Day Spa!

For my birthday, Joe gave me a gift certificate to a local day spa (Riviera) and I promised to write about it after I went. (I had forgotten about the day spa dream I had until I reread that post - it went much better in real life!) Since the gift certificate expired this week, I finally went! It was very hard deciding which "treatments" to get, but I finally settled on the Escape package.

First, a 30 minute massage. I paid a little extra for a deep-tissue massage, and I'm sure glad I did! I had heard rumors about it hurting, but it was actually more like I expected a regular massage to be. It only hurt a little when she went over a couple of knots on my neck. I had trouble relaxing during the massage because I kept thinking about what I would write about it! I'm crazy! You'll be grateful that my thought of "I'm glad I didn't get a regular massage - if I wanted someone to pat my back for 30 minutes, I could have paid a neighborhood kid half this much" got cut due to its borderline-creepiness factor. Also, there were some bird chirping sounds randomly over the relaxing music that played. This occupied most of my thoughts. I really think it must have been a signal for the employees, but not for my massage therapist (she didn't change what she was doing anytime close to the bird calls). Anyone know what it could be?
I once was in physical therapy for back spasms (from a car accident), and he (PT) put some sonic pulse thing over the knots / spasms and pressed really hard, then rubbed the muscle. It was horribly painful (I often cried), but I felt EXTREME relief when he stopped. I was expecting something more like that for the deep-tissue massage, but it wasn't even close. Overall, I enjoyed the massage, but didn't feel any different afterward. Oh, and she rubbed my lower back / top of my rear. It felt as weird as one would expect (not creepy, just physically odd).

Next, a 30 minute mini-facial. My favorite part was having steam on my face for a long time. I got to just breathe it in! That was very relaxing. She looked at my skin with a Wood's Lamp... I wonder how people would react if she called it what it is (a UV light). She said I should try topical or low-dose antibiotics from a dermatologist. I'm not sure if I will or not, but I feel better knowing that my skin care regimen is appropriate. Like the massage, I was surprised to not feel any different afterward.

Finally, a spa pedicure! For around 45 minutes I sat in a massage chair and had my feet soaked, scrubbed and pampered. It was great! Even now (two days later), my feet feel extra soft.

I probably will not get a facial or massage (unless it is more intense) again, but I definitely enjoyed my relaxing day off - three hours at a spa is very nice! The "relaxation room" that you wait in between treatments is calm and peaceful.

Thank you, Joseph, for the amazing gift!

Christmas 2008

I've been gently reminded that I said I would try to post at least once a week, and it's been a bit more than that. Again.

Some people wish for a white Christmas. We were in Texas - this is what we found in the yard instead. I was taking pictures of him with some of us (we didn't touch him, just got close). When Lauren (my sister) posed, I told her to get closer to it so she patted the piece of wood next to her and made the tongue-click / generic "come here" for animals sound. Suddenly, the armadillo went under that piece of wood. Scary for Lauren, very funny for us. I'd post the picture, but it's on her camera and I don't think she'll give it to me. I did get this one, though...
I just downloaded almost 200 pictures from the new camera we got for Christmas! Thanks, Mom and Dad! (And Lauren & Kevin for the memory card - ours would have only held about 30 pictures on this camera that puts this MEGA in megapixels!)

We were at my grandmother's in Junction (Texas Hill Country) for Christmas.

Here's the roll call: Robbie (Grammy), Great Aunt Ruth, Larry & Kay (Dad & Mom), Lauren & Kevin (sis & her hubby), Joe & I, Aunt Rhonda, Cynthia, Brad, Jennifer, Richard, and Lily (cousins). Lily was the only kid around and she entertained us with her own take on a few Christmas songs. I hadn't seen my Great Aunt Ruth (Grandpa's sister-in-law) in a very long time, but I really enjoy her visits.

I'll post soon about our anniversary trip to Salado! Until then, Merry Christmas from Chili's in Austin!

Mom, you know I'm still alive.

Okay, I'll post an update. My mom seems to think that something's wrong if I don't post, so here goes.

I do have some neat updates for creative days (which I didn't finish within the allotted 30 days, so it's more like "30 out of 45 days of creativity" but it was still fun! I just need to upload pictures to go along with those posts.

Last week (November 9th - 14th), Joe and I were in Dallas. He had a another computer training that was Monday - Friday, and we both decided it'd be better for me to take off work for the week and get away with him instead of staying in town by myself. (I just looked for my post about last time Joe went on a trip, and the surprise I worked on, but I couldn't find it... have I been that bad about blogging?) While in Dallas, I spent time with my parents, some friends from church who are planting a church up there, and a couple of good high school friends I haven't seen since my wedding (almost 7 years ago). I also did some shopping. I spent almost 4 hours at Ikea with my mom and dad (on his day off, sorry Dad!), and I thought I was rushing through. The coolest thing I found (and bought) is this:
It's a magnetic trivet (hot pad)! If I set one of our pots on it and put it on the table, we can pass the gravy (or whatever is in the pot) around the table without passing it all the way back to put it on the hot pad. This is one of those ideas that I wish I had thought of - how smart! We've already used it and I like it a lot.

This week that we've been back has gone by fast!

We got in Friday night, and Saturday our friend Danny came over and got us started tiling some of our floor. He returned Sunday with his new bride, Jordan, who helped me paint one of the last remaining unpainted rooms (just some second coats and a bathroom to go).

Monday, we were with the kiddos and mainly worked on separating clothes (as well as eating a gumbo that turned out spicier than we intended). Tuesday was our small group for church. I don't remember what Wednesday night was. Joe, help? Oh, I think we watched a movie that I wouldn't really recommend unless you're particularly interested in wine. Last night was our appointed date night (we're just starting to do Thursday night as date nights). We stayed in, but it was nice.

I get emails from World Market, and today they sent one saying that Beaujolais nouvaeu was now here, and it goes great with Turkey!!! (their enthusiasm, not mine) I looked it up, and it's a type of wine (from a certain grape in France) that they only allow to ferment a few weeks before selling. Even though it's a red wine, it has very little tannins (from the grape skin - so it's not so bitter... thanks Fall Creek Vinyards for teaching me some about the wine-making process). I was thinking "this might be a fun wine to try," when I read this on Wikipedia: "Wine critic Karen MacNeil has compared drinking Beaujolais Nouveau to eating cookie dough." I'm pretty sure that was a jab at this wine that is not given time to mature, but now I totally want to try it.

I'll try to update with some of the creativity days really soon!

Family Reunion

Time flies - the birds at work are all flying now and hardly ever in the nest (though I caught them there Tuesday).We had our 57th annual Jasper Family reunion the weekend of July 4th-6th. The first few years the reunion was around Thanksgiving or Christmas, but Great-grandpa Jasper's birthday was July 2nd, so his four daughters (my grandmother is the youngest) started getting together every year around the 4th of July. It's a big deal and very important for everyone to make it. With a few people as exceptions, health reasons are pretty much the only thing that keep some people from coming.

my immediate family

I really, really wish I had time to write about a LOT going on lately, and particularly about the reunion, and it's also important to Joe and I to keep a record of things happening, even in the busy times... but I just don't know how to do that. Maybe if I had a tape recorder and record while traveling on the road lately, then I could do podcasts. Oh well. So I'll pick one thing to say about the reunion.

My favorite part about the reunion is the lack of personal space for an entire 3-day weekend. First, we stayed in a cabin with my parents, sister (L), and brother-in-law (K). We were all sharing one bathroom and Joe and I shared a room with Lauren and Kevin while my parents slept in the living room. We ate most meals with the whole big group (almost 50 this year - actually less than normal). Three of the four original sisters had lot of kids and grandkids and great-grandkids, so those three families take turns hosting (including a LOT of cooking). So we're on a three year rotation. The year you host is a lot of work and you don't have near as much time to visit, but it's worthwhile. Anyway, so you eat with everyone. In line and at the tables, it seems like people are often sitting closer than is normally appropriate. If you ask what someone is drinking, they will hand it to you for you to try it (I would say drinking after someone else is a different level of intimacy that you don't share with the majority of people you interact with). (I'm just reminded of how nice blogs are - I'm just going to leave that "with" dangling at the end of the sentence and no one can make me fix it!) Anyway, I love how my space feels so invaded by people who love me for three days every year!

my cousin Laura (who will always be Laurabeth to me) is pregnant!

We have a church camp every year that is similar in a lot of ways (though never as much work while you're there since others cook - but I have to admit, the food's not as good). But there are a few differences...

(1) At church camp there are unfortunately not as many older people (something we're praying changes soon) but there are more little kids.

(2) I'm still a little more awkward at camp. I shouldn't be, but I often find myself wandering around the grounds trying to figure out where people are or what conversations are less weird to interrupt slightly by joining. We have a lot less space everyone is crammed into for the family reunions, so I bet that accounts for the wandering around. I think at both I'm awkward in trying to spend time talking with people I don't often get a chance to talk to and other people who are more shy (if that's the right word) and don't instigate conversation even though they really want to talk with someone (it seems like I can easily spend the majority of the time with this personality type - maybe because I'm more like them in some ways?)

(3) This one is pretty big in my mind - at church camp it seems like people (naturally, not because we're told to or have separate swim times or something like in junior high) divide along gender lines most of the time. For the most part, I think this is good for protecting marriages, but when I'm at the family reunions I really enjoy being able to sit down and talk with some of the guys... I bet a big part of liking that is because I have a lot more in common with some of them in ways of thinking /education-/ work-wise. I guess at a family reunion you already have a set relationship with a cousin you grew up with and don't actually have to worry about starting an inappropriate relationship. So even though it's not a complaint against church camp (in so many ways a real family to me), I do miss the more relaxed / safe man-woman relationships. Maybe as we get closer friends at our church this will change some... maybe not, it's one of the many life-issues I don't understand! (Hmmm... I promise this point made sense in my head, sorry if it doesn't make sense here!)

(4) I get to play some REAL games at the family reunions! I'm sorry friends, but speed scrabble is for people like Joe who got a letter jacket in high school for UIL spelling. Family reunions are full of spades and 42, both games I enjoy. I beat up on a couple of college guys in a game of spades at church camp last year, so I might have to push for that again. All joking aside, I AM really glad Joe gets to play some games he like (disc golf, too) and is good at - we don't get ton of chances for that sort of thing.

Well, I stayed home from Joe's soccer game to nap, so I better go do that. We just came back from Houston, where we attended Joe's 10 year high school reunion. More on that later, but it did amount to staying up too late last night. Also, if I haven't already posted, I'm pretty sure that our closing date on our new home will be July 22nd - just around the corner!

Joe's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday May 3rd, Joe and I celebrated his birthday with a day full of surprises. He hasn't written about it, so I'm going to go ahead so we'll remember it in a few years. If you don't really care / have time / have already heard the story, you should at least read the last paragraph with the picture - it's fun.

I wrapped many hints for Joe to open throughout the day to guess where the next place we were going was - we got in the car around 8am with a backseat full of boxes for him to open. He guessed every place before he got there by asking a bunch of questions and guessing. The first clue was easy - a picture of a chicken biscuit. We got a quick breakfast at the new Chick-fil-A in town. Next he opened a pinata (it was less than a foot across and said Happy Birthday on it... a dollar store special) full of yummy candy and I started driving. He knew we'd be doing a bunch of driving, but not where we'd go. After an hour or so the next clue was a tortilla warmer (believe it or not, he's wanted one for a while... since our last one melted... another story). Then as we were getting in town, the final clue was a picture of people celebrating Cinco de Mayo. We went to a Cinco de Mayo festival and State Menudo Competition in San Marcos. Though we didn't brave the menudo (I didn't know until we were there what it was made of), we had some yummy fajita tacos. We also enjoyed traditional Mexican dances put on by local elementary through high school students in a folklorica club. The little girls were beautiful with big dresses and ribbons in their hair - and you could tell they knew it and were savoring it.

We got back on the road and Joe opened the next hint - a beer mug and piece of sheet music of German songs. It was only about a 20 minute drive, so he got to open the final hint for that leg pretty soon, which was a picture of German food. We went to the Wein & Saengerfest (German for Wine and Song - fest) in New Braunfels. They had a one of those walls were you put on a Velcro suit and jump up to stick on it. After my pleading, Joe tried it. It was full of air - like the moon bounces you jump on as a kid (or older) - so he didn't get enough bounce to get himself up on the wall. He was trying to stick upside down, but after three tries kept falling off and got a nasty cut on his neck from the suit. After that, he couldn't convince me to try, but I admired his battle wound. We decided against the actual wine tasting (it was $15 a person and neither of us has very discerning taste), but Joe did get a German beer (light in color). He liked it. There was an independent artist singing country music - he wasn't bad, but also not great, though he was really trying to connect with the crowd... too bad most of us had some sort of German meat-bread combination in our mouths. It was also funny because we were expecting German music. After trying some German food for lunch (I had grilled pork chops - how can something grilled be so greasy? German cooks are truly inspirational. Joe had some sort of sausage, both served with bread all on a stick. Can parenthetical statements have multiple sentences in them? They can on my blog!) and some chocolates and ice cream, we headed on to the next stop.

