I had a very calm morning, spent reading and scrolling listening to my audiobook and wondering what career path I should take 🥲 lol actually true though, I thought about what made me happiest on the trip and decided to start hobbies out of them to see how it might feel to try such things professionally.

So I’m a very new rockhounder now! I know very little of the hobby but I’m looking into it, it’s regulations, tools, and where I can go! There are some good sites where I live actually, but my new car isn’t made for gravel roads so I couldn’t explore any of the places 😭 I was devastated when I learned the Sunstone area I was told about was like 30 miles out and I couldn’t go.

So I didn’t get any rockhounding done on my trip but that’s ok! I’ve got the bare bones of some rock hounding plans set up with my friends so maybe soon!

Anyways, in the afternoon I went to the nearby National Park! I went to it before when I was younger but now, seeing it again I was able to appreciate it more. Nature is beautiful.

Pictures from inside the park! It had really pretty scenery, and I got to see a gorge and a natural bridge and they were both so cool! My grandpa noted that the water was at an all time low, claiming water could nearly reach the top of the gorge where a fallen tree crossed over the sides and how incredibly loud it was. It was nowhere near that though, which is sad when you think about global warming being part of that problem. :(

All in all I had lots of fun at the park. We got there pretty late so there wasn’t much going on but I saw a presentation on the geology of the land and now that I’m older I constantly just find myself thinking “wow. The fact that over thousands and millions of years has changed the Earth so much sometimes doesn’t feel real. Like there were entire worlds in the past. And it’s awesome how I get to come see it and see it change little by little over my own lifetime. What will it look like in the future?”

Because Earth really is beautiful when you stop and think about it. Which is something I appreciate from my vacation.

@idkfitememate hope you like the pretty pictures! I used my photography expertise with them :)

Very chill day, we left the house around 11, stopped at a garage sail where I picked up a bag of slightly used wax cubes that you melt to make things smell good, all for $4 so I felt it was a fair deal.

After that I tried something called and Red White and Blue Shake—it was strawberry vanilla and raspberry flavored but I honestly didn’t like it. The raspberry overpowered everything and it was very…sugary. I much preferred the smoothie I got from them before which was a Green Tea Smoothie that I surprisingly enjoyed!

(I am a big tea fan and lemonade enjoyer but I never tried green tea, much less in a smoothie XD)

Then we headed to our only stop of the day, a store that had everything from vintage teacup sets to fine china display cases to kids clothes and a big selection of tech. I found myself baking in the heat and didn’t bother looking at the clothes, and my adventure to find one of those CD binders to hold your physical movie discs continues to be fruitless ☹️

We escaped the heat by heading back home and cooling off indoors, while waiting around for dinner where we had pork roast with my uncle and his family(that were also at the Japanese restaurant)

I ended up staying afterwards for a good game of Settlers of Cattan.

I was demolished. The official loser. I got landlocked and had no wood for like at least five rounds.

Oh and I forgot to mention we played in German.

Not that I’m German, though I do have old old old OLD roots there, it’s just that they had bought the game when it became popular during their vacation to Germany.

Wars were fought. Roads were cut off. Thieves were moved and bargained to move somewhere else at worse prices than if they simply stole from me. Alliances were made and broken all at once. Droughts of materials from all sides. The hoarding of forests.

Blood sweat tears. I saw it all. 🧍

The sandwiches were delicious, and we ended up staying there until 30 minutes to 11:00 at night because of a long game of Settlers of Cattan.

I was happy to lose. All I wanted at that point was to go home.

It was a good game.

^ that sums up everything Cattan can and ever will be.

Very fun! Had a great time with family :)

Oh and this picture of a bird is the only thing from this day

I think it’s some kind of kestrel?

Not many pictures from this day, but that morning I went to a farmers market that claimed it was a “Growers Market”…it’s just not as cool or as fun sounding. It was a farmers market.

I was really tempted to buy some hanging plant strawberries for $6 but then I was rational and remembered A) I have to drive back to my home state with those in 80-90 weather B) I’ve killed succulents. I can’t remember to water strawberries for the life of me.

After that moral crisis I had shaved ice, which is a childhood staple of mine. They were stingy with the ice cream but the coconut cream they put on top made it better lol I got three flavors: lychee, strawberry, coconut!

Leftmost picture is of my shaved ice, size: small

Rightmost picture: a pretty food truck at the market

I want to add there was a delicious tomato sauce booth that had both smooth and chunky sauce that was divine. Didn’t buy any because it was $12 but the jar was big so I don’t think the price was unreasonable. I just wasn’t interested in $12 tomato sauce.

There were lots of cute things there, but I only bought a good lavender wax melt for my mother and some spicy sauce for my father.

I was very tempted to buy more stuff from the lavender farm stand but I am nothing if not a planner. I asked myself how much of this stuff I actually needed and could realistically bring back and how I was going to buy stuff at other stores and stalls as well. Helpful for those who buy cute things but don’t know what to do with it later.

So I bought the wax and the sauce and made off to Ross and embarrassed myself in front of the cashier. I forgot my pin to my Venmo card. I remembered it afterwards and had payed in cash but I was mortified.

