Trinidad, California // Car Adventures

The other day my friends and I went on a drive and found this wonderful vista point.  We were driving along the coast in Trinidad and just decided to park at this random turnout.  It had a little path which lead from the turnout to  a rock that jetted about 500ft into the ocean. It was really cool to be up so high and have waves crashing all around you.  Plus it was absolutely gorgeous even with the misty rain coming down.

I really love finding places like this in my own backyard.  No one has to travel hundreds of miles to find something exciting or beautiful.  If you look hard enough or just travel outside of you're comfort zone, you'll find something amazing. I used to be frustrated by living three hours from a decent mall or movie theatre but recently I've accepted that certain entertainments are not available where I live and I need to appreciate the ones I do have, namely nature.  

Now that I'm looking at where I will live next year for college, the idea of being away from the ocean worries me.  I go to the beach at least twice a month and drive past the bay every single day.  Living in a non-coastal town will be different, to say the least, but I want to make sure I appreciate the ocean while I have it.

 

National Student Leadership Conference

Last summer a went to a student conference for Intelligence and National Security in Washington DC through the National Student Leadership Conference.  This is a program for teens entering junior or senior year the following fall.  I went the summer before my junior year and while most of the students were a year older then me it was one of the best experiences I've had.  

The National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) has been around for over 20 years and offers students experience on a college campus, leadership skills, information on a chosen topic, and time to explore the area around you.  I experienced all that plus fun and friendship which made it all the better.

College Experience

Every NSLC event occurs on a college campus.  I stayed at American University in Washington DC.  Our food was provided by the college so we got real experience with dorm food, it wasn't too bad.  We were also given a schedule and allowed to wonder around the campus as we pleased, as long as we were at the right activities at the right time.  This allowed me to explore the campus and play a game of soccer with some of the boys during my visit.  This time at AU has helped me decide what I want in a college campus, like large dorm rooms!

Leadership Skills

Every night, after dinner we would all gather in a lecture hall to learn about leadership.  What it means to be a leader, different personality types, and how to work together.  These lectures really turned us from about 100 individual teenagers into one cohesive unit that could work together.  If there is one thing this conference taught me it was how to work together on a common goal.  That has to be a helpful quality!

Information

I went to the NSLC event for intelligence and national security where the main focus was on the US Government's National Security Council.  We even had a mock council. They separated all of the students into different teams and assigned them different roles (I was the Director of Intelligence) with one college student as the president.  We were then informed of a Security Crisis and chose how to fix it.  I have to gloat that my group kicked some serious butt! Our president never walked out on us in anger, no fictional citizens died, and we did not go to war with Iraq.  Couldn't have been better. I don't know what happens at other conferences but I had a great time learning about national security.

Site-Seeing

Another amazing attribute of this program is the to see the sights.  During my stay in DC, the program took us to all the monuments, the Smithsonian, Arlington, The National Mall, International Spy Museum, the CIA, the Pentagon, and to a ropes climbing course. So many amazing opportunities.  I loved each of these trips away from the university campus.  We saw all the national monuments in the dark which I thought made them more powerful.  We were allowed to wonder around most of these stops on our own which allowed for even more friendship building. The most amazing trip was to the CIA.  I still can't believe that I've been there.

Sorry for the long post guys but I really wanted to illustrate all the great things that happened to me through this program.  If you're high school aged and receive a letter in the mail from NSCL, I highly suggest taking this opportunity if you can!

Local Sand Sculpture Festival

This past weekend I went to the annual local Sand Sculpture Festival with my parents.  I went in the early afternoon and was amazed by both the sculptures and the amount of people who showed up.  In my town, you're lucky if 10 people show up to an event, there were at least twenty times that number on the beach for the festival.  It was very shocking.  Usually one has the beach to themselves. However, it was a nice change. Here are my favorite sculptures! Beware, picture heavy.

Bathing Beauties

Some sort of Hippo? I have no idea but I love it.

Turtle

Creepy face but cute toddler.  It's really easy to take pictures of children that aren't yours....now I sound creepy

Huge Octopus.  There were actually a few of these but this one was by far the largest.

Amazing Catfish

Non-native Caterpillar.  All the plants used for decoration are invasive species.  

This was my dad's favorite. A dwarf in the side of a mountain

Just a sun chillin'

This one was HUGE! To me it looks like a cross between a rat and a whale but apparently it's a sturgeon.

This was the only sandcastle so it stands to reason that it is the most intricate and impressive sandcastle I've ever seen.

I can't wait to visit again next year and see all the new creations.  It may have taken us a few years to attend this event, but I'm really glad we stopped by this year.  If you know of a sculpture festival in your area, definitely try to check it out for a good dose of culture, think of it like an art show!

Ocean World // Car Adventures

Yesterday, I went on a road trip with some friends up to Crescent City.  My friend Dana had never visited the aquarium up there called Ocean World, so we decided to head up there!

The highlight of the trip was definitely the seal/sea lion show. Everyone had broad grins and the girls definitely squeed a few times.

Look at how cute that is! You can't say no to those faces.

This is the laziest seal I have ever seen.  I swear she only moved a foot the entire time we were there.

There was also a tide pool.  Growing up on the coast, we were all very familiar with tide pools. However, I don't think there I will ever not want to hold a starfish in my hand.

Velvet Starfish.  This is my favorite Starfish ever they're just so soft!

The underside of a starfish, in case you were wondering.

Now onto the actual aquarium part.  It's rather small but stuffed full of sharks and stingrays.  Our tour guide scared the crap out of us by explaining how many sharks live in our local ocean.  Apparently there are quite a few Great Whites! I'm not surfing anytime soon.  The small ones were pretty cute though.

Leopard Shark

Stingray! Aren't they cute! The also feel awesome if you ever have that opportunity.

 Finally, we were able to touch some sharks! Weirdly enough these sharks actually wanted to be petted.  The two leopard sharks, the long ones along the edge, kept coming up to us.  The sharks felt like sandpaper if sandpaper was alive.  I always thought they would be soft and kinda velvety like velvet starfish but nope.

 Ocean World was definitely worth the almost 4 hour round trip drive. Amazingly it only cost us $10 to do all of this!  Next time you happen to be on the northcoast of California, ahahahaha never, I'd suggest a stop.  The whole trip took about 45 min.

Pic // 28

 

Favorite Photo // 17

Favorite picture of myself, eh? How about this one?  I like it mostly because all of my features are showcased in a way that actually makes me look okay! My friend just said, I quote, "u have so many pictures where u just look like dead lol" so this is definitely an improvement.  Plus it reminds me of my first camping experience sans parents.  We made our own card game, awkwardly slept together and more.  It was a wonderful experience that I can't wait to repeat.

Weekly Photos #10

I've been pretty lazy this week, not gonna lie.  Besides being sick, I have had very little to do, so I'm sorry for not updating. On the bright side I had some good adventures and took enough pictures so without further ado...

graffiti under a bridge/birthday dogs eating a cake/weekend hike/french homework/PEEPS!/new reading material/beach day

I joined bloglovin' this week due to blogger follow stopping.  I really like it.  I no longer have to open 10s of tabs.  It's really nice give it a try if you haven't already!  

Good Things

Peeps

I don't think this needs much explanation past yum.

Redbox

I had never explored a Redbox machine before, I have to say it's nice.  I may have rented 5 in the past 3 days...I have a pretty serious movie problem.  I also love that the movie is 'due' the next day because it forces you to actually watch the movie.

Couches

I actually slept on my couch instead of my bed twice this week and I think I actually preferred it.

Onto my mock IB exams next week! How did your week go?

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