Tim and Jodi's Excellent Adventure

The travels come to an end

2011-08-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

17 days, 5237.6 miles, 17 States, 4 National Parks and 2 National Monuments later we finally made it to Tampa Florida - our final destination on Thursday afternoon. We were welcomed to Florida by a typical afternoon thunderstorm, which believe it or not was the first and only time we encountered rain during our entire return trip. We were happy to make it to Mom and Dad Friedberg's house safely, but sad that the trip has come to an end. Bogey was happy that he no longer had to be cramped up in the back of the car amongst the luggage, but can now run free in the large fenced-in backyard at the Friedberg's residence.

We would like to thank President Eisenhower for establishing the Interstate Highway System, Toyota for a smooth ride with unprecedented fuel economy, The United States Congress for establishing National Parks, and all of you for following our blog and our adventures over the past 9 months.

Instead of traveling and visiting National Parks our time now will be taken up by house hunting and setting our roots here in the greater Tampa area. Tim is excited about beginning his new job at USF tomorrow morning and Jodi will continue with her job search, as she has not yet found a job that is a good fit for her.

We are sad that the Excellent Adventure has come to a close, but excited about starting this new chapter of our lives. We are now accustomed to taking the weekends to explore wherever we may be, so we hope to now continue this trend Florida-style.

If anyone is going to be in or around Tampa, you've got a place to stay!

Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia

2011-08-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

After making the incredibly boring drive through the heart of Illinois to Chicago. We arrived at our friends house that evening. We spent the next 2 days visiting with the friends we were staying with as well as Jodi's Aunt and Uncle who live in the area. Friday morning we made the short trip around the southern tip of Lake Michigan to Kalamazoo. There we spent the night with Jodi's childhood friend, her husband and their 7 month-old son. After eating breakfast Saturday morning we left Kalamazoo and headed to Fort Wayne Indiana. There we spent the next two days visiting with one of Tim's friend from Trumansburg, his wife, their 2 year-old son, and 2 month-old daughter. It was nice to be able to swing through this part of the country to spend time with friends and family we rarely get to see. We had a great time visiting and catching up with all of them.

After dinner on Sunday evening we left Fort Wayne, Indiana and drove south to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Monday we spent the day at Mammoth Cave National Park, which was sadly, our last national park stop of the trip. We went on a 4.5 hour, 4 mile, ranger-led hike through a section of the cave. The ranger leading the tour was quick to point out that our hike only covered 1% of the entire area of cave passageways. The hike even included a lunch break at picnic tables in a large open area of the cave called the snowball room. There the National Park service set up a makeshift cafeteria with bagged lunches and restrooms. Hiking through the cave was amazing, we definitely would like to return to go on some of the other hikes the park offers.

Bowling Green Kentucky is home to the one and only GM Corvette assembly plant. Tim woke up early Tuesday morning to go on the tour of the plant. There he walked along the floor of plant where he was fascinated watching all stages of the Corvette assembly. After he returned from the tour, we loaded up the car and made our way to Atlanta (our final stop before Tampa).

We rolled in to Atlanta Tuesday evening. As soon as we checked in to our hotel, we headed straight to Trader Joe's. During our time in California and Nevada we have come to love this grocery chain. Unfortunately, the closest Trader Joe's to Tampa is right here in Atlanta. Because of this we stocked up on some of our favorite non-perishables, including the Charles Shaw wine aka 2-buck Chuck. Which apparently is $2 only on the West Coast, as it is $2.79 Chuck in Atlanta (and I've heard it's even more expensive elsewhere along the East Coast).

We spent today in Downtown Atlanta exploring the Georgia Aquarium and The Wold of Coca-Cola. We had a great time seeing all of the aquatic wildlife at the aquarium. The best part of the aquarium is the 6.3 million gallon Ocean Voyager exhibit, which is home to four Whale Sharks and Manta Rays. We were slightly disappointed at the minimal number of exhibits given the size of the building. At the World of Coke we enjoyed learning about the history of the company through the various exhibits and tasting the different Coke products from around the world.

Tomorrow morning we will load up the car and make the final leg of our 17-day cross country journey. Unfortunately, our amazing trip will to come to an end once we arrive in Tampa tomorrow afternoon. Bogey will be pleased to be in one place for a long period of time with a yard to run around. We wish we could continue to explore the country one national park at a time, but unfortunately we have to get back to the real world and return to work. We have decided that working really gets in the way of this traveling lifestyle we have come to love.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois

2011-08-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Monday morning we met up with a former teammate and roommate of Tim's from Greensboro College and his wife, Ed and Gretchen. Gretchen is from Sioux Falls South Dakota and they were both in town for a vacation. We spent the morning eating breakfast and catching up with each other. We left around noon and headed south toward Kansas City. Interstate 29 from South Dakota to Kansas city follows the Missouri River along the boarder of South Dakota and Nebraska. Due to the recent floods in Iowa, portions of Interstate 29 are underwater resulting in about an 100 miles of detours. It was quite sad to see houses, farms, barns and parts of towns underwater. Several sections of I-29 that were open had sand bag levees along the shoulder of the road.

We spent Monday night and most of the day Tuesday in Lenexa, KS which is a suburb of Kansas City, KS to visit with Tim’s uncle Dan and his Wife. It was great visiting with family that you don't get to see too often and Bogey enjoyed playing and running around the house with their 2 shorthaired pointers. Tim’s uncle was also able to teach Jodi a thing or two about photography to help her hone in on her skills. After dinner, we headed East toward St. Louis for the night.

Wednesday morning we awoke early to head into downtown St. Louis to see and ride up to the top of the “Gateway to the West.” We enjoyed riding up the inside of the arch in the little elevator cars/pods. Once at the top the view over St. Louis and the Mississippi river were fantastic. The cars that take you to the top are quite small and not meant for those with claustrophobia and the height at the top of the arch is not meant for those with a fear of heights. We were glad we were able to check another great American landmark off of our list.

After we left the Arch we headed north to Chicago where we will be spending several days visiting friends and family.

The rest of the pictures

Colorado Springs, Wyoming, South Dakota

2011-08-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we awoke in a hotel in Colorado Springs. After a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed we headed to the National Olympic Training Center and toured the facility. The Center not only houses Olympic caliber athletes, but also allows local athletes to train during camps. We were able to see boys gymnastics, women’s volleyball, men’s wrestling and swim teams practicing while on our tour. To our surprise, the swimming pool was full of Florida Gator swimmers warming up for a competition. Also, while we were there the center was setting up for the Modern Pentathalon National competition to be held later that day.

After lunch, we drove to an elevation of 14,110 feet to the top of Pike’s Peak. It was a balmy 44 degrees at the summit, so we took as many pictures as we could as fast as we could. The views on the ride up/down the mountain and at the peak were spectacular, despite us being so close to the clouds. It was somewhat scary to drive to the peak because the road is quite close to the edge of the mountain for a majority of the ride.

Sunday morning, we packed up the car again then made on last stop at the Air Force Academy before heading north out of Colorado Springs. We made a quick stop at the famous Chapel which was stunningly beautiful on the inside, full of stain-glass window accents along the peaks in all directions and an enormous pipe organ in the balcony.

We then drove North on I-25 on our way to Mount Rushmore. Tim wanted to make a stop at the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, but unfortunately they are not open on Sunday. He figured we would need a few beers to make it through Eastern Wyoming. The most exciting part of this area of Wyoming was driving past a section of the Oregon Trail.

