New England Adventure

October 12th-15th, 2009

I always had this urge to do a fall foliage tour before...couple that with the fact that I have this day by day calendar of the "1000 places to see before you die" where White Mountains National Park came up on a day in September, I therefore began planning an excursion to the New England area.

I decided to bring along my long-time friend Ashley and her furry companion Tucker. Though it was my hope to leave by 4am on Monday morning, I assumed we'd be behind schedule from the beginning.

I reserved a "rustic" cabin atop Black Mountain in New Hampshire for 3 nights so we could be one with nature and enjoy the scenery every chance we got. The description on the website said it would be a 1.3 mile hike up 'moderate grade' in order to reach the cabin. When we finally reached the trailhead at 7pm on Monday evening, it was pitch black dark, and I had some fears about the potential wildlife that may be joining us on our hike. Nonetheless, I grabbed my flashlight, we put on our terribly heavy packs, and started up the trail. After an hour of tiring climbing up what I would call 'steep' grade, we still had not reached the cabin. Being an avid hiker in the wilderness of Alaska, I knew we had to be close and I wasn't really too worried. It wasn't until we were going on 2 hours when I started to panic. 1.3 miles could not take that long, could it? After calling some people with no avail, I told Ashley that if we didn't reach the cabin in the next couple minutes, we'd have to do some serious considering of what to do next. Thankfully, not a few minutes later, we reached the cabin and were welcomed with a bunch of firewood to warm our cold and sweaty bodies.

When we awoke the next morning, we were greeted with 3 inches of snow on the ground as it continued to come down. I don't mind cold weather and I had slept relatively well, it was just going back down the hill that worried me in the slippery conditions. We headed back into town in the afternoon to see what there was to do. We got some advice from the ranger station, showered, and drove around the town a bit. We knew it would be a good idea to head back up the mountain earlier than the previous night and believe it or not, it took us only an hour the second time.

Though the second night spent in the cabin was a bit more rough than the first. I could not keep the fire going and was incredibly cold throughout the night. I decided that we'd spend the next night in Vermont instead and we'd plan our day in the morning of all we wanted still to do in NH. As the next day arrived, we packed our things and said goodbye to Black Mountain Cabin. We were let down as the Mt. Washington Auto Road was closed because of ice and decided to drive to Maine just to say we were there. We then went on a little hike to a waterfall and shopped in the cute downtown district. From there, we headed off to Vermont to stay somewhere close to our next destination: The Great Vermont Corn Maze.

The corn maze was incredibly awesome. I'd say it will probably be the best corn maze I'll ever take part in in my life. AWESOME.

After we left the corn maze, we made our last stop before heading home at the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory. Filled with our free samples and a bit of sadness for saying bye to New England, we headed home.

One day I will be back again. Hopefully earlier in the season!

Kennywood

Mid-September, 2009

My friend Willy acquired some free tickets to the amusement park, Kennywood, in Pittsburgh. Though I was mid-hike when I got his phone call that said to meet him at his house as soon as I could, I had to put on my jogging shoes and get going.

I had never been to Kennywood before in my life and growing up around some pretty sweet amusement parks like Six Flags, Cedar Point, and Geauga Lake, my standards were pretty high. You can imagine my anti-climatic surprise walking into such a tiny park with what they called "roller coasters."

Regardless, we had some fun screaming down the little hills, standing in line for the Noah's Ark debacle thing, and going out afterwards. Though too bad Kennywood, I doubt you'll ever see my face again.

Penn State vs. Akron U

So I'm definitely behind on this blogging thing. Here's some of the things I've been doing the past few months...

September 5, 2009

So my dad told me that the Penn State vs. Akron game would have pretty cheap tickets; therefore, the night before, I decided we were going to make the drive out to Happy Valley to fulfill one of my dreams of seeing a Penn State game live. We took along my buddy Allison, a current Akron zip, and embarked on the 4 hour drive to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. The weather was beautiful, though freakishly hot sitting in the largest college stadium in the nation.

It was awesome seeing Joe Pa on the field and then driving by his house after the game. I really wanted to get some 'peachy paterno' ice cream afterwards, but the line to the custard place was over an hour long. Lame! Regardless, Penn State trampled Akron as hoped and it was a beautiful day for football.

We of course had to get a picture at the most photographed location on campus - the Nittany Lion statue! Go LIONS!

the FEST

the FEST

Wicliffe, Ohio

August 9th, 2009

So each year St. Mary's Seminary holds the FEST which is a day of fun, music, mass, and unity. I had never been before as I feel like since my days in Youth Group I always had a conflict that weekend. Well, this year, I was able to attend with St. Hilary's and it was a lot of fun. It definitely was the hottest day of the summer I think with temperatures over 90, but that couldn't take away from the great music and awesome closing mass and fireworks celebration. Not to mention the large amount of free kiwis I acquired...mmm! If you've never been, I highly recommend attending as it is a great event for people of all ages. I even got to see wonderful Brandon Heath play live! I took a couple of pictures for your enjoyment...

