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When I was younger, I was always one to say “Home is where the heart is.” I thought that I could go anywhere in the world and that as long as I was happy I would be okay. But I was wrong. In 2019, I left my hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend my dream school in Denver, Colorado. Although I was only a six-hour drive from home, I quickly realized that although I was happy in my new home, I missed Albuquerque. When I returned for winter break, I realized just how attached a person could be to a city. As soon as I heard the pilot welcoming us to Albuquerque, the butterflies in my stomach could not manage to be calm. The drive from the airport to my house brought me such calmness and I realized just how homesick I had been for the past 11 weeks. Albuquerque may not seem like much to many people, but for me it means everything. From driving around with my friends, enjoying a Blakes breakfast burrito with a large Dr. Pepper, and even just going on walks on the Sandias, Albuquerque is the place where I feel at home.

I have lived in Albuquerque since I was around 5 years old. Naturally, I have become very familiar with the city. Whenever I’m feeling down, I know a drive can always make me feel better. There’s nothing like driving down Coors Road during the sunset and watching the beautiful mountains turn red. Coors is the longest road in Albuquerque, and if you drive up you get a perfect view of the river and the mountains. The only thing that can make any drive better is some good company. My friends and I love driving around, usually, we’ll stop when we find a place to eat. Sometimes, we just start driving with no specific place in mind and just wander the city. A place is made up of the friendships you have there, and I’m lucky to have some amazing friends in Albuquerque. 

My friends and I at the Albuquerque Downs.
My friends and I on one of our drives where we ended up at Chic-fil-A

Albuquerque also has great food, and that’s another reason to love it. When I first moved to Colorado, everyone kept talking about how great the green chile was here. Coming from New Mexico I had very high expectations, and they were not met at all. My friends and I like to joke that the chile here “tastes like chile, but it’s not spicy.” My favorite meal back home is a Blakes breakfast burrito with extra green sauce. By the time I’m done, I have a full belly and a runny nose. Green chile season in Albuquerque makes me feel a certain type of peace. Going to the local grocery stores and smelling the roasted green chile as soon as you exit your car is an amazing thing. New Mexicans put green chile on everything, and I love that.  There’s no better comfort food for me than some green chile. 

A Blakes breakfast burrito.
PC: klaq.com

In addition to the food and city life in Albuquerque, I also love how close to nature the city is. With beautiful hiking trails such as the petroglyphs and the Sandia Crest, Albuquerque is the perfect place for any nature lover. I’ve never been one for hikes, but the view you get from the top of the Sandias is so breathtaking the 5-hour hike is worth it. Considering you can also drive up, going up there is accessible for anyone. This summer, my boyfriend took me to the Sandia’s to watch a meteor shower and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. On one side, I could see the entire city, but on the other side, the dark sky was filled with thousands of stars. 

The sunset, the Sandias, and the Rio Grande.

The sad thing is I never really appreciated Albuquerque until I left. When I first got to college, I was homesick for even the smallest things. My first quarter here was the hardest, but it always helped to know how proud I was making my family by being here. I miss Albuquerque dearly, and every time I visit I know to enjoy it to the max. Nothing can make you appreciate home more than leaving it. So next month when I go home for winter break, I will make sure to take everything in and eat a lot of burritos.

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Truckee is a small town found if you head east on highway 80 from Sacramento. In recent years it has become much more popular given its close proximity to the Sacramento area, as well as its connection to Lake Tahoe. When I was eleven my parents invested in a place up in Truckee which has since turned into a big part of all of our lives. My dad and I, in particular, love to spend time up there. The two of us go up as often as we possibly can, and have gotten to spend days at a time adventuring and exploring what the greater Lake Tahoe area has to offer. From snowshoeing along the trail that runs through our backyard, to wake surfing around the lake, to fly fishing in the Little Truckee, we have found that there are endless things to do while up in one of our favorite places.

