Adventures in Pony-Sitting

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly an adventure, but it was definitely a somewhat surreal experience.

A few months ago a new family moved in next door, and it turns out that they run one of the local riding schools (not the one I go to, but we’ve crossed paths at competitions). And, as we recently learned, two of their students live two doors down from us. Fun, right? Yes, but it’s about to get better.

You see, with the lockdown, all the riding schools have closed for the time being, meaning I haven’t gotten to ride or be around horses for a month now. As you can imagine, I am not at all happy about this. I get why, and I’ve accepted it, but I still miss my horsey friends.

Cue amazing neighbors to the rescue. They had the fantastic idea to loan out two of their ponies to various families around the neighborhood for a few days at a time, providing some novelty, lawn-mowing services, free fertilizer, and a much-needed horsey fix for quarantined equestrians. Last week they asked if we’d be interested, and we all said yes very enthusiastically.

And that’s how we wound up pony-sitting last weekend. I had often wondered what it would be like to have a horse or pony in my backyard, and now I know. Not something I ever actually expected to experience, but then this year seems to be full of unexpected adventures.

Anyway, I’m sure you want to see pictures, so here you go:

Noisette

Parfaite

*blep*

Scronchy face

I also grabbed some more flower pics:

Have a blessed Easter and stay safe, everyone!

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Pics from Grenoble

Back in June some friends in Grenoble asked me to come up and do a photo session, and afterwards we went for a walk in town:

Then we took the cable car up to the Bastille:

We had a great view of the city from there:

Me at the fort:

Incoming!

On our way up to an even better vantage point:

From there we could see the Mont Blanc:

Plus some goats:

There’s a series of zip lines set up around the fort, and I have to say it looks pretty fun:

Just after I took that picture, the sky, which had been only mildly ominous up to that point, clouded over completely and 5 minutes later we were caught in a torrential downpour. And since the cable cars were stopped because of the storm, we had to hike back down in the rain. Needless to say, we were a pretty soggy bunch when we got back to the apartment. Thank God for hot showers! Nothing like a little adventure to cap off an already fun day. 🙂

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Reunions

I spent the first week of June in Virginia Beach, where, as the post title suggests, I got to meet up with quite a few people I hadn’t seen in a while. I stayed with BJ’s parents, which meant lots of meet-ups for coffee/lunch/dinner with her and her mom (and occasionally the rest of the family). She also kidnapped me for a day, which we spent at the ranch. Definitely no complaints there. 🙂

There was a fair amount of running around that week, trying to fit in as many meet-ups as I could. Definitely worth it, though. I got to catch up with a friend of mine from high school who I hadn’t seen since 2002. We’d more or less kept in touch on Facebook, but it was nice to be able to talk in person again. 🙂 I also got to see some family friends who I’d last seen 4 years ago.

However, the most unexpected and most heartwarming reunion for me was with my childhood best friend, Sophie. I’ve known her since I was six years old, and despite having mostly grown up on opposite sides of the Atlantic, we’d stayed close up until my second year of college, at which point she pretty much dropped off the radar. Then, after a decade of radio silence, I got a message from her on Facebook, and we got to meet up for lunch one day:

Besties reunited 🙂

Other noteworthy incidents from my stay include going to church with Dale and Diana (she’s the pastor of the United Methodist Church in Knotts Island, North Carolina) and getting drafted to sing in the choir. I was also introduced to The Big Bang Theory (I’d heard of it but never seen it – surprisingly pretty funny), and was thoroughly entertained by the cats:

All in all, my visit went by far too quickly. The trip back was, thankfully, uneventful, and my luggage arrived with me. I did need a nap when I got home, though.

And so concludes my account of my epic trip to (and across) the United States. Hope you enjoyed. 🙂

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Charlottesville

We stayed a few days with Aunt Susie and Uncle Dan in Charlottesville, and I think I can safely say we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I hadn’t seen any of them in four years, so we had a bit of catching up to do. It was a little disconcerting to see how much Will and Matt had grown; I’m pretty sure Will at least will be taller than me next time I see him. On the flip side, their being older meant we actually have some things in common now. Namely, Will is now a huge Doctor Who fan, which pleases me greatly. 😀 Sandrine was amused to note that we have the same “geek-out” face. Well, I have been saying for years that Will is basically a male version of me, so really, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. And Matt is a male version of Sandrine (which she does not bother to deny).

Our visit was filled with errands, video games, ONE episode of Doctor Who (Will and I managed to behave ourselves), soccer games, a visit with Grandpa, and a trip to the Green Valley Book Fair (where I managed to not buy ALL the Doctor Who novels). Good times. 🙂

Will’s soccer game

Matt’s soccer game

Yes, it says Stargate Lane

Visiting Grandpa

Uncle Dan, Aunt Susie, Matt, and Will

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Epic Road Trip: Days 8 – 11

After our 3 days in Dallas, Sandrine and I met up with her friend JulieAnn and drove down to Montgomery, Alabama, where we spent the night. On the way, we drove through Louisianna:

We saw sights like this:

And this:

Proof that we were indeed in the Bible Belt 😉

The next morning, Sandrine and I went with JulieAnn to the barn where she worked and helped with the morning chores (yes, we really are horse freaks). After a hearty breakfast, we headed back out, this time toward South Carolina. We stopped in Birmingham, Alabama for lunch, and I finally got to meet my online friend Tina, who is just as awesome in person:

That was the high point of the day. Shortly after we got back on the road, the sky started looking like this:

And soon after that, we found ourselves in the middle of a torrential downpour. Then we got stuck in rush hour traffic in Atlanta, and to top it all off, for the last 20 miles or so, we had to deal with a trucker who seemed determined to run somebody over. Did I mention it was still raining and pitch dark by this point? Yeah, we were really happy to finally make it to our friend Michael’s house.

