The Point, President's Day

I know I'm just a little late uploading this one, since President's Day was last weekend, but better late than never, right?
...Anyways, usually my county gives us President's Day off. But on account of Snow-mageddon blasting through the east coast (we've only had 7 full days of school in 2014 so far), they decided to take away our beloved 3-day weekend. Then again, we had Thursday and Friday off for snow that week, so technically they just changed our 5-day weekend down to a 4-day. Such a shame.
The thing is that we'd already made plans. We were going to have a family reunion down in North Carolina, and couldn't just cancel it. Therefore I got to miss school Monday regardless, and had a lovely 6-day weekend.

Friday afternoon we picked up my cousin and began our 4-hour drive to Emerald Isle. Usually I can't stand car rides, but for some reason this one wasn't so bad! The sun had finally come out after 2+ weeks of straight clouds, making everyone just a little giddy.

Friday also happened to be Valentine's Day. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be able celebrate much. Usually my mom, sister, and I load up on chocolate, decorate the house with hearts-do something to bring some color to this god-awful winter. But after stopping at Bojangles for a quick snack, we were all incredibly excited to unwrap our food and see this:

In honor of Valentine's Day, Bojangles made these deliciously heart-shaped biscuits! They were delicious, too! After arriving in Emerald Isle we were all a little tired from all that driving (I'm not sure why sitting in a car all day makes you so groggy), so we were treated to some delicious spaghetti before heading to bed.

The next day, some storms hit the island pretty early in the morning, but luckily we were all so tired that we slept straight through them. Something about laying in bed listening to thunder rumbling, waves crashing, and rain hitting the window screens makes you never want to get up! Eventually the rain cleared, and we decided to take a walk just as the last of the rain clouds passed overhead. As we were walking down the beach a small break in the clouds formed, and all of a sudden our little section of sand was illuminated in blinding sunlight, all while surrounded by dark storms. It was surreal-something about it was so mystical that I felt like we were on another planet entirely! I raced back to the cottage to get the camera, but by the time I came back the clouds has closed again. I did manage snap this picture a little later though:

Pretty cool, huh? 

We spent the rest of the morning lounging around watching Netflix and eating mega-stuffed Oreos, until we decided to take a trip down to the Point. The Point is at the northernmost tip of the island, where the beach rounds off at a little...point (hence the name;)). The entrance is nothing special....

But once you get over the hill you're in for an incredible sight 

Nothing but sand for miles-no houses, no people, and the wind was blowing steadily towards the sea. It was amazing, as always!

After a little wandering around, we decided to head back and get ready for dinner at one of the greatest restaurants I've ever been to- Tsunami's. I hope I can go back soon and dedicate an entire post to it, it's that good! Tsunami's is an all-you-can-eat Asian buffet. It's sketchy, it's run-down, the food is questionable, but man oh man is it heavenly. It's essentially a massive room filled with buffet tables piled high with every Chinese or Japanese food you can dream of. They have at least 10 different varieties of sushi, 15 varieties of chicken, there's egg rolls, dumplings, sashimi, and everything in between. They also have a massive salad bar and stir-fry station, where you pile your plate high and hand it to a hibachi chef behind the counter, where they cook it right in front of you! And to top it off, it's only $10 a person! If you're looking for high-end, fine dining from world-renowned chefs, don't go here. But if you want a all new experience of two-star buffet with 5-star food, take a risk and go for it! I haven't gotten food poisoning yet...;)

Everyone loaded up-and by that, I mean someone getting 4 plates was considered eating light. As for me, I lost count after 6. I wish I had pictures, but the food was just too good to photograph, we ate it so fast!

The next day we drove down to Wilmington for a family reunion. I would write more, but honestly that was probably the least-exciting part of the whole vacation, even if it was the whole point for taking it! 

A Birthday Celebration

**Notice: I'm not sure why, but this never got published!!! Keep in mind this took place during November, so no I'm not seeing Catching Fire in January. I saw it opening weekend, like every other teenage girl ;)**

So this week was my 15th birthday...
I love birthdays. Seeing how many people truly care about you, seeing how many people are willing to do something nice for you, it's so incredibly heartwarming! It makes me want to do the same thing for other people, seeing them smile because of you is so great!
My birthday was during the schoolweek, so obviously I wasn't planning on doing anything fun. I mean, now that winter track has started I rarely make it home before 6:30 anyways. Nevertheless, my friends just had to take advantage of an opportunity to bake!

A brownie cake with marshmallow frosting. Um, yes. 

