The Poconos Trip

I had an absolutely great weekend [last weekend- Aug 3-5]!

It started off with a lot of hard work, as me, Ariana, my mom and my grandfather spent almost all day Friday fixing up the apartment. Ariana and my mom began removing the baseboard moldings around the apartment, as well as helped my grandfather do some compounding, while I spent the entire day disassembling the kitchen. I actually took apart just about the whole kitchen almost entirely by myself (having help only to lift the cabinets out of the kitchen). So I'm pretty proud of all the work I got done, especially since I was expecting the job to be a big mess with sledgehammers and all. But I got it done, so that was really cool.

After we were done, I dropped off both my grandfather and my mom at home, and after taking a quick shower, Ariana and I headed back up to Jordan & Maryann's place to meet with the group (Patty, Joe, Gaetano, Kristen, Phil & Ketrin) for our weekend getaway.

Before we headed out, we ordered some pizza and then went to Stop & Shop to pick up some groceries for the following day. Then we took 3 cars (Jordan, Maryann, Patty, Joe, Ariana & me in one; Kristen & Gaetano in another, and Phil & Ketrin in the last car) and headed to the Poconos.

It was a bit of an adventure getting out there, as we got a bit lost, but we all made it in one piece. (And really, what's a roadtrip without getting a little lost?). It was also cool b/c we listened to some Dane Cook on my ipod, and then started to watch Eurotrip on Jordan's portable DVD player.

We settled into the place we were staying (it was a nice, huge Cabin with a loft and a bunch of rooms) and played a bit of Poker, but then we headed to bed fairly early since we had an early morning the next day.

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We woke up in the morning to Gaetano & Kristen cooking an awesome breakfast for everyone. Gaetano made pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips and walnuts in them (but of course I'm a pain in the ass, and only had plain pancakes, lol). They also had bacon, eggs and sausage. So it was quite a feast!

Then Jordan put together a few sandwiches for everyone in the group and we headed over to "Whitewater Challengers" for some Whitewater rafting!

Eight of us went for the rafting (Phil & Ketrin stayed behind), and half of us had never done it before, so we went for only a level 2-3 course. I was one of the people who had never done it before, and I have to admit, I was a bit nervous. I don't know how to swim, and once they warned that it was quite common for people to fall out of the rafts, I was a little freaked out (even with lifejackets). But I've been trying little by little to try new things so I was determined to do it. And I'm glad I did, b/c it was a ton of fun!

I was in the back of the raft the entire time (mostly by choice), and since I was in the back, I basically controlled half of the steering of the boat, so it was a lot of responsibility (especially for a newbie). But we got the hang of it pretty well, and were working like a well-oiled machine by the last leg of the trip. So I was also pretty proud not only of how I overcame my fears and did well, but also of our teamwork.

-After the rafting, we headed back to our cabin, where half the people took showers and started to prepare dinner while the other half of us went to the grocery store to pick up some extra stuff we needed for dinner. Joe wound up making his famous chili (and once again, I had to be picky and have something different, so Ariana made hamburgers for me), and we spent the night eating, drinking and having fun.

We played some poker for awhile, but when it got down to just me, Joe and Jordan people started to get a bit tired/restless, so we played one final "All-In" hand, which I wound up winning, so that was cool.

After poker, we all played Taboo. We split the group in teams of 5. It was me, Ariana, Maryann, Ketrin and Gaetano vs Jordan, Patty, Joe, Kristen and Phil. It was a pretty competitive game, but Jordan's team wound up squeaking out the win by a handful of points. People were getting tired (Joe, Gaetano) and drunk (Ketrin) at this point but Jordan convinced us to start a second round. He was the first person to go for his team, and as he was going through the cards, he got to the card for "Wedding" and he started talking about "this is what me and Maryann have been talking about doing in two years, etc." And people were shouting out answers, but I didn't hear anyone say "wedding." But then I heard Jordan say "did someone say 'Wedding?" and I was about to buzz him for using the word, but then both Kristen and Patty shouted out that they had each already said it, but while I was slightly distracted by Kristen and Patty, I realized Jordan was still talking, and then before anyone knew it, he was down on one knee, with a ring in his hand facing Maryann saying "... will you?"

And all our jaws were on the floor. No one expected it, and he just pulled it off so smooth. He later told us, he had it planned for awhile (and proved it by breaking out some Champagne which he hid and chilled in a downstairs fridge).

We were all so emotional and happy for the two of them. And we all felt so honored that Jordan thought so highly of us to include us in that special moment b/c generally proposals happen either in private or in front of family. It just goes to show that our group of friends really is like a family. We all love and care for each other like blood.

So that event revitalized everyone in the group for awhile and we stayed up a bit longer to celebrate before everyone retired to their bedrooms.

On a funny note, shortly after Jordan proposed to Maryann, a slightly inebriated Ketrin chimed in with "Oh darn it! That means I can't have her now!" This comment (especially the delivery and timing of it), had us in hysterics. I actually fell to the floor I was laughing so hard (and there are pics showing it, lol).

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We woke up pretty early on Sunday b/c we were going to breakfast in the main house. The owners cooked for everyone, and the food was pretty good (another thing I was surprised with b/c on first look at some of the dishes, I didn't think I'd like it, but it turned out pretty tasty).

After we were finished packing, we all went to a see Boulder Creek. Boulder Creek is basically a natural phenomenon. The quick rundown I was given about it, was that thousands of years ago when glaciers melted, it took some rocks with them, and they all landed together in what is now basically a huge field of boulders.

So we went and walked across all the boulders. This was also a big experience for me, b/c when I was younger I was terrified of walking and climbing on rocks. I have terrible balance, so I was always fearful of slipping and falling and hurting myself. So it took a lot of courage on my part to go out there. And I actually went out pretty far, so I was very proud of myself for that.

After boulder creek, we drove over to a walking/hiking trail nearby called "Shades of Death Trail." (Ominous… isn't it?) We walked the trail, and it led to a small beach. The scenery along the way was beautiful, including a small but picturesque waterfall, that we spent some time at.

We spent a little time on the beach and had lunch there. Some of our group went into the water, but I decided not to since I didn't want to be wet for the ride home.

The final leg of our journey took us to a bigger waterfall that we had to take a short hike to. When we got there a bunch of people were diving off the top of it, into the water below. None of us dived (b/c some of us had changed out of our swim clothes already), but it was still cool to look at and take pictures with.

We then started to make our way home. We hit a bit of traffic though, b/c the Poconos Raceway was nearby and their was a race going on that day. So after driving for about an hour and barely moving 25 miles, we stopped at a Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. Dinner was great (I had a smokehouse burger, which consisted of a burger with BBQ sauce, onion strips and bacon- it was freakin delicious). Then we got back on the road and by this time the traffic cleared so we had a pretty straightforward drive home. Jordan popped in the movie Accepted (which I had just purchased earlier in the week and had never seen before) into the DVD player and we all watched it on the way home.

Thank God, we got home without incident, we had to change drivers about 3 times, b/c people were exhausted, but other than that, it was a safe ride home. And once we got home, I'm sure the majority of us passed out, b/c it was quite the busy weekend. I'm so glad me & Ariana were able to free up our schedule in order to go, b/c we missed out on the ski trip last winter, and we regretted that. We had such a great time this past weekend, and it was a true bonding experience for everyone. I want to give a shout-out to Jordan & Maryann for organizing the trip, and another shout-out to everyone else just for being awesome, and helping us all have such a fun time. I love you guys!