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30 Before 30 – Still To Do
A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 30 before 30 list and the items I’ve achieved so far. This is part two of that post, where I share the items that I still have to do! There’s pretty much no way I am going to achieve all of these in the next 365 days, but that’s OK – they’ll just be pushed out to my 40 before 40 list! Savvy readers might notice the two posts don’t add up to 30. Before you make fun of me for being bad at math (which would be a fair assessment!), I’m choosing to keep some goals private. 30 Before 30…
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Recent adventures, in brief
One Night In Vegas Our very good friends were going to be in Vegas for a week, and we found a killer deal ($120 per person for flight, hotel, and transportation to & from the airport), so off we went to hang out with them for just one night! We arrived in time for a late dinner at the Wicked Spoon buffet in the Cosmopolitan, closed down the strip, and spent the entire next day lounging by the pool before heading back home around 10pm. It was an amazing trip, spontaneous and fun, and so good to see our friends. Laguna Seca Racetrack during Monterey Car Week For Nick’s birthday,…
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30 Before 30 – What I’ve Done
If you’ve never heard of a 30 before 30 list (or 40 before 40, or bucket list, etc), it’s a list of things that you’d like to try before you turn a certain age. I’ve been working on a 30 before 30 list for the last 5 years or so, and since my 29th birthday is rapidly approaching, I thought I’d do a status update/reality check on what I’ve been able to accomplish! What I’ve Done: 1. Skydive (I did this in Abel Tasman, New Zealand in Jan 2012) 2. Wine tasting in California…initially done October 2012, but many, many times since then as well! 3. Visit New Zealand with…
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Californiaversary
August 25th was our one year anniversary here in California! I meant to do a post last weekend, but better late than never. I thought it might be fun to talk about some of our favourite things about the Golden State, starting with The hills. Almost everywhere we go, those beautiful rolling golden hills are in the background (well, they’re green during the rainy months), contrasting against the (usually) bright blue sky. We also, of course, love the sunshine and fantastic weather – we’ve gotten into the habit of not even checking the weather in the morning (vs Ottawa where we checked the weather every single day before even getting out of…
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Camping in Yosemite
(If you haven’t already, you should read the post before this one about camping in Tahoe!) …and, we were off to Yosemite, driving through California on another incredibly hot day. We saw the car’s external temperature gauge get up to 118F at one point (that’s 48C!). Yes mom, we both slathered on the sunscreen for those times when we were driving with the top down! And I wore a hat – sunburned scalps are no fun. Everyone thinks you have a terrible dandruff problem when it starts to peel. Anyway, here’s our route: [googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Kaspian+Recreation+Area,+Tahoe+City,+CA&daddr=Hodgdon+Meadow+Campground,+Tuolumne+Grove+Road,+Groveland,+CA&hl=en&geocode=FSnVVAId84DW-CEjMXqNrzqv8Cljc1e199WbgDEjMXqNrzqv8A%3BFQ_IQAIdnNva-CHjLl4OR3eaSylZdiJ5b9yWgDHjLl4OR3eaSw&aq=0&oq=hodgd&sll=37.297016,-121.817413&sspn=0.813874,1.678162&t=h&mra=ls&ie=UTF8&ll=38.45789,-120.322266&spn=2.064682,3.515625&z=8&output=embed&w=640&h=480] It was about a 4.5 hour drive by Google’s standards, but we took more like 6…
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Camping in Tahoe
Adobe shuts down all of their North American offices during the first week of July. It’s a fantastic thing, because it’s the only time all year that you can have a week off without having to catch up after you’re back! Nick and I had the idea to knock an item off my “30 before 30” list – specifically, the “travel somewhere last minute” item. The spirit behind that item was to book a trip as late as possible – ideally even the day before leaving! However, the more we looked, the more we realised that first week in July is popular travel week, and about three weeks out, we…
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Film photos
I found a roll of film kicking around recently. I think I had taken the photos possibly even before Christmas! It looks like my camera has a light leak, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with them. A few of my favourites below… San Francisco hills: Fisherman’s wharf (stupid light leak): Our friend, V, with us on a hike: San Francisco mural:
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New Zealand sabbatical
My employer has an amazing benefit – after 5 years of employment with them, they offer a 4-week sabbatical (and after 10 years, 5 weeks; 15 years, 6 weeks!). I have to say looking forward to my sabbatical definitely kept me going during rough times over the past 7 years (I’m overdue taking mine) – I wonder how much it affects retention for them. And now I’ve only got 3 & 1/2 years til my next one! Most people seem to use their sabbatical to travel, and I was no exception. I opted to spent three weeks in New Zealand with my grandmother (my dad’s mom). She’s very special to…
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All of a sudden it’s June
Aaand…we’re back! From Jamaica, New Zealand, and many other local adventures… The last time I posted on here was March 30, which was about a week before we left for Jamaica for a wedding. Jamaica was incredibly fun – it was our first experience together at an all-inclusive resort (Nick had been a few times with family, I had never been to one) and it’s going to become a yearly thing for us. Being in the Caribbean where the only thing you have to worry about is if your drink cup is empty or what was the last time you applied sunscreen was totally the most relaxing vacation we’ve ever…
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March Updates
I’m cooking some collard greens right now!! Using this recipe. It smells absolutely DIVINE. I’ve never had collard greens before – I guess they’re a southern American thing – but the way that these smell, I think I could love them!! Another thing that we really love here are food trucks and Mexican Coke, which is made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. I guess this shouldn’t make any difference, but there definitely is some kind of different flavour about it! I don’t know if I would say it tastes more “natural”, but it’s a different taste from regular Coke- I would say less sweet, and with more “spiciness”,…