Sunday, March 31, 2013

Better Late than Never - A Year in Review

OK - so we decided to start this blog a year ago when we moved to California, and it's taken us this long to do our first post. Oh well, we've been too busy out doing things. We want this to be a place where our friends and family can live vicariously through us while we are living it up in California and you all are... well, not. We would like to take this time to remind you that we have an extra bedroom we pay a lot of money for if anyone wants to come visit!

SO, lots to catch everybody up on from the past year. Let's see if we can summarize it:

2012:
March - Pack up and move to Culver City, CA. It was a crazy week. Sad farewells and exciting new beginnings. We stopped in Denver - thanks to Sarah and John Scott for their hospitality! Then it was on to Santa Fe - a beautiful city we hope to go back to, then a night in bumble-who-knows-where-Arizona, and then a final push to LA. Our poor moving guy didn't have any help, and had to move all our stuff in by himself. We lived like hoarders for a week.

April - Tried to figure out how to live in LA without wanting to kill someone. Discovered our pug, Lulu, is racist. Found the beach. Discovered the beach is the only place NOT crowded because nobody in California thinks 70 degrees is beach weather. Solitude at last.

Sunset @ Playa del Ray

May -  In early May, Jeremy had his first art show in California. He was voted "Most Original" in the show! Super exciting. We also went to visit the Helleen's who also just recently moved to California in the Bay Area over Memorial Day weekend. Matt and Jenny were amazing hosts. We spent a day in Carmel and toured the Tor House - the home Robinson Jeffers built back in the early 1900's. 

Tor House - Carmel by the Sea, CA
Then, it was Tour-de-Sonoma 2012. We went to 5 wineries. I bought less than $300 in wine (success). I have no idea what the names of the wineries were, but the organic wine must have been awful because it was our 4th stop and we still didn't like it. The day was a great success.

Jen making friends with the bartender @ the 5th winery of the day! 
June - It's back to Omaha for a wedding. Always great to see friends and family, Congratulations to Mandy and Vince!

July - California continues to be amazing with a constant 75 degree temperature and no humidity!

August - California begins to disappoint with hot temps but the ocean provides relief. It's not quite the same as Lake Michigan, but the Pacific is a pretty fun time. Even though it tried to kill me in Newport Beach (a story for another day). 

September - Jeremy's birthday! Yay! 

October - Halloween - Jeremy's favorite. Wonderwoman. Every year. 

Wonderwoman.

November - Events this month are worthy of their own blog posts, but in summary, since we couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving, we made another trip up to see the Helleen's. 
Day 1: Friendsgiving!!! 

Day 2: We explore Muir Woods and Chinatown sans-Helleens.
Muir Woods
Chinatown in San Francisco

Chinese Mai Tai. 4 sips and Hello, I'm Drunk.
Day 3: Jen and Matt selected a hike where they tried to kill us. "It's only 3 miles..." yeah. It's only 3 miles UP. Then it's 3 miles down. 2000' elevation gain.

Day 4: Jeremy and I take on the PCH all-the-way. San Fran to LAX. One of the most amazing days of our lives.

Big Sur - So Beautiful. I have so many pictures and this isn't even the best one!
We came across the Elephant Seal Rookery - Jeremy didn't want to leave.

Also in November - AMANDA'S BIRTHDAY! It's a national, month-long celebration, and Julia and Kyle came to celebrate! It rained almost their entire visit (I haven't seen that much rain since we moved here). But, we had fun none-the-less. Jeremy baked an amazing strawberry-pink champaign cake. Favorite Time: Wine Trolley in Temecula!

Amanda and the amazing cake Jeremy made.
First winery of the day.
Our ride for the day!

December - Jeremy's mom and niece came to visit. Went whale watching and saw two grey whales. Spent a lot of time at the beach and absolutely loved it!

Jeremy, Rose, and Sara on our whale watching trip.

Searching for whales. We found them, but my camera died first :(

Jeremy and Sara at El Matador Beach. Love this pic.

Starfish at El Matador Beach. I developed an unhealthy obsession with the starfish. This is one of about 100 photos of starfish...
Didn't really feel like the holidays with no change in climate. Going from 70 to 60 is just not going to justify a change in season for us. And not going home to see the family - it just wasn't the same!

2013
January - Amanda ran (a.k.a. slow pathetic jog/walk) the Disney Tinkerbell Half Marathon with wings and a tutu the whole way. A pretty unique race tailored towards women and you get to run through Disneyland at dark!
My 4:00AM Pre-race photo - Tinkerbell costume and all.
February - We took a Valentine's day trip up to Morro Bay and Elephant Seal Rookery. It was mating season for the elephant seals, and we stayed there for over two hours watching the babies that had been born and the seals gettin' it on. Such an amazing getaway and we can't wait to go back. Morro Bay reminds me so much of Charlevoix - but with more wine!
We came across a renaissance festival on our way up - had to stop!

Us at Elephant Seal Rookery

This little guy got right up to the boardwalk.

I guess over 5,000 pups born and up to 15,000 seals on the beach!

On our Morro Bay Bar Crawl!
Gettin' my drink on...

We rented a double kayak the next day. It almost ended our relationship. He thinks he saved me from the sand. He actually almost got me killed. 
Harbor Seals on our kayak tour. The tide was so strong we got much closer than this, which did NOT make them happy. 

Morro Bay

On our way back we stopped in Solvang, this little Dutch town. Super cute! Lots of danish bakeries, wineries, and breweries. Definitely a worthy destination for another trip all in itself. 

We also made a visit back to Omaha to surprise (a.k.a scare the sh*t out of) Julia and Kyle for Julia's birthday! I wish I had the videos of the scares, but trust me, they were good. Topped it off with a small town barcrawl.
I was the sober DD on our small town bar crawl. How did that happen? 

Jeremy and Jason at the bar in Venice, NE.

Tammy, Julia, Kyle, and Chris at some nameless bar in Louisville, NE

Woody's - Not on the plan for the evening, but our favorite bar in Yutan, NE was too crowded. This turned out to be a little gem...
We were the only ones there, and Jakob Leigh was super excited to finally play for someone that night. He had help. Way to go Tammy!

Maddie and I getting our nails done after Sunday Family Brunch
So, that ends the year in review. We hope to post every week or so to update everyone on our weekly adventures we have!