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What: #14 Go to a national park that I've never visited

When: June 20th-25th, 2016
Where: Yosemite National Park
Why: My childhood was filled with camping and road trips, spending many vacations admiring the beautiful places and spaces that were preserved for us to visit throughout this nation. Moving in to my adult life, I've tried to keep that up, but with so many of my adventures focusing on international travel, I wasn't dedicating enough time to see some of the parks still left to see in the U.S. This summer, I wanted to finally see the iconic Yosemite National Park, so I started planning the trip almost a year ago.

I lived in California for a few years, so did a few of my friends. My family still gets out to national parks every year. Somehow, neither I nor my friends or family had made it to Yosemite. It's not easy to get to...about 5 hours from the nearest major city or airport, and a pricey flight to get out there. Lodging can fill up very fast for the summer, so planning ahead was really key. We wanted to stay in the park at one of the historic hotels, so that limited our options for lodging.

Summertime is beautiful, and crowded. Early mornings, getting out on the trails, and heading along the Tioga Road were perfect ways to escape the traffic and big groups. So, without further ado, here are a few of the pictures that will never do it justice!

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What: #56 Do a paint-n-pour outing

When: May 21, 2016
Where: The local Paint and Pour studio

Why: For special lady night!! The idea started when my friend Susie suggested a girlie weekend in Ann Arbor, doing the things we miss doing now that she lives on the east side of the state. As we were planning our list of fun outings, getting to check off this item seemed like a good idea and so we invited a few of our other friends to join us.

Our painting instruction started with wetting the canvas, then painting it white. I was feeling pretty competent at that start, so handled those two steps with ease. Then, we had to create the sky for our background by blending blue into our white canvas, and I feel like I had a pretty good handle on that, too. In fact, that was probably the part I was the best at doing, so if you ever need a sky painted on a ceiling or a mural, let me know!

Next, we had to put on the tree trunk and main branches, and here is where my intense rule-following tendencies really went to battle with the artistic flow of the instructions. I tried to copy the exact pattern of the example painting, altho I did try to break the mold by doing it in brown instead of black.

It turns out, however, that making brown is REALLY difficult! I started with orange, and tried to add blue to make it brown, but it kept looking green-ish. I finally got it right, but hadn't made enough in that batch, so I didn't feel like I could add much to my tree without the colors being very different. I know in real life, tree trunks are many colors, but this tree needed just one similar tone, and I couldn't get it.

Then, we were told to add leaves. A woman behind me asked "How many?" and as I strained to hear the answer, I caught the instructor saying that it did not matter. Obviously, the woman behind me was of the same rule-following mindset as me, and we needed parameters! Alas, we had to just go for it.

Then, we added flowers. Most people chose pink or white, but I went for orange! See, I'm already breaking rules!

Our finished products all have similar features, but I loved seeing how we each interpreted the assignment just a little bit differently based on our skills and personalities!

I know that many people have already done similar events - in fact, 4 of the 6 of us had done one before - but it was still a lot of fun to spend a night out, letting our creative minds take over, drinking to the word "moist", and generally having a great time out together!
 

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What: #7 Play Disc Golf

When: August 29th
Where: Ohana Camp, Fairlee VT

The contraption

Why: There is a park near me that I visit every few years, and each time I'm there, I see these contraptions that take me awhile to remember what they are: disc golf baskets. Over the life span of this blog, I've tried to add new sports into the list - curling, for example - to sample what's out there, and so disc golf made it onto this year's list. Unexpectedly, I found a disc golf course at the camp where we were all staying for our friend's wedding, so one night, dressed in my finest, I set out with a motley crew to learn how to play disc golf.

The "instructor" was slightly inebriated - and, it turns out, incredibly color blind - so that made for an interesting series of directives and key steps of the process were glossed over, causing slight confusion from the onset of our lesson. It also made it difficult to determine which disc landed where and who was up next because he couldn't identify the colors when we went searching for the errant discs (and trust me, they were often flung far off course).

We did manage to make it through about 4 holes (wait, are they called holes in disc golf?) before it A) got too dark to continue and B) the geography of the course became too much for our high heels. I still consider it a successful first try at disc golf, and hope to find time to meet up with my teammates again to play on our local course!

Right before he hit the camera man directly in the face...

