I'm not so good at this anymore...

11/20/11
So, I guess I have a much greater respect for full-time bloggers.  These people crank out posts every single day!  Like without fail!  And I can hardly write once a month anymore!  I'm so pathetic... or too busy having fun with everything else to do in life aside from sitting in front of a computer screen... :)

Anyway, I realize that I haven't posted in awhile and really need to catch you all up on our lives so I can quit feeling bad about it.  So, here's goes nothing... well, not quite nothing because we've been up to some stuff... :)

So, the weekend of 10/22-10/23, the most notable event was the Stanford-Washington football game.  A bunch of our friends from church had a tailgate all afternoon, so we hung out for the afternoon with them and then went to the game afterward.  The game was a blowout, which is always good when you're rooting for the team doing the blowing out.  :) 

Oh, and before that, I went for a run/hike with my friend John over in the East Bay.  It was supposed to be a run, but about 50 feet in, I realized that while my brain may be getting quite a workout these days, but legs are getting anything but (infer any and all puns).  So, we had a nice run-till-we-can't-breathe and then hike-till-we-could-breathe-again cycle.  And that lasted about two cycles.  And then we hiked the rest of the way up. :)  But the weather was phenomenal.  A crisp 45ish when we started and then the sun came out and heated the countryside up a bit.  Just enough to break a nice sweat to fool me into thinking I was getting a really good workout.  And the view from the top was great.  I didn't have my camera on me (since I was running, remember?) so you'll just have to believe me. :)

Anyway, that was before the tailgate, which ended up being a good thing because I could eat the tailgate food without feeling guilty.  Which probably more than negated the almost-workout I got on the trail.  Quite a pity...  But those were the most notable activities of that weekend.

10/29-10/30
My mom came and visited us this weekend!  It was great!  She came in on Friday morning and hung out with Bridget while she did her nannying and then met me on campus after I wrapped up.  We had a nice campus tour, compliments of your truly.  I still don't know most of the buildings, but can successfully navigate in a nice loop, so it feels like a genuine tour.  :)  We then grabbed dinner at an Italian place in downtown Palo Alto.  I called ahead and put in a reservation for three.  When we got there, it looked like they just added another chair to a 2-person table...and viola! - a 3-person table.  Quite clever... So, it was a cozy dinner, but the food was great.  The server even gave us half a loaf of sourdough bread to take home with us in the doggie bag.  :)  Major bonus.  :)

On Saturday, we slept in for a bit.  Well, I slept in and Bridget and my mom played games on their iPods.  After that, we went hiking over by Half Moon Bay, which is west of Palo Alto.  We hadn't been there before and it looked nice, so there we went.  :)  We took a trail that was a couple of miles, nothing too bad.  And it was a nice mix of forest and prairie-with-a-view.

Banana Slug!

View to the West

Big Trees!

After hiking, we went and walked around the tide pools at the beach.  There is a relatively well-known area with a huge plateau of rocks that is filled with starfish and sea anemones and even saltwater trees!  I didn't have my camera because I didn't want to drop it in the water, so that's just another reason to come and visit us yourselves!

After the tide pools, we grabbed dinner at a seafood place along the highway.  Pulled up next to a pretty snazzy-looking Lamborghini. :)

Orange Lambo

Amazing Sunset over the ocean

On Sunday, we went to church and then headed into San Francisco.  We had lunch at Fisherman's Warf (a must-do) and walked around Pier 39 (which is famous for its seals).  And then we hiked around Lands End trail (mentioned previously) and then up to Twin Peaks, which is a cool lookout point from which you can see almost the whole city!

Photo Shoot on Pier 39

The Golden Gate almost shrouded by the clouds

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks Panorama (click to see it better)

Then off to the airport... :(

11/6-11/7
So, we went hiking this weekend with our friend Julie.  We went hiking in a new part of the East Bay.  A nice little hike around a lake and up into some hills.  And aside from missing a turn onto the trail we wanted to take, the hike when flawlessly... :)  (It wasn't a big deal, but still kinda funny)  But the hike had some great views of the whole Bay Area.  See pictures below. :)

Julie and Bridget made it!