Joe opened the next clue - it was an Innova Star Starfire Disc. Joe had wanted this disc for a while, and had some sneaky collaborators to get it here from Dallas (thanks mom and Christy!). This one was easy to guess - we were going to play disc golf! A second clue was a cartoon of a girl who looks like me playing frisbee. What Joe didn't know is that we were headed toward a huge course in Live Oak (near San Antonio) - 30 holes!!! We ended up needing a break (both of us) about halfway through, so we had a little Sonic drink break and then finished the course. Several of the first holes had both the tee and the basket right along the water - we both lost a disc (though we half-expected it and were throwing bad ones). Overall, we had fun but were sick of disc golf (I know, I didn't know Joe could get to that point).

On the trip home we stopped in New Braunfels at Ryan's Steakhouse to eat dinner. It's like a Golden Coral with plastic surgery and on steroids (and without the old people). It is an all-you-care-to-eat buffet, and they will cook steaks to order right in front of you. I'm starting to drool just thinking of it.

I had one last surprise (no clues for this one) when we came home - there were lit candles, wine and cream puffs (Joe's favorite that he rarely gets... and only the candles were lit) waiting for us when we walked in. Thanks Lauren, Jennifer and Jonathan for putting them out! We got home earlier than I expected, and they must have been driving away from the house when we were driving up, but it worked out.

I leave you with the only pictorial memory we'll have of the day, actually taken two days later. While Joe burns easily and reapplied sunscreen throughout our day in the outdoors, I didn't put a drop on (okay, the facial moisturizer that I put on every day does have SPF 15, but that's only on my face). What I didn't think about is that I am VERY white where the sun doesn't shine (not meant in a vulgar way), and my shirt, although very cute, had a wider neck than I usually wear. The result was my best Neapolitan ice cream look EVER (see the chocolate, strawberry and vanilla layers... why do they always skimp on the strawberry?):

Edit from almost a month later: yes, I have a horrible semi-circle tan line now.

catching up (again): part two

Happy "tomorrowish"! I'm continuing on the run-down of what we've been up to... this one has pictures!

May 8th - Joe officially turned 28. We got some errand-type things done (including Joe getting a new driver's license picture for the first time in ten years) and then headed to Houston. We spent the evening with some friends from college - Jennifer and James. Jennifer and I were roomies before we both got married, and she had their oldest, Emma, while I was still in school and got to spend a lot of time with them. I was sad that she wouldn't remember me, but despite that she was super-sweet (wanted to sit by me at dinner, told me she loved me). They've also had another kid, Andrew, who is only 10 months old. He was cute. I had a great time catching up. It's so nice to spend time with people you've lived with - there is just a different level of comfort and "making yourself at home" comes easy. Oh! She also remembered that Joe is allergic to cats and dogs (especially cats). I found out that she had steam-cleaned the carpet and couches the day before and kept the cats in the garage since then until after we left!!! People are almost always considerate of Joe's allergies, but I don't think I've never had someone go to THAT much trouble for him... it really meant a lot and I'm glad I got it out of her. :)

May 8th (night) - That night we stayed at a hotel (2.5 stars on Priceline for $35 - nice!). Look, Joe even got his own bed for his birthday! ;)

May 9th - We went to the new outlet mall in the Houston area - it's on our way to Joe's parent's house from CS, so we've been driving by while it was being built and were curious. It was okay - a lot of clothing stores and several athletic (Nike, New Balance, Adidas, etc.) stores. Not so many kitchen or home stores. It is more like a promenade (a mall that is open to the outdoors - NOT a strip center) than any other outlet I've been to, which made it nicer to walk. We took pictures with Buzz and Spidy.
We joined Joe's parents for dinner that night at Johnny Tamale's. We tried to convince Joe's sister (Emily) to come and took this picture to make her sorry she didn't (it's Joe's mom "having a good time").May 10th - We planned a surprise party for Emily - she's never had one before! While she was out looking at houses we got in and decorated. Here are some pictures....

how we decorated
an example of the posters we hung around the room
how we decorated the floor (confetti had been banned... this was Joe's idea)
Emily had to run through this to get in

the birthday "kids"

what happens when you tell Joe not to close his eyes in the next picture

May 11th - Happy Mom's Day! We went (for the first time) to the church Joe's parents recently started going to. It's the same type of church Joe grew up in (non-class church of Christ) and two of the other families Joe grew up with (but hadn't seen as much since their church disbanded) are going there. Then we came back to College Station!

