Spring Break 2008

So today was Sunday. It was quite an enjoyable day. We woke up a little late and only had about a half hour for all 6 of us to shower and get ready for church. We did pretty well too, almost all of us got into the shower, only yours truly wasn’t able to  shower due to time constraints. Attractive huh? We packed up the loaf of bread and our jars of organic peanut butter and jelly and ran off to the station. We met up with Rachel at her house and took the bus to her ward. When the bus got there we all piled in and and i guess we were taking too long or something cause when I was trying to put the money in the machine the driver was just like, you guys are good, just go, just go, and shoved three tickets at me and waved us on. I dunno.  On the bus Dallin struck up a conversation with a rather interesting character who said he was in D.C. because of Stalin. Oooook….. Blake also met a Phillipino woman while he was singing the National Anthem of the philipines and she told him that he was “close.”

So then we got to church and after the sacrament meeting, blake decided he couldnt wait any longer to get some food in his stomach so we went on a hunt for the kitchen. After much searching we found the kitchen and proceeded to make our delicious peanut butter sandwiches ( thank you Jefferson!)  several people walked in and were surprised to see the foreigners in their kitchen making sandwiches between classes, but hey, blake was hungry, what can ya do. Rachel found us and we made a sandwich for her too.

After church we went over to the aerospace museum to see if it was open, because you see, there lay the greatest treasure of all D.C. The Puffy Shirt from Seinfeld. I will allow Blake to expound on this subject.

Then we went to the hotel to relax for an hour before we headed to Rachel’s place for pizza. When we got there she had a feast ready of not pizza, but delicious meat ball sandwiches and french fries. I proceeded to make a good impression by accidentally jump kicking one of her roomates in the leg and stomping another on the foot on my way to the kitchen. I panicked and could only manage to say “Auugh…i kicked a girl! and then stepped on the others foot!” then i covered my face and ran out…..luckily they thought my clumsiness was funny and it turned out all right.

Then we saw a bit of the sights at night, the White house and some others. And that was the end of our last full day on this wonderful amazing fantastic trip filled with adventure and heart pounding, adrenaline pumping activities.

-Jon

Holy Honkers! Today was amazing. I mean, first of all we were feeling cheap so Jon, Joe, and I packed in a peanut butter and jelly loaf (not sandwich, a whole loaf). We started at the Jefferson, which Jon wrote of, and then went to the Capitol building. The plan was to meet up with Jacob’s friend (She works as a tour guide at the capitol. It was her day off and what would she rather do than take us on a tour? nothing) at the capitol building. Well she got tickets and hid them in a rubber box to the left of the tent supplies. So we met up with her down in the basement of a building adjacent of the capitol building. This place was nuts, the security cops were carrying AK-47’s. Rachael was excited because we would get to see the voting of the FISA bill. As we waited in line we chomped down some of our amazing sandwiches and ate bananas. So we were looking pretty high class. Since the tour guide was our buddy they took our sandwiches and hid them at the security desk. (gotta save that amazing loaf).

OK THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS!!!!! So as we were waiting those invisible patriot waves started to go through us. I high fived all the guys and started to get pumped up. This was it, we were nearing the tunnel to go see congress. The house of representatives. It was time to vote on FISA, we were going to be a part of history. Then…… the doors closed. We were 15 people too far back in line to see the vote. We would have to wait. Until, from behind the model of the Capitol building, standing at 6′3″, weighing in at around 175 pounds, with wavy dirty blond hair, in the black suit, from Snowflake Arizona came JEFF FLAKE!!!! Rachael must have seen him coming earlier because she greeted him and told him we were from Mesa and would like a picture and he complied. We stood there talking for a little while. You know I had to crack a joke, see if I could get the Congressman to smile. He mentioned something about us 6 being with Rachael, so I chimed in, “She’s pretty lucky, when she gets back to AZ she has 6 dates lined up.” op…op….uh-oh…. what was that….. ehhhhh… a smile……. and a laugh. SCORE! Then he asked us if we wanted to go to the floor. uhhh yes. So he took us out of line and marched us in. When we started taking off our belts and putting our bags through the scanner, when cool hand Jeff told them “They’re with me”. Security then just simply waved us through the scanners. I couldn’t believe what was happening. We were being rushed through security by the authority of no less then US Congressmen Jeff Flake.

