People are nice.

I think I fell more in love with this program today, as if that was even possible.

Today was our trip to Mount Vernon.

It was really pretty, and really cool for a history nerd like me.  It's amazing how much of Washington's belongings are still around!  I liked the house tour, but it wasn't anything super spectacular in my book.

a shot of the Potomac River off the back porch

I spent a good bit of time inside the food court, though, after I went through the mansion tour because it was SO. FREAKING. HOT.  Still, it was nice to get out and do something today, even if I did have to wake up super early.

When we got back to campus, I had to walk up this super steep hill to get back to Henle from the parking lot where the buses dropped us off.  I didn't realize the hill was that steep on the way there because I got lost and ended up going a different way.

Yeah, remember how I've mentioned about six hundred times that it's really, really hot here? Me + extreme heat = bad news.  I thought I had kept myself plenty hydrated, and I ate at the food court at the estate, but I made it about halfway up the hill before my heart started racing and I got all lightheaded.

Thank You, God, for Your always perfect timing.  I didn't realize until I sat down on the curb that there were three guys and three or four girls behind me.  They all immediately stopped and helped me out.  The girls called Remley, and the guys let me drink their water and they poured a bunch of it on my head (literally, I was soaked by the end of it all).  Remley and two other staffers, Lauren and Jen, showed up quickly.  Two of the boys tried to help me walk, but I was too shaky, so I laid on the side of the road, and they kept pouring water on me.  Being soaked in cold water never felt so good.  Lauren stood right in the middle of the road and flagged down a car, and a nice woman drove me and Lauren to the front of Henle Village.  We sat and waited for Jen, who was somehow right behind us, and the boys and Remley who walked up a minute later, and then the boys helped me up the six thousand stairs (seriously, you don't realize how many stairs there are until you feel like you have no energy to walk up them all).  The boys got me more water, and the girls got me a snack and sat with me for about 15 minutes to make sure I was okay.

Like, seriously, y'all, everyone here is SO NICE.  Those boys were so sweet to me, and I'd never really met any of them before.  And when Lauren and I got to Henle and I told her I wanted to wait for the boys (because Lauren and Jen are TINY girls, and me falling on one of them would have been ugly), I explained myself because I was afraid they'd think I was doing it for attention from guys (which obviously, I've had to deal with a lot), but they didn't even question it and said they totally understood.  And one of the girls went to the bookstore and bought me a new water bottle because the one I had broke so I'd thrown it away when I got off the bus.  NICE GIRLS!  What a treat.  And I guess chivalry isn't dead.

I keep saying this, but the only reason I'm okay with this summer ending is because it means I'm going back to Campbell.  If I didn't have Campbell, I'd never want to leave this group of amazing people.

Okay, I'm going to bed.  I'm excited to go back to work tomorrow, for more reasons than I just love my job. hehehe ;)