Real Simple Writing Contest

Over at the Real Simple website they are having a writing contest.  I am thinking of entering it....yet, I am terrified!  I hate showing people what I have written...I hate it so much that I don't even like turning in the papers that I have written for class.  But, I feel like it is the much overdue time to get over it.  So I think I am going to do it. 

The prompt for the contest is "I never thought I'd..."  Well I never thought I'd actually turn over something I have written out of my own free will for a contest.  But...the winner gets a two night trip to New York to meet with the editors of Real Simple, $3,000, and Broadway tickets.  I am most excited for the meeting with the editors.  I think that that would be the most awesome thing to do, since I am hoping to one day work in the publishing/editing  field.  I'm not getting my hopes up either because just turning my work in to be read by a complete stranger would be accomplishment enough...for now.

Want to enter yourself?  Go Here:  Real Simple Writing Contest

Birthdays and Weddings.

This weekend has been full of celebration.  On Saturday, my whole family got together my Meemaw's 75th birthday.  It is really hard these days getting everyone together since we are now getting old...getting married...and having kids of our own.  It was really fun getting to see everyone together again!  The weekend was full of laughing, catching up, eating, and swimming.  My favorite part was the water fight that broke out...hoses...buckets...ice water...so much fun.

Then on Sunday one of my ZTA sorority sisters had her wedding.  She and her now husband have been dating for 10 years!  It is so cool to be able to see them finally tie the knot!  Her wedding was in Pismo Beach, so my sister and I drove up together. 

The drive was so beautiful, and we had a lot of fun?  If you call a bit of traffic fun...at least we got to drive along the coast!  The way back was a breeze, although I wish we could have stayed longer!  Till next time I suppose.

The Grand Canyon...Pt. 4

On the way in we saw another campsite with the theme of The Flintstones.  We decided that on the way home we would stop and take pictures:

We then took a small detour onto Route 66 to see the Grand Canyon Caverns.  (Sorry the pictures are blurry, I was having a little trouble with my camera)

After the caverns, we saw this fire truck that was the inspiration for the fire truck in the movie Cars.

We also passed through Peach Springs, the city that the Cars movie is based on.  It took us all of 3 minutes to drive through it.  The rest of our trip was smooth sailing from there...although you wouldn't know it from my GPS directions!

We did run into some Berma-Shave signs that entertained us on the way home!  It's hard to believe that we did that much in a little under 48 hours!  I'm so glad that we went through with this spontaneous trip, and that I get to check off #1 on my list!  Everything was so easy, and seamless...I would recommend everyone taking a trip like this.

The Grand Canyon...Pt. 3

After our hike, we were so tired.  We decided to head back to our campsite, and possibly listen to the ranger show that was going on at the site.  We stopped in the little town to see a few things that were going on, and a lot of it reminded us of the Oregon Trail. 

There was also a Native American Art Show, and we decided to check that out as well!

The best times to see the Grand Canyon are at sunset and sunrise.  We decided that we were going to wait for sunrise since we were so tired.  Then, we ran into one of the rangers and he said that we should see the sunset, it is the most beautiful.  So, we decided to do that...it was worth it.

We went to a different location than where we were at the beginning of the day.  It was a half hour further to get the the Desert View Watch Tower, but I'm glad that we got to see another angle of the Canyon.

I am so glad that we didn't miss the sunset!  At night it got freezing.  I think that the average at night is 28 degrees?  It definitely felt that cold!  We fell asleep around 9:30 (We were very tired!) 

I woke up in the middle of the night with the most excruciating need to go to the bathroom.  I thought that it had to be at least 3 a.m. and I was hopeful that I could hold it till morning, but when I looked at the clock it was only 11 p.m.!  I couldn't believe it.  I woke up Cheryl and made her walk all the way to the bathroom in the freezing cold with me.  I was able to sleep a little more comfortably, but I still slept in the fetal position all night because I was so cold!  I don't think that I wouldn't have been able to get myself out of bed for the sun rise had we missed the sunset! 

We woke up in the morning around 7:30 a.m., packed up, and headed back home.  But, we still had a few more stops though...

The Grand Canyon...Pt.2

Our expectations:
Mine: That it would be red
Teresa: That it would be big
Cheryl: That it would be deep

Well...all of our expectations were met!  The view is absolutely beautiful.  I can't even express in words what it is like.  We started the day at the Yavapai Observation Station.

Here is what we saw there:

It was so beautiful!  This is the view looking down...

This is Cheryl:

This is Teresa:

And Me:

We wanted to do some hiking, so we did the Bright Angel Trail (not on mules!)

We hiked about a mile down, which wasn't too bad, but it was really steep on the way up!

These are pictures that we took on the way down:

After our intense Hike!

The Grand Canyon...Pt. 1

About a month ago, two of my sorority sisters (Cheryl, and Teresa) and I had planned to go to the Grand Canyon.  Those plans fell through.  Then this week, Teresa proposed the idea of going to the Grand Canyon this weekend (this idea came on Tuesday)  After much deliberation, and going back and forth:

"Yes! Let's go!"
"Oh wait, it's memorial day weekend, lets wait."
"Well, should we go?"
"Nah, lets wait and plan better."
"Oh, come on lets go!"

We officially decided to go on Thursday.  So we quickly got everything together, and made plans to leave early on Saturday morning...early being 2:30 a.m.  We got up early, packed up Randall the Raincloud (that's my car's name), and headed out.  We drove...and drove...and drove some more...the needle creeping closer...and closer to empty.  We finally saw a gas station decorated with palm trees....mirage looking.  It was seriously in the middle of no where.  The price of gas? $5.00 a gallon! That was outrageous!  But, we needed to fill up, so we didn't really have a choice.  Inside the gas station there was a sign that requested that customers do not complain to the employees about the gas station, and that they are there after spending a fortune because they wanted to be...blah blah blah... it was pretty funny...there was also 2 huge fish tanks with all these weird fish, and the water was incredibly dirty...I felt so bad for them!  But, we had the Grand Canyon to see!  So we kept on driving...and driving and driving some more. 

We were about 50 miles out, and one of my favorite parts of the trip happened here:  When we stopped for gas there was a big group of motorcyclists.  Not just any normal motorcyclists...but French motorcyclists!  I was trying to eavesdrop on their conversations...Two women were talking about the gloves that they were wearing, and how one of them thought that they were too small.  I almost introduced myself, but I thought that I would rather not get caught in a conversation that I couldn't fully understand!  We got back on the road, and headed up to the Grand Canyon!

We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and headed straight to get a campsite...they were all full (apparently people book their trips to the Grand Canyon months in advanced...who knew?)  Luckily, there was a campsite 2 miles away, and we were able to get a site there.  We set up camp, then headed back to the canyon...

The Grand Canyon...Coming Soon

I just got back from my trip to the Grand Canyon.  It was a-mazing! I will tell you more soon when I have the energy and patience to sift through all of the photos. 

Coming up:

Waking up early... kooky gas stations... French motorists... camping...

temperature... the view... the hike... the Flintstones...

Caverns... Route 66... Berma Shave...

Can't wait to share it with you, and to take a nice, long shower!