Emily in the World....: 2015

Monday, November 23, 2015

Girl's Weekend in San Pedro

This year there was a whole bunch of 20 something teachers hired. (Most of whom were women.) So we decided to have a girl's weekend on Lake Atitlan in San Pedro. San Pedro is the "hippie" town on the lake, for reasons easily guessed.

We hired a shuttle to drive us to the dock in Panajachel (on the way, we stopped to look at the view). We then took the 45 minute boat ride across the lake. Our boat guy was a speed demon so it was a pretty exciting ride.

We stayed at a really cool hostel with a nice pool. We even managed to cram all 7 of us into one room. (poor Amy got the mattress on the floor.)

During the day we mainly ate delicious food, took naps, wandered around, shopped, hung out by the pool, and had drinks. At night, we went out on the town (and by that I mean that we went to the one bar in the town). I rained a bit each day, but it didn't cramp our style too much.

Fun stuff, fun stuff. Final shuttle back to Guate City not so fun as the roads curve A LOT and I was not properly recovered from the night before. Not to mention, I'd managed to leave my phone at the hostel, so that was a bummer and a half, but good weekend none the less!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Hike up Volcan Ipala

Eventually my summer festivities had to end and I flew back to Guatemala to get back to work!

A little bit after school started, a group of us planned a day trip to Ipala, a volcano a few hours from the City. This volcano is really cool because it has a crater lake at the top.

Our bus driver gave us a bit of a scare because he didn't seem to know exactly where he was going, but he figured it out. We had the bus park at the bottom of the volcano and began our hike. The path was clearly marked and there were other people going up and down. It was pretty steep and rocky, but definitely not as bad as some other volcanoes I've climbed in Guatemala. Some of the path was lined with barbed wire on the sides, cause people live and farm on this volcano and were trying to keep their cows from wandering out and random tourists from wandering in.

It was probably an 1 1/2 or 2 hour climb. We were all breathing heavy and a bit red faced. The lake at the top is actually a park so we had to pay a small fee to get in. We then climbed up to the lookout platform, which was beautiful! It really gave you a good view of the whole lake!

We then headed back down to the lake edge to eat out lunch. We managed to secure a nice dock location and only had to shoo away a few dogs, some wading cows, a slightly scary bull and swarms of minnows to defend our spot.

After our lunch and some shallow wading with the minnows nibbling our toes, we hiked back down the volcano and headed back to the City!

Big ol' chicken bus hanging out in the parking lot at the bottom!

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Shark Tooth Fossil Hunting

One of the activities I'd been dying to do when I came home in the summers was go shark tooth fossil hunting at Westmooreland State Park in Amelia County, Virginia. We finally got to go this summer!

Mom sifting for teeth. They wash out of the cliffs you can see in the background.

We signed up to do a kayaking trip on the Potomac River down to where you find the teeth on the beach. Though, when we got there, the waves were pretty large and we were told that there could be no kayaking. Instead, we just did the short hike down to the fossil teeth beach. (Along the way I managed to fall over and skid, upside down, down a small rocky hill. I wounded my leg pretty good and Courtney and Mom couldn't help but crack up.)

We hung out on the beach hunting for teeth and playing in the sand. We found quite a few! This was one of my favorite trips this summer!

Our spoils!

TPT Conference in Vegas, Baby!

We came back from the beach and then Courtney and I headed to the airport to zip off to Las Vegas!

I was going to the TeacherPayTeachers Conference and Courtney was coming along for the ride! In the past I was never interested in Vegas, (I don't gamble well and you can drink anywhere) but I actually enjoyed all of the make believe that goes on there. (fake Venice, fake Eiffel Tower, fake pirate ship and mountains and all that) The hubub with everyone walking around was pretty exciting too.

We were only there for 3 days, but we definitely filled those days! I would get up early and head out to my conference (absolutely amazing by the way. I got great tips and advice for improving my TPT store and products!) while Courtney would sleep in and then wander around the strip. We would then meet up for dinner and amuse ourselves by walking around. One night we went to the aquarium in Mandalay Bay!

On our last night in town we did a pub crawl. It was crazy, but we had a great a time! (Of course the flight the next day was not so great because of the hangover.....The stupid taxi driver from our hotel to the airport at like 6 in the morning really wanted to chat with us and all we wanted to do was sit in hungover silence.)

Friday, September 25, 2015

St. Simon's Island!!!!

Well, to really sum up our vacation, I made a pretty awesome video. Check it out below!!

My mom rented a beach house in East Beach on the tiny St. Simon's Island, Georgia for the week. Courtney and I drove up from Florida to meet with my mom and younger brother and sister (Adam and Brenna came with her, Chris couldn't make it.) Also along for the ride was my aunt Debbie and Mom's friend Monica (who fits in with us as one of the kids).

We spent all week hunting for wildlife (sand fleas, sand dollars, crabs, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, etc) riding bikes and rollerblading, kayaking, paddleboarding, sunbathing, and shopping.

One of the highlights was when a fisherman near where we were playing on the beach actually reeled in a juvenile sandbar shark. We all crowded around to look at the fisherman struggled to hold the shark still while trying to get the hook out of its mouth without getting bit.

Someone in the small crowd called out, "You need some help?" I debated jumping in there, but I was manning the camera like a champ, but suddenly my mother comes busting out of the crowd, practically shoving over the people in front of her, and grabbed the little shark by the tail as the man used a pipe to hold its mouth open and pliers to get the hook out. He then dragged it back to the surf and off it swam!