Hoover Dam

I was in the West Coast last week exploring everything from the Grand Canyon, to Vegas! But the first stop for my family was the Hoover Dam.

Coming into the West Coast!

I totally did (not) gamble at the airport..

This was the inside of the dam. I had no idea how this whole dam concept worked and my parents (heck even my little brother Fil) totally explained it to me.

Basically the water rushes through those big metal things behind us and spins the metal against a copper wire, creating electricity!

(No, I'm NOT from Detroit I just like the look of the hat..)

Because my brother and I were wearing conflicting hats we were known as the confused family on this trip which was super funny!

Look at how far the water level dropped!

More of that metal/water stuff making electricity.

The reason I have a picture of this is because as my mom was trying to explain this concept of electricity to me she sort of gave up and said "You know what, It's just Magic Andela!" We walked a bit farther and this sign was there. You should of seen the two of us laughing! The visual did help explain it a lot more though.

Lake Mead is on the other side of this. They should really try to get more of a park atmosphere so that people can enjoy it more. We wanted to go sailing but they didn't have any boat rental places. We saw a couple of people sailing their own boats on the lake and became very jealous.

Dust Storm

Route 66 people. We saw the place the movie Cars was modeled after. A picture perfect town!

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I'm very anxious about becoming a senior. I have no idea what to expect. I feel like I should be excited and in some ways I am but in another sense I just really want to graduate and leave this place. To be completely honest I didn't think I'd be graduating at the school I am. I thought that I would have moved again at this point. I've mentioned this before but I've never stayed at a school the whole way through.

I left my first in 4th grade, my second in 7th grade, graduated 8th grade, and now have stayed at the same high school all four years. If I'm completely honest with myself I was scared that I'd stay at the same high school all four years because I felt like I didn't really grow up with these people. We didn't share middle school memories, I just met them! 

Thankfully as time went on I didn't feel that way anymore but now I'm just conflicted because while I've created a lot of new memories here, I wish I could have had high school memories with my middle school friends back in Chicago. I'm glad I met all these cool people in Philly too, while it sucks to pack up and go, I would probably have NEVER created a blog if I didn't move, probably would never have gotten into sailing, and I wouldn't have seen this side of the U.S.

As the saying goes: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

So yea, as crazy as it sounds.. I'm terrified of becoming a senior.