Winter Wrap-Up, Part II: California Girls

This winter I was able to go on two mini-vacations: one to visit my friend, Janet, in Northern California; the other headed East to Philly with a group of grad students at the beginning of their spring break.

The following describes the highlights from my trip to the West coast:

Janet had been living in California (taking a break from Indiana) for about seven months before I had a chance to fly out for a visit. I decided to take a couple of days off work to have a 4-day weekend. Unfortunately, flying across the country ate up almost two days and my visit ended up being much shorter than I had thought. It was almost A LOT shorter, as I nearly missed my connecting flight in Minneapolis. This had nothing to do with the airline, but rather my loss of time as I was talking on the phone to Tessa down in Rochester! I glanced at my watch to realize that the flight was scheduled to take off in 5 MINUTES!!! Running to the gate, I was greeted by name and ushered onto the plane. "I don't think they've closed the hatch yet." That was close!!!

Once in San Jose, Janet met me at the airport and then we headed out for dinner--yummy hot wings. This was only the beginning of my gastronomical tour of the area. The rest of the evening was pretty low-key. I was pretty tired after all the traveling, etc., but that didn't keep us from lying awake in the the dark and talking for over an hour before falling asleep.

After church on Sunday we enjoyed a nice Ethiopian meal and a relaxing walk around the neighborhood. We picked up some movies at Blockbuster and visited a great used book store.

(Note: All pictures from this trip are courtesy of Janet, as I hadn't gotten back into the picture taking spirit yet.)


For dinner that night Janet and I were joined by two of her housemates, Rob and Robin, for gyros...it was so nice to have such variety of food available and great people to share it with. Afterwards we went back to the house and watched the movie, "Once," with Rob. As Janet was making the popcorn, I played with the refrigerator magnates.

If you haven't seen (or even heard about) "Once," it's an independent movie about these two musicians in Dublin...a pianist and a guitarist. A good movie and an even better soundtrack! After the movie, Rob pulled out his guitar and we all got to sing along to some songs, including a valiant attempt at "Balasiri Bye Bye."


On Monday, we had a great breakfast at this coffee shop down the street. Have you ever tried figs, honey, and goat cheese on French bread? It's SO GOOD!!! We then decided to drive to Santa Clara to hang out on the beach and have a retreat of silence, something I really needed. Despite being a beach in California, it was cool/cold and not exactly what we were hoping for. It was still a nice time to reflect on God and admire His creation.


We also enjoyed the drive there and back again in...the BENZ!!! (The manager gave us a great deal: for an extra $15 I was able to upgrade from the Taurus. Who among you wouldn't have done the same???)


As of Monday night I still had one more culinary request to fulfill...dim sum. Although, as I learned on this trip, it is traditionally an early meal (like breakfast or lunch) we found a place that would still serve it at night, except that we had to order everything from the kitchen (i.e. no carts on the floor). This only became a problem when all the food was served and we realized that we had ordered WAY TOO MUCH for just the two of us. Everything tasted great, so I'm sure Janet enjoyed the leftovers. Returning to the house, we watched another movie with Rob. This time it was his choice--"Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels."

My flight back on Tuesday was scheduled for noon, so Janet and I visited one of her favorite haunts for coffee and pastries before I had to head out. I loved the last picture she took of my visit...I'll miss you, too, Janet!

Happy Spring/Sweater Day

So we're already 12 hours into Spring and I haven't finished up my "Winter Wrap-up"...oh well.

I thought that I should at least take some time today to make everyone aware of "Won't you wear a sweater?" day, which celebrates what would have been Mr. Roger's 80th birthday. I wore one of my favorite zip-up sweaters today...won't you???

Winter Wrap-Up, Part I: Cake and a 'Chuck

I just noticed that there's only one week left in winter. In as such, I've made it a goal of mine to catch up on my blog entries and start spring off afresh. So here goes...

My birthday this year didn't hit any major milestones; however my friend, Jennifer, did make this wonderful cake for me. She called it Chocolate Brownie Death with Strawberries Cake. Once I get permission from her, I'll insert a link to her blog, where she describes it in detail. She also has some pictures of other birthday cake creations she's done recently that should impress most anyone! BTW, the cake was soooo rich and YUMMY!!!! She also got me some flowers, which I LOVE but am always afraid to buy myself because of the cats. Thankfully, Lexi and Pandora didn't eat these:)



The beginning of February gave me the opportunity to check something off of my "Bucket List." Ever since I've seen the movie, I've wanted to visit Punxsutawney, PA, on the 2nd to celebrate Groundhog's Day. I almost went last year, but decided to put it off until this year, when the holiday fell on a Saturday (i.e. no vacation days required). I made the journey on Friday night with a girl (Kelly) from the Christian Grad chapter and we crashed at the community center, sleeping snuggly between the theatre seats in the balcony (note: heat rises). We tried our best to get as much sleep as possible, but it was a bit difficult with all the people talking and the midnight showing of "Groundhog's Day."

Dark and early the next morning (~4:30am), we awoke and made the trek UP to Gobbler's Knob. Walking more than a mile uphill this early on a cold February morning sounds more fun than it actually is (and I do realize that it doesn't sound like too much fun to begin with).

When we reached the top, we were greeted with with ~30,000 of our closest friends!!! In reality, Kelly and I only knew about twenty of them (other Christian Grads and PSU meteorology grad students). They were surprisingly easy to find...under the hurricane weather flags!

The prognostication didn't occur until 7:25am, so we spend the next couple of hours dancing with the "Groundhog Girls" to keep warm and enjoying the fireworks show (~6:30am). When Phil finally came out, he brought BAD news, 6 more weeks of winter...hard to understand, as I there was a pretty overcast sky that day!!!

After the walk back down to town, a large group of us had an all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Elks' Lodge. Kelly and I stuck around town for a few more hours and then ran in the 4 mile Groundhog Jog...up the hill, through Gobbler's Knob, and down the hill again. Not the most enjoyable race (especially after minimum sleep the night before), but in addition to the race T-shirt I did get an official Punxsutawney Phil Beanie Baby...I know you're jealous now.

All in all, a good trip, but one that I don't see the need to repeat anytime soon.