We Got More Bounce in California

aka, California Trip part 2
On the way to the coast, we drove through the vineyards of Paso Robles and decided we'd try our luck at a few wineries to see if they had any good grape juice. We picked a random winery based completely on its appearance.

Who knew you could combine beavers and a Tuscan setting? It worked, somehow.


Success! They did in fact have their own grape which came in a real wine bottle and was absolutely delicious. We drank it as we drove down the highway, and snickered at the idea of a cop pulling us over because he thought we were drinking and driving. (Sadly, it never happened.)

Picking some grapes...

We tried another winery. This one looked like an English fortress.

I found a temporary, new boyfriend.

Kurt found a flaming, golden hawk. We did not find any good grape juice.
That night we made it to Big Sur, where we camped among the redwoods. For dinner, we took some of those tuna meals on the go, and headed over to the beach to enjoy the sunset.


Kurt liked a little boy when he was walking around in the water. It was cute. :)

Everyone there was taking pictures. It was pretty funny. It was also a gorgeous, scenic beach, and we were no exception to the rule.
Kurt decided to play with his continuous shot feature on his camera:














Another picture of Kurt looking like a little boy.
The next day was spent in Moneterey and Santa Cruz, and for some reason I seem to be missing those pictures... that stinks, because I think they were my favorite part on the trip. I finally got to see Sea Lions! And I attempted to swim in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, it was a foggy, windy day and so I only made it in up to my thighs, but I have now been in the both of the oceans. Yes. We ventured in-land about an hour to camp at Big Basin, which is another redwood forest. It's where they filmed the Ewok part of Return of the Jedi, and it was absolutely gorgeous.
The next morning we woke up and headed for San Fran! We headed down to Fisherman's Wharf where we got the very appropriate meal of In 'n Out Burgers. :D I finally got some! I love that place. And don't even worry, because we ate there in Napa Valley, and on our way through Reno on the way home. :D We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf, including the really fun mechanical museum, and then decided to head over to Fremont, where we'd be staying with some more of Kurt's old investigators, the Barnes. On the way we stopped at the Oakland Temple, which does not have an Angel Moroni, and checked out some sculpture exhibit at the visitors' center. I'd never met the Barnes before, but they were awesome and we had a great time with them. They took us to an Indo-Pak restaurant where we all ordered WAY too much food and completely gorgoued ourselves. Then we played Guitar Hero until it was time to go to bed. The next morning we went to church and after, Kurt and I had to take off. We said goodbye to Jim, Bonnie, and the kids, and headed back over to San Fran, where the Irvine's had booked a night for us at their timeshare. The first thing we did when we got to the hotel was to watch a movie and veg out. It felt good to be by ourselves not in a tent... basically, the first time in over a month. Then we decided to wander over to China Town, which was only a block away.

The entrance to China Town. Ain't no thang.

There was a sweet festival going on, and so China Town was very lively. We got some sweet free t-shirts, and watched the Chinese vendors try and tempt the Americans to try moon cakes, which are a pastry with a fermented egg in the middle. Kurt got duped into one on his mission. Very gross.

We then decided to try and find Little Italy (of course!) and on the way we found this! For a low price, you could get your IQ and personality test!

We found Little Italy and we may or may not have broken the sabbath for some delectable Italian desserts...

Kurt thought this was funny.
The next morning we headed over to Sacramento, where we'd be staying with some of our BYU friends. On the way, we took a detour thorugh Napa Valley. People in Napa Valley take their wine and wineries very seriously, and I think they put as much effort into their buildings and appearance as they do into their wine. I mean, check it out:

And Napa Valley is gorgeous:

But Napa Valley also kinda sucks because everyone there is way stuck up, and no one does grape juice. We had to go to a store to find some. Oh well.
Once we were in Sacramento, we found the sweetest street sign ever:

And then we made it to the Redds! Heather and Stephen were in our ward last year at BYU and they just moved out to Sacramento for Stephen to go to law school. Stephen didn't get home until 10:30, hence why I am already in my pajamas at dinner time. I wanted to be comfy.


One last pic before we took off the next morning! Thanks Stephen and Heather for letting us stay! We then headed back home to Utah, and Kurt had time for one last artistic picture:

Yay for Utah sunsets. :D And that, my friends, is California in a week.

Third

I just finished reading Ender's Game for the 4th time. This is my favorite book of all time. Want a good read? Pick this one up. You'll fall in love with Ender Wiggin, just as I have over and over and over and over again. :D

True Love

This is now one of my favorite movies. If you want to have a new favorite movie that is touching, funny, and quirky, rent this one. Instant classic.

