Best.Date.Ever.

Jarheads

All throughout orientation I've been a representative (along with Aliza, Greg and Karen) for the College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities. Our main job is to sit on stage (look sexy) while Eddie Smith wins the parents over (with his stories, charm, and great hair). If you don't know who Eddie Smith is, you might as well crawl in a hole due to shame and embarrassment (seriously).  He's a Clemson legend. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. This man has the gift of gab and has made it into a career. You should see how after he's only been talking for 2 minutes he's got the entire audience of previously disgruntled parents now googly eyed and drooling in the palm of his hand. I told ya, he's got a gift. What's even better is that despite the fact he's actually like 50, he's still basically 22 years old (you'll see what I mean later). I wish I had a picture of him for you because he's a BABE.

So at our last orientation session Eddie is all like...give me a call (he gives his cell out to everyone) and we can do lunch on Friday. We're all extremely giddy at the prospect of a lunch date with Eddie. Well Fri rolls around and operation Lunch with Eddie in in force. Greg calls him up and it turns out Eddie already has plans (he's just so popular). Sad day. Hopes and dreams crushed. BUT WAIT. Eddie suggests we should do dinner (at Wingin' It of course). OMG did we just secure a dinner date with Eddie Smith!?!? This is SO much more exciting than just a regular ol lunch date. Oh happy day! Hopes and dreams alive and kickin. We tried to make the time until the big date pass as fast as possible by going to Greenville. It worked. Before we knew it, it was DATE TIME. After some final primping we (Karen, Greg and I) headed downtown to Wingin' It (it's a bar/ wings place duh) to meet our love. Ahhh butterflies.

And so it began...


the best dinner date ever in the history of dinner dates. 

After we all sat down (in a cozy, romantic booth) the waitress comes over and asks us what we want to drink. Eddie (being the babe that he is) wants to get us a pitcher which then forces each of us in our under 21 glory to go around the table saying how we're only 20. Talk about embarrassing. But being the ever gracious date, Eddie takes one for the team and says he won't drink if we can't. This little incident opened up a lovely dialogue (it was Eddies doing) on fake ID's and where you can use them dt etc etc. This was just the beginning of assorted scandalous topics we would come to discuss with a professor. We all were happily munching on the tater tot appetizer Eddie ordered as he told us story after story of Clemson's glory days. Let's see... before karaoke they held Sing-a-Longs at what's now Sardi's Den.  Lyrics were written out on flip charts and if it was your birthday not only did you get to lead the sing a long but you also got to take home this sweet pointer that said "I led the sing a long." Eddie made it sound like the greatest thing ever. He told us about the midge with the raspy voice they all called Willow (among various other nick names). How could I forget about the time when he brought a 13 year old boy (he thought he was a senior in highschool) out to a party. Eddie (once again as the ever gracious host) asked one of his lady friends if she would show the kid her boobs....she did....and then the kid asked to touch them. bahah. This was Eddie's clue that he was in fact a boy just hitting puberty not graduating high school. Eddie was also super excited because the japanese students were going to be coming to town soon (he likes to make them sing "row, row, row your boat."). In other Eddie news, He was locked out of his house this morning in his boxers (who knows).  Apparently Eddie is having a party next week and we're invited because "no one likes a wiener fest."  He had us so enthralled in scandi conversation that we didn't realize he had already paid the bill. After hugs in the street, Eddie strutted back up the street to his apartment (conveniently located within a stumbling distance from downtown).

*sigh*

we may or may not have gone on another adventure

It was after our end of orientation banquet (yes, I cried) and we weren't in any hurry to go to sleep (that would mean that it was all really over with).  What should we do? hmmmm. let's see.... it's a Wednesday night....in Clemson....in the Summer....Okay that doesn't help whatsoever (seriously nothing to do). How about... we go on ADVENTURE PART 2!!!!

Adventure Crew Pre-Adventuring 

Our first attack that night was Cooper Library. Now the lib is not exactly a happenin place in mid July and lemme tell you a pack of chatty hooligans in matching sneakers don't blend in well at all. We were either trying to find another tunnel or get up on the roof (we're not picky).  So we take off up the stairs to the top level of the library and search around for any sort of secret door that could get us to the roof. They're all locked (damn tricky librarians) and despite the fact that we have a couple covert locksmiths in our group and despite the fact Greg Lane has been hitting the gym 64 times a day (you should probs buy tix to his gun show)...we couldn't get in. Oh well. We go down to the bottom quiet (deadly) floors and look around for other suspicious doors to other suspicious places. Needless to say we came up empty handed. We needed to meet up with a straggler adventurer...Aliza (bear). So we go to let her in and of course the alarm starts BLARINGGGGG. We all take off different directions running up and down stairs, through aisles of books. My escape group thought we'd be super clever and pick up books and sit at desks and pretend as though we were reading. Foolproof right? Yes, especially when your in the horticulture section and are leisurely reading about different species of plants. Once we felt as though the whole alarm scandal had blown over and we would no longer be attacked by beyond middle aged women in glasses wanting to protect their precious books (sorry for stereotyping librarians), we met up with the rest of the group outside. Then we decided to go to the....MONSOON ROOM.

We made our way (not stealthily whatsoever) to where the monsoon room is located. The plan was for a few of us to climb over this giant gate thing and then let the others in. So of course the monkeys of the group flew over the gate and then a couple others tactfully climbed over. Once we were over it was pitch  black and we didn't have any light (cell phones were left in the designated cell phone bag on the outside) so we did as best we could. We went up some stairs and were on top of these giant fan things and discussed matters with our friends on the other side. In the end we were unable to find the door to the monsoon room. meh. But as I always say.....the adventure must go on!

Us at the tip top looking down (use your magnifying glass)

Michelle contemplating the climb

Our next plan of action was to try yet another entrance to the underground tunnels. This entrance is a tad more obvious than the others, I mean there's a mini roof built over it. So we all gather around said mini metal roof and start to pull (hoping for a group strength miracle). It didn't budge and you could see the lock plain as day. Bummer. We start walking and realize there's a car at the end of the cul de sac. Oh wait that's not just your average car parked at midnight on a Wednesday outside Lee Hall. That my friends is a COP CAR. Yes, the fuzz had been watching us the entire time and we just so happen to be walking right towards him. He flashed his lights. Oh balls oh balls oh balls. What should we do? In a millisecond we had another foolproof plan in place. We walked over to the giant sculpture and pretended like we were just walking around taking pictures (lame). Then we turned and walked the other way and thankfully the boys in blue stayed in their car. Whew that was a close one. 

We then went to the Union because we wanted to get on da roof. So we used the handy dandy trashcan as a boost and climbed on top of the student government offices. We crept along until we were safely out of direct eyesight (bc most people walk around at night looking for people on the tops of buildings).  We make our way to this tower/stand thing and climb the ladder to get to the top where we took some pics (duh). 

Then we spied that a window in Johnstone (for those who don't know better, it's a dorm) was open. We made a beeline for it an boosted everyone through. We decided we should try and get to the top of       J-stone (which would be much higher than we already were). We all piled in the service elevator (straight out of 1934) and hit the button for the top floor. Of course it made the whole building shake, startling the weasel of an RA that was working (hell is currently beginning to break loose). We get off the elevator and low and behold Mr. RA himself was coming up the stairs. This is how the next minute played out....

RA: "What are you guys doing in here?" (in a shaky, scared voice)

The Group: "uhhh" "yada yada yada" "mumble mumble"  (psh please, if he only knew)

RA: "There's no girls allowed" (spoken like a prepubescent boy, voice cracking included)

Greg: takes off sprinting down the hallway (Jackie and Healy follow immediately)

The Group: mumbles something and then take off following those sprinting

***THE CHASE IS ON***

We literally fly down the stairs jumping actual flights as the measly RA tries to keep up. He almost nabs Michelle but of course our physical prowess prevails. We bust out of the doors and start running through the Quad (trying to play it off as part of our normal nightly sprint). I'm not sure whatever happened to the RA (he probs had to stop and use his inhaler). 

We walked (ready to sprint at the sight of any car) down to the stadium. After hanging out (and taking pics) with the new bronze tigers we were ready to tackle breaking in the stadium....again. This time we marched in like we owned the place (please, we're pros). This time we go over to The Hill and lay down and do a lil star gazing (among other super cool things). We hang out for a good while (just chillin) and then some people run down the hill while others (including me) log roll down. Wild times. Then we all did a 100 yard dash across the field.  Thank you Death Valley for being our playground.

Ladies (plus Huu)

Fellas (plus Huu)

THE ROCK 

And yet another epic adventure goes down in history

This adventure may or may not have happened

So for all of you who aren't lucky enough to be Clemson students, we kinda have our own bucket list of things to do before you graduate. Now I haven't felt much pressure by this list probs because I have no idea of when I'm actually graduating, but it does serve as a good list of shenanigans to get into.

shhh secret book business 

One thing on the list involves signing a book. Now I'm not going to tell you what book or where/ how you find out about it (I've got to preserve some mystery, sheesh). Anywho I signed said book earlier this year but some other ambassadors wanted to sign it too. So I went along for the ride (walk) for the whole book shindig. I don't know how it happened but all of the sudden after the book was signed and put back in its resting place we decided that we must continue on scratching things off the ol clemson bucket list. So we set our sights on finding an underground tunnel. Once again for those of you who don't go to Clemson....we have this system of underground tunnels on campus and most of them have been locked up (to keep scoundrels like us out). Legend has it that you get expelled if anyone catches you in the tunnel yada yada yada yada. Anywho we were determined to find one and after all of us polling the sketchy clemson people we knew we came up with the conclusion that the entrance in the Union was open. We all go bebopping down to the Union and follow our secret directions (through back staircases etc) to....THE DOOR TO THE TUNNEL. Greg gives it a tug and of course the door to such greatness is locked. We spent a solid 10 minutes trying everything we could think of to get into that darn door. All of the girls' bobby pins were destroyed in the efforts. Grown men were brought to tears (maybe). Let's face it, that door bested us. We scraped our egos off the ground and headed out of the Union to where another possible entrance would be. As we were making our way out Greg opens this random door and guess what was behind it....THE TUNNEL. Ahhhhh we all screamed (like 5th grade girls who had just seen Justin Bieber). It was basically this brick room with a hole into the tunnel. There was even a handy dandy chair there for easy entrance and exit. We all jump down the hole (after the flashlight app had been safely downloaded to all iphones) and start rummaging around. It's nothing but pipes, dust, and other assorted grossness. Those of us over 3 feet tall were forced to squat and crawl through it. We made it pretty far before we would have to be as flat as a pancake to get through. So we turned around and made our way out. Sweet success!

the entrance

excitement

crawlin creepin

epic cell phone flashlight usage

After we climbed our way out from under the Union it was time to head on to stop number three on this adventure.....THE FOOTBALL STADIUM.....aka Memorial Stadium aka Death Valley aka the police station is attached to it (aka this was going to be tricky). We headed to where we thought the easiest way in would be. Some of our group opted to be lookouts and we had to get everyone else (and their various sized biceps) over a 10 foot (give or take) fence. Not quite as easy as opening a door and jumping down a shaft. We needed to use a (once thought useless) skill that we learned at our team retreat at the beginning of the summer. At said team retreat we had to get each member over this giant wall using sheer manpower (while a certain grumpy old lady *cough* NANCY *cough* yelled at us). So we set up our little tripods with spotters of course and started getting people over. Not too shabby if you ask me. Anywho as we're all jumping off the dumpster Greg scrapes up his shins pretty badly. Now don't start feeling bad for him (it gave him a new word of advice to tell all the freshies and their fams at the mornings orientation intros). We sprint off to get inside the stands and omgggggg it was awesome. You're used to it being packed with 86,000 screaming fans and now it's just you and your friends in complete silence. Ahh chills. We debated on whether we should go out on the field and then just balls to the wallled it and ran down steps and jumped down onto the field. We walked over to the East Endzone and spent about 5 minutes working out the self timer on Aliza's camera. As we were taking pics, KT (lookout number 1) texted Tricia saying there was a cop on the phone outside. AW HELL NO.  We all take off in a dead sprint to the exit. Never have I ever run so fast in my life. We all CJ Spiller-ed it (not exaggerating in the slightest) basically the entire length of the field. I thought I could get over the wall to the stands in a single bound (obvi I was out of my mind at this point). After a  second try (and some help from Greg) I was over and we started helping everyone else. Everyone was over except Michelle (this proves to be a recurring theme) bless her heart. We dragged her over and took off up all 987 steps. We made it back to our trusty dumpster and jumped over to safe ground.  We were bloody, sweaty, panting, and suffering mild heart attacks. I used all of the .02 ounces of athleticism I have in my body in that escape. 

self timer at it's best

rawrrrrr???

I'm sure you're probably thinking we're probably going to call it a night. False. There's two more stops on this adventure train. We parade down to the football practice fields to climb the tower. OK, so maybe it wasn't a parade and maybe we had to make a quick stop to call lovely Jackie an escort (yes, despite all of our mischief we are still good people). After taking some pictures with the tombstones we surveyed the best way to get in. We decided to slide on our stomachs underneath the fence. This involved us flattening ourselves to be about 3 inches thick (not easy when you got a donk). Of course after we all squeeze through, we see a GIANT opening like 10 feet to our left. Sheesh. We take off to the tower and turns out it's made out of this spiky metal (not exactly the friendliest stuff). Huu climbs up it like the little jumping bean he is and Greg is soon to follow. Several boosts later, everyone is over except me. Now it was time to call on all I "learned" in my rock climbing leisure skills class. I was making it over pretty easily until precious Tricia tried to help and ended up punching me in the eye. It was quite a site. Anywho we fought back the cobwebs and made to the top of the tower where of course we took pictures (photographic documentation was extremely important to us that night). We then bebopped down and headed to our last and final stop.

Our last stop was the REFLECTION POND. Now if you know anything about anything, you know that the reflection pond is freakin far away from the practice fields. So by the time we had good ol Coop in our sights our adrenaline was gone and we were battered and bruised. Once all shoes were taken off and electronic devices stowed safely away from the water, we made the moves to get in the pond. On someone with decent legs (not my nubs) the water was probably mid thigh height. To avoid just awkwardly walking around in the pond we all got in a circle holding hands and went under on the count of three went under (cut us some slack, cheesy is a job requirement for us). Then we walked our soggy selves back to Byrnes (Buns) for a couple hours of sleep before orientation in the morning.  

studs

my favorite people ever

the end.

Bucket list ripped to shreds.

ROAD TRIP

After a couple weeks of nonstop orientation-ing, we were all looking forward to our long 4th o' July weekend. Most ambassadors were either going home or on some mini vaca. I was being harassed left and right about what my plans were and me being not much of a planner to begin with of course had none. Sooo Greg and I decided to tell people we were going on a road trip (we're big talkers). Lemme back up real quick. Some of you might be a little confused. There's a new Greg in my life. It's a real hassle because before I would refer to my dad as Greg when conversing with my friend population (or blogging for that matter). From now on I reckon I have to start calling my dad...dad (bleh). Well New Greg is a fellow orientation ambassador and this boy is the cheese to my macaroni. Now enough about Greg...back to the real story.

Me and New Greg on the job

So after talking up big plans of a road trip (destination unknown) all week it was finally Friday and everyone scurried off to their respective hot spots while Greg and I stayed in Clemmy. Obvi you can't kick off an epic road trip to who knows where in the late afternoon. So we decided to have din din at 356. After being stuck in orange polos and khakis for what seemed 64 years we may or may not have  been overly dramatic and dressed up a little too much for dinner in downtown Clemson. That was perfectly fine but the fact that we were matching (on accident, promise) was slightly ridiculous. We further embarrassed ourselves when the waiter asked "Have you heard of our dollar vodkas?" and the only response we could manage (after much stuttering and stammering) was "no." Well at least the food was good. 

chips and salsa?

Well Saturday I didn't wake up until 3pm (freshmen take a lot out of you) so there went the trip. We decided to head to Greenville for a late dinner. We wanted to go balls to the wall and try new things. After pacing up and down the streets of downtown Greenville looking at all the choices, we settled on Handi. It's an Indian restaurant and having never had Indian cuisine before I was super pumped. We may or may not have been wearing matching outfits again and we may or may not have been the only ones in the entire restaurant. Anywho they brought us the Indian version of chips and salsa. This like paper thin bread with green salsa-ish stuff. It was delish of course. After reading the novel of a menu for about 8 hours we finally made our meal decisions. We got the Onion Bhajia as an appetizer. It's like onions fried in this sort of spinach batter with this sweet red sauce for dipping. I took one bite. Then I died. It was sooooo gooood! I couldn't wait for my meal of Chicken Bhuna to arrive. I had no idea what to expect. They brought out each of our little dishes with our meat and sauce and then there was a GIANT pile of rice for us to share (nevermind the fact that we needed more). Mine was chicken and mushrooms in this spicy spicy red sauce. It did not disappoint whatsoever. Greg's was in this crazy orangey-yellow sauce. We were both sniffling the whole time and drank approximately 4 gallons of water. 


Post dinner we took a stroll through Falls Park. We stumbled upon this shrine to Furman's original campus so we read up on some Paladin history. We also peeped in all sorts of little art galleries. I had no idea they had so many (I applaud you G-Vegas). As we were going up the steps leaving Falls Park my gracefulness really shone through. I definitely FELL UP the stairs. Thankfully no blood was shed and only my ego was bruised. Well we worked up an appetite for some ice cream (also I needed to eat my feelings to recover fromt he fall) and as fate would have it, there was a Spill The Beans right there. Now I'm sure you're probably getting ready to yell at me for going somewhere that we have in Clemson especially when I'm supposed to be being adventurous. Just calm yourself down because we decided to make all new flavors (therefore balls still on the wall). I got chocolate (duh) yogurt with strawberries and dark chocolate chips. Not gonna lie I was probably more nervous about this new flavor than I was about the Chicken Bhuna. Turns out holy crap I made the best decision of my life with that combo. Perfection! 


I can't really remember much of what I did on July 4th. Who am I kidding? It probably involved sleeping a lot and eating a lot. I do remember that night (in our usual extremely cool ways) we drove around looking for fireworks. We could hear them all around us but failed epically at finding them until we drove back home and boom there they all were. Good joke fireworkers real funny.




....and that was the road trip

Day 5

Today we're headed to Zion National Park. After a quick bfast and 2 chocolate chip cookies (to-go) we said see ya later suckass to the Jacob Lake Inn. We drove a couple hours and all of the sudden we were in Utah at Zion. Zion was ahhhhhhhhmazing. soo sooo pretty. We drove through this mile long tunnel through one of the rocks (kinda scary  not gonna lie). We made it to the visitors center where of course we were looking for mugs. And guess what? THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY. Trip ruined. We should just leave. But after some hemming and hawing we decided on which hike to take. We were on a bit of a time crunch so it had to be a quickie (that's what she said). We decided on the Emerald Pools Trail. It was only 1.2 miles round trip (we were being veryyyy lazy). We took the shuttle to the Zion Lodge to get on the trail and before we got off the driver said there were souvenirs and restaurants there (this was our kinda place). We started down the trail (I think we picked the shadiest trail the desert has to offer). It was really pretty walking along. We made it to the "emerald" (brown) pool in no time at all. We were able to walk under the rock and get a waterfall shower. It felt delicious. We skipped on back to the lodge for souvenirs and lunch. Apparently this was where you could purchase fine Zion mugs. After carefully weighing all of our options we decided on these bamf yellow ones. the guy behind us in line caught a glimpse of them and had to get him one too. We asked the cashier where we should go eat and she starts rambling about the soup upstairs. Once we leave the guy behind us starts questioning her about the soup, where to eat, etc. He had to have everything we did. It was rather humorous. We went upstairs to eat and I got half a turkey sandwich and some of this lady's fave chicken noodle soup. It was definitely plain ol soup. I don't know what it is about these people out here but they definitely need to get out and try some better food. We took the shuttle back to the car and we perused around this gallery before we left. The guy's name is Michael Fatali and homeboy takes some insane pictures. They were all so bright and vivid but he loves himself a little too much. He had quotes of things he's said blown up gigantic all around the gallery. Whoaa there bud. Let's take it back a notch

Well we then got in the car and drove through the sweet tunnel again and headed to Page, AZ. It was a long ride mainly because we were driving through such desolation. The few houses scattered about looked like they were just made out of plywood. I'm not sure how anyone survives out there. But we crossed the Lake Powell (it's an actual lake!) Dam and were in Page in our hotel in no time. The babies were weary and needed a snack. So after some ritz bitz, Gardetto's and Seinfeld we were feeling much better. We went and saw our Mexican friends at Los Delfines for dinner. Some crazy decorations in there lemme tell ya but the food was goood. Enchiladas a la crema hit the spot. We watched some of the sunset and called it a night (after watching The Office and 30 Rock of course).

To sum it up- Zion is pretty/they have a good mug selection, Fatali has the best pics of all, and Seinfeld and snacks can cure pretty much anything

P.S. Zion, I want to give you a hug

Day 4

This was our last morning in the Grand Canyon so we had to go out big. We went back to El Tovar for breakfast. Sadly our waiter wasn't Rick and didn't have any cool signals (this further confirms my CIA hypothesis). It didn't matter because our table was facing the canyon and I had a bottomless cup of coffee. After carefully (and I mean carefully) reviewing the menu I decided to get the pancakes. Before you judge, know that these weren't just any pancakes drowning in butter and syrup....It was a pancake trio. One pancake was made with buckwheat, one was made with blue corn and of course they had one buttermilk. They came with prickly pear syrup (it's a flower on a cactus and it tasted just like a flower so I passed). They were delicious and humongous so I only managed to scarf down half before dying. That marked the end of our stat and we were moving on to Jacob Lake. We stopped on our way out to climb the watch tower and get one last glimpse from way up in the air (of course it was as awesome as always). We were confined to the car for 2 1/2 hours driving through literally the middle of nowhere in the desert. I tried to busy myself with finding sweet tunes on the radio but after awhile everything was static (I told you middle of nowhere).

Anywho we took the turn for Jacob Lake and were searching for the Jacob Lake Inn. Now maybe it's just me but when you hear the name "Jacob Lake Inn" I'm picturing a nice small inn on a big beautiful lake. WRONG (again). The lake is actually not a lake, it's basically just a depression in the ground where snow melts. I wouldn't even call it a pond. Now back to the inn...We almost missed it because it looks basically like a general store from 60 years ago (come to find out later it was built in 1923). We go inside and it's a "hotel," souvenir store, art gallery, sweet shop, and restaurant. They do it all. Our room (oh you just wait) wasn't ready and we were ravenous from our journey through the desert. Since it was the only choice we took a seat in the Jacob Lake Inn restaurant. We ordered a couple of burgers (they went down easy). Rows of cookies were staring at us and they claim they're the best out west so we got some oatmeal raisin ones (they were average).

Our room was finally ready so we drove down this gravel road between the inn and the gas station and there were single cabins and a few one story low strips of rooms. We pulled up to ours and I had no idea what was going to be behind door 56. For starters the walls were a lovely blend of concrete and wood panelling. There was a tiny (I think you could fit 2 plates on it) round table with three chairs just hanging out randomly in the middle of the room. The sink/mirror station was about one foot from my bed. I'm sure you're probably asking "Now Healy, What about the bathroom?!?!" Well after some searching we found it. The light switch is on the outside and when the door is open you can't get to it (highly frustrating). Once you maneuver turning the lights on, the toilet is about a foot from the wall in front of it and it's made for small children. There is a giant water heater blatantly right beside it. Across from that is the shower. If you are over 5'7" you will have to duck to get any water on your head. all of said water goes directly on the floor because there's no curb to it. They did have towels but they begged you not to use them to wash your car or RV with. Seriously...they had several framed signs in the room stating this. Well we had a good laugh for a solid 10 minutes until we realized there wasn't a TV and that the American Idol finale was tonight. Since we couldn't do anything else we passed out for a couple hours.

We did see that an area attraction was a fire tower so we drove 2 minutes to climb it (doin big things, I know). That was fun until the wind ame close to blowing us off. We wanted to watch the sunset so we drove a ways to get to a viewpoint at the edge of the Kaibab plateau. We get there probably an hour and a half early. This gave me a great opportunity to get some journaling in as the sun started to go down (I know, my coolness astounds you). We had the best view of the "Grand Staircase National Monument." It's just like tiered mountainous things but boy was that sunset worth a 90 minute wait. It was absolutely beeeeeeeeautiful. Now I love sunsets, seriously I do. And I've seen a decent amount in my day and this was definitely one of the best. I might go as far as putting it in my top 3. Don't worry, I took lots of pictures.  Towards the end you had the sun setting in front of you and if you turned around you could see the full moon starting to show in the sky. EPIC.

Well it was getting late and time for some grub so we headed back to none other than the Jacob Lake Inn restaurant. Apparently Jacob lake shuts down early because it was just after 8 and their dining room was closed so we had to sit at the "counter" (basically a no alcohol bar.bleh) Well we ordered their signature chicken sandwich and it was just aiight. then it was time for desert. They've been raving about their precious pie since we got there so we figured we had to get a slice. Our waiter was adamant about their scrumptiousness. He was even so bold as to claim that people who don't like a pie flavor will eat a piece of theirs and love it. Well we decided to split a piece of apple (we're kinda apple pie whores if you haven't noticed). He places it down in front of us so pleased with it. We take one bite and realize that this pie is not good. After a few more bites we can safely say that this was in fact the worst slice of apple pie we've ever had. There weren't enough apples and there was too much goo. It also didn't help that they emptied the jars of cinnamon and nutmeg into it. After we expressed concern over these peoples taste buds and pie experiences, we had a real good laugh.

To sum it up Jacob Lake has fantastic sunsets and horrible pie

Day 3

Today we were going to hike in the canyon so of course we needed a good breakfast. We went down to the Bright Angel lodge and guzzled coffee and ate eggs and potatoes and such. Our waiter didn't have us do any signaling much to our disappointment but our water girl was pretty funny. A ton of the people who work at the lodges are from different countries and this girl was from Thailand. She was as cute as she could be. She was obvi real excited to be learning english and of course needed to know cool phrases. So we overhear her asking the other waiters what "chill" means. Except she pronounces it "cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel" Presh.

Anywho it was time for us to hit the Bright Angel Trail. We were off to a slow start because the Koin Bros Studio was right there. They were having an exhibit I guess on paintings of the Grand Canyon so we had to check em out. They were all actually very nicely done. Mell gets the win though...his was delicious. Anywho we got to walking again (this time for good). Now I've done a solid amount of hiking in my day and I'm used to hiking up to the top and then making my way down. Not here...you start  the top, hike down and then back up again. There's all sorts of warnings about hiking thru at the park saying it's a lot harder than you think it is yada yada yada don't try and go to the bottom and back up in one day blah blah blah. These warning were not wasted on my because I've seen the Grand Canyon episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive. Anywho I start flying (I have no concept of pacing myself hence I don't run) down the canyon. The trail is pure dust so there's a cloud of it following us. We passed people who are huffing and puffing like no other on their way back up. Right now I'm thinking they're being slightly dramatic (I may or may not change my mind later) Walking down into the canyon I started to appreciate it even more. I could see so many more angles of it than I could at the top. While we were hiking this guy sort of joined our group. We got to chatting and guess what? He's awesome! He's doing a cross country road trip by himself. He started in PA and has been all sorts of crazy cool places. I sure do love people with spirit.  