Panorama at the top

The calm little lake

Headed back down

So, on the way back down, the trail took a strange turn and it was clear why, until we saw this tree that was literally hanging onto the edge of a cliff.  Only it wasn't at the edge, it was over the edge!  It's roots were somehow keeping it anchored to the rest of the cliff-side.  The trail used to curve over that way, but must have been diverted to keep people from falling off the edge or causing more erosion.  It was pretty crazy...

Really?!?!

On to the next weekend, 11/13-11/14.  We honestly didn't do much this weekend.  We both slept quite a bit.  Stanford lost to Oregon in football.  We went to a friend's house to watch the game, which was fun.  However, another friend (who happens to be an Oklahoma fan) came to root against Stanford so that Oklahoma would move up in the rankings.  So, it was a tense game.  Well, not really.  Stanford was just out-played and we all knew it.  On Sunday, Bridget wasn't feeling too well, so being a great husband I am, went to the drug store and got her some medicine and watched movies all afternoon.  :)  Not to toot my own horn too much though, because I probably would have watched movies with her anyway... :)  And that pretty much wrapped up that weekend.

Wow, now this weekend.  So, I ended up catching Bridget's cold/headache/sore throat thing this week and was finally getting over it by Friday.  So, we went hiking yesterday up behind Stanford's campus.  There is a huge satellite dish to "look at whatever scientists look at".  But there are a few miles of paved paths around there, so we grabbed some Chipotles, our picnic blanket, and our hiking packs and headed up.  Only problem was there weren't any picnic tables or trash cans.  So, we would have been like the only people picnicking (is that how you spell it?) in the whole place, or we could wait until we got back and go eat on campus.  So, we waited.  But, the scenery was gorgeous.  We have been surrounded by fall colors for the last month or more and it seemed to be at its pinnacle.  We could see splotches of colors all over the place.  We could even see all the way up the peninsula to San Francisco.  Totally cool.  Here are some pics.

REALLY bright tree on campus

View from the dish

Bridget :)

Then today, we went up to San Francisco with John and Julie.  We hung out at Baker Beach and took some pictures of us with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.  The weather cleared just as we arrived and it was fantastic!  There was even a huge rainbow across the bridge.  After that, we drove past the "Painted Ladies", which are a row of intricately decorated houses along Alamo Square.  I guess the TV show "Full House" had these row of houses in its intro to suggest that's where the show happened.  We just drove by, so I didn't get any pictures, but you can just type "Painted Ladies San Francisco" into Google.  And then we headed to Twin Peaks again to show them the view before heading back south along the peninsula.  It was quite the whirlwind tour of San Francisco, but alot of fun. :)

Panorama at the beach (which is pretty tough since the waves don't really "hold still")

KABOOM!

Double rainbow over the bridge!

Well, that's about all I can type right now... hope you survived to the end!  Hopefully I'll post again before Christmas.  :)

Until then,
~ Jeremy

Two more weeks fly by...

So, maybe the post-once-a-week thing was a little ambitious.  Or I've been a little lazy as of late... You pick my excuse. :)

Anyway, life's been busy around here.  Bridget's nannying is going well and her tutoring is picking up.  My work is staying pretty steady right near "crazy". :)  But we're enjoying it for sure. :)

So, back to our weekend updates. :)  Two weekends ago was pretty chill.  Friday night was actually quite uneventful.  Bridget had to babysit, so I spent the time getting my extra work done so I could take off the rest of the weekend. :)  But, the upside was that we had all day Saturday to do whatever we wanted. :)  So, we drove down to Monterey to visit one of my good friends from Purdue who just moved there.  The drive was all twisy-turney most of the way but leveled out towards the end.  We stopped at a produce stand on the side of the road and got five bags of produce/fruit for like $25.  It was pretty amazing.

Once we met up with my friend, we got some lunch in downtown Monterey at a Mexican restaurant.  The food was pretty good.  After that, we walked around the main street area, the beach, and the pier.  I took a few pictures...  There is also a really cool aquarium in Monterey too, but we didn't go in.