We stayed two days in South Carolina, which we mainly spent unwinding. I got to meet Michael’s mom and sister, and one evening we were all invited to dinner with the grandparents (who are lovely people, by the way). Michael also took us to one of his favorite places: a French bakery/café, owned by an actual French lady. Naturally, she was very excited to have French customers, so much so that she forgot that Michael doesn’t speak French. 😛

The rest of the visit went pretty much like this:

Sandrine and Calamity Jane, Destroyer of Tennis Balls

I told her to sit, and as soon as she saw the camera she posed

“Get outta my spaaace!”

Sibling rivalry at its finest. 😉

The final leg of our epic road trip went very smoothly. Aside from one very brief shower, the sky was clear:

And we made it to Virginia with no trouble:

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Epic Road Trip, Days 5-7

The next leg of our epic road trip was driving down to Dallas, Texas. It rained most of the way down, and the whole time we were there, so I only got a handful of pictures.

We spent two days in Dallas catching up with our friends. We even got to attend a Messianic church service, which was pretty cool. 🙂

“I’m gonna get your nose!”

Sandrine and I with our host family

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Epic Road Trip, Day 2

Day 2 started off much like Day 1: getting up before the crack of dawn – and me promptly falling back asleep in the car. The scenery was much like the day before, ie. mainly desert, but gorgeous.

We stopped in Castle Valley for a bit, and I’m pretty sure I was drooling over the scenery:

A couple of hours later, we crossed over into Colorado:

And were promptly greeted by a thunderstorm, then hail, and as we made our way into the mountains, snow!

Craziness. Needless to say, we were very happy to get to Colorado Springs.

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Epic Road Trip, Day 1

So… I meant to publish this much sooner, but the past month has been fairly insane. Nothing bad, just very, very busy.

Anyway, I promised y’all an account of that epic cross-country road trip with my sister, so here goes…

Day One started with a 4 am wake-up, as we had a very long drive ahead. One of Sandrine’s housemates was coming with us as far as Colorado Springs, which meant that we were able to split driving duties three ways the first two days. On the flip side, that meant that when I wasn’t driving, I was doing my best impression of a sardine in the back seat. Good thing I’m tiny. 😛

Our first leg of the journey took us from Eureka, California, to Ely, Nevada (aka The Middle of Nowhere). I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the redwood forest (I was driving and there was no good place to pull over), but once we got to Nevada I was able to get some good ones. These don’t fully do the scenery justice, but they’ll give you an idea:

Taking pictures from the back seat was tricky at times

Our last refueling stop for the day was in Eureka, Nevada, which we all found hilarious:

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An Unexpected Adventure

So… remember when I said this trip was going to be an adventure? Well, so far it has been, but not quite the kind I had in mind.

The first part of the trip went according to plan: we drove up to Lyon Sunday evening and flew up to Paris the next morning. Our flight to San Francisco was supposed to leave a couple of hours later, but technical issues caused delays and ultimately it was postponed until the next morning. Of course this was after we’d (finally) boarded the plane. At least we didn’t have to spend the night in the airport: the airline put us up in a hotel, dinner and breakfast included.

Next morning, take 2: the flight was slightly delayed, but we did eventually make it to San Francisco in one piece. We cleared immigration with no problems, and got to baggage claim only to discover that several suitcases, including my mom’s and mine, had somehow stayed behind in Paris. Argh. So, when we stopped for dinner on our way to Sandrine’s, we also made a quick Wal-Mart run and grabbed a few essentials. We finally arrived at midnight, by which point I had been awake for over 24 hours (I dozed a little on the plane and in the car, but not enough to really qualify as sleep). It took another day to more or less get over jet lag – the 9-hour time difference is pretty brutal.

The last couple of days have been spent meeting most of Sandrine’s friends and teachers, participating in some of the last-days-of-school activities (which I will describe in more detail in my next posts), doing a little sightseeing, and helping her pack. And waiting on the suitcases, which finally arrived yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, we’re all hoping this was the extent of the insanity for this trip.

A few pictures from the drive up from San Francisco:

After crossing the bridge, we stopped at Vista Point where I was able to get a few shots that were not from the back seat of a moving car:

Our final destination:

No relation to the sci-fi town of the same name, however. 😉

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One Epic Road Trip, Coming Up!

In a few days, my sister Sandrine and I are going to embark on an adventure we’ve been wanting to go on for years. She’s been living in California for the last two years, attending the Bethel Supernatural School of Discipleship. After her graduation next week, she’s moving back to Virginia for a bit, which means a cross-country drive, and I’m going with her. We’ve wanted to do a cross-country road trip together for a long time, so naturally we’re both super excited about this. 😀

We’ve got our itinerary mapped out, and barring any incidents, this trip should take us about ten days. We’ll be visiting with friends along the way, and I’ll get to meet a few people I’ve been wanting to meet for a while. I can’t wait!

Naturally, I will be bringing my camera and posting pictures along the way. There will probably be lots of anecdotes to share as well. This is going to be an adventure, after all. 😀

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