In the Black Hills of South Dakota on our way to Mount Rushmore, we drove past The Crazy Horse Monument. We were pleased that there were great views of this tremendous work-in-progress from the road. Soon after, we successfully made it to Mount Rushmore. It was spectacular to see in person, but we both agreed it looked much smaller than we had imagined it. Either way it was still wonderful to see and a nice pit stop. We had plans of staying in a hotel in the area of Mount Rushmore, but when we returned to the car we decided to get as much of South Dakota behind us as possible. Which is the only choice if you heading West out of Rapid City (or any direction for that matter) as the next town of any significance that would have a decent hotel is on the other side of the state. Unfortunately we did not account for losing an hour crossing in to the Central Time Zone. So we planned on making it to Mitchell South Dakota around 10:30pm, but it ended up being 11:30 due to the time change.

Once you descend from the Black HIlls, South Dakota along I-90 is miserably flat and boring. This stretch of I-90 from Rapid City to Mitchell SD must have been the inspiration for the game frogger. We have never seen so many frogs hopping across the highway in a high stakes game of crossing the road. Most were unsuccessful in making it to the other side as they met the tires of our prius.

The 731 miles from Colorado Springs to Mitchell South Dakota by way of Mount Rushmore was by far our longest day in the car, but it went by quickly.

Here are more of the pictures.

3 National Parks in 3 States in 4 Days

2011-08-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Our return cross country trip is in full swing. We officially began our journey Monday August 8th. With Vegas in our rear view mirror we headed across the desert to the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. As we were setting up our tent there were two Elk roaming behind our campsite to greet us. As soon as we had our tent set up, we hopped on the shuttle bus that took us to different vista points along the rim. We then grabbed some dinner in the Grand Canyon Village, before we drove to Yavapai Point to watch the sunset over the Canyon.

Tuesday morning we packed up our campsite and headed to Mesa Verde National Park in Cortez Colorado. On our way to Cortez we made a quick stop at Four Corners, where Tim did a push up and Jodi did a backbend in 4 states. After setting up our campsite in Mesa Verde National Park, we drove around the park looking at the various cliff dwellings.

Wednesday we loaded back up in the car and took the scenic route to Arches National Park in Moab Utah. From Cortez, CO we headed east to Durango. After walking around Durango for about an hour we got back in the car headed North on U.S. Route 550 to Ouray Colorado. This stretch of road winds through the rockies and various mountain passes is better known as the Million Dollar Highway. On our way to Ouray we stopped for lunch in the sleepy western town of Silverton, which is surrounded by 13,000 ft. peaks. From there we winded around the cliffs as we made our way into Ouray. In Ouray, the massive rocky peaks dominate the skyline in every direction, making it easy to see why this town is known as Switzerland of America. After descending from Ouray we headed Northwest to Arches National Park. We were lucky enough to be able to reserve a campsite in the park at Devils Garden Campground. The entire campground is surrounded by the various rock formations and arches that make this national park so amazing. The only problem with the campground is that there were no shower facilities available. This meant we would have to go the next 2 days in the blistering desert sun without bathing.

Thursday we spent the entire day driving, hiking and climbing around the spectacular arches and rock formations throughout the park. We hiked to Double Arch, The Windows, Turret Arch, Balanced Rock, Landscape Arch, Double "O" Arch, Skyline Arch, and Delicate Arch upper overlook. All in all we hiked and climbed our way through about 9 miles of trails before sunset. Needless to say as soon as the sun went down, we went straight to bed.

Friday morning we packed up our campsite for the final time and headed back up the Rockies to Colorado Springs. From Arches we drove North through the canyon along the Colorado River to Interstate 70. Amazingly enough this was the first time since Monday that we were going to be driving on an Interstate Highway. Interstate 70 heading East to Denver is one spectacular stretch of highway as it ascends the Rockies winding along rivers and passing through various ski towns. As soon as we checked in to our hotel in Colorado Springs we took much needed showers, even Bogey received a well deserved cleaning. After cleaning up we went downtown Colorado Springs to grab some dinner and a cold beer. While we had a blast camping in 3 different National Parks over the previous 4 days, we were thrilled to return to the modern comforts of a bed, hot shower, TV and internet.

Check back soon for more travel and sightseeing updates as we continue to make our way along the scenic route to Tampa.

Until then, here are some pictures from the past week.

Vegas - 3rd and final weekend

2011-08-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

(we have not had internet access until now, so this posting is 5 days late; our return adventure is in full force, so please check back soon for more updates and pictures)

As usual, our last weekend in Vegas was another busy one. We finished our last day of work and both facilities were sad to see us go. We headed to the Venetian for dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe just off the casino floor. Then we took a ride on a Gondola through the canal in the middle of the Venetian hotel. From there, we walked outside along the strip to watch the Sirens of ti show outside of the Treasure Island hotel. The show was a little cheesy, but entertaining.

Saturday morning we met Jodi’s uncle at the Original Pancake House (again) in the Green Valley Ranch Casino. The breakfast was just as good as the first trip. That afternoon, we took our Florida Law exam which turned out to be much harder than expected. We hope to get the results sometime this week. That night, we headed up to the Anthem Country Club for Burger night one last time with Jodi’s uncle and his sister and brother in law. The curly fries were fantastic and it was the best Bison burger Tim had ever eaten.

Sunday morning, we packed up the apartment and prepared for our cross country trip. We then headed to Mount Charleston for a scheduled horseback riding trip at 1:00. We arrived at 12:30 to find out that our trip was overbooked and there were no broken horses for us to ride. Due to our busy schedule and plans to leave town we were unable to wait for the next ride nor reschedule. Sadly, we had to leave Vegas without our horseback riding trip through the mountains. So we returned to the apartment to finish packing. Sunday night, we headed back to the Strip to see Celine Dion at the Coliseum at Caesar’s Palace. It was a great show with a very talented orchestra and man, can that woman sing!

We are sad that our time in Vegas is over, but had a great time while we were here. There was plenty that we did not get to see or do, so plan to come back to visit. We leave for our cross country trip on Monday morning were our first stop is at the Grand Canyon. As we find internet we will post more updates and pictures. Stay tuned....

Vegas - 2nd Weekend

2011-08-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Our second weekend in Vegas was another busy one. Friday night we went to Town Center, just south of the Strip, to walk around the shops and grab some frozen yogurt.

Saturday morning, Tim went golfing with Jodi's uncle, his Sister and Brother-in-law at Anthem Country Club. Tim says, "it was the best course he has ever played." By that, he meant the most well manicured course and one that actually rewards you for staying in the fairway and one that punishes you for landing in the rough. He also enjoyed playing a desert course that had sweeping views of the surrounding mountains and the Strip. After the round Jodi met up with the foursome for some lunch at the clubhouse. Saturday afternoon, we headed down to the Strip for dinner, some sightseeing and to see the Cirque du Soliel show, "O." We started the night be walking through the Forum shops at Caesars Palace. We had hoped to see the moving statues, but the exhibit was closed for maintenance. From there, we ate dinner at one of the restaurants inside of the Bellagio. After dinner, we walked through the Conservatory at the Bellagio where everything inside is made of flowers and each month the decor changes to fit the season. We then walked outside to see the fountain show outside of the Bellagio then walked across the street to ride up to the top of the Eiffel Tower at Paris to take in the views 460 feet above the Strip and see another fountain show (which was different from the first one we had seen). Finally, we made our way back into the Bellagio to see "O" and it was fantastic! This Cirque show is centered around water so it was packed full of synchronized swimming and diving as well as the normal Cirque splendor. We both agree that it was the best Cirque show we have seen thus far.

