Outdoors – zellerfest

New Perspective

Published on August 3, 2016August 1, 2016 by alikzeller1 Comment

You know when you see something and know immediately you’d never be able to un-see it? It’s just going to be burned into your brain forever, even if it fades a little or gets built up or changes in your memory over the years.

I knew the moment I saw the first giant redwood tree that this was something I could never un-see. I’ll always remember these trees, how they smelled and how they made me feel. It was unreal.

This June we traveled out to San Francisco to visit Nate, one of my oldest and most dear friends. Our first day out there, Nate had to work so we rented a car and drove out early to Muir Woods to check out the famous redwoods.

I was the driver this day, (she who holds the Zipcar membership, holds the power) and this was very hard to drive over for the first time! So much excitement and terror all at once.

To get to Muir Woods, you must do a lot of mountain-climbing. We spent a good bit of time taking winding roads up a mountain. It felt like our honeymoon when we were ~~lost~~ taking a shortcut off the highway to get to our apartment. Thankfully, at the top there is a nice pull-off to catch the view from the top.

Anyhoo, by suggestion of every single source about visiting Muir Woods, we arrived close to 7:30 AM., scored one of the (very few, maybe 40 total) parking spots near the entrance to the park and spent the first hour with just a handful of other people near us. OH and if you arrive that early, there is nobody at the entrance to charge you for going in (#earlybirdsgetthetrees)

We had quite the hike, and hope to get back at some point with appropriate hiking shoes and clothes for some more of this magical place.

Imagine this peaceful scene, just about 45 minutes later, packed with tourists. I can’t and glad I didn’t have to witness it – as we were leaving (~10:00 AM) busses were pulling up. Time to scram.

Where Does the Time Go?

Published on October 21, 2014April 24, 2015 by alikzellerLeave a comment

Nobody warned me that the days, months, years would actually fly by after a certain age. One day we’re celebrating our anniversary and the start to the summer heat, the next I’m pulling out sweaters wondering how it’s suddenly late-October and I have yet to buy a pumpkin. Before my memories start to fade, here are the highlights of our summer:

We went back to UD for our college reunion weekend. Naturally, we all acted exactly how we acted in college.

There is a park in our neighborhood (Yards Park) that hosts bands on Friday nights all summer. It was easy to be regulars and convince friends to come visit for the evening.

Looking back on my phone for summer photos my first thought was “Why did I take this photo?” Then I realized it was because this could possibly be my Lisa Simpson outfit (if I could only wear one outfit my entire life) – crab necklace, Ohio shirt, and polka dots. All my favorite things. And, I really love crabs. My crab necklace from Baltimore was a necessary accessory when we picked up a bushel of crabs to pick with friends on evening.

No other photos were taken because our hands were much too messy.

We are really working on our camping skills, so for the Fourth of July holiday we went down to the family farm for some R&R.
This summer I was busy with a “summer job” giving Segway tours around the city. It’s not over yet but it has been a total blast meeting people from all over the world to share with them my city’s history. I’m not going to lie, it’s been really nice having a willing (and paying) audience for my cheesy jokes. Remind me to tell you about the bushes outside of the White House…

My parents surprised me one weekend with a visit to DC! I wanted to give them the full “DC Local” treatment since they normally come in the winter or over a holiday. We hit up Yards Park (I told you we went every week), visited the famed pandas at the National Zoo, and even grabbed some crabs from the fish market. All in a DC weekend.

We also had a jam-packed weekend with one of our most favorite families. Not pictured: the parents.

Went to the best and most entertaining concert of my life: Arcade Fire. I have never had so much fun at a concert.

Sent some of our best DC friends off to London for a year of adventure and schooling:

Went to Cincinnati for Labor Day and I got to see the WEBN fireworks for the first time (believe it) after a wild night in OTR. Spent a lot of quality time with Mom’s kittens and my grandparents.

Whew. I think that last photo sums it up! Now that I’ve gone through all of our photos, I realize we had quite a packed summer, full of travel and good friends – what more could we have asked for?

Viking Ships and Viking Food

Published on May 26, 2014 by alikzeller1 Comment

While we had a great time in Berlin, we were certainly ready to head back to Copenhagen right away. I t’s not that Berlin wasn’t great, it just wasn’t cosy like Denmark.

Oh I don’t think I’ve mentioned “cosy” … from what I could tell, if there was one “thing” the Danes would want a tourist to say about their country it’s that it was “cosy.” You can take my word for it, the food, the atmosphere, the people, were certainly cosy.

On our first day back we grabbed some pastries and took a train out to a small town to see a Viking ship museum. The ship museum is focused around 7 viking ships that were found sunk together off the coast. They were able to salvage enough of the ships to preserve and piece back together. It was a very modern, beautiful museum all around right along the water. In the summertime you can take a ride on a ship that was built how the vikings built their ships, so I will be back for that experience one day.

This is the side of the ship you can ride on in the summer: The highlight of the museum was a room full of Viking clothing and some props. Thankfully, being there in the “off season” we had the space to ourselves to really explore our inner Viking.

There was a beautiful restaurant outside of the ship museum, in full coziness they had fur blankets for the chairs and beautiful, natural candle-filled centerpieces. The food was unbelievable as well – take a look at Kyle’s pork sandwich. DM_Ships1 Yes, my salmon (which was equally delicious) looked a little sad next to that sandwich.

After that big meal (and after all of the coffee I drank) we burned off some energy by chasing ducks around the park.

And how cool is this tree? It’s an actual tree, carved to look like this. We found it in a cemetery and I could not get over how interesting it was.

Ok, I think I have one more post in me from our trip, then I’ll start to get up to speed on our other adventure photos since then!

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