spring break!!!

My sister just got back from spring break. For a while I thought she was dead because she wasn't answering my emails, but then I remembered that she's in college still and it's the spring. Her trip into the mountains of California sure beats the living crap out of Cancun. It sounds so amazing that I want to remember it:

Spring break!!! I told you that!!! I was in a cabin in the mountains with no electricity! For most of it anyway. The first night we stayed at a hot springs somewhere like six hours north of here. Outside it was something like zero degrees, but the hot springs were amazing. What's especially cool is that it ups your body temperature so much that after you get out you have like a ten-minute window that can be spent running around naked in the snow before you start to freeze. We set up our camp stove right at the edge of the springs so we could cook (and eat) our refried beans and tortillas without getting out. In my infinite brilliance I also left all my clothes right at the edge, thinking I'd be able to jump right into them when it was time to get out and go to bed. Of course what actually happens when it's zero degrees and you leave your clothes at the edge of a hot springs is the steam from the hot springs gets on the clothes and the clothes freeze solid. Awesome. That night I pretty much had to wear my sleeping bag. Same deal the following morning, because the clothes certainly didn't thaw out in the night.

So then we hiked to the cabin in the eastern Sierras. No electricity or running water but it was still pretty awesome--there was a propane tank so we had heat and a working oven. We made SO MUCH amazing food, all vegan stuff because of Sophia... like some stews that were among the best things I've ever tasted, and spice bread and cake and banana bread and cinnamon rolls and pancakes... and we drank wine and whiskey in the evenings and had massage circles in front of the fire, and in the daytime there was some epic sledding and amazing hikes in the mountains. We did a day hike on Thursday to the top of Lee Vining peak, which was a 5-mile hike through about a foot and a half of snow (snow shoes the whole way! so badass!) with a four-thousand foot elevation gain. REALLY steep. But the awesome thing is that even though it was hard I never felt like I couldn't do it, and the view from the top was absolutely spectacular. Heh and at the top we took a picture of ourselves naked in the freezing cold. Also very badass.

Then we spent the last two nights camping in Death Valley, which involved skinny dipping (yeah I know there's a theme here) in a freezing waterfall and rock climbing barefoot. We also went to some huge sand dunes, and the sand was like a million degrees but shoes are for chumps so we walked barefoot over them for like a mile. Then we got to the top of a really high one and took a naked picture there too. Last night we were driving a really long time looking for a place to camp, and I think we might have been in Nevada by the time we found this little cave halfway up a big pile of rocks. I slept out on the ground because I didn't relish the thought of waking up and realizing I had to pee and then realizing I couldn't because I was in a cave, but we did hang out in there for a few hours and cook dinner and watch the stars.

So I think that's about all. I just got done with my first shower in a week and I'm thinking I should probably clean up the horrendous mess in my room.

How's everything going now?

Maybe if I read her email enough I'll think I experienced that instead of my own "vacation," which involved hikes to H&R Block, the hardware store, Bed Bath and Beyond, and the Staff Caff.