Alaska 2009

June 28th to July 5th, 2009

Each summer my family joins together to vacation in Alaska. We are so blessed to be able to share this time and beautiful place together. I've made a vow that one day I will live in Alaska because I can't imagine being anywhere else really. We always do some pretty cool things.

This summer, we went on some of our usual hikes like Mt. Marathon (which I race up on the 4th of July and everyone should witness such an event some time in their life), Tonsina Point, Exit Glacier, and we even were able to get out to Caines Head to see the old Fort McGilvray from world war 2.

We also went on a road trip to the city of Soldotna since we never really drive much anymore. Johnna grabbed the Milepost and started flipping through the cities we could drive to in a couple hours (they are definitely limited) and came up with Soldotna. I felt like we were in New York City with the McDonald's, Taco Bell, and intense shopping area. You can tell we are sheltered in our little 2600 person town. Funny thing is, Soldotna doesn't have too many more either.
We also took a little kayak trip out to Caines Head where we saw the old war bunkers and forts. With the exception of the rough water we hit, we had fun seeing more sea otters then I have in my life.

It is always a great time in Alaska, I can't stand leaving, and I encourage everyone to get out there someday (especially to come visit me when I eventually live out there!). Though they always say: when you are traveling around, better make Alaska the last place you go because you will never want to go anywhere else. :)

Steubenville Youth Conference

Steubenville Youth Conference
Franciscan University of Steubenville
June 19th-21st, 2009

So I am a volunteer for my church's high school youth group throughout the year and each summer they attend the Steubenville Youth Conference at Franciscan University. I had never attended this conference as a teen myself, so the whole experience was new to me. It was a great time to sing a lot of praise and worship songs, have a powerful adoration time, and celebrate with over 2000 other youth from all over the United States. It was a wonderful time away and I encourage all others to give it a chance. Here's a couple of pictures capturing the events...

ALIVE Festival 2009
Canal Fulton, Ohio

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

So my buddy Beth and I won these free tickets to the ALIVE festival this year via Willy's photo scavenger hunt contest on the radio. Anyways, I could only go there on Thursday evening and lucky for us, the rain held out the whole night. We got to see a few cool bands, manned Willy's station's tent and attempted to answer questions, and got some good food to eat. I was saddened that the water slides and other events were closed for the day, but it was a nice time nonetheless. Next year it will be more than an hour away at Atwood Lake...sigh! Here are a couple of pictures:

First-timer

So I decided (with some prompting by my lovely friend Whitney) to start a blog. I didn't think my life was too exciting to read about, but we'll give it a shot. I've decided to creat a blog that documents my traveling adventures. Maybe it'll get to the point where I will just travel somewhere so I can blog about it! (let's hope not though...)

My first entry is all about the trip I spent in Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah with Whitney and her new hubby Aaron.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009- Sunday, May 31st, 2009

So we cooked some awesome meals almost every night. Salmon, stuffed pasta shells, quesadillas, and so many awesome desserts. Aaron not only helped but cleaned up afterwards too...the perfect man!

Everything was so delicious and I can't wait to be able to cook as well as Whit!

Whit is an awesome artist and I'm forcing her to paint me a pretty geometric print dealing with the stars/constellations. I need to get married so I can have my own personal, one-of-a-kind paiting!

We went on some awesome hikes and were really blessed with pretty much beautiful weather the whole time. I've never experienced seeing snowcapped mountains and the temperature being over 70 degrees (I'm obviously an Alaskan); so it was kind of a reality check for me that that actually exists. I decided that I HAVE to live somewhere that I can see mountains on a daily basis. I think the western U.S. is calling my name!

Some of the hikes we went on were the famous "Y Mountain" at BYU: approximately 1000 feet incline to a large cemented Y on the side of the mountain. Definitely awesome and something I would do weekly as a fabulous work out. We also hiked to Bridal Veil Falls, a beautiful and big waterfall more into the canyon area of Provo. It was very refreshing and picture perfect. Lastly, we hiked to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City where Brigham Young stood and mapped his perfect city from the lookout point.

As I said, we baked some fabulous desserts and I got Whit and Aaron to try some of my hometown favorites like rhubarb crisp and banana bread. Everything was so scrumptious I know I gained at least 5 pounds eating all that!

The day before I headed out to town, we went to Salt Lake City. We made a pitstop at IKEA (a first-time visit for me...wow!) and then toured around the city, saw the historic Temple Square and surrounding buildings as well as actually went into the great salt lake. Though the salt lake experience was kinda creepy, it was a memorable time. Temple Square was a beautiful place and I'm sad I didn't get to see Whitney and Aaron's big day there last summer.


I had a SUPER trip and can't be more thankful for Aaron and Whitney's supreme hospitality. They fed, entertained, and were more than happy to be around me every waking minute for 5 days. I can't wait to visit again wherever they end up and also to repay them on their must-go trip to Alaska.
Until next time...over and out from Steph's Travel Adventures.

Next stop: Steubenville, Ohio for the Steubenville Youth Conference, June 19th, 2009 to June 21st, 2009.