Sunday morning we got some much needed sleep then headed to breakfast at the Original Pancake House at the Green Valley Ranch Hotel and Casino. An amazing breakfast with fresh squeezed juices! In the afternoon, we headed back to the Strip to walk around MGM Grand and the Venetian. We got lost walking around the massive MGM Grand, but eventually found ourselves at the Lion Habitat. Sadly, the lions were sleeping, so we didn't see much activity, but it was very interesting to see 3 trainers just sitting in the habitat with the 2 lions and 1 trainer sleeping with the lion cubs. From there, we went to the Venetian with all intentions of riding the Gondola, but the wait was too long and we decided this attraction would have to wait until the next weekend.

We have one more week of work here and another busy weekend planned ahead of us before we start our adventure to Florida. We have been busy planning and booking camp sites and hotel rooms for our 3 week road trip to the Sunshine State. Check back in a few days for the details of our last weekend in Vegas!

Here are more pictures from our 2nd weekend in Vegas.

Vegas - 1st Weekend Edition

2011-07-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

Since we only have 2-ish weeks here we didn't waste any time diving right in to the Vegas scene. Friday night we went to the Wynn to see the Garth Brooks show. We got there early so we could spend some time roaming around the hotel and casino. Being the high rollers that we are, gambled a total of $3 at the penny and nickle slot machines before calling it quits. The Garth show was as amazing as expected. It was just Garth, a guitar and a microphone in a venue that is roughly the size of a high school auditorium.

Saturday we spent most of the day recovering from our the previous weeks travel, moving and work schedule. That evening just before sunset, we went down the road to the M Resort and Casino to check out the bar on the top floor. After grabbing some cocktails we sat outside watching the sun go down and the lights come out across the Strip and the entire valley.

Sunday we headed down the road to pay a visit to the Hoover Dam. Before we made our way to the dam, we pulled over to what we thought was an overlook for the new Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, but to our pleasant surprise it was actually the entrance to the pedestrian walkway across the bridge. We were amazed by the views of the Dam and the surrounding area from 880 feet above the Colorado River. After walking across the bridge and back, we went down to the Hoover Dam visitor center. Unfortunately all of the Dam tours were sold out for most of the day, so we made up our own tour walking across the dam, taking plenty of pictures along the way.

We definitely do not have enough time to fit everything in that we want to do here. Short of going out on the weeknights, we are doing our best to fit in as much as possible.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Change of plans

2011-07-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Our 10 day vacation in Florida has sadly come to an end. As always, we had a great time spending time with family and hanging out at the beach. This was not our typical “do nothing” beach week. We actually had a lot happen as it relates to our future. I (Tim) had an interview for a Clinical Faculty position at The College of Medicine, School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. The School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences runs an outpatient PT clinic which is part of the USF College of Medicine health system. The clinicians who work in the clinic are all Clinical Faculty members in The School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences; who along with the Academic Faculty members make up the core faculty of the school. Clinical Faculty members spend anywhere between 60-80% of their time providing patient care in the clinic, and the rest of the time is spent performing an instructional/educator role.

I successfully made it through the 10 hour interview day on Wednesday and received the job offer on Friday. This was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, so I, of course, immediately accepted the offer. My start date is September 1st. We were hoping they would allow the start date to be pushed back far enough to complete our 13 week assignment in Las Vegas, but this was not the case. We still have some requirements to fulfill to obtain Licensure in the State of Florida. Our latest plans consist of going to Vegas to work for 2 weeks before moving to Florida. This way we have some income while we shore up our Florida Licenses and obviously to take in some of the sights and sounds of Vegas.

We have kept true to the craziness that has been our excellent adventure (some of which has not entirely been by choice). We landed at LAX at 6:30 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday. After sitting in LA traffic for the last time, we finally made it to our apartment around 8:30. Wednesday morning we moved out of the apartment, back into our car and set sail across some of the most desolate stretch of highway in the US. Before we left, we still weren’t sure where we were going to stay the next few nights. Our original lease was not supposed to start until Sunday July 24th, but when we were 1 hour from Vegas our landlord called and graciously offered another unit that had opened up unexpectedly This unit was available for an immediate move in (good thing since we only had 1 hour left to figure out where we were parking ourselves for the weekend). To our surprise our apartment comes complete with fantastic views of the strip. 12 hours after moving into our new place, we began our first day at our new assignments. We are both working in Skilled Nursing Facilities. Jodi is working at a facility in Henderson and Tim is in a facility a little north of Las Vegas. So for those of you keeping score at home, in less than 48 hours we flew back to LA from Florida, moved out of our apartment in California, drove across the desert, moved into our new apartment in Vegas and starting working at our new assignments.

After our two weeks here in Vegas we will load up the car for the last time and take two weeks or so to make our return cross-country journey. This time around we plan to take the northern route, making stops at several national parks (and hopefully baseball stadiums) along the way. Once we make it to Florida, sometime at the end of August, Jodi plans to take a travel position in the Tampa area while she searches for a permanent position.

We are a little sad that our travel plans are being cut a few months short. But we are very excited for this next chapter in our lives, as we set our roots and become settled in Tampa. Until then, the traveling adventure continues - so stay tuned.

We apologize that we're too tired right now to include the pictures from our drive yesterday along I-15 from Southern California to Las Vegas within the blog.

California comes to an end

2011-07-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we drove through the desolate California and Nevada desert to Las Vegas. There we spend the day searching for a suitable place to call home for the next 3 months. We braved the 113 degree temperatures and were successful in our quest. For those of you who have the Vegas itch (between now and October 21st), please come out for a visit - we will have plenty of room. On our way to Vegas we drove by the west coast start of I-40, we couldn't help but to make a slight detour to see if there was actually a "Wilmington, NC 2,554 miles" sign on the interstate we called home for the better part of 6 days in December. I (Tim) was beyond excited to see that California took the time and money to erect a sign signifying the beginning of the interstate as North Carolina did. For some reason, seeing that sign really made our cross country journey feel complete.

Tomorrow is our last day of work at our assignments here in Southern California. We will be sad to be leaving this great area, but we will definitely not miss the L.A. traffic that we have to deal with wherever we go any time of day.

Saturday morning we fly out to Tampa for our annual beach week at Treasure Island. As soon as we return we will pack up our belongings and move in to our place in Las Vegas. Luckily we don't have far to go as Vegas is only a 4 hour drive away.

We will post an update as soon as we get settled in Las Vegas. We look forward to our experience in Sin City.

Mount Baldy

2011-06-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our second-to-last weekend here. It's hard to believe, but our weekends in Southern California are sadly coming to a close. We wanted to use our Universal Studios passes one more time before we left, so yesterday we did just that. We arrived as the park was opening, so in just half of a day we were able to fit in everything that we missed the first time we went. We were excited that the Studio Tour yesterday took us through the entire backlot (the first time we went there was filming going on, so we were not able to see New York Street/Metropolitan Area, Brownstone Street, and Courthouse Square).

Today Jodi had a beginners photography class that I (Tim) gave to her for her birthday. To keep ourselves busy during the 5-hour class, Bogey and I went for a scenic drive and a hike up Mount Baldy, I figured it would only be fair to pay homage to the mountain named after my hairline. I also thought it would be fantastic to take the "more" scenic route to get to Mount Baldy. Well, the drive was amazingly scenic and fantastic until Bogey got car sick. He rode in the car from sea to shining sea, along the Pacific Coast Highway and has never gotten car sick until today. But to be fair, that was more consistently windy than any road he has previously been on. Luckily for me, he was not sitting on Jodi's lap as he usual is, and he got over it quickly as it only happened that one time.

