The Adventure Continues

It's been over a year since I last posted anything, and I'm not even sure that anyone still reads this, but I guess now is as good a time as ever to re-cap what has been a pretty amazing travel year. After I cam back from studying abroad, I realized that I wanted to do so much more traveling in the U.S. I gained an immense appreciation for the diversity that these 50 states offer. I visited two new states, chipping away at my goal of all 50 by 40, spent some time in some familiar ones, and even made it down to Mexico. Looking back, I can't even believe how much I've done this year (and technically the year isn't even over!): Jazz Fest in New Orleans, a family reunion in Idaho, a wedding in Oregon, my first trip to Mexico, visiting friends in New York and DC, and countless California road trips in between.Oh, and I BECAME A COLLEGE GRADUATE!

So much love

This post (it's gonna be a long one) is dedicated to my parents, because frankly, without them, none of this would even have been possible.

May- New Orleans

Let's start with Jazz Fest in the Big Easy. This started as a dream born in Neema and Macie's dorm room and, as seniors, we finally made it a reality. Poetic, right? Thanks to the generosity of Macie's family, we were able to stay in NOLA for 5 days, and it definitely did not disappoint. I was with Neema, Macie, and Michelle, so no matter what we did, it was going to be a blast. But, boy o boy, New Orleans sure knows how to show a group of fun-loving girls a good time. There's something about that city that just hooked me. From the moment I set foot in the rain soaked French Quarter, I knew it was a special place.

The music. Oh my god, the music. I cannot get over how fantastic and full of life it was, not just at the festival, but on the streets and in the bars too. On the final day of Jazz Fest, Trombone Shorty put on the best live show that I have ever experienced and I could not have been more happy to spend it with the homegirls.Then comes the food. The food was equally as incredible as the music! I ate just about everything I could get my hands on. I have this rule about food when I travel: all dietary bets are off. I guess it's kind of a rule to break all normal rules. Just, eat.

Drinking Hurricanes

A po' boy loaf. A sandwich basically as tall as Macie

BEIGNETS!!!!

My man, Trombone Shorty

June- Idaho

Pretty soon after graduation, I headed up to Washington and Idaho for my grandma's 90th birthday and family reunion. Yes, that is correct, 90th birthday! She is SUCH a badass and continues to inspire me every day. I don't have a picture, but so many relatives turned up to celebrate my grandma's birthday, it was pretty awesome. We rented a house in Northern Idaho, just south of Coeur d'Alene, and spent 4 days hanging out and enjoying nature and each other's company.

Lillian Wren <3

The cousins

August- Oregon

Ahhh, Portland. I made my way up to the beautiful Pacific Northwest in August for Aly and Glenn's wedding. It was a really beautiful ceremony and the reception was super fun, lots of beer and good music. I just really like weddings, they are such a happy time. It's always great to catch up with family friends who you don't get to see all the time too. Last year, there was a mini-volleyballers reunion for Melanie and Nick's wedding, this seems to be becoming a trend. WHO will be next? Lord knows it's not me.

Powell's, the world's largest bookstore.

My kind of place

October- Mexico, New York, and Washington D.C.

Literally the day after I graduated, I got started working full-time. By the time October rolled around, I was ready for a break. I know in the grand scheme of things, I probably didn't really need a vacation from work, but I needed a mental break. There was no better place than Cabo San Lucas to just relax and let my mind wander. Cabo can be summed up in three words: sun, booze, and pools. It's been a really long time since I have been on an actual "vacation" and I gotta say, it was pretty nice. I've talked to countless people about the distinction between travel, even if it's for pleasure, and vacation. Although I am an avid traveler, it's nice to throw some real relaxing vacations in there.

At the ripe old age of 21, I finally made it down to the Motherland for the first time ever. It seems like a crime that I had never been to Mexico before, it's so close and I am half Mexican. Pushing that aside for now though, I finally made it and it was pretty spectacular. As I mentioned before, boozing it up in a pool while soaking up some rays was the main goal of this trip; not an entirely "Mexican" experience. Although it was awesome, this only left me with an even bigger desire to return and explore a little bit more.

HEAVEN IN A BOWL! (aka pozole)

The Pacific side get a pretty gnarly shore break

Bobby and me on the booze cruise

After Mexico, I was home for 10 hours and then I hopped on another place. Destination: Washington D.C. to visit Macie. Remember that time when the U.S. government shut down? Yeah, it was timed perfectly with my D.C. trip. Then again, I was with Neema (also visiting) and Macie, so I didn't really care all that much; I was happy to just be roaming the streets with the coolest people I know. I got lucky though, because at the end of my trip, the government re-opened! As soon as that happened,  I absolutely took advantage of all the free museums and exhibits that are paid for by the feds. I had been to D.C. once before in 5th grade, but all I really remembered was visiting the capitol and going to Arlington cemetery. This time around, I got a real feel for the city. D.C. is a pretty cool place and I can definitely see myself living there at some point, especially, as I have been told by everyone, if I want to work internationally.

