Carina**

I'm a big, fat liar because I wrote several blog posts while on the plane. Guess you will get more material after all. 

My younger, brilliant, beautiful (single!) recently-become Doctor sister is in the middle of her “pre-liminary” year. For those not familiar with the medical world, it’s like JD in the fist season of “Scrubs”. I don’t think she has a Turk-like counterpart, but she seems to be doing alright. They have her on a wicked schedule and her only vacation all year was for 1 week in September. She was heading to CA and called to see if I could “teach her how to camp.”

Top of Bishop's Peak

For the few readers who knew me from the pre-grad school years, pre-grad school Kelly knew camping involved a tent, dirt, and s’mores, but that was about it. That was the gym-rat Kelly who hated to get dirty, found most parts of nature threatening, and didn’t personally object to the idea of hiking... but never really found the point. 

And then we moved to SC. And I met a very friendly French girl who invited L and I camping (w/ 30 of her nearest and dearest) for her birthday. There was wine, champagne, lamb, and mushroom risotto. Yeah, we slept on the ground, but this whole “camping” thing wasn’t so bad. Within a year, I wanted to go on a short backpacking trip for my birthday. Since then, hiking and camping have become a regular and cherished part of my life. I don’t mind getting too dirty (trick is to bring lots of wipes and a bandana for the hair), and I find camping goes best near a wine region :) 

My parents keep asking L “who is this new person and what happened to the girl who made her parents feed her bran muffins with a fork because she wouldn’t dane to get her hands sticky?” Oh, parental units, if only you had seen me after 4 days of no showering in the Tetons...

Wow, we even pose the same....

The point is, although I love the outdoors now, asking me to “teach” someone to camp is a bit funny. But, my sister was apparently inspired by how happy I look in the photographs of my trips.

We met in SC and decided to drive down the coast to SD and my SoCal family. Although we intended to camp in 2 locations, delays on the 1 South led us to decide to stay in SLO for 2 nights instead of one. 

E was a trooper. Then again, when you end each afternoon w/ wine tasting and sleep on thermarests, it’s easy to be a trooper. We bought fresh veggies and local cheeses for dinner on the way south. We hiked Bishop’s Peak and stared in awe at the runners who breezed up the mountain while we were huffing and puffing along. 

We tasted lots of good, if IMO overpriced, wines. We laughed, listened to The Book of Mormon: The Musical, talked about the past, shared our fears, dreams, and hopes for the future. 

We also spent 3 mornings jump starting the rental car because the damn battery kept dying. But at this point it’s not a trip unless I have to call AAA for something.*

After several days of very close quarters I can honestly say that I love my sister to pieces and I”m the luckiest big sister in the whole world. She’s turned into a funny, quirky, brilliant, caring (did I mention single? :)) person that I am so lucky to have in my life.

Even better, she wants to go camping with L, mom and I! When I told L he grinned and commented, “oh boy, am I going to be able to get a word in all weekend? Maybe I should bring a book.”

*see ski trip 2008 when I locked the keys in the car in Strawberry, CA, and Climbing trip 2009 when I locked the keys in the trunk while camping/climbing in the middle of nowhere.

**Carina was one of my sister's nicknames