7 years

A few days ago, I saw my best friend for the first time in 7 years. We met 8 years ago.

It was surreal and confusing, and it took us a while to get used to each other, especially because, for the first two of the three days, we didn't have much time alone, but we eventually adjusted.

We were in a big ole city not too far from where I live, and we did all the tourist-y things I'd never gotten around to doing. My calves were killing me by the end, and they still have yet to fully recover, but at least I can manage walking downstairs again.

I normally take things slower when I'm on vacation, but I did really enjoy seeing how much my best friend and her family took on in just three short days. We hit most of the many tourist spots in the city. We were out of the hotel by maybe 10 at the latest every day, didn't get back until 10 or 11 at night, and spent only maybe 1 of those 12 or more hours sitting down, and all the rest hiking and walking and running across the street right before the lights changed. While I was exhausted by the end of it and came home ready to sleep for a month, I felt like I'd gotten a lot out of the trip. Still, I think I'll take things a little bit slower when I travel on my own in the future.

Speaking of travelling on my own in the future, on tumblr, I've been reblogging and tagging pictures that come up on my dashboard of places I want to go and things I want to do (camping, hiking, etc) as places and nature, and I'm just constantly daydreaming about going on camping trips and staying in lake cabins and hiking up into the hills and mountains and coming across little rivers and big lakes and swimming and relaxing and eating food cooked on a campfire and wandering through a new city and listening in on the conversations of locals and peeking into shops and sniffing the air around restaurants... But I've only done a few of those things this summer, and not very often. I'm working on it, though! Since I (finally) have a long summer, I intend to squeeze in as many adventures as possible before I leave to start college (almost two months from now!).

And, speaking of college: I'm still as excited as I was before! While I was in the city, I passed by a sidewalk sale, and almost all of the things I'd been looking for while thrifting were just sitting there, cheap and available right in front of me... and I didn't get 'em. Darn.

I'll leave y'all (5 of you now! Thank you!) with these pictures from a recent hiking/sort-of-camping trip.