All Things Must Come To An End

Well I guess this is it. The final post for my summer cross-country adventures. It's been a little bit since I left Portland so I'll stick with the exciting parts rather than a day by day play. I believe I left off at was the weekend of the 4th of July. What a wonderful day. Everyone congregated over at Ryan, Jeremy, and Chris's house for brunch (which didn't end up being ready till about 3pm...) The next 5 hours were spent with at least 10 people who were all drinking beer, making bloody marys, and chain smoking cigarettes on the front porch.
The aftermath.
Not sure of any of you remember Sparks, the alcoholic energy drink, but Seth and Cale made an effort to make some using an online recipe. It involved a 1:1 can of King Cobra malt liquor to can of Red Bull ration. And mix in some crushed up Pez for flavor's sake.
Jeremy chillin' on the porch.
After we ate we biked over the the Hotbox for an even bigger BBQ.

The next day I returned to the lake to hang out with Kaitlin and some of her friends again. On Wednesday her, Helen (her friend), and I decided to take a day trip to Cannon Beach. We picked a good day too cause it was about 100 degrees outside. I tried to go swimming but only made it up to my ankles before my feet went numb and I decided to just nap on the sand for the rest of the day.

Friday I headed back into Portland because the day before (Thursday) Mauro and Hannah (friends from NC who were in Seattle) told me they were coming to Oregon to see me!! First night we were there Cale took us to some house show. The band was fun but I had never seen that high of a concentration of hipsters in my entire life. It was a little scary. We tried to go to the pool afterward to cool off from all the dancing. Apparently half the party also had this idea and about 60 seconds after I hoped the fence the cops showed up. Bare foot and shirtless I jumped back over and ran to the car, acquiring a few scrapes and losing one of my favorite socks in the process.

Saturday we went to a street fair in Mississippi (the neighborhood, not the state.) It was a little boring but I did find a food cart that specialized in waffle sandwiches. For 4.50 I got a huge waffle, folded in half like a taco, and filled with maple syrup and sausage patties. Sooooo goooddd!!!!!

Mauro and Hannah left early Monday morning. After that Bekah and I had planned to hitchhike to the Colombia gorge but found ourselves too lazy to do it. Instead I posed for my portrait and Bekah painted me:
Yes I am naked and surrounded by a ring of discarded clothes.

Tuesday Cale's friend Maarvi came into town (she's super cool) and Wednesday morning I had to bid farewell to all my new friends :'[ I miss them very much.

My last 2 days were spent packing and hanging with Kaitlin/her friends.

A license plate I found in my uncles neighborhood with an interesting choice of numbers:

Taking the red eye I arrived at RDU at 8:30am Friday morning. My friend Becky picked me up from the airport but wait... instead of taking the highway back east towards Raleigh she started going west. And we were off to Chicago for the weekend. SURPRISE!!

The first night Becky and Brynn crashed at the hostel while I went to a party with the Couch Surfing host we would be staying with for the rest of the weekend. Her name was Stephanie and her and her friends were wonderful.
The next day we went to the beach; as you can see by Becky's excited expression:And we rode the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. The city was beautiful. Great obelisks of glass and metal towered like guardians over the cool waterfront. By evening it would hide in their shadows. That night we went to a venue called the Subterranean and saw Cloud Nothing (some random opener) and Kurt Vile. It was a super show.

Sunday was the day we had all come for: Pitchfork. After breakfast we arrived and saw music (almost non-stop) all day. Cave, Best Coast, Washed Out, Beach House, Lightning Bolt, Surfer Blood, Major Lazer, Neon Indian, Sleigh Bells, and Pavement: in that order. Probably one of the best days of my life. After the festival Brynn and Becky went to a nearby venue to see Cap n' Jazz while I, being exhausted from the craziest show of my life (Sleigh Bells) went back to rejoin Stephanie and her friend Lea.

Monday we tried to go to some museums, most of which were closed. By the time we made it to the aquarium I was exhausted. It was $30 so I decided to take a nap under a tree while the girls gazed at sea creatures. After they finally found me and woke me up we got some deep dish pizza and headed to Wrigley stadium to watch a cubs game. They were playing the Houston Astros. They got creamed. We left during the 8th inning. The score was 10 to 5.

Early the next morning we made a quick run to Target to get toilet paper, milk, and cheap silverware for Stephanie as a thank you gift for having us stay. After we said our reluctant goodbyes we were back on the road for a quick 13 hour car ride to NC.

Now I'm finally back in Raleigh. It's been awhile. I missed it but it feels strange not being in a new place anymore. It'll take some getting used to. To fall back into the same ol' same ol'. My wonderful summer adventures have finally come to an end... Or have they?