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

Namm Naa La

Hello! For those of you who we haven’t met, Assalaamalekum! Our names are Stephen and Jenny. We are both students from Boston University who were fortunate to be friends with Austin. This world seems so small sometimes, as we both happened to end up in Senegal. Stephen graduated in May and got a volunteer position in Thies, Senegal with an NGO called Tostan. Jenny is spending the fall semester of her senior year in Dakar, Senegal.

In our overlapping time thus far, we have been lucky enough to meet up a few times. It’s such a strange but wonderful feeling to see someone from home in such a foreign place! This past weekend, we set out to spend a day at one of the beaches here, La Virage. However, we ran into some trouble with the locals harassing us Toubabs (white people) and couldn’t decide what to do. Then we made a spontaneous decision to crash the pool at the hotel nearby…but of course, felt too guilty to actually follow through. We ended up asking if we could pay to swim in their pool, and 5000 cfa later (almost $10, a hefty charge in Senegal!) we were splashing in the pool in true American fashion. Between work and school, we haven’t had any time to truly relax and be amongst friends, and this was the perfect way to spend the day. Austin’s presence was truly felt, with his bracelet on Jenny’s wrist and Stephen’s red Orientation backpack poolside.

When two Wolof-speaking Senegalese people see each other for the first time in a long time, one will typically say to the other Namm naa la which is often translated as ‘I missed you’, but, ask any Senegalese person and they will tell you that its meaning is much deeper than that. It refers to nostalgia, in the strongest sense of the word, nostalgia for times enjoyed together in the past. The response, Maa la raw, or ‘I missed you even more’, is a testament to those good times. Our afternoon at the pool in the immense capital of Senegal not only allowed us to unwind a bit, helped us to reflect on many of these good times we shared together with Austin and our many friends back home in Boston.

Love, 

Jenny and Stephen 

I walnut stop...with the tree puns

alternative titles:
"Maple we should leaf the puns aside, and get to the root of this post..."
and "Willow you appreciate more ash-tonishing jokes? Oak then"


Bet you can't guess who came up with those titles? Anyways, as you can see in the post before this one (here), my sister recently married her high school sweetheart at a beautiful ceremony in Aurora, OR. The day was an unforgettable celebration for us all and I was lucky to have Sage and Cole with me to experience it. For months the three of us had been talking about getting tattoos together but we struggled to find a time when we could all be together in one place. Lucky for us, Allie and Jeremy's good friend, Joe, is an incredible tattoo artist at a shop in Portland called Artwork Rebels. He worked with us on designs and managed to squeeze us in the morning after the wedding before Cole had to be at the airport to head to Australia.

Brittany:
The tree that Joe designed for me came out exactly like I imagined. Like several other people, I drew inspiration from the song that we sang at the service.

"Take a breath and soon I bet you'll see

Without you I would never be me

You are the leaves of my family tree"

I had never felt as alone as I did in the days immediately following the accident in New Zealand. I was up at school in Washington when I heard and I wanted so badly to be down in HB with family and friends but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. As difficult as the day of the memorial was for all of us, singing that song surrounded by such an incredible group of friends was the first time I felt like things might actually be okay in time and it helped me to realize how strong we all were. This tree was my way of not only keeping Austin with me, but also all of the people who came together to form such an incredible family in the face of such a tragedy.

This tree, to me, represents life. Austin has always had such a positive impact on my life and he continues to with each adventure he inspires me to be a part of. When I think of Austin I want to remember the remarkable way he lived his own life and not its end. It is too easy for me to dwell sometimes on the unfairness of this situation but in those rare moments of clarity, I feel incredibly lucky for having ever been able to call him one of my best friends. 

It seems the scars on my side have healed a lot faster than the scars of losing Austin, but it helps to know that I am a part of this family tree that is not only full of leaves, but an overwhelming amount of love, support, and of course adventure.