Life and all of its complexities

We've been in Denver for a week so far. We love it to so far. I am ridiculously happy every time we venture forth into the world... I really feel like this is the right place for us. Plus, Littleton has so many trees, how could you not be happy?
Kurt: Kurt had his first day of work on Tuesday. He was kinda looking forward to and kinda dreading it. He's not looking forward to working for the next 30 years of his life, but at the same time "it's what he's been preparing for for so long." So he's mostly happy. His commute takes him about 40 minutes on the Light Rail, which is just 80 extra minutes every day for him to read. He really likes his office--on Tuesday, his first day, they played video games, including DDR. The day before was a huge deadline, so they were celebrating, and just about everyone (50-something aged partners included) played DDR. On Fridays they have casual dress. He gets money for working out and we get all preventative health care free. So our $5800 deductible health insurance plan isn't so bad. PLUS, my TMJ disorder is covered automatically on our dental plan. Yay!!!
Me: Well, I'm back on the horse. The job hunt horse, that is. I sent out about 60 resumes before we moved, took a break, and now have sent about 20 more out there since Tuesday. I am so sick of searching for a job! Almost as sick of it as I am of searching for furniture. We have purchased a bed, which I will pick up after I get back from my trip to the South. Other than that, we're still perusing (or rather, I am) Craig's List for a couch and dresser. We're surrounded by boxes and we sit on our camp chairs. It's kind of frustrating, especially since everything we call on has already been purchased. And we're not being picky in the dresser department, really.
Back to the job hunt: I had an interview this morning. They set it up with me yesterday and gave me the address and told me it would come up on MapQuest or something similar. So this morning, I google text the directions and head off. First, I have to stop at Kinko's to print out my resume. After finally finding the Kinko's, I realized that it was on the other side of the street I was driving on and I couldn't cross the street there--or for the next mile--because of construction. So that puts me back. Then, the lady decided to draw me a map instead of printing my document when I asked how to get to the belt loop. Then, I get in the car and realize my gas tank is nearly empty. I decide that I should just get gas and not chance it, but wouldn't you know that the only gas station is across the street from where I was. Trying to get out of the station, I hit a red. Then I hit the next red. Then the next. Finally I get on the interstate. Everything goes well until I get off and I start hitting every. dang. red. light. again. I was supposed to get to my interview at 9:45. When I finally pull onto the street my interview is supposed to be on, it's 10:05. I look around and see only houses. I am in a neighborhood. I am surrounded by neighborhood. I have the wrong directions, yet again, from Google. So I text Kurt and he texts back asking if I want him to look up correct directions online and text them to me. At this point, I figure that the job was probably not meant to be and tell him no. I mean, everything that could've gone wrong, did. So I didn't sweat it. I had another job interview type meeting today with a staffing agency that has a couple of opportunities, so I'm feeling good about that.
Oh, and everyone in Denver smokes. I thought the west was more conscious about that? Guess not.
But we're glad to be here! We discovered the library and Kurt checked out about a dozen books and videos on mountaineering, hiking, climbing, and Mt. Everest. I got Peace Like a River, just in time for my trip to Atlanta to visit Steph while Kurt's gone for 2 weeks for training. I'll finish our Cali posts within the next few days.

Your Opinion is Needed

Honestly, what do you think of this pillow? I want a white couch, two of these pillos, then two smaller zebra or black/white damask pillows. A shiny black coffee table. And a side table this color. I have a black/white damask clock, and I'm gonna get wrought iron black lamps with white shades. I'll definitely cut off the little rhinestones. But other than that, what do you think? I may keep them, and just keep them turned around. I love the color. I'm on the fence about the chandelier. It's kinda fun, but it could be weird.
Anyhow, I need some honest opinions. (And Kurt is totally cool with the color.)

California, here we come!

So, now we're just missing Kurt's last mountain climbing trip, for which he has to get the pictures from his friend, Alex. So I'll go ahead and let y'all know about our California trip...
My last day at WestPro was September 22nd, the same day as my last LOL show. The next Monday we packed up and spent 2 nights with Kurt's mom and then the rest of the week with my grandma (during which time Kurt and Alex went to California to hike Mt. Whitney and Half Dome in Yosemite). We spent Labor Day weekend hanging out with my family and then on Monday we took off for California!
I'd never been to Cali before and Kurt served his mission in San Jose, so it was the perfect place to take our one last free-for-all, no-holds-bar vacation. Our vacation started with a trip out onto the salt flats, because neither of us had ever walked on them before...

I dared Kurt to lick them, which he did. Then he dared me to and I did it too. I can verify that they are salty. Very, very salty. And we got both on video. :D At Wendover we got off the I-80 and drove the rest of the way on highways...

This is Boundary Peak, the highest peak in Nevada. It's basically the last thing you see before you cross into the Golden State. So Monday night we camped in a national forest just outside of Yosemite, where we froze our behinds off. It was dang cold. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed over to Yosemite to hike Half Dome.