I knew that we didn't have the time or the energy to make the 9.2 mile round-trip to the summit of Mount Baldy. So instead we hiked the 2.5 miles (one way) and 2050' of elevation gain to the Ski Hut. The elevation at the Ski Hut is 8210', which is 1854' and 2 miles of hiking below the summit. Our route took us by San Antonio Falls, which I was surprised to still see running at the end of June. I was more amazed with the clarity of the water than the waterfall itself, but either way it was very cool to see. My pictures do not do the waterfall justice so here is a better one by someone who probably attended one of the classes that Jodi attended.

After 90 minutes of hiking Bogey and I finally made it to the Ski Hut. There we took a quick break to eat lunch and admire the views. Due to the heat, Bogey had to take several breaks during our ascent, but I didn't mind the breather. Before we made our descent, I thought I would check to see if they would allow us to ride the ski lift down the mountain. I was skeptical, but thought it was worth a shot so I didn't have to carry Bogey when he overheated (well that, and we were a little pressed for time). The ski lift attendants said "go for it, just put the dog on your lap." So there I was riding a ski lift down the mountain with Bogey on my lap and a tight grip on his harness. He sat there looking around, just as still and as calm as ever. To tell you the truth I was much less calm than Bogey. I think all six of our legs were glad they were able to rest instead of retracing the 2.5 miles and 2050' of elevation change. Even with the ride down the mountain, Bogey was so tired that he was asleep before I pulled the car out of our parking spot.

We have interviews this week with a facility in Las Vegas, for our next assignment. Depending on how the interviews go, we may have to spend most of our last Southern California weekend in Nevada searching for housing in Vegas. My vote is for the Cesars Palace Villa from The Hangover, but if Jodi can't get a sig' on her beeper in the house of Ceaser, then it may be out.

Until next time, here are the rest of the pictures.

Beaches and Baseball three-peat

2011-06-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

We apologize for being a few weeks behind on our postings, we have been on the go, non-stop for the past few weeks.

The 1st weekend in June we went back to Orange to spend the weekend with a college teammate of Tim's (Lawren) and his family. On Sunday we went to Newport Beach where we ate lunch at the end of the pier and Tim gave surfing a try. He almost got up a few times, but stopped trying after about 20 minutes because he was too cold to stay in the water without wearing a wet suit.

A few nights later Tim returned to Orange County to see the Rays play the Angels at Angels Stadium with Lawren. Tim is happy he successfully completed the Southern California MLB trifecta.

The next day we flew to North Carolina to attend Daniel and Rebekah's High School Graduation. It was great spending time with family and friends throughout the weekend. We returned from North Carolina on Monday. Wednesday evening Tim's Aunt Louisa and Cousin Elizabeth came into town for a long weekend of sight seeing in Southern California. Yesterday we made stops at The Rose Bowl Stadium, The Pasadena Chalk Festival, The LA Farmers Market, and The Santa Monica Pier. It was so nice to be with family, we had a great time visiting and being tourists with Louisa and Elizabeth.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Central Coast

2011-06-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Lone Cypress

We took the long Memorial Day weekend to tour California's Central Coast. After work on Friday we headed north to Monterey. Our route took us past James Dean Memorial Junction, (the site of James Dean's fatal car accident). Before we began touring the Monterey Peninsula Saturday morning, I (Tim) went down the street from our hotel to take pictures of the house where my Aunt and Uncle lived during the 19-early-70's. My Father also lived in that house, after he decided to turn what was supposed to be a visit into a permanent stay.

Once I returned we loaded up the car and headed into Monterey. After a quick drive through Cannery Row, we headed to the infamous 17-mile drive at Pebble Beach, where we weaved along the coast, around spectacular golf courses and mansions. The highlight of the drive for me was obviously stopping at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. After eating a picnic lunch on the beach of Spanish Bay we got back in the car and headed south to Cambria on the Pacific Coast Highway. The drive was as amazing as expected, until we came upon a small stretch of the highway (20 miles north of Cambria) which was closed due to a massive rockslide that washed the road into the Pacific. The good news was that only a small portion of the highway was closed, the bad news was that the only detour is 100 miles long. During this 2-hour detour we quickly learned the Central Coast is as stunningly remote as it is beautiful. After a full day of taking in some of the most beautiful views and sights that we had ever seen, we finally arrived in Cambria as the sun was setting over the Pacific.

We spent Sunday bundled up walking around the coast and the funky little beach town of Cambria. Although it was clear and sunny, the high temperature on the coast was only in the 40's but felt much colder as there was a steady 20-30 mph breeze. Jodi and I both agreed this was the coldest weather we had ever been a part of during Memorial Day Weekend. We spent the rest of the day touring the former residence of Mr. W.R. Hearst at the Hearst Castle. Luckily it was a clear day, the views of the coast from the Castle were amazing, and the property itself was not to shabby either.

On our way home on Monday we made a stop at the quaint Danish village of Solvang, which was complete with Danish windmills, shops and bakeries. After strolling around the town we ended our time there by sharing some of Arnie's Famous Aebleskiver. Apparently aebleskiver is to Solvang what beignets are to New Orleans (except for no one has ever heard of either Solvang or an aebleskiver). The line for the Arnie's Famous aebleskiver was down the sidewalk, which is how we found out about these delicious gems. We figured if everyone was waiting in a long line them, then they had to be a Solvang must do.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the pictures.

More beaches and baseball

2011-05-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we headed to San Diego to visit some friends and see some of the sites we missed the first trip down. Saturday we spent the day in Coronado. We headed to Ferry Landing to eat lunch and walk around some of the shops. From there, we took Bogey to the dog beach which is located right next to the Naval Base. Bogey enjoyed running through the sand and along the water chasing the waves, and Tim enjoyed watching the F 18 jets take off and land. We enjoyed watching him until Bogey decided that he wanted to run through the fence and check out the base on his own (see exhibit "A"). You would think the fence separating the dog beach and the base would be doggie proof. When Bogey did not return after Tim repeatedly called his name, Tim had to crawl through the fence to retrieve our dog from the Base. As he climbed back through the fence the speakers began shouting, "Warning, you are trespassing on Government property." We quickly left after that incident.

On Sunday, we ventured out to see a Padres baseball game. They played the Mariners that day and neither team has a great record, so we saw a lot of hits and a lot of errors. Luckily we had great seats to view it all from. Tim was thrilled to check another Major League Baseball stadium off of his list.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Doc Visits

2011-05-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

Back in March when I turned 30 Jodi gave me this:

Thanks to Jodi and Doc's parents, the golfing extravaganza and visit came to fruition this past weekend when Doc flew in from North Carolina. Since Doc had to take the red-eye back on Sunday night, we made sure to fit in as much as possible every hour that he was here. The first stop on Friday after picking him up from the airport was to a local golf course to play a warm-up round before we attempted to conquer Torrey Pines. Friday night we loaded up the car and headed south to San Diego. Doc got a taste of the Southern California traffic while on our way to San Diego, as we were stop and go through L.A. at 10:00 pm. After checking in to the hotel around Midnight we set the alarm for 4:00 am to make sure we could secure our spot in the cue to get on to Torrey Pines.

