Water You Doing?!

  For some reason, I've been doing more outdoors-y stuff in the last two months than I've probably ever done in my life. It started when our ward had a weekend campout near Payson, and Saturday morning a few of us decided to drive out to a place called Water Wheel (Waterwheel? I don't even know) for some hiking and...cliff jumping. I am a little bit terrified of heights, but I was game to try jumping anyway....that is, until we actually got in the water and it was freezing. Like,  'it's hard to breathe and everything gets numb and you struggle to swim just five feet' cold.  I have never felt so cold in my life. I quickly decided against cliff jumping and just sat with my friend Michelle on the sidelines to cheer on those brave/dumb enough to jump in and climb back out repeatedly.

Becca, Clint, and Michelle (They'll probably be featured on my blog a lot. Clint hadn't slept well in his tent so I offered to let him nap in the truck while we had breakfast, but then we stayed to bug him anyway)

Later, we hiked a little farther to a shallower pool with a mini waterfall that wasn't quite so cold, and hung around there for a while before a storm started moving in and we all drove back home.

That next week for Labor Day weekend, Becca, Clint, Benworth and I went to Canyon Lake to cliff jump again, and this time the water was far less cold and I actually cliff jumped this time! Unfortunately, no pictures, as the cliff we jumped from was really just a tall rock in the middle of the lake, and we had to swim out there to reach it. Not really ideal for bringing a camera....

Anyway, the 'cliff' was just about twenty feet tall, and it was pretty fun to jump off of, except for when I unexpectedly touched the bottom with my feet and it was incredibly squishy. We went again on Monday, this time with Benworth's younger brother Brandon and their sailboat!

Clint, Brandon, my disembodied legs, Benworth

Benworth and Becca! Everybody was stylin' bandannas that day

We did a little cliff jumping again, but, more importantly, I learned how to sail! It was kind of intimidating and difficult to do with very little wind (and I accidentally tipped the boat over at one point) but it was fun! Jury's still out on whether I'll ever do it again, though. After thoroughly exhausting ourselves, we decided it would be a great idea to go tubing on the Salt River. Becca had borrowed a huge raft for us all, since we had been debating about going, but by the time we got going it was nearly six and we quickly decided we had better get out before it got too dark. So Benworth and Brandon hitched a ride back to the parking lot, while Becca, Clint, and I waited by the side of the road, trying to deflate the raft. Luckily, we didn't run into any trouble, and we got back into our car just as it was getting too dark.

The four of us (plus Michelle and our other friend Bryce) are planning to go camping at some property Becca's family has near the White Mountains next weekend, so I'm pretty excited for that! :)

New York Minute

Last month, during the first week of August, I traveled again to Ohio to meet up with Jordan Myszka, and from there, the two of us drove to my other roommate Jorden's dad's wedding in new York. I flew up on the first, and stayed in the house Jordan was babysitting a dog at that night.

Lily, the dog being babysat. Couldn't close her mouth all the way and snored worse than anyone I've ever met!

The next day we started our nine hour drive to Watertown, New York, early in the morning. Our trip was fairly uneventful; we made good time, at least until about two in the afternoon, when there was a steady, seemingly unending downpour of rain for the next two hours and traffic slowed to about forty miles an hour (if we were lucky). About forty minutes from the campsite where the wedding and reception were being held (right next to Lake Ontario!), the sky suddenly cleared and Jordan and I were treated to some lovely views of the countryside of upstate New York

Anyway, once we got there we went to the rehearsal dinner and enjoyed hanging out with Jorden and her boyfriend playing games.The next day was the wedding, which was held outdoors, and then of course, the reception! It was pretty nice.

Jordan told me to make a "dramatic" pose...I am a little ashamed that this is all I came up with.

The next day, we drove to Jorden and her boyfriend's apartment, and mostly did a lot of hanging out and watching movies, with Jorden promising that the next day would be way more exciting.

On the fifth of August, we drove to Alexandria Bay and the 1000 Islands. There we did a little window shopping, but the main attraction was the 'Two Nations Boat Tour' that took us around the 1000 Islands and talked about the mansions there. 

As the name suggested, this boat tour did take us to another nation...Canada!

Looks a lot like America.

After briefly boating through Canadian waters, we returned to one of the larger islands. Heart Island is home to Boldt Castle, and the three of us disembarked there to tour the rooms. 

According to our tour guide, Boldt was a wealthy hotel entrepreneur who bought this island and began building this mansion for his beloved wife. She died unexpectedly, a few weeks before he was to give her the castle, and Boldt immediately ordered all production efforts to be stopped immediately. To this day, the castle remains unfinished in tribute to Boldt's wife.

When we heard that story, I imagined that maybe just a couple of the rooms would be unfinished, but it most of the rooms were not even close to being completed. I think maybe a total of 5 of the 120 rooms were furnished/finished. There was even a half-filled pool in the basement, surrounded by bare brick columns and half-plastered walls. It was pretty cool to see, but kind of depressing as well, as every single one of the unfinished rooms were covered in graffiti. There were many signs throughout the castle prohibiting graffiti, but years of tourists had clearly ignored the warning. A few of the writings were spray-painted, but mostly the walls (and even ceiling in some places) were clumsily scribbled on with any writing tool tourists happened to have; some had even painstakingly carved pairs of initials with a heart between them in the concrete. Jorden expressed that she thought those who wrote romantic things or expressions of love to their significant other were cute, considering the story of the castle. I sort of agree, but I have to wonder what the person who scrawled 'Lady Gaga' repeatedly on one wall was thinking.  What was the point?

Afterwards, we headed back to Jorden's apartment and had dinner with her mom. On our last day in New York, the three of us (plus Jorden's mom) decided to hike Salmon River Falls.

Don't worry...I was definitely sitting down when I took this picture. I'm not THAT brave.

Pretty cool! I had never been to the top of a waterfall like that...there wasn't a lot of water, but it was still awesome to see. A little scary as well, as the bottom was so shallow we could see the rocks underneath the water. After that, Jordan and I parted ways from Jorden and her mom, and started to drive back to Buffalo (where we would be staying for the night with Jordan's grandmother).

The weather was beautiful up there, and although I didn't get to visit Palmyra (though we passed signs on the way up) like Dad kept bugging me to (;P), I had an awesome time! I'm definitely blessed to fly free so I can see my roommates so often!