Wanderers, Dreamers and Lovers

Wow, it sure has been a while since I've updated my blog. My goal was to have a continuous flow of pictures to share my adventures and life happenings with everyone but that seemed to fade when I moved to a full time position then had my camera break not too long after. I started to feel more tied down. As though I had no new adventure to blog or post about and if I did, how was I going to show you all without a camera of my own? I've come to realize that much happened in my life regardless of how many days off I had and whether or not someone there to catch it on "digital film".

With that said, let me share with you something that was passed along to me. The following paragraph feels as if someone walked into my head, saw I was confused and feeling unrelated to, then in words explained.........me.

Wanderers, Dreamers, and Lovers

"Some people do not have to search, for they find their niche easily in life and rest there seemingly contented and resigned. At times I envy them, but usually I do not understand... and seldom do they understand me. I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we completely content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power and unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests, mountains, deserts, hidden rivers and lovely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as our laughter; to share our sadness with the ones we love is perhaps as great a joy as we know. Unless it is to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious but only for life itself and anything beautiful it can provide. Most of all, we want to love and be loved, to live in a relationship that will not impede our wanderings and prevail our search. We do not want to prove ourselves to others or compete for love. This passage is for wanderers, dreamers, and lovers who dare to ask of life, everything which is good and beautiful."

I've read this over and over then emailed it to everyone I felt would have a conecction to the words. I have found a serenity in these words, "I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we completely content. We continue to explore life...[and] ourselves....We are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power and unceasing motion...we like forests, mountains, deserts, hidden rivers and lovely cities as well."

Perhaps those words can give some sort of understanding to my friends and family feeling left behind by my leaving. I have sadening thoughts knowing I chose to seperate myself with so many miles from those that have done nothing but love me. I hope they see why I continue to search. I search for more insight to life and the beauty our world has to offer. I search because I want to see all that I can. I search because I was born a searcher.

"Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as our laughter; to share our sadness with the ones we love is perhaps as great a joy as we know. Unless it is to share our laughter." These two sentences also struck me. This couldn't be more true. To be sad and to share your sadness is to let down your walls and to let someone in. Those priveldged enough know the feeling of sharing sadness have, I believe, found happiness.

So here's to all the wanderers, dreamers and lovers, those that "dare to ask of life". Cheers to you!

SUMMER OF FUN...

I know it has been quite some time since I have updated my blog. A ton has been going on, so I'm just going to dive right in.

Here goes...
Since I've updated last I've taken on a new position with the mountain, welcomed the summer season (a HUGE, WARM welcome), and watched my close friend, whom is one of the main reasons why I was so fortunate to live in this great place, move back to GA.

Just before my off season trip to California, my supervisor announced his leaving. This meant there would be an opening for a full time Front Desk Supervisor/Concierge position. Although a full time job wasn't what I wanted to get into, it would give me the chance to meet new people, make connections with vendors, and give me a change while working for the mountain. After some thought, I decided to take the position. I've shocked many people by telling them I'm on salary and let someone else determine my days off but at the end of the day, I enjoy what I do (for the most part :) ) and the people I work with. That counts for something right?


In the meantime, the warm weather began to come and linger a little longer each day. We all, the town and tourists included, took advantage. We were ready for the new adventures that would come with snow melting and prepared for another BUSY season in the wonderful world of hospitality. When I wasn't working, I was playing. Although the snow hung on a little longer than last summer due to our EPIC/RECORD BREAKING winter, we didn't let that slow us down. We began floating as soon as the water wasn't at hypothermia-causing levels, hiked as far up as we could before we were buried knee deep in snow, cooked out, and did just about anything that would get us outside period. With that said, here a few pictures of our summertime fun....

Here me, Ali, and Tori took advantage of the Teton Park Road still being closed to vehicles and our first bit of warm weather (yes believe it or not, it was warm that day). We took the bikes into the park and completed a 30 mile ride.
In this picture we are standing in front of Jenny Lake. Yes that is a lake....it's just frozen! Did I mention it was a long, cold winter?

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These next few pictures are of the cute baby foxes that started to peak out when the snow finished melting. This is right across the street from our place and began to be a "hot spot" for animal watchers and photographers. Playful little guys!...

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This is Megan, Rachael, me, Melissa, Granger, and Jennifer grabbing dinner at one of our favorite spots, Teton Thai, for a girls night out. This is a popular place in the summer. It has a great atmosphere, good music, delicious food, and outside seating. There's actually no inside other than the kitchen. Any given night there is a wait, it's just that good!


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Another girls night out.
Since you don't really "dress up" in Jackson (ie: heels, black dresses, etc), Katie (on the left) decided to theme her birthday celebration with the opening of the Sex and the City Movie. We brought "the city" to Jackson....we filled the streets and entire movie theater that night - heels and all!
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Megan and I enjoying an annual Crawfish Broil hosted by some of the Louisiana boys...


...then enjoying a fair that came through town. Still just a little bit chilly!

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On to the hiking!!!!!

This is me, Tori, and Jennifer on a hike in the Teton National Forest. We headed up one of the canyons to see how far we could go before the snow made us turn back. The Grand is in the background but the tip is covered by a cloud.

Sitting in the Lupine Meadows covered in snow surrounded by the Tetons. AMAZING!

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This particular trip was to celebrate a good friend of ours birthday. His girlfriend had planned a surprise camping trip for him. Here we are getting ready to head out to meet up with everyone.

We camped inside the Teton National Forest at Leigh Lake.

Our view of Mt. Moran!