Beach and Water

Panorama (click to see the bigger version)

After the walk-around, we went back to my friend's place and watched some Stanford football and got some pizza and just kind of chilled until we left.  It was great to see my friend again (it had been quite awhile) and Monterey is a pretty cool place.

Sunday was pretty chill with church in the morning and then some tennis if the afternoon.  Nice relaxing day.  :)  On to Monday...  Some of our friends play on a softball team and they needed some subs, so Bridget and I played softball on Monday night... in the rain.  Well, it was kind of misting a little bit and then it was drizzling a tad and the other team (mostly big burly men) waited in their cars until the "rain" stopped to come out and play.  Unfortunately for us, they were actually much better softball players and it would have been better had they stayed in their cars... :)  But it was fun to play anyway.  :)  The rest of the week was pretty standard...

This Friday night we went to a Stanford volleyball game with some friends.  Stanford beat up on Washington State (the last set was 25-4), but it was still fun to watch.  :)  After the game we came back to our place and played some games.  It was a good thing Bridget had an easy day because we stayed up way past her bedtime... :)

I slept in on Saturday, which was really nice.  Bridget had to babysit that night, so we both went and babysat.  After that, we drove into San Francisco for a friend's birthday party/get-together.  Parking was a nightmare...  It took 25 minutes to find a spot.  We almost accidentaly parked in a two-away zone (they marked every other parking meter and I almost parked in the non-marked one not realizing that the signs said "No Parking within 100 ft".  And it ended up being a good thing because on our way out later, we saw a gang of tow trucks hauling cars off the streets.  I guess it was the Nike Women's Marathon in the city, so they had to clear the streets.  But, we made it and had a pretty good time at the fiesta.  However, it did make for a pretty late night...  Oh well.  :)

We went to church earlier than normal and then went and watched the SF 49ers play the Detroit Lions in football.  Most of our friends are 49ers fans, so it was good that they won. :)  Although it would have been cool to see the Lions continue to do so well after being so horrible the last few seasons...

Anyway, this afternoon has been relaxing, which is always nice.  Oh, and the weather is amazing... just like always... :)

Till next time,
~ Jeremy

Catching up (again)...

Wow... time flies like a rocket around here!  It's been three weeks since I posted!  Yikes!  Needless to say, it's been exciting around here as of late!  Well, not necessarily super-exciting, but busy nonetheless... :)

Warning - This is a long post.  Buckle your seatbelts and hang on!  :)

So, I should cover the last two weekends before delving into this past weekend, which was an amazing trip to Yosemite National Park!

But, first things first, two weeks ago, we went down to San Jose to meet up with some friends for dinner.  They were gracious enough to invite us over, so we brought a ourselves (weren't allowed to bring anything) and they whipped up some amazing shrimp and salad.  They weren't together, but they were fantastic!  After dinner, we went to downtown San Jose for dessert.  We went to this cool restaurant with a 2nd-story porch.  And since it's California, they had the cool radiant heaters for the "cold" summer evenings...  It was like 65 out and people were bundled up....  Lightweights... :)  Anyway, it was a great time.

That Saturday was pretty chill.  So chill, in fact, that I don't even remember what we did.  I think it involved tennis, which is still a work in progress.  Bridget got a new tennis racket (her old garage sale racket was in need of replacement) so it's even more unfair now...

Sunday morning was the usual with our young marrieds group and then the church service.  In the afternooon, Bridget had a baby shower for the wife of one of my colleagues.  And since guys don't attend baby showers, all of the husbands went go-karting!  Which was actually alot of fun.  It was an indoor track, which didn't make sense because the weather here is so nice, but oh well.  They did their best to make it feel realistic, including jump suits and helmets!  The jumpsuits were a little awkard, but kind of made the go-kart feel like a fighter jet. :) We had a short "time trial" for a few laps and then had a "race" based on the positioning from the time trial.  I unfortuantely got stuck behind a slow guy who kept cutting me off, so I didn't place as high as I would have liked, but there's still something innately exciting about skidding around a turn in a little go-kart and nearly slamming into a wall of old car tires.  Well, maybe just for me... :)

After the go-karting, the guys went back to crash the baby shower, by request, I might add... :)  Bridget had to nanny, so I stayed home and got some work done.

