Summer Land | Washinton | Rachelle Marie

Hello there! 

My name is Rachelle, and I am really looking forward to showing you around my home state, Washington! I have lived here all my life, and I wouldn't mind keeping it that way. The state is incredibly diverse, and so full of wonders that God has created.

Honestly, Washington is so incredible that I don't think I'll be able to do it justice in this post. I'll try my best, though - let's go!

Western Washington is incredibly lush; there are trees everywhere. Because we get lots of rain, the land is almost always green. There are also many mountains with scenic hikes and stunning views. And the Pacific Ocean is close enough to take a day-trip to.

Eastern Washington feels like an entirely different state. Not only is the weather more intense, there are nearly no trees to be seen, and there are lots of rolling fields and dry hills. It is a really beautiful place to visit, especially The Palouse, a long stretch of different colored fields on hills. There is also Palouse Falls, one of my all-time favorite locations. Washington's diversity is so insane; I love it!

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Washington will forever have a special place in my heart and will always be home. This was only a glimpse of it's beauty, there is much more that I haven't discovered or photographed yet!

Thank you for reading and thank you, Abbey, for letting me share! It was delightful.

(abbey now!!)

shout out to my favorite state in the nation now! i had the opportunity to visit washington for a day this summer and i felt like my face was constantly smashed to the window taking in the beauty. i have never been anywhere like it and i am 100% in love and want to go back. Rachelle has a beautiful blog you can check out here, and go find her on instagram too! i love reading her words and seeing her pictures, she is so talented and i couldn't think of a better way to wrap up this project.

thank you again to everyone who was a part of the Summer Land posts! i have enjoyed every single one and i wish they could go on forever. i know some really great people!

farewell summer land! maybe we'll see you next summer?

Summer Land | Colorado | Erin McCool

Hello everyone!

My name is Erin, and first I’d love to take the time to thank Abbey for featuring some of my photos on her blog! I am from Iowa (holla back, Iowans!!), but I have been living in Colorado for the past two years. I would gladly show you tons of pictures of Iowa, but in general, I’ve found that more people tend to think Colorado is more interesting. Beats me.

So, back to Colorado. To sum it up in one grammatically challenged sentence, Colorado is really, really ridiculously good looking. There’s not a day I drive home that I don’t marvel at how beautiful the mountains are and how fun it is to watch them shift before your eyes as you drive. I love being able to pick out canyons and random landmarks across town. I love how I’m 10 minutes from really excellent hiking trails, but I’m also an hour away from a big city. This is me contributing to an interactive art piece outside the Denver Museum of Modern Art. People are supposed to finish this sentence: “Before I die, I want to…”

What would you write?

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I also kind of really like the granola people. They’re quirky, really interesting looking and they care about things. (yay things!) Also, if you haven’t heard of Chacos, get some. You’re feet will smile for the rest of your life.

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There are a lot of pretty places in the world. However, Colorado has the ability to touch a sense of majesty within myself that I’ve never known before. Here are some photos of some of my hikes around town.

Wildlife is a fun thing to see. Big horn sheep are native to most of Colorado. I stumbled upon this after I crested a hill on a hike, only to find this herd just mad doggin’ me.

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Also, I spotted this itty bitty elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. Isn’t he cute?

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Speaking of, look at this view in Rocky Mountain National Park. The winding creek is stunning.

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This is a mountain goat spotted on top of a fourteener! He’s so woolly! Also, sometimes I feel like I’m channeling my inner mountain goat when hiking a fourteener.

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Now, that gets me on another topic. Fourteeners! Fourteenrs are mountains that are reach above 14,000 feet (trees stop growing around 11,000 ft!) and there are a little over 50 (I think 53) in Colorado. Some super intense people have climbed them all. I have only done 5 to date, but they’re always really beautiful and fun. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

After hiking a Fourteener, it has been my tradition to visit this place that is so obviously blessed by the Lord Himself. Praise Him!

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One interesting fact is that I moved to Colorado the summer of the Waldo Canyon Fire, about which you may or may not have heard. At the time, it was the most destructive fire in Colorado. It was kind of a scary time for me because I had never even thought about wildfires before I moved to Colorado! Also, a lot of my belongings were trapped in a place that was literally encircled by the fire. Gives a new meaning to the simile “spreading like wildfire”. Anyhow, just in case you’re curious, here are some pictures taken during and after the fire.

