back to Zion we go.
Ruben had the whole week off about 2 weeks ago and i managed to get 2 days off for the price of 1. after a lot of "idk what to do or where to go", he finally decided that he wanted to go back to Zion.
and i was like heck yes!
we got on the freeway at 1130 Wednesday night, made it to Vegas in 2.5 hrs and got to Zion at 6 am (technically 5 but time change) just in time for breakfast and a nap (even though i had napped a little less than half way).
we also got to see the sunrise and man, it was beautiful.
the virgin river.
the first time i really stopped to see it and it was beautifully peaceful.
i just wanted to sit by on a rock and listen to the water pass by.
this is at the first bridge once you drive into the park. its that famous spot where EVERYONE gathers around to get an amazing picture of the sunset.
these little guys (idk, there were 4 in the area) were all the way up in Angel's Landing just running around. they got pretty close to the couple sitting me.
i think people feed them because they were pretty comfortable coming up to humans. i did not feed them but i did make the gesture like i was and they came up to me like nothing. i'm not sure where the one in the middle got food from.
just when its about to get hella real at angel's landing. sorta almost done but not really.
love when effects kick in all on their own.
THE COLORS!!!!! all the heart eye emoji's!!!
thursday
we hiked:
-lower emerald pool (the other 2 were closed due to the storm from a few months back)
-weeping rock. pretty quick hike for a nice view. take sunglasses. you'll be blinded otherwise.
-the narrows. like last time, we only made it up the entrance cause it was too cold to go further in with what we were wearing.
friday:
we hiked:
-angel's landing. because of the damage the storm caused, we somehow ended up higher than the last time we went. and while i didn't have a bout of vertigo this time around, i still did not risk it and continue the last .5 miles. I'm fine with 4.5
-canyon overlook trail: this one was a fairly quick hike. but to be honest, I'm surprised i hiked this one. there's railing in a lot of places but in the places that there isn't, one slip and good luck.
i think i was hangry by then and sleepy that when we made it up, i just laid on a rock and fell asleep for a bit. we were there for the sunset (without planning it) and it made for nice views but i wouldn't have felt comfortable going back down in the dark with no light. (i think by now, its safe to say that you all know I'm a person who worries. A LOT!)
I'm not sure if we did a 3rd hike this day. or just 2. idk.
this time around, we bought a pass to go into the park (like always) but then, basically unless you are going to go through the park (and to the overlook trail or just park on the side whenever you want to stop), you will need to find parking right away and take the shuttle. we parked at the end of the Pa'rus trail.
they do not allow you access to the road where all the hikes are at in your own vehicle so you need to take the shuttle. my understanding is this is only until after thanksgiving (not sure when it starts) but let me tell you! shuttles should be a 365 day kinda deal. nothing is better than being dropped off and picked up as you please.
NO WORRYING ABOUT ANY PARKING!!!!
its honestly the best.
and if you go, i recommend driving into the park at night.
the stars are nuts!
Just in time for Zions 99th Birthday! <3
can't wait to go back in a few years.
thanks for reading!
first time at zion here and here
(a month Y E A R later!)
here is CANADA!
well, just the Capilano suspension bridge. cause that's all we went for.
I know I meant to post this A YEAR AGO! but i dunno blogging has felt weird for me. i got lazy once we got back from our trip and 2018 has just been a weird year.
and well, today marks the 1 year anniversary of Canada literally. i figured there was no better time than today to post this.
sorry for disappearing guys!
....anyway!
the reason we went to Canada was because i wanted to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.
a friend of mine went with her husband years ago and i don't even remember how i came across it again but i decided then and there that i wanted to go.
so in Washington, after returning a fitbit charger at target and getting a fucking speeding ticket in WA (and for some reason not eating anything other than a pastry at Starbucks), we made it to CANADA!!!
Canada.....was not what i expected. haha
i was hoping this would be like in some foresty, quiet place and.....its in the city-ish. i want to see Lake Alberta or Lake Louise or Banff (how tf do i know so many locations in Canada lol) but we stayed in the city. and not like downtown but in a very metropolitan area.
and for some other reason after eating only more pastries and hot chocolate inside the bridge area....we made the mistake to go into downtown Vancouver (?) and well, that didn't help.
anywho, here are some picture (very hard to just choose a few) of our time at CSB.
Capilano is made up of 2 bridges.
one "old school" style and one all new-ish and modern looking.
you're basically just walking all around nature.
this is the "old school" bridge. i guess you could also say the main one.
the only difference is, they are open late into the night so we missed that.
i don't regret it though. i can only imagine how busy it gets.
they have trails you can walk and sorta tree houses that you can walk through to get from tree to tree and various lookouts.
i definitely do not recommend this if you have a fear of heights. but otherwise, if you're in the area, i do recommend it as like a one time thing! unless you live near there; they sell yearly passes and i could imagine going just to wander around from time to time.