This is just one of the many delicacies I received that day-white chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookies, Oreo and Mexican brownies, all eaten before the day was over! 

But the end of the week, I faced a whole new celebration of calories. 

Carytown Burgers and Fries have by far the best hamburgers I've ever eaten. They're a household name in Richmond- everyone has stopped by once or twice! Carytown is the cute, vintage, hipster district of Richmond. Their businesses are small, local, and packed with personality! This restaurant is no exception. Nestled tightly between two nondescript shops, you'd walk right by it if it weren't for the bright, neon sign and ever-present line of people out the door. 

Since it was 7pm on a Saturday night, of course there was going to be a crowd, so we were fully prepared when we were warned of the 45 minute wait. We'd come all the way out here, there was no turning back! Luckily there was a large collection of coloring pages right by us, which we took full advantage of. Also, we decided to sample the various condiments sitting on our table. 

If you're not a fan of spicy foods, I would recommend staying far, far away from this one! The harmless-looking green tint is entirely too deceptive...

Aside from the condiments, the menu is an enormous list of mouthwatering combinations. My burger of choice is usually the Greek Geek- Tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, roasted red peppers and crushed garlic. But, since this was my birthday dinner, I tried to go for the wildest thing I could find. 

This folks, is the Flying Squirrel. Cheddar cheese, bacon, and peanut butter on Texas Toast. Of course I had to order it. 

I was extremely excited to taste such an unusual combination. It was delicious, but I found that the peanut butter overpowered the other flavors, and I barely tasted the cheddar. Nevertheless, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I can't wait to come back to try their other burgers-my next choice will definitely be the "Poncho Villa." Check out their menu if you're interested! 

After we had our fill, it was time to pick up my best friend in the whole world. She'd been off at boarding school for the past few months, but was finally home for Thanksgiving break! So we stopped by her house to steal her away before returning home. 

And then, it was time for cake.

I made it clear that I didn't want a big, elaborate cake for my birthday. There were only 4 people eating it, and the leftovers would just sit on our counter and go stale. So we stopped by the grocery store and picked up this beauty-a triple-chocolate tiger cake, just big enough for 4 people to split! Needless to say, it was delicious. 

And then, because we apparently hadn't had enough fun, it was time for...

Catching Fire!

I've been a huge Hunger Games fan since the 5th grade. I'd read it months before it was "cool," so I had to wait even longer than most for the movies! With the exception of the Hunger Games, all of the other movies come out within 3 days of my birthday every year for the forseable future. We managed to snag two tickets for the 10pm showing. We were both so excited that we showed up at 9:30. Thank goodness we did, because we ended up getting amazing seats! You know the seats that are right in front of that metal bar, so you can put your feet up? Yeah, those were ours. It totally beats last year's seats, which were the very. front. row. 

Anyways, the movie finished up around 12:30, which was perfect for two girls having a sleepover! 

Thanks to everyone for making this birthday so wonderful, see you in 6 months when I get my learners! 

Welcome to the Ice Age

I'm serious, I'm calling BS on global warming.

I've been spending the day catching up on all that's been happening in southern cities such as Atlanta during this freak blizzard. For those of you that don't know, there are people that have been stuck in the worst traffic jam in American history for over sixteen hours. Some people are walking 5+ miles through the snow to get home, others are spending the night on the floor of grocery stores, kids are having to spend the night on buses/at school. There's one woman who delivered a baby in the traffic for goodness sake! I can't even begin to process how completely traumatic this is for so many people. If you want more details on this as well as some pretty surreal pictures, click here to read the article I did.

One of the pictures from the Article-people sleeping on the floor of CVS!

I do have a feeling that people up north are, when you get past how dire this situation is, laughing hysterically right now. I mean this all happened because of 2 inches of snow. It's not like people are getting buried in snowdrifts. But this is the South, and we don't get snow that often. Our cities aren't equipped for weather that happens every once in a blue moon. So when it does, the results can be disastrous. 

A couple years ago a 5.9 magnitude Earthquake hit Richmond, and people lost their minds. I mean seriously, this thing made national headlines. I swear I still have PTSD from it-but in my defense I was 12 years old at my best friend's house and her parents weren't home. We panicked and ran half a mile barefoot to an apartment complex to get help. But regardless, while everyone in Richmond was screaming "The Apocalypse! It's upon us!" I'm sure everyone over on the west coast was sitting there, laughing and going "5.9? You sure it wasn't just a helicopter flying too low?"

But in all seriousness, if there's one good thing that came out of this it's that it showed the true compassion and kindness people have for each other in disasters like this. Opening up their homes and stores for people in need, driving complete strangers to safety, it warms my heart to know how much people look out for one another-and it makes me wish that we could reach out to people like this all the time.

