"My Baby"

When I was three years old, my life changed forever. Whether that was a good or bad change was not initially obvious. I don't remember much from when my sister was born, except that all the attention I had been reaping suddenly dried up, died, and blew away. I was suddenly not the only child in my parent's life, which can be a very traumatic experience for a young kid. Regardless of the fact that she was stealing my limelight, I quickly grew into the over-protective brother. As in as soon as we got her home. My father was giving Rachel her first bath in the kitchen sink, and I was walking around the house bawling and screaming "don't hurt my baby!!" Ever since that start, my sister and I have had a fantastic relationship filled with mutual love and respect. Ha ha. Let's be honest, sibling relationships are something that cannot be described to those who have not experienced it. I have liked my sister, been annoyed with her, helped her, sabotaged her, hugged her, wrestled with her (heads up to any guy who wants to date her in the future: she knows how to fight, and she doesn't fight fair), and even downright wanted to disown her. (okay that may be a little harsh..) Before my junior year I didn't have what I would call a solid relationship with my sister. I mean I knew she existed, but she was just that other person living in our house. At some point during junior year, I realized that she and I actually had some things in common. (She will beg to differ, but I still think we are more alike then she realizes) For example, we both liked sports. She is much better than I ever was but we could talk basketball and I could hold a fairly intelligent conversation with her about their new play or the latest drill they were doing. I also realized that I was leaving, and that as much as she says she can't wait to get rid of me I believe/hope that she is going to miss me because I realized that I am going to miss her. (Rachel, if you are reading this you are probably rolling your eyes but I do mean this stuff) As my senior comes to a close, I hope I can continue a good sibling relationship with Rachel after high school. (Sibling relationship is defined as the love/hate thing all siblings have) Rach, I think you are a pretty cool kid and it's been awesome seeing you improve athletically. I can't wait to see where you go in high school and after and I hope we stay in touch after I graduate!

One of the few pictures of us both Rachel and I like. Minus the
vacuum cleaner photo bombing in the background.

P.S. Again, to any guys who are interested in dating her just know that at the Naval Academy all freshman are required to take wrestling and boxing and I'm always looking for punching bags, I mean sparing partners.

Sunshine, Sand, and Manatees

My parents wanted to take me on a senior trip sometime after graduation. The way my schedule was looking and the fact that I have a mere three weeks between graduation and I-Day, my first day at the Naval Academy, made me request to stay home in June so I could see friends. While my parents were initially disappointed about this, they came up with a plan. So this Spring Break, my entire family got on a plane and flew down to Fort Meyers, Florida. From there we traveled by shuttle, bus, boat, and golf cart to arrive at our destination: North Captiva Island. For those of you who aren't familiar with Florida (myself included) Captive is just north of Sanibel Island, which is on the Gulf of Mexico. The island is completely cut off from the mainland, so there are no cars there. The main mode of transportation is golf cart. Our first day there was amazing. Not too hot but a lot warmer than our 30s back home. That night we watched one of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen. The next day it rained and was really windy, but it was still very nice to stay inside and just unwind. The rest of the week was spent walking the beaches, swimming, reading, eating, running, and seeing wildlife. The last day, Friday, we rented a boat and found a lagoon filled with manatees, hiked around a State Park, and went to Cabbage Key for lunch. Cabbage Key was a very popular resort/diner that served an estimated 600 people lunch every day. Their walls and ceilings are covered with one dollar bills with names written on them (which I believe is a Federal Offence...). Anyway, I really enjoyed my trip and going back is something I would definitely want to do later down the road. Here are some pictures from the trip!

The beginning of the trail through the nature reserve

Picture taken on the trail

Another trail picture

The "parking lot" for one of the beaches

Some trees next to our swimming pool. We spent many slow
hours basking in the sun and reading by the pool.

One of the Gulf side beaches after the rainstorm

After seeing many holes and wondering what animal made them, we finally
got a glimpse of the culprit!