May 12th week... Recovery and back to a busy work week for me! We've got an MD student who is during summer research in our lab and I'm in charge of her (teach her, give her stuff to do), so that just started on the 14th and will go all summer. She's nice, but that means I'm really busy.

Anniversary trip to San Antonio

December 26-28 Joe and I went to San Antonio to celebrate our 6-year anniversary!

On Wednesday (the 26th), we headed out from Joe's parents to drive to San Antonio.

We're almost to downtown!

We stopped to eat a BBQ lunch at Bill Miller's BBQ. I thought it was the worst BBQ I've ever had (Joe thought it wasn't THAT bad), but they had them all over San Antonio. From the parking lot, we took these pictures of the Alamo dome (where the Aggies were playing on Saturday).


Then we checked into our hotel, which turned out to be a lot cuter than we had originally thought! We had a two night free stay, so we expected the worst, but the Downtown Holiday Inn turned out to be nice.It also had a great view at night!


Next, we headed out to Fiesta Texas. They had "Holiday in the Park" which means that about half the park (plus the water park) was closed, but the rest was decorated with lots of Christmas lights and there were holiday-themed shows. The neatest thing about the park is that half of it is surrounded by cliffs (you can see some in the picture below).

I had printed out the rides that were open, so we were ready to hit the best ones first. It turned out to be very empty, and most of the night the only waiting we did was for the ride to stop so we could get on. After an hour and a half we had gone on all the rides we wanted to AND watched a 20 minute show (carolers). We were going to go on one roller coaster again, this time in the front car, and had three pairs in line in front of us. Once we were the next in line to get on, the ride operator (a.k.a. the high school kid wearing shorts when it's 37 degrees out) said the ride was temporary closed due to "technical difficulties." We waited, and they ran it once with no one on it. It came back, but they said they would have to shut down the ride for the night! They said it was something about the ride not being safe below certain temperatures. That's one of those times when you're glad you just avoided an unsafe situation, but sad because you were two people away from having fun! We both agreed that the best thing there was the light show - they had a bunch of lights arranged in an area and different things / colors would light up / turn off / fade along with the Christmas music. It was very well done, and very cool!

That night we shared a yummy burger at Red Robin - a place I had first gone to with Joe in California (in our earlier years). We also picked up some wine from World Market which fortunately turned out to not have a cork (otherwise we would have just had to use The Force to open it).

The next day wasn't quite as pretty, but we wanted to explore more of downtown San Antonio.
Joe had found a location and took me to La Madeleine for breakfast - one of my favorite breakfast places.

After realizing it would be expensive (and possibly impossible) to park near Market Square, we decided to park the car back at our hotel and walk. We looked in many (nearly identical) shops and tried some tasty Mexican cookies. They also had a couple street musicians (on panflute and guitar) who weren't bad. We ended up walking to a cute Mexican food place that had tasty food (even though our waitress mysteriously disappeared, never to return... well, not that day).

We next got to visit the Conception Mission - check out the pictures: (One is of some original painting that was done inside the mission!)



That night we ventured out to the "Nationally Famous" Riverwalk. The Christmas lights were still up!


This one is us outside the Riverwalk Mall (a nice young lady volunteered to take our picture).


We had taken a trolley to get to and from downtown, which was an adventure all in itself! Finally, we went to Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. I had grown up going to the one in Dallas for many special occasions, so it's a fun place in my book. It was funny because other than the two of us, the restaurant only had three large groups dining - each with over 20 people! Joe pointed out that we had a "Romantic" day of food - food from French, Spanish, and Italian speaking countries.

Friday morning (our actual anniversary!), we unsuccessfully looked all over for a place to eat breakfast before returning to our hotel to check out. We headed north on I-35, and found brunch at a Shoney's.

Next we went to a disc golf course that Joe had read about. On the 16th hole, Joe threw a disc that went straight into a forest. He called a Mulligan, and threw another disc to the same spot. We went to look for them and found one pretty quickly. The other one was Joe's favorite disc that he recently traded in four older discs to get! We looked for about 15 minutes, and I thought I found his yellow disc, but it turned out to be someone else's nice disc they had lost. There was no name or phone number on the back, so it's now Joe's! We kept looking for the lost disc, and about five minutes later a father / son pair walked by and asked if we lost a disc. Joe said he had, and said he thought it was somewhere in this particular area, and the father saw it right away! It was at the top of a tall tree, so the next few minutes were spent throwing rocks and sticks at it, but it finally fell down. We were both very happy to get the disc back, and to find another one. As we were walking out of the park, we noticed this sign that tells about the park's namesake.

