Last Week

It was our last week on the trail, and what a week it was! We lazed a bit, as expected, but we also got some work done, finishing two of our staircases (we took a 'family portrait' on the second one on the last day).

On Saturday, my team leader and I were cooking dinner, burgers. I was in charge of burgers, so I threw the pot on the burner and tossed in some cooking oil. I got distracted, though, and ended up starting a grease fire. We both looked at the flames and went, "Oh, the pot's on fire," before I had sense enough to throw the lid on top. One of my teammates who was reading nearby laughed and said, "It's just going to light again when you take the lid off, you know." And sure enough, it did. But I scrubbed it out and we eventually got the burgers cooked. All in all, no harm done. And I've seen worse fires at Wendy's. :P

We decided to take the second half of the day off on Tuesday and go for a hike on the other side of the mountain, around the Gulf Hagas loop. We saw some really cool waterfalls and lounged a lot on large rocks, but the funniest part was when we got back to our suburbanand saw the note on our windshield. It was from our project sponsor and all it said was: "Hi there! Lester. 2:30." Caught red-handed! He was apparently there for a dedication of a new kiosk and recognized our vehicle. We shrugged it off, piled into the 'burban, headed back to base camp, where who do we immediately encounter? But our glorious sponsor, who's there checking the tents for damage. We were a little afraid to get out of the car, since we all knew that he knew we weren't working, but we were able to pass the afternoon off as education hours, lol.

We spent the rest of the evening team-building, going into town for pizza and watching The Goonies. We stayed up late, too, to try to catch the meteor shower. At first, we had no idea which section of the sky to look in, and it was slightly too cloudy for my liking, but we were able to see some meteors. Some people got discouraged early and headed off to bed (it was way past our bedtime!), but I think I saw about ten in a half-hour. So yeah, it was a pretty good day.

I'm not sure how the rest of the week will go, but I'm heading home this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to stop in Lenox, Mass to see Edith Wharton's estate. :)