Mom Packs a Mean Lunch

This was where we stopped near the top of Blackmore for lunch. You hike up to the saddle and then all along that ridge there. We met some people at the top who for some reason just hadn't packed lunches, and since my mom always packs a crazy amount of food, I offered them the chips and the granola bar I had left over, and my mom gave them her trail mix. We found out later my dad has his trail mix left over, too, but he was being selfish and didn't give it to them. Sheesh. 

Things to bring back east -->

Ok so I don't really wanna tell you the exact things I have thought of for us to do, but I'll try to give you a good list of things to bring:
Bathing Suit
Sweatshirt and Pants
Active Clothes
Sunglasses
Now that I think about it, you don't really need anything special.  But definitely bring clothes for doing active things and a bathing suit.  But then bring something you would wear to go out at night and stuff to wear to be comfortable just hanging out and then on saturday when everyone comes over for a barbeque.  Ummm....
Sneakers
Sandals
Prison Break if you want (totally up to you)
Yeah as you can see, just bring clothes to be prepared for some fun things, plenty of undergarments just incase we keep getting dirty ;-)..

Thats it for now, haha sorry but as long as you have clothes for doing pretty much whatever, we have everything else here for you..

Toothbrush
Shampoo and Conditioner but if you don't really care what you use, my mom has a bunch im sure
Ok xoxo cant wait :)

Thinking 'bout You

Thinking 'bout you,

And the way it all started.

You were my sunshine,

The cause of my smile,

And now I don't know where it's gone.

The sweet little emails,

And texts all the time,

I'll love you forever,

Was stuck in my mind.

Now something is clearly wrong.

I'm here, you're there.

It's my turn 

To light up your life

But I can't seem to find

The way. You're brilliant,

You're perfect, you're just not smiling today. 

Sometimes I think,

Quit the job, find

a way now to be with him 

Always. I don't like this wait.

I'm impatient and I want you this moment. 

Six days. Just six days more,

And yet I'm sitting here on my floor,

Tears streaming down, 

because six days means only

Eleven days, until I say goodbye

Again. 

I see the scene in the airport

Again and again,

I'll likely cry when I see you,

Happy tears, but in my heart

Is also, a feeling of dread.

It crushes me, hurts me,

To have so many nights

With a forced goodbye,

I can almost hear your sad sigh,

And every time it makes me cry.

Breathe in, breathe out,

But all I want to do is shout.

Pound my fists on the earth,

And shout out a curse,

Against the miles holding us apart. 

Kiss of the Sun

This was also on the Blackmore hike. I thought it was kind of pretty under a tree with the sun shining through. Can't wait to be kissed by you! :-*

X Marks the Spot

These were two jetstreams crossing that I saw the day we hiked Mount Blackmore. In a few days it will be me up high in the sky on my way to see you. :-)

A glimpse of Sam Adam's Penn. Brewery

This is a picture of one of the many cellars. They store beer and Twisted Tea and unfinished product sometimes too in the middle of the processes. But there are probably 5 of the cellars at least, with like 30 of these huge storage tanks that are probably 10ft. in diameter and close to 100ft. long. Pretty huge.

Sorry for this being sideways, but I did this quickly. This is a picture in the packaging area of the huge stacks of cases of the different kinds of beer and Twisted Tea, and then on the right past those boxes. are huge stacks of kegs. You wouldn't believe how much goes out of this place, but if you think that Sam Adams is everywhere in the country, and is fairly popular, and that this is the largest of their 3 production facilities, maybe you can imagine.

Above is the view down the tunnel I talked to you about. Pretty dark and scary. Seems like a good place for a serial killer. Because there are motion sensor lights in there, they aren't on until you get under them.

This is the less scary view, behind me. You can see how many pipes are in just this one tunnel. Its like a jungle throughout the brewery.

Hotel Room

Heres me, with my mystery mark on my cheek. This was from last night, despite being so pissy.

And this is my room! Kinda cool I guess..