 

Proper form, improper attire

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What: #85 Rent a beach house with girlfriends for a long weekend

When: Aug 1st-8th
Where: Corolla, North Carolina
Why: A few years ago, a few friends of mine got together to enjoy a long fall weekend and it was a great time just talking and eating, playing board games, bike riding, sitting in the hammock, and generally enjoying some quality female bonding time. That started me thinking of this idea. Then, I read a great fun book that put the destination in my head: The Outer Banks. Back in March - when the weather in Michigan makes you want to get kidnapped just to end up somewhere else - I started talking with my college friend Susie about getting a group of women together to make this a possibility, so with her help, we pulled it off!

So, we found a great house on Whalehead Beach that instantly felt like our home away from home. I've rented a lot of vacation condos and houses in my day - usually for skiing - so I know to keep expectations low when you actually see the place, but my gosh, we were beyond giddy at the house and the location! From our deck, we had a set of stairs that crossed over the dunes and right onto the beach!

The group of us did a great job dividing up groceries and deciding on meals to make together or restaurants to try, and we had a lot of space both indoors and outdoors to divide up and do whatever we wanted, which was a lot of lounging and reading and soaking up the incredible views. Each evening, we'd sit around and play games and laugh and chat about our various life stories. Some of us have been friends since college days, others just met, and we had a few wonderful moms of friends join us to see that getting less young is still a lot of fun!

For a non-morning person, the sunrises were totally worth it!

We had a lot of really great activities to do while we were there, too, so that by mid-week, we still hadn't left Corolla! We definitely hit our stride around Wednesday and really didn't want it to end! If you ever have the inclination to put together a trip like this, it's absolutely worth all the planning to make it a reality!! And because we saw only Corolla, we are all thinking we'd go back again to another part of the Outer Banks. It really is a magical place!!

Took a Hummer across the beach to see the Corolla Wild Horses

View of the Whalehead Club from the Currituck Lighthouse

Boogie boarding with Susie!

Sunset kayaking!

Seven of us, still having fun on Friday morning!!

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What: #96 Sing karaoke by myself

When: December 20th
Where: Blue Karaoke
Why: Two times in my life, I've gotten up to sing karaoke with friends. Once was at my friend Susie's bachelorette party and another time was with my friend Allison in New Orleans with a group of people we'd met down there. Both times were up on a stage in front of people with a screen scrolling the lyrics. It had been years since either of those experiences, and in that time, I've come to be a very proficient shower singer and car singer. At least, in my opinion. So, when my friend told me he was getting together with a group of people to karaoke, I jumped at the chance to join them. 

The place we met up at was not what I expected. It was, I'm told, a much more authentic Japanese experience of renting a room with friends for a certain amount of time with a songbook and a machine with microphones and fancy lights. The reason we were at this more-authentic establishment is because this group of friends had mostly met up while working in Japan over the past few years, and in fact, one of the girls did a whole song in Japanese!

So, Anita and I arrived just in time to start singing some hits, including "Let It Go" and "Bye Bye Bye" and Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold" and I learned how to use the catalog and the machine to made my request for my big solo debut. While waiting for my request to come up, we passed the microphones and tambourines around the room to participate, and despite being very new at this and only knowing one other person in the room, Anita and I were having a blast. 

Then, I realized a couple of things. One is that there is a very strict scoring system that is built into the machine and displayed on the screen for everyone to see. The system is based on both one's ability to keep to the beat and to be in tune. Another thing I realized is that the background music for the karaoke machine is like a synthesizer version of the real deal, and with the acoustics in the room, I found it hard to match pitch to the music and was trying just to match pitch with the other people singing. Finally, these other people singing were good at it, and about a decade or more younger than me. This made me a bit anxious about the song I had requested, which was an oldie-but-a-goodie (yikes, I sound old just using that phrase).

When my song came on, I was so excited! I know almost all the lyrics by heart and it's a song that my group of friends all think is lots of fun. And yet, no one in this room seemed to know it. It is A) country and B) from the '70s. Now, I know it was my goal to sing by myself, but it was really awful. Obviously, I won't be discovered this way, but I really don't think I'm actually quite this bad. Ask my friends who are in the car with me; I'm usually on the better end of average! And even during the chorus, no one really joined in, except for Saad who is just completely fun and probably knows every possible karaoke song. So, without further ado, enjoy my embarrassment!