The last super cool place I want show you is The Great Sand Dunes National Park. This is in southern Colorado and it is SOOOOO cool. The dunes seemingly pop up out of nowhere. Lots of families will go in the spring and pretend it’s the beach. Also, you can “sandboard” down the huge dunes. Sadly, most of my photos from the dunes are on my instagram account (@evmccool if you’re interested in them and other Colorado pics). These two pictures do not do justice, but it does give you a little taste.

Well, that’s all I have for you today! Thank you to Abbey again for featuring me on her blog!  It has been an absolute pleasure to share with you all. Thanks for reading!

(abbey now!!)

wow. what do i even say? first of all Erin i laughed so much because you are hilarious and i can hear you saying all of this! Colorado is beautiful and so different from anything i've seen! i can't say i'm adding it to the list of places to visit because its been at the top of the list since Erin moved there. i loved this summer land but the overwhelming emotion it made me feel was missing my good friend. Erin is one of the most beautiful souls and someone i could always feel 100% at ease with. if you are ever in the same state, or have a chance to meet her i recommend it like i recommend wawa coffee. which is to say all the time and a lot. thank you so much ms mccool for this lovely tour of your home!

Summer Land | Lynchburg VA | Chelsea Francis

Hi! I’m Chelsea Francis, and I’ve known Ms. Abbey Sargent for over 5 years now. I met Abbey when we first came to live in Lynchburg, VA in the whirlwind that is moving to college. Abbey, some of the greatest people we’ve ever met, and myself were shipwrecked two miles from campus at some hotels our college had recently remodeled into dorms. It sounds like a horrible set up to type it all out, but it wasn’t. It was honestly one of the best things that could have happened to me. You know what happens when you’re sort of exiled? You become friends with those around you who are in a similar situation. I wouldn’t change my Lynchburg Inn friendships for anything in the whole world.

But enough about that, and the nostalgia I feel for the Lynchburg Inn.

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Lynchburg! Lynchburg, Virginia is either the worst place in the world or the best place in the world depending on whom you ask about it.  I belong to the second camp of human beings, though I didn’t always.

Lynchburg, VA is nestled right under the Blue Ridge Mountains and because of it’s geological layout and location you can see some mountains from just about anywhere you are.  It reminds me of my Carolina home, which is really close to where Noah’s Summer Land was.

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Lynchburg, through and through, is a college town. There are six sizeable colleges that I can count within Lynchburg city proper or just outside of it. With that being said there is a never-ending supply of college students circulating through the city, and sometimes they choose to stick around past their graduation date. Lynchburg is undoubtedly a launchpad for other places for most of the people who end up here. But this doesn’t make it any less great.

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My husband and I live in downtown Lynchburg, and it’s my favorite. The architecture is very much a hodgepodge of decades, but some new businesses have begun renovating some of the cool old buildings and the city is sprucing up the landscaping downtown. It’s coming along quite nicely. More than anything though, it just feels like home.

Some of Lynchburg’s quirks include the fact that we have a wonderful minor league baseball team that feeds to the Atlanta Braves, quite a few food trucks, a community market, and enough hills to make my calves hurt just talking about them. In the summertime we have a lake that just about everybody and his or her brother shows up to on the weekends. We even have an amazing flower farm! In the wintertime if it snows everything shuts down except for the Domino’s pizza in downtown and the White Hart, most everyone’s favorite coffee shop if they have a favorite. Lynchburg has a wonderful parks and rec department and all kinds of trails, parks and picnic areas that you can use for free. Which is awesome! Lynchburg is also historically rich. There are a ton of markers signifying Civil War era battles and landmarks. A couple of famous people are even from here Ann Spencer (a beat poet and gardener), Keenan Thompson (comedian and best friends with Kel on Nickelodeon), and Connie Britton(Friday Night Lights, Nashville).

That’s about the extent of my Lynchburg knowledge. I’m glad Abbey asked me to write about this wonderful place & I’m glad you read it! Thanks!

(abbey now!)

i cannot even tell you how much i love lynchburg! and something that Chelsea didnt tell you is that half of these images are shot on film! she and her husband tucker own a business called Timber Hitch and you can check it out here! its one of lynchburgs latest gems! thanks so much Chels for this fun run around one of Virginia's finest!

