I know, it's been awhile. But when was the last time I took a real hiatus from posting? And besides, I have pictures to show I've been actually doing...stuff. Are you prepared for an onslaught of images? Good. Here we go:
Our vacation in July consisted of visiting 3 states (okay, if you're on the West Coast that feels like a lot!), going to interviews, visiting both families, and racking up the miles on my car. Oh and heat. There was a lot of heat. To prepare, Nolan made sure and stored up his sleep before we left:
Sadly, I don't have a single picture from my birthday. It was fabulous. I got my biometric screening (woo!), had breakfast and then we headed out the door to meander our way to the ranch. And it took us probably 7 hours, what with all the neighbourhood-exploring in the Sacramento valley and whatnot. We also had one of the worst lunches we've ever had. Hah! For dinner we had delicious and gigantic steaks with veggies, and of course, my favourite dessert (which I'm forbidden to mention by name because it makes Nolan feel weird). I almost couldn't make it, because apparently there was a huge fire in the county, and it killed the power at the ranch for hours on end. No power = no homemade mousse for the dessert. Unlike you like your mousse chunky with tofu pieces. Eventually the power came back on, I cried a little for joy, and ran back inside and made the mousse for that dessert, because man, I was set on it.
The next day, we trekked over to Reno for an overnight stay, exploring, and interviewing. I HAD to take a picture of the national forest on the 80, because it's pretty sad. This is definitely not like the national forests we're used to. I mean, where are the trees?
We used up my free birthday drink coupon for a gigantic iced coffee...
We even had a little date in Office Depot, scouting out a new office chair for Nolan. It's on his ever-growing wish list for post-residency.
And then...this happened. Keep in mind, it was 105 degrees. That and the fact that Reno probably gets about 10 inches of rainfall a year made this totally bizarre. It wasn't just ridiculously large raindrops, either:
It was also suuuuper strong winds. We watched the temperature outside drop literally 15 degrees in a couple minutes.
My phone started getting random emergency alerts...every 3 minutes:
So we sought out shelter in a Thai restaurant. It was...okay. Nothing on Karakade!
After awhile, the rain seemed to let up a little, so we checked into our hotel, and started walking around downtown, taking terrible pictures.
See, Reno is a pretty depressing place. So we had a contest to see who could take the most depressing picture, and brought the results back to my dad the next day to judge. Nobody won - they were all equally depressing. Like this video of me walking down the "bustling downtown streets" of Reno. With music playing outdoors that just makes me want to have a strong drink. Most depressing video ever.
Or this picture, RIGHT in the heart of downtown. With a tarp-covered building to one side, an empty lot and nobody around on the other. And Nolan trying to capture the mood:
Even in Reno, they don't care about Reno:
A sad little party shop that sells mugs that might trick you into thinking Reno is a fun place.
A lonely bicycle. This was weird and sad after exploring Davis neighbourhoods the day before.
Goin' to the chapel?
Hey look, the Truckee river! What's that? Oh, sewage from the city draining into it via a giant pipe? Awesome. What? The sewage is filtered through the nearby tree roots to make it "green"? Nice try, Reno. You're still dumping crap into your river. Which, by the way, is a primary source of drinking water for the city.
The art walk festival. I had to squint to see if there were actually people there.
We found (after much searching) a tasty little dessert spot near the river and ordered two giant sweets to cap off our walking around. We ate maybe 2 bites before realizing these were like...the most sugary crap desserts ever and so we stopped eating them. WAY overdone. But pretty!
Nolan back at our hotel, madly scratching at his bug bites and lamenting that we are, in fact, spending the night in Reno.
The hospital. Out in the desert. One of the attendings said his wife described living there like "living on the moon". Well said.
Somehow, this is the only picture we took at the ranch. Haha!
I guess this is a good place to mention that our trip (this should come as no surprise) helped us settle on a decision for where to move next year. We're going to Sacramento! It's SO NICE to have that decision made, and be able to start planning our future! Reno was a fun day trip, but definitely not a place we want to live.
We randomly decided to take a roadtrip to Oregon the next day. So I documented our journey while Nolan napped a bit. Driving-selfie!
As you know, we're super classy. So we stopped at the cheapest, weirdest asian buffet we could find in Redding. Yup. This place was the definition of mediocre.
Cede the state!
We stopped for a little trip to Nolan's village. Population now is almost 500 - wooo!
We successfully rolled up to his parents' in the afternoon, surprising them (and hopefully not ruining any plans for the weekend they may have had), and letting them know they had dinner plans with all of their children. And their grandbaby! Nolan got some quality time in with his nephew.
And sibling time!
Since it's summertime, the Caldwell berry farms are thriving. We spent a long time on Sunday morning picking blueberries for breakfast. There was definitely a contest for the heaviest weight of your top 5 berries, and I definitely won with my chunkers.
It was a lot of berries.
On the drive home, we tried to take pictures of the massive herd of elk that was near the road, but there were a lot of parked cars from tourists, so this was the best we got.
Since we were driving through SF to get home anyway...we figured we might as well grab dinner at our favourite Indian spot in the sunset. Why not!
That's pretty much all of our vacay pics, but I do have some other random pictures to post on here. Read on, if you dare...
Best part of working from home - lunch date with N before we have to get back to our computers! This one was at Saba Vietnamese. Pretty tasty!
Last weekend, we checked an item off of our Bay Area Bucket List and went winetasting in Napa with friends. Yeah - we've lived here for 6ish years and had never done that until now! I WILL say that I still favour El Dorado and Amador county wines/winetasting over Napa and Sonoma. But that's just me.
Nothing cures too much wine in the morning like a taco truck, haha. Apparently the burritos were pretty good.
This past week, we went to a Cuban place with our friends and their daughter. It was a good night to go, since the guitar guy was visiting. He serenaded their 1 year-old until she started crying. Good times! Definitely a tasty place, though, with killer sangria!
This past weekend, my parents and Nate came down to visit and go to Great America with us (and celebrate our anniversary with us!). Nolan was a little pooped from an overnight shift, but after waffles and coffee, he perked right up. This is generally why I feel bad waking him up after a shift. He looks so exhausted! We've both agreed though, that this futon may be more comfy than our bed. We both slept there this weekend and slept like babies!
Great America was fun...crowded, and smelled vaguely like the feces of small children mixed with funnel cakes. But fun! And during the picnic part (we went through my work, so there was a company hosted lunch), Nate and Nolan shoved the little kids out of the way and got some serious tetherball action in. It's not a very dignified sport, tetherball.
I decided to keep this video as a gif, because come on, it's just so much better this way. This is Nolan beating Nate in the final round. Hilarious!
Sunday, after Nolan's long shift at work, he brought home 2 pieces of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory (yum!), and I had prepared 2 little cookies and cream cakes, not knowing he was picking up cheesecake! So we had a dessert fiesta, and popped open a bottle of champagne to celebrate 6 incredible years together. I won't get sappy here, lest you think all these pictures were a ploy to get you to read this far and struggle through reading exactly how in love with my husband I am. But just you know - I am the luckiest woman alive.
I finally have almost used up the last of my birthday giftcards (yay!), and last night the last package arrived with my brand new CrossFit/running shoes. I just so happened to be doing "Nancy" last night for my WOD, so I needed some flexible shoes. These. were. awesome. There is nothing like a new pair of workout shoes. Especially ones as fun-looking (and functional) as these! Behold:
So, uh, that's the end. No more pictures. Do I hear a sigh of relief? Well just you wait - tomorrow is Thursday, so that means I have to come up with something to actually write about for my Thankful Thursday post! I guess I'm finally back from vacation.
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