Anniversary and Fearlessness

Happy Sunday! We have officially celebrated our 1 month anniversary of living in San Francisco (on Thursday) and have had many first times so far, and still many to go!! When we moved here one month ago, we both agreed that we would turn a new leaf and try new things, conquer our fears/anxiety, and be more outgoing when meeting new people. So far, I feel like we have surpassed all of our expectations of meeting those goals :)
In my opinion (and I think Dan will agree) this weekend was among the most substantial in "first times". As most of you know, Dan is a little obsessed with sushi and has been known to say "I would eat sushi everyday if I could". I, on the other hand, do not eat seafood nor do I like weird textures of food at all. So, living up to this new leaf thing, Friday we went out to a sushi restaurant and I decided to not order my usual fried rice. Instead, I didn't order anything so I would be forced to eat sushi with the others! So I tried it...and LIKED it! So much so, Dan and I went out the next night for more! What a relief for Dan since the seafood out here is unbeatable and I think he thought he would have to eat sushi alone forever.
On top of this amazing sushi discovery, we also took a trip to Half Moon Bay Beach for the day. This was one of the warmer weekends so it was about 63 on the beach (yes, that is warm for a beach here!). We quickly learned that a beach is a beach, you can still get VERY sunburned if it is 63 and overcast. On our way home from the beach, Dan decided he was up for driving on Highway 1! If you don't know, this highway is along the coast of the ocean and has a lot of curves and little between you and the cliff that leads to the ocean so it is very intimidating. Dan, very impressively, pushed all of his anxiety aside and drove up Highway 1 like a pro!! Along the way, we saw many incredible views and breathtaking scenery...it is hard to capture the experience in a picture but I tried.
After all of this weekend's productivity, I begin my new teaching career TOMORROW! Well, sort of, I get to meet my students tomorrow morning and have training Tuesday through Thursday! Lets hope this week goes as well as the past month has been for me...

Love, love, love :)

Dogs Dreaming, Congratulations, and moving music

Do you ever wonder what exactly it is that dogs dream about? I do, especially now with Bailey laying on the couch next to me running after, or away from something. Do they always have the same dream? Is it like the one we have where we feel like we are falling? When they wake up, how do they feel? Angry? Sad? Happy? or just sort of mediocre? These are the things that I am thinking about at 12:13 am on a Thursday morning, and unfortunately, I'm pretty positive my queries will go unanswered forever.

Moving away from my nonsensical dribble and towards a topic with a little substance, in case you haven't heard, Michelle got an amazing job offer as a teacher of autistic children (take that shitty job market!). If you know ANYTHING about her, you already know this is pretty much a "dream job" for her and I couldn't be more proud, excited, and grateful for her. In completely unrelated news, I have started planning for my retirement, which, due to the aforementioned shitty job market may be coming much, much sooner than expected. Parents and Michelle, I'm kidding of course......sort of......hopefully

Of course, this wouldn't be a blog about the San Francisco Bay Area and why we moved here if I didn't take a few moments to brag about some of the things we have been doing that, well, you...just aren't doing (sorry!). The most exciting thing for me over the last week or so has been the Neil Young concerts (yes, the "s" is supposed to be there, I went twice) we went to Sunday and Monday evenings at the historic Fox Theatre in Oakland. Let's just start off with the setlist shall we? My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue), Tell Me Why, Helpless (with a KILLER harmonica solo), You Never Call, Peaceful Valley, Love and War, Down By the River, Hitchhiker, Sign of Love, Leia, After the Goldrush, I Believe in You, Rumblin, Cortez the Killer, Cinnamon Girl, and an encore of Walk with Me. Un-effing-believable. It was really some of the most moving live music I have ever seen. This was a solo show as well, no band, just him on stage with a few guitars, pianos, an organ, and a harmonica. I was hoping for a little more audience interaction a'la the '71 Massey Hall concert, In fact, the only thing he really said to the audience was right before playing Leia. He mentioned this song was "for a lovely little thing, and if we weren't quiet and respectful, we'd scare the hell out of her". It seemed as though he decided to communicate through his guitars and timeless vocals. Definitely a little slower moving around these days, the man can play guitar like only someone of experience can. The huge sound of the guitars left vibrations in your chest like the two of you were sitting in a well insulated garage. Really, if he ever comes close to you, you NEED to see his show live. Yes, tickets will be expensive, but I promise it will be something you will not soon forget.

