Fare Thee Well

We spent the month of May working at festivals. After Suwannee River Jam, we worked Hangout in Gulf Shores, AL and StrangeCreek in Greenfield, MA.

Hangout was an easy set-up because the festival did most of the work. They had booths already set up for us and all we had to do was haul in our equipment. We were right in front of the BMI stage so we got to catch all the acts on that stage which included The Districts, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Natural Child. Natural Child had this one great song that was like "I don't want to fuck you, but I got to" and I can't find out the name of it. So if anybody knows... comment below. :) Overall, Hangout was a fun festival to work. There's no camping so our boss got us a sweet condo with like five pools, a game room, jacuzzis, and all that jazz. Our crew definitely took advantage of all the amenities. I probably wouldn't pay to go to Hangout, because I think camping is half the experience of a music festival, but it was really cool how it was right on the beach! There are so many babes and boobs at this festival because everyone is in their bathing suit. Our booth was between the two main stages, so we got to listen to some of the bigger acts. My favorite was definitely Beck, on the last night. We had started to break down our booth a little bit towards the end of his set and I was scrubbing a smoker to "I got a time bomb, ticky ticky ticky tick." It was awesome.

Zach and his beef tips!

For StrangeCreek, the next festival we worked, we had to haul it up to Greenfield, Massachusetts. It was a 26 hour drive!! Luckily, we got to stop in Ocean City and visit with Kyle's family for about 10 hours. Not much time to relax, but we made the best of it. Kevin's mom made us crabs, because you can't go to OC without eating crabs! StrangeCreek is a smaller festival, with around 8,000 in attendance. It is put on by Wormtown Trading Co., which is an event planning and retail company. If you've been to a festival chances are you've seen them selling rocks, tapestries, and beads. I loved the location for this festival--- a little farm that totally felt like we were at Woodstock or something. I believe this was the farthest north I've ever been and it was definitely colder than I imagined. We worked the nightshift and around 4:00am, it was cold! I was nervous about working the nightshift, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. There was a giant communal fire across from our booth, which kept us pretty busy until around 5:00am. On top of the giant, warm fire the stand next to us had a PUPPY!! My luck doesn't stop there! Throughout the weekend, I got to serve Zach Deputy beef tips multiple times and catch a little bit of two of his sets! What a weekend!!

The Spring Fling Crew!

From there, we made it down to Spring Fling in North Carolina, which is a family/friend camping trip my parents and their friends put on. The camping spot they picked this year was AWESOME! We were getting there in the dark and we were very uncertain if we were going the right way. We had no cell service, so we couldn't call anyone there, and the roads were all gravel. It just wasn't looking too promising, but sure enough we found their site. It was nestled in the Cherokee National Forest along the North River. We had a group of 16. At these shindigs, someone is responsible for each meal, so there's always plenty of dank food. We had our mountain bikes, so we took them out a lot throughout the weekend. We saw a baby black bear on one of our rides, both of our first bear sighting. We knew to keep going though 'cause the momma was probably around too! We found a really nice area in the river to sunbathe and swim. We also found out that the Donley Cabin was not far away. This little cabin is available for reservation for $35/night and is about .25 miles from the gravel road. It was a cool thing to stumble upon. One day we drove to the nearby town of Robbinsville to canoe on Lake Santeetlah. It was only $10 an hour to rent canoes at Deyton Camp. We paddled up to a few campsites that you could only access via the water, which would be a fun trip to do sometime. Overall, the weekend was filled with good foods, catching up, and time in the great outdoors.

Heading into Red Rocks wearing our Lettuce ponchos.

From there we spent a few nights in Georgia, packing up my car to head out west to settle down for awhile. We made our classic midway stop in Columbia, MS, where Kyle has family. We had a little mishap the morning we left when Kyle left his wallet, which has both our everything in it, on the trunk of my car. The wallet flew off as we were driving down the highway before we noticed. We backtracked and luckily found the wallet and all the cards that had been strewn about the highway. Road trip nightmare! Since then, we have been battling a chipped credit card and a broken National Park pass. We couldn't resist stopping in Denver, Colorado for our first Red Rocks show! Lettuce and The Motet, two amazing instrumental funk bands, happened to be playing as we were passing through. So we called up our friend, Emma, who lives in the area and has been to her fair share of Red Rocks shows, to escort us to our first one EVER! Both us girls had birthdays coming up, so we decided to celebrate the night of the show. The skies on June 5th looked dark and grey, which wasn't surprising considering that there was a freak hail storm the night before. The rain starting coming down right as we were heading in and people were turning back saying "they called it, they called it." We were not giving up that easily! We stood there in the rapids that the stairs had become in our Lettuce ponchos that I had made until they let us in. The weather cleared up perfectly and not another drop was shed from the sky. We somehow stumbled into the V.I.P section and had very front row for The Motet. They spent some time squeegeeing off the stage and leaf-blowing the equipment to dry everything, but then it got FUNKY! The Motet covered Jungle Boogie by Kool and the Gang and everybody lost it!! We raged it in front row for The Motet and got back in the stands for Lettuce. Either view is incredibly spectacular. I understand why Red Rocks is considered one of the most spectacular venues. When you're up close you see the backdrop rock, which looks like a tie-dye tapestry with all the lights on it. From far away, you can see the city lights of Denver twinkling in the distance. They look like tiny specks of glitter. There are two giant red rocks on either side of the stands, encompassing the whole amphitheater and causing the sound to reverberate and bounce in different directions. These rocks look like giant marsh mellows. The moon was out, as if the night wasn't already celestial enough. Lettuce was getting so galactic! I was frolicking up and down in the large concrete stands--- dancing and twirling, letting my hot pink negligee robe flap in the wind. It was a blast! Parking and getting home from Red Rocks can be tricky. Luckily, our friend's dad drove us and we all hopped in an Indian guy's van with 6 other stranded hippies after the show. We all made it home.

