I climbed a mountain

This is the view from the top of La Campana, which is a mountian near Santiago. I climbed it. I freaking climbed a mountain.

I went with Tristan, David, and Tom the Chilean. Now, Tom is super fit and he turned this nice little photographic hike up the hill into a freaking workout from hell! He literally speed walked up the mountain. David has been taking trekking classes so he was able to keep up more or less, and Tristan is just so competitive that she wasn’t about to let herself fall behind, and then there’s poor little me, who died. It was literally every last bit of physical and mental strength that I had in me to put one foot in front of the other for three and a half hours.

But I made it! And I’m really proud of myself now. It hurt but I mean, look at the view! It’s breathtaking. And the photo’s don’t even come close to how incredible it is in real life. So it was absolutely worth it.

 

Going down the mountain was really painful but in a different way than on the way up.  My legs were so unstable and I was scared that I would twist my ankle or fall off the mountain. But at the same time I was able to run over the smooth parts of the path to catch up so I took more photos on the way down than on the way up.

These paths are some of the easiest parts of the trek. Most of it was super rocky and super steep but I didn’t take pictures of that because I just wanted to get out of it as quickly as possible.

 

The flowers are so delicate and unique

This is a photo that I took from the bus on the way to the micro after climbing the mountain. Off in the distance is La Campana, and I was standing on it’s peak almost three hours prior. That is freaking awesome.

In Which Debs visits Zachary

I went to Lancaster to visit Zach and his family for the Forth of July. I rode a longboard for the first time (I was wearing a dress so that proves that I’m crazy) and I also fell off so I can check that off of my bucket list!

On the Forth we went hiking and got lost in a mountain, ate fries smothered in bacon and onions and cheese, and watched fireworks from Hershey.

I met Zach’s grandparents when we picnicked at his family’s motel business. They are really nice! Zach, his sister and dad, and I played on a nearby playground and later we ate slushies.

We also ate Sonic blast smoothies, watched Arrested Development and Parks & Recreation, went to church, and drank tea.

Sunday evening, Zach, Zach’s mom and sister, and I went mini golfing! It was super fun. I won cause I got the highest score.    …

I forgot to take pictures, and the one time that I brought my camera with me I left it in the car. So I only have a few pictures from that car ride. Here is one of a sunset that Zach took coming back from mini golfing. It was spectacular.

I also got a picture of Zach on the way back from mini golfing.  He’s really handsome 🙂

And that was my very awesome weekend.

We Live in a Beautiful World

( ♪ yeah we do, yeah we do! ♫)

This is a picture post, in which I post pictures of things which are not posts. For example; Adventures with Random Rocks, Waterfalls, and Snakes. *See below for more info.

On Monday my family and I took a day trip to Trough Creek State Park.  There is a rock perched on top of the mountain, which looks as if it fell from the sky and landed on a dime. The view is spectacular.

It’s such a beautiful place!

Rainbow Waterfalls.

The falls are stunningly gorgeous and these photos cannot do them justice.

This place looks like something out of a fairy tale.

The way the water rushes down the rocks is purely magical.

We brought our dogs with us and they absolutely loved it!

This is Tabby. She is literally the cutest.

This is Duke. He loves water. Immediately after I took this photo, he laid down in the puddle and rolled in it. Thankfully it was clean mountain water and not mud! (He also loves mud.)

They both adore the water, so we threw sticks into the river for them to swim for. I managed to snap a photo of them both mid-shake!

“Throw the stick!!”

We figured we might as well take this opportunity to bathe the dogs, so we brought along soap and lathered them up.

This is Tabby’s resigned, “Since when did this turn into bath-time?” face.

We climbed to the very top of the mountain and found a rattlesnake. This is a picture of my sister standing victorious over the mountain, just before we found the rattlesnake.

Yikes!

And lastly, but not leastly, there are several beautiful photos for your enjoyment:

I have no idea what I did to the camera, but the longer you look at this picture, the more your head starts to hurt. You’re welcome!

This tree is a surprised cyclops

Me making the same face as the tree…

P.A. state flower, Mountain Laurel

The derp monster

Me making a derp face next to the derp rock.                 Also, my braid is being non-cooperative…

The Ice Mine is a hole in the rocks that traps in cold air. It was a blisteringly hot day, but when I climbed down into the pit, it felt like winter.

Trough Creek Drive leads to the river.

This is the crossroads; leading to two different points.

You can choose to freeze

Or you could walk beside the water.

That was a metaphor for something or other.  You can make of it what you will.

In which Zachary visits Debs.

This weekend was awesome because Zach came to visit!

We climbed a mountain. The view from the top was amazing, especially since everything is a million times more beautiful when you’re sitting next to your favorite person. Climbing mountains is fun but I’m really sore now cause I’m laughably out of shape.

We pet Winston and made purfect puns about kittens until I made a really lame pun and Zach said, “You’ve got to be kitten me!” and thus won the pun war. We ate homemade pizza for dinner and made cheesy puns about pizza.

I ate Chipotle for the first time and I rate it a 9 out of 10 because it was amazing. The only thing to beat it is my mom’s cooking.

Zach loves tea. Tea is his favorite thing. He’s a crazy tea person. So I took him to a tea bar and gift shop called the Tea Merchant which mom and I discovered several weeks ago tucked away behind some random Sheetz. It was delicious.

We decided to bake a pie but we went horseback riding instead. It was Zach’s first time ever riding a horse and he did amazing considering the fact that we were both riding bareback. He kept saying, “I feel like I’m in a movie!”  I haven’t ridden in over a year because I’m allergic to my favorite animal. It sucks. So it was so nice to have an excuse to force myself to ride cause I really do love it!

Sunday (today) we ate a delectable breakfast at Cracker Barrel and afterwards we swung on the swings in the park like little children.

Here is a picture of us being children.

 Then, at 2:30 in the p.m., the Zachary to returned to his homeland. I miss him already.

So I pretty much can’t remember anything else that happened last week. Stay tuned next Saturday to hear about D.C. and camping! Cause that’s the plan. Stan. Hopefully it all works out.