Normally I would be sad that summer is over, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been through more time zones in the past week to last me a year. I’ve had the best end to summer I could ask for, and I’m definitely ready to be back with all my best friends and get ready for a new semester! Last time I wrote, I had just finished up boot camp. After a relaxing two weeks of doing nothing except sleeping and catching up on the big news that I missed for the last 28 days (AKA watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians and checking Twitter) I headed off for a week of hiking, skiing, and more relaxing: Lake Powell.
Our houseboat sailing across Lake Powell
Lake Powell, in Arizona, is possibly the coolest place on earth. It’s surrounded by huge canyons that my cousins and I made daily efforts to climb all the way up (unsuccessfully, but it made for some great pictures). My whole family (16 of us) rents a houseboat and we basically live in the water for one week. We snorkel, fish, float– anything besides sit inside. We had a blast exploring the lake and hanging out with each other.
Hiking up as high as we could!
Then came the moment I waited for all summer: my trip to London to see the Olympics!
My best friend Maddie lives in London, so I was lucky enough to stay at her house for the week while all the Olympics festivities happened right at her doorstep. Rather than buy tickets to a ton of events (which would’ve been super expensive) all we had to do was walk around the city to get the Olympic experience. The marathon route was only a tube ride away, the triathlon course was right in Hyde Park, and the athletes were everywhere! The one event we did get tickets to was the soccer semifinal match between France and Japan. Wembley Stadium was completely packed and the game had us on the edge of our seats. Japan won, but Maddie and I were all about Team USA.
Team USA at the France vs. Japan semifinal
So after traveling through Page, Atlanta, New York, and London, I’m ready to stay in a permanent place for a while. This year has so much in store: ROTC has a rafting trip planned in September, my sorority has rush for the next few weeks, and the best for last: football season begins soon!
Hope everyone an awesome summer and can’t wait to meet the new Viterbi students!
Beautiful view of the London Eye and Big Ben
Showing off Big Ben
The GIANT chocolate bar I got from the Duty Free shops.. best souvenir ever
My brother hiking across the bottom of Lake Powell!
Tebowing on the canyons
Hi Melanie, what a great article with great pictures. I’ve visited Arizona to see family and keep promising to return, your right it is a great place. Very happy to here you enjoyed a week in my home town, London. It was a great Summer and even better Olympics or Team GB. Team USA did better than us as expected but I enjoyed watching all the Olympians, especially Mark Phelps. Yes I shouted at my TV many times. Glad you had a great Summer, good luck with this Semester.