We made it down to the first little shelter/rest stop which is idk a couple miles down (easy peasy). We headed off trail just past that and hung on a rock on the very edge. Um talk about awesome. I kicked my shoes off and soaked it in all its glory. It was scrumptious. I was really hoping I could nap out there all day and maybe some nice man in a helicopter would pick me up in time for dinner. Since that obviously wasn't going to happen, I laced up my kicks and started truckin towards the top. We go a decent amount before the blazin sun and my lack of pacing catches up so we found some shade and had a drink. We ended up having to make quite a few of these stops. They weren't lyin...it is harder than you think. The sun was beating down something fierce so a cool shady rock was the prime break location. I was amazed at what some people thought was a good idea to wear hiking in the Grand Canyon. Sure there were people in awkward real life clothes, some in lil canvas shoes, others in big baggy gangsta jorts. But my fave had to have been Mr. Trendy himself. Homeboy was wearing BLACK SKINNY JEANS, vans type shoes, and a sweet tank (I'm thinking American Apparel). I applaud you sir, for not letting the heat or the canyon get in the way of your style.

Anywho we are getting closer to the top  and I'm sweating like no other. All I wanted to do was take my clothes off. But considering the amount of people (from various cultures) and all of the dust, i decided to persevere clothed (bleh). Well we made it out (finally) alive and cooled off before lunch. Who cares what I ate for lunch. I sure didn't. All I wanted was an ice cream cone. When we came out of the canyon everyone was licking their gian ice cream cones just mockin gme. So after lunch I sprinted (okay I walked) to get a cone of espresso chip. OMG it was everything I had hoped and dreamed. All of this sugar gave me the strength to go souvenir shopping. We collect mugs from the different places we go and we've been talking about the prospective Grand Canyon mug for weeeeeeks now. For some reason we were under the impression that they would have the best mugs of all time. WRONG. They wer all pretty fugly. Now I know you're probs calling us mug snobs but seriously their selection was lacking. After pacing in front of the mug rack for a solid 10 minutes we finally decided (settled) on a lil green mugh. We then went back to the lodge for a much needed stretch out on the bed.

We wanted to watch the sunset so we scurried off to an early dinner. I had a buffalo chicken quesadilla. It was tasty and spicy. But anyways we went to start taking pics of the canyon and low and behold my dad had his camera with him but his battery was back at the room. Balls. There goes our fun. We tried to get back to our room to get it before the sun set but no such luck. Instead we watched a lil bit of DWTS (long enough to see Derek Hough) and American Idol. By now night had really settled in and the moon was HUMONGOUS  so we had to venture out and see what the canyon looked like. We beebopped on over to Yavapai observation point. Ahhh take my breath away why dontcha. The canyon was glowing like no other. We walked out onto this point to soak it all in. It was so quiet and peaceful. I don't think the moon has ever shone brighter. as bizzarre as this sounds I really wanted to dive off the edge (insanity). Once we could tear ourselves away we headed to get some dessert. we had our eye on the "Warm Apple Grunt"  since we arrived. Lemme tell you unlike the mugs, it did NOT disappoint. It was this lil bowl filled with baked apples and granola topped with a big ol scoop of vanilla ice cream. mmm goooood. I say it was worth missing Glee. Of course we had to see who won DWTS so we bebopped back to the room and made it just in time to see the winner (obvi it was derek)

To sum it up- Black skinny jeans are inappropriate hiking attire (even if it is trendy tuesday), seeing the grand canyon lit up by the moon may make you suicidal and warm apple grunts taste a heck of a lot better than their name.

P.S. Derek Hough, let's have dancing babies