The two best friends that anybody could have!

So much SASS!

We were a walking ad for diversity

!!!

The Capitol Building

Lookin up at the National Gallery of Art

Museum of Natural History

Georgetown <3

We take pictures in front of the White House

Since I was on the East Coast for slightly over a week, I considered myself too close to NYC to not go. So, I hopped on a bus in D.C. and 4 hours later I had arrived. New York City, the Big Apple, I felt like I already knew it, even though I've never been before. I was staying with Paula, my old co-worker, but since she had work during the day, I was on my own in terms of roaming the city. For about 1.5 days (unfortunately it was that quick of a trip) I ran around Manhatten trying to see everything there is to see. I believe I was successful: Times Square, United Nations Plaza, Tudor City, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building (such an incredible piece of architecture!), the Empire State Building (AND I rode the elevator all the way to the 80-something floor to the observation deck), shopping on 5th avenue, so much street food, the Staten Island Ferry and therefore a free view of Lady Liberty, the subway, the meatpacking district, the Highline, the MoMA, Central Park, Union Square, and some live music in a local bar. BOOM, done. That's how you do New York in less than two full days. Obviously, there is so much more to see and do and I don't doubt that I'll be back.

The view from the top of the Empire State Building

Just a gigantic piece of sand art

Passing by the Statue of Liberty

The Highline, probably one of my favorite spots

Jackson. Pollock. woah.

Perched on some rocks at Central Park

Listening to a samba jazz band with Katrina!

So that just about sums up 2013. Considering I was a full time student and then a full time employee for the entirety of the year, I think I did pretty damn well. Here's to hoping that 2014 will be just as exciting!

Ain't Nothing Better than the Summer in the Northwest

Traveling for 13 months in South America left me with a craving to explore the immense land that is my home country, the USofA. I have done a decent amount of US exploring but a hefty amount of it was when I was really little, so it kind of doesn't count. As soon as I got back to California I was ready to leave again, not because I don't like it, I LOVE California, but because I really had the travel bug. My destination- the Pacific Northwest. This little road trip was all made possible thanks to my grandma. She was nice enough to give me her car when she decided that it was time to stop driving, so I flew up to Spokane and then drove the car back to Berkeley over the course of about a week. The drive could be done in 2 days, but I found myself wishing I had spent an entire month cruising down the coastal highways.

Spokane, as some of you may know, is by no means the nicest city in America. In fact, a friend threw around the name Spokompton because of its reputation for being dirty and extremely dangerous. Nonetheless my 89 year old grandma has lived there for years and still finds it an enjoyable place. One positive, people are extremely nice there. Literally everywhere we went people helped us with smiles on their faces and seemed way friendlier than anything you'll find in the bay area (I hate to knock my hood, but its true). It was a great 2 day visit with grams before I was off to Seattle with Scout, yup, that's what I named my car.

Driving from Spokane to Seattle I took a little detour south to visit Mt. Rainier National Park. Even though it made the drive about 3 hours longer, it was such a good decision! Driving across Washington is so beautiful! I liked that I was alone because I could stop wherever and whenever I wanted, plus I was able to sing along to my music without anyone critiquing my pitch :) Add in lots of road blocks and construction and about a million vista points and I was stopping quite often just to soak it all up, breath in that clean and crisp mountain air, ahhhhhh.

Wildflower Season :)

After stopping at Mt. Rainier and doing a little hiking, I continued onto Seattle. Well actually I was couchsurfing in Olalla, Washington, which is right across from Seattle. You get to take a ferry to get across! Staying with my couch surfing hosts, Kevin and Sara, was a great experience! They were extremely open and generous people who willingly allow tons of couchsurfers to crash at their house every night. It was basically like a hostel, but it was free. Couchsurfing is so awesome and I honestly feel like I’ll look there before I search for hostels in my future travels. Sara was basically my travel agent and told me all the cool things to see and do in Seattle, the cool neighborhoods to visit, places to eat, free things to see that were just as awesome as things that required $30 entrance tickets. I spent the night there and in the morning woke up nice and early to maximize my time in Seattle!