Exploring Allentown

Just the path was like 15 miles, but I did a lot of backtracking and riding in circles because I couldn't find the street names I was looking for, but then I got lucky and found one after being off track for a while. I had given up on my destination and was just riding straight and then took a right so that I wouldn't have to cross a major road, and saw a street name I recognized. So it turned out to be pretty fun, the roads are all mostly flat, but like I mentioned, theres not much room for riding so I was in the middle of the road almost and the destination wasn't very cool, but it was nice out so I enjoyed it. I have a bike computer on my bike right now so it tells me my speed and distance and all that, and the total mileage was 21.74 and it took an hour and 37 mins. :) And now I know my way around! Hopefully I'll have other chances to ride after work.

Bruschetta / Caprici

Yum! Look what I made to contribute to dinner tonight. :)
The parental units say I have to start making dinner once a week, which is definitely fair.
Tonight, I just made the side dish.

The Toilet Seat

Wesley always leaves the toilet seat down, so today, when he gets home from work, he will have a nice surprise waiting for him in the bathroom....

FOOD THIEF

There's a food thief on my floor at work.

Haha whoever it is took my carrots one day. When I went to get my lunch out yesterday, one guy just stood and watched me, and then asked, "Are you the food thief?" I couldn't tell if he was serious or joking.

They even made a fake camera by putting a plastic clear cup inside of a piece of an old monitor:

My boss' office mate told me for a while I was a prime suspect, because it began happening a month ago, about when I started working. They even made a flow chart to help you know if you are the food thief:

Magic Shoes.

"Mama says they was magic shoes. They could take me anywhere."

Proof

You can't show these to anyone, I might get in trouble... ahaha

Your turn!!!

Bigelow Loop

This was me the morning of our hike, at about 5:45am. I was a tired, but it was really nice out. The next was the view of the dock and out onto the pond that morning. It's always a little hazy out on the pond in the morning, even on nice days, and then it burns off around 9 usually.

These next pictures are of part of the trail when we were approaching the first summit and it got pretty steep. It was the Appalachian Trail that went along all the peaks, mostly along the ridges between all of them, which made it fun. On the left was a cool looking section and on the right was another steep section (notice how I was ahead of my marathon-running brothers as I mentioned to you before haha).

This picture is of Casey taking a picture at the first peak. We could see Sugarloaf, all the other peaks we were planning on hitting, and Flagstaff lake(one of the biggest lakes in Maine), and a wind farm off in the distance on the Canadian border. I'm gonna work on patching together a bunch of pictures I took at the peak to make a panoramic of almost 360 degrees from the summit. The next was a view looking down from near the 3rd peak. The two off in the distance right next to each other were the first two. Those were the two shortest ones (both under 4000ft. just barely) They were called North and South Horn, and from there we hiked along the ridge that you can faintly see in the picture and at this point we were nearing the treeline and the top of the tallest mountain.

This next picture (left) is the same view, but from a little higher up on the mountain. The picture on the right is of Corey and Casey in the distance, approaching the peak. This was still on the AT and it was cool up here because they had lined the trail with little rocks the whole way up because they didn't want people going off the path and killing the vegetation.

When we were near the highest peak, we passed a group of probably 12-15 girls that have been a few years younger than us. Maybe they were doing some sort of program like Liz had done because they all had big packs and said this was their 10th day in a row hiking, and they had just finished a 2 week bike trip prior to hiking. You can see some of them in the background of my self portrait.

The picture on the right is of the three of us at the peak of the last peak, just before we began our descent, which only took 1.5 hrs because we hurried and then even ran for a mile and a half. At this point, the clouds were starting to roll in so it was a little chilly, but it was a really good day for the hike. It was clear when we reached the summit, but not too hot.

Tim Pond Scenery

This is one of the gates that you have to get through to get into Tim Pond. It is at the top of the hill where I called you from. As you can see, I took this while I was up there on my bike to talk to you, but I thought it would be a fitting picture to start this post off with.