Goodnight all, Pictures of something will be up in the near future so stay tuned! Also, yesterday was Alice Eagle's 3rd birthday, so if you haven't already, wish her a happy birthday!

Love.

Correction.

Hi everyone! I have to correct Dan's comment saying that I've "retired" from blogging...I have not. I do, however, believe he is better at telling the stories of our San Franciscan journeys.

Anyway...we have had a busy couple of weeks going to county fairs, drinking wine, concert going, trolly riding...you know, the usual (also, still job hunting). It is really frustrating that, although we do something new and exciting almost every day here, our list of things that we want to do or see keeps growing!! It is overwhelming because it seems as though every time we turn on the TV, the host of a travel show or food explorer is somewhere in Northern California. We then look at each other and say "we should do that!" So we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place; we have so much time to enjoy all of these new places (rock) but we have that time because we are not working and, therefore, have no income (hard place). Hopefully all of that will change soon with the few interviews we have scheduled this week! Once we both begin working, LOOK OUT WORLD!

Until then...carpe diem!

New pictures are up, enjoy!
We send lots of love to all of you :)

Long time, no see...

Hello again compadres....it certainly has been a while. I think unfortunately that Michelle has officially "retired" as a blogger and accepted a new position as "picture poster", so from here on out, it will be my duty to describe to you all what it is that we have been doing and instill mental images while she is going to be responsible for actually showing you the pictures so you don't have to rely on my (sometimes meandering) words. Think of this as two people co-authoring a children's book with much better subject matter (save for the book about the caterpillar laying an egg on a leaf in the light of the moon).

Anyway, since we have been together last, many things have transpired. The most noteworthy things have been the Fillmore Jazz festival, a house party an Pacific Heights, and the Marin County fair on the fourth of july. Jazz is a tradition on Fillmore street dating back many many years. All of the jazz musicians used to hang out in clubs and even on the street itself collaborating with other artists making music with one another. This event, like many others in San Francisco, is completely free to attend, and is so rich with culture and music. Following the Jazz festival, we walked to Pacific Heights, only a few blocks from Fillmore street to see some friends play music at a party. Walking there was like walking through a post card. Mountains, ocean, sailboats, bridges, beautiful homes, steep roads, and a whole slew of other picturesque subjects. The Marin county fair was also a lot of fun. We got to see the The Del McCoury band play some tunes with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band out of New Orleans all for the price of admission. Michelle also satisfied her insatiable desire for fair food by eating a funnel cake. Shortly after doing so, she felt a little ill (surprising I know after eating deep fried batter), but I'm sure the next time a fair rolls around she will forget all about feeling sick to her stomach and back to NEEDING a funnel cake or cotton candy or caramel apples.

So here we are on Monday, taking a much needed day to relax (read not be hungover from wine anymore). We (or at least I) find myself with a new problem. No, it isn't "what am I going to do for work", or, "how many resumes can I send out today?" although we both do have promising prospects so parents worry not. No, the issue I am speaking of is where am I going to get a bag of fresh coffee beans. I know the general response will be, "go to safeway, or whole foods, or someplace like that.", however, i am a coffee snob in a city that will allow me to be a coffee snob so unfortunately, regular coffee simply wont do. Time for me to figure out what exactly I am going to do about my issues. Cheers all. Oh, and don't forget to tell Michelle you miss hearing from her!

Big ass trees....

hello again everyone! I hope that you all (or at least some of you) are still checking in on here, living vicariously through us, so that our ramblings aren't in vain. We find ourselves together again, just a little bit before 8:30pm (11:30pm for you folks back home). The coffee table has two empty wine glasses on it that not too long ago were filled with a wonderfully smooth red called prim'a. There is a wine.com retail outlet a block from our apartment, that I can only imagine we will become semi-regulars at. Michelle is laying on the couch next to me reading the first book in a series called found, and I am about to dive into John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley.