Summer Land | Upstate New York | Heather Cox

Hello everyone! My name is Heather Cox I was super excited when Abbey asked me to be a part of this project! Abbey was the person who got me into blogging in the first place back when we were wee little freshmen in college.  Right now I live in a tiny little town called Fort Ann in upstate NY.  My town is so small our mail isn’t even delivered; we have to go to the post office to pick it up!!
I honestly wasn’t even sure what I wanted to write about when Abbey asked me to be a part of this project, I have only been in this tiny town a little over a year and I was drawing a blank as far as what I loved about it.
So I did some exploring. Surprisingly I was able to find some lovely places I had never really appreciated before.

This is the dock and little park just a few blocks from my apartment; it is by far my favorite place. There’s never anyone there, especially at 6:30am when I normally go, which makes it so peaceful. I featured this place in my blog a while back, but I had to share again, it’s just too beautiful.

I love history, and Upstate NY in general has a lot of great history, especially during the revolutionary and civil wars. The Saratoga Battlefield and Underground Railroad in Greenwich, NY were both things I had heard of but I did not know much of the history here in Fort Ann.

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The Champlain Canal Towpath used to be the canal that went from Lake Champlain to Albany and down to NYC; they used to use donkeys and horses to pull the boats! I found this out from the man who runs this small antique store in our town. We had quite the interesting chat as he told me all about the history of his building (unfortunately he did not want any pictures taken of the outside, I said it was an “interesting” chat). Apparently this used to be a thriving general store in the 1800’s. I was allowed to snap a photo of the inside, this giant door used to lead straight to the canal so they had easy access to get supplies off the boats!!

(This used to be a revolutionary war post, now it’s a bank! )

Now I’ve shown you a few snapshots of my little town, but the thing I absolutely love the most about living here and why I chose this place to feature as my home despite only living here a short period of time. Is these people! I know this really has nothing to do with where I live, but being a bit of a nomad (moving every 2 years since I was 11) people are really what make home, home for me. And these are the wonderful people who make my home J (And we totally forgot to send our Christmas card and these photos needed to see the light of day).

Thanks to my dear friend Abbey for having me on her blog this week and I hope you all enjoyed my home!

(abbey now!)

thank you so much heather for being a part of the summer land project this week! this place is one of my favorite places to visit mostly because of the people! they are like a second family to me and if you are ever in that area, you should stalk them and become friends.

also is it sweater weather yet?

Summer Land | Tanzania | Elsa Klarich

Hi everyone! My name is Elsa, and I'm a humanitarian/missions bush pilot in Tanzania, East Africa. I've been in Tanzania doing medical clinics and emergency/medevac flights for the past year and a half flying a C206. Loving it! The Lord has given me an opportunity to serve the Maasai people in Tanzania by flying doctors and medical supplies into remote areas of the country.

Tanzania is a beautiful and diverse land. I have a few photos of the airplane I fly, the people I reach, the scenery I see on a day to day basis, and a few of the animals native to this beautiful place!

It has been an amazing challenge and experience getting to live in Tanzania, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to get to know some of the Maasai people's beautiful smiles.

The baby clinics are often held under the wing of the airplane, or under a tree. The baby scale is normally hooked onto the wing of the plane or on a tree branch! The pregnant women clinics are held in a little hut that is kept up by the Maasai people. The little one's helping me take the medical supplies back to the airplane...notice the baby on his sister's back.

Hope this gives you all a glimpse of life in East Africa! Thank you so much, Abbey for the opportunity to share!

Blessings,

Elsa Klarich

(abbey now!)

Elsa! thank you so much for being a part of this project! i loved it. every minute of it. (i read it multiple times!) what a beautiful country and people.

Summer Land | Long Island | Brenda Franco

Hi friends! I’m Brenda from Brenda Franco Creative and this right here is my first guest blog post so, naturally, I’m pretty pumped that Abbey asked me to share about the greatest island on earth – especially during the summer months.

Long Island, New York is a treasure. It’s about a 3 hour drive from the east end to the west and about a 40 minute drive from the north shore to the south shore. To the west is New York City, to the east are the famous Hamptons as well as vineyards, farms, and beautiful landscapes that will take your breath away.
One of the most renowned cities in the world – New York City
Manhattan

Brooklyn

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Classic pictures that I’m sure you’ve seen before, but for me, they take my breath away. I can’t spend a summer home and not go here. It is so full of life! Whether it’s Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, or any other place – New York does not lack in character (or pizza, my favorite, and another reason why you should visit this place).

