Hocking Hills

So, it's been quite a while since I updated. Summer is practically here, and spring is lovely.

What did I do during spring?

First, I went to the opposite of wilderness, New York City, to visit my cousin Robby with my brother. We did a lot! We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Nintendo World, the Soup Man, etc. etc.

It was a great time, and lots of it was really beautiful. Towering skyscrapers, blue skies, night lights, etc. It was nice to wind down each night at his apartment too.

We had some amazing food. Some delicious burgers, shakes and fires, Chinese takeout (of course!), Black and White cookies, HUGE plates of ribs/steaks (along with mashed potatoes, a salad, fried plantains in my case, and onions), and some delicious Soup Nazi Soup (I got the crab bisque with some grape soda. Freaking delicious.)

He has 4 roomates, two of which stay in a closet, haha. One of them had all these inspirational posters with national parks, which was awesome. I have a feeling staring at those each night while living in the city would kinda start making me feel really poopy.

Actually, Robby is planning on moving out in September, maybe even living near us. So that would be awesome - we could airsoft or go camping or whatever whenever.

Speaking of camping, right after our trip to New York (P.S. We also went to D.C. for a bit), we came back to Ohio, met up with Robby's cousins (no relation to us), and my neighbor Thomas (the planner of Tetons - more on that later), and went down to Hocking Hills State Park.

This was our second time there. It was overcast, but that meant the waterfalls were flowing! It was as beautiful and breathtaking as the first time.

The picture above shows all of us in front of some beautiful waterfalls. This is one of the first things you see. It's called the Upper Falls.

Here was a timer picture we took of all of us standing at a cliffside path. This area was beautiful, and it was right after we left...

This place. A secret path we found. There were old, crumbled stairs made from stone. A partially collapsed bridge made of three rock slabs. And a beautiful, solitary waterfall that you could walk right next to. One of the best parts. Other than, of course...

The lake at the campsite. Unfortunately, my batteries AND SD card ran out in my camera, so I got no pictures of the lake... Or, more importantly, the beautiful, beautiful stars above. It was near our campsite, and at first all I heard on the way there was whirring of generators and chatter. All I saw were bright lights of bathrooms, a strange, out-of-place playground. Thomas was leading us to the lake, but so far it seemed like there'd be nothing great. Then the whole place opens up.

A big slope to the right. A beautiful lake to the left. A pathway down the middle, and thousands of breathtaking stars above. We could very, very faintly make out the milky way, and we saw so many more stars than usual, not to mention many shooting stars. We just lied there listening to music and talking. Amazing.

For more pictures, go here.

-Andrew