Phew... that was two weeks ago.  It's tough to remember... good thing I've been blogging so I can help myself remember what I've been up to... :)

Anyway, last weekend, Bridget's parents were in town!  So, she was quite the tour guide for the days they were here.  We went to the Palo Alto Creamery on Friday night, which was alot of fun.  Burgers, salads, cookies, and homemade pies!  Loads of good times and calories.  :)  We played Euchre after that and Bridget and I actually won!  Twice in a row too! :)  That is quite the unusual occurrence and quite enjoyable, I might add. :)

Saturday began with a leisurely morning and then a nice hike up in the coastal range above the bay area.  We went for a nice couple-mile hike over the San Andreas Fault and had a picnic up there by another trail.  It was quite nice.  Weather was great too.  The afternoon was pretty chill, and we got some Mexican food for dinner.  By the time dinner was over, everyone was ready for bed, so it was a pretty relaxing evening. :)

Sunday began with church and then San Francisco.  We got lunch (pizza) in Menlo Park and then made the trek to S.F. and hung out in the Golden Gate Recreational Area, which is a huge park near the Golden Gate.  After that, I split off and had to meet with my team for meeting.  But Bridget and her parents took the rest of the S.F. tour.  :)

Alrighty... that was a typeful... kinda like a mouthful but on a computer...  :)

Anyway, last weekend, we left bright and early on Saturday morning and headed to Yosemite National Park.  We picked up our friends from San Jose on the way.  The trip was around 4 hours, and by the time we had our picnic lunch and made it to the trailhead, it was about 2pm.  Which was more than enough time to do a short 8-mile hike up to some neat waterfalls.  So, quick lesson on the part of Yosemite we were in.  We drove into Yosemite Valley and then hiked from there.  Yosemite valley is quite possibly one of the most picturesque places in the world.  You really can't turn around without losing your breath yet again from the magnificent mountains all over the place.  This valley is home to Half Dome, which is literally, a huge dome-shaped piece of rock that looks like it was cut in half.  It is also home to "El Capitan" which formidably rises roughly 4,000 ft. from the floor of the valley.  And then there are waterfalls streaming down the sheer rock faces at every turn.  Truly the epitome of breathtaking without giving it back.  Unfortunately, I volunteered to drive, so I was having to work so hard to focus on the road amidst the squeals of delight from the other passengers...  But enough drivel and on to the action!

So, the hike we did on Saturday went past Vernal Falls and up to Nevada Falls, which doesn't mean a whole lot unless you know the area.  In case you aren't up on your Yosemite geography, those are two waterfalls from the same source.  Vernal Falls is a pretty easy, short hike from the valley and Nevada Falls is more challenging.  I don't remember the distances, but the first part of the path was paved and then became a little more rugged.  Which is nice for some people because pavement is easier, but doesn't quite have the same "man vs. wild" feel to it.  Just a personal preference...  And there was quite a bit of traffic along pretty much the whole hike.  And once we started climbing a bit off of the valley floor, it was quite easy to see why...  Instead of belaboring the point any further, here are the pictures from the hike...

Just getting started...

Vernal Falls

Liberty Cap

Nevada Falls

Me atop Nevada Falls (notice the shoes...!)

The breathtaking view over Nevada Falls

Yes, I guess trees grow out of rocks in California...

A panorama view from the trail on our way back down.  Half Dome is on the left and Liberty Cap is on the right.  (Definitely want to click on this to make it bigger)

So, that was a spectacular first hike in Yosemite.  We were optimistic about finding a better hike the next day and spent some time strategizing after a quick soak in the hot tub at the hotel.  :)  We decided on a 13.5 mile hike up to Eagle Peak, the top part of the Three Brothers Formation, shown below (the three peaks kind of leaning on each other).

I didn't take this picture.  Got it from here. 

