4th Festivities

Ahhh....it sure is good to be home! I'm going to try and really enjoy this week here before I leave on Saturday...for the rest of the month. 

Our family had a great time up in Bar Harbor for the weekend. As I mentioned in my previous post, my mom, dad, brother, aunt and her boyfriend, and I went for a hike up Acadia Mountain. We did Flying Mountain last year which is pretty much just a big hill, so this was more strenuous, but more fun too! X kept being crazy and jumping off of rocks and scaring people and pretending to be a monkey while caw-ing like a crow. Don't ask me what was going through that boy's mind, because I don't know. On both the way down and up there were some nice rock ledges to scramble up and down which was quite fun, although that was the time that I was glad that I had left my camera at home, else it probably would have been smushed onto the rocks. It was very nice and windy at the top which was a relief, so we stayed and rested up there for a bit. It was very cool to look all around and see all the other mountains in the area. It's crazy how many mountains fit onto Mount Desert Island...

We went out to dinner that night which was nice, and then for the 4th we started out the day by going into town for the big 4th of July parade. Who knew that Bar Harbor put on such a long and awesome parade? There were all sorts of mini racecars and floats and firetrucks and clowns and such. plus they all throw candy and because I have been marching in parades with the band for so long a had forgotten how much fun it is to dive for the candy thrown into the streets. Bwahaha. One of life's greatest pleasures. 

After the parade, there were festivities in the park so I had some french fries, a cherry and blue raspberry snowcone and I also got a wicked cool wallet before we left for the campground again.  The afternoon was pretty chill, we went swimming, read books and lounged around and ended the day with a meal of chicken salad sandwiches (or fake chicken in the case of my mom and I), potato salad, and corn on the cob with homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert. YUM!

We headed home after that and so now I'm just chilling here this week before band camp starts, doing laundry and a whole lot of practicing. Somebody around here is shooting to get first chair, if you know what I mean... ;)

A Brief Return

Hey everybody! It's me, Sally....remember?

I know, I know I've only been gone a week....

First off, let's have a round of applause for our guest posters this past week. *Claps* You guys all did a wonderful job, thanks so much, I really enjoyed reading your posts. And if you loved these guest posts, then you're in luck because we start another, longer, round of them next Saturday when I head off to band camp.

As for me, I had quite the awesome week at Pilgrim Lodge. I did a lot of music, and I actually led a workshop in more classical instrumental music with my arrangement of Bring Him Home. It was a LOT of hard work and I was glad to have a counselor to help me out a bit too because we really needed someone to conduct and I needed to play. Plus I know virtually nothing about stings, and he was a violin player so that helped a lot for the string players in my group. It was really really pretty at the performance, soft guitar chords, light eighth-noted piano with chords underneath, classical high trumpet melody (played wonderfully by yours truly), haunting harmony in the second trumpet, dark cello bass line, and sweeping violin and viola descant. It was really really amazing and a LOT of fun.
I also did a bunch of other stuff, like chapel services, some art projects, walk the labyrinth, eat ice cream, swim, and go out in the big yellow dory. I added a new instrument to my ever growing repertoire too. I learned how to play the mandolin! It was really fun, and it's really cute. Hmm...I wonder what will be on my Christmas list this year...

All in all it was a really great week. Yesterday though, was WAY too much driving. My mom picked me up at camp, we drove home which was a little over an hour, I had an hour at home then my mom and I had to drive another 45 minutes to my brother's All-Star baseball game which they won 14-4. Yay. Then we got in the car again and drove four hours up to a campground on Mount Desert Island where my grandparents are staying at a campground which Is where I am now.
It's windy and cold up here right now, so we're just sitting in the camper. Later though, my parents, my brother, my aunt, her boyfriend, and I are going to hike up Acadia Mountain which should be fun and hopefully warmer than it is here.

How have your weeks been?

The Eiffel At Night

Of course, probably the most though of icon of Paris, is of course the Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel in French). I had the chance to see it at both nighttime around eleven o'clock and also in the early morning. It was impressive during the day and absolutely stunning at night, so I wanted to show you these that I took.

A Return

Hello all, and a blessed Easter to all of you! As you can see, I have returned from the great beyond. France was so awesome! It was a really excellent trip and the number of good pictures (the ones that I did not delete) total about 600. Love having that many, not so nice when I'm trying to edit them. It is a slooowww process, let me tell you. So, I just wanted to let you know of my return, and I shall post some more tomorrow hopefully :)

Happy Easter!

J is for Just Four More

J is for Just Four More

Just four more...what? This may be the question you are asking. The answer is days. 

Four more days until...?

Until a breath of freedom,

Until April break,

Until FRANCE.

Oh my goodness, you have no idea how excited I am. Remember the post with the picture of my countdown board? And how there were only like three black X's on it? Yeah, well, only four days are blank now...which means we're getting very close!

We're starting to pack, my parents have printed off the trip checklist, things are beginning to be checked off said checklist, laundry is being done....soon we'll be on a bus to Boston and a couple hours later... a plane headed to Paris!

It's going to be a great break getting away from home, far far away, to just relax and have fun. The only problem will be if I'm assigned homework...luckily I have a first period study hall the day I get back so that shouldn't be a problem :)

Ahh, just so happy that we're finally going.

....I can smell the baguettes now!

Brickways, Magic, & Travel

Hey everyone! So over Thanksgiving, my family decided to use up a bonus week for our timeshare and spend the holiday week down in Cape Cod. We got down here Sunday night, and hung out right around here yesterday, and today we traipsed up to Providence, RI.
We had been there a few years back and went to this AWESOME cafe called Brickway on Wickenden, so we went there for breakfast. They've got these hot chocolates that come in mugs as big as soup bowls with towering piles of whipped cream and some scrumptious hashbrowns among other things. Yum. :)

We then headed to the mall, Providence Place, which also contains a huge movie theater. We got our movie tickets, and still had a few minutes to poke around in some of the shops. I've been needing a nicer warm coat that I can wear to school and church and around and stuff as the only things I have right now are by ski coat and marching band jacket. We ended up buying this really cute pea coat at Aéropostale that I love very much.

 

Finally we went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows {part 1} in IMAX. The screen was so incredibly huge and the surround sound made everything shake. The movie was totally awesome, and very true to the book which was nice. I can't wait for part two!

All and all, we had a good time today, and we're going to go up to Plymouth tomorrow which should also be fun. What are you guys up to? :)

Four Authors, One Post

Cornet Crazie

Hey readers! This morning, my family headed up to where my grandparents live. (Yeah, the same place I was over April break, 4th of July and 2 weeks ago) And we've got other family here too, including my cousins Ros449 and Lollipop. We didn't leave as early as we would have liked but we made it up here and picked up some lunch at Subway. Yum! Hurricane Earl wasn't really that bad after all so the day was nice and sunny- though admittedly VERY windy at the campground. We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool and swimming around, and now we're contemplating when to order pizza and maybe going out for a sail, as we brought out sailboat: Whisper. I'll turn this over to out next author now.

Ros449

Cornet Crazie is so weird. Why am I writing on her blog?

XanFan

I am very awesome and Cornet Crazie isn't so much I am awesome.

Lollipop

I like lollipops. Lollipops rock- but not more than XanFan. Today the water is wavey. 

 Cornet Crazie Again 

It's really nice to know what my brother and cousins think of me....

Home Again, Off Again

Whew! I am finally home- but not for long. Let's start by talking about yesterday. It was an AWESOME day at the beach. The water was warm, it wasn't broiling up on the sand, it was perfect. Except for the jellies at the beginning, of course. I hate jellyfish, and it's all because of one nasty incident two years ago in Cape May.  Let me explain. I was having a great time bodysurfing with XanFan and my dad. I had just had a particularly good ride in and I ran back into the water and dove into the waves. Straight into a large jellyfish. Let me tell you- jellyfish stings all over your face and left shoulder are very painful. But yesterday, luckily, I only got a small sting on the palm of my right hand.

