'm not saying I'm deprived of visiting new places, or that I have never taken a lazy day off at the river, however the idea of getting away to a far off place for vacation was new to me.  Even though Danny had to travel to the next island over to take his Navy wide 3rd class exam in order for us to go I still consider it a vacation. :)

This trip was one of many things, but dull it never was.  We ended up cramming more into the 5 days in Hawaii than I have in most summers at home.  We tried everything from hiking to four wheeling.  Adventurers we were.  Each day we choose a different part of Kauai to explore by hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, four wheeling or even zip lining our way through the lush greenery and sandy beaches.  By the end of the trip it seemed we knew most of the tiny island and how to get around where we needed to go.  The whole trip was amazing, and I just want to thank everyone who made it possible, Mona & Dave, Grandma Pat, and Sara and Erik.  Also congratulations to Erik and Sara for getting engaged during our time there!

Backpacking and beaches VA style

So its no secret that the scenery around Virginia is vastly different from that of the Northern California Coast.  Even though I grew up with the beauty and elegance of the western climate its now time to explore the east coast of Virginia.

Over the summer so far we have been venturing out when possible and exploring what the eastern seaboard has to offer. Since we live in a military dense area, there are many many free concerts, festivals and other military friendly activities to choose from.  Also being outdoorsy people we are we have been exploring the beaching and camping spots over on this side of the country. 

Virginian beaches are profoundly different in every way from our own rocky, cold, stoic beaches of home.  They are very flat, crowded and white.  They lend themselves to swimming much easier and have a better atmosphere for spending the day barbequing with friends or tanning in the sand, however I find that i do miss the coastal beauty of home.

We did go backpacking this summer as well, where there were no giant California Redwoods, or rolling emerald hills around, we did get to hike through a wildlife reserve on our way to a secluded beach campground which served as a private playground for our small 6 person group.

Stuffed into 2 tiny backpacking tents and forgetting our camping stove we made it to camp and listened to the serenade of 1000s of bullfrogs and ocean waves as we fell asleep in the 80 degree nightfall. 

Wine and Dine California Style

Bringing home to me

So back at home we used to have wine and cheese parties about once a year or so.  These are smaller get together s where everyone dresses up (a great excuse to play dress up for the night) and brings a bottle of wine and a cheese to pair with it.

The beauty of these things are you get to taste a bunch of different wines and cheeses without having to spend 100s of dollars buying each bottle of wine and every cheese.  A few years ago I found this amazing Apricot cheese at one of these parties... something I would have never tried on my own.

Anyway to people here in Virginia it seemed to be somewhat of a new concept.  I knew that I came from wine country in all, but most people our age just don't appreciate wine I guess.  So we gave it our best shot at explaining things and I'm glad we did... turned out to be a great night.

If you like wine and cheese I would definitely suggest that you hold one of these get togethers, it truly is a great way to taste lots of different wines without having to live next to the wineries.

Birthday Ball Game

New home, friends and birthday cheers

This year, though its not the first year I have been away for our birthday (danny has the same bday and me), but it is the first year that I have been living somewhere else.  This being said things were real different this year.  I ended up having a great time and all, however just seemed strange to me.

Tides Game

I was getting ready for the day and kinda realized all my friends were back at home, although ended up wishing me a happy birthday through texts and facebook messages, it seemed very odd to not have any of them around.  Dont get me wrong, I have made a good number of new friends and we ended up going to a baseball game and having a bbq at our house the day of, but it was a whole different experience than our normal birthdays.

First good thing was that Danny was able to get the day off work if he went to the tides game, a AAA baseball team here in Hampton roads.  For me this meant we got to go to the game, and all his friends would be there, if for nothing else but to skip work.  With that news we headed off to the game and tried to meet up with everyone we could, rounding people up for a BBQ we wanted to have after the game.

Luckily we had a good number of people that showed up and ended up having a great time that night.

New Home

Packing, Purging and Parting

Bodega Head Last Beach Trip

We all know that moving creates a list of to dos about a million miles long, leaving the person feeling stressed and pressed for time.  Throughout my adult life I have mad a series of short moves, mostly around town or the county, but nothing further than about 15 miles from my parents home.

Because of what I thought was my extensive moving knowledge, and the fact that the Navy was coming to pack my house up for me I felt that this move would be simple, painless and quick.... well....

The Girls and Lexi Wine Tasting

If any of you out there have ever done a cross country move, be it by yourself or with the military then you know how crazy things can get.  Between the separating of mine and Danny's things from his parents (where I had been staying until the move) and the multiple goodbye parties, dinners and such from friends and family, I felt like I was being pulled a million different directions.



We threw in a few beach trips, wine tasting trips, going away bar nights, dinner parties with family, a camping trip and everything we could think of that I might miss is California.... the beauty, the fun and my wonderful friends and family.

Armida Winery

On a serious note though everything actually went down pretty smoothly, all things considered and we only had to wait for our stuff in Virginia for about 5 days.  Yes 5 or so days without a bed, tv, computer, or even clothes, besides what I took with me on our trip out. :)

Anyway its about time we take the trip out of California, our comfortable zone and try new things... I mean really besides a short two weeks after my birth, NEITHER of us have really lived outside the state for more than a couple months (and that was all for his training for the military anyway).  So with that being said we wait to see what lies ahead and hope that good things are in the future.  New, exciting new people and places and experiences we would otherwise never had.

Leaving

 So packing and moving goes on for what feels like forever and ever but spending the last days with the friends and family seems to pass in the blink of an eye... crazy how things work out sometimes.