One story that stands out in my memory, though, was the first snowboard lesson either of us had ever had. I was about twelve, and my dad was, you know — old, but despite the age difference we both came to the same realization. Snowboarding was much harder than either of us had anticipated. As we slid and flopped down the mountain (to be honest — the bunny hill), we were both filling with rage, fed by our intensely competitive natures, while simultaneously laughing every time the other one fell.  After about two hours of  physical and mental exhaustion it was my turn to go down the hill with the instructor. At the bottom, after I had tumbled to a stop, he attempted to confirm with me my dad’s name, which is Pete, by asking , “your dad’s name is Steve, right?” With such an incredible opportunity to prank my dad right in front of me, and a slight part of me wanting to throw him off his game, I eagerly responded, “Yep! Yep it’s Steve!”, so for the rest of the day, I smirked every time my dad grew a confused expression when he suddenly started  being referred to as Steve. I couldn’t wait to tell him that I orchestrated it when we got home. After we had both sworn off  snowboarding for at least the next year and we were in the car driving home, I burst out with laughter exclaiming that I had gotten the instructor to call him Steve all day. Luckily my dad thought my twelve year old sense of humor was pretty funny as well, and we’ve been laughing about that day ever since.

I have many similar memories that stem from spending time with my dad up in Truckee and have set a great foundation for not only our relationship as father and daughter, but as good friends as well. We are very similar people when it comes to our interests, outlooks and emotions and Truckee has provided us with a place that allows our similarly oriented personalities to thrive. With equally dry senses of humor, a deep appreciation for nature, and a need to be competitive, the days my dad and I have been able to spend together in Truckee along with the stories that accompany them have built an awesome friendship that I will always be grateful for. I give credit to the place, but also to the people who inhabit it for the close relationship we have come to develop. From the snowboard instructor we met almost a decade ago, to the people who keep Golden Rotisserie, the home of the world’s best burrito, running, the people of Truckee have improved our lives greatly and I will always appreciate them.

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I love to read when I travel, and travel when I read. I always look forward to my annual “book binge” in the summertime, the only actual part of the year I have time to enjoy dozens of books. However, there is nothing like traveling physically and traveling mentally at the same time. It’s extremely satisfying to buy a book at the airport, read it on the plane, and finish it while on a vacation. The book began the journey with you, and it became a part of the journey itself.

I recently got into “beach reads” while on a recent trip to Florida. These are usually romance novels taking place somewhere dreamy and warm. I usually go for psychological thrillers and murder mysteries, but this past summer I yearned for something a bit different. I noticed a contrast in how I viewed and experienced my vacation depending on what book I read… As aforementioned, I’m a big fan of mystery novels, the intensity, and twists make my blood pump and heart race, I love a book I can’t put it down. However, what I discovered in the stillness and satisfaction of a beach read–while on a beach, how perfect–is that I enjoyed every page as it came and every day as they passed. I was calm. I was still fully invested in the stories, as I would be in a thriller, but it was different, the “can’t-put-it-downess,” was similar but distinct. And my young traveler’s heart felt different as well.

Once I became invested in this specific author, Elin Hilderbrand, I couldn’t stop the rest of the summer. She writes the most amazing stories, the places and the characters are so detailed it feels like I am witnessing a whole world, a whole life, unfold in front of me. Even when I got home, far away from the beach, I still felt the soft calmness of the quiet ocean rushing up the sand to touch my toes, the kiss of the breeze and the sun on my nose. I was transported completely into the worlds Hilderbrand created. It was a blessing to have her books as an escape this year. COVID has prevented most, if not all, of us from fulfilling our wanderlust. But we can still travel, in a way, I can open a book and be on Nantucket or St. John. I can travel anywhere at any time, a global pandemic can never take that away.

