.: A Perfect Saturday :.

So you may be asking yourself... what exactly makes a perfect Saturday? I am here to answer this question. The key components are as follows:

- Good friends
- Good music
- A little roadtrip action
- Some sea life
- Tidepooling
- Coffee
- A good movie

Dang. It was a good day. May I just preface this by saying I live in one of the most amazing places on this planet? (I also love that the Nile population is now 3 strong in Santa Cruz... do you part, move here.)

So... we started the day last night by deciding to make a Saturday Monterey trip (a summer staff tradition, really...) I (Nile-ite #1) renewed my MB Aquarium membership and was ready to roll. Jordan (Nile-ite #2) came over about 10am and we headed to Coffee Cat for a little AM jump-start before the mini-roadtrip south. On the way, we decided to do a little shopping - we missed the Watsonville Target exit, but there is one in Seaside so that was handy. We found a nifty parking spot and headed down to meet some friends (Crabs, Duchess, Guido, & Ducky) who were already inside. Bonus points - we had an awesome mix to listen to on the way down!

May I just say that I fall a little more in love with the aquarium each time I go? It really is amazing. The jellyfish are my favorite - muy bonita!

After a while we decided to snag some lunch, and were serenaded by the ever-talented keyboard player who seems to be in the same place, playing the same songs every time we head down to Cannery Row (remember him, Dory?)

To keep with tradition, after leaving downtown Monterey we went to Asilomar Beach (in Pacific Grove) to do some quality tidepooling. I have decided that this is easily one of my favorite passtimes... a little mild rockclimbing, the thrill of the catch (of the mini crabs), and just enjoying the ocean. I got a little lost (or at least took the REALLY LONG way back), but we made it back to Santa Cruz just in time to meet up with Tessina (Nile-ite #3), get some dinner, and watch one of our favorite movies from our high school summers - Extreme Days.

All in all... it was the perfect Saturday. I have pictures, look!


Asilomar Beach - Pacific Grove, CA - best tidepooling ever















The thrill of the chase...















Me & Jordan - childhood friends, reunited for the best summer ever!














Mr. Crabs - imparting his crabish wisdom to one of his own


















The Duchess - always down for a good time...














Guido - la chica muy bonita!



















Ducky - sittin' pretty

.: Bigfoot Museum :.

After 4 years on summer staff and an entire year-round experience in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I finally did it. I visited the Bigfoot Museum in Felton.

So what, you may ask, finally prompted this adventure? Let me tell you. My good friend Jordan Fried is at camp this summer - he arrived today. In anticipation of his time here, I decided to write him a summer "to-do" list. As I suspected, visiting the Bigfoot Museum was on the top of his list of things to cross off said list.

As convinced as I was that it would be closed, I took the Highway 9 route to Santa Cruz on the off-chance that the museum would be open - if nothing else, he could see the outside. You can probably guess what we discovered as we approached...

It was OPEN!
















For those of you who haven't set foot inside the Bigfoot Museum, it's an interesting experience. The owner (pictured above) claims to have personally spotted Bigfoot at 5 years of age and has been fascinated ever since.

Anyway, within a few short hours of arriving at Mount Hermon, Jordan has completed an item on his list. (yay!) It's gonna be an amazing summer! :o)

.: Procrastination at its finest :.

Somewhere in the last 24 hours, May 31 disappeared. I did several completely meaningless, and several very meaningful things during these hours. I would put today's productivity at about 43%. (I love making up statistics like this.)

Work: Today FLEW by... I kept asking myself what day it was...
Homework: Didn't happen today. Needed to, but didn't.
Friends: Are amazing - I highly recommend them to anyone.

I also watched "Step Into Liquid" tonight and now I want to learn to surf - minus the fact that I hate sand, am terrified of drowning, and break easily.

Today my finger is done being broken. End of story, it gets no choice. No more cast for you, finger! Easier said than done.

This is my last weekend hosting at Redwood Camp... I will finally be down to one job and (maybe) can have a life again (but you all know I wouldn't have traded it for the world!)