We warmed up in the car and drove to San Marcos. If you're female and know the area, you're probably thinking the right thing: Outlet Malls! Though we were unsuccessful in finding the jeans we needed, we found some great Christmas decorations and a wreath at Kirkland's for really good prices. We went to Taco Beuno to eat dinner, and I'm pretty sure the employees thought we were aliens. We hadn't been to one in so long, we had to ask what several things were, and changed our minds several times. There was clearly one thought going through the cashier's mind: Come on, it's just fast food. But we enjoyed it!

We made it back to College Station at a reasonable hour, so it was good to wrap up our anniversary at home.

Merry Christmas!

You should be able to click on that to open it in a larger format. We're very busy this holiday season, and will be out celebrating Christmas and then our 6 year anniversary this week! Apparently, the traditional gift for the 6th anniversary is candy! How great is that?!?

I haven't been posting as much recently, and probably won't until after New Year's, but I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a new year full of hope.

Camping - I almost forgot!

In the middle of bringing the kayak back to the camp headquarters (during a much-needed rest), I saw a caterpillar being attacked by several ants and flailing about.

I had always wondered how those National Geographic photographers just stood by taking pictures when a baby gazelle was being eaten alive. I think I now understand a little bit of how they must feel. This caterpillar was already losing a battle against ants when I saw it. (The picture is fuzzy - if you don't like it, buy me a fancier digital camera.)

Camping by the Colorado River!

We went camping at Colorado Bend State Park this past weekend! It was really good to get away - just Joe and I.

It rained some on the way there, but as we drove down the last road to the camp (passing many cows by or in the road), we saw a rainbow and that was the end of the hard rain! Here are some pictures:

Rain and Sunshine
Sunshine
Cow
Rainbow

I officially got the smelliest I have ever been. We hiked for 5 miles in the morning (we lost the trail so many times, it was probably longer) through rougher areas than I've tried before, including some stretches where you had to walk across a narrow (about a foot deep) ledge with cacti-filled drop-offs. We had some minor injuries... my most interesting one was getting three needles from a prickly pear cactus in my shin (we were walking through high grass and I didn't see it... walked right into it - brilliant!). Joe had a SPECTACULAR fall very close to the end of the trail (we were only a mile from our camp), and many people were there to see it (when we'd only seen 3 other people all morning). There was one last creek crossing, and it was heavily used since it was the closest to camp. It was therefore significantly more slippery than the rest of the crossings we'd made. Joe took one step into the creek and his foot flew out from under him and he landed right on his back. No one could believe he wasn't hurt, and I think my heart stopped. I asked if he was okay twice, and then the only thing I could say was "You broke your watch." I didn't know what to do, so I retrieved the broken watch (the band was metal links, and they broke apart). We very carefully crossed the rest of the creek, and Joe realized that his wrist was bleeding, but it turns out that a few scrapes were all the damage done.

We got back to camp, cleaned Joe's wounds, and ate some yummy sandwiches with lots of Gatorade. Then we got in a two person kayak and went up and down the Colorado for a while. Here's some pictures of that:As I was rinsing off (the shower was outdoors) I saw two young women trying to figure out which way to go. I went over to help and it turned out had hitchhiked in and had just started what they plan to be a month-long trip. They asked for a ride out the next day (when we were leaving), and I agreed to it. That's a whole story in itself... not a bad experience, though. One of the women basically said she had made a lifestyle choice to live this way (traveling around by hitching rides, camping out). By not-so-careful observation, she had also chose to not shave or wear bras. I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just giving you a more complete picture. It did make me sad when she told us that this trip was different because it had a purpose. When asked what that was, she said "to find a lot of good swimming holes." I honestly expected much better. If that purpose was enough to get her excited, her life must truly be devoid of purpose.

Anyway, back to the camping trip. We hiked (with out newfound companions) back to the location of Joe's Spectacular Fall, and the girls found a place to camp. Joe and I hiked farther to another waterhole that didn't have any other people around. Here are some pictures of that (and the hike to it):Beautiful, yes?

We also had a doe with her twin fawns that were at our campsite every night and morning. The second picture is Sunday morning (very early) when I heard them and decided to stick the camera out of the tent to get a picture.
Okay, that's officially the most pictures I've ever put in a post, but I promise I had many more that are great and I had to leave out!