Hello all! Well I can't say I've seen too much of the world yet, but I hope that will change before too long. I do want to post a few pictures of some of the places I've seen as of this year.
First off, here are a few pictures of where I've come from. I didn't care for life in Missouri, and this may have contributed to my lack of photos of dear old Blue Springs, about 20 miles outside of Kansas City. As I see it, KC's biggest attributes are its cheap living and strong representation of all four seasons. While this is all well and good from an artist's view, nothing will make me like cold weather and therefore Missouri and I will always be at odds. That picture up there is of my high school campus after the first snow of my senior year, 2005.The two pictures below are of my college, William Jewell. The first is a view of autumn from Jewell Hall, and the other is a night shot of the campus from the deck of the observatory. I love this school, no matter how much I complained while I was there. Picking Jewell was possibly one of the best decisions I made in my teen years and I think my experiences there will have a huge impact on my career in a few years. Also, the campus was beautiful. All the money that they threw into landscaping paid off well and the campus was always beautiful and full of life.
**********
One place in Kansas City that I've loved to frequent over the years is the Nelson Atkins Museum. I took art classes there for years as a child, and every time I visit it again I'm overwhelmed with a sense of nostalgia at its strongest. The picture to the left is of the outside of the museum, and the ones below are of the shuttlecock sculptures out front, as well as a photo of me inside the front doors of the museum. They're constantly expanding it, so every time I come back there are new exhibits to see. It's truly impossible to see everything in a few hours. 
**********
My first real travel experience was with my high school marching band in 2004. Our 200-member ensemble packed up and went off to Los Angeles for about a week. I remember being a bit disappointed with the overcrowded atmosphere, as well as the constant feeling of walking through a movie that I experienced as we walked through Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Hollywood. I'd never felt like more of a tourist in my life. Still, I did manage to get out of the midwest and get a taste of life in the fast lane for a few days. Unfortunately, my camera was stolen/lost on the beach so I have no pictures to remember the trip by. Very sad day.
**********
During my senior year, the band traveled to New York City. This was definitely one of my favorite trips, as we got to see so much in one week. We were thrown into Times Square for one night to explore it at our will, and we also saw The Lion King live on Broadway!
We also went up into the Statue of Liberty, although some construction was going on so we could only go up to the base. Nonetheless, the Statue itself and the ferry ride over to it were definitely cool. We got to browse all the names of the immigrants that passed through Ellis Island on their way to America. I thought maybe my dad's great or great-great grandpa's name was on there, but there were no Thoma's or Kennedy's. It's hard to believe humans crafted that statue. It was SO BIG!! Secretly, I'm rather glad we couldn't go up to the top of the statue. My fear of heights can only handle so much. We did get to go up to the top of the Empire State Building, and the view from up there was incredible; city buildings stretched on forever, it seemed. It made me feel embarrassed to call Kansas City a real city, yet I did appreciate being able to see trees below me instead of miles of grey buildings. Everything was just grey; the city, the sky, even the water. And it was cold. Entirely too cold. It was definitely not somewhere I'd want to live permanently, no matter how fun the nightlife might be. I was too young to enjoy that back then, but I doubt anything could make living in such a cold place worth it.
Among our stops was ground zero, a sight that made me tear up when I saw a mosaic of drawings made by the children of the 9/11 victims to their deceased parents. This was just a few years after 9/11 so the tragedy was still fresh. Ground Zero was also still a wreck, as you can see below.
**********
Another trip I'll always remember was visiting Paul in North Carolina. It was really my first taste of the southern east coast and I absolutely fell in love with the atmosphere. We spent the weekend at Myrtle Beach, SC, and soaked up as much sun as we could in two days. I got to see the sun rise over Myrtle Beach and that's when I decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the Carolinas. It was also my first real experience at the ocean (other than a trip to Florida that I don't remember), and I think I got the worst sunburn of my life. Oh my. Terrible. The two straight days at the beach was worth it, though. There's nothing like feeling the sand between your toes! =]
**********
My vacation to San Francisco trumps all other experiences, however. I went there during the summer of 2007 to visit my cousin Paulina. It was an opportunity to see my cousins that I hadn't seen in maybe 5 or 10 years. Here's the fam, from right to left: me, my cousins Paulina and Peter, Peter's wife Jette, and their daughter Roxy. It was my first time meeting Roxy! I believe she was around two at this point. I was so impressed when she knew Russian words! She was a very smart and adorable little girl.San Francisco was beautiful, but it was so hilly! Lombard Street may be the best example of the way some roads look, but most of them weren't quite that bad! The views from tops of hills were very neat, though. The pictures below are of Lombard Street and San Francisco from on top of one of these characteristic hills. You can see Coit Tower in the distance, as well as how close together all of the houses are.
Our visit to Fisherman's wharf was great; from street performers to amazing food at Boudin's, it was one of my most memorable days there. Apparently this was a tourist magnet. Not only was it right near the water, but there were a ton of restaurants and other tourist-ey attractions. We walked past a bunch of seafood venders, all of whom claimed to have the best clam chowder in San Francisco. Personally, I think Boudin's Bread Factory did. Another hotspot we visited was the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. Yes, it was as amazing as it sounds. They even had free samples. I was a happy girl that afternoon.During this trip, we visited the Hard Rock Cafe and skipped over to the Aquarium of the Bay. The Aquarium of the Bay was phenomenal because it was like a tunnel you could walk through, so you were surrounded by water and fish swimming all around you. I got some very cool pictures and Paulina and I got to pet a sting ray.
No trip to San Francisco is complete without a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge. Paulina and I went there and had our picture taken. I don't believe we ever crossed the bridge, though, because traffic was rather heavy and it would just take too long. We had more sights to see! So, we just got our photo op and went back the way we came.I was very sad to leave San Francisco. As I said, it was one of my favorite vacations and I've been utterly in love with the city since this trip. There were tons of young people, great sushi, and fairly nice weather. I can't blame my cousins for moving out there instead of staying in Missouri. The unfortunate thing was that the cost of everything out there was unneccessarily outrageous. Paulina said that things may cost more, but generally salaries are higher so once you've been living there a while it doesn't seem so bad.
**********
Being a scientist has granted me some great opportunities to see places outside of my hometown. At the beginning of the summer prior to my senior year in college, I traveled to Arizona with some other interns and my physics teacher to collect astronomical data at Lowell Observatory. We were there for a week and, as luck would have it, were rained out nearly every night. Being at the observatory all night was still very fun, and we got to sight-see during the day quite a bit.
Here's a picture of our observatory, as well as of the other interns and me under the scope. We got to know each other quite well during that week, seeing as we were cooped up in the observatory from sundown to sunrise. The continuous rain ruined our chances at collecting data any night except for our first one there, so we spent our evenings playing Phase 10. When the clouds wouldn't clear up, we'd leave the observatory at around 2 or 3 and still get a decent night's sleep.Some of the attractions we got to see during the day were a petrified forest in the middle of the desert, Walnut Canyon, and the Painted Hills. Despite the lack of greenery, I thought the landscape was very beautiful and I was quite fond of the hot weather. Here are some pictures of the aforementioned sights:
On our last day, we drove up to the Grand Canyon. Despite a little drizzle in the morning, the weather was beautiful. The clouds cleared up quickly and it was just the right temperature to walk along the edge of the canyon. It was Memorial Day Weekend so the canyon was packed, but there was plenty of room for us to see the great views. Pictures don't do justice to the majesty of the Grand Canyon; I truly felt so tiny and insignificant as I peered out at the beautiful rocks. It was better than any photo or painting of that place that I'd ever seen.
Not only did we walk along the edge of the canyon, but we took a trip along one of the trails down into the canyon itself. They weren't kidding about packing gallons of water; the temperature rose probably 15 degrees as we went half a mile down. We may have made it a mile into the canyon. It was hard to tell because the trails were so steep and wove around the rock ledges, making it hard to see how far you'd come. Our descent took close to an hour and we stopped several times to admire the view and get hydrated. The climb back up was miserable but seemed to go very quickly.I was proud of our trip down into the Canyon, but it was nothing compared to what other brave and athletic individuals have attempted. People have spent an entire weekend descending into the valleys of the canyon, stopping at the bottom to stay the night by the river. It seems to me like that would be such a daunting task; I doubt I'd have the will-power to do it. There have even been deaths in the canyon; one young runner died because she didn't drink enough water, and apparently there was an instance of a man driving his car over the ledge in a (successful) suicide attempt. We were all very cautious while we were there and made sure to follow all the rules so we wouldn't end up dead on some rock ledge in the canyon.