I have never been to St. John, but it feels like I have. I am extremely grateful for the fated moment I picked up my first Elin Hilderbrand novel at an airport book store. 28 Summers is the only book that has ever made me cry, I may have started it in Florida and finished it back at home but the whole time my mind was on Nantucket, experiencing a life I couldn’t have experienced otherwise. I love to read when I travel, and the only traveling I can do right now is through books. My heart and soul are in St. John, a place I have never been to, but it’s an island I want to one-day call home solely because I saw an enticing cover at an airport bookstore. Since then, she’s all I’ve been reading. A new book of hers, the final to a trilogy, was recently delivered to my apartment, now I’m headed back to St. John.

 

 

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Being abroad had its ups and downs for me. I am not somebody who loves to be away from home for an extended period of time. But, I also enjoyed seeing new cultures and experiencing a different lifestyle. I have a love hate relationship with traveling. For shorter trips, I love them. But for trips that are longer than a week I am not always a big fan of them. Although my trip to Europe was a long and tiring trip, I really enjoyed learning about a different culture. I would not say this trip changed me, but it helped me grow in ways I didn’t know I needed to grow.

This is me with the Mona Lisa.
This is me with the Mona Lisa.

Experiencing the Louvre Museum was my favorite part. There was so much to look at and learn from within this magical place. There was artwork everywhere, and so many items that were simply priceless.

This is me outside of the Louvre Museum
This is me outside of the Louvre Museum.

Another part of the Louvre Museum was the walk way up to the museum. As you can see in the picture the greenery and all of the statues were so elegantly designed. There are few places in America that have this much detail into one place. It was like everything you saw had a story of its own.

This is the Eiffel Tower at night.
This is the Eiffel Tower at night.

Another place that shocked me was the Eiffel tower surroundings. The Eiffel tower itself is not what shocked me, yes it was beautiful and all, but it was what went on around it. There were tons of people around the Eiffel tower trying to make a living. I never knew that there were so many people selling little toys everywhere you looked. When I had heard about the Eiffel tower everyone said it is the most romantic place and everywhere you look is beautiful. This is not what I experienced. What I experienced was horrible smells, so many people trying to stop you constantly and gates blocking off some of the Eiffel tower. This changed my perspective as a whole for the stories of the Eiffel tower.

This was inside the Gardens of Versailles.
This was inside the Palace of Versailles.

The Palace of Versailles was the last part of Europe that was so inspirational to me. It is rare you find anything in America that has kept such a historic building with so many incredible details. The amount of information I learned just from this tour was mind blowing. The blood, sweat and tears that was put into making one place was astonishing. The Palace of Versailles taught me the importance of little details. There were a lot of rooms or places where they could have gotten by without adding a certain detail, but if they would have left those details out the history of it would have never gotten told.

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How did a Colorado Native turn into an East Coast beach lover?

The sunrise over the ocean one morning in Sea Isle.
The sunrise over the ocean one morning in Sea Isle.

I will try to give you some idea:

Every August, my boyfriend’s family goes to Sea Isle City, a small island off the southern coast of New Jersey. His grandparents have had a place there since the 80’s and so the family has been vacationing there ever since. I am now fortunate enough to tag along on their yearly trip.

This past year was a bit different of course with the pandemic and COVID-19 precautions, but we decided to still make the trip happen. I think that the August 2020 trip was more impactful than the last few partly because of the timing.

I was able to find a calm and peaceful place, even amidst all the world’s craziness and uncertainty. I found a new home away from home, grounded in nature and restful in the sun’s cycle.

Dipping my toes in the water, one of my favorite pastimes at the beach!
Dipping my toes in the water, one of my favorite pastimes at the beach!

I wasn’t one for the outdoors until I frequented the beach. I say that the mountains have been calling, but when I answered, they told me to go to the beach, and then they hung up. As a Colorado native, it surprises many people that I do not ski or snowboard, or really spend much time in the mountains at all. I will go maybe 5 times a year because the mountains aren’t far for a weekend trip, and it truly is beautiful. I just don’t have the deeper connection that many others do with the mountains.

However, I found out this year in Sea Isle City, that I do appreciate nature differently and deeply at the beach.

I am dancing around on the sand while watching the sunrise over the ocean.
A dancing me viewing the sunrise over the ocean.

I attribute this to several things:

The connection to nature was found in the simpleness of a beach town, learning how to have less of a routine, take in the water’s tide, and view the sunrise and sunset. It is the simplicity of being content. I realized I don’t need a whole lot to have inner peace.

I would look at the beach and understood it offers a lot in itself: the the way the sunlight hits, the sound of the waves, the rhythm, the salt, the sand.

All of this is the Earth itself, nothing else. It works on its own. It is completely powered by nature. This place that I love so much has nothing and no one to thank but nature, and this made me start to understand and love it so much. I was able to sit there without any other stimulation, no phone, no book, no headphones, just completely in awe of this place.

Me pictured wading in the water on one of our beach days.
Pure bliss on a day spent on the beach 🙂

Now, I know there are many beaches around the world to experience very similar things. I think that is part of the beauty of it. But it was in Sea Isle that I discovered this. It was the place I had a shift in thinking. I appreciate this place because of that, and because this trip allows me to slow down. Even when I was busy with summer classes, I was able to remain relaxed on the trip.

It is things like the walk to iced coffee and bagels in the morning, the humid air of a dim morning, the carefree and childlike run towards the water, or the race towards the sunset in hopes to not miss it. The sun rise over the ocean was something I had never seen, and it was breathtaking.

A perfect day in Sea Isle would start with waking up early to catch the sunrise. I’d sit on the sand, maybe with a towel underneath, and marvel at the sun’s process. Then, it would be time to swing by the local coffee shop and grab a donut or sticky bun- I recommend Nickelby’s!

Nickelby's Deli
Nickelby’s Deli
The side of Nickelby's building.
The side of Nickelby’s building.

For this particular trip, I then had to do some school work, but being in this town and near the ocean made it so much less stressful. I had the motivation to get it done to then explore! We would either go to the beach and play games, lay out and/or actually get in the water! If it wasn’t a beach day, we might explore Sea Isle or the neighboring islands; Avalon and Stone Harbor are charming. I just would love to spend the days seeing new places, trying new things, and relaxing.

A quick shot taken on a walk home from grabbing breakfast and coffee at Nickelby's.
A quick shot taken on a walk home from grabbing breakfast and coffee at Nickelby’s.

There were less worries. Maybe it is the carefree beach town vibe, or maybe it is the fact that I knew I could catch the sunset over the bay, and that was the biggest concern for the day, to get there on time. One night I left my melting ice cream at home to run down a couple blocks to see it set over the bay.

The sun setting over the bay.
The sun setting over the bay.

The combination of the nearby beach, the salt air, the slowness, and the beauty of the ocean’s simple, yet astounding offerings make Sea Isle an escape for me, but one where I find peace in nature.

I now look forward to each August, for the chance to slow down, to take a break, to see the sun in a different place, and to feel that inner connection to the ocean.

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Probably the thing we’d like to do most in 2020 is to get out and walk. The epidemic has stopped us from going out and slowing down our own lives, allowing us to spend more time with our families. But while spending time with our families we still want to see the outside world. As the saying goes, it is better to read a thousand books than to travel a thousand miles. The outbreak in the United States is still ongoing. China has an epidemic relatively under control. After National Day, I also had time to go out with friends for a walk around the city.

 

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This year, traveling has served as a shattered dream and somehow, also, my saving grace. This video holds footage and prose of what my hopes of traveling the world after graduation has become.

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The magic of the Bowron Lakes can only be truly experienced in person. That didn’t stop me, however, from trying to capture some of it along the way. This video is a series of moments from a canoe adventure that I’ll never forget. I’ve left music out of the video so you can really hear what it is like to paddle alone!

Enjoy!

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My family and I took a trip to McCall, Idaho for the weekend and found some cool hiking spots! Here are some clips from our hikes and time on the lake. Hope you enjoy!

https://youtu.be/vmveHZIEryE