Land Between the Lakes

Well hello there! I know you have all been waiting to hear about my (Abby J) trip to Kentucky. For those of you who did not read about it earlier. I signed up to go on a camping, kayaking, and hiking trip in Kentucky over Thanksgiving break. It was on a whim and I knew nobody that was going.

Anyhow... I am alive still! So that's good news. :) Here is the full trip in detail....

First off I would like to explain to you all about the group that went. There were 14 people total. We had four leaders and 10 participants. It was quite the group let me tell you. We had 2 guys from Singapore, 1 girl from Malaysia, 1 girl from Korea, 1 guy from Australia, 1 older lady who was quite the adventurer, 2 girls that were fashion majors, 1 girl who was a graphic design major, and me! :) What a group!

We left Ames in a 15 passenger van and a truck that pulled all the kayaks and canoes. We left at about 6pm and the destination for the night was St. Louis where we would be staying at a luxurious Motel 6! The ride was mostly filled with sleeping and listening to my iPod. The truck hit a deer along the way so that was pretty exciting! Everyone was fine except the deer. We made it to St. Louis at about 1am. We all packed into the rooms and crashed because we had to wake up at 6 am the next morning to get on the road and drive another 4 hours to our destination. Which was Kentucky Lake.

Once we got to the Lake at about noon we unpacked all of our gear onto the beach of rocks and then we started packing our kayaks. This was quite the learning experience for me let me tell ya... I over packed surprise surprise! So I had to leave some clothes behind in the van. The plan for the week was that we would kayak for 3 days and camp along the way then hike the last day. So once I figured out how to pack up my kayak we ate lunch which was deli sandwiches. During that time two of the leaders drove the vehicles up to the ending point for the last day then drove back down to where we were in the other car. Once we had everyone ready to go it was time for my first kayaking experience! weeeeee!

Once we got on the water, which was also a process for the whole group, things were a bit shaky. The sun was shining but it was really windy and there were some pretty sweet waves... for a lake. However, those waves were not so sweet when our graphic design girl flipped her kayak :( burrrrr! The water was realllllly cold. So they tried to pull her into the canoe to get her to shore but then the canoe flipped over too!! So there went all of our food for the week..... jk it was in a dry box. So the people in the water had to swim to shore and drag the dry boxes and canoe to shore. So that was the end of kayaking for day one. The rest of us that were still in our boats had to paddle around the bay and beach the boats. We set up camp for the first night and started making dinner and drying stuff off. Dinner the first night was Gato Gato (not like the Spanish cat, the t sounds more like a d when you say it. I just assume this is how you spell it.) What is this weird dish you ask? well it is spaghetti noodles with a bunch of yummy veggies chopped up and then a peanut butter sauce. Sounds kinda gross huh? I am here to inform you that it was delicious. :) The rest of the night included staying warm around the campfire and going to bed super early because it was dark and what else did we have to do?

Day 2 was much more successful. We did not however wake up at the planned 6am due to the continuing rain from the storm the night before. We all got up at about 7:30am and made breakfast, which was crunchy french toast, so delicious! This is where you mix oatmeal and almonds into the egg solution and cover the bread in it then put it on the pan. Best french toast I have ever had! After breakfast we cleaned everything and packed up our drenched tents and belongings. We got everything into the boats and then off we went. We paddled about 6 miles this day. We stopped along the way for some lunch which was pizza pitas. This is where you take pita pockets and fill it with pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Tasty. :p We also had a consistent supply of GORP! GORP stands for good ol' raisins and peanuts, basically trail mix but its more fun to say GORP. During our 6 miles of paddling that day we got drenched. Even though we were pretty wet anyway from the constant rain from the night before. It was so amazing when it was pouring when we were on the lake. It was decently warm outside so it wasn't miserable. But I will tell you that I absolutely hated rain until this trip. I have always been very angry when it rains on me and I get my clothes soaked. Had I not gotten over this the first day by changing my attitude towards it I probably would have been miserable the whole time. That night we found a pretty sweet camping place. We were elevated a bit on a flat above the water. The rain eventually turned into a mist that our bodies were used to by then that we didn't even notice. We set up camp and even though everything was wet one of our leaders (who is an eagle scout) and the Australian guy (Andy) got the fire going. Amazing! So we were all holding up our sleeping bags and clothes around the fire to try to dry them. Dinner for the night was stir fry. We all pitched in when it came to cooking. I did a lot of veggie chopping. After cleaning up from dinner we hung out around the fire until it started raining again and we all went to bed. That was the worst night of all. Terrible wind and lots of rain.

