Beach Pilgrimage

I wish I went to the beach more often.  I should.  I only go about once every year, usually at the beginning of the summer.  And I almost always go to the same beach.  Really, there's no excuse for me not going- I live about 50 minutes away from Florence, and only another 30 from Yachats, one of my favorite coastal towns (granted, I've only ever been to like 4...anyhow...).  It doesn't take much effort, just a bit of driving time.  I think I always convince myself it's going to be too cold?  And I've never really been old enough to go by myself until recently.  POINT: I should go to the beach more!

I went today!  I got up super early, more focused on getting to the Green Salmon Café (more on that in a hot minute) and getting a cheese Danish before they were all gone than the fact the leaving at 6:30=not truly missing the heat wave in Veneta.  I ended up back here at about 4:15, just in time to catch the last 1.5 hours.  Dumb me.  That aside, I had a wonderful time!

I stopped in Florence for some small snacks and a bottle of water, then hit Yachats.  Yachats is a quaint little tourist town about 30 minutes north of Florence, and is aptly nicknamed "Gem of the Oregon Coast."  My first stop was the Green Salmon Café, which serves excellent coffee, delicious pastries, and a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan options (they have normal food, too, don't worry!).  Here are some pictures I found on the Internet, since I didn't take any!

Thailand: It's Official!

IT'S REALLY HAPPENING.

I applied to the program, then had a panic attack because it was so much money, then applied for a grant to help cover the cost of the thing...I got the grant! It was a complete surprise, since there are only 100 available worldwide.  It covers 100% of the program cost, which is about $2,750! Unfortunately, I still have to come up with money for the airfare from here to LAX, then international airfare (plus taxes and fees!), as well as two internal airfare tickets within Thailand.  All that adds up to about $3,300!  It's terrifying, and I almost didn't apply out of fear, but it felt good to do something impulsive (clicking the apply button, at least, was impulsive!) and risky (I didn't know where the money would be coming from!), but I took a gamble...And with help from my mom, the travel advisor who has been helping us, the wonderful people at Rustic Pathways who liked my essays enough to grant me a 100% grant, and the generous souls who have/are planning to donate money for this cause, that gamble is paying off!

But I am going.

Since the grant covers up to 18 days of program costs, I have the opportunity to extend my trip by another week!  I will be doing a related program in conjunction with my main orphanage project.

A mad dash for fundraising has commenced, with me sending out tons of letters asking for sponsorship.  I will soon be doing a cheesecake fundraiser (probably after school gets out and I actually have TIME to do one!), and I have been gathering old books that I would have read in middle school or so and going to be taking them to Smith Family Bookstore to see if I can get any money out of that.

I have a chunk of the money already, which is reassuring, and I have received a handful of sponsorships from the generous people I have contacted.  My mom will be paying for part of it as well, but the goal is to pay as little out-of-pocket as possible.  I may end up seeling my car as a way to get the remaining money and have a bit of spending money while I am there.  It's coming along!

I leave July 31st!

~From Lily With Love~

East Trip: Part II

Round Two!

 

 

Harper's Ferry, NY.  Site of the John Brown raid.  They have all the original buildings with old-timey stores and such.  This one was a clothing store.  It was really cool, but kinda creepy at the same time.

 

 

The general store.

 

 

Bell teaching us the correct position to take a picture.

 

East Trip, Part I

Round One!

 

The library at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, MD.  Amazing! Floor-to-ceiling stacks upon stacks upon rows upon rows of books...Nothing more recent than the 1920's/

 

 

This is a super-awesome book from ancient times (written by, I believe, the Germans?), documenting the history of the world up until the 1500's, when they believe the world would end (I think that's the century where it stopped).  The coolest part is that they left seven blank pages at the end for us to record our history.

 

 

Can I just have this ring, please?  This was a really fascinating museum, with something to interest everybody!

 

 

Part of the museum's collection of preserved insects.  Pretty!

 

Thailand, Part One

Happy Wednesday! Now that I've had a bit of time to recover from work, I wanted to spend a little time talking about something fantastic...

Thailand!

But let me back up for a minute...There's this foundation called Rustic Pathways that has set up a bunch of different travel programs for high school students.
Tonsa different countries all over the world, and something for everyone: adventurous wilderness excursions, language immersion, and what I want to do: service projects!

These little cuties are orphans who now live at the Rustic Pathways Hill Tribe Orphanage.