Travel Tuesday: My Favorite Photo(s)

This week for Travel Tuesday, Belinda and Bonnie have given us a topic to write about and will be doing so once per month!  This weeks topic: Show Us Your Favorite Photo From All Your Travels and Tell Us Why It Means So Much to You

For this one, I tried ... I really did!  But I could not just pick one!  I narrowed it down from about 10 to 3.  So I am going to share my 3 favorites with you. 

1. Estes Park, Colorado

I think that if the blogging police were going to come take me away for picking more than one photo, this would be the one photo I would chose.  I love everything about this photo.  I loved the natural beauty of Colorado and I think this picture captures that perfectly, I could have stayed in that spot for hours!!  To this day I still remember being in this spot and I remember being completely overwhelmed by nature.  I have always loved and appreciated the outdoors but seeing this really took that love to the next level.   I never get tired of sharing this picture!

2. Camp Campbell, California
This week was easily both the best and most frustrating week of my entire life.  These are the girls that were in my cabin at 5th grade science camp.  They are also the reason that I chose to continue doing ASB trips, and they may not know it but they taught me a lot about myself in that week.  They reminded me why I love volunteering my time to help others; they reminded me that even though it can be frustrating and infuriating at times, the good times totally overshadow those moments and those are the ones that you will always remember.   These girls really are great, I love each and every one of them and I am even friends with a few of them on Facebook and am so proud of who they've become!  Some of them come from families who unfortunately don't have the luxury of computers but I wish they did so I could keep up with them.  I love this picture of me and all of my girls, it is the only one I have with all of us in it.  I wish I had gotten more of the whole group.  This is my favorite picture from the trip.

3. San Vito, Costa Rica
I love this picture because it really shows how we connect with all kinds of people from all over.  We were playing a hand game (like Miss Mary Mack) with them, they were teaching us how to play.  We all managed to get the hang of it even though they didn't speak English and we didn't speak much Spanish.  For little girls, they were very patient with us when we didn't get it right away.  There was a lot of laughing and silliness involved and I would give anything to go back to that.   We had so much fun with these girls and it makes me smile every time I look at this picture. 

Bucket List: Visit the Redwood Forest

I visited the Redwood Forest in March of 2008 on an Alternative Spring Break trip to Boulder Creek, CA which I wrote about here.

This was a great experience.  We didn't get to spend as much time really exploring the forest as I would have liked but it was definitely neat to see these humungous trees.  It is unreal how tall they are!

Facts About Redwoods: 
 Redwood Trees grow to be approximately 112 meters tall (367 feet), but can be as tall as 370 feet.
Redwoods have cones that grow on the tips of the higher branches.  Only 1 or 2 of 10 seeds with germinate.
Redwoods thrive in a moist climate.
Redwoods can hold approximately 34,000 pounds of water!
Redwoods can live to be about 2000 years old.

I definitely hope to go back to California and explore more of Redwoods National Park :)

Winchester Mystery House

On our last day in California we left camp and headed into San Jose for the night before our flight out the next morning.  We had a choice of things to do and before we left on the trip we all voted on the Winchester Mystery House.  It was a great choice!

This house was built in 1884 and was under construction until Sarah Winchesters death is 1922.  The story is that Mrs. Winchester thought that she was haunted by those who were killed by Winchester Rifles and if she kept building up the house, they wouldn't get to her.  The house was actually 7 stories high until the 1906 earthquake and is now 4 stories.  It is filled with stairways that lead to the ceiling, doors that open to nothing, and windows which are inside the house and look to other parts of the house.  With 160 rooms, this place was definitely huge and easy to get lost in.

Stairway to ... the Ceiling

Main Bedroom

Really Super Expensive Stained Glass Windows

View of part of the Yard

Grand Ballroom

Me Outside of the House

Our Group

Scale Model

We took one of the guided tours and it was very informative.  The guide did a great job and did not rush us.   He knew his information and was able to confidently answer our questions.  If you are ever in the San Jose/Silicon Valley area, I would highly recommend a visit.

Travel Tuesday: California 2008

Alternative Spring Break Trip: YMCA Camp Campbell, Boulder Creek, California - 2008

We took this trip to northern California (outside of San Jose) in 2008 and our purpose was to be camp counselors to a group of 5th graders for 1 week.  In California, the fifth graders are required to have some sort of "in the field" science credit or something, so they come to science camp for a week. My girls were a handful but they were good for most of the time and so sweet (I am now friends with some of them on FB and they're going into 11th grade, WHAT?) and I had a great time. 

We also had a free evening because we got there Saturday afternoon, had training Sat night and Sunday then camp was from Monday afternoon to Friday morning and we didn't have a flight til Saturday.  So, we went into San Jose to eat and check out the Winchester Mystery House, which I will do a separate post on tomorrow :)

We worked here at Camp Campbell which is located in Boulder Creek, California.  It is in the Redwoods and an absolutely beautiful campground.   The staff was excellent and I really enjoyed working there for the week!

We left Maryland on Saturday and flew in to LAX for a layover then to San Jose.

We got to camp two days before the kids.  We met up with a group from the University of Wisconsin and spent some time getting to know them and spent some time learning what we needed to do when the kids got there.  We played games, did ropes courses, learned camp rules and other fun things.

These three actually worked at Camp Campbell

Once the kids got there, it was non stop!  We played a game with all of the kids first then went and got split up by cabin/cabin leader.   We also had to pick goofey camp nicknames and mine was Eeyore (I was wearing eeyore clothing half of the time).   It was interesting because the kids came from two different schools with very different socioeconomic status's, but for the most part, everyone got along.

My group of girls were great.  They were a handful at times but for the most part, I really loved spending the week with them.

We also got split into "science groups".  When the kids were at their science lessons, they were paired up with another group, one group of girls and one group of guys.

We had a bunch of silly songs that we would sing with the campers and one of them was about Banana Slugs which were definitely plentiful at Camp Campbell!

Redwoods are definitely huge!

The second to last night we had a super fun game night.  The kids had a blast and this completely wore them out!  Us leaders also had a great time!! It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

Kristen, my science group buddy

Our last night there was campfire night.  We had a great time singing songs and performing skits.  Each cabin had to perform a random silly skit.

The next day we had our last science lesson and packed up to go home.  After getting everyone packed and ready to go, the kids all got to choose fun activities to do such as the big slide, flag football, ect.  I would be lying if I said that I didn't cry when saying goodbye to the kids :(

 

This trip was such a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat!  I wish I could just copy my journal into a few blog posts just so I can share the entire experience!  I love Alternative Break Trips and hope to do another one in the near future!