Now to my favorite part of : the water, beach, and ports and port towns of Long Island.

(Port Jefferson)

Montauk – “The End” of Long Island

Long Island Sound – North Shore

And there you have it. Just a little snippet of what a summer on Long Island looks like. Of course, this treasure of an island is made complete by good company and great food (have I mentioned pizza?). It’s hard not to fall in love with this place and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to share a bit of it with you! Thank you so much Abbey!

(abbey now!)

thank you so much Brenda for this visit to new york! i love the pictures and do indeed want to visit! i can not say enough about how great Brenda is! i hardly know her at all in real life but her encouragement and love is hard to compare to. she is a real, genuine soul and if you have any chance to get to know her, i highly recommend it! she is doing a project this summer called The Island Project and you can check it out here! its a really great photography blog and you really get a great feel for Long Island.

Summer Land | Mid West | Natalia Rosa

Hi guys! I'm Natalia from Natalia Rosa. I was excited when Abbey asked me to be a part of this project, because I love Abbey and she's awesome. Then later I was thinking "Why would I say yes to this project? I don't even like living here."

I told my brother and mom about it and they started laughing "You? Write a post about where you live?" Buuut, it's not Winter, and Summer is in this town is one of my favorite things ever. Even though I don't want to stay here for longer then I have to, it's honestly a great place to be from. (I say 'from' loosely, because I've lived in 7 different places in my life already.)

So here's my chance to focus and rediscover the best parts about my town.

Even with a population of 31,730, it still feels like a small town. It's one of the things I have a love/hate relationship with. The people are friendly, there are a ton of families here, and it just makes sense to play country music with the windows down during the summer. When you go to town, it's practically guaranteed you'll see someone you know, but sometimes it feels like there is nothing to do here.

But that's me thinking negatively. I don't have a ton of pictures of the different places, but I'll tell you about them. First off there are the Dunes. We live about fifteen minutes from Lake Michigan. I haven't gone there too much, but as soon as I can drive myself and my friends I want to explore the Dunes more. It's the place to go when school is out according to instagram. It's a nice change of pace to the scenery, and I can't wait to visit it more often.

Downtown, is undoubtedly my favorite part about the town. It's full of character with the distinctive turn-of-the-19th-century architecture, but it has stayed active and alive with little coffee shops, cafe's and restaurants with outdoor eating. During the summer there are concerts at the amphitheater, and once a week they have outdoor movies there.

While we don't have a lot of attractions or places people come to see, we still manage to have fun. There are places you can hang out at that aren't wow, or amazing, but with the right people with you, you can make amazing memories.

There's a putt-putt place that has an arcade, go carts, batting cages and laser tagging (my favorite!). We have a drive in theater that I've never been to, but plan on going in two weeks. We have a regular movie theater, local ice cream shoppes, biking trails, parks, gardens, and little hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

I may be bias, but I think we have the best county fair around. I wouldn't consider myself a 'country girl', but there's something about that week that makes me listen to only country music. I like the animals, the rides, the greasy food and the atmosphere. It's happy, and bright and feels like home.

This summer, I have a list of all the things I want to do, and all the places I want to go see here. We have more stuff to do then I think, and I won't die of boredom. While we aren't a town that makes it on the Top Ten Places To Visit list, it's my home and someday I'll take my kids to visit and all the memories will come back, and I'm glad I get to make my memories here.

***(abbey now!) thank you so much natalia for being a part of this project! i think you captured the beauty of the mid west so perfectly and believe it or not, i want to visit it now! i can almost feel the breeze and the laziness of a drive. it sounds perfect for summer. what do you guys think!?

Summer Land | Bend Oregon | Jared Withrow

Hello, everyone! 

My name is Jared and this is probably the first blog post I’ve written that will be seen by more than 5 people… and the first time I’ve done any thing like this in many years.  It feels good to look through photos and tell a story of my home for 25 years and share with you a few places that I’ve held close!  

Currently I live in a town called Bend (population 80,000) and is one of the most desirable places to live in the Pacific Northwest.  Within 30 minutes of downtown, we have six months of skiing available, mountain biking for the other six months, and hiking year round for anyone that wants to find themselves lost in the wonder of God’s green earth.  The photos I’ve chosen to share highlight places I hold most dear.  I hope you enjoy them!

