thru-hiker

The life of a thru-hiker.
@neemorsworld is in the midst of his PCT package prep. He's ready to head West and then South! 
Necessities = Ramen

I love the picture poking out, showing him conquering Katahdin at the end of his Appalachian trail hike last year. 

Summer adventures, here we come. 

Film Friday

A couple weeks ago I sent off four 35mm rolls to Indie Film Lab for developing. Two of them I couldn't remember what was on them, which makes it more fun. One of the rolls was from at least five or six years ago.

For school I've been shooting a lot of Ilford HP5 which is black and white film and recently I've been attempting to do more color. Most of this is fujifilm superia 400 which is a cheaper film. I love the colors in film and the richness and depth in each picture.

I have a few more photos from these rolls I'll be sharing soon.

afternoon polka dots

I've always enjoyed photographing this one..Although, she doesn't always love being in front of the camera.

The other day I asked her if I could snap a few of her. She even got a few of me.. :)
 

  

While in London | part 1

Hey friends! It's been a while...Like two months awhile.... Well, I'm going to take a stab at recording my trip to England and Ireland back in May.

Ahh, it was such a fun trip. this is actually kind of nice getting to sit down and reflect on the trip. Of course it's making me want to hop on a plane and head back now...

I've been dreaming of a trip to Ireland ever since I waved goodbye to my dear Northern Irish roommate of one year at school. It was definitely on my list --- HIGH on my list. obvs.

Back in January, one of my other school friends and I began to seriously discuss our travel to see my friend in Northern Ireland. I'd been setting aside money since the previous May, so I was feeling *sort of* ready to take the plunge and make the big purchase - the plane ticket. Whenever on the computer that skyscanner tab was open. searching searching searching..... it became an addiction..kind of distracting when you're trying to finish out your school year.

So we finally booked our tickets with a little back and forth trying to determine the dates. And it was set officially - we'd be off for three weeks...

38,000 feet and -40degrees F tends to bring a little ice.

Our first glimpse of Ireland: Arriving with the sun in Dublin - beautiful. Several hares were hoping around the air fields.

Our main flight arrived in Dublin, and we flew via Ryanair both ways into London Gatwick. Which is about an hour bus ride from London - Victoria Station. That worked out perfectly for us. Flying into Gatwick was cheaper than Heathrow and I think the bus was 10 pounds. We were exhausted by the time we got in because at that point we had been travelling for about two days straight. Being on a college student budget, we booked the cheapest - but most round-about way - to finally arrive in England.

The sun was shining and our eyes were drooping as we swayed along with the bus, nestled into the leather seats. I tried to keep my eyes open to finally catch a glimpse of some English countryside. I seemed to nod off even when I didn't realize it.

We hopped off at Victoria station and I bought a little sandwich from a side shop to fill my starving stomach. We wandered around definitely looking lost, trying to find the bus stop that would drop us at the Swiss Cottage station. We had purchased Oyster cards upon arriving in Victoria Station and that definitely ended up being the best and cheapest option for our three day stay. Later we realized it would have been a lot quicker to have taken the tube to Swiss Cottage because the bus stopped every few feet it seemed.

Finally, we reached our stop and drifted around the streets searching for Palmer's Lodge Swiss Cottage. A middle-aged man having a smoke break on a stoop noticed we seemed to be lost and obviously searching for a hostel with our bags so he called out and pointed us in the right direction, thankfully.

After checking in, we dropped our bags off in the 28-bed room and headed off in search of food. I'm sad to say the first night there we ate Subway...I know I know - how could we our first day in the United Kingdom. but we were exhausted from being awake for so long and ready for a hot shower and sleep.

The sun was still out, but we were ready to get some sleep! Goodnight London...

The next morning I woke up ready to see the city. We dressed and headed out, umbrellas in hand. First, we planned to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace, which started at 11:30am.

By then the grey clouds let down a drizzle and the chilly air blew our hair into our faces. We took the tube over to the station near Buckingham palace, arriving there a little early.

Side note: The tube is incredibly easy to take and from day 1 we never found ourselves on the wrong train. I love how the public transportation is set up in London. They have it down.

Our umbrellas kept a bit of cold and wind off us as we walked through the park near the palace. By the time we arrived there, a line of people were already along the fence waiting to watch the changing of the guard. We found a spot near the right corner. It was chilly with the cold wind and drizzle - a true England experience.

"Tut tut, it looks like rain..."

A few minutes later, I noticed a police on a small motorcycle block off the corner that turned towards the palace. I decided to film with my phone as I saw several people walk to the edge of the road and hoped maybe we'd see some royalty as everyone does when they head to the palace... ;) A few seconds later a dark green car drove by and the Queen herself was sitting in the back right seat. I couldn't believe it!! I just saw the queen! Another lady there started running after the car screaming "It's the queen!" over and over and waving her hands in the air.

