Ottawa

My family just arrived home from our trip to Ottawa. Overall it was a very standard touristy trip, so I don't have much to say about it. But, I took a couple nice photos that I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!

One Direction

So, as previously stated many a time on this blog, I recently went to see One Direction in concert. It was a pretty good time.

The show started (after much waiting through commercials played on the jumbo-tron) with Five Seconds of Summer, a new boy band from Australia. They have a very Jonas Brothers circa A Little Bit Longer sound about them. They were decent enough, but honestly, I have enough bands to fan girl over, so I'm not in the market to pick up another one. But I appreciated them none the less.

Finally, after more and more waiting, the main attraction hit the stage and AHHH HARRY WAS SO CUTE and AAHH LOOK AT NIALL DID YOU SEE THAT but mostly just AHHHHH.

That concert was so unbelievably loud. I have been to many a boy band concert but I don't think I have ever attended one so loud. I mean, usually fans at least make an effort to listen instead of scream the entire time, but, whatever. It was a good show.

One of the most impressive parts of the concert was the set. They had these amazingly huge screen backdrops to the stage which played either live clips of the boys, or really nice typography of lyrics, or animated backgrounds. For example, the London sky line, or the boys as cartoon super heroes! It was really cool.

This was another really neat part of the show. The boys stood on a platform held by cables, moving along, soaring above the crowd. They ended at a square platform quite close to where we were sitting actually.

Overall, it was a really amazing concert and I'm really happy that I got to go, especially considering I didn't think I was going to be able to until my friend, Anna, offered me her extra ticket and we got to go together. It was a very fun experience, 10/10.

And that's all I have to say about that.

-Katie

Camping

I believe the verdict is in. I am terrible at blogging everyday. In my defence, I have been quite busy. For example, this past weekend, I went camping.

So on Friday evening myself, my boyfriend and our five friends stuffed ourselves into a van and headed west, to the beach. We camped at Point Farms provincial park, on Lake Huron, and it was a grand old time.

We arrived, set up our tents and then went down to the beach to hang out for a while, we got there just in time for the tail end of a beautiful sunset. It was lovely, spending time with friends and singing the occasional camp song. Later, we went back to the camp site and played "Never Have I Ever" before going to sleep, or at least attempting to.

The next morning we woke up, and I made breakfast for the whole group, as I did the entire weekend. This trip, which I planned and facilitated, really made me appreciate my parents efforts more. All my life, each summer we've gone on a camping trip, and in my early years, we only ever had tents. I commend my mother for her amazing skill and patience for cooking out of a trunk of our car for an entire week. I had enough trouble with it for a single weekend.

Everybody hanging out, waiting for dinner to be ready. 

The cooking part isn't even the beginning of the difficulty. It's the not killing anyone part. Within my friend group, there are three people with life threatening allergies, as well two people with lactose intolerance. We have a vegan as well, but she couldn't make it this past weekend. Anyway, the point it, trying to cook for people with the risk of them going into anaphylactic shock is quite horrifying. The bright side is though, I made it through!

We spent the majority of the afternoon on Saturday at the beach, and then when we all got tired, as teenagers do, we went back to the campsite to have a nap.

Dan and me on the beach, one of us trying to hide from the UVA/B rays. 

After an afternoon nap and dinner, we headed back to the beach for a sunset stroll, and more camp songs. With the sun dipping bellow the horizon, and the fresh breeze in the air, it really felt like summer. Often, when school ends and the summer holiday begins, I put a whole lot of worry into whether or not I'll have adventures during my time off. I want to go places and do exciting things, because if I don't, I feel like I'm wasting my youth. But, I think on this trip I realized something about adventures, it's really not where you go, it's who you go with. Despite the fact that the campground we stayed at was less than an hour from home, and along a beach that I've been visiting my whole life, the trip was still as fulfilling as if I had gone to Hogwarts and returned (well...) because I got to spend the time with some of my best friends.

I think probably one of my favourite parts of the trip was when we all spent some time on the beach in the evening, and after the suggestion of Dan, we all put our hands in the middle of our huddle and cheered "friends!" The best part of it all was that some people walking by heard us and immediately burst out laughing, one of them yelling back to us, "that was cute!" Yes, yes it was cute. 

All in all, the weekend was really an amazing time, and I'm so glad to have spent it with these great people. If any of you are reading this, which is sort of unlikely, you're all super cool, and I'm so glad that we're friends, for most of you, I've only known you for less than a year, but I still feel so welcome in our little group of friends, and I'm so excited for all the future adventures we'll have together. 

Here's to a great summer, and many more, 

-Katie