Another local animal we saw a lot of

This one was following our boat

A picture of the seemingly endless beach

Lessons Learned Pushing Buttons

Last week, I heard the last buzzer of my high school basketball scorekeeper career. It came at the heels of a short, two year stint working for the Marshall School Athletic Department. During these years I learned many things about sports, friends, and life.

1: Basketball is a pretty fast paced game. If you don't pay attention for the whole game, you can easily miss calls or points. 

2: Pierce R is a great guy. As my coworker, we spent countless nights and endless hours together, and this strengthened our friendship. There are people in my class who I really want to keep in touch with after high school, and Pierce is definitely on that list.

3: My multitasking skills are much better now than before I started the job. Pierce and I got very good (too good, maybe?) at talking while working (or I should say snide remarks...) 

4: Getting flustered after a mistake does no one any good. I occasionally would mess up a score or foul count which usually resulted in a coach or assistant coach not-so-nicely telling me to change it. This seemed to always be while I was watching a referee to get a number for a foul. At first, I would struggle to not get flustered but would end up doing it anyway. After several instances of this, I realized that everything would go smoother if I just blocked out everything except what I was trying to do. This made fixing mistakes much easier and less embarrassing. 

5: This job was one of my first steady sources of income, and as such it was a learning opportunity. I had to learn how to save my money and deposit checks (which I now do all on my phone: very convenient.) This money also helped me afford gas, which is a necessity for one who lives 25 miles from school.

Reflecting on this job, I would do it all over again if I had the chance. Working a couple nights a week worked perfectly into my schedule, and it allowed me to watch all of my sister's home basketball games, which was really cool. Being the button pusher turned out to be an important part of my life during the late fall and early winter.

Land of Ice and Snow

The view across the lake on our way to the caves

Several weekends ago Erin P and I went on an adventure to the Ice Caves on Lake Superior. We left Duluth before noon and made the hour and a half drive to the Caves, 17 miles outside of Bayfield, WI. It was packed. We had to park on the road and it was about a mile walk to the first caves. The wind had a bit of a bite and the sun was hiding behind the clouds, but we were fine in our coats and snow pants. After a brisk three quarter mile walk across the lake, we arrived at the first of the caves. While they started small, we were soon exploring vast ice caverns. We took as many pictures as we could until our phones started dying from the cold.

This is the first year in five that the ice caves have been accessible. The combination of early winter and the unseasonably cold temperature made for thick ice and fantastic caves. We were far from the only ones there. In fact, I heard later that there were a couple thousand visitors that weekend. the farther we traveled along the coast, however, the smaller the crowds were. I was slightly sad when we had to turn around to trek back to the road because the caves seemed to go on forever and each one was more exciting than the last. Below are some of the pictures I took.

Some of the first ice formations we saw. At this point, there were no actual caves to be seen, but these formations were well worth the freezing hand required to take the picture.

While I wanted a clear view of the ice and the seemingly endless lake, I did not want to attempt to stop the flow of visitors across the shoreline.

Another great ice formation. This one was around eight feet tall.

The frozen branches in this picture caught my eye and seemed worthy of a picture.

In one small cave, I looked up and thought this view of the stalactites (and yes, I looked up the difference between "stalactite" and "stalagmite") would be blog worthy.

Still a cool picture, but a reminder of the thousands of visitors the caves have seen. Almost all of the ice in this picture had bee broken off.

This cave was a squeeze to get into, but well worth the efforts. The textured ice looked like something from another world.

The ice seemingly grows out of the rocks that create the shore. Going in the winter makes me want to come back in a kayak and explore them in the summer!

"Big things have small beginnings" (Lawrence of Arabia).  While this quotation originally probably wasn't referring to Ice Caves, it was certainly true in this case. From a small, probably two and a half foot hole, came a large cave filled with textured ice.

A second stalactite picture, this one was a little closer and turned out better, I think.