18.

Ahh. . It was a relaxing trip for the most part and I needed it. We started off going toward Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and made a detour to Philadelphia to go to the Mutter Museum. It is a medical museum of knowledge and human oddities. I forgot to get batteries before we got there, and luckily there were XXX shops all over the place. I thought for sure they would have batteries, since they sell..well...you know. So we went in, asked for batteries, and the guy working the counter said "Well, we don't sell batteries, we give them away with novelties." So we paid him five bucks for a pack of batteries and left to the Mutter Museum around the corner. I was so excited to go see all the interesting items, I got my camera out and was ready. Then...then..the guy who sold the tickets..let me down. He told me you couldn't take pictures or video in the display area, only in the lobby. I was so sad because there was so much to see and take pictures off. They had so many mutated babies in jars, severed and shrunken heads, bottled brains, all different skeleton types and mis-formations. There was so much to see and read about; we were probably in the museum for over 2 hours. I really suggest going if you get the chance, and it isn't a very far drive (about 4 or so hours). And then



we continued our drive to our resort at The Woodlands in Wilkes-barre. When we got to the room, the sequence from The Hangover when they walked into their $4200 hotel room played through my mind. Obviously the room we got didn't cost nearly that much, but it was still very nice and the view from the room was gorgeous. The night we got there, we just made a huge bubble bath and relaxed in the room since it was a bit late. Then the next day was spa day for us and boy did I enjoy it. Alexander's in the Woods is what it was called and it's located right in the resort, and only about 5 minutes from our room! I decided to get the mud massage rub down kinda thing, and my masseuse was named Roberto. He had long flowing brown hair, and as he would walk it would follow behind him like the tail of a majestic horse. Ok, not really, his name was Mike and he had buzzed hair, but it was still relaxing. So I got down to bra and panties and I laid down on this warm blanketed bed. Then Mike started to rub a seaweed/eucalyptus mud all over( don't get perverted on my now..like I said...I was still wearing panties and bra and he didnt go there) and it was warm and felt so nice. Then he had me lay down, and wrapped warm blankets over me and I laid there for 15 minutes. When Mike came back, he used warm towels to massage and remove most of the mud. By the end of it all, I was so relaxed that I kind of swayed back to the room. The next day

was when we went to Scranton ( a town next to where we were) to see some sites and go to some vegan cafe we heard about. It only took about 15 minutes to get there from Wilkes-Barre and parking was alot easier than in Philly. The walk from the car was so cold that we basically ran to the cafe. The cafe is called Eden Cafe' and is COMPLETELY VEGAN. It is a amazing place and the people there were so friendly and helpful to us. I decided to have the (philly) cheese steak sub since I had never had one before and Brandon had the meatball sub. It was delicious and I am jealous we do not have anywhere in Virginia Beach like it. If you ever happen to be near Scranton, PA or happen to pass through it, go there. It is a must for good food lovers and vegans or vegetarians who want to be enlightened by the deliciousness. Next door is a tattoo shop called Marc's Tattoo, also with very nice people, and next to them is a vinyl store called Embassy Vinyl. There was so much to look at, from the box of records labeled "Happy Birthday Jesus Christ" to the painting of a gremlin riding a rainbow unicorn. Brandon found something he was envious of, a signed picture of Andy Kaufman, which the owner was not willing to part with. Another employee at the store reminded me of Bret from Flight of the Conchords; he was wearing plain black pants, had dark hair, and a awesome holiday sweater with dressed up cats on it. We bought some items then proceeded to the casino.

I had never been to a casino before and was pretty excited. It was called the Mohegan Sun I believe and was laid out like a big circle. We got some money out and proceeded to gamble. I wasn't really sure how to do it and I had lost Brandon. So I sat down and tried to figure out what some of the buttons meant. I lost $5 in 1 minute and was still confused on how to play. I wandered around until I found a machine that looked simple. It had diamonds on it and was a 1 cent machine that you had to bet atleast 25 cents at once. Right away I liked it, it was easy and I won $48! I lost some but walked out with $20 and the fact that I figured out how to play. After that we went back to the resort for a bit to charge the GPS then went out for dinner. I let Brandon pick where we went, so guess where...Eden. This time I had the grilled cheese and bacon with vegetables and Brandon had the sampler tray ( I have no idea how they made some of the items look so real and taste so delicious) and pork bbq sandwich. Since he got to pick dinner, I wanted to go back to the casino (I don't have a problem, I can quit when ever I want to ). We played for a bit, I got some more money and we headed back to resort for the last night.