Tonight seemed like the perfect night for a little vino and a good book. We spent the majority of the day at Muir Woods which, if you haven't been there, is an absolute must do before you kick the bucket, if only for the drive alone. You begin driving up highway 1, then turn off into Mt. Tamalpais state park. You then continue your winding ascent through the beautiful California countryside eventually coming to your summit (not the summit of Mt. Tamalpais, just the highest elevation you will reach on this particular journey. Right before you start descending into Muir Woods National Monument, you are at a place like few others on the face of this earth. San Francisco's low settling clouds feel like they are no more than ten feet above your head at this point and, for me at least, was a very surreal experience. A lot of things hit you (or maybe just me) at this point in time. You become grateful and happy that places like this do actually exist and that you got to see it with your own eyes, make your own experiences with it. And then you look to your left at the road you now have to drive down and think......shit, now I have to drive down there?!?!?! Where are the guardrails??? But whenever you sneak a quick glance off into the distance and see the beauty of what is around you, fear and nervousness are strangely gone, or maybe just subdued for a little longer.

And now onto the Muir Woods National Monument itself. This place will really give you some perspective on how small you really are. Not so much figuratively (although it certainly can have that effect on you), but literally....those trees are huge! I had always expected these trees to be big, but nobody's description can even do these things justice. We quickly decided to leave the paved path for a little more rugged terrain to really see what this forest was all about. We decided to take the Fern Creek trail is at said "beginner/moderate; steep in sections". We followed this trail up a creek to another trail leading to Camp Elizabeth. This trail on the other hand was about a half mile of snaking path directly up the side of the valley. Eventually we made it, exhausted to Camp Elizabeth to sit down and share some cucumber salad we had made a few nights prior. After almost taking the wrong trail and possibly getting lost in the woods, we began our trek back to Muir Woods to call it a day. We were very tired and worn out by this point when it dawned on us, we only need to drive about forty minutes to get home! This is where we live! Wonderful!

Anyway, time to begin Travels with Charley. We love and miss you all. Here's to hoping things are as well for all of you as they are for us!

Before we moved to California, we knew our lives were going to change drastically but we weren't sure how. Here is what has changed for us so far...
-We have had at least one meal a day outside in the beautiful sunshine.
-We have done/seen at last one new thing a day (Jack London Square, Berkeley Bowl, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, BART rides, haircut place, Berkeley Marina, the beach at the Pacific Ocean)
-We walk to most places we go (and are getting bikes soon!)
-We've met at least one new person every day
-Each time we go to the grocery, we have vowed to try at least one new food (because there are so many great, new, and interesting foods out here!) The last time we had "California-style bread", natural peanut butter, Pistachio ice cream, and milk from a local creamery.

I know that this excitement and time to discover new things will wear out soon but for now we are enjoying every second of it.
We have worked out a nice little schedule so we have time to look for jobs too (so don't worry, parents!). Every morning, we have been working on finding jobs and paying bills so in the afternoon we can get to know our new world. Keep your fingers crossed that we get calls for interviews soon so we can be a little more productive!

Pictures are posted: http://s976.photobucket.com/albums/ae248/michellej0925/Branching%20out/

Enjoy! We miss you :)

Happy Fathers Day and Strawberries.

Good morning all! Before we get started here, I'd like to take a second to say happy fathers day! It's days like these that makes being 2400 miles away tough. Everyone likes to spend holidays with their family; enjoying a good meal, sharing in nice hearty laugh, and just overall good company. I guess I can thank Kroger for at least preparing me for this change. Over the past few years, I haven't really been able to spend many holidays with my family due to work, so at this point I'm pretty much used to it. On the other hand though, this is our official "first holiday away from home", and we'd just like to tell you all how much we love and miss EVERYONE.

I'd also like to thank Jenny, Tara, Katie, and Michael Eagle for the gift certificates to Whole Foods! We were finally able to make it to the grocery store the other day and our refrigerator is looking a little less bare. Eagle family, I will think of you personally every morning for the next week or so while I put the cream in my morning coffee! Among other things, at Whole Foods we picked up some strawberries that are absolutely amazing. Have you ever had strawberries that have no white on the inside? Strawberries so juicy that you have to carefully pick them up so you don't crush them? Strawberries so tender that they almost melt between your tongue and the roof of your mouth? Man, these are really fantastic strawberries!

If you haven't already seen the pictures of our new place, Michelle posted the pictures last night on here, so without further adieu...pictures of our humble abode! If you look closely at the pictures, you can see me being lazy laying on the couch in a few of the photos, and of course, Bailey was more concerned with something going on outside than helping Michelle take some pictures. Michelle was so concerned with giving you guys great shots, she was standing on the bed in the corner of our room, so make sure you appreciate the photos! Take care all, and fathers, have a wonderful day!