For those of you who don't know, Torrey Pines is a municipal golf course on the Pacific Ocean in San Diego which hosted the 2008 US Open. Since this course is along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, as well as hosted a US Open and is not only affordable but also accessible to the general public; it is a popular place every day of the week let alone the weekend. To ensure you are able to get on the course the day you want to play, you have to arrive at the course before daylight to get in line. Since the course doesn't open until daybreak the line-up occurs in the parking lot and is run by the honor system. The last person to arrive leaves their headlights on in whatever parking spot they choose. Once you arrive you knock on the window of the car with its lights on and ask them what number they are. You then get back in your car and keep your headlights on until the next person arrives. When the golf course opens just before dawn, everyone lines up in front of the pro shop in the order they arrived in the parking lot. You then either pay the greens fee to get on the course immediately or you make a tee time for later on that day. Doc and I chose the latter and made a 2:30 tee time not only to save some money (since the rates in the afternoon are almost half of what they are in the morning) but to also go back to the hotel to try and get some sleep.

Doc and I knew the basics of how the pre-dawn line up works, but we learned most of this on the fly as we were #5 in line with our 4:15 arrival. We didn't learn of the whole keeping the headlights on rule until the #6 person rudely pointed this out to us. When we arrived the guy parked next to us, pointed to a car behind and said "they have the sign in sheet." As you can see the sign in sheet that day was a piece of cardboard. These nice Asian gentlemen handed us the piece of cardboard to us and said that they were #4. So we got back in the car with the piece of cardboard and waited for the next person to take it from us. About 10 minutes later the next patron arrived, so I opened the door told him we were #5 and offered him the sign in sheet, to which he quickly and rather angrily responded "I don't need it, this is why you leave your lights on." It was at this point Doc and I realized the sign in sheet was worthless and was most likely just used by the guy who arrived at midnight so he didn't have to wake up and tell the next person what number he was.

We got back to the hotel around 6:15 am and got right back into bed. Before we headed back to the course for our round we made our way to La Jolla to see the Seals. Since we knew that we wouldn't be able to adequetly capture our once in a lifetime round, Doc and I convinced Jodi to join us as our official photographer. Doc and I had a great time playing a US Open course with breathtaking views. Thanks to Jodi we have amazing pictures to remember it all by.

Doc felt it would be crazy not to pay homage to Wally World, so Sunday morning we went down the street to ride some roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain. That evening on our way to LAX we made a stop at the Griffith Observatory to take in the views of LA and the coast at Sunset. It was great laughing and golfing our way around Southern California with Doc. As usual the weekend went by too quickly, but it is one that will never be forgotten.

Disneyland & Tributefest

2011-05-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday and Sunday we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary with a weekend at Disneyland. Thankfully Disney has a kennel located at the entrance of the park so Bogey was able to join us for our festivities. Every few hours we stopped by the kennel to take Bogey out for a break. We had a great time hopping back and forth between the Disneyland and California Adventure parks. We rode the Tea Cups, Alice in Wonderland, the Matehorn, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, Soaring over California and many more. We made sure the ride the ones that were specific to Disneyland. We both agree the most amazing part of the weekend was the World of Color show at California Adventure on Saturday night. That show alone was worth the price of admission for the entire weekend. Both parks have a lot to offer, but it is easy to tell that, unlike Disney World in Florida, property is at a premium here in Southern California as they pack a whole lot in a very small space.

This Saturday (thanks to Mom & Dad Friedberg) we did something local and went to the Santa Clarita Tributefest. There we heard tribute bands play the likes of Elton John, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Journey, Dave Matthews and The Who. Journey was the best band and they sounded exactly like the "real thing." We enjoyed both the live music and the unlimited premium draft beers!

As always the rest of the pictures are on Picasa.

Beaches and Baseball

2011-04-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

This week we had our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. To celebrate we went out to a nice dinner, and scheduled plans for a weekend at Disneyland at the end of the month.

Saturday we drove up the coast to spend the day in Santa Barbara. We walked along the beach, down the pier and along the State Street Historic Downtown shopping area. We have heard that Santa Barbara is a nice place, but we were surprised by how much we loved this quaint beach town - Bogey included.

Sunday we decided to catch an afternoon game at Dodger Stadium. For you Baseball buffs you may find these factoids as interesting as I (Tim) did: Dodger Stadium is currently the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (behind Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago) and is the largest ballpark by seating capacity. Since the game started right around lunchtime we purchased tickets in the "all you can eat" Right Field Pavilion. Despite no respite from the California sun, our 1st row seats in the outfield were almost as fantastic as the unlimited Dodger Dogs. The game was uneventful (offensive wise) until the 9th inning where the Dodgers won by a walk-off home run. It was a great ending to a wonderful day at the ballpark.

As usual, here are the rest of the pictures.

Here and There

2011-04-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

We have had a couple of pretty laid back weekends since our last posting. Two weeks ago we went to the neat town of Orange CA to visit one of Tim's former teammates from Greensboro College. We spent the day walking around Historic Orange and visiting with Lawren, his Wife and their 3 children. Last weekend we headed down the street to Six Flags to ride a few roller coasters before the Final Four.

Yesterday we went to The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley. The Museum was quite remarkable, it definitely exceeded our expectations. Unknown to us, we ended up timing our visit to the Library very well, as it was the last weekend the Miniature White House exhibit would be on display. Unfortunately flash photography is not allowed, so our pictures will not do justice to this phenomenal replica. But I was able to track down more in-depth pictures of the model here. One of the highlights of The Museum is the pavilion that hosts President Reagan's Air Force One, Marine One and his motorcade. We were able to board the Air Force One, but have no pictures since photography is not allowed while on the plane. The 80's state of the art communication center on Air Force One is now laughable, but it was really cool seeing President Reagan's Nuclear Football sitting in between the seats of the communication center. Also featured at The Museum is the suit worn by President Reagan when he was shot, a section of the Berlin Wall, a full-sized replica of The Oval Office and President Reagan's final resting place.

For our Sunday outing we went hiking at Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills. This 4 mile hike had amazing views throughout its 1000 ft. of elevation change.

As usual, for the rest of the photos visit our Picasa page.

For those of you who are interested, the folks at Google have created new ways to view blogs. For a dynamic look at our entries visit the following link - Dynamic Views for Readers.

The Friedberg's Visit

2011-03-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Jodi's parents came to visit us for a long weekend in SoCal. Friday we spent most of the day in Malibu. We got an early start and drove a short distance along the Pacific Coast Highway around Malibu. We made one stop along the water and it didn't take long for a wave to soak Mom and Dad's legs past their knees. If was quite funny for us, but Mom was less than pleased. They had to spend the rest of the day in wet jeans with wet socks and wrinkled toes. We then took a 2-hour Whale Watching tour that left from the Malibu Pier. Of course, we did not see any whales, but we did see plenty of dolphins and seals. The tour also showed us a handful of celebrity homes that are located along the water in Malibu, including Cher, Dick Clark, Barbara Streisand, and Olivia Newton John. One of the coolest things we saw were the enormous starfish attached to the legs of the pier. After the tour, we ate lunch outside at The Beachcomber on the Malibu Pier. We made a quick stop at the Cornell Winery before making our way home. For dinner, we headed across the street from our apartment to BJ's where we enjoyed a great dinner and had our first star sighting. We saw 2 soap opera stars (formerly on Port Charles and General Hospital), Erin Presley and her husband, Brian Presley. After dinner, we saw One Night of Queen at the local performing arts center. Gary Mullen and The Works spent the evening covering many Queen songs as we sang along. Gary Mullen looked, sang and entertained just like Freddie Mercury.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Hollywood. We started at the Griffith Observatory overlooking Hollywood and downtown LA. After taking pictures of the Hollywood sign, we walked along Hollywood Boulevard looking at the walk of fame and the handprints in the cement in front of the Chinese Theater. We think Mom and Dad enjoyed it more than they thought they would. We then ate lunch at the Original Farmer's Market at the Grove where we had another star sighting. While Mom and Jodi were looking for something to eat, they saw Anna Kendrick of the Twilight movies and Up in the Air. After lunch we drove through Beverly Hills before heading back home for the day. Later that night we headed to downtown LA to the Garrett Morris Downtown Comedy Club for an evening of stand up comedians. We saw about 10 different comedians in about 3 hours including Garret himself. It was much more entertaining than we first expected and we all had a great time (including the $1 Ring Dings and Twinkies they sold at the bar.)