We shot up to the Vail area, where Emma lives, because the GoPro Games were going on. We were pretty beat after raging at Red Rocks, but we went for a couple hours and caught some amazing slack liners. Then we passed out at Emma's for like 14 hours until the next morning. Before trekking the rest of the way across the country, we stopped to visit a couple friends and the Edwards Freedom Skatepark, which has a beautiful mountain backdrop. During the snow season, it is transformed into a terrain park by skiiers and snowboarders.

Hanging out with Anna and Natalie in Golden Gate Park. 

Our original plan was to post up in Oregon, but there was nothing available in the town we had our hearts set on: Hood River. It's more of a summer town, so we are hoping more things open up in the fall. For now, we got a studio month-to-month in South Lake Tahoe. Our spot is siiiiiick--- so close to the lake, sports fields, a pool, a library, a bike trail, a tennis court, a skatepark. Tahoe is so beautiful in the summer and I am itching to get out and explore the trails that lead to a multitude of tarns. I wanted a word for mountain lake, so I looked it up and that's a tarn. In addition to Lake Tahoe, there are tons of tiny lakes tucked away in the mountains--- or tarns. I never knew that until I came here. I always thought it was just Lake Tahoe. Before we got to explore much, we went to San Francisco for a couple weeks. We miraculously got to meet up with our friends, Anna and Natalie. We hung out with them in Golden Gate Park for a little bit. Then our other friends, Phil and Ryan, were out here from St. Augustine, FL and they stayed with us for a bit!! I love running into friends so far from home. I spent my 21st birthday in SF! Woohoo, finally 21! I can go to 21+ shows now, so exciting. For my birthday, we went down to Haight Street and I got some fabric from a heady art store called Mendel's.

Have to stop by these beautiful stairs on 17th
avenue whenever I'm in SF!! See previous posts
for info. 

We went back to Amoeba Records and my dad funded the purchase of a few for my birthday: Nirvana's MTV Unplugged, Funkadelic's Cosmic Slop,  and Zappa's Apostrophe and Ship Arriving Too Late to Save A Drowning Witch. After some time hanging out in San Fran, we went to Santa Cruz for a couple days and surfed. We went to a spot called Pleasure Point. This was probably only my 5th time surfing. I made it past the breakers and all the kelp stuff that's creepy, but my arms get so tired after the paddle out! I'll get there. We moseyed around downtown and browsed in Streetlight Records. It's crazy being back in these record shops so soon after our road trip and finally being able to buy stuff!! At Streetlight, we got Meat Puppet's Mirage, Bad Brain's Omega Sessions, and a live Blowfly record. Blowfly is this old rapper that is super raunchy, but he was playing at Nobby's (a local St. Augustine, FL bar) the night Kyle and I fell in loooooove. I wrote about it in my blog when we were on the road trip and about how we couldn't buy it, but we got it!! Things come full circle. We haven't brought our record player or collection out here yet, but plan on getting it when we get Kyle's truck... going to be out here for a little bit!!

600+ Jell-O shots were made for the Fare Thee Well lot in Santa Clara, CA. 

We were glad to be back "home" in Tahoe. We celebrated my birthday with sushi at Off the Hook with a gift card Gussie and Tommy gave us. We got Sake and they hooked it up with a dessert for my birthday. PINA COLADA CHEESECAKE. I love Pina Coladas... This place had phenomenal sushi and a super nice staff. I recommend!! Every Thursday, walking distance from our apartment is an event called "Live at Lakeview." There's a beer garden, live music, and it all takes place on the shores of the lake. We checked it out for a bit, but couldn't stay long because we had 300 Jell-O shots to make for the Fare Thee Well lot in Santa Clara, CA the next day. For those of you not on planet earth, Fare Thee Well is supposed to be the Dead's final shows where everyone is playing together, with Trey Anastasio from Phish on guitar subbing for Jerry. It's a historical moment in the music community, consider how much the Grateful Dead has impacted the scene.

Crew on lot at Fare Thee Well.

We apparently got really lucky with parking. We ignored the signs in front of neighborhoods that said "No Event Parking," because can they really even do that? Then we stumbled upon a trail through a park and over a bridge that pooped us out right near the lots, which cost $60 to park in!! No one messed with our cars either. It was a solid spot and we did the same thing the next day. We rocked the lot with our Jell-O shots, made a few quick hundos and turned around and bought $30 tickets. The show took place in a stadium, so the seats were kind of nose bleeds. It was a bit weird seeing the Grateful Dead in a stadium. I felt like I should have been dancing barefoot in a field. We just wandered for most of the show, watching from different vantage points the entire time. The first night was supppppper spaced out and if you ask me they were only playing drums the whole time, haha. Even though we got home late that night, we still made 300 more Jell-O shots. We straight killed it. The second night we got tickets for only $20 a pop! It's unbelievable considering the face value on these tickets were more than $100 and some people paid HUNDREDS of dollars to get in. The second night felt like they played more actual songs instead of just jamming and getting spacey. Honestly, I'm not a huge Grateful Dead fan, but I am very GRATEFUL (see what I did there?) that I was able to witness history. After the last show, we drove back to SF. The next day, we skated to the beach and found ourselves back on Haight Street. There are just too many head shops, vintage clothing stores, and record stores not to go back more than once. I ended up getting some cool sparkly tights from this shop called Piedmont Boutique. This eclectic shop has the funkiest clothes that are all handmade in San Francisco. You don't see that very often anymore, truly a unique place. We also visited the Grateful Dead's house on 710 Ashbury Street to say one final Fare Thee Well. Kyle lost his glasses (shame, shame), so we made a quick trip on the Muni to get more glasses from See... always gotta support small, rad businesses! He settled on a classic tortoise shell pair.