Oh, also, there's another good thing that came out of this (for my city at least). Living in Richmond, we seemed to get the best bargain of all. If we lived any farther north, our city would be so used to winter weather that we wouldn't have been affected at all. If we lived farther south, well, you know by now what would have happened, and my school definitely doesn't seem like a fun place to spend the night. So for us, all we got is 2 weeks worth of snow days (with one day of school that hardly counted), oh and also our MIDTERMS WERE CANCELLED. What are the odds that this happens on the exact week that we were scheduled to take the hardest tests of the semester that also counted for 20% of our grade? Honestly I think it's safe to say that we're some of the luckiest people in the country right now.

This whole experience has been a bunch of mixed emotions, but I hope it teaches us to stick together even when there isn't a natural disaster. Generally be a good person all year round, and hopefully you'll be able to make a difference in people's lives. 

At the Orchard

Two posts in two days...say what?! I know, I know, you can thank me later ;).

Anyways, this was the last football game of the season, so of course everyone had to go. However, we were playing another inner-city school that no one had heard of, it was cold, and it was senior recognition night. That means literally every.single.senior. in the marching band, chorus, and color guard, as well as every player on the football team would get individually introduced and congratulated. If you're a senior, and you know who all of these people are, I'm guessing you would enjoy it since this is your last high school football game ever. But when you're a freshman, all that talking gets pretty boring, so we ended up leaving during the third quarter, in favor of a much more enjoyable venue.

I also discovered that Krispy Kreme donuts, as delicious as they are, somehow taste even better at 11pm after you've been standing on freezing bleachers for 3 hours. Also, if you haven't tried the Pumpkin Spice donuts yet, do.it.now. If you like the old-fashioned donuts from Starbucks, and you like pumpkin, you'll be very happy with these. 

The next day I got up extra-early (not intentionally, but it Daylight Savings Time started and threw me off), and went with two of my friends to Carter Mountain to go apple picking! It's about an hour's drive nearly straight up the side of the mountain. 

In this picture there are guardrails along the edge, but believe me when I say that in about 30 seconds those rails disappeared and the road starting rising straight up. The fact that we essentially risked our lives for some apples says a lot about how delicious they are. Well, we also went for the apple cider and Carter Mountain's world-famous apple cider donuts (I don't have a picture-the four of us gobbled up an entire dozen of them before I could get my camera out!). We sat down at the picnic tables and struggled to keep our hair down in the freezing wind as we sipped our apple cider and ate our donuts. Sitting at the top of that mountain, the view of the valley beneath us nearly took our breath away. 

After we'd had our fill of the view (and the food), we hiked up to the orchards. We headed straight for my favorite apples, fuji! Luckily this section of the orchard had just been opened up for the season, so we practically got first pick. 

After we'd picked more apples than we could carry, I bought another half-dozen donuts to take home for my family (I ended up eating most of them ;)), and we headed on home. There's just nothing better than apple picking in the fall! 

School Projects

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything in maybe a decade (okay, two weeks, but in the blogging world those are basically the same thing). Honestly I just haven't been doing anything really blog-worthy lately, and have been so swamped with schoolwork that I all I've had time to do is study. It seems that since the first marking period ends this week, all of my teachers are frantically cramming in the required number of tests, quizzes, and projects that they somehow forgot to factor into the rest of the term. Which means that instead of giving you guys a great post about Halloween, I spent the entire night at home finishing a formal lab write-up due the next day. This lab counts as three test grades, and my teacher forgot to give us the rubric for it until the day before it was due, which coincidentally happened to be Halloween, and I had specifically gotten all of my homework done on Wednesday just so I would be able to go out with my friends. Sidenote: this is also the teacher that lost my quiz before she could grade it, so she gave me a zero. 

On a separate note, in World History we're learning about the Exploration (Columbus, the New World, etc. etc.). But because I'm in this accelerated program at my school, instead of taking a test on the unit, we had two projects instead. 

Project 1: Two mock-trials, where Christopher Columbus and Francisco Pizarro were being charged for crimes against humanity against the natives of the Americas. You were assigned a part for one of the trials (defense/prosecution witness or defense/prosecution attorney), and you would serve on the jury for whichever trial you weren't apart of. We spent a week researching our character (I was a Peninsular, a defense witness, which is a member of the top social rank of Spaniards in the New World), and then would be tried in the court. It was actually really fun! It was a little intimidating to be questioned in front of the entire class (especially when, as a Peninsular, I had to defend the use of slavery and the murder of thousands of Incan natives), but overall I'd say it was much cooler than a test, and we learned a lot. Plus, the jury found Pizarro not guilty (both juries had to base their rulings solely on the evidence provided during the trial, even if they knew that it wasn't accurate), and we won the case! 