Sunday, we spent the day at the apartment, relaxing, mostly because it rained the entire day (yes it actually rained here). We received about 1 inch of rain every hour and this literally dampened our plans. However, we needed the day to recover and relax from the previous event-filled days and Tim was happy to finally be able to watch some of the NCAA Tournament.

On Monday, we spent the day at Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Venice beach is not as lively on Monday as we assume it is on the weekends, but we walked by the gym on Muscle Beach and got to see the Pacific Ocean. The waves are much bigger than we are used to from the Gulf of Mexico. We spent some time walking along the shops along the sand and seeing the people who post up along this strip. It was interesting! We then drove up to Santa Monica and walked along the Promenade. We ate tacos and enchiladas at Wahoo's then walked up and down the many blocks of shops along the Promenade of Santa Monica. We then walked along the Santa Monica Pier to see the Ferris Wheel and other rides. We then met Jodi's dad's childhood friend, Steven Middleman who is a local comedian. Mom and Dad left with Steven to spend the afternoon with him and he then took them to the airport to close out their trip to Southern California.

All in all, we think they enjoyed their visit to LA and we were glad they made the trip.

Check out picasa for the rest of the photos.

The Big 3-0

2011-03-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, Tim celebrated his 30th birthday! To celebrate his Big 3-0, we ventured into downtown LA on Saturday. We ate dinner and watched the Duke/UNC basketball game at Big Wangs, a restaurant/bar that is as good as its name! Tim couldn't resist the 25 cent wings and the PBR special to celebrate his birthday. Despite Duke's loss, we had a fun time at dinner. After dinner, we went down to LA Live and to the Staples Center to watch the Clippers vs. Nuggets basketball game. This was Jodi's first live NBA experience and we had a good time. We were very excited at the potential of witnessing one of Blake Griffin's ridiculous dunks, but as our luck would have it, he didn't even attempt one.

On Sunday, we drove to UCLA for the women's gymnastics meet against Georgia and Arizona at Pauley Pavilion. Given that UCLA won the national championship last year and Georgia has also won in recent years, we knew it would be a good competition to see. We also knew there would be some previous Olympians in the competition. We saw Samantha Peszek (2008 Olympics) and Shayla Worley (who trained at Orlando Metro but missed out on the 2008 Olympics due to injury) compete for UCLA and Georgia, respectively. It was also cool to see Chris Waller (1992 Olympics) on the sidelines as a UCLA assistant coach. While their routines are quite watered down from Olympic material, we still saw some excellent gymnastics.

It was another successful weekend of memorable adventures in LA. We haven't yet made any plans for next weekend, but we are positive we will not have any trouble coming up with something.

10 extra weeks

2011-02-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

For those of you who do not know, two weeks ago we both accepted offers to extend our contracts at our respective facilities. Both facilities were hoping that we would extend for another 13 weeks, but to make sure we can attend beach week in July we could only extend for an additional 10 weeks. As it stands now we will be here until July 8th. We both really enjoy where we work and more importantly love where we live. There is so much to do and see here, we're not sure we can fit it all in even with the extra 10 weeks.

Tim had to work yesterday so we had to cram in our weekend outing into 1 day. We made our way into Hollywood on Oscar Sunday to attend Rock of Ages at the historic Pangtages Theater. For those of you who watched The Academy Awards tonight, you may have seen that this theater hosted the awards from 1950 to 1960 which included the first televised Academy Awards. We arrived in Hollywood several hours early to walk around the Hollywood Farmers Market and along Hollywood Boulevard towards the red carpet. We made it close enough to see all of the barricades and the enormous oscar statues along the red carpet (sorry we didn't get any pictures, we only had our phones which couldn't zoom in well enough) before we turned around to make it to the show on time. If anyone has a chance to go see Rock of Ages we highly recommend it, we both absolutely loved it.

It has been a cold weekend here in Southern California, all elevations above 2000 ft saw snow accumulation on Friday. The mountains around us and throughout L.A. County are beautifully snowcapped. Believe it or not Tim had a snowy drive to and from work yesterday. Our scenic commute along CA Freeway 14 ascends over 4000 ft before we make it into the high desert of The Antelope Valley.

Since our adventures were limited to just one day, all of the pictures of the weekend are within this posting. See you next week!

San Diego

2011-02-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

We took advantage of a 3 day weekend by heading south to San Diego. On our way down we made a quick stop at the San Juan Capistrano Mission (well, we took pictures from the outside). Next we stopped at the La Jolla Cove to see the wild seals. Not only did we time our La Jolla visit just before a storm came in (it actually does rain along the coast sometimes) but we were able to see a baby seal pup who was born 10 minutes prior to our arrival. They are not as furry or cute as you would think. For those of you with a soft stomach skip over the next few sentences. The Seagull in the picture was anxiously awaiting to make a meal out of the afterbirth. Within a matter of a minutes there were dozens of birds on the beach devouring the afterbirth (we will email you that photo if interested). From La Jolla we made our way to our hotel in San Diego. After checking in we spent our first evening dining and walking around the Gaslamp Quarter district.

Sunday morning we made our way straight to the world famous San Diego Zoo. It was completely worth all 6+ hours it took to make our way through the zoo. We will let the pictures tell the story of our visit to the zoo. From the zoo we took a walk along the Bay through Seaport Village to The World's Greatest Generation walking tour next to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. We had a fantastic ending to our day by eating dinner with Kayla and Evan (Jodi's college friends) at their home on Coronado Island.

On our way out of San Diego we made stops at Old Town San Diego and Torrey Pines State Reserve. We were hoping to do some hiking along the Torrey Pines beach, but dogs are not allowed on the reserve (this is the first outdoor area we have been to in Southern California where was Bogey discriminated against). Jodi and Bogey sat in the car while I (Tim) took some pictures and walked around the clubhouse of the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course. From Torrey Pines we headed north along to coast to Carlsbad where we grabbed lunch before making the rest of the journey back home.

Visit our Picasa page to see the photo album of the weekend's adventures.

Hollywood and Beyond

2011-02-13T20:16:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I (Tim) finally had a normal weekend (both Saturday and Sunday off) which allowed us to get back to our adventures. It was because of my work schedule that we did not blog last weekend, I guess one could say we didn't have anything to write home about.

We spent the day yesterday visiting various sights in and around L.A. We started the day with taking in the views along famous Mulholland Drive. From Mulholland drive we went straight to Hollywood Boulevard where we made the compulsory stops to The Grauman's Chinese Theater and The Hollywood Walk of Fame. We have heard these sights were not in a good part of town, but we were pleasantly surprised to see the riffraff have been replaced by the Hollywood and Highland Center (shopping mall) and The Kodak Theater. From what we saw, it has been transformed into a much nicer area with a lot of shopping, dining and nightlife establishments.