The first leg of the Half Dome hike is two beautiful waterfalls. Here's the first one. There were tons of people and lots of them were Italian! I was wishing that my Italian wasn't so rusty so I could speak to them, but alas, not to be.

We wanted to go swimming in that pool after our hike. Unfortunately, we didn't get back down to the pool until nearly dark, so no swimming for us. :(

The top of the falls. You can get a glimpse of what Yosemite looks like. It's an amazing place.

You think this pine tree is big? Wait till you see the giant sequoias...

Kurt likes to take artsy pictures. I need to get that boy a nice camera so he can get into photography.

So we hiked and hiked and hiked and suddenly got to the final push. Nevermind that I was already exhausted because I hadn't hiked in a month. But now I had to climb up the sheer face of a huge rock with only wire chains and the occasional foot board. Heights make me nervous, not scared. But this terrified me. At first, I didn't think I could do it. Then I started and about 20 feet up I froze. Tears leaked out of my eyes and I told Kurt I couldn't do it. Finally, I took a deep breath and only looking down at my feet, I charged up that rock.

And I made it. Somehow. We're at the top of our hike, we still have to go down and I was already limping. My hip and knee joints don't like it when I hike. The main reason I included this picture is the view... pretty amazing, huh?

Victorious!

I like to tease Kurt because he poses in pictures. Here you can see the amazing Yosemite Valley....

Kurt told me to go get on this rock, don't go any further, and just stand there while he ran across the way and took a picture. I then looked at the picture and was very glad that I had had no idea what I standing on at the time... but it's a cool pic, nonetheless.

They call it the Diving Board. Yikes.

Going back down the cable rope was not a whole lot easier, but it was easier. I was able to kinda look around every now and then. But I still breathed easier when I got to the bottom.

There's the beast that nearly stopped me.

Another one of Kurt's artsy pictures. :D
Just as we got back on the road to our car, one of my blisters popped. We hobbled to our car, drove to the showers, were happy to find out that showers (which are normally $5) that day were free, and I took the best shower of my life. Then we ate some burritos from the park store, and set up camp. The next day we drove down to Fresno, where we found...

Rally's! Rally's is the burger place from my childhood and I insisted that we go there. But first I had to call and confirm with my mom that it is, indeed, as good as I remembered it being. She thought it was and we got the food and it was delicious. Not as good as In 'n Out, but a solid yummy burger. We then headed south and east, towards Giant Sequoia National Park.

We found this sweet fruit sweet by the road, just next to a farm, where they were selling the best dang fruit you've ever had for 99 cents a pound. We bought a ton of nectarines (my favorite fruit) and gorged on them for the next week. I dream of those nectarines...

Here we are in Giant Sequoia National Park! This is one of the first trees we found... we thought this one was big...

But after over an hour of driving found the General Sherman tree. This tree is the largest living organism in the world. It's not the widest tree nor the tallest, but the biggest by sheer volume. This tree is massive. You never know how small you are until you see a Giant Sequoia.


Here's the General Sherman from far away. Here you can see it's whole height.

A tunnel they cut through a fallen Giant Sequoia.

This tree, Sentinel, looks massive, but apparently it's only average sized. My. Goodness.

I thought this was a fun shot. We then headed down out of the park (windy, twisty road and I barely managed to keep my lunch down) and on to Visalia, where some of Kurt's old investigators now live, the Irvine's. We stayed the night with them and ate some of the best steak either of us has had in our lives. We watched them all dominate at ping pong, but especially Minh, the wife. The next morning we said our goodbyes and thanks, and headed for the coast...
Stay tuned for the next post!

Tim Panogos

Kurt dragged his poor mother up Timp. Once again, I'll let him tell you all about it. For now, enjoy the pictures!










Kurt says, "I think it was fun. It was a nice, relaxed pace. I think my mom had a good time finally getting to hike Timpanogos. All in all, it was good. It was fun. That was easily, like, my fourth or fifth time up Timp that year."

Goodbye, LOL

August 22nd was my last Laugh Out Loud improv show. It was, to say the least, very sad. I've been a member of LOL since November '03, which was my freshman year. It's been one of the few constants of my Provo/BYU life and I've been friends with people like Allan, Fred, and Brendan longer than most of my other friends at BYU. The show was very good and I had a blast. And, though I did get teary-eyed a number of times, I never publicly cried and it's always good to not embarrass yourself publicly. To LOL: thanks for the 4.5 AWESOME and HILARIOUS years!! I'll miss all of y'all so much!!!
PS- Kurt tried to record the show, but the camera died after 15 minutes. So I'll snoop around and see if anyone else caught any of the highlights on tape.

Wayne and me. It was Wayne's last show too!

The cast of my final show, and some of my favorite people from the club. Wayne, Natalie, Allan, me, Drew, Brendan, and Keith. I'm doing one final LOL lunge.