What a beautiful city that it, Seattle. I completely fell in love with it. Everyone kept telling me that it’s just because I had a stroke of good luck with the gorgeous weather, which is probably true, but if that’s what the summer is like, dayummmm, I wanna be there. I did all the touristy stuff, including the Space Needle (which blew my mind!), roamed some unconventional streets, saw the fish fly in Pike Place Market, took a nap in the Olympic Sculpture park, and then I got a local to take me around to some other cool sites. This isn’t just some random person I walked up to on the street, but actually my friend Dylan I met in Ecuador! This is why traveling is so great, so many connections all over the world. Anyway, I hopped on a bus out to by where Dylan lives during rush hour, bad decision. It took forever, forever. Traffic was so ridiculous. When I finally got there, we went to some typical spots for Seattleites. Green Lake was beautiful and right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, how cool! We ate at Dick’s Burgers, the In-n-Out “equivalent”, it was pretty good, but there’s just no comparison. Then, we went to Gas Works Park. O.m.g. We sat on the side of the hill at the park with an unrivaled view of the Seattle skyline and watched the sun go down. I was completely mesmerized. I ended up missing the last ferry to Olalla, which may or may not have been a conscious decision, and kicked it with Dylan and his friends for the night.

This thing called the Space Needle

The view from the Top

Looking out from Gas Works Park

In the morning, I caught the ferry back to Olalla, there were a few minor complications, said my goodbyes at Kevin and Sara’s house, and packed up the car to head to Portland. Once again, a beautiful drive. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, ah love it. I have no idea why there was so much traffic, but there was a TON. I was stopped on multiple occasions, just rocking out to my Pearl Jam “Ten” tape. I was headed to the Portland airport to pick up my momma who was going to drive the last few bits with me! I ended up only being about 30 minutes late, but I got her and we drove off to Beth and Steve’s house. The Marchi-Youngs have been family friends since before I was born so it was really great to see them. Dinner at their house was like a mini reunion, people who my mom played volleyball with back in Sf showed up and it was just a great visit. Unfortunately it was only for 1 night. All that means is that I have to go back sometime soon.

In the morning my mom and I set out for the Oregon coast. We drove through some wine country to get there, but all I was focused on were those huge, dark, ominous clouds ahead of us. Sure enough those clouds were parked on the entire coastline. It was still really pretty scenery with breathtaking views of the ocean, but the constant rain made the drive a little harder. C’mon, you want me to focus on the road when I have all this beautiful stuff around me? Ridiculous. 8 hours later we arrived in Brookings, Oregon. It was a random little town with surprisingly good Mexican food. Once again, it was a brief stay before we were hitting the road for California.

Ahhhh California, how beautiful you are. As we were driving through the redwoods I just kept thinking of the Santa Barbara beaches and just being in awe of the fact that I live in a place which has such incredible and beautiful diversity. I’m so lucky! But back to the redwoods, how amazing are they?! I just love them, those gentle giants. Another cool part of the drive was seeing all of these random statues on the side of the road that I actually have pictures with from when I was a wee little lass, the two most notable being an awkwardly skinny dinosaur and Paul Bunyan. The California portion of the drive was definitely the longest, but we chugged through it and eventually pulled into this little place called Berkeley, California. We made it home and what an incredible journey it was! Now, I’m ready for more. I want another road trip, a cross-country road trip, and I’m going to make it happen.

The Redwoods <3

Woah...

Its over. In a few hours I get on a plane and I say chau to Santiago (I know it's a weird spelling of "chau", but that's how they do things here in Chile). I can't believe it's been a year. I remember taking off from the San Francisco airport, thinking wow, a year is a long time, and it definitely is, but it FLEW by. Time has never slipped through my fingers so quickly. 

On the plus side: I really feel like I lived every moment to it's fullest. Yes, there are still things I wish I could have seen, places I wish I'd gone, but overall I think I did a pretty damn good job of exploring this year, not only Chile and South America, but myself as a person. I am so stoked to head back home and to be with my family and I know i will have a better appreciation for my life in California. This place has changed me, but all for the better, those of you who see me when I get back, will definitely notice a change and I hope it doesn't bother y'all too much :)

There's this song, by this Chilean artist, and there are these lyrics that say "Pedazos de ti incrustados en mi, pedazos de mi, tirados en el camino." I have become obsessed with Fernando Milagros over this year, so it only seemed fitting that his words helped me convey my expereince. "Pieces of you embedded in me, pieces of me strewn on the road." Even though I am pretty sure Fernando's words about being strewn on the road weren't positive ones in the song's context, I'm taking some creative license, and interpreting it as me leaving a part of myself in Chile, but in a good way.

It's been a roller coaster of a year, that is for damn sure, but Santiago has seen me through it all, for that I am incredibly thankful. There are so many things that I want to list and talk about that happened over the course of this year, but half of you will loose interest, so I just want to say that it's been amazing and more that I could have imagined.

See ya on the flip side Santiago! No doubt in my mind that I'll be back, I'll try to bring a GIANT fan with me to blow away the smog :)