Day three we woke up at 730am again because of the rain. We made breakfast which was banana pancakes which were also very good. I have never had banana pancakes until then. There were a lot of things I hadn't tried or liked until this trip. Once again we got our boats packed and started out on the water. It was a bit chilly this day. We paddled like 7 miles and we stopped for lunch during those miles. Lunch for the day was pasta salad wraps. This was a mix of waky mac, veggies, and Italian dressing on tortillas. So good I just made some at home today! We also had snickers with lunch so everyone was on snickers power the rest of the paddling. We probably could have made one of those ridiculous commercials that snickers makes. At about 230pm we found our final destination! We had made it to our final camping spot for the trip. This is where we stayed for two nights. Our reward for getting all the way there was Oreos that were in the truck. yummmm! We got everything off the boats and two leaders went and got the van from the starting point. We loaded up all the boats onto the trailer and set up camp. It was dryer this day so our stuff got a change to dry out a bit. We were still pretty cold though because it was the coldest day of the trip. So we waited patiently for Andy the Aussie ;) to start our fire. However, all the wood was wet so it took a while. The night was filled with making dinner, cleaning up, and hanging around the campfire. We went to bed a bit later since it wasn't raining.

Day 4 was hiking day! Finally a chance to use our leg power instead of our arms. We woke up and made breakfast as usual which was breakfast burritos. We ate and cleaned up everything and got ready for the hike. The first part of the day was slow going for our hike. Not everyone was at the same pace so Andy and I hiked ahead pretty much the whole time. For me I have fast legs and Andy just had really long legs. We hiked about 5 miles and made it back to camp at 2:30pm. Some of us decided to go for another hike. We hiked about 6 more miles. My knees were really unhappy at this point. Once we made it back to camp the fire was already started. yay! We proceeded to make dinner and whatnot. The last night we just hung around the campfire and shared funny stories. Then went to bed to wake up at 5:30am the next day for our long venture home.

Day 5 was our 10 hour ride back to Ames. I slept, listened to music, and watched a movie. It was a really great experience and I have learned to appreciate outdoor activities more. Sounds really corny but it was an amazing time! I would recommend for everyone to sign up for one of these trips. I plan to go caving in New Mexico in December. So that'll be a good story too I'm sure.

My packed Kayak

Some of the gang paddling away

Day 1 disaster round up

My Kayak day 1

look really close you will see the gross daddy long leg

delicious veggies!

Dry box full of food

get our cook on

putting leaves on the fire, not the best idea

just hanging out

Thema Fly, where the leaders and Andy slept.

Tent that I stayed in with 2 others

trying to dry our stuff

truck with all our boats

doing the dishes

beautiful view

T-Gives

Gobble gobble gobble. Happy Thursday! Today is the Thursday before T-gives break. Personally my favorite holiday. (Abby J) Any-who, I'm here to tell you a little about what is going to happen with the blog over break. I will be leaving Friday to go on a super adventure! I signed up to go on a trip to Kentucky where we will be kayaking, camping, and hiking for four days. This is completely outside of my comfort zone so I had to give it a try. You see... I'm on this whole new page of trying (mostly) everything I have a fear of or things I have never done. So here is the low down on the trip... I am leaving Friday in some sort of ISU vehicle with 14 other people. We are driving to St. Louis and spending the night. Then waking up at the crack of dawn to finish our drive and be on the water by noon. I have never kayaked so I'm stoked. Then the plan is to kayak on the lake each day and then camp at night. The last day we will be hiking and then leaving early the next morning. It is going to be a crazy trip and I will blog all about it when I come home. 

In the meanwhile, Abby O may take over the blog and write mean things about me then delete them before I come home... who knows?? Or, she may blog about her T-gives break experiences to keep you entertained for the week. She is in charge of her family's T-give din din so that could be a story in its self! ;) 

Hopefully we get one more story in for you all before we both depart for awesomeness tomorrow night. But until then... ta ta for now.