Things didn’t cool down either he walked with us through the corridor and talked with us the whole way. He told us about the FISA bill. So Joe scooted up close to him and asked, “So what’s the low down on this one? What’s your vote?” He didn’t even speak, he just started shaking his head and with the ere of a Roman Emperor he gave the emphatic thumbs down. I kept close behind him, like a nerd to a superstar, and just kept saying “This is soooo cool.” He smiled and just kept walking and keeping cool. I guess it is nice for a Congressman to have young pup yipping behind him holding onto to his coat tails. (wowsers, this is so neat-o) After the corridor came the elevators. Sadly, we couldn’t all pack into one elevator so he promised to meet us upstairs. Guess what? as the door was closing guess who walked by us, like 2 feet away. RON PAUL! None other then Mr. Patriot himself. So Rep. Flake met us upstairs and we put all or stuff in the closet for people who are “with” a member of Congress. We then went to an upper balcony for special observers.

So there we were. Looking down across the floor of the Capitol building. Before us was Nancy Pelosi. The little devil. Ron Paul was shooting off his mouth to some poor sap who got suckered into his unending void of rantings. (The man is a genius none-the-less) This is where history is made and the future is modeled. This was amazing. The vote was cool, quick and easy, no discussion and no debate. It passed thanks to the democrats being the majority. After the vote, he showed up again! He came up to talk to us. Rep. Flake was saying the swinging point was the fact that the democrats wanted something in their that limited the power of the president and it was over the ability of customers to sure a telecom company that had, at the prompting of the government, given their call list to the government. The Dem’s wanted to have in the bill the measure that legal action could be taken against the companies. The problem with that is that, according to Rep. Flake, why give them the right to sue these companies when they had provided these lists in good faith TO THE GOVERNMENT AT THE REQUEST OF THE GOVERNMENT. If anyone is at fault, it is the government. The funny thing is is that this will not pass by the president anyway. He will just veto it. This was more of a statement. A statement? Lets get to work people.

So we talked for 30 minutes and then he said so would you like to see the Congressional Deck. hmmm…. jee let me check my calender. We have the oppurtunity of a life time before us or….. wait that is pretty much the coolest thing I have ever heard. I almost just reached up and grabbed his hand like a 7 year-old but I was getting better at controlling my giddiness. So we got taken to an area of the capitol building where we were not allowed to go, unless of course you are the honorary guests of a Congressman. We walked by the Speaker of the House’s office. I could hear her voice. The little devil. Then we walked out to her deck. It was funny, as we were walking out there I was honestly telling Rep. Flake how much I despised that women, then we passed by her office. The Congressional deck was amazing. Okay, so we were on the capitol building. We could see all the way down to the mall and the National monument. Lincoln’s memorial was visable, Jefferson’s dome was seeable. Wow! This was amazing. What a nice guy huh? Taking us out to snap a few pictures and take off. So after taking some pictures we noticed he was just standing there talking about baseball. So we started to talk to him and you know what happened. We had a discussion on foreign relations, agriculture reform, and us 6 guys and our hot date with Rachael. I think we discussed that last one, I hope not. Then I was there again. Standing there with a Congressman I respected, (not like Pelosi, the little devil) talking politics overlooking the capitol of our nation……. We told them where we went on missions and he was like “I was in the Philippines a year ago. I went to Thailand right after the tsunami. I am the coolest guy ever.” ok, so only the “I am the coolest guy ever” part isn’t true but that is what I was hearing. It was cool he started talking about problems with farms subsidies, I love that topic, I spout off about it at random times all the time. Apparently Joe was listening, because he started chiming in with all my lines. He stole my lines!!! I waited my whole life for this. I was recording the whole conversation and you can hear me muttering in the background…. “hey I told you that!” All joking aside though, this was an honor. I mean, we couldn’t have planned it better. We didn’t plan any of this. This was amazing, just ask me about it next time I see you. I will start talking faster and faster and the pitch of my voice will continue to increase in excitement until the only noise you will hear is the barking of dogs responding to my super-high decibel-dog call too high for the human ear to understand.
Yeah, it was that awesome.

Jeff Flake/Rachel/Us/Capital Balcony…aka VIP ONLY!

I must say it was an incredibly enlightening day. And really, who could expect anything less of a day that starts off with free crispy cream donuts. This apparently is what is considered an East coast hotel’s continental breakfast…to tell you the truth, it’s a shame the rest of the world hasn’t yet fully embraced this delicious tradition. The crispy creams weren’t enough for a few of us though so we polished off the rest of our morning appetites with another visit to the best kept secret of Alexandria, “The Blue and White Restaurant.” We came across this little gem the first day while meandering through the back-streets in hopes of returning to the metro station. A cozy little run-down corner shack that reminded me a lot of the kind of sidestreet vendors I would eat at in Thailand. The food is to die for though and at a refreshingly reasonable price I might add.