Project 2: Everyone created a dish that used ingredients from the New World and the Old World. We all brought in the food on Monday, and we spend the entire class eating! Needless to say, this was definitely one of my favorite projects ever. I made Nutella rolls with cream cheese icing, and made the biscuit dough myself. These sound good, but they came out disappointingly bland. However, I remade the recipe using a pumpkin-cream cheese filling I developed, and they are amazing-recipe coming soon! 

Anyways, I just wanted to throw a quick post out there to let you all know I'm alive, and will post something much more interesting shortly! 

Eagle Huntin' and Pumpkin Pickin'

Sorry I've been somewhat off the grid this past week...a girl's life can only be so interesting. In case you haven't read Neal Schusterman's series Unwind, I would highly recommend giving it a go, especially if you loved Divergent and/or the Hunger Games! The third book in the Unwind series came out this week, and I've spent the past few days holed up on the sofa, completely absorbed. I had read somewhere that the book had to be split into two because it was so long, and I could definitely tell. Virtually none of the conflicts were resolved, and quite honestly the ending felt more like it should be the middle of the book, which makes sense in a way.
Anyways, I finished all 400-some pages just in time for yet another football game. Because what else is there to do on a Friday night in suburban Virginia? This time though, I wasn't going to cheer on my fellow rebels. I'm enrolled in an accelerated program that isn't at my zoned high school, and all of my friends go to the school that just happens to be our biggest rival. Nevertheless, I thought I'd risk stopping by their homecoming game to do some under-cover eagle hunting ;).

I almost wore one of my Rebel shirts, but realized I'd probably get beaten up by the upperclassmen. 

The game started off with a homecoming parade. Nothing impressive, but I did get some quality catch-up time with my friends. 

I know it looks like we're in the middle of the road, but I promise you we were sitting on the median, and traffic was stopped anyways! 

Since it's an unspoken rule that you aren't supposed to play a good football team for your homecoming game, they took on a urban school from an hour away. Their fan base was very impressive:

A whole 30 people, folks. And about 20 of those are the band, who have to come for a participation grade. 

We (not exactly "we," since I'd never call myself an Eagle fan, but the side I was standing on) won 23-12, and the fact that this team managed to sneak in 12 points says a lot about the Eagle's football team. No wonder we beat them last week. Anyways, while it was nice to see my old friends again, the game itself was pretty dull, since I didn't have an attachment to either team. 

But I did take some sexy Snapchats :)

I don't know about you guys, but I completely count football games as exercise- that was exhausting! Standing for 3 and a half hours while wearing knockoff Keds turned out to be a bit more painful than I thought. You'd think I'd have learned by now. 

The next day started out with a "nutritious" breakfast at Waffle House (sidenote: they now display calorie information next to every item on the menu, and frankly I find it pretty depressing. If I'm going to Waffle House for breakfast, do you honestly think I want to know how many calories I'm eating?). I went for the usual, hashbrowns (drowned in ketchup of course) and a grilled chicken biscuit. If you ever find yourself sitting in a Waffle House, keep in mind that their biscuits are out of this world! 

Once we were back home, we had a couple hours to be productive (as productive as you can be on a Saturday morning), before pumpkin picking! 

Of course, no trip to the pumpkin patch is complete without ridiculous hats. How else are you supposed to find everyone in those endless fields? We got lots of compliments, thank you very much.

The whole group shamelessly kept their hats on the whole time, with one exception: 

But honestly, would you pass up the opportunity to dress up as two ghost riding in an apple-mobile? Me neither. 

In the fields, I came across this beauty sitting all by its lonesome, and I just had to snap a picture. 

After everyone had made their selections, we piled them into a wheelbarrow and went on our merry little way.

Ready to go!

But those poor pumpkins had no idea that they were about to be cut into ribbons.

Or rather, into jack o' lanterns! My masterpiece is the one on the right, and I'm pretty impressed with my handiwork if I do say so myself. But since it's only the middle of October, I'm 90% sure these babies aren't going to last until Halloween. Oh well, there's always next year! 