Sage:

For years I watched people get tattoos and wondered if there would ever be anything that I wanted to have on my body for the rest of my life. Until May 12, 2012, there was nothing that even came close. A couple of days after we lost Austin someone mentioned tattoos. I knew right then and there that this was something I could live with forever. In fact, it started to feel like I couldn’t live without it. I didn’t know what exactly yet, but something that would remind me of Austin, the struggle of losing him, and the strength it’s going to take to keep moving forward.

Deciding to sing I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz at Austin’s service was one of the easiest decisions I've ever made. It was the very first song we listened to and we knew instantly that it was perfect because of the message to stay strong, stay positive, and move forward in every way we can.

 I was so struck by four words that come up repeatedly and are ultimately the last four words of the song: I’m still looking up. To me, these words said it all. In the midst of the worst thing that has ever happened to me, I somberly realized it would probably not be the last tragedy I would endure. I couldn’t fathom feeling any more pain than I had been feeling, but my strongest emotion was somehow still positivity (or at least some contorted form of it). I wanted to be okay. I wanted to keep moving forward with my life and adventuring and more than that, be better at everything. I wanted to make more of an effort to make each day count. I wanted to find a way to remember the happy times with Austin first and try to make the fact that he is gone a second thought.

I decided to put the words on my foot very simply because that is how I move. Whether I’m going backward or forward, it’s my feet doing the moving and now it’s usually my Austin foot propelling me forward.

The words from the second song we sang at the service "Without you I would never be me, you are the leaves of my family tree," were so perfect because we knew that no matter where our lives took us, we would be bound by this pain and this love forever. Undoubtedly, I would not be the same person I am today without the influences of Austin and the other members of my Family Tree. We have all lost one of the leaves ofour tree and while that is something that truly never goes away, it is something we can help each other cope with.

I'm in love with my tattoo and the way it has reminded me that I can do anything I set my mind to because I am strong and because I have the best support system in the world. <3

I am so proud to be a permanent, lifelong member of Team Austin.

Best.Team. EVER.

Cole:

I've been dragging my feet writing this for a little over a month now. Not because I had nothing to say, or time to write it, but because I'm selfish. When I had Joe etch my wonderful, beautiful, painful tree into my ribs, I knew that forever and always you would be right here with me, and that little piece of you, was mine, and only mine. I could talk to you whenever I wanted, I could show you courage whenever I wanted, I could be scared with you, I could laugh with you, and cry with you: but most of all, it was a constant reminder that you were with me. Anyone who shared the memories we did, the time, the laughs, the adventures, would know that I'd get along just fine without a "reminder" but every time I look down and see my tree, my Morm tree, I love that I have something tangible to touch and feel, something that I can never lose, break, wear out, tear, my tattoo will be with me as long as I'm around. So cheers to you my friend, I think you finally got what you wanted, at least 4 girls, now permanently have a tattoo of you on their body! I know you're getting a kick out of it : )

With lots of love for our amazing family,

Brittany, Sage, & Cole

Wedding Crasher

A little over a year ago, Austin took one for the team and offered to ride with my sister on her road trip back to college after winter break. Volunteering to ride in the car with my sister for 20 hours speaks volumes about Austin's character, but that's another story. On their way from sunny Southern California to gray and chilly Bellingham, they stopped in Portland to recoup over night at the apartment that I shared with my boyfriend Jeremy. Jeremy hadn't spent much time with Austin prior to that visit, but he still talks about how much fun we had that night. You can read Brittany's post on oyster shooters for the whole story (http://doitforaustin.blogspot.com/2012/06/mmmtasty-but-sandy.html), but we all shared a lot of laughter that night over oysters and video game sword fighting.

Fast forward a few months...Jeremy proposed, I said "yes", and the wedding planning began. Brittany was there helping me all along the way, the perfect Maid of Honor. Jeremy and I had told her from the start that, "Of course you can bring Cole as your date" and "Sage is part of our family, you know she's invited". At some point I realized that I had forgotten to tell Britt that Austin was welcome to come. I called her right away to tell her to make sure Austin knew he was invited and that's when Britt said, "He was planning to crash the wedding anyway, but now he doesn't need to bring a lawn chair!".