Final Fare Thee Well @ the Grateful Dead's house.

Finally, we made our way back to Tahoe. We've got big plans for the month of July!! My first roommate/best friend/Gemini sister, Rachel, is coming to visit in two weeks. We get to show her our stomping grounds and I am beyond excited. We plan to visit the Redwoods again, see the Oregon coast for the first time, check out some more of Oregon including Portland and the Phish shows in Bend, do Phish at Shoreline, and Meat Puppets in SF. 'Til she gets here, Kyle and I are working on some artisan crafts to sell on the upcoming Phish lots. See you there!!

Road Trip Reads

It has been a very long time since I have felt this accomplished in the world of literature!! I read 8 books since we left for Costa Rica... I think that might be more books since I've been in college. ;)

1. Glass Castle // Jeannette Walls

I picked up this book at our hotel in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. I couldn't have had a better book fall into my lap. This is an autobiography written by the successful writer, Jeannette Walls, who has quite an odd and rough upbringing. She has literally risen like a phoenix out of the ashes to become what she is today. Jeannette Wall's parents were "different"--- and even though her dad was a raging alcoholic, her parents stole money from her, she lived in a house that had no roof in some places, she and her siblings slept in boxes, and were constantly moving from one town to another sometimes only having a stick of butter to eat--- she never talked rudely of them or placed blame on them. She simply recalls the events of her childhood in a story-like manner that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire book. You will cry, be completely pissed off, and laugh out loud during this book. Truly an amazing, well-written autobiography.

2. Scar Tissue // Anthony Kiedis

Another autobiography I scored at a hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica... this is written by the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Anthony Kiedis, and is a striking, detailed account of their time before and during the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Since Anthony Kiedis is writing it, you learn a lot about his childhood and life that you don't get about the other band members. At the same time, it captures well what was going on with the band as a whole. If you don't like the Chili Peppers or don't know much about them--- this book will awe you. The Chili Peppers story is truly one of kids creating a scene and running with it, capturing the attention of the youth. However, their story is also a story of addiction. They lost their guitarist to heroin and Anthony was next... It is the story of him getting clean and overcoming many heartaches throughout life.

3. The Red Pony // John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck... easily one of my favorite writers. I loved this short tale, but I'm not sure if I understood it completely. There were tons of lose ends for me, which I'm sure have some allegorical meaning, but it goes way over my head. The story is about a boy who is given a pony and a lot of crazy, random stuff happens that I don't want to reveal and ruin it. I think the point was that people have lost their ambition to explore or to "western" as John Steinbeck coins it. I love reading Steinbeck because it puts you in a time capsule. This book was set in Salinas, CA and we were around those parts when I was reading it so it fit very well: it talked of farm land and adobes, sending me back to Salinas in the 30s. All I've got to say about this book, is it is a great short story and I need you to read it and tell me what you got out of it, haha...

4. Catcher in the Rye // J. D. Salinger

This is a book that I decided to revisit. I read it in high school, but remember it as being one of my favorites so I gave it another go. And I was glad I did. This book is written ingeniously!! I love the main character, Holden's, narration of events. He's so blunt and uses words like "phony" and "anyway" a bunch. It is exactly how you would think a teenager in the 50s would talk. Catcher in the Rye is the tale that every adolescent goes though, in my opinion: dissatisfaction with the status quo, fear of the future, depression/confusion... basically growing up. In Holden's case, he probably didn't handle it all too well, but I'll let you read about it.

5. Snuff // Chuck Palahniuk

This is a book I borrowed off our reader/writer extraordinaire, Avery's, bookshelf. I could literally read every single book he owns!! I settled for this book by Chuck Palahnuik (author of Fight Club), because I hadn't read a book by him and well... sex sells and it certainly caught my attention. Snuff is the story of a porn star, Cassie Wright, who is setting out to break the record of how many guys slept with consecutively, which is 600 guys!! That's a lot of sex in a row. The book is told from the perspectives of 3 random guys in the waiting room full of guys about to have sex with Cassie and her personal assistant, Shelia. There are tons of plot twists including Cassie's possible son and the baby daddy might be in the line of guys about to have sex with her and she could possibly die. Despite the overtly sexual topic of this book, it's not too graphic and an interesting take on porn culture.

6. Oryx and Crake // Margaret Atwood

This was by far my favorite book that I read on our trip. I love dystopian/apocalyptic literature and this one nails it on the head. Margaret Atwood must be very well-educated and creative because the science fiction stuff she comes up with is so crazy accurate, you feel like SHE'S the mad scientist. It's hard to explain what I'm talking about without revealing too much about the plot... I feel like I could write a dissertation on the book, there is just so much to it!! To put it as simple as possible, the story follows a boy named Jimmy as he grows up in a future world where unethical science begins to take over until he is the only "human" left on earth--- or is he? Seriously, read this book and find out all the crazy things that happen throughout it!!

7. The Road // Cormac McCarthy

This is another one in the apocalyptic genre. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. The setting is an ashen earth, but it never specifies what catastrophic event happened. I hate when books do that, 'cause I wanna know! The whole story follows a father and a son in the hardships that they face. McCarthy does a good job capturing the gruesome details of what people will resort to, cannibalism, suicide, thievery, and how hard it is to find food in a scavenged landscape that can no longer produce food. The ending is a little "eh" in my opinion. Another one of those times where I wished it had kept going just a little longer.