 

 

The next morning started bright and early around 6:20am.  We grabbed some breakfast and hit the trail.  The hike had us climbing up to the top of Yosemite Falls, which is the highest waterfall in North America (over 2,400 ft.).  Since the falls were over 2,400 ft., that meant that we had to climb over 2,400 ft. of elevation to make it to the top!  That part of the hike had quite a few switchbacks, but each time we turned around, it was another spectacular view.  Almost made you forget your were working so hard... :)

Yosemite Falls

The view partway up.  Definitely want to click on this one too!

The view a little bit higher

The view from whence we came

Once we summited the waterfalls, we followed the trail for another 2.3 miles and gained another 2,000 ft. of elevation to the top of Eagle Peak.  The trail on top felt and looked like a standard walk in the forest.  It did not feel like we were walking over 3,000 ft. above the valley.  The trail was nice and soft and there were trees and moss everywhere.  Didn't see any bears or mountain lions, but did see a fair number of lizards and blue jays.  :)  But we also didn't see many other people until we started back down.  Anyway, once we made it to the top (in just a hair over 3 hours), the view was amazing.  I feel like the English language doesn't have enough superlatives to describe it, so I apologize for the cliche descriptions.  Maybe awe-inspiring would be better.

Yep, the trees get pretty big.

Walking through the forest

Us atop Eagle Peak!

The view.  And, yes, we were extremely high

Yes, the ground really ends at the edge of the sand.  4,000 ft. to the bottom...

After eating a picnic lunch (and taking our garbage with us, of course), we started the hike back down.  We stopped and took a look at/over Yosemite Falls, which was cool.

The view over the falls

After that, we hiked/ran/walked back down the dizzying trail back to the bottom.  But the cool part was that all of the views looked new since we walked the other direction the last time, so it was a whole new experience.  Also, the sun was now on the other side of the sky, so the lighting was different too.

One of the bazillion amazing views on the way down

By the time we reached the bottom, we were breathless.  Part due to the views and part due to the exertion.  Not sure which was the greater part.  But it was an incredible day nonetheless.

The last leg of the journey was the reverse 4 hour journey back home, which would have been quicker if I hadn't have been stuck behind 2 RVs.  Oh well.  We made it safe and sound.

Whoa... that was alot of typing.  But I guess I did it to myself.  Bridget and I may just lay low(er) this weekend.  And then again, maybe not... :)  Guess you'll have to check back and see!  :)

~ Jeremy

California Adventures (part 3)

In case you didn't see, I posted last night, so skip down and start there if you haven't read the post yet... :)

Anyway, moving right along, we had a great Labor Day weekend and headed full-speed into last week.  I started the clinical immersion part of my fellowship, so I spent alot of time in the Stanford hospital and clinics learning about medical care (specifically in rheumatology) and looking for "needs".  It was incredibly eye-opening and didn't take long to come up with quite an extensive list of 'needs" that were identified.  Bridget had a great week of nannying and also found some tutoring clients!  So, she's starting up with them this week.  She's pretty excited about that, to say the least. :)

Anyway, back to last week.  We went back to the volleyball gymnasium for another match.  This time Stanford played Penn State, which had the longest win streak in NCAA history until last season.  And Stanford lost to Penn State in the national championship game last year, so it was a rematch of near-epic proportions.  And the match was intense!  Every point was a battle, literally.  There were times when two, three, even four players ended up sprawled on the floor.  One player almost jumped into the stands to save a ball!  Needless to say, it was an extremely entertaining match to watch.  And Stanford pulled out the win in the end!  They won 3-1 (Stanford won 3 of the "sets" and Penn State won one).  The whole arena was going crazy toward the end.  It was a blast.  And one of our friends whom we met last week joined us, so it was even more fun with her there.

