July 30

Before I started creating this blog, I didn't check the last time I posted. I know it was a while ago. Things have been so great that it is hard to find time to get to the public computer, since mine crashed, to post on here. Work has been really busy, but busy is good . I get to talk to people from all over the world. I had the chance to use my German knowledge with an old german couple the other day. Like most travelers, they where having difficulty understadning american currency. So I used my german knowledge and talk to the older german couple, saying the total and change back in german. Another thing at work that happened that was both weird and odd was that I saw someone from my Highschool come through our line. Not just NDCL but from my actual graduating class! we both recognized eachother right away and it was just a small world feeling after that.
    Im getting more and more hiking in and I love it. I made it a goal to try and do all the park hikes this summer and since i've posted Ive done two more. One of the hikes is called cleetwood. It was one of my most straneous hikes i've ever been on. 1.2 miles down and 1.2 miles up. It was intense and of course I picked a hot day to do it. Cleetwood is one of the better known trails because you have to complete this trail to go on a boat tour around the lake. I havnt gone on a boat tour yet, which I will have to do the trail again because I will be going on a boat tour before the summer comes to an end. The other trail is called sun notch, which is one of the easier ones listed. it is only about 3/4 of a mile and takes you to the top of a peak over the lake facing west for sunsets. It was really pretty.
    Since I covered a shift for one of my co-workers I got to have wednesday, thursday and Friday off so I wouldn't go into over time. I was completely fine with this because I worked a ton and I just needed to get off the mountain. Somehow I managed to find a yurt on the coast for thursday night. Yurts are like giant TPs that are in the state parks, usually parks that are off the 101. Yurts are a hot item, I called 7 phone numbers before I could find an available one for Thursday night. Everyone who was planning on coming was feeling the same anticipation that I was wednesday night. Everyone wanted to get off the mountain, we where all ready for our weekend. So even though we didn't have a room or place to crash on wednesday night, we left anyways. We made our way way to Bandon, which is a small port town off the 101, which was also where park was that had our yurt for Thursday night. The drive there was through the Umpqua national forest and it was beautiful. we drove through the base, along the side of a river, of super high cliffs that had lime green moss all over the edges. I've never seen moss so lime green. It looked fake. Also, along the way we drove through a little town called myrtle point, which happend to be having their town fair. my freinds and I decided that this was the perfect place to pull over for dinner. There is nothing better than a fair corn dog for dinner! The fair was tiny, but they had an elephant which was cool! When we finally got into Bandon we found a motel, the shooting star motel to be specific and all 5 of us crashed in a standard double bed exhausted. The next morning I couldn't wait to go to the beach, I woke everyone up, we got breakfast and made this great game plan. We where going to the beach for a few, then go to the sea lions caves, check into the yurt and be back to the beach just in time for low tide. The only thing that happened in this master game plan was that we went to the beach. We got there and decided to stay the entire day. The pacific was pretty cold but with the help of the cooler connie gave me ( THANKS CONNIE), the pacific was managable after a few beers. The five of us had a great time, the yurt was awesome we cooked our dinner over the fire, did some shopping in the old port town and made our way to the sea lion caves on our way back to the Crater. The sea Lion caves where coool, you get into this elevater that takes you 200 feet down into a cave where all the sea lions hang.  The drive back continued to be an adventure, as if the coast wasnt one already, we pulled off at some point on the way home and decided to do a river walk, which ended up to be a river swim. It was so nice to float down the river. I'm not really sure where we where, but the river was so clean and so fresh, we delayed our travels home by a good hour and a half. 
   As for the rest of the week, I have no plans except for my 40 hour work week. I might head into Klamath falls with anne on Sunday and I might hike Annies  Creek Trail, but I have no clue. The only other thing that I'd like to see happen is heather have her baby so I get to see pictures! and Skype because I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK. I'm looking forward to skyping with everyone, including fin. This way fin won't have to send me a lock of his hair in the mail.   

