Being thrown into the hectic fire that is law school can be a bit overwhelming. That's why a few weeks into school, a few of us started to get a little crazy and were itching to get out of town. We decided to go camping atCrater Lake since most of us had never been. The whole trip was about 24 hours, just long enough that we got to run around and do everything we wanted to do, but short enough not drive each other crazy.
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For one last hurrah before starting school, A and I decided to go camping in Olympic National Park up in Washington State. I didn't know much about Olympic but I soon discovered that the national park is so big, you can camp in the mountains, rainforest or on the beach! And not wanting to miss out on any of that, A and I decided that the best thing to do was camp one night in each of the ecosystems.
After I got back from D.C., I only had a week in Southern California before I had to drive back to Oregon for school. Normally I would spend my visits home, seeing close friends, family and eating at all my favorite places/new places I've been dying to try. And normally, I would have either my sister or my best friend with me for these activities. Unfortunately, on this trip home, both of them decided they were going to be out of town for most/the whole time! (Can you say loner????)
Once I returned to D.C. from from my east coast "road trip", I only had two days left before flying back to California. I spent those two days doing some work, packing and crossing off a few things on my DC bucket list, such as beer tasting at Mad Fox Brewing, swimming at the Beach exhibit and walking around the National Mall one last time. For those of you who don't know, the Beach is a huge ball pit in the middle of the National Building Museum, set to imitate the beach. Kids and adults of all sizes could jump in/swim/get lost in there. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone in the DC area. It was so fun to just jump in, roll around and act like a kid again! I concluded my last day in DC by getting some Shake Shack custard and walking around the National Mall for a final time. It was such a bittersweet day because while D.C. has and always will have a special place in my heart, I was more than ready to come home to the west coast (aka I was in need of some real Mexican food, hiking and hoppy west coast beer). I also wasn't too sad because I know that my future job will eventually bring me back to DC. So thank you D.C. for another amazing summer and I will see you again soon!
I'll be honest, when I was planning this trip I was a little hesitant to put New York on the list. I've been to New York a few times and so I debated about forgoing this stop and picking a city I'd never been to instead. What won me over was the 9/11 memorial and the fact that every time I visited, it still hadn't been completed. It was something that I really wanted to see, since I remember the area when it was all still rubble. I also wanted really wanted to visit Brooklyn Brewery, obviously, and to walk around Central Park because I had been dying to get outside and do some hiking all summer.
The third stop on my east coast adventure was Portland, Maine. I have always wanted to visit what I like to call "the other Portland" because of its beer, and because I was curious to see how it compared to the Portland I've come to know and love. During this trip I had my first experience with Airbnb because of the lack of a hostel and the high price of hotels in the area. I ended up staying with a lovely woman named Sarah and her daughter in the cutest house in South Portland. I highly recommend staying with her if you are traveling alone in Portland. (you can find her Airbnb profile here) And as a bonus, her upstairs tenant is the brewer/owner of Funky Bow Brewery! So it was fun to go beer tasting all day and then come home and talk beer with a brewer.
I know what you're thinking.....Vermont? Why??? And I would respond- I have no idea, I just woke up and decided that I would like to visit Vermont. Well, as it turns out, after doing some research, Vermont actually has a lot of cool places to see and things to do, like eat your weight in maple syrup, go lake swimming and visit breweries! While the ideal plan was to spend more than one day in Vermont and take a brew bus for those breweries outside of major towns, scheduling conflicts did not allow me that luxury.
Ok so quick (actually, it'll probably be really long) apology as to why I have been MIA recently. If you have been following me on either of my instragrams, you will see that I have been doing quite a bit of traveling this past month. In one month, I traveled up the east coast by bus, packed up my life in DC, flew home to Southern California to see family, drove 1000 miles and moved back to Oregon, took a drive up the Oregon coast and went camping on the Olympic Peninsula. To say that life has been pretty hectic would be an understatement, but I'm glad to be starting school again and getting back into a routine because it means having more time to catch up on the blog and show you some amazing stuff from my recent trips. So sit tight and I apologize again, because I'm about to blow up your feeds with all my blog posts in these next upcoming weeks! Enjoy!
When I learned I'd be spending the summer on the east coast, one of the things I was most excited about was being able to visit all of the east coast breweries. More specifically, I was excited to finally be able to visit Dogfish Head. For those of you who don't know, Dogfish is located in Milton, Delware, and it about a 2.5 hour drive from D.C. Because there is no public transportation or bus from D.C. to Dogfish, I had been trying to find another cheap way to visit them all summer. I ended up just sucking it up and renting a car.
Last week, I decided that I needed to get out of the city. So I hopped on a bus to Philly for the day. Due to bus schedules, I was only able to spend about 8 hrs in the city. Luckily, I had been to Philly a few times before, so I knew where everything I wanted to see was located. I started by checking out Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center. I came back at the end of the day to see the Liberty Bell when the line was shorter. Afterwards, it was off to get a Philly cheese steak from my favorite place, Jim's on South, but the line was too long and I was short on time. I continued walking around and ended up on harbor and was amazed at what the city had done with it. They had set up lights, hammocks and chairs, and food stands along the water! The pictures I took don't do it justice!
A few weeks ago I had the chance to visit Arlington Cemetery, Old Town Alexandria and the DC Zoo. That Saturday, I visited Arlington and Old Town Alexandria in Virginia. It was humbling to see the resting places of so many great people such as JFK and various Supreme Court Justices. After walking around Arlington, I headed towards Old Town Alexandria for lunch. I love Old Town, especially King Street because of all of the cute little shops and places to eat. It's a great place to see a historic colonial town if you are visiting DC and are short on time. I also paid a visit to Port City brewery, which by the way, has some delicious beer. On Sunday, I decided to visit the zoo. If you know me, you know I love zoos and will go any chance I get. The DC Zoo is one of my favorites because it is one of the few zoos in the U.S that has pandas and its free! (Yay for broke grad students like me!)
I apologize for dropping the ball on blogging yet again, but these last few weeks in DC have been nothing shy of busy. I have been completely swamped working for my internship and working for school. It's tough being a adult. Luckily, I have somehow managed to get my butt out of bed on the weekends to explore the city, despite being exhausted beyond max. So far I've been able to see the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Capitol, the Monuments, Eastern Market, the Navy Yard and Georgetown. And to take a break from sightseeing and being in the blazing heat (thanks humidity!), I've also been able to visit some of the local breweries, such as Capitol City, DC Brau and Atlas.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you would see that I left California awhile ago and have actually been in D.C for over a week. I apologize for the late post but moving across the country, doing stuff for school and trying to see as many sites as possible before work started kept me very busy last week. Anyways, back to what I was trying to say......
Last week A and I decided to do one last hike before I left for California and D.C. We decided on Smith Rock State Park, about 35 minutes north of Bend. This place had been on our list for a long time so it was nice to finally be able to visit. We walked along the rim of the park for a bit and then did the Misery Trail, which is about a one mile trail uphill. Let me tell you, they don't call it the Misery Trail for nothing! Afterwards we were craving a burger and beer, so the obvious choice was to head to Bend. Although we didn't stay in Bend long, it was awesome to finally try some of the famous Bend beer. I can't wait to come back in the fall and do the Bend Ale Trail correctly.
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