  ^^Santiam Pass

Anyone driving to Central Oregon has seen the wonderful changes in landscape that the Santiam Pass has to offer.  It transitions from lush valley plantlife with lots of green leafy trees to thick evergreens growing hundreds of feet tall.  Away from the city lights, the summit of the Santiam Pass is a great place to photograph the night sky.  

 ^^Smith Rock  

For many, this is a place to find some of the best rock climbing in the world.  Thousands of routes call many more thousands every year to climb the ancient volcanic rock.  Besides climbing it is one of the most photographed places in Oregon and only a short drive from Bend.  If I ever have company visiting from out of town I will almost always take them to see this amazing place! It’s the icon of Central Oregon if there was one. 

^^Backporch Coffee Roasters

 

So maybe you need a weekend from your weekend outside… Backporch is without a doubt the best purveyor of specialty coffee I have ever had.  Dave, the owner, travels to farms all over the world to harvest coffee with them and bring home a crop to roast here in Bend!  I could talk forever about how wonderful everyone is that works there and the tight knit community that lives there.  

 ^^Three Sisters

  So if you can’t tell already… I love the mountains.  These are the Three Sisters.  Their names are Faith, Hope, and Love.  But the greatest is love right?  Correct!!  The South Sister is the highest of them all and I just had the joy of climbing it last weekend with a good friend.  They all stand at around 10,000 feet and on most days can be seen from any part of town!  

 ^^Tumalo Falls

Are you cold yet? This majestic waterfall froze this winter and a few of us were able to climb it before it warmed up.  I love this place and all the waterfalls that are in the area.  Definitely a classic.  Winter or summer, it is always one of the best hikes around! 

 Deschutes River Trail & Downtown Bend

Maybe one day you just found yourself downtown and wanted to go for a walk.  15 minutes? There’s a path for that.  15 miles?  There’s a trail for that!  The River Trail is one for long conversations with friends and walking the dog.  EVERYONE has a dog in Bend, except me… but I love them all!

A few more…

^^ Sometimes its too warm outside to do anything but go caving! There are 5 caves right outside of town that are such a great way to have fun and beat the heat! 

^^ The Deschutes River Trail as you leave town! So much contrast and beautiful colors in the fall! 

  ^^Crater Lake in the winter.  It used to be a huge volcano but exploded and left a lake behind! 

 ^^ The Painted Hills look like Mars…

I’ve been told that I try to sell this place off as the best place on earth all the time… but honestly it never feels like I’m trying!  Almost every week there is something else that happens to make me appreciate it more.  If you have any sort of itch for adventure this place will act like Miracle-Grow and you might suddenly realize that you crave the sun and outdoors more than ever!  Oh and another thing I forgot to mention is that the Les Schwab Amphitheater brings in many concerts for the summer such as The National, MGMT, or Jack Johnson!  

 I hope you have enjoyed this tour of Bend!  Many thanks to Abbey for the invitation to participate in her Summer Land Project!  It's a great idea and I can't wait to see what others end up sharing! 

***(abbey now!) thanks so much jared for kicking off the project so well! your corner of the world is "pretty neat." (wink wink!) who wants to visit now!? i think i'll start planning my trip, its like a calender... 

i can't wait for the rest of the places we all visit together.  

all photos and content by jared withrow

Summer Land | New Project

^^this picture looks summery and adventurey right?

 

here it is. this summer is going to be the craziest and most fun summer i think i will ever have. (maybe.) its jam packed with weddings, travel, moving, adventuring and exploring. i won't tell you everything because that would just spoil all the fun! but i wanted to do a project that reflects the adventure that this summer will be.

and also i needed help because i'm going to be so. stinking. busy.

so here is the deal. starting the first tuesday in june (tomorrow...) i'm starting a project called summer land. for thirteen weeks i'll be hosting thirteen different photographers/friends as they show you a little about their homeland. since this summer will be full of travel i thought it would be the perfect way to travel america (and a few places around the world) without even leaving our rooms! i couldn't be more excited see these places through the eyes of the people who call it home! i think it will be a wonderful adventure and i hope you ride along with me!

keep your eyes peeled as they say.