When I heard about the accident-- among many other emotions--I couldn't help but selfishly think about the loss I would feel at our wedding. I knew that if Austin, Britt, Cole, and Sage were all at the wedding they would be the life of the party and they would have a great time because they were together. On wedding day there were multiple moments when I would suddenly think of Austin and how much I wished he'd been there, but here's the proof that nothing could keep him away.

We miss you Austin and I hope you were watching us from your lawn chair.

- Allison

Bridal Veil Falls- Not your everyday hike!

Well, I've been looking for something spontaneous and epic enough to post and during my entire stay in Utah i think this one by far takes the cake. Truly an Austin epic experience. Last friday I caught a break from work and i came home to my roommates packing up to hike bridal veil falls and camp at the old abandoned restaurant at the top of the mountain. I looked out the window, saw the clouds looked back at the roommates and they said "we'll be fine" i shrugged my shoulders and then said "why not", packed up my things in 20 min and we were on our way.

15 Minutes up the provo canyon and we were already at the base of the mountain. Its weird to think that I live 15 minutes from what id soon find out to be one of the sketchiest hikes of my life. From the very start in my head i thought it would have been a hike Austin would enjoy a lot. The hike itself was only about 5 miles, but it was 5 miles of straight up hill switchbacks filled with rick climbing up waterfalls hanging on to ropes and wire left from the few previous hikers that have actually hiked bridal veil. 3/4 of the way through the hike we came to a point where we needed to scale a 10 ft rock wall with a 30 lb pack on my back to get to the rope to pull myself up and scale another 35ft straight up to continue on the trail, so gnarly. Right when i though that i had just climbed the sketchiest point of the hike we'd get up another switchback and then there would be another point of the hike where id have to scale something suspended over 700 ft in there air. 

But i know without a shadow of a doubt Austin was there right behind me giving me that little extra push placing my feet and hands on the mountain where they needed to be so that id be able to summit the mountain. Unfortunately all the parts I mentioned i was unable to document due to the sketchiness of the hike i didn't have an extra hand to take a picture haha. We finally get to the end stretch which was a steel cable leading about 100 yards up the mountain at an 68 degree incline, everyone started to put on there repelling gloves but the girl in front of me decided not to so i thought to myself if she will be ok then i should be as well....big mistake. the wire was frayed in numerous places and its not something i could just let go of without rolling down the hill. After we finally get up that incline its about a quarter mile hike and the trail was 3 feet wide with mountain on one side and a sheer drop on the other side, and this was the mellow part of the hike. The destination we hiked to was an old restaurant that burned down and there was just the warped metal scaffolding left and a slab of concrete.

We all hung out hammocks we were going to sleep in crawled into them and tried to sleep because by the time we had got up there the sun had just set. I didnt get more than 30 min of sleep when I heard the first clash of thunder that woke me up. I looked over to my roommates Nolan and David and they both woke up too the lighting was a few miles away so we didnt worry too much that we were 1000 ft up on a mountain surrounded by metal at this point. So we all tried to sleep again while the rain drizzled down. The next time I woke up I was startled by thunder and lightening and this time the rain was POURING! We counted the time between the lighting flash and the sound of thunder to determine how far away it was actually striking, after a few minutes of trying to figure out if we needed to move or not we got down to about half a second in between lighting and the thunder clap well all unanimously hurried to a cave we spotted before setting camp to be sheltered from the rain and hopefully not have to worry about getting struck by lightening surrounded by metal haha. 

So that night in total all of us prob averaged about 1-2 hours of sleep at most. The next morning we woke up to beautiful sunrise over the mountains with partial cloud cover.....Then it started to rain again. So we decided we needed to go now or never because the storm was only about to get worse. We then hiked down what I thought was gnarly before, but now that everything was wet it was even 10 times harder. 