After the game, we all came back to our apartment and had dinner and played Wii for awhile.  I realized that we hadn't even plugged in our TV yet, so I had to run all the cords and setup the Wii sensor bar and all.  And the craziest part is that we haven't missed watching TV at all.  I had missed playing Wii before, but never had the time/energy to hook it up... :)  Anyway, it was alot of fun.  Definitely a good Friday night. :)

Saturday morning came pretty early, and Bridget and I decided to go to Muir Woods, which is a national park just north of San Francisco (across the bay).  So, we drove up to Sausalito (the first city north of the Golden Gate Bridge) and took a shuttle to the woods.  We checked the prices ahead of time and decided to get an annual pass to all of the National Parks in the country.  We'll for sure make it to Yosemite, Redwood, and hopefully Grand Canyon and some of the parks in Utah, so it will definitely pay for itself pretty quickly.  :)  And now we have more impetus to get out and explore on the weekends.  :)

So, Muir Woods was a 300-acre donation to the State of California by a wealthy family back in like 1906.  The family wanted to preserve some of the massive redwoods before they were all cut down.  So, there are some HUGE trees.  Not quite as big as some of the Sequoia trees (like the one with a road through the middle of it), but really big nonetheless.  We hiked for about 6-7 miles and had a nice picnic lunch up on top of a ridge.  Unlike last weekend when it was hot and we hiked in shorts and t-shirts, we wore pants and long sleeves.  The cool breeze off the ocean kept the temp pretty low.  Which was refreshing in a way too.  But it was a really cool hike.  Here are some pictrues.

Bridget next to a slice from the trunk of a 1,000 year old redwood.  Yep, someone counted the rings and marked world evens that occurred during the tree's lifetime (that's the white rings and markers).

Me by a big tree

Bridget's turn by a big tree

The view toward the tops of the trees

After hanging out in Muir woods for awhile, we took the shuttle back to Sausalito and drove around a pic and took some pictures of the city and bay area.  It was a really pretty area, with the fog coming from the West, but never making it far enough to obscure the sun for most of the city.  And there were a ton of sailboats on the water (most were in marinas, but it was still impressive).

The hills makes for alot of "ocean-view" houses :)

A rather large sailboat on the water (it's a bad angle, so just trust me on the size part...)

The fog threatening to take over, but never quite making it...

We then drove to Golden Gate Bridge Recreational Area, or something like that.  We drove up this winding road that had some neat spots to take pictures of the bridge and surrounding area.  Unfortunately, the fog was pretty thick, so none of the pictures were super clear.  But we still managed to get some decent ones.  Also, the road led to an unfinished military gunnery base.  During WWII, the top of this hill was going to house some huge artillery to defend against attack from the Pacific.  The guns could shoot 2,100 lb shells around 27 miles (yeah, that's miles) out to sea.  The guns themselves weighed nearly 1,000,000 lb!  Unfortunately, the guns weren't there for us to see, but there were a few walking trails and cement structures.  When we walked over to the west side of the ridge, the wind was blowing like crazy and the fog was flying up and over the ridge.  We took a video since pictures can't really communicate the effect quite as well...

And here are some pictures we took too...

Lots of moss everywhere due to the moist air

Tunnel through the ridge.  Goes from pavement and sand on one side to trees and green on the other...

A view of the bridge from one of the lookout points...

Since that wasn't enough excitement yet, we drove back over the Golden Gate Bridge (still having trouble not adding a "t" to ever time I type "Bridge"...) and went to Baker Beach.  It's a pretty famous beach with a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was foggy (noticing a trend yet...?), but you could definitely still make it out.  The waves were coming in pretty well too, but were crashing too close to the shore.  Anyway, we didn't bring a blanket or anything to hang out on the beach for awhile, so we didn't hang out for too long.  But we did manage to get a picture (of course!). :)

Us at Baker Beach

After that, Bridget wanted to do the "Lands End" hike, which is a trail that goes around the far northwestern part of San Francisco.  There is a nice park there with a trail around it.  It's actually a couple miles from one end to the other, so not a little park.  We stopped a few times along the route to enjoy the scenery and snap some pictures.  Bridget got a really nice panorama shot (see below).