These next two pictures are pretty self-explanatory. On the left is K-lee in the pond just down a little path from our cabins, so it can give you a little perspective on the size of the pond and what the view is like. On the right is a hammock which is also near our cabins. I took my book and read in it one nice day. With a pillow its a perfect spot for reading.

The next picture is of my book, "Alaska BEAR Tales" It is really good, I'm only half way through it, but hopefully I will keep going and finish it at home. It spooked me a little bit when I was up late reading it with my headlamp after the lights went out at night. It made me keep looking around all the time I went out biking on the dirt roads alone. The picture below to the right is of me at the shale pit. It was about a 4 mile ride to the bottom of the hill that goes up to the pit, which as you can see overlooks the pond and the surrounding area. Its a little off-kilter because I put it on a self timer on a loose rock on the wall. But it worked out pretty well, and then I rode down the wall and down the big hill and back to camp which in the larger version of the picture you can make out. The left grip on my handlebars covers up most of it though, and it is pretty tough to see.



This is the view of camp from the boat, one night we went out fishing. This was before harvey (one of the owners of the camp and the owner of the plane) left. And I missed him leaving, because I like watching planes take off and land, especially on the pond. And he always buzzes the camp after he takes off. Anyways, I thought it was a good picture



This blurry little picture is of the coyote Casey and I saw while fishing one night. It was really dark and the shore was pretty far away, but you can make out its figure. Casey thought he was hunting some birds on the shore or something. He hung out for a while while we fished.



This picture I took from my bike while Casey and I were biking around the pond. I had an opportunity to get a better picture of her when we first saw her, because we were pretty close and she was facing us, but I didn't have my camera out. And she got a little bit ahead of us while I was getting my camera out, but I managed to get this picture of her running ahead while I was riding.



As you can see, we all had a really good time relaxing, eating well, and doing a few outdoorsy activities. Even the dogs had a good time together, especially Clarke and Grover this day!!
I don't know why this is all underlined..



This last picture on the left is of me on the phone with you at the top of the hill, looking the other way. On the other side, it was finally time to leave :(. That's a picture of Willy and Grover waiting to leave in the back of Jon's car.



I have plenty of other pictures I will post about the hike we did, and then just other randoms hanging out at camp. I will show you the rest when you are here.

Picnic on the Land :)

Since we can't build a house, we picnic instead....

Mutton-busting

Hahaha watch the video in the lefthand column of this page: Mutton Busting

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy

I miss you like crazy. I wrote this out in a push pen, one of the ones from student activities, actually, but I bit the end that writes, so it was really hard to get it to come out. (That's what she said?)

I can't wait to be able to spend every day with you. With you in Maine this week, I get so sad not being able to even tell you how sad I am that you're not here and I'm not there. I just think of all the days that are going by that I could be doing things with you. I don't want to get a job two hours away, though. I want to get a job ten minutes away.

I know you don't want to hear this, but I just have to tell you because it gets me so excited and gets me through the day and helps me to work hard. Everyone at work keeps giving me good feedback, and I just imagine my boss saying "Sure, you can work remotely," and then I pack up my car, and the drive seems like the longest one ever, and I get pulled over about 5 times for speeding because I'm so excited to see you (but each time I tell the cop that I'm finally going to be with my boyfriend after so long apart, and he is sympathetic and lets me go with a warning). Then I pull into your driveway in my old blue car for good.

And after that, every day, I wake up and I roll over, and there you are. And since I get to work from "the office", Casey's old room, I get to stay in my jammies all day. So while you put on your nice button up shirt and pants that you look so nice in, I go downstairs and make some really good eggs for you for breakfast (two scrambled and one over-easy on a breakfast sandwich), and a really good lunch for you to bring to work with you. It has a surprise dessert in it, too.

(More likely, you tell me to go back to sleep, and so I do, and then by the time I wake up again, you're giving me a kiss and leaving and you set the alarm for an hour later for me)

Then I give you a nice big kiss, probably squeezing your cheeks together to make your lips really nice, and you squeeze my bum. Then we work all day, but I'm so happy because I know that I get to see you at the end of the day. When you finally get home, I run out and give you a giant hug.