8. Slapstick // Kurt Vonnegut

Now this was a weird book! One that I almost feel like I have to read again to fully grasp. I would say it's also in the apocalyptic genre because the world as the characters know it crumbles at the end of the book. It is about fraternal twins who are considered mentally retarded their whole life, but that is far from the case. When they put their heads together, they are one single, genius mind. However, they are separated and forced to live their lives apart. That's the best description I can give.









Please leave a comment below with some of your favorite books because I'll need some more to read this summer! 

We're HOME!

Okay... so we've been home for a couple weeks now, but we've been so busy it has flown by!

Crazy that our year lease here in St. Augustine is over May 12th and we're leaving even sooner than that... We've got to be in Gulf Shores, Alabama to set up for Hangout Music Festival by the 12th. Since we've gotten home we've been busy with Spunfest II (a local music shindig hosted by our very talented friends), having yard sales to get rid of all the things I (and Kyle too) have acquired living here for 2.5 years, working a festival at Suwannee called River Jam, and so much more. Before I get into all of that, we stopped THREE more places before we landed back where we started in sunny St. Augustine.

Where all the glass-blowing magic happens!

From Berlin, we drove straight to Asheville, NC, where Kyle's sister introduced us to two incredible glass blowers, named Sherm and Carla (a.k.a Gnarla Carla). We stopped through to check out their workshop and pick up a few pendants. Carla's "thing" is peaches and it just so happens that's my thing too!! So naturally, I love all of her stuff. Sherm specializes in swirly, staircase designs. I got a peach pendant and we got a Grateful Dead bear pendant for Shannon's birthday. Then Carla threw in a boognish pendant!! Did I happen to mention she also loves Ween?! I swear her style is so up my alley. I also got to see the PIECE OF MY DREAMS, which was a little water pipe with sparkly dichro rainbow tubing, a black and white staircase swirl, and then peaches on it. It was/is incredible. I might splurge and get a custom piece made after tour when I've got a little dough saved up... a girl can dream!

Sliding Rock when we were there, if you google older pictures
of it you can see how heavy the flow is right now!

After a quick stop in the studio, we had time left to check out a place called Sliding Rock, which is near Brevard, NC in the Pisgah National Forest. I thought I had been here when I was little, but it turned out there is more than one "sliding rock" in North Carolina. This one turned out to be great though. On the way, we drove by and stopped at a beautiful waterfall called Looking Glass Falls. When we got there, I definitely felt like it wasn't the place I had been to... Turns out, I went to the sliding rock near Cashiers, NC, which judging by pictures (and memory) is much less impressive than the one we just visited. In fact, when we looked up pictures of the place online, you could tell the water was much more powerful when we were there! It was fast!! Kyle tried going down like a penguin on his belly and pretty much broke his finger (or at least we think he did and it's STILL crooked).

Looking Glass Falls

Enjoying our King of Pops at Inman Park. 

Our next two destinations were short one-night stops in Atlanta, GA and Statesboro, GA to visit two of my oldest friends, Carol Ann and Bess. We arrived in Atlanta at Carol Ann's apartment in the evening, because we stopped for dinner first at one of my favorite Italian places, Ippolito's. I had been raving about their gnocchi and they didn't end up having it! We went to the Roswell location and I normally go to the Alpharetta location, so I am just going to tell myself they have it there and I will have it again one day!! All of their pasta is good, but get the Cardinale sauce, which is a mix of their homemade Alfredo and Marinara. After dinner, Carol Ann and I caught up over glasses of wine. The next morning, we got breakfast at a cute little joint called Highland Bakery, which we had coincidentally dined before when I came to visit. It was so good we went twice. The bakery is situated right next to the BeltLine Trail, which is a 33-mile path through the city. Not far down this trail was the Fourth Ward Skatepark, which is where one of Kyle's favorite skaters, Grant Taylor, often rides!! For being smack dab in the middle of a city, the BeltLine leads to some pretty cool stuff, I'd say. Plus, an awesome popsicle stand on the way back for when it starts to get hot. Carol Ann treated us to some King of Pops, which boasts delicious homemade flavors like thai iced tea and blackberry lemonade. Next stop on our Georgia tour, was to visit Bess in Statesboro, which is a very rural college town unlike the bustling city of Atlanta. We immediately went to get margaritas at a place called Retriever's. Later that night, we ended up at her boyfriend, Kyle's (yes, she dates a Kyle too!), land. The boys rode mules and four-wheelers while we reminisced and sang Elton John songs into beer bottles. It was definitely good getting to spend time with my best friends who I don't get to see very often!!

Freakin' sweet bowl at the Fourth Ward Skatepark.

This picture adequately captures Spunfest. 

