Hello lovely people of the blog-o-sphere! After my recent hiatus, I have returned with updates on some of my recent adventures. First of all, I went to Pennsylvania for a little over a week to visit family. While there, I took the opportunity to visit sights that I had not yet seen in Pittsburgh. It was fun pretending to be a tourist! I visited the Strip District, Spaghetti Warehouse, and the Incline. Pittsburgh's idea of an incline differs greatly from the one in Manitou Springs. Instead of climbing up 1,000 feet in elevation on old railroad ties, you can just sit on the Pittsburgh Incline and let it carry you up and down. It took less than three minutes each way!

While home, I also visited the yearly Saxonburg Firemen's Carnival. I have great memories of the carnival, visiting almost every summer during my childhood in Pennsylvania. Alongside the carnival, they hold annual pageants. I was Little Miss Saxonburg 2004, Junior Miss Saxonburg 2006, and Miss Saxonburg 2009. This year was the fifty year anniversary of the pageant so I was able to meet some other former Miss Saxonburgs, including the very first!

After I returned to Colorado, it was pageant week! While I had an amazing experience as a Top Fifteen finalist last year, I remember not knowing what to expect as the pageant neared. I had such a great time this year and don't think there could have been a better group of girls! Though I did not perform my best and was not a finalist this year, I was genuinely happy and excited for those who advanced. The Miss America Organization has so many benefits: friendship with the other contestants, community service through Children's Miracle Network and a personal platform, and scholarship opportunities. I had the honor of receiving the Academic Achievement Scholarship presented by Miss America 1974 Rebecca King Dreman! I was also happy to receive the Duke of Edinburgh silver award and Non-Finalist Talent award. I have a whole year to work on my on-stage question and interview skills now! Thank you to everyone who supported me on my journey!

Tomorrow I will blog about my second trip to Boulder, so check back then!  As always, thank you for reading!

Question: What do you think would make a good on-stage pageant question?

I enjoyed my first trip to Boulder so much that my mom wanted to visit during her recent trip to Colorado.  That was definitely fine with me!  Our first stop was one of the few places I did not get to visit on my first trip: the Dushanbe Tea House! The tea house was a gift to Boulder from Boulder's sister city in Tajikistan. The house itself is gorgeous, constructed with blue tiles. We took our tea outside under some flower arches.  They had a plethora of tea options and I chose a Japanese green tea with matcha and some sort of rice. 

We went back to Native Foods Café for lunch, which actually met my mom's approval.  Our visit was during the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, so we went to see I Hate Hamlet on the CU Boulder campus.  My favorite Shakespeare play is Hamlet so I enjoyed this satire and greatly appreciated the references to other Shakespeare plays.  The next day, I visited the Leanin' Tree gallery and Celestial Seasonings for the second time each.  I don't know if it was because I was concussed the first time or because the machines were actually operating during the tour, but all of the teas and herbs were much stronger scented this time.  We also visited the café and sampled quite a few of their teas.  When I saw the literature mug, I thought it would make the perfect souvenir to go with all of the tea I purchased last time. It has a time line of periods in both British and American literature as well as many titles I've read!

Much to my confusion, I woke up yesterday morning to many messages about my supposed trip to Jamaica.  After visiting Spice Island Grill in Colorado Springs, I posted a photo expressing that now I was ready to go to Jamaica.  I'm not actually going to Jamaica, but the Spice Island Grill is decorated very Jamaican so it was a nice island escape in rainy Colorado Springs.  They also have an expansive vegetarian menu, so I got BBQ tofu steaks, fried plantains (which my mom kept calling plankton), and pumpkin soup.  Our meal took over two hours...they were on "island time!"

Jamaica is now high on my list of places I want to travel to!  Where are some of your dream destinations?