The first stop on the tour was the Jefferson Memorial which Jon so exquisitely described in his recent post and then on to the captial building. I know Blake is the politician of the group so I trust he will not leave any brush unstroked in his painting the mural for us of this unprecedented and unparralled event of the day.

Proceeding the Capital Building, Rachel, our beautiful tour guide, escorted us to another well kept secret of the area. The hideaway I’m referring to is a delicious little crepe’ shop deep in the heart of Georgetown called “Snaps Crepe’s.” There we shared a meal and a moment together. Blake’s shining moment was when he suggested to Rachel that we order one extra crepe’, split it six ways (with the guys paying), and call it a date. She smiled which I think means she either accepted, or was trying to figure out how she managed to get tricked into guiding the six most awkward moment prone individuals in the Nation. Well, at least three anyway. Dallin, Jacob, and Zane played it pretty smooth for the most part. But, if you’re wondering why the title of this entry refers to light, though it will also be evident later on as to the reason for this, it’s because Rachel really was like a pillar of knowledge. She knew everything there was to know about buildings, paintings, politics, places to eat….etc. To tell you the truth (and keeping with the “awkward” theme), she can light up my path anytime she wants.

Finally, the event of the evening, the trek of all treks was about to take place. After a quick trip home on the metro to change into church attire, it was off to find the DC Temple. Rachel gave us the general directions on how to get there and we also received some valuable insight from Jacob Roger’s sister who, in a literal sense, is actually a “Sister Rogers.” She is currently serving in the Washington DC temple mission. We got off the metro at the closest possible station to the temple and then began our journey. It was dark and quiet as we trekked through the backwoods of the New England landscape. The rain had timely subsided just minutes before our exiting the subway which provided a welcomed after-rain scent to the night air. After about a half a mile, as we peeped our heads above a small summit, there, directly to the West, gleamed the glory and majesty of our Lord’s House. It being the brightest landmark for miles around, we assumed there would be little hindrance of our walking a direct path into its open courtyards. However, like many times in life, dark trials precede radiant rewards. The winding roads of North Washington took us on a two mile detour that offered ups and downs, backs and arounds, and everything but undergrounds. Just when we were about to abandon the pursuit and call it quits, the light revealed itself again and we followed its path to the temple grounds. We got some pretty good night shots of the temple and were able to talk to Jacob’s sister and a few of the other sister missionaries for a bit before the visiting center closed and Elder Woodward gave us a ride back to the metro station. We crammed seven of us into his four man sedan. Pretty impressive eh? A quick stop at Wendy’s and a long metro ride back to the hotel concluded the night for us here on our second full day in DC. With each day bringing events that are exponentially increasing in excitement/amazement, I can only imagine what Saturday will bring. In fact it’s here already in the Eastern timezone so I better hit the sack. hasta manana.

-Joek

DC Temple Vistor’s Center

DC Temple (night shot)

The Louisiana Purchase. Father of the University of Virginia. The Lewis and Clark expedition. Author of the Declaration of Independence. These are just a few of the many accomplishments of our third President of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson. The memorial to this great man was our first stop of this very eventful day. We got a bit of a late start since we were all so tired from the jet lag and change in time zones, but after packing our loaf of organic salted creamy peanut butter and rasberry jam sandwiches we were on our way. The memorial itself reminded me quite a bit of his own home that he himself designed, Monticello. The beautiful memorial is encircled by corinthian pillars and topped by a dome. As you enter you see an enormous statue of Jefferson and on the wall several inspiring quotes. One of my favorites said, “I have sworn before the almighty God hostility towards any form of tyranny.” (or something like that) I’m impressed with the deep level of Christianity illustrated by the founding fathers of our country. Many of the quotes and speeches that I have read portray a deeper conviction of divinity than I see shown presently. This country has been lead by some truly great men. And I’m proud to be an American. And those peanut butter sandwiches were dang good, i think Jefferson might have invented peanut butter….