Thankfully, by some miracle of luck there was my favorite store three buildings down ready to help me up from my embarrassment: Daiso.

I love Daiso.

It is cheap, it is cute, it is well made.

I got so much stuff, but also not nearly enough.

Badly taken photo of my Farmers market buys and the clothes I got at stores later in the day. Bright red is a skirt, the deeper red is a shirt from Ross, and the white are both shirts I plan to pair with future outfits in my endeavor to make a wardrobe with outfits that fit well together. :)

^ my first Daiso haul, not all of it bot most I think? Praying one of the leggings fit me—I haven’t tried yet cuz it’s so hot here but they’d be nice to pair with my skirts and other stuff in the future

After that we went home for a bit to pick up a blanket to use at a music concert around dinner time. It was the city band! I like orchestras more but they were still good!

One of the songs I remember was Dos Dance Latinas, which had that undercurrent of Carmen’s L'amour est un oiseau rebelle/Habanera. That dun. Duh-duh. Dun. Tempo or whatever it’s called I’m not a musician or knowledgeable in that field in any way shape or form.

Don’t have any pictures of the band that do not involve my face, but there were lots of deer in the area nearby! So it was obviously an omen lol

And we got ice cream the end :)

Went to a Japanese place where they cook the food in front of you with my family! Got potstickers and bean sprouts but I’m sure you might be wondering why I have a happy birthday picture.

It’s because my uncle told the chef it was my birthday. Whether the chef took that seriously in the end I can’t tell but he was a very funny guy who admitted he had no cow or chicken jokes 😔 a big shame because I share the teriyaki chicken family meal with three other people I went with (and still had this giant serving)

Also my uncle made me spit out my water from laughing so hard. I was telling him about my internship when he said something funny and suddenly I was Merida’s Father.

(Couldn’t find a gif or picture of the scene so have this)

Afterwards we went over to my uncles house for ice cream but everyone was basically food comatose. And my family has tall, big bodied people and everyone looked ready to conk out the moment their eyes closed.

After that we went home and I forgot to take my melatonin and instead went to bed at 11 instead of 10 like I though I would, but it was time well spent reading fanfiction :)

the only reason I didn’t fall asleep from food was perhaps the fact that I powered through my near food induced nap so I was invincible at that point

It’s of Starry Night and I love art as I have joined Artfight this year so I felt it would be fitting but I don’t have my iPad with me so all I can do is hope 💗 though it was only a $1 so no skin off of my back if not :)

ALSO!! Rock museum! I was taken there when I was 5 and 10 or so and now I’m visiting again! Or visited—I’ve left by now. The gift shop was surprisingly well priced—gems and stuff around the size of your thumb were $3-5 and the bigger common minerals were $8 at most.

REALLY big sale going on for lots of it, I almost got some Holy Blue Agate for $24 instead of $48 but decided against it and bought some blind tumbled rock bags ($5 each) and a little green stone ($7 at half off) for $17 total instead! Like I said, really cheap!

I’m not a geologist or a historian but I do like pretty rocks and I’ve watched an anime called Ruri Rocks(which I highly recommend!! It’s a slice of life) so I know about minerals and stuff somewhat. (Much like Ruri haha) pls pls pls go watch it it’s the sweetest anime and really the only thing I’d have to say about it negatively is the fact that the geologist major student has a big chest but she’s an adult and there’s no service otherwise whatsoever!

The staff were really sweet to us and recommended sites to go rock hunting on our own or a group online you could join to hopefully go hunting at mines for cheaper and the like! One even helped me pick out a Moroccan Geode to break in half( it might have been the geologist or paleontologist) they were so kind!

I got both a cavern and a side with a bit of dog teeth so I basically got a really good geode! :)

Here’s some pictures! I mainly took pictures of the gems and minerals :) (this is a small fraction of what I took of the rocks i totally LOL)

Obligatory deer mention—that’s just my cousin don’t mind him. He don’t bite…much.

While we were there this other family brought in a dinosaur bone or something cuz the workers were talking about it so I hope those people make good money off of whatever they actually found :)

And did you know? Thescelosaurs had very specifically shaped head cavities (like/resembling ears if I remember what they said correctly) made specifically to hear tyrannosaurus rexes sound frequencies? Something that same geologist/paleontologist from above told be about from a recent study from 2023 on the (replica of the) skeleton on display there.

Really fun day! Thank goodness we got back to the house before the heat really hit 😮‍💨

All that’s left is a dinner with my other family members at a good Japanese restaurant—they usually do Mexican when eating out but thankfully it seems they’re willing to go to a Japanese place instead for this special occasion :D ( that being my visit)

That’s not for another hour or so, so I’m off to recharge my social battery before then with a small snooze

V. Flzcnguvmr. Vg srryf. Bqq. V jvyy. jngpu. V zhfg. Jngpu.

Orjner gur juvfcref va gur jbbqf.

-𐂂

Are you like

BINARY

me too?

Or—is arriving!

Deer floating??? That is normal. Just watch the deer float.

-🦌