Final 14 days of Freedom

First of all, this is the longest I have ever procrastinated a blog post, so I'm sorry and I might have just let it go except it was a pretty fun 2 weeks and this has been on my to-do list for months! So here we go.

8/4 Thursday
    Becca was amazing enough to drive hours to come and get me at the airport and then hours back home. Essentially all we did was eat dinner at Wendy's, play with her dog, Bentley, and talk and talk and talk. (I think Bentley felt so comfortable with me because he felt like he could relate.)

8/5 Friday
     I encouraged Becca to shirk her responsibilities, which I'd been doing for months, and we ran errands and hung out.  I tried to get a new phone to replace the one I'd lost in Paris, but it was more complicated than I'd assumed. So no phone for me-yet.  But Becca, in a true gesture of sisterly love, let me play Pokemon Go for the first time ever on her cell phone.  Sadly, we never got to play together since I didn't have a phone of my own, but she showed me all the good Pokemon stops around her house and let me nerd out for days. Of course, we also had to go to Walmart to get provisions for our girls' nights that were coming, mainly some boring groceries and then IBC and gelato. We watched movies and played X-Box (which was an adventure because I don't ever play X-Box.)

8/6 Saturday

Today was a free day from respon-sibilities (we didn't even have to try to avoid them.) So we went and played tennis, in honor of the tennis class we took at BYU together. Then we had to hop in the pool and get mistaken for teenagers.  Oh well, I suppose we brought it upon ourselves with our baby faces and constant random competitions like who could do a handstand in the water fastest and who could swim to the other end without using their legs, etc.  We took Bentley to the dog park, watched a movie, and went to a Mexican restaurant.  

8/7 Sunday
Today was similar to the other days I spent with Becca. There was food involved. A dog park. Pokemon. A movie. The only new element to our day was church, which was filled with married couples.

8/8 Monday

My last day with Becca came too quickly.  Becca had to go to campus for a little while, so she gave me her phone and set me free on campus to catch Pokemon. Except I may have ran her battery and mine down, gotten lost, and been gone for an hour longer than I originally meant to. But I did make it back, and we headed home to enjoy the time we had left. To really take advantage of it we went on a bike ride along a river, and it was beautiful. It reminded me of the last bike ride I'd gone on in Japan at Mikuni where Melanie and I biffed it hard core, except there wasn't any falling this time. After biking we ate dinner and then Becca enjoyed the wonders of Zelda Tri-Force Heroes, which is fun only because I always play it with my brothers.

8/9 Tuesday
The next day Becca dropped me off at the greyhound bus station, and I rode that all the way to DC. Luckily, I was pretty accustomed to public transportation by now so the only downside to the trip was that I spilled my drink on my lap almost first thing. When I arrived in D.C. I met Whitney at the main station and then she took me back to her house where I had *play angelic chorus* a new phone waiting for me!  We had a pretty relaxing evening and even got some exercise in before watching some cheesy movie together (just like old times in college.)

8/10 Wednesday
I spent most of the next morning and afternoon with Amy Murphy, who also lives in D.C. We walked the boardwalk, ate ice cream, kissed some statues (she had a bucket list to accomplish), paddle boated at the basin, saw FDR, MLK, and the Jefferson Memorial.  It was a packed afternoon, but it didn't stop there. Whitney joined us after work, but then I had to say goodbye to Amy. Whit and I saw Big Abe, the reflection pool, and walked to the White House before I was starving for dinner. We ate some tacos at a Mexican place for dinner and went home to finish the movie we'd fallen asleep on before.

                       

          

8/11 Thursday
    Today I had to say goodbye to Whitney and catch the Megabus (which I almost missed. I got there at 10:58 for my 11 am bus.) But I made it and spent the next few hours traveling to Richmond to see Emily and her family.  Today I got to experience what it's like to have your entire family living in a hotel room.

8/12 Friday
Well I can't remember what happened this day. Serves me right for taking 4 months to blog. Oh well.

8/13 Saturday
    We went to this really cool abbey, called the Freemason Abbey, and ate lunch there.  It was very historic and also had great seafood.  I definitely couldn't complain. (P.S. These photos are from online because I, for some reason, can't find any of my own. So I do not know who that random man in the photo is.)

After that we went to the battleship Wisconsin and spent a few hours exploring there. Tanner and Chris were having a blast while the rest of us were trying to stay hydrated.  It was fun to see, but it was so stinking hot. Luckily we ended the day by going to the beach so the heat couldn't bother us then!
8/14 Sunday
After church on Sunday I spent literally all day catching up in my journal from my travels and bonding with Emily's kids (mainly Tucker. The little stinker waited until I was about to leave to decide we could be friends.)

8/15 Monday
Today was my last day with the Herbs in VA, and to say goodbye we went and ate sushi together. Goodbyes are never fun but at least we can make it more delicious with some raw fish.

8/16 Tuesday
I had officially one day to unpack, clean my room, re-move in, and relax before work started tomorrow. Should I have been at school putting together my classroom? Yes. Was I? No.

8/17 Wednesday
Today work started, and I could have kicked myself for not giving myself more time to rest before work began. However, I also couldn't bring myself to cut anything out of my summer because it was so fun.