Some of the wildlife along the way.
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This hike coming up had to be one of my favorites, maybe even ever. The wildflowers were amazing! This is on my way to Blue Miner Lake in the Gros Ventre Mountain Range.

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A day at the Jackson Lake in the park.
The water was freezing! I unsuccessfully attempted wake boarding for the millionth time...in a wet suit. The air was nice but the water was cold. You don't see a background like that at Lake Alatoona...or water for that matter.

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Road Trip to Denver for the Mile High Music Festival.
We went down for a weekend full of music!

Tori, Katie, Megan, Jennifer, and I

The only bad thing about this weekend was knowing it was Megan's last one with us. :(
and the fact a rock cracked the windshield of my new car....
oh well, it's pretty much standard for every car out here.

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Saying "bye" to Megan with a bang!
Her last week was filled with cookout's, friends, and adventures. She was running out of time to check stuff off her "To Do In Jackson Before I Leave" List. Her number 1 happened to be paragliding, so, as a gift, a bunch of us pitched in to pay for her go. The only way she would do it was if we would too. Rach decided to wait until her parents got into town and to watch us from below while Tori and I headed up the Gondola with Megan to jump off. It was a neat experience.
My guide was very interesting, he described the "waves" of the wind like the waves of an ocean. Just like surfers read the water, he read the wind. Fascinating.

We hiked down the mountain a little ways then were the only directions we were given was to start running when they said, "Start running". At that moment you run as fast as you can down the mountain until you just aren't touching ground anymore because the wind picked you up. From then on you feel like you are floating....or well, flying. Really incredible.

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So that's it, or some of it a least, for now.

It has been a summer of fun and a summer of change. Some of it good and some of it challenging. The biggest change and challenge of all was having Megan move back to GA. It was hard losing someone you share so much time and experiences with. Thankfully I still have Tori and Rachael!

All in all I'm still enjoying this amazing place and finding out a lot about me. I miss so much about home but just can't imagine heading back just yet. There is still a few more things I want to accomplish and discover first. I hope that all of you are enjoying these pictures and some of what I've been able to experience. I love and miss you.

California Baby!

You know me....I can't sit still for long. A cross country trip in Nov just wasn't enough. Because Jackson is catered to tourists, when they quit coming, the town goes quiet.....perfect timing for the locals to get out. That's exactly what Rach and I decided to do. Megan and Tori went home to GA while Rach and I decided to head in the opposite direction.

Hmmmm, where haven't I been yet? CALIFORNIA. What more could you want? The beach, neat towns, hills, green, warm, islands, hiking, sleeping outside, national parks, ocean; it was perfect! While the snow kept coming, we began to put together our escape. We decided that in 8 days we were going to check out Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, coast camp on the bluffs of Carlsbad in southern CA, hike and camp on Santa Cruz Island (Island 2 of the Channel Islands just off the cost of Ventura), then head to Yosemite to finish the trip off with more hiking.

With that said, here is a little taste of what we did! ...

First stop, Lake Mead... We found a spot to stay for the night to rest up for our trip through Hoover Dam and Vegas!

Hoover Dam

If you look close you can see how low the water was.

Destination 1: Carlsbad, California

Here we took the bikes out and explored the nearby towns. We camped here 2 nights. Despite the rain on the first day we were able to enjoy amazing beach bluff scenery, cute surfers, beautiful sunsets, and the sound of the ocean!

So maybe we were a little upset with the cold weather when we woke up..... we were hoping for something a little warmer!

On the road again. This Orange County, most famous for its reality tv shows featuring a beautiful place with, for lack of a better word, interesting people.

Next stop: Huntington Beach...

This day was full of people watching, sun bathing/burning, and resting. Despite the horrible sun poisoning Rach and I got due to the fact our skin hadn't seen sun in months, it ended up being a great day.

I decided to get in the water.....

It was FREEZING!!!!!!

Burning as we speak!

On to our next destination: Santa Cruz Island, #2 of the Channel Islands

We took the ferry out to the island.

and saw Humpback Whales!!! My first whale experience. It was amazing. It was a mother with a baby and they really put on a great show complete with tale flops, flips out of the water, and plenty of shots of them coming up for air.

Once we were on the island, we set up camp at our reserved sight and headed off to explore the island. Santa Cruz island was BEAUTIFUL. It was covered in grassy fields and high rock cliffs over looking emerald blue water. You could see for miles out. It was a neat feeling knowing that you were surrounded by these cliffs and the pacific.

Next stop: Yosemite

We really didn't have a certain time to get there so we explored along the way. We took the coastal highway all the way up CA and enjoyed scenery like this below all along the way.

The most AMAZING taco's EVER!!!! Served straight from this truck in some random parking lot in LA. It was DELICIOUS! It doesn't quit beat the burrito I had in Encintas our first day camping in CA, but it was a good second place!

On to Yosemite!

Here we stayed at a climbers camp because it was cheap and far away from the RVer's.

This is the first hike that we did. It was straight up but offered great views of Yosemite Falls. Half the hike was closed off but after discussing this with people who had done the hike, we decided to take our chances and venture past the gates. Although we were hiking through snow, we did make it pretty far. However, right before we reached the top our trail ended, the snow got deeper, and the falls looked steeper so we reluctantly turned back.

The next day we ended up meeting up with a photographer that introduced us to a hike that essentially gave us a panoramic view of Yosemite Valley from amazing angles and different elevations. This is a beautiful place!!!

Darn it..... It's time to go home!

I hope that you enjoy these pictures and are somewhat inspired to pick that place you've never been to but always wanted to visit and make it a reality. You only live once and you're not getting any younger.....remember, "life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing".