"Laughter is an instant vacation"

It's days like today that I can look back on, recall the smallest details and have one of the biggest smiles put upon my face. From start to finish this day was jam packed with good things.
No sleeping in on this Saturday. Most of us were up at 8 to head to Karen's house for brunch. After getting off the bus three stops too early and then walking half a mile uphill in the wrong direction, we eventually arrived about half an hour later than we were planning (whoops). We enjoyed a nice morning brunch, some hang out time in Karen's living room, a tour of Jacob's (her nine year old son) tree house and to top it all off, some hilarious mad-libs. I left Karen's happy, full and hoping to make some headway on my homework. That didn't work out too well for when we arrived back at the house, Barrett, Meghan and I decided it would be a good idea to try and play frisbee between our windows. That activity lead to the frisbee falling and getting stuck on the roof, so we had to go out our window and get it. That then lead to us trying to find a spot on the roof to hang out. We eventually found our spot on the third story and proceeded to bring some snacks and our computers, hoping we would all make some headway on the research paper. That didn't work out too well as we began people watching passers-by on the street below, yelling hello to them, and spotting some cherries growing in the tree in front of us.
Excited about our find, Barrett and I ran downstairs to try and pick some. Barrett climbed the tree, while I stood on the sidewalk catching the cherries she threw to me and Meghan looked over the edge of the roof from two stories up. A woman running by stopped, gave me one of the weirdest looks (I then realized people could not see Barrett in the tree, so I looked like I was talking to it) and turned to ask me if I lived in the house. I told her I did and she asked what it was. I was forced to explain the whole "it's an off-campus college program" spiel to her while I looked like an idiot who had just been talking to a tree,, when really, Barrett was the total creep crouched in the tree. Anyway, I threw some cherries up to Meghan (that took a few tries) and we all tried to eat them. They were bitter and disgusting, but still worth the fun trip down stairs and a good distraction from homework.
By that time, we had to start getting ready to go for our trip down the coast to Pie Ranch in Pescadero for their monthly pot-luck and Barn Dance! YeeHaw! Meghan and I threw some cornbread in the oven for the pot-luck, got ready and the minute the cornbread was done we bolted out the door to make a quick stop at the Bernal Heights Library branch to pick up a copy of "Where the Wild Things Are" (yes, the children's book...I'll explain later) before exiting the city.
The hour and a half drive was filled with laughter, amazement, rejoicing and many fond memories. Meghan was riding shotgun and had full control of the radio, so we sang and danced for a good while. Amy had fallen asleep in the very back row of the car and Barrett and Meghan urged me to take a detour down a road that looked like "fairyville" (but really, it did). It is amazing. You drive half an hour outside SF and you are in what looks like a foreign land...I'd even go so far as to say Narnia ;) The landscape was beautiful! However, for most of the drive we were caught in a lot of fog, so you couldn't see a lot, but it did add to the mystery of the places. Any who, back to the detour to fairyville. We came out of the road at a culdesac with a bunch of cute, but run down houses near the fields and beach. Meghan goes "Talk about your fixer upper", quoting the Lion King, which we had watched recently to compare qualities Mufassa and Brad Berky (our program director) share; we concluded that they are one in the same. As Meghan finished speaking, I see Amy's head pop up in the rear view mirror and the following utterance comes out of her mouth, "Talk about yovef heo sufefh sluf...". Had to be there, but one of the funniest moments of the semester. I think Barrett and I were crying and Becky took almost a full five mins to regain a normal breathing pattern. None of us knew what she had said!
Still laughing, we got back on the main highway towards Pescadero. A few mins later, Barrett screams from behind me and all of us turn to look at her (well, not me of course, since I was driving and would never avert my eyes from the road...). She was looking out the window and pointing into the fog. We all glanced to our left and saw King Kong. No joke! It was a thirty-forty foot tall gorilla standing in the field on the side of the road. What the hell is wrong with Northern CA? Love it.
As we drove further, we decided the beach to our right was too tempting to not pull off and look at. Still making our way through the fog, we got out of the car to join hands and spring through a field of wild flowers towards the deserted beach. It was like a scene from a movie, seriously. We ran around the beach and cliffs for a while, taking some pictures and then finally getting back in the car to chow down of the corn bread that was now our dinner, since we had sacrificed the pot luck for our epic beach adventure.
I love these girls so much! Band pose...we have too much fun

So many things going on in this picture...haha

At this point, we were finally nearing our destination, though we were having such a great time in the car already. Then, this happened to make us forget about our destination for a few mins. We turned around a bend and one of the most beautiful, amazing scenes I've ever seen was before my eyes. Picture this, the fog suddenly clears as we round the corner and a landscape of fields and hills stretches before us on our left with the setting sun lighting it up, making the colors warm and vibrant and glowing. To the right of the mountains are some puffy pink clouds with golden linings that rise above the crashing ocean waves that are to the right, also illuminated by the glow of the evening sun. Part of me is sad I didn't have my camera with me to snap a photo, but the other part of me is glad because I was able to fully capture the moment with my mind instead of worrying if my photo would depict what I was seeing as accurately as possible. Interesting thought...but for another time. Anyway, I feel as if now I MUST move to Nor Cal some day...everything about it seems to be so right for me, but that's also another topic. Upon seeing this sight all of us went silent and then all let our screams of awe.

Though this journey was amazing in itself, we had an amazing evening, dancing the night away to the live country band and swingin' our partner's round and round. Who knew square dancing could be so much fun?! We each danced a few dances with each other as well as some guys who asked us to dance. I have never laughed so much at a dance in my life. It was excellent.

The drive home was also eventful...how could it not be with this bunch? We looked for several places to stop along the way in hopes of cooling off in the ocean. We couldn't find a good spot for beach access and gave up after a long drive down a rather creepy dark road, where Meghan thought it would be a good idea to bring up the topic of who the third twin was between her, me and Barrett (evil twin running an ice cream shop...long story). Barrett and I both said it was her because of Barretts impervious logic that Meghan is also Lord Voldmort. I chimed in saying very matter-of-factly that "If Lord Voldmort was in the car, I wouldn't even care about crashing it." Cause that makes perfect sense! Like I said, eventful drive.

When we arrived home, surprisingly enough we didn't head to bed. We didn't even start getting ready for bed. We built a fort!!! Corinna, Meghan, Barrett, Amy and I took over a third floor room and had a mild (as opposed to a wild) rumpus, complete with Barrett's dramatic reading of "Where the Wild Things Are" before the lights went out. Like girls do, we lay there for another 45 mins talking about different things and actually having some pretty deep and constructive conversations.

I apologize for the length of this post, but the small details are mostly for my record. This had to be one of the most fun days of my life with some of the most amazing people I've had the opportunity to become friends with this semester.