The two cars zipped in and behind a gate inside the palace. We were so excited. The changing of the guard ended up being cancelled a few minutes later, but we didn't even care. We'd seen the Queen!

Walking through St. James. I love how many gardens are throughout the city.

Once we heard the event was cancelled, we decided to head to Westminster Abbey. We arrived and discovered that they weren't opening until 1pm. We walked a little while hoping to find a good, relatively cheap cafe and settled on a place right near the London Eye.

Earlier in the day, we'd decided that one of the places we would pay entrance to would be Westminster Abbey. Honestly I didn't even know all the history the Abbey held. I'm so glad that we decided to visit. If you are in London, it is a must.  I would recommend setting aside at least two hours to explore the Abbey. They also give you handheld sets to listen to as you walk through. It's fascinating to hear the history and all the famous people and events that have occurred there.

The famous red double-decker bus! They are everywhere.

Following the abbey, we went over to Trafalgar square and the National gallery to see some famous works of art. Monet, Picaso...

So tourist, but when in London, you have to

  

our station

our nightly pre-bed routine :)

In just the first day we had covered a lot of ground: Buckingham palace, the Queen, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliment, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I went to bed happy excited for the following days. I already loved this city.

evening walks

 

I love being at home during spring and the start of summer. It means dinner on the front porch and sometimes taking a walk to the lake for the sunset.

P.S. here's a little video clip i put together from our bike ride :)

Home from school

Ending a school year brings so much fulfillment and sense of accomplishment. I feel like the spring semester is the harder of the two because summer is near and it is hard to push on with assignments. But I'm done so I don't even have to think about it right now. :) That feeling of finishing my last project on Saturday was so freeing.

Yesterday, I headed home for the summer and am excited about the next few months! It is going to be a great time with friends, family, lots of traveling and many photo posts - I'm sure. Besides all that I'll be working until back-to-school time in the fall.


One thing I'm really looking forward to is a trip to Ireland that my friend and I are leaving for next Monday! We are visiting my roommate from last year at school. When we first arrive - if everything goes well - we'll head over to London for a few days which will be a blast. Then we'll be in N. Ireland for about a week and then road trip around the south. I'm sure I'll be posting about it when I get back! And probably on my personal Instagram too.

Later this summer, my family and I will be road-tripping up to Mt. Rushmore. I have never been there, so it will be fun.

I'm excited for the summer ahead. What are you looking forward to this summer?

let's go to PEI | Part 4

When I last left you, we were wrapping up a night on the Bay of Fundy camping in New Brunswick.

The Bay of Fundy is known for its massive tidal range. It can get as low as 1-3 feet and  as high as 30+ feet. We all wanted to see this. There are a couple places that are known to be great places for watching this. There is the Reversing Falls in St. Johns, which does just what its name suggests - it reverses. And there are several sea caves that you can walk in during low tide and then kayak around them a few hours later during high tide.

To get to the sea caves, which was a main interest for us, it would've been about an hour and half drive. There were two times we could go to walk around in them. Either early around 4:30AM or 5:00AM or we could stay late until 6pm or so. We were heading next to Prince Edward Island, which was about a five or six hour drive from there so we didn't want to be pulling in after dark.

We decided to get up early and go see the falls reverse and then head to the sea caves.

Because we ended up changing timezones, got up at 3AM instead of 4AM... Needless to say we were all a bit tired.

We creaked out of the campground hoping our neighbors wouldn't be too angry at us. As we were coming into St. John's, we arrived a couple minutes after the falls were supposed to reverse. A little anti-climactic Straining our eyes once we'd hopped from the car, we searched for any sign of reversing wave.

 ^^we ate a camper-breakfast while we waited an hour hoping the timing was off or something.^^

Sadly, we actually did miss it. Even then we enjoyed watching the anhingas swoop and dive and "raft" their way along the churning whirlpools. They seemed to be doing it for fun. The sunrise was also beautiful.

Around 6AM, we climbed back into the suburban to drive an hour and a half to the sea caves.

Once we arrived, the tide was still low enough so that we were able to walk around in this first cave. There were a couple others around the corner, but the tide was already coming in over there and we didn't want to risk getting stuck. The water comes in quickly.

The day before those rocks, in the above photo piled in the right side by the cave, had fallen. A lady walking there when we came up informed us to not go in too far because it was loose. 

Exploring the caves.

After exploring the sea caves, we unhitched the camper and drove the seven-mile scenic road along the Bay of Fundy in Fundy National Park. We stopped off in several places. This hanging bridge was one.

Of course there needed to be rock skipping contests.

Beautiful coast.

Steps down to one of the falls.

We dined at The Caves Restaurant by the sea caves. Original name, I know... They also had WiFi.

My favorite icecream. 

Just about two hours later the water was already this high at the caves. It does move quick!

The remainder of our day was spent driving north to the island that had inspired the whole trip. It was about a six or seven hour drive from St. Martin's to Prince Edward Island.

I'll leave the photos and details of our time on the island for its own post!