We got to to our first repel and i was soooo pysched there was a beautiful waterfall to the left and 

So we got to repel 200ft down it. It was such an incredible experience something id like to share with you all. I can picture me explaining this to Austin in much greater detail telling him how sketchy and how crazy fun the hike was and i cant imagine his response would be any different than "lets do it". I love you buddy miss you tons and ill keep on going on adventures and trips and anytime i have any doubt that ill be able to do it or if im being lazy or get pysched out ill always think to myself, Austin would go.

 Love Jeff 

African Adventures!

This is an adventure that was not only eye opening and life changing, but exciting. Almost everyday I journaled about the experiences I was having, the people I was meeting, and the stories I was hearing, and everyday I thought about Austin. I journaled as if I was telling a story to someone and that someone was him. In fact, I know he would be so excited to read it all cause one of the last things we talked about was this trip. He was so happy for me and thankfully this trip was everything I hoped and he assured me it would be.

Rogers, one of the adorable kids at the orphanage

Although don’t be fooled going to Africa is not the easiest of adventures. It took 3,000$, 10 shots, 48 hours of travel (round trip), possible permanent neck damage due to the severely bumpy dirt roads, and a lot of bug spray! But it was completely worth it. Most my days there consisted of working at a children’s home and spending time with lots of kids. I, along with the team I went with, also spoke at a few churches and lead bible studies. For the most part the work was exciting stuff! One day we fixed the playground equipment for the kids, we added a zip line and some swings and just played with them. Other days the work was gardening, helping plant dozens of passion fruit trees or grafting different types of fruit together. But we also spent quite a few days just doing simple stuff like painting dorm rooms for the kids coming home from high school, or fixing the rain gutters. It wasn’t anything too adventurous, but no matter what we did we always talked to people. In Kenya, the people take great pride in community. They look after one another, care for each other, and they listen.  I care for a lot of people in my life, but sometimes in America it’s all just going to fast.

the kids loved my Austin bracelet :)

This country prides itself on productivity and getting there first. Kenya is a little slower. I had meals where we sat and talked for three hours and the other person never once checked their phone or Facebook (yes they do have those). They were genuinely interested to hear your story and your thoughts and I loved it. I think that would have been Austin’s favorite part, to hear people’s stories. Some of the stories I heard were crazy! I met a guy who killed a leopard, got cut by a poisoned arrow and had his leg nearly chopped off with a machete! Talk about epic! I met an Olympic runner who just ran in the marathon in London and took bronze for Kenya! And I talked to kids whose parents died and left them, or were alcoholics and didn’t care about them, but they were smiling and thankful for all they have (two pairs of clothes and one pair of shoes). These people are amazing, their stories are unbelievable, and their hearts are full of love. And the story I got to share was epic because Austin was apart of it. And just how Austin taught me and is teaching me to value relationships and time, so did the Kenyans. A productive day to them is being with people you love and getting to know new people to love.

Lions lunch instead of me

Masi Warriors!!! And my Austin shirt of course!

I got to experience working hard in Kenya, but I also go to play hard. The last three days I was there we went on a safari in the Masi Mara and let me tell you lion king is a great portrayal, but definitely nothing compared to the real thing. I think I saw literally a million zebra, a pride of lions (mating and hunting included), a baby cheetah and a baby lion, and even a giraffe! But the sounds of safari are probably my favorite. Hearing a lion roar twenty feet from your face gives you goose bumps, and I couldn’t help laugh every time I heard a hippo (which lived in the river literally right outside my luxury tent) give a “satisfied grunt” as our tour guide called it. I tried to squeeze in a few outrageous activities like chasing after a pack of zebra on 

foot, and standing on the roof of the safari vehicle for a picture without the driver knowing…. then he started to drive and I literally almost fell off and became lion’s lunch. I even met some Masi warriors who live there year round, have killed lions with their bare hands, and look fabulous doing it. (They were these shukas, which are like big colorful sheets and have lots of beaded jewelry) All together it was an experience I will never forget and one I couldn’t wait to share with Austin. But I could feel him there then and everyday now teaching me new things and reminding me of the things I sometimes forget.  <3 Chelsea