Giving thanks in Ellensburg, WA

Hi friends! I wanted to share some pictures from my Thanksgiving. It was an exceptional holiday; one that brought me to myself, capping off one of the most lovely, blessed years of my life. I am holding tight to the final days of 2011. It has brought me so much! I am profoundly grateful to the universe for providing the energy and love that I have found to give to it. 

I took a trip to Washington to visit my Uncle Jan, his wife Dorine and their two daughters. I was lucky enough to to join them for four days at the home of their friends in Ellensburg, two hours east of Seattle. Dan, Sue and their son Logan are some of the most generous, creative, inspired people I've ever met. They have a warm, unique home and gardens galore (which we ate from, thanks to Sue's expertise in preservation... jars of fruit, jams, salsa, kimchee, pickled green beans, not to mention an impressive stock pile of root vegetables). We hiked every day, cooked together, ate like kings, and generally enjoyed the company of one another as well as the abundance around us. The trip was, in every sense, a breath of fresh air.

The experience contributed to some changes that have been happening in me, and here is how I know. Shortly after I got back to southern California, the moving truck with all my worldly goods FINALLY arrived from Boston. (For those of you who didn't know... I moved into my own apartment about 6 weeks ago, but I have been sleeping on an air mattress in an empty room on account of a broken-down moving truck). Joy. I'm grateful to see my furniture, my reading lamp and my photos. But when I started opening my many boxes, I was struck by this feeling... as though they had been packed by someone entirely other than me. 

Lets just say you know you've changed when you take half the stuff that you painstakingly wrapped, packed and moved across the country, and toss or donate it. I'm looking at many of my clothes going "where did you ever wear this? Why did you even BUY this?". Much of my stuff was just excessive, unnecessary or representative of a past life that I no longer inhabit. A life that I may have once wished I could return to, but am now able to let go. 

It's a beautiful thing. I believe the experience I had with my new friends and family in Ellensburg helped to "set" the transformation I have been creating in myself this year; made it more clear to me, and permanent. It was like looking under a table and finding the final piece of a puzzle you almost forgot you were working on. 

So thank you very much to Harris family for inviting me to spend the weekend. To the Hart-Davis family, thank you for unknowingly participating in my liberation and furthermore, for being inspirational, interesting, warm and welcoming people. Everyone else, please take a look to see the beauty this family both enjoys and enhances in their corner of the world.

If you want to see ALL the pictures from my trip, you can do that here.

Sunrise hike

Same view, minutes later as the day brightened

Hubbard squash- grown by Sue and Logan

Our hosts, Sue and Dan and their son Logan, have 2 dogs, a cat, and 3 chickens.

Sue's decorations- simple pressed maple leaves

Sue and Logan made 3 Hubbard "pumpkin" pies out of 1/2 of one of their amazing squashes. They were delicious.

The Chickens

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table

My plate: everything made with love and much of it grown in the backyard

Hubbard "pumpkin" pie

Found this beauty on a walk...

Charades! Laughter is so good for the soul, isn't it?

Driving to Swinging Bridge for another hike

Haven in the Sun

California Love

Hi friends, 

I can't believe I've only been in California for a month. It feels like a lot longer than that- in a good way. With a lot of help from my friends and family, I am settling in. Work life is coming along pretty well, I have a few personal training clients and a new job as an ATC at a pain management clinic. I'm living in Redondo Beach, currently at a borrowed place (1 block from the beach) and will be moving into my own apartment (2 blocks from the beach) on November 1st. But most importantly, I'm growing as a person with every new experience, and there have been a LOT of new experiences in just 30 days since I got here. To use a tired cliche... I'm finding myself. So I thought I'd just post a few pictures, to share some of my newness with my loved ones, and to let you all know that I'm happy, and healthy, and doing pretty well for myself as a California girl. Hope you like them :)

Redondo Beach. Here is what I have been doing most evenings... Taking a book down to the beach to watch the sunset

Redondo Beach, looking south toward Torrence. Living here is kind of like living in Winthrop, or South Boston- beautiful location for a lot less money than living right in the city.

Late afternoon in Redondo

Beverly Hills, from the roof of a hotel where my friend David stayed when he came to visit

Kira, my friend from college, and her boyfriend Marcus, being cute at a local food festival. They live in Venice Beach, about 25 minutes north of me.

David, visiting LA along with the full moon

Meeting my second cousin, Nola. 

View from the steps of my borrowed pad- being a block from the beach certainly makes the transition feel easier. Thanks to Aunt Nix.

Sunset from my parking spot

Direct from Boston

Redondo Beach on a weekday... private and lovely

And here I thought making way for ducklings was a Beantown thing

I am now a USC fan. Go Trojans.

Gretchen's friend got us into a secret Black Keys show- and I fell deeply in love with this town

The paparazzi hounding Charlize Theron after the show. I was having a "new to LA" moment, photographing the photographers...

View from the roof deck of David's hotel in Beverly Hills

One final note, in case anyone has any lingering doubts about my living in California...they sell alcohol at Target here. And it goes on sale. For a bargain hunter and a beverage lover... this is the ultimate.

So there you have it. My new world in pictures...  The only thing missing is all your faces. Get here and explore with me :) I am accepting visitors starting immediately. 


Lots of love to all
xo
Cory

Athletic Training

Hi guys!

I know it's been a long time since I posted, and I promise that soon I'll update with everything that has been going on in California! Rest assured, I absolutely love it here. I've just been working hard at finding a job and getting settled. I've gotten a lot done and I promise as soon as I know 100% whats going on, I'll update.

In the meantime, here is a really amazing video that I discovered, which does a great job of explaining what Athletic Training is. I know I've spent a lot of time with my family explaining the nuances of Athletic Training vs Personal Training, Physical Therapy, etc, but this pretty much sums it up.