Capanna

Hello g's and gent's, ladies and such. Capanna (kuh-pahn-uh) Café is our third victim for review. They have 3 locations: one in Iowa City, one in North Liberty, and one in our lovely town of Ames. They serve your typical café beverages, including lattés, mochas, cappuccinos, and fruit smoothies...you know, the usual. BUT one mind-blowing perk that this place has is gelato. Don't know what that is? Google it. Jk we've done that for you. According to the ever wise, know-it-all Wikipedia, gelato is "the italian word for ice cream and sorbet. Italians use the word gelato to mean a sweet treat that is served frozen. Indeed, gelato just like ice cream is made with Milk, cream, various sugars, flavoring including fresh fruit and nut purees." It has less fat and less sugar content than ice cream and the flavors are so much more refreshing. At Capanna they have fruity flavors such as mango, peach, lemon, and even raspberry jalepeño. Their sweet flavors include skotcharoo, chocolate-hazelnut, turtle mocha, wedding cake, and your plain old chocolate, as well as a variety of other lip smacking flavors that are all made fresh daily.

The coffee is pretty fantabulous too! We weren't feeling too explorational tonight so we stuck to our usual order of a turtle mocha for me (Abby O.) and a caramel latté for Abner J. To be honest, it was comparable to Caribou or Starbucks, which we love both, however nothing really stood out to our taste buds. The strawberry smoothie on the other hand...phewfta! It was like eating a strawberry injected with orange juice which I loved! Fresh flavor and not too sweet. Happiness in my tummy.

On to the service and atmosphere. The ladies that work here are friendly AND the best part is they let you taste-test the gelato. MMMMMMMM! A cozy little area is nestled on the side of the café with a couch and chairs that are so plush they practically swallowed us whole. Talk about the unexpected. But they do offer a very comfy place to crochet (pics of Abby J below). FUN FUN FUN. Wi-Fi is available and plenty of locations for computer chargers are available for those who need a good hangout while they study or work or just plain want to procrastinate and Facebook creep or surf our personal favorite website, Pinterest. There are also oddly enough children's books in the cozy nook area! So if you want to catch up on your childhood reading this is the place to go!

All in all, a great little coffee shop! You've GOT to stop in and try the gelato. It's gelicious.

Abner crocheting

VEGGIE TALES and BERT AND ERNIE!

Café Milo

Greetings faithful followers. Today we have completed our second café review. Our place of interest for this lovely Saturday was Cafe Milo. There is no better way to start your day than with exploring a new coffee shop and meeting some awesome new people.

As soon as we walked into the cafe Abby O thought that it would be somewhat like a Panera knock-off. The atmosphere was similar to the feel of Panera when you first walk in. There are a lot of windows and it has a warm feeling. However, Cafe Milo has an amazing feel of its own. After taking a look around we decided that the ambiance was a mix of urban with a touch of Victorian. What would this look like you may ask? Well the cafe has open ceilings and brick lined walls. This gives it the urban feel. Then when you look around at the furniture there are these Victorian style chairs and couches. Cafe Milo does a great job at combining these two styles.

I know, I know you all want to hear about the coffee! Look no farther, the coffee drinks we tasted today were AMAZING! I, Abby J, decided to go outside my comfort zone (which is caramel) and tried an eggnog latte. I was a bit apprehensive because I usually order what I know I will like so I will never be disappointed (adventurous right?). However, the whole idea behind this cafe review is to try new stuff. Abby O ordered the toffee nut macchiato. What is a macchiato you may ask?? It is A LOT of espresso with a dash of milk or cream. Simply delicious. She was bouncing off the walls like a kangaroo bouncing through the down unda'. Not only did we just try the drinks today we had some delightful pastries. I had the double chocolate chip muffin and Abby O had a cinnamon roll. We give both four thumbs up.

After trying out our beverages and pastries of choice we decided it was time to talk to the employees to get a better feel of their service side. We had the pleasure of talking to Young Nate, Old Nate and Natalie "the jankster." From talking to these three awesome employees we found out that Cafe Milo has been kickin' for about 7 years. These three told us that they LOVE working there and that they always have a great time. We were curious about whether the employees had any influence on some of the beverage flavors that are at Cafe Milo. We were pleased to find out that yes, they sure do! Young Nate even told us he was hoping to create a cinnamon roll flavor. (sounds delicious!)


Cafe Milo has a wide variety of drinks, breakfast foods, and lunch items. The drinks range from hot coffee, hot non-coffee, cold coffee, smoothies, and more! Not only do they have pastries for breakfast food, they also have breakfast sandwiches. Their lunch menu includes sandwiches ( garlic roast beef reuben, spiced Italian, hot roast beef, smoked turkey club and more), 3 soup choices, and the typical salads. There are also vegetarian choices too.