In the evening we left and began the 8-9 hour drive home. The Garden State Parkway was waaaay backed up and we didn't get home until 4. However, when we were almost getting off the last highway when we say the moon rising. It was stunning. It was huge and orange and it hovered over the horizon in the slimmest crescent you can imagine.

But anyway. I'm off again today bound for Pilgrim Lodge, and to keep you entertained while I'm gone, XanFan will be guest posting here. So see you all in a week!

Beach Days

Have I MENTIONED how much I LOOOOVE the beach?

It must be something about my being a picses, because I could totally live in the water.

Swimming, swimming, swimming. All day long.

As you may have guessed, we're in Cape May now!

And we went to the beach (of course) and the water was simply glorious.

MUCH warmer than it is at my house, eight hours northward.

And the waves! Oh the waves!

Perfect for body surfing.

I love the beach. LOVE IT.

Like I said, I'm a pisces.

Well, time to make dinner now! Grilled corn on the cob, fresh green beans, grilled porkchops and grilled portabella mushrooms for us vegetarian types :)

And then of course, back to the beach tomorrow....

Philly Fun

I am sitting typing away this latest post in a small hotel room in New Jersey that smells funky. Now how's THAT for a starting sentence? Today we drove up to Philly to see historic sites!  We started with the liberty bell which was really cool. I loved all the quotes about it and was able to capture some of them (and the bell itself) on camera. My mom remarked in her facebook status 'Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof ~ inscribed on the Liberty Bell ~ I will disregard the fact that I had to go through security and have my bag checked prior to seeing this fabulous symbol of Liberty.' This is actually pretty funny....we're seeing a bell of Liberty and we still have to go through security. LOL.
Second, we headed over to a portrait gallery. (Pictures of the Founding Fathers and about two women) It wasn't the most interesting or entertaining thing, but I must say that it was quite fun to laugh and all the rediculous wigs that people wore in that era. And the highlight of the experience? XanFan's crazy comment while looking at a particular painting: "Oh. My. Gosh. Martha Washington is a freak."

We popped over to Congress Hall and Independece Hall which were both interesting, greak landmarks, and EXCELLENT photo ops of course. :) Tomorrow we'll drive two hours south again to Cape May and it'll be hitting the beach for the next few days. Wa-hoo!

And finally.........next April vacation......we're going to try to exchange our timeshare for a week in France!!!!! That would be SO AWESOME.

Arrival @ Destination Uno

After an eleven hour drive (with one stop at a hotel in New Jersey to sleep) we finally arrived at our first destination- Our grandparents place in Maryland. The drive was very long and tiring, especially in the3 backseat where I get very carsick, but we did have some interesting moments. Such as...

While driving through Massachusetts, (After about three hours of driving) my dad heard a funny little noise. Suddenly a grasshopper jumps out of nowhere and onto the dashboard, staring my mother in the face......while she's driving 75mph on the highway. Naturally, we go crazy, but my dad finally catches in and throws the grasshopper out the window. And that was all the excitement we had.

And now, a couple movie reviews from XanFan, on the two movies that we watched during the drive:

YEAH GO ME!!!!!!!!!..........ok

Night at The Mueseum:
Good movie and it's good because I like it. OK, but seriously, it's pretty awesome because evrything in the New York Museum of Natural History comes 2 life and the dude almost gets fired twice and then these dudes try 2 stael the thing that makes the museum come 2 life.SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! watch it.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
so its different from the book in a lot of ways but its still cool. so Mr. fox buys a tree nd his wife says he has 2 stop stealing birds but then 2 years later he starts staeling them again and then its the same as the book pretty much so ya bye seeya IM AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Cornet Crazie back here. I appologize for all of the awful grammar in the above. Like I said, that's not me typing. Off to the pool later, and D.C. tomorrow!)