BACK EAST!

In the past couple of weeks I finally got a break from reality and had my vacation back east to visit Stonehill friends! It was nice even just thinking about not having to wake up for work at 5am for two weeks! But I could never have anticipated how much fun I would've had! It was such a great two weeks!

The first day, I flew into Boston. My friend Kelly and her mom came and picked me up at the airport. I was greeted with lovely signs Kelly had made for me. It was a such a great welcome and was awesome to finally be reunited! And, of course, the first thing we did after being reunited: THE MALL! Kel and I are both big fans of the Natick Mall in Massachusetts, so we hit that on the way home from the airport. Surprisingly, I showed restraint and didn't waste any money on that trip. But, that was kind of my only option seeing as I spent a good amount of my summer earnings on airfare. From there, the trip only got more fun! I arrived at Kel's house in Wilbraham with a huge sign welcoming this "California Gurl" to the east coast! It was so nice knowing how much Kelly did in preparation for my arrival.

The rest of my time in Massachusetts only got better! I had my first bite ever of Friendly's. We don't have that restaurant out west, so I had never had the pleasure of eating there before. Kelly's Grammy and Grampy even got me a Friendly's shirt, and Kel made me a ridiculous hat to wear for my first Friendly's experience. After that, we went straight to to this really cool quarry. I didn't even know what a quarry was, but it sounded like fun, so I was pumped! Kel's friends Lindsay, Sean, and Sam all came with us. It was great! It was at a state forest with huge cliffs, and a rope swing where you could jump into the water. It was so much fun! It ended up raining that day, so it made it pretty dangerous to climb anywhere too high and risk slipping, so we stayed with the much smaller jumps, but it was still great! I had a slight near death experience my first time on the rope swing, but I successfully did it on my second attempt! The best thing about that day though was trying to get out of the state park. We had driven down this pretty small dirt road to get to where we parked. I am still convinced it was a road, but some argued that cars were really not supposed to drive there. Well, I guess we learned our lesson because the trail was locked with a rope gate when we tried to exit. We thought we were going to end up having to call for help, but Lindsay saved the day and figured out that we could all lift the rope over the car as Kel drove through. It was an extremely tight squeeze, but we made it! Some other Massachusetts highlights were seeing Inception at the drive-in, playing golf with Kel's dad, picking blueberries, and bonding with Kelly's cat Tutu!

From Massachusetts, Kel and I headed to Connecticut with our friend Morgan to go to our friend Justin's house in Branford. That was quite the journey! Kel doesn't enjoy driving highways, so I took the wheel, and along with that, I took the abuse of her GPS screaming at me every 5 minutes when we all we really did was take one highway for 2 hours. But, we eventually made it. Immediately upon arriving in Branford, Kelly and I decided we were moving there. The town was so cute! It was so much different from home, but I loved it! That first night we just hung out at Justin's and met some of his friends. But the main event was the next day when we went camping at the beach! It was my first camping experience, so I was really excited! However, one thing I was not excited about was the bugs! In Southern California, we don't have the dreaded humidity of the east coast, so the mosquitos don't really make an appearance. At the drive-in back in Mass, I literally got attacked by mosquitos on my feet, so much so that my friends began referring to me as "the leper" because my skin looked so disgusting. Unfortunately, the bugs were also a prescence at the campsite, but I came prepared with every anti-itch cream known to man, so I survived. I also got a little too familiar with a jelly fish, and a major sunburn, but all of my painful skin ailments were completely worth it! Camping was so much fun! It was so great to all be back together! We had a blast making hot dogs and s'mores over Justin's beautiful fire and hanging by the ocean all day. We were even able to fit a pitstop at the mall into the trip, so I would say we were pretty professional campers by the end. The rest of our time in Connecticut was filled with more lazy beach days, lots of Hannah Montana, and way too much food! It was an amazing week!

