Birthdays are for Celebrating

I'm the type of girl who believes in celebrating birthdays. As in I start counting down and planning at least a couple weeks in advance, if not more than that. And I like celebrating the whole week or month or whatever my friends will allow! Call me a birthday princess if you'd like, I don't care. I think I've always been this way, and probably will be as long as I'm having birthdays. (I also love celebrating other people's birthday, so you should invite me to your next one, okay?) But in typical fashion, celebrating is exactly what I've been doing the last week. And possibly more into this week, but I'll let you know if that happens. 

I started out the birthday weekend on my first real hike since moving to Seattle. I went with a group of friends to Oyster Dome about 1.5 hours north of Seattle. The hike is rated as moderate. I'm quite out of shape, both for hiking and in life, so I definitely thought there were moments I might die. Maybe by falling off the side of the mountain, or maybe from a heart attack. But most likely the latter. As with all hikes, the view at the top is worth the pain. Especially when your friends have hammocks and beer for the top of the mountain. That's a win, win, win to me! Oh and I didn't die, so another win there! 

(It makes me mad, because these pictures totally don't do it justice! As always.)

After a full day of hiking, we thought it would be a good idea to go out when we got back to Seattle. (PS- it was definitely a good idea!) It was just one of my roommates, another friend, and me but we had a blast! We made friends with the bartender, lots of shots were had for the birthday girl, and the rest is history. Ha. Also, I only have one picture from the night because I was, very wisely I must add, instructed to put my phone away, for safety's sake of course. And since I'm no longer 21, Sunday was spent brunching and laying on a blanket at the park, nursing a fun hangover. Oh and watching Pitch Perfect 2. Yay for being old(er)! All in all, it was a good way to ring in the last year of my mid-twenties!

The last bit to my celebrating was spent with my other wonderful roommate. She was working all weekend and didn't get to join in on the shenanigans, so we had a bit more low key but just as enjoyable day together. We ventured out to a little mexican restaurant on Lake Union that also has water sport rentals. Since the water is still pretty cold (read: freezing?) we decided to go with kayaks. We were not disappointed! It was a gorgeous, sunny day. The views of the Seattle skyline from the lake are pretty amazing in my opinion. We found multiple house boats we would like to live on- a girl can dream right? The company was great! And then we ended with margaritas and pretty decent mexican food, for the PNW at least. The only downfall was the super sexy tan lines we got from our shorts, but it kinda fits with the rest of my funky tan lines I've got going on lately. 

I think it's safe to say I had a great birthday! If the upcoming year continues how it started, I'm thinking 26 is going to be full fun and excitement!

PS// huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to my sweet momma today! I wish I was there to celebrate her but I'll just be sending my love from Seattle for now!

Roadtrip Recap// Texas to Seattle

Since we're still playing a little catch-up from my blogging hiatus, I thought I would use throw back Thursday to fill you in on my roadtrip from Texas to Seattle. If that sounds like a daunting drive, it was. According to google maps, it is 36 hours from my house in east Texas to my apartment in Seattle. That is a long time, y'all! Only a crazy person would drive that at once, and since I am not said crazy person, I split the trip over 5 days. I met up with my friends/roommates about half way to finish out the trip. Roadtrip anyone?? 

Let's start from the beginning...

TEXAS
To kick off this long week, I headed to Midland in west Texas to spend some time with my best friend Adrienne. It wasn't as bad a drive as people make it seem, but maybe it was because I was fresh and hadn't worn out my roadtrip tunes yet! It was great catching up with her and her family; it felt like a little piece of home along the way. After spending some quality time with her, I started out for day 2. This is where things got a little dicey. My thoughts were "I'm already in west Texas, it shouldn't be too long until New Mexico." No, just no. The whole everything-is-bigger-in-Texas idea is not as exciting when you're trying to drive across it. I'm also 99% sure I drove through the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Hills Have Eyes area. Not my favorite moment. If west Texas was on your bucket list, you can mark it off. Unless windmills are your thing, then be my guest. I love this great state but I could not have been happier to be done driving through it! 

NEW MEXICO
Land of Enchantment (according to the welcome sign). I know parts of New Mexico are pretty amazing, but there was no enchantment where I was at. Just cacti and dirt. The first thing I saw once crossing the state line was a sign stating "do not pick up hitchhikers." Okay, no big deal. Look at my phone- no service. Then my mind starts racing to the highly unlikely scenarios you only see in Criminal Minds episodes. Maybe if a crazy person got me Shemar Moore would come rescue me and we'd madly in love and live happily ever after? Probably not. But that's what multiple hours alone in a car will do to you, apparently. After I got through the sketchy prison area, I was headed toward the mountains, which was a nice change. I seemed to be driving into a rainstorm but I wasn't too concerned; I can handle driving in rain. But out of nowhere it starts sleeting and hailing and maybe snowing, I'm not really sure. The ground was covered in ice and the temperature dropped from 60 degrees to 30 degrees in about 1.5 seconds. There was no where to stop and shelter my poor car, so I just kept driving until I eventually reached blue skies and warmer temperatures again. I still don't understand what/why/how that happened, but glad that New Mexico was quickly in my rear view. 