What I did Instead of Homecoming

This weekend was my school's homecoming weekend. There's a parade, a football game, a dance, you name it. My school even had an entire spirit week, where each day you were told to come to school dressed for some theme completely unrelated to homecoming, but whatever. I'm always up for an excuse to look ridiculous! This is evidenced by my attempt at an being M&M for "you are what you eat" day. I didn't have a roll of white duct tape, but I just happened to have a gold one laying around. I'm so high-class. Only the really classy people use gold duct tape, right? Silver just won't do.

I also was too lazy to buy a new green shirt, so I figured I'd just tape the "M" over my Frog Day shirt from summer camp. And if that wasn't classy enough, we also took this picture in the school cafeteria, 3 feet from the bathroom. 

Anyways, I didn't really bother putting in a ton of effort to prep for homecoming, because I wasn't even going to be there. I know what you're thinking. "This is the first-ever homecoming of your high school career, how can you not be going?" Well the rest of my family was going down to Emerald Isle for the annual North Carolina Seafood Festival, and who was I to pass up an entire day dedicated to eating my favorite foods? So while everyone else was trying on dresses and posing for pictures, I was packing my bags and heading for the beach, baby! 

We arrived in Emerald Isle Friday night just in time to catch the sunset, but unfortunately I didn't manage to snap any pictures. The next morning we rolled into the cute little beach town of Morehead, North Carolina. The air was humid, the crowds were tight, and the music was loud, but luckily we were able to find refuge in the chef's tent, were we got to watch a demonstration on how to prepare my favorite food, ceviche! Since I prefer mild ceviche, I was a little disappointed with how spicy it was. But nevertheless, it was ceviche and ceviche is delicious. 

After the demonstration we ventured back out into the crowds and attempted to visit the various booths. But it was getting close to lunchtime, and a hungry Katie is definitely not a happy Katie. While the rest of us thought long and hard about which of the hundreds of delicacies before us we wanted to eat, my sister ran straight for the funnel cakes, but quickly abandoned it for the rest of us to share, while she chowed down on none other than a fried Twinkie.

Battered, deep fried, dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Welcome to 'merica. I went for a slightly healthier crab cake sandwich, but was still feeling a little grumpy. That's when I spotted none other than my long-lost, one true love. 

All hail to fried Oreos. Once again, they were fresh from the fryer and piping hot, just the way I like 'em. After I wolfed down these bad boys, I felt much better. The crowds instantly seemed thinner, the music seemed quieter, and my headache disappeared. I don't care what they say about fried stuff- these things were a life saver!

While my sister ate her fried chicken and french fries (you'll quickly learn she absolutely does not understand the meaning of "I'm full." How she stays so thin is a mystery to us all), we continued through the fair, wandering from booth to booth. Eventually we stumbled into the oldest bookstore in the state, and I instantly fell in love (though that may just have been from the air conditioning) 

The infamous Dee Gee's bookstore; 80 years and counting. It just so happened that they carried a book I'd been looking for for ages, which wasn't available at Barnes and Noble or Amazon! I also came across a little book called "Lessons from a Turtle: the Little Book of Life." It was the cutest little book, and each page offered a little quote like this one: 

How can you not accept life lessons from a turtle? But after we had gotten our fill of books we headed over to Parson's General Store across the train tracks, where we were greeted by its absolutely wonderful shopkeepers. If you ever have a chance, I'd definitely recommend stopping by! They also had great ice cream, and of course my sister (who clearly hadn't eaten enough that day), ordered a double-scoop. Luckily she wasn't able to finish, and I got to polish off the cup for her. Who thought Cappuccino and Moose Tracks were so delicious together? 

Once none of us could handle the crowds any longer we headed home, but not before popping into a little beachside burger shack for a drink. 

Please excuse my blurry fingers, but basically we took a seat along the side of the pier, and I got to spend a half our or so sipping iced tea, watching the ocean, and not miss homecoming weekend at all. 

Seafood, fried Oreos, and the beach. I think we know who got the sweeter end of the deal here. 

Once we were back at the cottage, the rest of my afternoon was spent lounging in bed, listening to music. Do any of you notice how whenever you're at the beach, there's always that peaceful, quiet part of the day in the late afternoon? Everyone is reading, dozing, or just taking a little time to relax for a while before the evening excitement starts up again. For us, that meant heading back out to a steakhouse for dinner. It was dingy and unimpressive, but we were all so full from earlier that no one wanted more than just a bite or so. After the bacon biscuit, funnel cake, fried oreos, crab cake sandwich, and ice cream I'd eaten during the day, I decided to go a little healthy and order some grilled scallops with vegetables. Okay, so I also had a slice of Texas toast, but we won't count that. 

Tomorrow I'll go on a diet...

...just kidding.