From there, I took a train and made my way to visit my roommate Tara!! We have been waiting to be reunited for WAY too long, so it was extremely exciting that the day had finally arrived! Our first stop: Dunkin! The lack of Dunkins in California is frankly, just sad. And seeing as Dunkin was such a huge part of Tara and I's lives freshman year, with our weekly "Dunkin Dates" turning into daily meetings by the end of second semester, it was only fitting that would be our first outing together. My medium iced coffee with milk and caramel swirl tasted just as good as I remember :). And then, after I got settled at her house, we made our way to my third mall of the trip. I didn't show as much restraint at this mall, but we convinced ourselves that everything purchased was an "emergency" and we felt pretty okay with it. Our most exciting purchase was Build-a-Bears we both made for our room! We were the only people in there over the age of 5, but we still loved it. We are planning on looking extremely cool and bringing our bears to the book store at school when we get back and getting our bears some infant skyhawk apparel! We are pretty excited, so if you see us in there, don't judge! Another great thing I got to experience my first day in Pennsylvania was the amazingness that is Wawa. I have been hearing all about these "convenience stores on steroids" from Tara all year, so it was great to actually go to one! I completely fell in love when I saw all the different kinds of coffee and the touch screens where you could order food. Keep me well caffeinated and give me a nice touch screen to play with, and I am a happy camper! We made at least 4 more stops to Wawa during the rest of my time there.

The next day, we went to a little shopping area called Peddler's Village. That was very cute! We walked around, did some window shopping, and ate some good fudge! Then, that night, Tara had a staff dinner for all the lifeguards who work at her pool. It was at this really nice hibachi restaurant where they cook up the food right in front of you! I haven't been to one of those places since like junior high, so it was really fun! The food was great too! It was really nice meeting all of the people Tara spends her summers with. They were all so nice and welcoming!

Another fun thing on the trip was when we went to the Delaware River with her family! Some of Tara's aunts and uncles met up with us, along with her parents, and we went tubing down the river. That was so much fun! We went on a 3 hour course that takes you down the river. Most of the time it was very relaxing, which was much needed. There were the occasional rapids that made it exciting, but it was really great to just have a nice lazy day on the river to relax. I loved meeting Tara's family too! I had met a couple of her aunts at Stonehill before, but it was really nice to spend time with them. I have always loved meeting friend's families because it shows so much about them. And though our day was pretty relaxing, we were still pretty tired out from spending the day in the sun, so we came home and took naps. I took so many naps when I was at school, but I haven't really been taking them since I've been home. I forgot how great naps were. We were supposed to sleep for about an hour. I ended up sleeping for 2 and a half. It was wonderful. Then, that night, after we were well rested, we went to her friend's house and I met a few more of her friends. They were all great, but we didn't stay long because we had a big day in the city ahead of us the next day!

Tara's aunt took us into Philadelphia! I have only been once on a trip with my 8th grade class, so it was so nice of her aunt to drive us around and give me the full tour of the city! We went to the famous steps at the museum where Rocky ran. We, of course, were too lazy to actually run up them, but we pretended to for a picture just to say we've done it. Her aunt also took us through downtown and then the whole section where the universities are. I really liked seeing it, but I have never been a big city person, so I don't know how those kids live and go to school there all year! That day, I also had my first Philly Cheese Steak, and got to see all the historic places like Independence and the Liberty Bell. After our day in the city, we came home and decided to give cooking a try! Well, our very simple version of cooking. We made puppy chow, which is Crispix covered in melted chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. If you have never had it, you are really missing out! It was delicious! We ate puppy chow, watched the Disney classic My Date with the President's Daughter, and spent the night on the internet ordering stuff for our dorm room next year! We are way too excited to decorate!

My last day, I finally met Tara's best friend Nicole when we went out for bagels and ice cream. It was very nutritious meal! That day, I also got in my last Pennsylvania necessity and had some water ice, which was delicious! It was such a great visit! We probably had the most fun at night just talking and laughing on her bed, watching stupid YouTube videos and ordering our Fruit of the Month Club for the school year. It was a very good preview of what is to come when we will be sharing a room in just a few short weeks! And I literally cannot wait! We are going to have so much fun!