Next we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. For those of you who do not know about this gem in the middle of the city, click the embedded link for the FAQ's. From the Tar Pits we made our way around the corner to another L.A. landmark, The Original Farmers Market and the adjoining outdoor shopping mall, The Grove. Once we made our rounds at the Farmers Market and The Grove we got back in the car and headed for Beverly Hills.

No day would be complete without driving down Rodeo Drive, but don't worry our Prius blended in well among the Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, and Maserati's. We decided to wait another day until our nicest hammy-downs were donned before we walked these streets. From Rodeo Drive we made a quick drive through the campus of UCLA before we headed back home.

On Sunday Bogey joined us to hike and climb among the rock formations at The Vasquez Rocks Park. The greatest part about the park is that you're allowed to hike around as well as climb up and down all of the rock formations. No ropes, no nets, and apparently no rules. Once in the park it's easy to see why it has such an extensive filming history.

Please visit our Picasa site for the latest photos.

We both have a 3 day weekend next weekend. Stay tuned to see what kind of trouble we may stir up with 3 days of Southern California at our fingertips.

Warm and Sunny

2011-01-30T18:55:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

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.......

2011-01-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-09T19:01:00.001-08:00

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!

2011-01-01T10:17:00.000-08:00

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

What a day

2010-12-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

The snow continued throughout the night and morning in Flagstaff. All roads for 100 miles in every direction were closed. Luckily we were stuck in the hotel and not in our car somewhere. Bogey loved jumping, running, digging and playing in the snow, we think he was hoping we were stuck in Flagstaff for a little longer. There was nothing that we could do besides camp out in our hotel room and delay housekeeping from kicking us out. The interstate finally re-opened at 2:30 pm, so we dug the car out and packed it up. Since we had such a late start we decided to make a reservation in the greater LA area, rather than drive all the way to San Luis Obispo.

As expected the first 100 miles of the drive were extremely snowy and slippery, in our opinion it was questionable whether the interstate should have been open. As we made our way to lower elevations the driving conditions dramatically improved. Within 2.5 hours we went from the snow-pocalypse of Arizona to the dry and sun-filled Mojave Desert, it was the most radical change of scenery we had ever witnessed in a single car ride. As the desert ended so did I-40. We were hoping for some sort of sign signifying the end of the interstate that we had successfully driven 2400+ miles of over the past 5 days, instead all lanes anti-climatically merged into I-15 (boring). Soon after, Jodi was introduced to the traffic and driving along Southern California Freeways.

We made it to our Hotel around 8:00. Bogey was less than pleased that his snowy paradise was replaced by the cement jungle of Southern California. But seriously, it was not easy to find a place where he was comfortable to do his business. Tomorrow will be the last leg of our trip to Berkeley. For obvious reasons we plan to drive up the coast for most of the day. Although we cancelled our reservation in San Luis Obispo we still have to stop by the hotel as our landlord shipped the keys to our apartment there.

We apologize that you all will have to wait a day or so before we are able to post any more pictures. For some reason our hotel doesn't have free wireless, but what can you expect from a hourly-rate room in Compton.

(Same Post - Just with Pictures added, we will post the events of 12/31/10 tomorrow morning)

Snowed in

2010-12-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

We made our shortest drive today (322 miles)

from Albuquerque NM to Flagstaff AZ. Jodi had

the foresight to look at the weather report, which read "blizzard conditions" for northern New Mexico and Arizona. For safety reasons we decided that we needed to get to Flagstaff as soon as possible, and because of this we were unable to do any sightseeing in Albuquerque this morning. However, on the way to Flagstaff (before the snow hit the fan) we made a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. To our surprise the drive through the park was amazingly scenic, but like my Cousin Brad said there's a reason why the land in the parks has been set aside.

The entire drive was extremely windy today, keeping the car in between the lines was hard work. We were amused of all of the tumble weeds rolling across the interstate throughout the drive. The heavy snow didn't begin until we were about 10 miles outside of Flagstaff. When we pulled into Flagstaff we quickly realized we would be stuck in the hotel for the rest of the day/night. There was 8-12" of snow on the ground and the roads already with another 10" or so on the way; but don't worry Tim made sure we were prepared by picking up two 6-packs before we even checked in at the Hotel. Luckily there are plenty of restaurants, gas stations and stores within walking distance of the hotel, so we have everything we need except for an opportunity to explore Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Canyon.

We are hoping we're able to get out of here and make the planned trip to the California coast tomorrow, but for now we're sipping on the 6-packs and making the most of being snowed in.

We are to the point now that we need to post the rest of the pictures of our journey in an album, to see these photos visit this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/TimMillerDPT

Long and Flat (that's what She said)

2010-12-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

We have entered the Wild West and thankfully put the Plains behind us today. The only bit of sightseeing we did today (besides the drive) was a stop at The Oklahoma City National Memorial at the sight of the 1995 Federal Building bombing.

We were both amazed at the vast amount of nothingness and amused by the sky touching the horizon in every direction, as well as the various wind-farms. I-40 is desolate throughout the Plains and for those without a hybrid you should fill your gas tank as often as possible. We made our lone stop today in Amarillo, Texas. For those who are Man v. Food fans, no we didn't do the 72 oz steak challenge at The Big Texan. Jodi was amazed to see absolutely nothing along the interstate until we reached a town. Even then, the businesses were simply lined next to each other, parallel to the interstate. This included Amarillo! She thinks Burlington is bigger than Amarillo...

To our surprise the landscape immediately changed as soon as we crossed the New Mexico border, making the drive much more interesting. It was cool to see the Mesas that we have only read about. We arrived in Albuquerque as the sun was setting behind the mountains, which was a beautiful site to see. We knew we had reached civilization again when we saw all the city lights of Albuquerque.

We decided that since we were in New Mexico, we needed to experience some authentic Mexican cuisine. So we ventured to Papa Nachos for tacos and some spicy salsa and it was delicious.

Tomorrow we head to Flagstaff, AZ. It should be a shorter drive than we have experienced thus far. Perhaps a visit to the Grand Canyon is in store....

Sunny skies and dry roads

2010-12-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

It was smooth sailing all the way to Oklahoma City today, we are well into our journey through the Great Plains. It didn't take long for us to decide that the "Great" describes the size only.

Bogey (and Tim) began the day with a jog through the campus of Vanderbilt University. Then we drove through downtown Nashville before we headed toward Oklahoma City. We first stopped in Memphis to see the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and then to drive by Graceland. Other than these two sites, Memphis, TN leaves a lot to be desired.

We continued on, over the Mississippi River and into Arkansas and the beginning of The Great Plains...nothing but flat driving for the next 6 hours. We ended today's trip in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma after a long day of driving. Of course, Bogey was ready to run after he slept the entire trip.

Off to Albuquerque, NM tomorrow and thankfully the end of The Great Plains.

And we're off (to a very snowy start)

2010-12-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

Day 1 of the cross country drive was much snowier and slower than expected, but we made the 486 mile drive to Nashville safely. The snow was very pretty, but it made traveling interesting. We were unable to drive faster than 20mph for about an hour while driving over the mountains near the NC/TN border (yes that picture of the road is of the interstate - we're not sure where the plows were).

Bogey did very well for all 8.5 hours in the car today. He was happy he was able to look out of the window and didn't have to be in his crate (we had to collapse his crate to save the space). We created a space for him on the seat but he decided that he was happier on top of all of the luggage.