We really need a new title because I don't think Athletic Trainer does justice to the role we serve. Please watch the video and I think you'll understand a lot better why I'm passionate about the profession!

xoxoxoxo
Cory

Phase 1- complete!

Well, we made it- I am writing from the airport in Las Vegas. Kelsey is about to be on her way back to Boston. This morning we left the Grand Canyon and made our way over to the City of Sin. I'm heartbroken to see her go, but Kels has to get back for her first day of school on Friday! Good luck little friend :)

Our first view of the Grand Canyon, Desert View end of the park

The past week here in the southwest has really been everything we could have hoped for. And as far as grand finales go, the Grand Canyon was pretty spectacular. When we arrived on Sunday in the early evening, we got our first view of the canyon as we drove the 55 miles through the park on the beautiful Rt. 64. We had reserved a campsite at a park in the little southern base-camp town of Tusayan, about a mile from the Grand Canyon central village. Our tent site was beautiful, with lots of space and shade, and our new tent has been very comfy. We found a nice rhythm in our camping life and really had a great time.

View from inside our tent of sunset at our campsite at the GC

Me sleeping like a mummy in the tent... apparently I get colder at night than some people

Monday morning bright and early we made our way up to the park. We decided to walk along the south rim toward Hermit’s Rest, a viewpoint 11 miles to the west of the visitor center. It was a looong walk in the heat of the day, but no problem. We are rock stars. 

View from our South Rim walk

Clouds changing the landscape of the South Rim

However, it seemed like trying to walk all the way back another 11 miles was pushing it, so instead we just grabbed a convenient shuttle back to visitor center. Okay, we took the shuttle directly to the nearest bar. And enjoyed drinks. Yum. Then we came back to our little tent, made dinner (and possibly more drinks), and enjoyed the beautiful desert evening. 

Arizona Sunrise is the world's most perfect recovery drink

More local beer

Campsite necessities- cheap and cheaper rum

Tuesday, we took the morning to ourselves for writing and reading and waiting out the midday sun before we took off for the park, which turned out to be a very good decision (10 points to each of our houses). We chose the South Kaibab trail for our last hike... It goes down into the canyon on a pretty steep grade all the way to the Colorado River, but that is wicked fah, so we just did a 3-hour portion of it. Our timing was absolutely perfect- we left at about 4:30pm, hiked in/down for about an hour and a half in the lowering light, and eventually got a great view over the river. Then we turned around to head back up, just as the sun was getting ready to make it’s departure below the top of the towering canyon walls. For the next 90 minutes, as we struggled to climb up and out, we were treated to an amazing light show. We were, essentially, chasing the sun- it was getting lower but we were getting higher, so we saw it set about 3 times but were able to keep getting above it again. The colors, of the sun on the canyons and the sky, were absolutely unreal. It was a good moment when we finally reached the top. SATISFACTION. 

Descent, in the late afternoon sunshine

View of the Colorado from about 2 miles down into the canyon

Ever-changing light

We hiked down to the base of this pyramid-thingy, and then around the front of it and below it

Sun setting behind the walls on the way back up

Gone

Back again as we got above it :) you can see the path we came from below on the left

And then we made our way sleepily back to our tent for our last night...This morning we woke up and just began to make our way over to Vegas! We both saw the strip for the first time... unremarkable. No photos from Vegas. 

I am certainly sad about having to see my friend off! My last connection to my east-coast life… I’m eternally grateful to have had her with me. She is my transitional queen, and has been nothing but helpful and supportive along the way. I'm very proud of her- of both of us- for the things we’ve accomplished over the past 14 days! We have driven more than 4,000 miles through 11 states. We have been to 7 national parks, and hiked who knows how many miles/vertical feet- enough to make us tired and sore here at the end. Kelsey learned how to drive a stick shift, on the road, and is now practically an expert. I finally read the first Harry Potter book start-to-finish-- and now everyone can get off my back about it, because I liked it and I’ll be picking up the second book ASAP. 

We haven’t spent one single night in a hotel. We’ve made all our own meals, figured out how to make our tent a home, and you know what? It stuck. I’m already attached to this strange version of home, and I’m sincerely going to miss life on the road. For me, it has been very satisfying to be so self-sufficient and… free.

As for what comes next? Well since I realized I enjoy the road so much, I decided to extend the trip a little bit. I was meant to head straight to LA from Vegas, to attend to my to-do list [ 1) establish myself  2) secure employment]. But Gretchen (love of my life) and I made some last minute plans for something much more fun- DMB Caravan at the Gorge. Duh. I'm sure no one is too surprised about that, even if LA is only 250 miles away, and even if Washington is about 1,000 miles in the wrong direction. So between tomorrow night and Friday morning, I’ll be making my way all the way back to the top of the country; through Nevada, picking up Gretch in Boise, Idaho on Thursday night, then cutting through Oregon to good old George, Washington, for a long weekend of music and fun. Then, she’ll take on the role of copilot for the trip back to LA. (As if I was gonna get a job over labor-day weekend, right?)

I’ll keep updating this blog as long as it makes sense for me to do so- definitely next week with some stories from the Gorge, and perhaps with some tales of my first few weeks in my new city.

Thank you all so much for encouraging me to write, and for supporting me in this trip. It was a long-time dream of mine to drive across the country and start over somewhere new, and now that it’s actually happening I feel as though I have to cling to nearly every moment- they really slip by so quickly. So, I’m very glad I committed to keeping this account of our travels, and it’s a bonus that my family got to enjoy reading it. With all this fabulous technology keeping us connected, I don’t feel so very far away from the people I love.

Until next time…

Xo

Cory