12.8.11

Summer Recap

So the Summer is wrapping up.. school starts in ~1 week. Which is a scary thought for me, as always time has flown by so fast. I've had a good summer. In a way I am glad that school is back, just because it always reinstates a purpose, a schedule. I'll just share a couple of the highlights of my Summer...




Seattle..
Something really cool that I got to do was to meet up with a guy from the dorm, I spent some time in the Portland (OR) area and he lives up near Seattle, so I hopped on a train and had a very fun week hanging out with him. He's staying in the States for a year so it was a good thing just to go over the year and talk about pretty much everything. We spent a day in Seattle and saw the sights, the first Starbucks, the gum-wall, the Space Needle and the Fish Market. 


A Week in the Wilderness (It Could Be Worse..)
Recently, I went with my uncle, aunt and 2 cousins on their annual backpacking trip. They usually go to Wyoming and spend about 8+ days hiking and camping around some wilderness there, but because of a wet Winter and Spring, if we went when they were planning on going, the bugs (mosquitos especially) would be horrible. Eventually my uncle chose a spot in Idaho, Crimson Lake in the Challis National Forest, about 2 hours from Boise. I could go into a lot of detail about the trip, but I will give just the meat and potatoes (Idaho, potatoes ..Ha ha?) of what happened. 
Day 1 We spent the day driving to Boise, stayed the night, got the packs ready. 
Day 2. Drove to the trailhead and hiked for several hours, set up camp along the trail.
Day 3. Finished the ~8 mile hike to Crimson Lake, set up camp there.
Day 4. Walked around the lake, exploring, fished and relaxed.
Day 5. Hiked a little bit to a neighboring smaller lake, fished and swam a bit.
Day 6. Packed up everything and hiked ~10 miles to another lake, Lightning Lake.. but on the way my uncle had an accident and (at the time we thought only sprained) fractured his ankle. We were no where near a good spot for camping and it was getting dark, but we made do. 
Day 7. Hiked back out on the trail that we started the day before, my uncle couldn't carry his pack, so my cousin had to carry his own pack, walk a mile or so, drop his pack and walk back to get my uncles pack and so on. We made camp about ~1 mile from the trailhead.
Day 8. Finished the last little bit back to the trailhead, drove to Boise, crashed at a motel, showered and then later watched Super-8. 
Day 9. Drove back to Portland. 
So overall we spent a week, it may sound easy, I defiantly thought it would be a lot easier than it was.. but your ability to walk fast is greatly hindered when you have a 40lbs pack on your back and the trail winds up and down hills. Rain and hail are also a big nuisance, defiantly not my favorite part about the week, but the trip was fun, I caught some fish and I had an awesome time with my extended family!

The Golden Year
My Grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this Summer. We had an open houseish thing and a dinner for them. Being the resident techie, they had asked me to put together a video to show at the open house.. after many hours of work, I finally finished a video, showing them from childhood to the present day. It was a really cool experience to be able to look at all these old slides and photo albums of them. Overall the day went really well and everyone had a good time! 

Back Home
Before I flew to North America, I had to return back to the UAE because of a round trip ticket.. I enjoyed my time there, especially with one of my best-friends (one of the last good friends I have left in the UAE).

This isn't an event, but something else that I love about the summer is staying up really late and sleeping in. Be it watching a movie late at night, talking to friends, writing or reading. I have Summer insomnia.

I hope everyone else have had great Summers too! 

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