Warm and Sunny

We are now settled in our new location. We absolutely love our apartment and Valencia. It's amazing how mountainous this area is. The scenery and landscape is just as beautiful here as it was in Northern California. Some of our surroundings can be seen from the pictures of the hike that Bogey and I (Tim) took through Pico Canyon last Sunday afternoon.

I successfully made it through my first week of work. I like the clinic and am very happy to be back in outpatient. Since the clinic is hospital-based, I unfortunately have to work 2 weekend-days per month (one of which was today, and 2 more in the next 3 weeks). For these weekends, our adventures will just have to be squeezed into 1 day. Jodi is anxious to begin her adventure in Pediatric Rehab tomorrow. While Bogey has enjoyed having her home with him all week, Jodi is ready to finally get back to work.

We officially did our first bit of real sightseeing yesterday. We made the 20 minute drive to Universal Studios Hollywood (did we mention we're loving our location?). The highlight of the day came when we went to the "Special Effects" show. Before the show began the hosts asked for a couple to volunteer to part of the show, to which Jodi quickly said "absolutely not" to my inquiring eyes. As we sat there quietly, one the hosts came into the audience, walked up to us and said "let's go". While I was excited, Jodi was less than pleased as we made our way onstage. After the hosts introduced us, we were ushered backstage. I had to dress up as an astronaut and Jodi had to act as Ground Control. Unfortunately I was not able to keep the astronaut costume, but we both agreed it was a very neat experience.

In addition to the weather we are definitely very happy with our new location. We hope some of you come visit while we're living in this great area. As always check out the rest of the photos on our picasa page.

New Beginnings

After almost 2 weeks of unemployment in the Bay Area, we finally have new assignments lined up. We both landed positions in outpatient clinics in Palmdale California. We are very excited about both the location and being back in outpatient settings. Tim will be in a hospital-based outpatient clinic, and Jodi will be at a pre-school based outpatient Pediatric clinic.

Earlier in the week we went to The Tech Museum in San Jose to see the Body Worlds Vital exhibit, the exhibit was fantastic but we both agreed that the only difference from the original Body Worlds exhibit was the name. If you're interested in seeing a quick clip about this exhibit copy and paste this URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5pQ1NuPpNg

Since we were in San Jose we decided to explore the rest of Silicon Valley with stops at Apple and Google headquarters as well as Stanford University.

Since we enjoyed Hiking along the Pacific Coast Trail in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area so much and we had the time, we decided to go back to another part of the trail. We decided that the trail was the pedestrian version of the Pacific Coast Highway except much more enjoyable.

We had a good feeling about the interviews for the positions in Palmdale, so we made the decision to put Berkeley and our less than stellar start (work wise) behind us. On Thursday morning we packed up the apartment, loaded up the car and headed south on I-5.

We spent the day on Friday exploring both Valencia/Santa Clarita as well as the Palmdale area in search of our new living arrangements. We quickly found that the 40 mile commute from Valencia to work would be 100% worth it; not to mention mountainous scenery along the drive is an amazing site for us East Coast folks. Palmdale is not horrible, it's just that Valencia is much nicer and felt much more comfortable. Also Valencia is much closer to all things L.A. for our weekend sightseeing adventures; not to mention there is a Six Flags nearby and the Southern California climate is much more conducive for Tim's golfing habit.

While we are sad our time in the Bay Area was cut short, we are ecstatic about our new location and all there is to see and do in Southern California.

As always please visit the picasa site for the latest pictures of our tour de California (unfortunately we do not yet have any pictures of our new location, but check back soon).

Well.......

We have had a lot happen this week (more than we would have liked). For reasons STILL unknown to us the facility terminated our contracts after work on Monday evening. Since then we have been in unemployed-limbo. We have two companies looking for new assignments for us within California. All we can do is sit and wait for either of these two companies to find us new assignments so we can begin working again as soon as possible. The only thing that is for sure is that we will have to move from our current location to wherever the new assignment is located (since the only two traveler jobs in the Bay area were terminated Monday evening).

