Home

So, I am home now. I am back to my parent’s farm in southern Pennsylvania. I actually arrived a week ago. I have been relaxing and doing things around here trying to lay low and enjoy being home for a little while. I think that is the main reason I have not posted yet. I have been enjoying hiding out up here without any obligations or plans to keep up with. I am also, pretty broke and don’t have much money to participate in a lot of social plans. I hope to change that and make some money and see some more friends before I head down to North Carolina for the summer.

Last week this time I was just getting picked up by my grandparents from the airport in Baltimore. I decided to head home from Seattle after not being able to find a ride, or another way to extend my trip. I had been talking to some friends who were taking their RV on a pretty cool cross country adventure, but one of them got sick, so they wanted to wait a few more days before departing, and I didn’t have the patience or funds to wait, so I found the cheapest flight home and headed to the airport late Tuesday night.

The rest of my time in Seattle was nice. Before my last post, I had explored the downtown area and the famous Pike Place Market, the Chihuly glass art museum, some of northern Washington, and a few delicious restaurants and bars. The rest of my visit was more of the same. Saturday morning, Seth, Nicole, Ruca (their dog), and I went for a little walk around Lincoln Park a park near their home. I kept singing songs by the band “Lincoln Park” the whole time we were walking around. I thought I was being funny, but no one understood the “joke” until they told me to shut up and I explained why I could not. Even then, no one else thought it was funny at all…

The Masters golf tournament was on Saturday and Sunday. Seth is into golf, so we watched the tournament at his house and made some food. Sunday morning, Seth and Nicole went to church to get a blessing for their recent engagement. While they were there I went to do a few things in town, then met them at home around noon. Seth had some company over, and we all watched the final day of the Masters, drank some beer, and then headed to a happy hour around the corner for some cheap tacos after the tournament finished.

The last few days of my time in Seattle were a bit annoying for me. I was trying to figure out my next move quickly, but things were not working out very well and I was a bit stressed about my plans. I was also trying to save money for the rest of my trip so I didn’t do a lot more exploring. I did head back into the downtown area on Monday for a bit. Nicole had the day off and she volunteered to show me some places I hadn’t been yet one of which was a wall in the market which was famous for beingg covered with chewed gum…. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy that day, but we walked around the docks and got some food.

Tuesday, I basically just bided my time until heading to the airport. I did walk back to Lincoln Park. The walk there was through some nicer areas of the Seattle suburbs. There are some really nice neighborhoods around Seattle, but Seth was sure that his area did not fit into that category though. Honestly, all of Seattle was pretty nice overall. I noticed there was some differences between neighborhoods, but even the areas, that Seth seemed to think were the worst, didn’t strike me as that bad. Everything seemed really new and most people tried to take some bit of care of their homes. I wouldn’t mind living in that area. I think I would prefer something a little more outside of the city though. There are a lot of parks and other places to hike and explore just outside of Seattle. As I said in my last post, I am very happy that I had the chance to explore some places in northern Washington, on my way down to Seattle from Bellingham airport. I am looking forward to exploring more of the Northwest US sometime in the future.

Now that I am back home it really feels like I never left. My parents have made a few improvements around the farm, and there are a lot of new babies running around, but overall everything feels the same. It is really nice and relaxing up here. I have been working on getting some things done around here for my dad, to keep him ahead of schedule. I have always been able to just show up and do everything around here without any trouble, but recently, my body feels like it has been away from the farm for a long time. Cleaning out the chicken coop was the first time I had used a pitch fork in over a year, my soft “teacher’s hands” took a little bit of a beating. As I was cutting up some wood even the smallest chainsaw gave me a work out. The important things like fishing and riding the four-wheelers came back quite naturally though.

I
 This past weekend, I caught up with my mom and my sister. My mom has recently started a new (temporary) position where she is based in New Hampshire. She travels a lot and isn’t always able to make it home for the weekends, but luckily she was able to come and see me for a little while this past week. My sister is still in her Graduate school program and doesn’t have a lot of free time to come home, but I met her in Harpers ferry (about the halfway point) for lunch on Sunday. We also went for a little hike around the historic town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I hadn’t been to that area since I was very little. It was really cool being back there. It is a really old town (by US standards) and has a lot of history. It was the site of some major developments and events before and during the US Civil War, and Louis and Clark stopped there as well before heading West. The Appalachian Trail also runs through Harpers Ferry along with several other major hiking trails so there are a lot of nice hiking trails to explore in the area. I really like Harpers Ferry a lot, it is in the middle of the mountains, right at the point where 2 major rivers meet. The nature is beautiful, and all the historic buildings are really cool. Though, it is a bit of a hassle finding parking on the weekends if the weather is nice.

 
After our little hike, I left my sister and headed down to the Eastern Shore for Monday and Tuesday. There were some big waves expected to come through and my buddy Luke had the day off on Monday so we decided to head down and stay at a friends house for the night. Monday it was pretty windy and blown out. We tried to surf, but it was pretty bad conditions. Tuesday morning was much better though, and we had a lot of fun.

I got home from the beach last night. I hope to start working at my old job around here as an electrician this week. Hopefully I can start soon so I can make some money to have some fun around here. I think I am going to head down to Corolla, NC in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to getting down there, but I hope to enjoy the rest of my time around home before leaving. The older I get, the more I enjoy being around my hometown.

So again, thank you to everyone who has made this awesome adventure of mine so amazing. I have had such a great experience meeting so many new people and doing so many new things. Thank you everyone for reading. I will try to continue these posts so some of my friends abroad can get a taste of what how things are for me back in the US, but I am not sure if I will keep with the weekly routine. We will see. I cannot thank everyone enough though. I hope you enjoyed my adventure a little bit through this blog. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone back home and staying in touch with all my friends elsewhere. Have a great week everyone.