A visit to HB

Over winter break I decided to make my first (and definitely not last!) visit to Huntington Beach, CA! I had met the Brashears before but other than them, I had never met the people I was flying across the country to hang out with for a week.

This story begins with the longest it has ever taken me to get through airport security. Maybe next time I’ll listen to the suggestion to be there 2 hours prior to departure time. Oops. But it was all good because I was in my seat with minutes to spare before take-off.

When I landed in LAX, Brittany and Sage picked me up from the airport and of course we had to go eat. They took me to TK for a burger, crossing the first place off of the to-do list of places I had to eat at. After spending the afternoon at the Brashears Sage, Brittany and Cole took me to Ruby’s on the pier for dinner. Other places on the list were Taqueria, In-N-Out, and Harbor House. Yum! And of course I had to take a “first time at In-N-Out pic” when we finally ate there.

While on the topic of eating, Julie cooked us some great dinners and of course we devoured her famous bread and jam! And yes, I did do things other than eat while in Huntington.

We had a game night at the Brashears, where everyone was defeated by Tom at Fruit Ninja. We also played Scattergories, Catch Phrase, and the game where you put a famous person’s name on your forehead and you have to figure out who you are. There was lots of good natured arguing because it’s a particularly competitive group of people.

I spent the nights in Sage’s top bunk, sometimes sleeping but mostly talking about anything and everything. So many life-chats.

One of the days Mariah joined me for a dip in the ocean even though it was 52 degrees. I could pass up a swim in the Pacific Ocean! We had a lovely photo shoot with Brittany’s underwater camera. That night we returned to the beach for the sunset, which was beautiful and Catalina
was exceptionally clear that evening.

Going to Knott’s Berry Farm with Nicole, Sage, Mariah and Chelsea is another highlight of the trip. I definitely to freaked out about Xcelerator and Supreme Scream to everyone else’s amusement. Then I pulled myself together for the rest of the rides. Ghost Rider, the classic wooden roller coaster, was the best and last ride of the day! That was such a fun day of rides and plenty of time for story telling while waiting in line.

And, I spent the last day of my trip at Disney! A magical way to end an amazing trip. Found out just a couple days before that Anne, who was in NZ with me, and Andy, a kiwi visiting from NZ, were also planning to spend the day in Disney. It was really great to see them too and crazy that our plans worked out to meet up.

I felt so at home with a group of people I had just met. I love you all! I cannot thank you enough for how welcoming you were! Such an amazingly loving group of people!

Hey Austin, thanks for helping me meet such amazing folks and make a bunch of new friends!

Love Always,
Julia

Adventures

Hi!
Just wanted to say that this Do It for the Story IS THE GREATEST IDEA EVER. My name is Mia, I am Tori Pinheiro's little sis and had much great fun with Austin. You might like to hear that this Do It for the Story inspired a friend of mine to start a similar concept for another adventurer at UVM that passed last year. I'm sure Austin would love to know that he's still inspiring people all over in big BIG ways. I included my adventure too:

There it was, the grand finale of summer. Packing my parents van with a mixed knot of emotions tangling in my stomach, shutting the door and waving my see-you-later’s to the ocean, I was off on my most grand adventure to date: leading a group of UVM freshies forty some-odd miles kayaking down Lake Champlain for orientation!

We went through training week, getting paddling lesson from kayakers who had circumnavigated Japan, learning how to cross a white water river by foot and spending quality time camping with the fifty other leaders who were going to take out all sorts of trips! I was ecstatic when the freshman we had been preparing for began to arrive for the excursion. Me and my co-leader Liza named our group the “Alluring Vibrant Islanders”, and had ten fresh man to bring on this grand kayaking escapade down Champlain, to arrive in style to UVM, by kayak. Our kayaking guide was ben, he is a super experienced guide and actually has a peg leg. We were dropped off on the Northside of the lake, with all our food/gear/clothes/tents packed into our kayaks. Packing was tight and we were only supposed to pack two non-cotton shirts, but I successfully smuggled in my TEAM AUSTIN tank and wore it often. 

We paddled about 45 miles over the whole week and stayed at a different island pretty much every night! We snuck in a sunrise paddle to one of the islands and on the last night we had to do a paddle from New York to Vermont under the stars due to implement weather conditions predicted for the next day. It was epic! (and a bit scary) Friends were born, miles were paddled and stories were told, you can bet I told Austin’s. Who is Austin, my friend asked me. Austin was an adventurer, and he is coming with me. Austin lead orientation for Boston University and I can only begin to imagine how STOKED the freshman at BU must have been after having all that spunk show em’ the ropes. I think he gave me a bit of his spicy spunk to share with my own adventuring freshies, so thanks austi-pasti, we had a rockin’ good time (:

Happy adventuring, Mia
Peace Love and Adventures