Capri Sun Fails & Fall Hikes: Discovery Park, Rattlesnake Ledge, & Heather Lake

December 16, 2016 Amelia Klaus

Hello everyone,

As 2016 continues to hurtle towards it's close (thank goodness) I wanted to take a moment and appreciate the parts of 2016 that did not make me want to tear my hair out. Things such as:

1) Being hired! That's right, I'm now employed again!! I accepted a wonderful part time position at Shoreline Community College's Ray Howard Library. While the position is not full-time, it's a huge relief to be returning to the world of academic libraries and to be using the skills I gained during my time at the University of Washington. In short, this was me when I was offered the position:

2) Being fortunate enough to attend some amazing shows, including Childish Gambino's Pharos concert in Joshua Tree and Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book Tour. The show's themselves were phenomenal, and the Pharos concert had the added benefit of being a great road trip down the West Coast.

3) Travel, family, and friends. Speaking of road trips, this year has been full of travel- from visiting Louisiana for the first time to meet Fred's family to driving from Grand Forks to Seattle, and then from Seattle to Joshua Tree a few weeks later, the high points of 2016 have been the ones filled with new experiences shared with friends. While I was blessed to wander far from home so much this year, I also had some wonderful moments with friends in the Seattle area exploring local bars, art shows, attending the aforementioned concerts, and going on lovely hikes with friends. This fall I made an effort to take advantage of my joblessness to explore the wonderful trails close to Seattle. This included taking my partner, Fred, to Discovery Park for the first time, and tackling the Rattlesnake Ledge and Heather Lake trails with my fellow librarian and friend, Kate. I love the quiet yet in-your-face beauty of the PNW trails, and this fall these outings became necessary for maintaining my sanity in the face of all the ups and downs that 2016 heaped upon myself and the world. Favorite moment: Spotting and being able to photograph a brilliant orange leaf stuck in the crux of a moss-covered tree (see photos below).

Discovery Park

Rattlesnake Ledge

Heather Lake

In closing, here is the Capri Sun failure of 2016 brought to you by yours truly.

With laughter,

Iceland Day 2: The South Shore (Aug, 2015)

September 27, 2016 Amelia Klaus

Hello everyone,

It's been a while (sorry about that). A lot has happened over the past year- I traveled across the United States from Seattle to New York, then hopped across the Atlantic to Iceland and then Denmark, where I spent a month attending class and exploring Copenhagen. Upon returning stateside, I jumped headfirst into my second (and last!) year of graduate school. I can now say with pride that I have earned my Masters in Library and Information Science! Wooohooooo! :D

I'm currently on the job hunt, but I decided it was time to take a few hours out of my job hunt life to post the long awaited photos from Ilse and my tour of the South Shore of Iceland! Our tour was led by a wonderful older gentleman from Iceland Horizon's tour company. He picked us up from our Airbnb in a small bus and Ilse, myself, and 15-20 other tourists headed out of Reykjavik to explore.

Our tour group was much smaller than the others that were available, a fact that I became increasingly grateful for as our bus was able to maneuver up hills to locations that the larger tours missed. We were also allowed to spend more time at each stop than other tour groups I observed- in fact our guide allowed us so much extra time to explore that we got back almost 2 hours after our scheduled return time!

We visited the following locations (see photos below):

The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano
Solheimajokull Glacier
The Black Sand Beach in Vik and the surrounding area
Skogarfoss Falls at Skogar
Seljalandsfoss Waterfall (Note: If there is a breeze you will get soaked.)

Iceland is a beautiful country, and I couldn't be more pleased with my trip across the South Shore. It was an amazing experience and I would highly recommend the trip to anyone looking for a great day trip out of Reykjavik.

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The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano

Solheimajokull Glacier

The Black Sand Beach in Vik and the surrounding area

Skogarfoss Falls at Skogar

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

Happy Travels,

Mia

"Let's Go Adventuring!" (Friday Harbor Jan 2015)

February 15, 2015 Amelia Klaus

Hello dearies,

By this point you have probably realized that one of my favorite sentences is "let's go adventuring!" So, of course, when I heard them in conjunction with 'Friday Harbor' roadtrip, I practically peed myself with excitement. That is basically the short version of how myself and three of the best people I've ever met ended up dragging our exhausted selves out of bed and piling into a car at 6:00 AM to head north.

This unplanned, semi-spontaneous type of trip is my favorite traveling style, as it leaves everyone involved open for unexpected detours which often turn into the best moments of the trip. We had a vague plan, which gave us a sense of direction, but it was open enough that we were able to visit adorable local cafes (which turn out to have amazing milkshakes in a bazillion flavors! WIN!) and wander along the harbor just absorbing the beauty around us. We barrelled down a hill and across a driftwood maze in order to dip our feet in the sea, had a staring contest with a seal, and screamed exactly what we were feeling into the ocean breeze because who was there to stop us? If there is one word that summed up the feeling of the day for me, it would be:

Exuberance.