We had plans to see the Christmas decorations at the Gaylord Opryland, but Bogey had other plans. We only made it to the lights outside when we got a call from the Hotel front desk informing us that Bogey was howling and barking non-stop, so we had to leave before we could step inside. It's looking like we not only need pet friendly hotels, but pet friendly sight seeing as well.

We're hoping for less snow for our 677 mile journey to Oklahoma City tomorrow.

Advice, tips and suggestions for driving cross country

2010-11-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

In an effort to help us plan the first of many legs of our journey, please feel free to add comments to the advice given to us by my Cousin Brad:

I drove across the country and back in the summer of 1999 and it was

one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. So, in an effort to help
make your trip memorable as well, I wanted to impart upon you some
lessons and tips I learned on my trip.

1) This may sound obvious, but plan ahead. I would recommend that
you know where you’re going to wake up every morning, what you’re
going to see that day, how much time you’re going to spend in the car,
where you’re going to eat your meals, and where you’re going to go to
sleep. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to pick out a restaurant for
lunch, but rather, I’d recommend planning out your driving and get a
good idea of what towns you’re going to be near when it’s lunchtime.
Doing this will ensure that you will not waste good driving time, for
example, stuck in some boring place for the night because the next
townis too far away. And, I would also look at the opening and
closing times of each of the attractions you want to see. That way,
you won’t show up to find out it’s closed on Mondays, or something
like that. In addition, I would make as many hotel reservations as
possible. It’s much easier to cancel a reservation before 6 PM
because you don’t need it than to find one at 11 PM in the middle of
nowhere. (Trust me, I found that out the hard way.)

Having suggested that you should plan out the entire trip, I would
also recommend putting in a few floating days where you don’t have
anything assigned. That way, if you go somewhere and want to spend
the day instead of just 3 hours, you can do that and it won’t screw up
your overall schedule. And, be realistic about driving times and how
much time you’d want to spend places. Don’t become Clark W. Griswold
and always rush to the next thing at the expense of where you
currently are.

2) Get a tent and two sleeping bags and camp some of the nights. This
will save you a good amount of money and will be kind of fun. If you
do it enough, the money you save from hotels will pay for the cost of
the camping equipment. And, you’ll probably use the equipment again
when you’re in CA. Of course, since you’re going to be traveling in
December, look at the weather reports. Maybe it’s too cold everywhere
and doesn’t make sense. I don’t know. (Also check altitude, which
makes things very cold at night.) And, you have a dog, so you’d need
to figure out how to camp with a dog. I imagine if it’s too cold the
dog, it will be too cold for you.

3) Don’t screw around with anything east of the Mississippi River.
There are lots of neat things east of the Mississippi, but they’re all
very similar to things we’ve all seen growing up on the East Coast.
Get across the river as quickly as possible and see the West. There’s
nothing like it anywhere else in the world. You’ll probably need to
spend one night east of the Mississippi, so you can find a neat
town/city and stay there. But, other than that, go West.

4) I might even change the above recommendation to say don’t waste
time east of the Rocky Mountains. There are a few exceptions, like the
Badlands, but for the most part, the Plains States are very flat and
after you’ve driven across them for hours and hours, you won’t want to
stop anyway.

5) Bring all of your music with you. I don’t know if you have an iPod
or other music player, but if you don’t get one used from eBay.
You’re going to be in the car for hours and hours. You’ll need
something to listen to.

6) In a similar vein, rent or borrow books on CD to listen to between
Graham and the Rockies. You can rent them from any Cracker Barrel
restaurant for $3.50 per week and return them to any other Cracker
Barrel. (They make you pay the full price when you rent it but you
get it refunded, minus the fee, when you return the book.) I’d check
to make sure that these restaurants are well placed out West, though,
so you can return the CDs without going out of your way. Also, you
can get books on CD from your local library and buy padded envelopes,
address them, and buy postage for them before you leave. Then, when
you’re done, you can just mail the CDs back to the library.

7) Focus on National Parks. When deciding where to go on your trip, I
would use National Parks as anchors. Learn about which ones are out
there, decide which ones you’d like to visit, and then work out the
details of traveling between them. I’m not saying that everything
you’ll want to see is in a National Park, but some of the best parts
of the country are in those parks. There’s a reason they’ve been set
aside, so you should enjoy them. I would recommend looking at
Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Glacier, Rocky
Mountain and Arches. As with the camping recommendation, I would
check the weather to see what is reasonable to visit in December.
John and I were at Rocky Mountain National Park on May 3 of this year,
and you really needed snowshoes it was so cold and snowy. So, you
might need to take this recommendation with a grain of salt, given
your traveling in December.

8) If you think you’re going to go to a few National Parks, I’d
consider buying an “America the Beautiful” National Park pass. It
costs $80 but gets you into all parks for free for a year. It’s
transferable to whatever car you’re in, and it gets everyone in the
car in for free. Individual parks cost $20 each, so if you go to 4
parks over the course of the year, it will pay for itself. Even if
you don’t hit that many on your trip, you’ll probably go to Kings
Canyon, Yosemite, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, etc while in CA. You can
get more info here: http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm.

9) Consider joining AAA, if you’re not already a member. They’re good
with towing, if anything happens to the car. In addition, they will
give you free maps of all the states you’ll visit. And, if you give
them your destinations and preferred routes, they’ll mail you a
triptik that gives you detailed maps of where you’re going, what
you’re going to pass, and where you can eat/stay. Much of this info
is available online, but you’re going to be spending a good amount of
time in places where you don’t have any cell service, let alone wifi.

10) Again, because you won’t always be able to get on the internet to
look things up, buy one or two good travel books. These books will be
good to plan your trip, and also as a reference while you’re on the
trip. I like Frommers and Lonely Planet. There are also books that
specifically focus on the National Parks. And, there are books that
tell you where pet-friendly hotels are. I’d considering buying one of
those too.

11) Take a good cooler with you. You can buy sandwich stuff and
drinks in grocery stores on the way, and just replenish the cooler
with ice as necessary. It will save you a good amount of money
because you won’t need to buy every meal at a restaurant. And, it
keeps you from having to be in a populated area every time you want to
eat. In addition, throw in at least one good knife, but the rest of
the stuff (plates, other silverware, cups) can probably be
paper/plastic and disposable.

12) Buy an altimeter for your car. They’re cheap and you can get them
at camping stores or maybe even Target. I found it fascinating how
high I was on some of the roads. On tops of mountains, they tell you
the elevation, but those signs are few and far between. If you think
you’d be interested in this information, it’s worth the investment.

13) Stash a few hundred dollars in $20 bills somewhere in your car.
You’re not always going to be where you can use cards or checks. So,
just in case, hide some cash in the car somewhere. It could help you
out of a jam.

14) Finally, when you’re in California, make it a point to do
something every week. When I was in Ireland, and again in Olypmia, I
made this rule. It doesn’t have to be anything amazing, but just make
sure that every weekend, or at least once during the week, you go and
look at something cool, or do something you won’t be able to do when
you come home. If you don’t force yourself to do this, you’ll miss
out on all kinds of cool stuff in California. Of course, I’d
recommend going to National Parks, but LA and San Francisco are also
fantastic, as is the Central Coast, which is the stretch of land
between the two. After a few months, you’ll be experts and the people
you work will with be envious of how much interesting stuff you’re
doing.

Many thanks to Brad for all of his advice and insight!

We look forward to hearing more tips and suggestions others may have!