Jon

Jefferson Memorial

America. The beautiful, the free. The wicked crazy awesome place to be. And me? I’m happy. Because 1, we made it there. 2, No one creepy touched me and 3, I am so proud to be an American. Maybe it was meant to be this way. My ticket reading Blake III Gray. Jon and Joe realizing they didn’t have return tickets as we got ready to board the plane. Sleeping in the airport, that would be the freezing cold airport I my add. Getting yelled at by the lady at the food store for no reason (I ain’t serving nothing but breakfast. I’m the only one here and you ain’t gettin’ nothin’ but breakfast. uh-huh) and not eating. I guess this was destiny, the yang of the yin. Since the West Coast trip was so amazing, (snort) the East Coast trip had to start off with some pot holes. I think it was funny how I ended up laying sprawled out in the hall of the DC airport at 3 AM. There was like 40 chairs by us but I can’t sleep in a chair so I laid down. From those 40 chairs a lady with a hat chose to sit directly by me. I say with a hat because that makes her a little creepier. I would stir and look up and she would just smile at me. It was weird, so I closed my eyes and prayed and when I stirred again she was gone, along with my soul. jk.

Okay, well today we went to the capitol. When the national monument came into full view I was awestruck. It was encircled in American flags, none other. It stretched high unabashed in it’s declaration of greatness. All the while the great pillar was enveloped in the international symbol of democracy and liberty. The Stars and Stripes. What was this nation 231 years ago? I submit it was the conglomeration of the hopes, dream, and aspirations of a world engulfed in the theocracies and tragedies of monocratic dynasties that had smothered the human spirit and stunted decades of minds ready to move beyond the muck and degradation that humanity had lived through. Before 1776 the United States was a dream. And there I stood, staring at the monument of it’s reality. It seemed so dreamy, so surreal. Then as we read the passion of Lincoln’s speeches and read the names of the soldiers who had given their lives in the preservation of a better way of live for people they couldn’t even converse with…. I realized it is always a step away from surreal. Always impossible. Always in need of men and women who have the brass to live such that one day that brass becomes the statues that generations later reverence as they visit the past in casted memories. America doesn’t need preservation as a country. America needs preservation as an ideal. WE need to stand tall unabashed by our beliefs. We need to be surrounded in acts that liberate and give inspiration to those around us. As much as I am proud to be an American, I am much prouder being an American. To receive it by virtue of their sweat is an honor, but being an American means perpetuating that honor to those that follow. It is so awesome to stand in the Mall. So many buildings surround you that remind you of that ideal that is America. Simultaneously they remind you of how that ideal was made a reality. We haven’t even scratched to surface yet either.

God Bless America

I admit that it would be impossible for me to even attempt to record the events that have led the six of us to a our current status and location (exhausted and fully sprawled out across our travelodge hotel room in old town Alexandria) in a way that would give due description of their splendor and reality. That said, I trust the important details I leave out will be aptly recorded by my associates.

Nothing starts off an amazing first day like a nice looooooooooong night in an airport terminal. Blake, Jon, and I spent the night searching for sleep on  the terminal seating to no avail for the most part. Blake was sprawled faced down across the floor for a while and quickly decided, after some odd looking stares from frequent by-passers, his night would be more productively spent playing capitalism, “A great accounting game,” so he says. Also, since we had no clue how we were to be directing ourselves to our hotel, approximately 40 miles from the airport, in the morning for check-in, the supply curve eventually met the demand curve and we gave into divvying up 8 dollars for a days use of high-speed wireless internet at the Baltimore/Washington International (BWI). Yeah so we kind of got hosed on that one but rest assured it wasn’t until it was apparent that it was going to be our only resort.

We made it through the night and met up with Jacob, Dallin, and Zane promptly at 9:30AM the following morning as their flight arrived on time. We then waited for what seemed like forever at the bus stop that was to take us to the AMTrack subway station. Getting on the bus was a miracle in and of itself though. Had it not been for a nice young man that just happened to have change for a twenty…we would never have convinced the bus driver that a twenty dollar bill is almost exactly the same as three dollars and ten cents multiplied by six. In fact, if my math is correct, that would mean we were even willing to offer a small tip! I wish written language could offer a better idea of the accent this lady used when she said, “I done told him (Dallin) three times how much it eez ta ride this here bus. You ‘n give that twenty but that still aint goina git ya no change!”

After about an hour of transit travel, we walked another fifteen minutes or so to our hotel where Zane and I dropped off our luggage at the front office while the others kept a blocks distance to ensure that only two of us were seen at the hotel at one time. I wonder if they still believe that there are only “two” adults staying in the room we reserved. I guess it’s possible that two high maintenance adults could need twelve bags of luggage for a five day vacation…right?  