When we got back to St. Augustine, we wasted no time planning a yard sale. Even though we had one on the same day as Spunfest II, we managed to get rid of most of our possessions. Spunfest was started by the members of a band called Hot Sauce Sandwich a couple years ago and the second edition just happened, which included a ton more bands including Hot Sauce Sandwich, Michael Armand Jordan, Earth House, The Cosmic Groove, The Greedy Lovers, What We Are, West King String Band, Jake Cox, Rob Langson, and MF Goon. All the bands are local St. Augustine musicians. Since some of my dear friends are in Hot Sauce Sandwich, What We Are, and West King String Band, I can say that those bands ROCK! I have seen them all multiple times and love every single show. Hot Sauce is kinda psychedelic rock, What We Are has grungy, girl-power vibe (two chick lead singers), and West King String is bluegrass. So there's something for everyone there! I've only seen Cosmic Groove like once and they didn't get to play 'cuz the fest got busted, but they are groovy as there name implies. Kyle used to work at a bar Jake Cox would frequently play at. He is a talented musician with a bit of a country twang. My favorite act of the night might have been Michael Jordan. It was my first time seeing him and wow... just wow. He completely blew me away. He's up there solo, just him and his guitar, and his voice is haunting and totally captures you! I didn't get a chance to check out the other bands, but this was a musical event at it's finest! There was fire hooping, a drink bar, and Planet Sarbez (the coolest local bar in town) was selling their gourmet grilled cheeses... what more can you ask for? 

Serving up the artist and production crew at Suwannee River Jam!

Right after Spunfest we had to get ready to work Suwannee River Jam, which was a festival of a whole different breed. When I go to the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, I am used to it being turned into a psychedelic hippie playground--- with sculptures, and vendors selling light-up gizmos, people on stilts, fire-hoopers, fractal artwork in every booth, tapestries decorating each campground. For Suwannee River Jam, they turn the park into a redneck haven--- vendors selling belt buckles, food trucks selling only sweet tea, lottery tickets for purchase, hell... even cars for sell next to the main stage, the roads are lined with supped-up golf carts everyone has brought from home. It was truly a new experience! There was even a daisy duke contest! I was working in artist catering the whole weekend with Outback Kate's (the company we'll be doing festival tour with this summer). I was serving up all the country celebrities, but had no idea who any of them were! I think I served the members of Alabama milkshakes though... pretty cool. Overall, the weekend was really fun and we kept getting compliments on how it was the best catering ever. I'd say that's a pretty big compliment coming from musicians and lighting crew who are eating ALOT of catering. Outback Kate's... the best vendor around, I'm telling you!! I can't wait for the next festival (Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, AL) and the next festival and the next festival when things really start to pick up. 

You can feed the gators at the Alligator Farm dog food and they go nuts!

We made the best of our last few days doing all of our favorite things and even doing a few things I have never done before in St. Augustine. Of course we hit up all our favorite eateries and bars. We went to Taco Shop beachside on Cinco de Mayo and it was packed, but delicious as always. We ate at Flavors because I still have money on my account there! Flavors offers an option for students (or anyone really) to put money on an account and then they just take it off your tab. I have no idea how I have any money left 'cause I feel like we ate there all the time, but I ain't complaining!! One hot day, we biked downtown and got gourmet, homemade popsicles from The Hyppo. They never disappoint. When my dad came to visit, he took us to one of my favorite restaurants, Blackfly, that I don't get to go to very often 'cause it's a little on the pricey side. BUT SO GOOD! I went there to get their parmesan risotto and mussels, but neither were still on their menu. I was disappointed, but I got lobster mac and was happy again. I crossed a couple things off my St. Augustine bucket list by biking over the Vilano Bridge to the beach and visiting the Alligator Farm for the first time! Biking over the Vilano Bridge makes the Bridge of Lions downtown seem like a piece of cake, let me tell you! I was winded by the end of that uphill battle, but it felt so good cruising down and having the beach RIGHT there. The Alligator Farm lived up to all the good things I've heard about it. The park was founded in 1893, making it one of the oldest zoological parks in the United States. They have every type of crocodile and alligator from all over the world, even albino gators! Pretty cool stuff.. 

Me and Momma Jill... have to post this picture
even though I look hideous! I love her!

At night we hit up our favorite bars, Nobby's and Planet Sarbez. I got to visit with the best bartender, Shanna, and the owner of the Nobby's, Jill, who is like my momma! It was so good catching up with them and I was SO impressed with all the renovations they've been working on. The girl's bathroom looks like you just walked into a 5-star hotel. They are getting new floors, new paint, new everything! Jill is working on serving food from 4pm-8pm every night, which is also during their happy hours. Jill is from Greece and knows how to cook, so definitely go grab a bite and a drink! We played a few games of Galaga and PacMan at the Planet. We also ordered one of their delectable grilled cheeses. Normally, we get the Green Ranger which has apples and caramel. It is just the right amount of savory and sweet! We tried a different grilled cheese with pineapple on it, but I definitely still like the Green Ranger the best. The Planet is in trouble though! Ryan, the owner and a Flagler graduate, barely had enough money to start this beautiful hangout spot to begin with, but now that the lease needs to be renewed he doesn't have enough capital. Even though business has been doing well, music has been constant, and renovations and sick additions are being made daily... it may not be enough. If you've been to the Planet, you understand how special a place this is. If you haven't been, you don't want it to disappear before you get a chance to check it out. So if you have ANY money to spare (if 100 people gave $10, that'd be $1,000 and that kind of money makes a difference!!), please donate to Ryan's gofundme. I can assure you, it is a good cause. 

As my time here in St. Augustine is dwindling to an end, I can't help but feel nostalgic. It truly is bittersweet to be leaving this place: traveling across the country makes me realize just how special a place this is and what great people inhabit it. I am excited for the adventures ahead and to find out where the next place I call "home" will be, but St. Augustine will definitely be missed. 