.....i'd love to bring my mom here.
you find random waterfalls everywhere.
(i bought a memory stick thing and transferred all the pics over too sooo...yea)
so i googled sushi and it took us into the city and it was a mess. it doesn't help that it was Friday and rush hour and that we were hangry.
we just headed back to the hotel and asked a guy working there for recommendations near by walking distance.
he told us about a pho spot and so off we went.
and we walked all up and down not finding the spot. but ya know what we did find? a shit load of sex shops.
like
a
l o t.
it was pretty cool.
after all that we found a random Vietnamese spot and ate there.
forever I had been trying to get Ruben to eat pho with me but he wasn't a fan.
of course he would fall in love with it IN CANADA where we probably wont be back to in a very long time if ever.
-_______-
after eating, since it was still early, we wandered around and made it into a bowling alley.
this was probably my favorite thing ever!
there were older people having the time of their life playing a very different version bowling than what I've ever seen.
it was Friday night and they were turning up!
we talked to the guy working there and he gave us the history and some facts and i thought it was just about the best thing ever.
forever remembering this.
overall, i liked what we went for and while i wasn't a huge fan of Vancouver, i do think I'd go back and get to know downtown a bit better. ...even if one entire long ass block looked like DTLA, TS NY & Las Vegas all had a baby together.
here's to a year, Canada!
the next morning, we drove back to Seattle had a few brews, hit that famous Pho spot in Seattle (but didn't get the giant pho cause you gotta make reservations) (also, the shrimp rolls were WAY better than the pho in my opinion), saw the troll under the bridge then drove back to Oregon.
we were 'sposed to stay in Washington with a friend of mine but at this point we were kinda beat and just wanted to be as close as possible to the airport so we headed back to Portland to be with my cousin....where i made the mistake of saying yes to going to the casino with my aunt. Ruben and i gambled once and then went to the car to sleep. lol
this was such a fun trip and i love reliving all the memories.
all the walks and all the places we went.
here's to hoping we get to do something like this again.
thanks for reading!
........aaaaannnnndddd, I'm back.
well, not really cause I'm not too sure I'll be on here that much more often but I'm back from having gone missing about 2 months, 3 months ago? (i just checked..more like 4!!!)
i actually wrote this post a month ago and then left it alone and thought about it and it just seemed so negative that i didn't want to post it.
but i mean, i guess i sorta have to say something sometime...so here i am!!!
I've been good just hanging out at work, going for long walks...eating better (lol but truue) uhm and honestly, sorta finally watching TV lol.
i don't really eeeever watch tv. not prior to this.
but I'm in a reading rut (have been) and i don't even want to scrapbook or do anything arts and crafty so i guess tv is where it's at. seen lots of shows on netflix (some several times over. NOT the office).
we haven't really gone on a vacation kinda getaway in a while so i don't really have much to post on that. were currently planning Cabo again but we'll see. (and i know i still have to finish up Canada but, meh). (holy shit!!!! ive been to effing Canada!!!!!)
I've mostly been going to shows on my own and i have a couple of more concerts coming up so I'm excited about that.
other than the basics, i guess I've just needed time off from the blog i guess.
i haven't even posted my last reads. mostly cause one of the last ones left me kinda blah.... (its typed up and waiting to be posted). and i think the next several books will just be posted on goodreads (i think I'm going to do that for the rest of the year and just start fresh next year.) but i will post a quick link for all the books that i have read since my last post (not many). i think I'm only on #16.
anyway...
im 1000% over summer in CA. it's was tooo stupid hot.
i need sleep right now but everything is great!
sorry again for going MIA.
ill try to be here more often!
...and if you have ANYTHING i need to watch, let me know.
also, go watch Antman & The Wasp SOOO GOOD!!!!
love ya!
Les
published: 2017
pages: 306
ISBN: 978-0-553-52403-1
read: 3/19-21/2018
rating: good read
book: 8 of 12 (secretly aiming for 52 but happy with 30) of 2018
An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.
MY THOUGHTS
short version:
liked it. good/quick read. loved the interpretation.
liked it. good/quick read. loved the interpretation.