Something unique about Cafe Milo is that they have a featured artist every month and they display their work. Some of the work is for sale depending on the artist. If you ever run into a piece that you are dying to have, Young Nate said he could hook you up with the artist for further details.

One more thing that we LOVED about Cafe Milo is that right now they are selling the CD, Lullabies for Africa. The CD's are $20 and proceeds go to different countries in Africa. What a neat idea! Serving coffee and saving the world :)

Vinyl Cafe

Ello Poppets! So today we had our first café review experience (it was exciting YES INDEEDEE!) We just happened to stumble upon the café while cruising the Main Street area and decided to pop in. Abby was a bit apprehensive at first because it's underground, but Abby thought that it looked like an awesome little coffee cave ;) Opening the door we got blown away with a waft of that sweet smell of coffee...aaaahhh yum. The atmosphere is what intrigued us first. Crates of classic rock records lined up against the wall, the feeling we got was instantly one of vintage awesomeness. 

Let's get down to the good part: coffee. Looking over the list of syrup flavors offered (ranging from blackberry, mango, and pomegranate to white chocolate, macadamia, coconut, COOKIE DOUGH and much more), it was a tough choice.  I decided on a Marshmallow & Chocolate Latté and Abs got a Caramel Latté. Oh em goodness, that first sip sent us floating on a cloud in coffee heaven. The drinks were so smooth and the perfect amount of sweet and bitter. 

We got to talking to the owner Ben, (an amazingly nice young guy), and learned that he and his wife opened up the place about a year and a half ago. The genius idea came about because his wife wanted to open a coffee shop and he wanted to open a record store. So they meshed their ideas together and opened a "vinyl café". Tubular. 

So, what's so great about the atmosphere that would make you want to come in for a spot of tea (or coffee or record shopping?) In our pictures, you will see a huge painting of Jimi Hendrix that Ben's wife painted. Art from local artists is found hanging on their walls for sale and adds to the abstract atmosphere they have going on. As mentioned before, there are crates that line a wall FILLED with vinyl records ranging from The Bangles to the legendary Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Fleetwood Mac, and sooo many more. There is also a whole room dedicated to albums for you vinyl collecting fellows out there. Another picture shows an old record player in the corner, there are guitars set up on display to add to the classic rock theme, and best of all Ben's wife actually MAKES clocks out of old vinyl records. Crafty. And best of all the clocks and some old record players are for sale! Very reasonably priced. The records are all individually priced by popularity and how rare they are. And if you're looking for some hand-made jewelry, well hey, they even have that! 

Walking in, this place instantly sent me back to my childhood of listening to old rock bands with my mama (and c'mon, who doesn't love reminiscing about their childhood days, eh?). Long story short, LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. We'll definitely be going back to this hot spot coffee cave. So next time you're in the area stop in! It is located on Kellogg Avenue just about a block south of Main Street. And as for the coffee itself, we give this place FOUR THUMBS UP.

Drink on, Rock on.

(Here is a link to their Facebook page. "Like" their page to view more picture and then stop in and say bonjour to Ben and his wife!)

http://www.facebook.com/vinylcafeames

Welcome to Our World

Hello World!

So here is the low down on The Epicness of Abby Squared. Once upon a time there were these two lovely girls named Abby. How in the world did they not find each other until they were 18?! Well its simple really...We grew up like 3 hours apart. We have decided after two years of being best friends that it is time to share our lives with who ever cares to read. The title of our blog is solely related back to the idea that it never fails something epic always happens when in the presence of each other. We will be blogging weekly, daily, hourly (depending on the rate of epicness) about our adventurous lives so we hope you enjoy our stories!

So how did we actually meet you ask? Its a REALLY great story... So freshman year of college (Aug. 2009) we were both going through formal recruitment. (whoooops!) It wasn't love at first sight I'll tell ya... we both admit now after we are friends that our first impression of each other was that "omgosh she looks like a beotch!"After bid day ( day where you find out which house you are in) we found out we were in the same house and somehow just became best friends that day. (August 20, 2009 to be exact. Told you it was a great story) So as life goes on we come to find out we have a lot in common and that we always have a great time hanging out. Then second semester of freshman year. Abby O did not have a roomie so Abby J moved in with her and the EPICNESS really began. (Stories to come in the future.)


Something to look for in our future posts:

We are going to be going around to different coffee shops and cafe's and reviewing them. Get excited to find out about some really great hang outs!