Really cool shot of the beach and bridge

Panorama from the trail (definitely click on this one to make it larger)

One last shot of us.  It was pretty chilly so Bridget really cinched down her hood... :)

So, by this point, it was getting pretty late.  So, we thought about eating in San Francisco, but decided to head home and eat some of the leftovers we've been saving up.  We have quite the stockpile, despite my diligence in eating lots of everything... :)  So, it was a busy, but incredibly fun day. :)

This morning (Sunday), we met some friends from church at a cafe for breakfast and then went to church.  After that, we came back and chilled before Bridget had to go nanny.  She normally has to nanny Saturday nights, but they moved it to Sunday afternoon this weekend, which worked out well for our "adventure day" yesterday.  :)

So, that's about all for now.  We'll keep doing our best to lead entertaining lives to blog about!  :)

~ Jeremy

California Adventures (part 2)

So, I didn't get a chance to post last week, and for that I am truly sorry.  So, here's what should have been posted last week...

So, after another long week, my "boot camp" is over.  We had our last presentation on Thursday morning and officially had our last video lecture on Friday.  All of the fellows celebrated by getting pizza for lunch.  And since I like eating pizza and, well, pretty much everything else, I was pretty excited about the idea.  So, someone decided what kinds of pizzas to order, and we got three larges for us and some of the admins to share.  When the bill came with the pizzas and we split it up, I nearly passed out!  Each pizza ended up being $30!  Now, I'm used to getting the frozen pizzas from the grocery store when they're on sale for like 3 for $10.  And maybe getting some order-out pizza for $7-$10 each if it's a special occasion.  So, I had trouble coughing (literally) up my share of the bill.  But I contributed my portion and was pretty excited to try some $30 pizza.  Have you had $30 pizza before?  Neither had I.  And, guess what?  It tastes alot like $10 pizza.  Quite unfortunately, I would add.  So, despite the bummer of a really expensive lunch, we still finished boot camp and my teammates and I had a meeting on Friday afternoon with a doctor, which was great.  So, a good day overall and a good week for sure. :)

Moving right along with the weekend, Bridget and I didn't really have any plans for Labor Day weekend as of Friday afternoon.  That didn't last long...  By the time Monday night rolled around, we were pretty exhausted from a great long weekend of activity.  Which I shall proceed to expound upon below...

So, after my meeting on Friday afternoon, Bridget picked me up from campus and we had dinner with another couple that just moved to the area.  We were introduced by a mutual friend, so we technically weren't "friends" yet, but now we definitely are. :)  There is a nice pasta place in downtown Palo Alto, so the four of us met there and had a great time getting to know one another.  After dinner we kept chatting on the sidewalk and ended up hanging out for another hour or two at a coffee and gelato shop down the street.  Great times. :)  We ended up making plans to go hiking together on Monday morning, so Bridget and I had to figure out where to take them on their first hike in the area. :)

Saturday morning started with a rousing game of tennis with one of my Biodesign colleagues and her husband.  Bridget and I have definitely improved and, by the time we finished up, I could pretty much return most of the balls hit my way.  I realize that is a pretty vital skill to have, but it's amazing how hard it is to hit that dumb little yellow ball into what seems like a really small square on the other side of the court.  Oh, yeah, and there's a net in the way.  Just to make it more difficult!?!  Who comes up with these games anyway?  Well, regardless, I would bump my skill level from "None" to "I wouldn't lend you my racket".  So, I still have a long way to go, but Bridget and I have had fun practicing together. :)

After tennis, Bridget and I went to the Stanford football game.  We got tickets from another Biodesign fellow who wasn't going to be able to use his tickets.  So, we go to watch the game and hang out with my friend's parents, who have the adjacent seats.  It wasn't much of a game (Stanford won like 57-3), but it was fun to be in a stadium and hang out. 

Sunny and hot at the football game

Since the football was pretty one-sided, Bridget and I left in the 3rd quarter and went to the Stanford women's volleyball game.  They were playing Duke as a part of the Stanford Invitational tournament.  Since I'm a student, I get into all sporting events for free!  Bridget also got a "Spouse Card", so she can get in free too!  So, we skipped all of the lines at the ticket window and just walked right in.  Fantastic.  The match was fun.  Division 1 volleyball is intense!  I had been to quite a few matches back at Purdue and always like the intensity that gets crammed into each "bump-set-spike".  Which is more like "bump-set-KABOOM" for most of the players.  I certainly give the defense credit for intentionally moving INTO harm's way to try to block the cannonball coming over the net.  Anyway, Stanford was 2nd in the nation last year and has players that have gone on to play on the US national (and I think olympic) team.  So, definitely high caliber athletes to say the very least.