Finally, the best part of the day was upon us. We traveled the train back to Washington DC where we met up with Chris and his Wife Sarah to view the National Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and World War One Memorial for Washingtonian Veterans. I’m going to allow Blake to expound upon the deep feelings of respect and amazement we felt as we somberly walked the paths of each site. Needless to say it was a deeply moving experience and one I don’t believe any of us will soon forget.  

It is late and I am dozing as I type so I will bring this entry to a close with one of Lincoln’s famous quotes.

“I say ‘try’; if we never try, we shall never succeed.”

Till tomorrow…

-Joek

Well, I really did intend to post some pictures but the internet is lame at travellodge so…. it won’t work. I have videos and everything to show. Magic mountain was pretty cool. I almost puked after like the 3rd ride. I even told Jon that I was done, I was just looking at the bumper cars and knew I couldn’t do it. So I went and ate a hamburger and drank a soda and wala! I was healed. We did a lot of good rides, I mean it was crazy. Tatsu was crazy, your not sitting, you are rotated so you face is pointing at the ground and the rail runs along your back. It is like you are flying. The best however was Goliath. Oh that is a classic, you start with a drop where it feels like you are on a free fall and it goes straight into a tunnel. I think I may have said some bad things, I’m not quite sure. It freaked me out. At least I didn’t try to crawl under the seat like I did when I was on splash mountain when I was a kid. Magic Mountain was cool, I am not big on sitting in lines so it was rough. I guess that is not a very exciting way to lead into Price is Right. The reason being we waited in line for like 5 FLINTSTONE HOURS!!!! It was ridiculous, they had several places to wait. You just graduated from each spot. When we finally got in it was cool, we were jumping up and down and dancing like it 1972. We were pretty rowdy because the Penn State Rugby team was there too so we had a bunch of college kids who were ready to party on Price is Right, but didn’t need a hit of metamucil to get going. Julie, our driver, go picked to go up and dance and I was shocked! (Aghast and agog) She was swinging her hair around and just going crazy, it was awesome. Then later she got picked as a contestant. She won a 6500 dollar sauna. Which is cool, but…. she has to pay mad taxes. It was really cool though. Her and Drew Carey were just jumping up and down. Drew came over and asked us if she was always this happy and bouncy, and well, yep, she is. Drew is way different than Bob Barker, he is funny and smirky. At break he would make fun of the products like, who would buy this anyway. Then he told stories about drunk girls and what not. It was weird. The Price is Right stage was really small too, like super small I was way surprised. I music you can end a musical “stanza” without an ending and it some crazy musical thing.

California - An Overview

By Blake Gray

That’s right we Cali born and bred. No, not really. Far from it really. If there is anywhere that is the polar opposite of California, that is where I am from. St. Johns, Arizona. I guess when I was little I bought some of those pants that had the skater racing stripe going down the sides. That was some California designed clothing I think…. That was as close as I got. Well the first leg of the trip was to California. We went to Six Flags and the Price is Right… And that was it. It was cool and all but uhhhh there was a whole lotta nothing going on. Well, the ladies took a liking to Jon (“Can I put my arm on your leg” she asks, Jon thinks to himself, ‘awkward awkward awkward awkward’) I think really the whole situation was because of Jon’s utter disregard for the need to curb back his charm a little bit. He makes it hard on the ladies. Point in case, some girls were hanging out in our room and I made a joke about cuddling with Jon or something and the following situation happened. “Oh, is that how they do it in St. Johns?” Came the sly reply, but Jon had one better for ‘em. “Come over here and I will show you what a St. Johns boy can do.” I was aghast. I was agog. It was hilarious. Yeah, we had some iffy things happen on our trip. Well, the girls were extremely fond of my boy Brad Carbiner. We ended up riding with some that did nothing but talk about him. I think even though they had only talked to him once they figured they knew the guy. When flipping radio stations one quickly added. “this is Brad’s favorite station!” um….. Brad lives in Arizona….. I guess the fact that Brad spoke Spanish means that he loves listening to Spanish radio stations, especially that one specific station in California. Maybe, I mean I don’t know Brad that well so just maybe it was his favorite station. Who knows? Later, one received a text from Brad. Then very angrily yelled out “NOOOoooooo, Brad can’t come he will be gone.” She was quite distraught. The following text was met by great applause and clapping, by all three girls I add, but only contained the fact that Brad was eating. Later, when we were lost one of the girls stated that she knew, and I quote, “exactly where to go, I can see it in my head.” 30 minutes later our inability to find the hotel gave them the wondrous opportunity of calling my boy. As soon as he picked up the phone the car erupted into ridiculous screaming. “Brad, girl 1 told us to go the wrong way.” “I did not” said girl 2. Brad didn’t even get to talk for the first 3 minutes of that conversation. Then after he explained where to go and hung up (happily) girl one recanted, “I didn’t say I knew where to go I said that I had an opinion about where to go, and you could accept that advice or not.” “Okay, whatever it’s not a big deal.” “IT IS A BIG DEAL…….. YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO SAY THAT IN FRONT OF BRAD.” Then the girl started sniffling and looked out the window. Jon and I just looked at each other and then looked straight forward in non-cooperational blank stares. I don’t want anything to do with this. I guess the trip was weird because I didn’t want to make people laugh. Then they might start screaming when random songs came on and telling everyone what my favorite book is. (I don’t read) This is quite the odd thing to post on the site but we will post other stuff that is more specific, Like our Magic Mountain experience and our trip to La Price es Beuno. (Oh, sorry I guess I still had the Spanish subtitles on….) I mean the Price is Right….. ahhhh much better.

Pete, Pete, Pete… what would we do without him? Because none of us travelling in our five man vehicle had really bothered to look up directions to Havasupai, it was fortunate, so we thought, that Pete, with his high-tech satellite AM/FM radio, talking GPS navigational system, and innate driving ability, would be on top of this trip in the area of bringing us to our destination in peace and safety. Neither of these adjectives should be used in describing our five hour drive from Tempe AZ to the top rim of the Havasupai Indian Reservation. There was neither peace nor safety, rather sporadic jerk-turns, over-corrections, and a fair amount of yelling and arguing as to who was right, the back seat drivers (myself included) or Pete and his top of the line navigational system. In nearly every dispute, the back seat drivers were right 101% of the time. My personal favorite was when we ended up driving fifteen miles in the complete opposite direction of the way we were supposed to and for some reason unbeknownst to the rest of us, Pete would not submit to the inaccuracy of his device. Fortunately, with six of us on the verge of strangling him to death, he decided to try it out. We arrived an hour and a half later at our destination…thankfully.

Because of weather conditions and the hour of night, it was deemed best by most to sleep the night in the vehicles till morning when we would embark on the hike down the canyon. A select few (the lucky ones), gained the fortune of sleeping outside. Two girls (Sarah and Diana) took the back of the truck bed while I moseyed to the edge of the parking lot, rolled out my tarp, and curled up in my wool blanket for what would prove to be a very long and cold night. At two in the morning, three Ford Excursions pulled into my camp (the driveway) and a group of about thirty young individuals piled out into our territory. I would have had no complaints except that a few of them took the opportunity to relieve themselves from their trip, no joke, three feet in front of where I was bedded down for the night. Because of the darkness of the night, I’m sure they had no idea I was within inches of there “stream’s” path. I dared not startle them however, for fear of accidently jumping them that would perhaps cause an unfavorable spray closer in my direction. So I silently and prayerfully kept to myself in hopes of simply making it through the night without anymore close encounters.

-Joek

Dallin’s Dismay

Wake-Up Call

Thuggin It!

Diana and Sarah’s Breakfast

Yum!

Aughhh!

Well we’re off! For me it means we’re currently flying over the Rocky Mountains in our brown and orange SouthWest Bird. Jon, however, might be reminded of the embarrassment he felt as a muscular security guard stripped and rubbed him down as a result of his understandable fear of Jon’s large tube of toothpaste and bottle of lotion, of which, he immediately disposed of leaving us all somewhat bewildered. Regardless, we promptly took up our luggage and headed to the front desk where we encountered our next obstacle.

While Blake possessed the only legitimately purchased flight ticket, Jon and I held non-revenue passes for stand-bye only. These were supposed to be roundtrip tickets to anywhere in the US, but as it turns out we are still missing the tickets for the flight home. At this juncture one might be a little panicky for fear of not returning home in time for school on Tuesday, but don’t think we hesitated for a minute to board the plane still having no certainty of a way home (alright so maybe we’re a little worried). Oh well, I’m sure we’ll be able to conjure up a way to beat the system somehow before Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for us…PLEASE?

-Joek

Fear of Departure

Boarding

Giddy

Im Here!

Nature’s Table Cafe (the only open gig in the port)