July 12

I havn't posted in a few days, and I swear it is not because I am lazy. Its because I've been busy!I hiked garfield on Thursday (almost a week ago now). It was beautiful. Garfield is a trail that leads off the lodge up a Mountain. I can't belive that I can say that I hiked well past 8000 and saw the views that I did.The lake reflects the sky, and it is so blue it is unexplainable. My pictures are awesome, I'm looking forward to being able to post some someday, if I ever get a computer to myself. Friday turned into one giant adventure. Anne and I traveled to the Oregon Country Trail. We left at 7am on Friday morning and drove three hours to Eugene, Oregon. The drive takes you along a river, through evergreen covered hills and lime green lichen covered cliffs. So pretty much, everything out here is green or blue. While in Eugene I made a few stops and gazed at the city. It was an actual city, somthing I have not seen for a while! The fair was in veneta, 15 miles outside of Eugene. The rest of the day was spent people watching, grazing around the trails, looking at peoples booths in something like 280 acres. There was live music, drummers, yoga areas, food and tons and tons of hand made art to sift through. oh and not to mention a lot of naked people.  Anne and I ended up staying until night, where everyone left the forest  and sat in a field. we followed not really knowning what was going on, and found that there was flame throwing show. That was pretty exciting to watch and be apart of. It was a long day, actually a long two days. I was exhausted. We finally got back to the Dorm at about 3AM.  On Saturday, I worked my usual shift and then took some of the internationals to Wal Mart. They where so excited to be riding in a Jeep. It was funny how many pictures I had to take with them beacuse I was taking them in a Jeep. The drive was funny, they wanted to listen to country music. sadly the jeep does not have radio options when the headlights are on. One of the internationals starting to since Happy Birthday instead. I laughed the entire car ride. Between teaching them how to say holy cow, listening to country music and having them look for deer it was really entertaining. Even while at wal Mart things continued to get interesting, somehow there was a stray dog that go loose in wal mart. So there I was watching the walmart emoployees chase a dog around while i tried to explain was an avocado was to internationals. My rest of the week was pretty normal for the most part. But its my weekend again. the only thing i have planned in harry potter. <3

July 7

I hope everyones 4th of July was wonderful. I worked during the day and spent the evening watching fireworks and grilling out with some xanterra floks at Diamond Lake. This week was the kick off to the busy season. Sales in the cafe' has pretty much tripled since my first day at the cafe'. Working at the cafe' has a lot of perks. Aside from getting tips and work experience, I get to people watch and learn some minor japanese. The internationals who I work with are a lot of fun. We've  made a deal that I learn three words and I teach them three words. Did you know that maggie means pretty girl in japanese! how awesome right? Today I had the honor to teach them how to calibrate a thermometer and teach them the word calibrate. The internationals I worked with today where Jennifer and Yu-Ting, they both play volleyball and I went to tell them that I play rugby. I had to explain what rugby was, they really didn't know. I told them how you tackle people and run with the ball. They were really confused because the only tackle that they knew about was the tackle that you fish with. Like I said, work gets pretty entertaining. In other news I have the next two days off! Tomorrow I plan on hiking to Garfield point. Its a 2.3 mile hike that takes me well above 8000 feet. Apparently you can see the entire 5 by 7 mile circumference of the crater. My new roommate and I have made a deal that we are going to try our best to do all the hikes in the park before the end of the summer. There are 12.  On friday I am going to adventure into the town of eugene oregon for some city time, and summer fair.

July 1

I can not believe that today is July 1. Things have been picking up at the cafe'. The Fourth of July weekend has picked up everytyhing about 5x faster than what I've been doing. Thankfully I do not have to work the production line at the cafe', shifts from 5am to 1 pm, I am only working the 12pm to 8:30pm shift. Its really nice. I get to either sleep in or go out adventuring before work. I have not really slept in though, mostly just adventuring. Yesterday was a sad day, my computer bit the dust. I am not really sure how, but I drove it into medford and found that its a hopeless repair until the end of summer. It makes me so mad beacuse I was just getting use to the fact that the only connection I could really get to my family was by way of my computer. There are public computers in my dorm that I can use, but they are not the same. They are pretty old and hopeless for anything else but posting on my blog and sending e-mails.Anyways, I mentioned I went to medford. Medford is just a little bigger the Klamath Falls. Both towns are the two places I am closest to civilization. Medford was nice to see, its where I had my first Dutch Boys Coffee. Out here there is Starbucks, Dutch Boys and The Human Bean. Dutch Boys and the Human Bean coffee shops are at eachothers throats competition wise. They are little kiosks that are in like every parking lot, or at least try to be, so they keep up with eachother. After exploring medford and shiping away my computer, A friend who went with me suggested to drive another 15 miles south the the town of Ashland. Ashland is home of University of Southern Oregon. Ashland is awesome, it is a college town, with a upscale alternitive vibe. We spent a lot of time in Ashland going through boutiques and little hippie shops dreaming of what to buy once we get paid!  Today Anne and I went and did some serious hiking, and my legs are feeling it right now. We hiked up a place known as boulder alley. It was combination of rock climbing and hiking, but my brusies are going to be worth the sights I got to see today. Another interesting thing that happened was that I met some guys who where hiking the NPT. NPT is the North Pacific Trail, and it goes up and down the west coast. The trail goes through the crater. Hikers make stops at the post office where they've sent supplies, do a pick up there and then go on their way back into the woods. I've heard that there will be a lot more since the snow is finally almost all the way gone. It was cool to meet them though. They are from NJ, My age, and pretty cool people to meet. For the rest of the day I'll be going off the mountain again with my new roommates at RIM and going to Lost Lake. My forcast for the rest of the weeks consists of work and what ever else the days bring and fire works a Diamond Lake on Monday. I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and have a great fourth of July!