5/17/16 First thing’s first: Happy birthday dad!! Sorry I didn’t have service to text you all day (and I’m probably going to post this tomorrow morning if I have wifi before I go to work). The wifi here is pretttty terrible. Although I am beginning to appreciate not feeling the need to constantly have my phone or constantly check my phone because I know I won’t have anything. It’s refreshing. However, there are downsides. It is quite difficult to make plans with friends when phones don’t work. We learned that the hard way today.

Today was the first day I could actually see the mountain. There was not a cloud in the sky on my walk to work in the morning. The temperature was perfect, the sun was out, the snow is melting, all in all a perfect day. I was lucky enough to have an 8 hour shift at work on this perfect day, and meanwhile I have friends who went snowshoeing and hiking. BUT I did still have time to take the shuttle down to Longmire with my friends Trevor, Kayla, and Kelly to do some trails down there. We were supposed to meet our friend Natalie down there too, but she wasn’t down there when we arrived so we don’t know what she did. (Reason why phones would’ve come in handy). Nonetheless, we had a great time. We hiked probably around 4.5 ish miles. It is SO nice having people around who appreciate nature and scenery just like I do. I love all my friends back home/Orlando dearly, but it’s lovely to have my comments about nature or the beauty of the sky or trees validated rather than shrugged off. This may be premature, but I really do believe these are friends I’ll keep for quite a while.

I'm going to try to upload some pictures but if they don't work I apologize.

View from my room on a clear day ^ and hiking pictures below: