I awoke in the basement of my good friend, Elisa. We had stayed up late the night before watching the 1990’s Bollywood film “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”.  It was so cheesy yet so cute, but we both started dozing off and speaking gibberish as we entered a half wake-half dream state. We were exhausted.

We greeted the morning with banana peanut butter protein shakes (she’s a goddess health shake maker I will tell you) and a heavy dose of sunscreen.  The plan was to go out to a local park, Scott’s Run, and hike for a while.

We got in the car and navigated there to the soundtracks of Hillsong, a favorite worship band of Elisa’s (Their music is so good and uplifting.  Definitely give them a listen).

A couple of wrong turns/google maps goofs (lol) later, we got there. We were the only car in the parking lot, it was an awesome 78 degrees out, and the sun was shining through the trees.  I had brought Vincent, my crocheted octopus along and set him on the trunk of the car for a picture.

The day before, I had gotten up early to go hunt down the camera of my recent dreams: a Canon powershot. I got it off craigslist (yeah, yeah I know… but I did my research and was super safe about it) for an AMAZING $50.  This camera goes anywhere from about $300-315, and after I had mentioned to the seller that I was on the hunt for a new camera for college, she docked the price down from the original $64 to $50. How awesome of her.

ANYWAYS.

It was a scenic area and I was dying to try out my snapping skills. So I did.

dewy morning before we left for the park

VINCEEEENNNNNT

We bug sprayed ourselves and set off into the glorious trees.  Not too long after we had been walking, we stumbled upon a mini waterfall.  It was so picturesque, and we squatted around there for a bit taking pictures.

Elisa had brought her GoPro (what an awesome piece of machinery!!!!) so she was able to get it super close to the waterfall itself. It was so cool. Some random bursts of singing Disney songs later, we were off again on the trail.

Twice we crossed little bits of water on stepping stone cylinders. The rest of our walk was filled with life banter, college aspirations, and musings of the woods around us.

But I have to say— the absolute main event was when we reached the actual waterfall of Scott’s run.
It was too gorgeous for words, so I’ll leave you with the glorious hi-def pictures I was able to take with my lovely camera who I lovingly refer to as My Son.

We were slapped in the face with this view. It still hurts so good.

It was like something out of a Disney movie… all these butterflies flying around. So cute.

Just some perspective– these falls were purty tall

I had to stuff my phone and My Son into my bra as I climbed over the rocks and waded even though wading wasn’t allowed ooh I’m a rebel mwahahah  towards the falls. And then I’d stop along the way, stand in a precarious position upon slippery slimy mossy rocks and take pictures, stuff in bra, rinse, repeat.
I’m actually surprised I didn’t send any tech plunging down into cold, clear, rocks-at-bottom water. Especially since we were there for what seemed like forever.  Then again, it’s easy to get lost in time in beautiful spaces 😀

After we had our fill of pictures, we climbed our way back to where we had stashed our stuff and hydrated & refueled.  We then headed back to the car, and drove back. Elisa didn’t want to drop me off so we roamed my neighborhood with a Classic Disney Songs playlist on Spotify blasting through the car stereo.

But, sadly, and very cliche-ed-ly, all good things have to come to an end a temporary pause… and giving her a last hug in my driveway was bittersweet enough to bring a lump to my throat.  She leaves for college the 19th, earlier than I do, and I realized that it would be the last time I would see her for a while. She was right though… it is never really a good bye. Just a super heart-felt “see you later”.

And as it pours outside now, I’m randomly thinking about the “see you later” and its temporary-ness, about how the downpour itself is temporary. Like most things. I’m moving from my temporary home to another, and pursuing a temporary major….

But I also think about how part of its beauty lies in its temporary-ness. Shifting and changing, we’re never really permanent. We’re just moving from one place to another, from park to park, rock to rock, getting better each time.

xx