Volleyball time!

After the volleyball match, we went home and decided to head to early service for church and then go to Santa Cruz beach.  So, that is exactly what we did.  We made it to church at 8am for the traditional service (with an organ and choir and all).  It was a little different than the other services we've been to, but I liked it.

After church, we headed straight for Santa Cruz.  It's about 1.5 hours southwest of Palo Alto, so we made it just in time for lunch (which was about 11am, but I was hungry...).  And the waves were massive!  A good 6ft tall at least!  It sounded like thunder everytime the next set of waves crashed onto the sandy beach.  And every so often, a wave would hit the beach straight-on and the entire coast would erupt at the same time.  It was amazing.  There weren't any surfers out, unfortunately, but I was still mesmerized... :)  For awhile at least.  After eating lunch and enjoying the breeze and wave concert for awhile, I decided to take a nap.   Now, it had been cloudy all morning, which isn't unusual for Santa Cruz (or most of the coast, from what we're told).  Also, Bridget was reading at the time, so I laid down behind her so what little sun made it through the fog was blocked by her back.  It was actually quite nice.  However, when I awoke 3 hours later, the fog was gone and Bridget had moved; exposing half of my face to the blazing sun.  Since I was asleep, I had no clue how long the sun had been out, but Bridget did say "Yeah, I thought of covering your face with your hat, but I didn't."  So, I wasn't in pain (yet), so we hung out for a little bit longer (with my face shielded with my hat, mind you).

Us, pre-sunburn

The beach from up on the road

Pretty self-explanatory... :)

Looking down the beach (south)

Then we decided to drive up Highway 1 and check out Half Moon Bay, which is another pretty famous beach town.  It was pretty chilly and cloudy there, so we grabbed a coffee and sat by the beach and watched some lame surfers try to surf.  Well, they probably weren't lame, but they seemed lame to me because there were a ton of huge waves they just let pass by.  So, once I learn how to surf, I may need to change that statement... :)

But after coffee, we sat in traffic for awhile trying to get home.  There is one highway that goes over the ridge from the ocean to the south bay area (Palo Alto area).  So, it took about twice as long as it normally does, but oh well.  We made it safe and sound.  When we got back, I could feel my face starting to burn.  When I took a detailed look in a mirror, I could see a definite line down the center of my face.  It was like two-face from Batman.  I joked with Bridget that she did it on purpose, and she said that if she had wanted to be mean, she would have made a smiley face with sunscreen.  Good point, I thought... :)  So, I started the usual aloe lotion treatment, but wasn't very optimistic.

The next morning, we met up with our friends and went on a nice 3-4 hour hike up on the ridge between Palo Alto and ocean.  We hiked above the cloud line and could see the clouds over the bay.  It was really cool.  And when we started, the valley below us was filled with clouds too.  Looked like marshmallow fluff. :)

Panorama of the bay (you'll definitely want to click on this one to make it bigger)

The marshmallow valley :)

It was quite a nice hike.  Since the clouds were beneath us, we had more direct sunlight (I put on lots of sunscreen and I wore my hat) and it was hot.  Like really hot.  But we survived. :)  We drank all of our water but didn't end dehydrated or anything.  And we all had a blast!

Post-hike pic

After hiking, our friends invited us to join them at a pool party with a church group they are connected with.   So, of course we went. :)  We whipped up some salad at their place then went over to their friend's apartment complex and hung out.  It was fun meeting a bunch of new, cool people, as it always is. :)  We spent pretty much all afternoon there and grilled out.  Definitely some really good food. :)  After that, we were pretty much partied-out, as you can surely imagine.  So, we came home and crashed to have a hope of keeping up with life come Tuesday... :)

So, I'll try my best to post again tomorrow to get caught up.  But this blogging stuff takes awhile, so no promises! :)

~ Jeremy