Hittin' It Back East

This time last year I flew out to visit Kyle when he was still working at Beaver Creek to see a two-night Brother's Keeper run with Dean Ween and Glenn McClelland (the guitarist and pianist from Ween) at a local bar in Vail called Shakedown Bar. The season was ending so Kyle was off the hook as a lift operator and we drove back cross country to Florida together. It's crazy how almost exactly one year ago we were taking the same route back east... dreaded I-70. The midwest is a long stretch of flat prairie land, tumbleweeds, and fearing that you're going to get pulled over. We drove about 14 hours and reached Columbia, MO where we crashed for a few hours at Kyle's aunt and uncle's (our same halfway point last year also). We were rejuvenated enough to make it a bit past Pittsburg, another 13 hour stretch.

In the morning, we went to check out New Hope, PA, which was another 4 hours. New Hope, PA is the birthplace of my favorite band, Ween. If you haven't heard of them, get on it!! I had already visited this town before, but it's so cool that I wanted to show Kyle around. We checked out all my favorite stores, starting with God Save the Qweens, in case I spent too much money in what is known as "Ween's official merchandiser." They have old Ween shirts, random Ween odds-n-ends, and the store specializes in punk clothing and real Doc Marten's. The lady who owns the store, known as Punky, is super awesome and really good friends with Gener (lead singer of Ween). I got a Ween iPod skin, that is probably the last one in existence because it fits my out-of-issue iPod Classic. I got a couple Ween patches too. We wandered through Type B Tie Dye Studios, that is owned by a couple Deadheads. They are terrific tie dyers and you can even dye your own shirt instead of just buying one! We browsed in some more shops that I can't remember the names of, but the whole Main Street is a super awesome place to walk through. I love New Hope so much, it's a town with so much spunk. They have a theater called Buck's County Playhouse, that puts on shows right off Main Street. I'd love to see something there.

Delaware Canal State Park trail.

The Delaware Canal State Park has a trial that runs right through New Hope along the canal. There is just so much to do! We decided to walk across the Lamberville-New Hope Bridge, where you cross over the Delaware River and the state line into New Jersey! We walked to another state! While we were crossing over the bridge, you'll never guess who we saw... Mickey Melchiondo a.k.a Dean Ween himself, fishing!! Deaner's other passion is fishing and he even runs a charter business called Mickey's Guide Service. We got our beer and spectated from the river bank. Pretty soon, it was time to go John and Peter's, the famous local bar that Ween was playing at before they made it big. In addition to Ween, so many amazing artist have played and continue to play at this tiny, personal venue. The second we walked in we saw Guy Heller (singer in the Dean Ween Group and Moistboyz) and he shared some of his hot chocolate with us. Wednesday night is definitely the night to go to JnP's, because they put on something called The Invitational where so many talented musicians perform. Deaner and Guy Heller play pretty much every Wednesday. Someone from the Spin Doctor's got up and played too. The cool part is that ANYONE can get up there and play! You just tell someone in charge what instrument you play or if you sing good and they'll do their best to get ya up there. We met a really nice couple and the guy, Dan, who has two bands (a Grateful Dead cover band and an original project, The Bansai Bills), got up and did a song with 'em! It was literally so cool, I couldn't even believe it was real. The night just kept getting better when a friend, Juhll, we met at the Shakedown Bar shows I mentioned in the beginning of this post and then later randomly ran into him at another show in New Jersey, called the bar and ordered us a round of drinks!! That's Ween family right there and I can't get enough of it. Ween fans are the best friends you could ever have. The Invitational was out of this world and it certainly won't be the last I attend... If you haven't made it to New Hope yet, put it on your to-do list!

John and Peter's is such a tiny, personable place.

Giant half pipe at FDR.

We stopped by Philadelphia so Kyle could skate FDR for a little bit. We were sooooo hungover though that it didn't last long. We decided to just hit it to Berlin, MD (Kyle's hometown), where we would be visiting family and friends. The couple days here were spent eatin' good, celebrating, and catching up with loved ones. On our first night, Kyle's mom, Gussie, treated us to a crab feast at Crab Alley's. I'm new with blue crabs, so I am slow picker, but I love the social aspect of it. It's less about eating and more about chatting when you have to work for that crab meat! Our friends, Devin and Summer, came too and I left with Summer so we could have a slumber party. It's the first night Kyle and I have been apart in a looooong time and it was... horrible!!!!! Just kidding, I think we both survived just fine. It was good to have a girl's night and catch up with my best friend. I'm sure Kyle felt the same way. The next day, we went and skated at Ocean Pines Skatepark. When we walked up some local kids ran up to Kyle calling him "fifty fifty dude..." he's literally famous to them. It's precious. Last time we were here, I was just starting to get roll-ins and this time I was dropping in the big bowl! It was super fun and I worked on pumping around the pockets. We went to Blacksmith Berlin for dinner, which is where I waitressed last summer. The chef/owner, Justine, who is also Kyle's neighbor, knows what she is doing when it comes to running a restaurant. She has opened another successful business in Rehoboth Beach called Planet X Cafe. The thing that makes Justine's food stand out (other than her amazingly creative dishes) is that she sources all her food locally. There is a chalkboard in the restaurant that lists where she got all her ingredients from the meat to the bread to the dairy products. It's hard to find a restaurant these days where you actually KNOW where your food is coming from. If you go to Blacksmith, you're in luck because Summer is a waitress there!! She's the best server around, but ya better tip her good. ;) Later we went to Berlin's local craft brewery, Burley Oak. All the beers have funny names like "Just The Tip" or "Afternoon Delight." Burley Oak has such a cool atmosphere: they've got the ring game, board games, a vinyl night, and tons of good live musicians playing. We went to check out a band called the Pete Bozick Trio, who were doing covers of Dave Brubeck and Herbie Hancock. It was freaking awesome!! Saturday morning we went into Ocean City to make our rounds saying hello to everyone. We ate lunch at Malia's Cafe, which is owned by one of Kyle's friend's parents. We went on the right day because we saw everybody!! It was poppin' and the sandwiches we got were to die for. Malia's is super colorful, with a Hawaiian vibe... definitely a great lunch spot. The tropical decor gets you in the mood to go to beach and you're in luck because the ocean's right there! We stopped by Layton's on 92nd Street, where Kyle has worked for the past 6 summers. Everyone there is like family, they even know me after I spent a summer stopping in to say hello to Kyle while he was working. This place is always packed 'cause the breakfast is so good, so we just said a quick hello to everyone and let them get back to work.

