marley raedeen
nail jar
(i apologize in advance for the half assed writing. my mind has been all over the place lately. nevertheless, hope you enjoy hearing about my latest adventuremission!)
my mom and i have always loved to travel and have been on many an adventure together but the past few years have been filled with countless family medical emergencies, she's been working and i've also been working almost full time and being in school full time so we haven't been able to do much. but last weekend we decided to make a spontaneous trip up to the thousand islands in ny (about a 4 hr drive from our house in northeast pa) in our new minivan. one of my friends was supposed to go with us but canceled at the last minute so on friday at around 11 we hopped in the van and headed off to start our adventure mission. it ended up taking us about 6 hours to get there because of all the scenic detours we took so by the time we got to the town we were staying in we were ready for our evening coffee. we dumped our things off at the cheap motel we rented (we had the funds available and decided to go for the luxury of having a shower and actual beds/privacy instead of sleeping in our van because we left so last minute and didn't have time to rig things up in the van so it would be comfy or private) and headed to the local coffee shop to grab some coffee. my barista (who i'm pretty sure was also the owner of the cafe) was super sweet and chatted with me for a few minutes about all the things there were to do around the thousand islands. then mom and i walked over to the water (st. lawrence river) and found some chairs to sit in and watch boats and other tourists.
after le coffee/people watching mission was complete we drove over to alexandria bay to check out what was going on over there. it was hella touristy and packed w people. seemed pretty unsafe w covid so we didn't even get out of the van and just drove to the big m market (grocery store) to pick up hummus, salsa, chips and chocolate oat milk which we proceeded to scarf down in the parking lot while making fun of a border patrol officer who parked directly in front of us (holy shiiiiittttt there were so many cops and border patrol officers up there ://). by the time we were done the sun was beginning to set so we decided to drive about 20 minutes away to a tiny little town where we could watch the sunset. after that we were pretty tired so we headed back to our motel to get showers and try to sleep.
we slept like lil babies until our upstairs neighbors started clunking around and banging pots and pans (literally. i think they were doing dishes?? but certainly making no attempt to be quiet about it and slamming things around) at 5 am. slightly pissed and sleep deprived, we rolled out of bed, got dressed, and headed back to town for morning coffee. this time, we found another nice spot right by the water and got to watch the strangest looking pomeranian we'd ever seen romp around in the grass. after coffee we drove about an hour north to potsdam, ny and explored some nature spots up there before heading to a vegan place to get lunch.
after we finished our food i left to join a blm march that had just passed us on the street while mom did some online work.
later, we drove to ogdensburg, ny and found a beach to hang out on for a while. mom took a nap while i worked on mending some clothes before going on another hummus run.
on our third and final day in ny we got up early again (thanks to our noisy neighbors), packed our things up into the van, grabbed coffee and started driving south along the coast, exploring back roads and small towns and occasionally getting out of the vehicle to get a closer look at interesting nature sights or to take some pictures.
we ended up finding an abandoned farm right on the water of chaumont bay and spend about an hour and a half looking around. mom enjoyed watching the water and basking in the sunlight while i snooped around in the barn. found a cute little raccoon skull in some grass outside of the main building and brought it home to add to my collection. i
love animal bones and like to call the babies i find my "pets." maybe a little morbid but it's my thing n it makes me happy so who the hell cares.
we ended up in a town where my mom's close friend's mom lives (who we'd stayed with for about a week a few years ago) so we looked her address up and tried to drop in to say a quick hello but no one was home. by that time it was getting late and we were both pretty tired and had commitments back home in the morning so we got on the interstate and started driving back in the direction of our house. we grabbed some food in syracuse and ended up having to take a random exit into a sketchy factory town because i found an inchworm crawling on my arm and needed to set him free in nature so he didn't die in the vehicle.
a few hours later we were back home in nepa and have been here ever since but both definitely hope to travel together again before the summer is over (maybe with a new and improved van that is sleepable this time)!
my mom and i have always loved to travel and have been on many an adventure together but the past few years have been filled with countless family medical emergencies, she's been working and i've also been working almost full time and being in school full time so we haven't been able to do much. but last weekend we decided to make a spontaneous trip up to the thousand islands in ny (about a 4 hr drive from our house in northeast pa) in our new minivan. one of my friends was supposed to go with us but canceled at the last minute so on friday at around 11 we hopped in the van and headed off to start our adventure mission. it ended up taking us about 6 hours to get there because of all the scenic detours we took so by the time we got to the town we were staying in we were ready for our evening coffee. we dumped our things off at the cheap motel we rented (we had the funds available and decided to go for the luxury of having a shower and actual beds/privacy instead of sleeping in our van because we left so last minute and didn't have time to rig things up in the van so it would be comfy or private) and headed to the local coffee shop to grab some coffee. my barista (who i'm pretty sure was also the owner of the cafe) was super sweet and chatted with me for a few minutes about all the things there were to do around the thousand islands. then mom and i walked over to the water (st. lawrence river) and found some chairs to sit in and watch boats and other tourists.
after le coffee/people watching mission was complete we drove over to alexandria bay to check out what was going on over there. it was hella touristy and packed w people. seemed pretty unsafe w covid so we didn't even get out of the van and just drove to the big m market (grocery store) to pick up hummus, salsa, chips and chocolate oat milk which we proceeded to scarf down in the parking lot while making fun of a border patrol officer who parked directly in front of us (holy shiiiiittttt there were so many cops and border patrol officers up there ://). by the time we were done the sun was beginning to set so we decided to drive about 20 minutes away to a tiny little town where we could watch the sunset. after that we were pretty tired so we headed back to our motel to get showers and try to sleep.
we slept like lil babies until our upstairs neighbors started clunking around and banging pots and pans (literally. i think they were doing dishes?? but certainly making no attempt to be quiet about it and slamming things around) at 5 am. slightly pissed and sleep deprived, we rolled out of bed, got dressed, and headed back to town for morning coffee. this time, we found another nice spot right by the water and got to watch the strangest looking pomeranian we'd ever seen romp around in the grass. after coffee we drove about an hour north to potsdam, ny and explored some nature spots up there before heading to a vegan place to get lunch.
after we finished our food i left to join a blm march that had just passed us on the street while mom did some online work.
later, we drove to ogdensburg, ny and found a beach to hang out on for a while. mom took a nap while i worked on mending some clothes before going on another hummus run.
on our third and final day in ny we got up early again (thanks to our noisy neighbors), packed our things up into the van, grabbed coffee and started driving south along the coast, exploring back roads and small towns and occasionally getting out of the vehicle to get a closer look at interesting nature sights or to take some pictures.
we ended up finding an abandoned farm right on the water of chaumont bay and spend about an hour and a half looking around. mom enjoyed watching the water and basking in the sunlight while i snooped around in the barn. found a cute little raccoon skull in some grass outside of the main building and brought it home to add to my collection. i
love animal bones and like to call the babies i find my "pets." maybe a little morbid but it's my thing n it makes me happy so who the hell cares.
we ended up in a town where my mom's close friend's mom lives (who we'd stayed with for about a week a few years ago) so we looked her address up and tried to drop in to say a quick hello but no one was home. by that time it was getting late and we were both pretty tired and had commitments back home in the morning so we got on the interstate and started driving back in the direction of our house. we grabbed some food in syracuse and ended up having to take a random exit into a sketchy factory town because i found an inchworm crawling on my arm and needed to set him free in nature so he didn't die in the vehicle.
a few hours later we were back home in nepa and have been here ever since but both definitely hope to travel together again before the summer is over (maybe with a new and improved van that is sleepable this time)!