Then we make a really good dinner. After, we take a nice hot shower with the newly installed dual shower head, and, after that, I give you the best massage ever, which makes it so you're not exhausted from work anymore, and you're ready to romp. Then I get to fall asleep with your arms tight around me,  ready to do it all again the next day.

And on the weekends, we go for bike rides in the sun, and do puzzles in the rain, and go skiing in the snow.

I wish some days, too, that I could start a company and make lots o' money, and then I could follow you wherever your dreams take you. You could get really good at welding, or at carpentry, and then pick a town to start a business. We could buy a building right on main street and split it, and half could be my sweet shop / locally made artsy goods, and the other half could be your shop and warehouse. Or maybe I could be across the street from you. That way, every day, you could walk over for some cinnamon rolls or peanut butter balls or oreo truffles, or something else delicious from my sweet shop. Maybe even an afternoon cookie ;-)  I would even try to make my own version of swamp ice cream.

Have you ever been to Essex? It would be in a cute little town like that. I went biking with my mom a few times there, and we got ice cream and stuff. That would be really fun to do with you. I'll have to see if any of the routes in the book you gave me are there.

What's your favorite color ice pop? I'm eating one right now, and I realized I don't know what your favorite kind is. I bet blue or green. Probably blue.

Charity must think I'm so weird. And the sister is the most important one to get along with and to think you're kind of a little bit normal. Sheesh. I'm so judgmental of Sam and Wesley's girlfriends; I can only imagine what she thinks of me. Maybe I will delete her number from my phone so I don't do that again.

Tonight, the little girl I'm sitting for, August, was bugging out when her parents left. She got in their car and wouldn't get out, and was insisting that they take her with them. She started sobbing and they had to peel her off of them and pretty much run out the door. So I picked her up (Even though she's like seven and not really pick-up-able anymore), and just let her do the big loud "woe-is-me" cry for a while, then I brought her over to the living room where Thomas was watching Wa Wa Wugzy or something like that, and she calmed down pretty quickly. I even let her eat her dinner on the couch while she watching. I always wanted to do that when I was little, but we were never allowed.

When the movie was over, I put Thomas to bed. He wouldn't get under the covers and read the books with me, though, so I just started reading anyway. Then, when he started talking over me and rolling around and not paying attention, I pretended to fall asleep. He goes, "Hey! Wake up! Just read the book!" so I would start reading again, until he would start up again, then I would pretend to sleep. Finally, after three times, he says, "You can't sleep in my bed!" (I actually was pretty tired). When I asked him why not, he said, "Because I'm sleeping in it!" and then he got under the covers.

Then I gave him a hug-and-a-kiss, and went downstairs to see what August was doing. I freaked out because I couldn't find her anywhere. I even looked outside. Finally, I checked in the guest room, which the door was closed to and I'd never gone in before, and she was in there. She was in bed watching Rescuers Down Under, so I watched that with her. I used to love that movie, but I was so sad for Penny. I think that's what made me want to adopt 99 kids when I was little, but then it would just be like running my own orphanage and would kind of defy the purpose of adopting them.

I remember one time in my Spanish class, for some reason we were talking about kids, and the professor (Martinez) asked how many of us were planning on eventually having our own kids, and like me and Liz Ackley raised our hands. So she asked all the other girls (there were no boys in the class) why they didn't want to, and they all said, "We don't want to bring kids into a world like this," and it was just depressing. I think it's a pretty good world.

I finally got another check for the stupid rugby jackets today. There are still 3 out there. That's another almost 300 bucks. It's nice, though, because at this point it will just be extra cash when I do finally get it, since the credit card is finally paid off. It will make me green like you.

I can't wait to see Maine pictures. And I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU SO SOON (relatively speaking) and hear all about your new job!

I love you like crazy, Chris.

All my love, always,
Rachel

We Found Ted Turner's House

More from the hike :-)
	<= This is a bunch of those lodge pole pines that just fell down. Kinda cool. I wonder if they all fall at once or if it's a slow process.