We went to say hello to our friend, Tron, who started a skate company called Get Gnarly. Get Gnarly's the only skate shop in Ocean City. Tron hooked Kyle up with a board for a great price, just like he always does. Tron is the nicest dude and has the coolest gear in his shop. All his boards and t-shirts have such genius stuff printed on them. If you're in the area and you like to skate, go support this awesome local company! On the way out, we stopped by Kyle's MiMu and PopPop's to visit for a little. His MiMu has been keeping up with blog and was delighted that we stopped by. Back in Berlin, they were gearing up for the one year anniversary celebration of America's Coolest Small Town.

Main Street partyin' to Kelly Bell Band.

Last year on April 18th, Berlin was voted America's Coolest Small Town, so to keep up the camaraderie they are going to have a celebration every year. Berlin really does deserve this title, too. I have fallen in love with this town. Everything from the people to the small town vibes are on point. It's truly a community. They have events like bath tub racing and art strolls. You don't find that stuff in every town, that's for sure. April 18th is also Kyle's sister, Shannon's birthday! So we were celebrating many things at once. They closed off Main Street and had a band come from Baltimore called the Kelly Bell Band. They were super funky. After all the festivities ended, we had a fire in Kyle's magical backyard with the Washington Street gang + more. It was a perfect way to end our stay.

First ping pong game of the spring! It's party time on Washington Street. 

Squeezing in Oregon and Colorado

We left the Redwoods mid-afternoon and made it to Eugene, Oregon where we spent the night on a random street. As we were scoping out a place, we pulled into a gas station to regroup and a cop followed us and turned on his flashers... apparently Kyle didn't use his blinker for long enough and that was a "sign of impairment." Other than hassling us in the first place by pulling us over, he let it go and didn't mess with us. So far that's been our only run-in with the cops and I hope it stays that way.

Multnomah Falls

We got up early and made it to Hood River, Oregon. Right before Hood River, we passed Multnomah Falls (a 611 footer). It's right off I-84 and super easy to walk to, definitely worth stopping. The white arch bridge, which divides the first fall from the second smaller fall is a beautiful frame for this incredibly green view. It was lunch time when we got to Hood River so we got sammies at this coffee shop called Doppio Coffee + Lounge. The sandwiches were super fresh and had sprouts and other delicious, healthy toppings. Even though we were downtown and there were tons of cute stores to browse through, we left to go to Rotary Skatepark. Now this is DEFINITELY the coolest skatepark we've been too. I forgot to take a picture, but I've got a good skate-through video I plan on using in my road trip recap video.  There are a ton of features that incorporate natural things like a gap over a small creek. There's a super deep bowl, as well as a smaller bowl that I really was doing a good job pumping in. There's a pretty big street section. There are no posted rules at this skatepark, which is cool. There are permanent bathrooms, a water fountain, a playground area, and a bike path the leads to the skatepark. There is even a disc golf course across the street. We stayed all afternoon and it never was very busy. I'm pretty sure some guy did break his ankle while we were there. We cooked some dinner right on the back of our tailgate near on the street by the park (Wasco Street, I believe it was called). Last time Kyle was here, he said they slept on this street and it was straight. We met some other guys who were on a trip and had a camper top on their truck. We sat around a grill in the skatepark once it got dark and no one ever bothered us. Hardly any cars even passed. We had the grill up by the deep bowl and I don't even think you could see it from the road. Our plan was to skate again in the morning, but it was raining. We were due for an oil change so we ended up getting it at Oil Can Henry's again, the same place we got one in Arizona.

A narrow, rocky section on the Eagle Creek Trail.

Once we got all that taken care of, we went an hike a portion of the Eagle Creek Trail. We walked to Punchbowl Falls (35 ft.), which was about a 4 mile roundtrip hike that twisted narrowly along a rocky cliff edge. There were beautiful views of the river in the gorge below and you could see on the opposite bank where the water levels had once been and carved grooves into the mountainside. Before you get to Punchbowl Falls, you will pass a small spur trail about 1.5 miles in which leads to an overlook of Metlako Falls (100 ft.). Although there were no jumping signs, we jumped from a cliff next to Lower Punchbowl Falls (15 ft.). There are three points to jump off, the smallest one has a rope swing and the tallest one you have to jump off a boulder. The highest jump was covered in moss, making it too slippery to jump. We donned our wetsuits and plunged into the icy water below. This area was so lush. Everything was green and moist. Kyle said there was way more water rushing over the falls than last time. It's weird how California is in a drought and Oregon seems to have plenty of water. Everything is impossibly green! Punchbowl Falls gets its name because the rushing water has carved a bowl-like shape into the earth. Geologist now used the term "punchbowl" to describe other waterfalls that have a similar shape. However, Lower Punchbowl Falls is not a punchbowl type waterfall they just couldn't think of anything original to name it I guess. Since we were distracted with cliff jumping, we didn't walk up to the Punchbowl Falls overlook, but I definitely recommend checking that out. It gives a better view of the punchbowl shape. The Eagle Creek Trail goes way farther than what we did and there are more waterfalls along the trail. Oregon was one of my favorite stops, it was so beautiful! I recommend especially coming to Hood River, there are so many things to do around here from hikes to kite surfing to skating to disc golfing!

