Where Have I Been for Five Days?

So, I have been pretty busy (in a fun way!) since Wednesday, and I thought I would give a little update about that.

On Thursday evening, I had the privilege of seeing one of my favorite bands for the second time: OK Go! The show was amazing. They are very charismatic performers and really enjoy getting personally involved with the audience. The show featured a few sessions of Q&A with audience members, Damien making his way into the crowd to play a few songs, Tim crowd surfing (by request), recording the audience making drum sounds and using them as the background track for a song, and inviting people up on stage to dance to the final song (which I got to do!!). Oh and Damien and Tim performed a scene from Les Miserables while Andy had some instrument trouble. All in all, a great show.

Then, this weekend, Allen (the boyfriend) and I went on a canoeing/backpacking trip at Raven Rock State Park in North Carolina. We started early Saturday morning. We rented a canoe from Cape Fear Adventures, and they drove us 15 miles up the Cape Fear River to start our trip. We threw our packs in the canoe and set off!

The river was very shallow, only about 1.5 feet deep on average, so we did end up getting stuck on rocks every so often. There were also some Class I and II rapids, which are a lot less intimidating than they sound. Here is one of them:

We went 9 miles downstream the first day, ending up inside the State Park, where we had reserved a campsite for Saturday night.

Upon arrival, we took a quick nap to refresh, then set off to hike around. We went about a mile and a half out an back, stopping at Raven Rock

and at an outlook, where we got a great view of the "Fish Traps", some rapids that we had gone over earlier that day. You can see the tiny kayaks and canoes travelling along the river.

That evening, we cooked up a nice dinner of spaghetti, tomatoes, chicken, and cheese on the camp stove.

Then, we went on a short paddle on the river to look at the sunset.

We finished off the day with a sad attempt at a fire. All of the wood was damp, and we only brought one starter log that burned for awhile and went out. We did get some marshmallows cooked on it though. 

The next day, we hiked all the way out to the Fish Traps (~2.25 miles there and back) and waded around in the water for awhile.

On our way back to the campsite, we nearly stepped on a small copperhead snake! It was lying right on the path and I spotted it and pushed Allen to safety while I ran away. We waited around until it made it's way off the trail. Luckily, I was being very paranoid about snakes, otherwise we could have had a nasty end to our trip.

Back at the campsite, we packed up and headed off to do the last 6 miles of the canoe trip. Everything was so quiet and calm, and we only saw a few other people out on the river. It was really hot and sunny (~80 F) so we tried to stick to the bank to stay in the shade of the trees. We did stop about halfway on a few rocks in the middle of the river for an afternoon snack.

We made it back to the canoe rental place around 4 pm on Sunday, and that was the end of our trip! It's been a great few days of fun, but now it's back to working hard for awhile until we catch other break. But, it's also back to the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge, where I am picking up on Day #25 - Inspired by Fashion.