WHAT I DO OUTSIDE OF COLLEGE

So I meant to post this a very, very long time ago. But then, my computer crashed, I had to spend a million bajillion dollars to get a new one and that sucked and then second semester started and I was just lazy and anyway, I'm ridiculous.

Here is a new installment of what I do outside of college. No big deal, but I had a pretty awesome trip planned out, all around the (kind of) great state of Minnesota!

Over J-term  break, I traveled over 900 miles and spent over 15 hours in my car. You might say I had a lot of jam time and you might be right. I documented this most epic trip, with terrible pictures that I will now share along with hopefully somewhat entertaining anecdotes. :)

There is most likely no better place to start off this adventure then my grandparent's house in Hardwick, MN, a town not much larger than 300 maybe? Also, yes I took pictures while driving. Terrible driver? Maybe. Fantastic photographer? Still probably not but I'm committed.

Pizza for dinner and my grandmother's comment right before this picture was taken? "You're gonna wonder where that camera has gotten to when it's gone." My aunt and grandpa joined us as well, and it was pretty grand.

Say what you will, it takes skill to capture these signs. This is my exit to take to get back to OWATONNA, but for some reason they think people would rather get to Minneapolis. Fun fact, on this drive home I had to pull over twice to sleep, because I had not had any the night before. However, I was quite awake by this time!

This dolphin was my friend. My air freshening friend. He may make many appearances.

My brother Chris is a shift supervisor at Starbucks. Basically, almost every person of our generation in our family has worked in a coffee shop. At home, I spent a lot time visiting him and chilling with my mom. I thought about adding a tour of Owatonna into this post but that can wait for another time. 

This is what the backseat of my car looked like the entire time of my trip.  Picture taking skills? I'm Awesome. 

One of my favorite cities, going to visit some of my favorite people. I was kind of excited.

This is my cousin Daniel. Also was a shift supervisor at Starbucks but is now a psychiatric assistant at a hospital in the cities. He is probably the only person who is as weird as me and enjoys it! Hence this picture, he posed for it as weird as he could think of. 

I was not driving when I took this picture. I just like the cities :)

This is my beautiful cousin Laresa inside of the restaurant we went to the first night I was visiting. Whenever we get together, it is almost non-stop laughing. She's also Daniel's sister and is currently working at a Starbucks. Coffee and craziness run in the family.

Late Saturday night I took off for Duluth to visit one of the best friends I've ever had, Alyssa Kaplan. I was full awake for this drive AND WAY TOO EXCITED!

Sometimes I got bored in the car... And my dolphin friend was always there to entertain.

DULUTH. Kind of crappy picture, but I did not care. Duluth is probably one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to, especially when you round the first hill and pretty much look out over the whole city. If I hadn't decided on Augie first, I would've tried to find a school here. It's awesome. 

This is my best friend, my confidant, or whatever the heck you call, this woman is uber important. She has always been there for me and is so funny and sweet and insanely special. I am so thankful she's in my life. I spent Sunday and Monday just being with her which is not something we often get to do and I could not have asked for a better way to spend my time over J-term break. 

And although every picture she is in is quite breathtaking I thought this one more accurately portrayed her personality ;) Good thing is I'm like 500 miles away so I'm pretty sure she can't do anything to me. We also have a terrible habit of not taking any pictures together so this is all I got for now. She proceeded to make me breakfast and dinner the next day while I harassed her in an effort to try and make her get her homework done. Yep, I am quite proud to call her my friend. 

This is the race to Concordia College in Moorehead, MN. Fun fact: If you plan a trip using mostly back roads, you can also shave off at least a half an hour of the planned time, because you will be speeding so much. Not that I'm proud of it. But this is also one of the prettiest (is that a word? I don't care) drives I got to experience. I would include all those pictures but that would take forever. There is my dolphin friend again :)

My other best friend. I don't care what anyone says I can have as many as I want and they can all be the best in their own way to me. So there.  I have been friends with this girl since sixth grade and I always will be. We've practically lived at each other's houses over the summer and I will always be around for her, even when she gets a little crazy ;) and I know she'll do the same for me. She currently attends Concordia College and is a straight up baller. We like to take mirror pictures because we know how silly they are. She's also one of the tiniest people you'll meet, so don't be surprise if she sloths you, and climbs you like a tree... Yeah... We're weird. 

After a wonderful date with Allie-sown, I had to head back to Sioux Falls. Coffee was a constant on this trip, and I found some surprisingly good coffee in between Moorehead and Sioux Falls. How? I will never know, because there is pretty much nothing between Moorehead and Sioux Falls, and I was so lucky to find a gas station just in time off of the interstate :)

Sioux Falls exit. Not as clear as the others, but whatever I TRIED!

My dorm after I threw everything around and tried to unpack/organize my books. Home Sweet Augie.

There are so many more pictures I could have included but didn't, otherwise you'd be reading this post forever. I am so thankful I was able to visit all of these friends and family who mean so much to me, especially since Spring Break seems so far away. Best break so far. Even better than Christmas.

And I LOVE Christmas.