Metlako Falls

Lower Punchbowl Falls, we jumped off to the right. 

This picture is so surreal I can't even believe my eyes!! This is a view of Punchbowl Falls.

Party Polaroid at The Oasis.

When we got back to the start of the trail, we set out for Durango, Colorado to visit Spencer. We weren't planning on crushing the whole drive, but we ended up just getting those long 16 hours out of the way. What a freakin' drive... I must give Kyle mad props for this whole trip: he has driven literally 99% of it. We left around 3:00pm, around 1:00am I started to get to uncomfortable. I had been in and out of sleep for the last couple hours so I actually slept in the back of the truck for a bit while Kyle kept driving. I was kind of skeptical at first but caved because I needed to lay flat so bad. At around 7 in the morning, I took over because Kyle needed a rest. I lucked out and got the prettiest part of the drive. I passed THREE national parks on this drive: Arches, Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde. It was so hard to drive through Utah without stopping. :( Our original plan was to stop in Utah, but we just plumb ran out of time. Guess we gotta plan another road trip... It was such a relief when we finally arrived at Spencer's. He has the cutest little house in Durango that is known as "the Oasis," because young people have always lived there and partied and it has an awesome yard with a fire pit and like 27 trees. We unwound for a bit and then went to the skatepark at Schneider Park. This is a beautiful park area that has so much to offer other than just skating: fishing, a river tail, river access for kayaks, restrooms, a picnic area, and a playground. The skatepark is kind of small. It has a big bowl and a smaller one that I think was designed suuuuper weird. I didn't like it and the other bowl was too big for me. There's a street section as well. I messed around for a bit, but that small bowl was super wonky so I mainly watched the boys. Spencer had his crew out there and all the guys were pumping each other up. That's the best skate session I've watched on this trip so far. One of Spencer's friend, Luke, is starting a company/brand called Undiscovered Species. He screen prints shirts and does a ton of filming. He got a lot of cool stuff on film at the park and is hopefully making a video soon with the footage, so check out his Youtube Channel!! It was mid-afternoon when we decided to go back and start drankin'. We had a really fun party that night and we grilled out and just had a feast! In the morning, we tried to find this waterfall that Spencer's roommate told us about but we came out empty-handed.

Stacking Stones on the Colorado Trail.

Instead, we just hiked a bit of the Colorado Trail, which actually begins right here in Durango and ends 500 miles later in Denver. The section we did hugged a river bank, where there were many stones stacks. We walked to a large exposed granite wall and climbed up as high as we could. It was so steep at one point Spencer and I slipped out and slid down on our butts!! We went out to dinner at the Himalayan Kitchen, which was downtown and close enough to walk to from Spencer's. This place was awesome and the owner was super helpful and answered all our questions about the foods we hadn't heard of. We asked about this spice and she actually brought out a little dish of it and explained it's health benefits. It was a dank meal.

Meeting puppies in liquor stores in Colorado!

The only fish of the day, Kyle's brown trout.

Family fishin'.

Although I felt like there was so much more to explore around Durango, we had to get to Gunnison to visit my brother, Dylan, who moved out almost a year ago now. We took a route that was a little bit out of our way so we could stop by Telluride. It was just a town we wanted to check out as a potential spot to live in the fall. We passed by a town called Rico, which has free natural hot springs. The hot springs were super easy to find except it was like 2 in the afternoon and the only person out there was a naked old dude, so we weren't really feeling it. Definitely a place to go at night... Telluride was a cool little town that had chair lifts right downtown! It was hard to tell what it would be like during the on-season because it was pretty dead at this time of the year. We didn't stay too long and should have explored more, but we had places to be. My brother loooooves to fly fish and he came to the right spot. On Saturday, Dylan took us to the Saguache Creek (pronounced "swatch") to learn to cast. We donned all our gear, which included waders, a wading belt, felt-bottom boots, our rods, and tons of bugs (that's what they called their lures). We looked professional. The Saguache Creek was a good place to learn because there wasn't too much stuff to get hung up on. By the end of the day, we had gotten comfortable with the basic cast. Kyle even caught a small brown trout, only about 6 inches maybe but it was the only thing anybody caught all day. The next day, we went to a spot on the Taylor River and learned how to roll cast. Dylan caught a 2 pound rainbow trout right off the bat. He knows where they are waiting. My brother never eats the fish and knows how to remove the hook without injuring the fish. He always wets his hands before he holds the fish and uses a rubber net to avoid stripping it's scales. He tries to keep the fish in the water as much as possible so it doesn't get stressed out. He gets his prize picture quick and then releases the fish. That's trout conservation 101 for ya. Dylan's roommate, who is an equally skilled fly fisherman, came with us. He is a guide at a local fly shop called Gunnison River Fly Shop, so it was an awesome experience to go out with them both. We bought all our bugs from the Gunnison River Fly Shop and they let me borrow some felt-bottomed boots for free because they know Dylan so well. They're really nice and knowledgable about what bugs are hatching and what the fish are biting. Both days were long days spent on the river, trying to catch some fish. By the end our stay, I say we feel pretty comfortable casting and could probably do it on our own. We still need to learn how to set up the rod and reel and do all the knots though, but it's exciting to learn something new!

Dylan's big catch.

We're cutting across... all the way back east. Skipping the mid-west, cruising on I-70 till we get to Pennsylvania and then we've got a couple stops before we head south!