Well, Life is good.

San Francisco is treating me very kindly. Right now, as I am writing, I am sitting in a very quaint cafe called JANE after having walked up and down the hills of San Francisco to Fillmore street, about a 30 minute walk from the Adelaide Hostel. Having just finished an amazing bowl of granola, fresh seasonal berries and yoghurt, I am sitting pretty. My creamy almond latte also went down a treat. Today, being my first day off in a while, I decided to do my blog in a different setting than at the hostel that I call home for the moment. Being surrounded by constant chatter and people going about their daily coffee rituals, it creates an awesome atmosphere. It is interesting how there are articles about all major cities and the best cafes that offer wifi. Those are the times we live in. San Francisco is a hub of very portable professions and it seems that people are much more interested in making cute cafes their office. I may be coming around to it! Somehow the hum of constant chatter becomes white noise and the smell of roasting coffee beans, quite motivating.

Time is starting to speed up for me now and I am trying to keep it in check! As my to do list gets longer and my time in San Francisco slowly comes to a close, I am beginning to realise how much I love it here. Perhaps not my forever home, but the extended time I will have spent here was definitely a great thing for me. I am coming up on my 24th birthday and am excited to be headed to Yosemite National park for a proper introduction. My day trip there a couple of months ago was a teaser and definitely not enough to see the real Yosemite. So,  Friday I head out on a three day tour to Yosemite with two nights of camping. I hope keeping busy and doing this awesome trip will keep me from missing home too much.

I figure that you are all over due for a low down of my trip to Bozeman, Montana. Well, the word ‘breathtaking’ probably covers it. In a valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides, the town of Bozeman and all its locals are definitely spoiled with scenery. It was so amazing to catch up with an old friend from my Hogs Breath Cafe days. It was so refreshing to have someone put so much effort into showing me all the brightest highlights of his home.

The first night there, Tom took me to a local watering hole which did the biggest burgers I have ever seen in my life! After the BBQ bacon cheeseburger, I have never been so full in my WHOLE life, but it was so good! The also ask you what you want on the side, fries or salad or chips etc and I got salad. It was DEFINITELY not a side salad! The size of the salad was a meal in itself! The plate was also more like a serving platter size that dinner plate size. So I definitely got to experience real AMERICAN portion sizes lol! I was incapable of doing anything after that so we called it a night, plus we were getting up early to do Yellowstone the next day, so an early night was required!

The next day was the highlight of my trip! Yellowstone National Park.  What a wonder. Having seen pictures, I thought, “that cannot be real!” but it most definitely is! It has jumped to the top of my list of things that I have seen and I cannot stress how much everyone should go there! Its a bucket list destination for sure!  We began by taking the two and a bit hour drive from Bozeman through beautiful scenery the whole way to the Entrance of Yellowstone, stopping in an adorable little town on the way to get brekky from the local bakery, and for me to get my most important Yellowstone National Park shirt. We stopped at the entrance for a photo op and then continued in to the visitors centre and to see Old Faithful Geyser. After watching it erupt and taking way to many photos we continued on to all of the colourful hot spring pools that are, in my opinion, the main event of the park. The were INSANE! No photo shop required to get those colours, its all 100% legit. Apparently it is caused by different bacteria on the rocks reacting with the water that creates the different bright colours, including the most vibrant blues, yellows, reds and greens! Poor Tom had to drag me all over the the whole park so I could see ALL of the pools! If your reading this, THANKS TOM! Im going to let my pictures do the rest of the talking because well if a picture is worth 1000 words, I have way too many pictures.

We finally headed home as I was wrecked from taking too many pictures. Once we got back, we headed straight back out to camp out at the local reservoir. Everyone was saying, “oh its just a reservoir” and “its not even full at the moment” totally playing it down, and I guess these guys are way too used to all the beautiful things around them because it was a jaw dropper! We got there when it was pretty dark already so I didn’t get to see much, but getting up early that morning, I poked my head out of the tent to see the view and was so taken aback! So beautiful!

Unfortunately we had to drive back pretty early as Tommy had to work, so I jumped back into bed when we got back and enjoyed the big bed! Something you start to appreciate when you live in a hostel. I did also get to enjoy some much needed down time during the day and then we headed out to the college football game that night where I had my first tailgating experience! It was so cool, everyone having BBQs and drinking and eating and being merry before the big game. I have also since discovered that if a state has no major league sports teams, their college teams become their obsession! So lets just say its intense!

The next day I decided to say thanks in Louise language to my gracious hosts for having me by baking! I think they were pretty happy with that! That evening on my last night, Tom showed me the town and we bar hopped to a few different places. The first place we went was my favourite! It was a little distillery that did awesome boutique cocktails! SO GOOD. Throughout the whole evening I got to meet every one of Toms friends and apparently he knows everyone, so it was a fun night through out!

On my final morning we went for breakfast and I think Tom wanted to make sure we went out with a bang and that I went home in a food coma. Mission accomplished! Apparently I had to try something called the Bobcat special (the college football teams name) which consisted of….bear with me here….two giant pieces of CINNAMON ROLL french toast, Bacon, two eggs and hash browns all covered in maple syrup! It was ridiculous….ly good! But I felt horrible after haha! Everyone knows me to be a pretty healthy eater in my everyday life and a week with Tom definitely left my stomach a little worse for wear! But it was all worth it! HA! #foodieproblems

So in conclusion, it was an awesome week and I had the best time!

Since returning, I have mostly been working almost everyday and juggling two jobs at times! But I did finally make a trip out to Santa Cruz and took myself my a date day! Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that Come september the boardwalk is in off season, which means that the theme park on the Santa Cruz boardwalk is only open on weekdays, which sucks for us hospitality folk. But I still made the most of it! My day consisted of catching the bus, then the train and then another bus all the way there, which took 3 hours all up! When I arrived I leisurely strolled to the beach, bought a cheap beach towel and proceeded to laze on the beach for a few hours, listening to the ocean, dozing and reading my book. I then headed up to a lovely restaurant on the beach front and enjoyed some fish tacos and a glass of Pinot! All the while, people watching and basking in the joy of my solo date. I then headed into downtown and did some window shopping and a little thrift shopping which is becoming a really fun thing to do! When your on a tight budget, you make it work!

Travelling solo has made me realise there is no shame in enjoying ones own company. Who cares if people think your weird!? NOT ME and you shouldn’t either. I think that everyone should travel alone at least once in their life! And if its not travel, go and do the things that you always dreamed of doing but could never find a person to do it with, so you didn’t do it! We have all met the people that just cannot be deal with doing anything alone. My experiences are teaching me that its so important to become friends with the most important person that you will be with your whole life…YOURSELF. So this is all I’ll say, people who are reading, get out there and DO IT! I also feel that once you learn to enjoy being alone, you appreciate the human connection more and times out with friends become even more meaningful because you are with them because you want to be, and not because you are afraid of being alone.

Well, this is my thought of the week lol! And I hope it goes without saying, thanks for reading!

Love and Kisses!

xx