"long" version:
i came upon this book based on Meredith's recommendation. and i decided to give it a go because i was (still am) in a reading funk and so another verse style book was definitely something that i could do.
i came upon this book based on Meredith's recommendation. and i decided to give it a go because i was (still am) in a reading funk and so another verse style book was definitely something that i could do.
commitment without full commitment. especially since its now week 12 and this is only book 8 (and I'm anal about counting audio books towards a 52 books read goal).
so i started reading it and then i ran into a book that I DO want to read so i was waiting for that one and not really feeling this one which is unfair because this is a fairly good book.
AND THEN I MADE THE FATAL MISTAKE OF READING THE QUESTIONS THAT CONTAIN SPOILERS ON GOODREADS ....like i always do.
and it wasn't so much a spoiler as it was the interpretation of the book from another readers point of view that when i started reading it again i was like "shit."
but overall, its a good book and even if i did have that in my head and even if everyone is still pissed about the ending, this was an overall really good read.
and i think the best part of it is the ending because it's up to you to realize what this book means to you.
at least that's the way i see it.
i know deep down, i didn't appreciate it for as good a book as it really is and that is honestly all my fault. but i do hope that whoever else reads this really loves it for what it is.
after our day in Oregon, we drove up to Seattle and IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
all that greenery! and the rain!!! the best!!!!
we got to our hotel, not exactly IN the downtown area but we stayed basically behind (or in front, idk) of the space needle, it was still pretty close, dropped our stuff and took like a 10 mins top lyft ride to the Public Market Center.
from there we just walked around all over the place.
we unfortunately got there around closing time so we didn't do much but we did see a few shops, got a few trinkets and headed out to the overlook area.
from there on, we went to The Pike Brewing Company where i had the most delicious pear drink and we stayed for a bit (that place is HUGE!) while he made all sorts of friends and i walked around.
from there on, we walked over to Ivar's and got some grub!
(he saw a vice documentary on Seattle and that was one of the spots)
they have an outside area where you can order to go or you can order inside.
we ate inside and it was by the water and really nice. like a little too nice for the basic ass food we got but it was still pretty good.
i wasn't really feeling it so i basically took all my food with me (that i think we ended up giving away to a homeless person.) from there we walked back to the market but we stopped by the Ferris wheel and took some pictures there.
i LOVE that they have bikes EVERYWHERE up for you to grab (i think it costs like a dollar). they were literally everywhere and i loved that sooooooooooooo much!!!!
we found some stairs to go back up and accidentally stumbled upon the gum wall! (when we were looking for it we couldn't find it. go figure)
after that just hit up whatever bars we could find. we hit up Elysian Bar and had a few drinks there.
from there we moved on to some random bar that a friend of mine recommended and had more drinks there.
apparently a lot of places close at midnight during the week so we were only there for a bit but the waitress told us about some pizza place called Roccos.
we couldn't find it for some reason (tbh, we were probably just too drunk) and we couldn't really use our phones cause we were running low on battery and we needed to save it for the way home.
we found some random girl walking around like she was on a mission and it turned out that she was going to the same place we were going to so she guided us there.
the messed up part is that they didn't even let her in .______.
her ID did not have her signature on it so they wouldn't allow her in. we tried everything to get her in but her dude just ended up meeting her outside.
the pizza was good, the spot was pretty dope and the drinks were harsh but we loved it and i would definitely go back there again.
afterward, we walked back to our place but found a random bar that had some karaoke going on.
you can't pay me enough to do karaoke and I'm not a fan but i was pretty buzzed so we crashed a group that was having a blast.
after that, we just walked back to the room.
i just want to add that i felt completely safe walking the streets at like 2 am. that's not something i can say out here in DTLA.
but anyway.....that was Seattle.
it was a blast and i LOVED it and i want to go back ASAP!
i want to go back and do the space needle and find the first Starbucks. yea, i know. how do you go and not do the most touristy things ever? ....if it helps, i went to target twice lol.
driving to CANADA!!!!!
we came back to Seattle on Saturday and we were 'sposed to stay with some friends but by then we were kinda over it and just wanted to be in Oregon to be ready to fly back home the following day so we stopped by a brewery and accidentally found the troll but not before getting a bowl of PHO! yum!!!..before continuing the drive back to Oregon.
i love SOUP.
any kind of soup.
soup for life!
so when i found this spot on ig (known for there extra super duper ginormously large bowl that you share with like 500 people) i made it a point that we had to go!
...the soup was okay.
but them shrimp spring rolls!
OMG!
id go back just for that!!!!
anyway...that's that for Seattle.
i know i had a blast in Oregon because of the Mt. Hood drive, but i want to say Seattle was my fave.
but now that i think about it....we also had a fun time doing nothing in Canada after our main trip....(that's coming up. eventually.)
this whole entire trip was a blast!
thanks for reading!
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