Home, sweet home! NC to VA

Today I made the road trip from Salem in Winston Salem, NC to home in Fairfax Station, VA. My brother, Tristan, rode with me in the Mazda3 with all my stuff from school. Mom, dad, and both grandmas rode in mom's car. Of course we had to have walky talkies to keep in touch! The trip wasn't bad since I had someone to keep me entertained. Nothing really interesting, just a lot of trees on I-85 and a LOT of trucks on I-95.

Home plans: As of yet I am in the search for a job and living at home with the parents to save some money. The economy is not too great for recent grads (bummer!). I'm also looking in to some kind of broadcasting school, so we'll see how that goes. Time for summer!!

Myrtle Beach Pre-Graduation Trip!

This week (Sunday May 17-Wednesday May 20) was spent in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

 My housemates at Salem and I decided to take a pre-graduation beach trip since we had a week of free time between final exams and the actual graduation ceremony.  After a bit of hotel research, we decided on the Sandcastle Resort at the Pavilion.  This hotel was actually fairly nice considering they had "student rates."  Previous experiences have shown that hotels that offer such rates are trashy and meant for certain disaster!  The hotel was right on the beach and the main strip of bars and things, so we felt good being in the middle of everything.

 The drive was about 4 1/2 hours from Salem to Myrtle, and we took my Mazda3 to contain us all and save some gas costs.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't hold very well from day 1, and it pretty much rained the entire trip until the last day.  It was also extremely cold, so we had to buy sweatshirts and jackets!  Of course since the weather was crummy and we were women (warning: I'm about to do some gender stereotyping!!), we ended up SHOPPING most of the trip!  Also, before we left we had decided on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the entire week, but the rain made us hungry for restaurant food!  I think I spent a total of $500 on the trip.  Just insane.  On the last day, we sat out in the sun and burnt to a crisp.  We weren't upset about it, it was the one sunny day!

Also on the trip, we were joined by two other rooms of friends.  My brother and his friend also got a room at the Sandcastle where we were staying.  Of course, they HAD to get an ocean-front room (it was like $5 more a night) to rub it in.  The other room was down the street at a different hotel (I can't remember the name).  That room was another group of Salem girls.

Places we ate were River City Cafe (though the burgers upset everyone's tummies!), Margaritaville (a traditional family restaurant with amazing margaritas), Phillips Seafood (GREAT seafood bar), The Bagel Factory (good breakfast), and Mellow Mushroom (always good pizza).  We also visited Bummz bar, but it wasn't really our "crowd."

All in all it was a really fun last trip with my Salem friends, and it'll be sad to say goodbye after graduation!

White-Water Rafting on the French Broad

Today I had the experience of white-water rafting for the first time.

This last year of college I lucked out in living with two girls who were raft guides with the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in Asheville, NC.  Since this was one of our last available days before we graduate and head in different directions, one of the girls offered to take my housemate (Lark) and I down the river.  It was a bit of a drive from Winston Salem to Hot Springs, but we got up at 5:45am and arrived in Hot Springs by about 9:45am (we took a few bathroom breaks!).  We met up with Kayla (our housemate) and her boyfriend Adam (who is also a raft guide) and had a chance to see where they would be staying this summer as they guided.  Lark and I changed in to our gear, which consisted of:

1. bathing suit
2. quick-dry long-sleeved shirt
3. quick-dry short-sleeved shirt
4. fleece sweatshirt
5. quick-dry pants
6. quick-dry shorts
7. smart-wool socks
8. water shoes
9. PFD (personal floatation device)
10. rafting helmet  

The French Broad is a class I-IV river, with quick turns and lots of interesting challenges.  Of course there were areas to relax, which would have been nice on a good day (we had rain and clouds all day!), but we tried to paddle through those pretty quickly (Lark and I got cold!).

Since it was only the four of us, we took a mini raft, which was a lot more challenging than the big rafts that groups take since it was so light and squirrelly.  There were two times when we almost lost rafters.  The first time was when we decided to "surf" a current, and ended up half-flipping our raft and dumping Lark in the river (she was quickly pulled back in by all of us).  The second time was at the end of the trip during a class IV rapid.  We hit the bottom pretty hard and spun, and I about flew out.  Fortunately, I had one foot pretty anchored in the raft and kept myself in, so I didn't have to take what they call the "deep swim".  The "deep swim" is what the raft guides call the bottom of the last class IV, because there is an 80 foot ledge under the water.  When a rafter falls in the rapid, they get sucked down for a minute before resurfacing by their PFDs.  We were told it was a pretty traumatic experience for those who didn't expect it!  I was definitely glad to be safe and anchored :)

Although the trip was quite chilly from the May-temperature water and the rain, we all had a fantastic time.  Our guides also mentioned they were excited to have hit every rapid almost perfect, so we had a great ride.

If you're interested in white-water rafting, I would definitely recommend this group:

http://www.noc.com/

They do trips all over NC, GA, and TN.

They also have duckies (smaller one-person rafts), canoes, and kayaks if you're looking for something different. 

If you decide to do the French Broad trip, ask for Kayla, Adam, Mack, or Kirby.  I guarantee they will be great guides.  Tell them Brittanie sent you!