We are fairly certain there is not a better place to be unemployed and have nothing but time than in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we have taken full advantage of our unplanned time off by doing and seeing as much as possible. The pictures tell the story, but we have tandem biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, hiked trails in the hills of Berkeley, Oakland and along the coast; watched the sunset from Twin Peaks, Driven down Lombard St., drank hot chocolate at Ghirardelli, went to a Cal Basketball game and a Cal Gymnastics meet, and got caught up on our Netflix cue.

We will keep you all posted on when/where our new assignment will be. We hope we don't have to wait any longer than 1 more week, if so, then we will have to figure something else out. But in the meantime we are going to continue to see and do as much as possible with our time we have left here in The Bay Area.

As always we have posted the other pictures that didn't make the cut for the blog on Picasa. Copy and paste this URL to check 'em out: http://picasaweb.google.com/TimMillerDPT/2ndWeekEndInCali?feat=directlink

1st Weekend

We made it through our 1st week of work this week. Let's just say it was very interesting and we're glad we only have to work at this particular facility for 13 weeks. But let's be honest, we're not here for the work.

On Saturday we decided to explore the Berkeley fire-trails. These trails lie in the hills behind the campus of Cal and are within walking distance of our apartment. We knew that the hike would be uphill, but we were not prepared for how steep the trails were. Bogey thought it was great, Jodi however was less than impressed. It was a typical overcast and foggy day, so unfortunately instead of sweeping views of the Bay at the top of the trail, we were limited to views of the Berkeley area only. To Jodi's chagrin we will have to ascend the trail again on a clear day.

The weather was crystal clear on Sunday so we ventured out to Muir Woods National Monument and The Golden Gate National Recreation Area just north of San Francisco (unfortunately there were no signs of Ewoks or the Ewok Village in Muir Woods). Either way, we will let the pictures describe these two National Treasures. After hiking and soaking in the views we grabbed lunch at a little cafe on the water in Sausalito.

To view all of the pictures please visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/TimMillerDPT/1stWeekendInCali#

(to open just copy and paste the URL in your browser)

Check back next weekend for updated adventures.

We finally made it!

Our cross-country journey to Northern California came to an end last night around 8:30. All three of us were exhausted from the 3200+ miles we covered in 6 days. As soon as we arrived at our apartment we unloaded the car and unpacked our bags. By the time we got settled it was 11:00, so we went straight to bed. We rang in the New Year with some much needed sleep (thus the delay of our blog posting).

Our New Years Eve journey began in Southern California, just outside of L.A. We decided to do some quick sightseeing before we made our way up the coast to Berkeley (via San Luis Obispo to get the keys). We made a stop at the Griffith Observatory to take in the views of the Hollywood Hills, and the smog-filled greater L.A. area. From there we drove through Hollywood and Beverly Hills before heading North on the 101.

Once we picked up the keys we stopped at the Madonna Inn to visit the Men's Room (as suggested by my Cousin Brad). Seeing the decor of the Inn and the Men's Room was worth the stop, thanks again Brad. From the Madonna Inn we headed straight for the Pacific Coast Highway (CA Route 1). The drive and the views were worth the extra time it took (until it was dark). Unfortunately this time of year daylight is limited, so we only made it 40 miles south of Big Sur before nightfall. Luckily we were able to stop and see the Elephant Seals before dark, they were amazing to see and very entertaining.

Overall we had a fantastic experience driving cross-country. We could not have imagined how much of this enormous country we were able to see (most of which was from the car). Although the journey was great, it is nice to be getting settled at our final destination. We will spend the rest of the weekend out of the car and relaxing in our apartment. It's off to work Monday morning to begin our first assignment. We're excited for the upcoming 13 weeks we have in the San Francisco Bay area; but before we know it it will be time to plan our next assignment/destination!

Until we hit the road again we will post our happenings and pictures most likely on a weekly basis, so be sure to check back.

Also the rest of the pictures from our 6 day adventure are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/TimMillerDPT