Took one more giant bubble bath and relaxed for the ride home the next day. We heard about a vegan bakery that is pretty famous, only about a hour away and on our way home. It is called Vegan Treats( http://www.vegantreats.com/ ) and believe me, so good that we had to get one for Jessica for watching the furry kids and some for family on Christmas. So to sum it all up in some words ; relaxed, yum, win money, yum, sleep. If you need to known more information so you can go to any of these places, just contact me and I would be more that happy to tell you.

Update on 9. - Found Bottle

I wondered how long it would be and how far my bottle would travel. Well, I got my answer tonight from a fellow named john and his friends when I was reading my emails. This is the email i received:

Hi Ashley’

I was considering putting it up on ebay in its original condition. . Just kidding! I was hoping to fulfill my own fantasy of finding a treasure map but instead we found a treasure of a fantasy in the making.

We sat around the table trying to guess what mystery was on that paper. We, Jody, Linda and me john lingered for while before cracking it open. We had fun guessing.

I don’t know were in Va Beach it departed from. It was found in Va Beach at 7:37 AM at Cape Henry - Fist Landing - Fort Story.

I’m going to send a photo with this email and other to follow with their own emails.

Cheers!

john

-----------------------------------------

I was even lucky enough that they sent pictures ( They actually have a camera besides a phone so their pictures are much better!). So i threw the bottle on Thursday Oct 8,2009 from the 22nd street pier and the bottle was found Tuesday October 13, 2009 at Cape Henry-First landing, totaling about 10.7 miles from one point to another. This has been a fun adventure and I am very glad i did it, and it also brightened someones day.

9.

I finally figured out what I wanted to write. I searched out my ink and quill like pen and got to writing. I wrote a little about why I was doing it, how they could contact me, and how I hope someone will find it. Just so it wasn't a boring looking letter, I decided to have fun with it. I got a lighter and burned the edges and some parts of it, but ended up having too much fun with fire and set off the smoke alarm. That sound always puts Boris into freak mode. He starts to whine, run around and look at me like the world is ending. At least I know if the house was ever on fire and the alarm wasn't enough to wake me up...Boris would let me know.

Then I tore off the paper from an old wine bottle and cleaned it out. After it was dry enough I rolled up the paper and stuffed it inside. I sealed the bottle verrrry tight then used super glue on the edges. After that was dry, I used my wax set and sealed it up and engraved an "A" on the top with my wax stamper. I always enjoy using my wax stamper, it just makes everything look more official. Also, I always end up burning one of the tips of my fingers from the dripping wax.

So the longest and hardest part of this was finding somewhere to throw it. I asked a few people if they knew anyone with a boat; I looked into ferry's; but ultimately I ended up going to a long pier at the ocean front. So I gathered my bottle and headed down to the pier. It was beginning to get dark so i hurried to the end of the pier, but to my surprise there was people everywhere! By the looks at it, it was official go fishing day and stand all around the pier edges so Ashley has no where to throw her bottle. I decided to wait a bit and just relax on the bench and watch some waves and gulls. That turned into over an hour of me just sitting there, watching waves and thinking different thoughts ( I had a good time just sitting and thinking). I looked around and saw a open spot and headed towards it. It was freezing at this point, so I went over, took a firm hold of the bottle and threw it as far as I could. Everyone that was around me instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at me and what I had thrown. There was a ominous talk of "what was that", "what did she throw", and "weird", but I just turned around and started to walk off the pier. I had a sense of " I did it" and just glad I was heading to my warm car! I hope someone does find it, and not a day from now but in a while. Also, if any of you actually find it, humor me and contact me.

25.

I have been excited for over a week about going! I thought I wasn't going to be able to go due to funds being low but it worked out. It was initially going to be Marco, Glo and I and we invited Jess to go as well. The day before we are to leave for a early trek, Glos' babysitters call out and Glo is unable to go due to no one being able to watch Lucy( her daughter).

So Marco, Jess and I meet up at the shop ( where Marco and I work) and we leave around 6:20 a.m. in Marcos new car he just bought...a Mercedes Benz..ballin. We head onto the interstate, pass some tolls, and everything was going smoothly. Then somehow we got off course and ended up in a little ass town. We were maybe off our course by 20 or so miles; then we proceeded back to where the last exit was. As we were driving along through the town, we find our exit and get to the on ramp. I noticed a cop car and let marco know and we pass him. As soon as we do, i look in the rear view mirror and notice him moving and turning our way. I joked saying " Uh-oh..he's coming for us!" What happened next..we got pulled over on the ramp. He said he got us going 40 in a 30 and Marco said he could have sworn he saw a sign saying 40. He issued us a paper warning and was actually nice, then we headed back on our journey.