COLORADO
I purposely chose Denver, Colorado as my stopping point for day 2. I love that place and if I get the chance I will most definitely do an assignment there. Immediately entering Colorado I was slightly afraid of driving off the side of a mountain, mostly because I was distracted by the gorgeous view and not focusing on the road. But no worries, I made it safe and sound. The rest of Colorado was pretty much smooth sailing with views of mountains for days. Until I hit Denver at rush hour time, but that was my own fault. I had dinner at a local pub that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives before crashing at a cute little AirBNB for the night. Unfortunately there wasn't too much time for exploring that night cause this old lady needed her sleep!

WYOMING
Day 3 started with a short drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming to meet up with my new roommates. We stopped at Vedauwoo Recreation Area to get a change of scenery before hopping on the road. It was gorgeous! There were giant boulders and tons of trees and little streams everywhere, and was mostly covered in snow still. We didn't prepare for that but you better believe we did some exploring in sneakers! After that, there wasn't a lot to see through southern Wyoming except mountains to keep your eyes occupied. 

UTAH
Our end point for day 3 was Salt Lake City. Again, there were more gorgeous mountains to stare at (and attempt to not have a wreck while starring). For some reason this is the part of the drive that things really started to sink in for me. Like the fact that I was now moving to the Pacific Northwest. To an area and a state and a city I had never even visited. It was both a terrifying and exciting realization! We didn't get to Salt Lake City until late, so our evening consisted of dinner and bed. But who can pass up the chance to explore this adorable city? Definitely not us. So we got up bright and early the next day and did the touristy things. Saw the capital building and the Salt Lake Temple; admired the tulips that seemed to take over the entire city. Last but definitely not least was a stop at the Great Salt Lake. The enormity of this lake was incredible to me. It was breathtaking with the views of mountains on one side and on the other side was the lake that you couldn't tell where the water ended and the sky began. The unfortunate part of the experience were the brine flies that were everywhere, and the sulfur smell. I wouldn't have skipped this part of the trip for anything though. And if I ever make it back to the Great Salt Lake, I've heard you have to try skipping rocks because its so much easier with the high salinity of the water. Who knew? 

IDAHO
I'm sure this bad, but I can't seem to remember much about Idaho. I think I was so over being in the car by day 4 that I wasn't paying much attention to anything. We landed that night in Boise. A lot of people had raved about how amazing Boise was, so we had pretty high expectations for this city. It was a cute, quiet little place, but it didn't quite live up to the hype. Maybe it was just the exhaustion taking over so that I was blinded to it's charm!

WASHINGTON
Finally! It seemed like the day would never come! We drove through wine country and into the mountains and finally into Seattle. We were greeted with rain storms through the mountains, but it was sunny the minute we hit the city! It was definitely a surreal moment for all of us that 1) we finally made it and 2) this was our new home for the summer! As much as I would love to dive straight into the details of our adventures here, I'll save those for another day!

Well that ended up being much longer than I intended! Oops! If you're still reading this, thanks for sticking it out! With all that being said, I definitely recommend getting out west at some point. Grab a friend or two and plan that roadtrip stat! 

-April

ps// I forgot Oregon, but we barely crossed the northeast corner and there is nothing to report. No offense to any Oregonians out there!

Currently// June

Happy hump day! I don't know about you, but I am more than ready for the weekend. I mean, it's the weekend after all. But more importantly it's my birthday! And I love celebrating birthdays! 

Today I thought I would join the fabulous ladies at Gold & Bloom and In Residence for the currently linkup! 

Currently I am...

Playing// all the Lana Del Rey. I just can't get enough! I've also become one of those people who wears my headphones whenever I'm walking somewhere, which in Seattle is almost everywhere. You can bet 99% of the time I'm jamming to my girl Lana!

Going// to the Public Market. This place is amazing! All the fresh fish and fruits and veggies, oh my goodness. And the flowers, I've never seen so many gorgeous flowers! We constantly have little pretties around the apartment these days and I love it!

Wearing// all the gold rings. I found some cuties from Forever21 and love them! Simple, and cheap because I will most definitely lose some. I'm also wearing my Chacos as much as possible, but I'm not sold on the idea of wearing them hiking. All I can think is rocks and limbs and nature + open toed shoes + not the most graceful person (that's me!) = a catastrophe for my feet! 

Sipping// delicious brews. Because, Seattle. And my birthday. 

Reading// Outlander. I recently started the first book at the recommendation of my roommate. So far I am not disappointed! I've been reading so much more in general lately and I had forgotten how much I love it! Do you have any favorites lately? 

What are you currently doing? I'd love to hear about it! 

-April