Catching up...

So, where were we...  Oh yeah.  South Carolina.  So, the last night in SC, we all went out to dinner to Outback.  Aside from having to wait forever to eat (they messed up the reservation...), it was a good time with everyone before we started heading back (all three cars left at different times...).  Here's a picture of all of us. :)

The whole crew!

 After dinner, a bunch of us went down to the beach to find some crabs.  Armed with flashlights, we hunted and caught a huge bucket of crabs.  They weren't very happy and would scurry around in the bucket to try to escape, but we got a good 15 or so in the bucket before we let them all go. :)

Bucket 'O crabs

The next morning, a few of us got up early to watch the sun rise over the ocean. :)  Very peaceful start to what ended up a long day.

Sunrise

Bridget and I drove down with Bridget's younger sister and her husband, who live south of Chicago.  We left SC around 7am and made it back to her sister's place around 9pm, which isn't bad at all.  Then Bridget and I kept on going to make it back to Rockford for the night.  Before we left, I checked the weather because we drove through a storm in Indiana.  Everything looked good, so started driving.  About an hour later, it started raining cats and dogs.  It was raining so hard that I couldn't see the road, much less the exit ramps to get off!  I just tried to follow the truck in front of me.  After a minute or two, I was completely unable to see and figured out that we needed to get off the highway.  So, we pulled off at a Marriot hotel and I checked the weather.  A huge storm (a big red glob on the dopplar) had popped up out of nowhere.  So, we sat for an hour and waited it out.  By the time it was all said and done, we made it back to Rockford at 2:30am.  Exhausted, still soggy from running from the car into the Marriot and back, and most definitely glad to be safe and sound, we were out within minutes of making it back. :)

The next morning (technically later that morning, but whatever...), we ran some errands, spent some time with my family, packed the car, and spent our last night in Rockford at Bridget's parent's house.  In case you're wondering, here's how much you can fit inside a Toyota Corolla.

Not everything in the picture went, but pretty close...

Yeah, "loaded down" would be an understatement.  But I could see out the back and the sides, so it wasn't as dangerous as it could have been...  We took off from Rockford around 5:20am on Monday morning and drove to Colorado and spent the night with some friends who live in the mountains west of Denver.  We made it there around 9pm.  And we were up and at 'em at 5am Tuesday morning to make it the rest of the way to Sacramento, CA.  Our plan to go to the Grand Canyon kind of fell through for a variety of reasons.  First, we didn't have a place to stay in Palo Alto yet, and the stop would cost us two days.  We figured that apartment hunting should come first.  Second, we were completely geared for moving, not hiking.  So, we would have had to eat our meals in the lodge, stay in the lodge, and somehow dig out hiking shoes and clothes (that wouldn't be able to be washed until who-knows-when).  So, we skipped that part of the trip and just headed straight for Cali.
We rolled into Sacramento around 10:30pm on Tuesday night.  We stayed with a good friend (the pastor that married us) for the night and continued on to Palo Alto the next morning.  Here's a few pics from the road trip...

Sunrise in the rockies

Too bad California isn't "closer than it appears"...

The fish-eye mirror makes the clouds look really cool... (at least I think so)

Yep, 504 miles on I-80W.  And that didn't include the other 114 miles on I-80 after that turn!

So, somewhat dazed by this point, Bridget and I stopped at a Starbucks on Wednesday morning and made some phone calls and set up apartment showings for the afternoon.  We made the 2.5 hour drive from Sacramento to Palo Alto and had about 7 showings that afternoon.  We still had a few scheduled for Thursday morning, so we didn't turn in any applications on the spot.  The apps typically had a non-refundable fee, so we waited until we were sure. :)

We spent the night with another good friend who lives in Redwood City, CA, which is really close to Palo Alto.  So, we got up early and started the hunting first thing in the morning.  Long story short, we found a place Thursday morning!  It is a cozy studio that looks like it was just remodeled.  Hardwood floors and tile throughout, a nearly full-size kitchen (a must for us, since we like to cook - and Bridget is a really good cook!), a walk-in closet, and a patio!  And we move in tomorrow morning!  48 hour turnaround! :)  We didn't get very good pictures, so we'll have to take some more when we move in and post them. :)  But, it was a huge answer to alot of prayers that we would find a place so quickly!  God is definitely good. :)

So, after securing the apartment, we started looking around for all of the other things (grocery stores, restaurants, etc.) and updating our address for everything.  It's quite a process if you haven't done it recently...  Not all that fun to be honest...  But we're stoked to have a place and really excited to move in tomorrow and get settled into our own place after what seems like months of bouncing from here to there and back again...

And I start at Stanford on Monday, so we'll have 2 days to get the necessities taken care of.  Shouldn't be too hard. :)  There's an IKEA and grocery store less than a mile away and easy access to the freeway, so we'll do just fine.  We'll probably hit up some garage sales and Craigslist postings tomorrow for cheap furniture and stuff.  :)  It will be interesting...

But I should get some sleep so I'm all rested for the big day tomorrow!

Over and out,
Jeremy