What made time go by pretty fast was the comedy stations on sirius radio. We were all laughing a lot, and then pointing out unusual visual stimulants. We got to Six Flags in decent time, taking about 6 hours. It was a perfect day for going to an amusement park; the weather was sunny with clouds and a light breeze, and the park was not too crowded. We didn't wait longer than 30 minutes for any ride and we got to go on everything we wanted to. At the park, we rode a couple warm up rides to get in the swing of things. Then we make our way to..dundun..dundun..dundundun Kingda ka! The tallest and faster roller coaster in the WORLD! The line was not too long as we made our way to the loading docks. We picked our seats out and waited in line for our turn. The turn style doors opened and we got into our seat, got locked down, and were rolled out to waiting area on the actual coaster. The guy at the mic saying some words that were mumbled by the speaker and then our train of seats was being slowly pulled back. We all kind of look at each other for one last nervous smile then it shot us off! We went up the first part at 128 MPH in 3.5 seconds and proceeded to the drop. When you get to the top(456 feet), you sit there for a minute and get to look straight down and you don't see the coaster floor, just the hill your going to next. Then you plummet down while screaming and laughing from excitement. Before you know it, the ride is over. It was a lot of fun but seemed to be over too fast, I wish it would have been a little longer of a ride.


Marco, Jess and I went on a bunch of over rides but the one that topped them was El Toro. It has the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the country, measuring around 76 degrees. It had drop after drop, crazy turns and we were all laughing from the amount of fun it was. Jess kept telling me I looked like the bride of Frankenstein on the coaster because my hair would stand straight up every time we went down a hill. We walked around, got pictures with some characters (some including the flash, batman,pepe' le pew), then headed back to our car for the long ride home. If you could have seen us, we were all so exhausted and poor Marco had to drive. Jess and I were lucky to be passengers on the journey home so we could bob in and out of sleep. I tried so hard to stay awake the whole time, but I failed. About a couple hours away from home i could feel myself falling asleep and I didn't want to leave Marco driving alone so I would sit up , shake it off and play with the radio stations. We got back to the shop , said our good nights and got into our separate cars to head home. I arrived home around almost 1 a.m. and slinked into the shower to wash off the sweat and try to comb my hair. As soon as I laid into bed..boom..I was out. Even though I had to work early the next morning, I had a lot of fun and would do it again.

38.

So Glo and I went to Natural bridge on 9/20/09 and had such a blast. We went to four locations; foamhenge, the caverns, haunted monster house, and dino land. The caverns was the main goal, to accomplish number 38. It was so hot that day, we were sweating so much and becoming exhausted but we didn't let that stop us. Foamhenge was sort of a extra, we stumbled across it on the way to the attractions. When we got to the natural bridge location we walked inside looking for the ticket booth and we wanted to get fanny packs (everyone and their mother was wearing one ah ah). We didn't find any regular ones, only fanny packs with water holders. So we got our tickets and went to the caverns first to cool off( it stays around 54 degrees in there). The caverns were alot of fun and the formations had some funny names, like cave bacon. After our tour we went to the dino park while we waited for the tour guide for the haunted monster house, which was a hike up a hill with artifacts hidden in the trees and sidewalks. The haunted attraction was very fun and had a lot of neat details to it. We took pictures everywhere we could and had a lot of fun doing so. I recommend anyone to go here, as it has a little something for everyone taste. Another one down, a lot more on the list to go. More pictures are on myspace.com/brains4me

29.

So we bought a house a little over 5 months ago. It is a three bedroom, two bath, nice size back yard, garage, and I love it. I suggest to anyone, if you are renting...stop. Buy a house; you will be so much happier then throwing away your money every month. So i have been spending a lot of my time making the house into my dream home. I got new furniture, took down and painted the cabinets in the kitchen, took down the out dated wallpaper and am putting up new wallpaper soon, and am making it my own. I am so happy to not have people banging on the walls early in the morning, yelling at parties above me, and not having anywhere for Boris( our lab/ame. bulldog X) to run and play.

7. & 10.

Seth Green and Matt Senreich (creators of robot chicken) did a traveling tour called The Robot Chicken Roller Party to promote their new DVD(Robot chicken star wars 2). I have had a crush on Seth Green since I was 13 and love his work. So my friend Jessica and I went to Henrico county in Richmond (one of the 8 stops) for the roller party on August 10, 2009. We had passes we got from the movie to get hour early entrance. It was extremely hot that day and we must had sweat gallons and we were so dehydrated. It was well worth it though; to see every one and have a awesome experience to remember. We meet Seth, Matt, roller skating storm troopers, and many other persona's. I also had never been roller skating before so I had to learn while there. Surprisingly I picked it up fast and was able to skate with Seth Green and get a picture with him. It is blurry due to us skating around and me only having a camera phone; but we know what happened. If I could, I would do it all over again any day.