November Already?

I can't believe it's November already. I really can't believe it's been almost two months since I've written anything on here. To be honest I just haven't felt like there has been much to say. Of course that isn't really true, but that's how I've felt.

I'm settling into my apartment quite nicely. The walls are still pretty bare, but I am fully furnished now. It gets quiet and lonely down here at times, but for the most part I'm enjoying having my own space.

The cross country team I coached did wonderfully and we won our league championships for the fourth (?) year in a row. I had a lot of fun with the middle school girls and enjoyed getting my coaching feet wet. Now I am getting ready to coach basketball at the same school. I will be an assistant coach, but it will be a good experience for me.

Things between Flynn and I are going wonderfully. We recently joined a gym and have really enjoyed working out together after work. We see his family often and have plans for a big road trip from Chicago to Seattle next May.

My biggest areas of concern right now are professionally and financially. Substitute teaching isn't really providing me with the work hours I had imagined it would so I have been applying all over the city for various jobs, mostly in office administration. It's frustrating not being able to teach and stressful watching my bank accounts wither, but at this point I'm OK and doing what I can. I'll find something soon, I'm sure of it. It may not be long term and it may not be my dream job, but it'll be a pay check and something to do during the day.

So all in all things are going well. I'm happy though often stressed. I'm glad to be home near my family and able to see my friends often. Life's good. =)

Yikes!

I know! It's been a really long time since I've written anything. It's been three weeks and a ton has happened. Basically what happened is that I got so far behind in my blogging that I kept thinking about the things I needed to write about three weeks ago. I've decided that if I don't jump back on board now, I'll never get caught up. So I'm starting from today. I'll try to work my way backwards over the past three weeks, but I'm not making any promises. For a quick review, I moved back to Seattle, found an apartment, starting coaching girls middle school cross country, doing administrative work for the middle school, and substitute teaching. Oh and I also did the Breast Cancer Three Day walk! So yeah... it's been a crazy busy few weeks. But that leads us up to today.

Today.

Today I finally got around to opening a bank account in Seattle. I have my bank in AZ but there aren't any branches up here. So I went to my new bank and opened up my accounts. It took an hour. Seriously. It took a full hour. I don't know if that's normal. It felt like forever. The guy at the bank was nice, but a bit chatty. He was really chatty. I didn't want to be rude, but I know more about him than I care to. We discussed Arizona, Russia (where he is from), his work with mortgages in Alaska, Feng Shui, my time in Spain, and his thoughts on McCain. It took a long time, but I finally have my bank accounts.

After the bank I went to the Middle School and did some work for Fleur. I blew through a massive "To Do" list that I wrote for myself yesterday and over all felt very productive.

After school got out the cross country team and I went to the park for a run. The rain ceased for the most part and the girls all felt good/tired after yesterday's meet. Cross country is going really well and I'm having a lot of fun and learning a ton.

After practice I went home where I started making dinner. Allison and I had dinner date planned. It was my first in my new apartment. While I was cooking/waiting for Allison I got a call from my old high school. Last week I substitute taught three full days at the school and apparently I did well. My old religion teacher called me and said that the teacher I had subbed for the week before was really happy with my work. Then she went on to offer me a long term sub position for two freshman religion classes. It would only be a week, since I don't have a degree in religion, but they would try to fill the rest of my schedule so I would have a full week of subbing. Also, I would be TEACHING, not just subbing. In most of the subbing I've done so far, the kids have their work to do and I just sort of make sure the volume stays down. But as the week long religion teacher they would want me to TEACH! I'm super excited. Subbing is fun, but teaching is so much more fun. I'm really hopping that if I do a good job they'll extend the gig, but who knows. Either way, it's a great opportunity and I'm super excited.

The rest of my evening consisted of dinner with Allison, watching the Colbert Report, and now hanging out with Flynn while he writes a short story and watches Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin. It's going to be a nice chill evening. Tomorrow I don't work. I'm going to submit my application for my teaching certificate, get a driver's license, and celebrate Flynn's birthday. I think it will be a fun/productive day. And I'll try to stay on top of this whole blogging thing again. Promise.

Point Arena Pictures

We didn't take many pictures in Point Arena. But here is a sampling of the ones we did take. Actually, these are all Flynn's pictures. My camera batteries were dead by the time we left San Francisco and I kept forgetting to charge them. Oh well. Enjoy.

Here I am with the Pacific Ocean. Isn't it beautiful... and windy.

Are we in Hawaii you ask? Nay! Point Arean, CA.

Our private, super secret, beach cove.

Flynn bowed his head in shame at having to be seen with a PT Cruiser. Mostly he was just making fun of his co-worker who has a PT Cruiser. Fun times either way.

Hey look! I'm a car model. Well... not quite, but let's just pretend.

Point Arena

After checking out of our hotel in San Francisco we took a cab towards the airport and picked up our rental car. Being on a budget we chose an economy car, Hydai Accent (or similar). But what we got was a PT Cruiser. We didn't complain. While a PT Cruiser is far from a posh ride, it was much more spacious than an Accent.

From the car rental place we headed North towards the Golden Gate Bridge. Then East toward the Bay Bridge. Then South again. Then North again. Then some more East. Then some West with some North and after about 30-45min we found our way to HWY 101. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, but were only able to get a picture or two while driving. There was a lot of traffic from an accident so we couldn't stop for a photo opp. Oh well.

We made our way to HWY 1 and drove up the coast. About four hours later we arrived in Point Arena, California. We found our Inn no problem and checked in without a hitch. The Inn was right near a pier and beach on an otherwise cliff lined coast. We relaxed for the evening, had dinner, and watched some of the Olympics (marathon runners are crazy!).

The next day we were told where we could find a quiet cove with sandy beaches. After tracking down a general store that sold a Frisbee (in the town up the road) we headed for the beach. Luckily it was sunny, it had been hit and miss the day before. We found the cove and had a small little beach all to ourselves. We played Frisbee, threw rocks, and watched the water. It was lovely. Eventually, we couldn't ignore the wind anymore. The sand was stinging our legs so we decided to pack it up and go find lunch.

Being a Sunday, most of the little places in town were closed. We were able to find a tasty pizza place though. After lunch we relaxed for a bit then decided to head back to our quiet beach cove. We crossed our fingers that the wind had died down a little and luckily it had... a little. We played some more Frisbee and got some sun. That night we had dinner, watched some more Olympics, and prepared for the next leg of our trip.

Our stay in Point Arena was short, but nice. The Innkeepers were super nice. (They let us use their laundry room and computer (since we had no wireless connection and no cell phone reception).) Next up, Gold Beach, Oregon.

My Own Many Faces

Flynn has enjoyed the quick shutter mode on his camera. Obviously he is a lot more patient with having a camera in his face than I am, but I figured it was only fair that I post me pictures too.






Tomorrow morning Flynn and I are heading up to Seattle. It's going to be an all day drive, but hopefully we make it safely and without incident. Pictures from San Francisco will be posted soon. Also, I'll have Point Arena, CA and Gold Beach, OR blogs and pics up soon too. Till then, happy travels.

San Francisco

Our stay in San Francisco felt like it went really fast. We arrived at SFO around 9am on Tuesday morning. It was a long five hour flight from DC to San Francisco but we had a pretty good time flying on the new Virgin America Airlines. The in flight entertainment was completely up to the individual using touch screens in the seat back in front of you. We could also order snacks and drinks on the screens and have them brought to our seats within a couple minutes. By the time we landed in San Francisco we were tired. We had woken up at 4am and even though I had a nap on the plan I was still ready for bed. So after taking a cab to our hotel near Union Square we immediately crashed. After a nice long nap we went for a walk.

Flynn and I quickly realized that our hotel was almost in the center of what appeared to be San Francisco’s main shopping area. We walked passed Louis Vitton, H&M, and Bloomingdale’s. The weather was a little cool but certainly not cold and a bit overcast. We found a tasty French Bistro on a small side street and enjoyed our meal while listening to actual French tourists eat their meals. After a quick stop into Sur La Table for a specific product (the Lacey peeler) we continued on our walk. We walked through Union Square and headed back to the hotel. We were tired and ready to call it a day. It had been a short day in that we hadn’t done much, but it had been a long day.

The next day we found breakfast on our way to our first guided walking tour. It was on Nob Hill. It was about two hours long and very informative. The views were great and the weather was perfect. After the tour we walked down through Chinatown and to the water near the Bay Bridge. We found lunch at a diner along the way and came up with our plan with what to do next. Next was Lombard Street. After eating we walked all the way to the famous curves of Lombard Street. Along the way we found the Coit Tower and some scenic spots. Lombard Street was crazy filled with tourists (like ourselves). We took a few pictures then realized we would have to go up the hill to catch our Cable Car back to the hotel, so up we went. From the top we could see all the way to the waterfront. The fog was thick on the water though so we couldn’t see what was out there. It wasn’t until a couple days later that we found out that directly through the fog was Alcatraz. Eventually we got on a cable car and made our way back toward Union Square. After all that walking, another low key night in was in order.

The next morning, with the help of Yelp.com, I found us a very popular place to have breakfast in. Unfortunately, it’s a little too popular and we had to wait for what felt like forever. After forty minutes or so we got seated at the bar and watched the cooks work the griddle. I had French Toast (my favorite) and Flynn had mondo pancakes. We were quite sated when we left. After breakfast we decided it was time to figure out something to do with our growing laundry situation. We hadn’t done laundry since Philadelphia, so we were due. We went down to the basement of the hotel where the coin operated wash machines were. For $2.75-3.75 per load we opted to not do our laundry there. I don’t need clean clothes that badly. We decided a temporary fix would have to do. After another nap (and some serious blogging (four in a day, I think that’s a record!)) Flynn and I went shopping. That’s right, rather than wash the clothes we had, we decided to buy new clothes and hope our next Inn would have laundry facilities. To be fair I just needed socks and underwear and Flynn just needed boxers and a couple shirts. Now that we had fresh clothes to hold us over a couple days we were free to continue on our touristy way.

For our last full day in San Francisco, Flynn and I headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf for another free walking tour. Unfortunately, this one was not nearly as good as our previous two. It wasn’t as informative and we spent too long on a horribly rank smelling pier. Besides that the Wharf was fun. We got free chocolate from Ghirardelli Square’s Ghirardelli chocolate shop. We also saw tons of crabs being sold in stalls and clam chowder in sourdough bowls. We could also finally see Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge because the fog was far enough back. After walking around the Wharf for a bit we took a cable car back up to our hotel. For dinner we found an Irish bar around the corner. It was a fun low key evening.

All in all San Francisco was fun. It was a lot more similar to Seattle than I had expected though.

The Many Faces of Flynn

After lunch at the Air and Space Museum we had some camera fun. I found this series of pictures entertaining. Enjoy.

Washington DC Pictures

We had a great time in DC. There were plenty of photo opps too! Whee!

Here I go... getting ready to go into the Lincoln Memorial.

Flynn was like a kid in a candy store at the National Air and Space Museum!

Don't let that calm exterior fool you. He was really busting at the seams.

Flynn and FDR are BFFs. (That's Best Friends Forever for those of you who don't know.)

Flynn and I at the Capital building! Holy Geeze it was hot.

We like to hang out with good ol' Abe when we have spare time.

Our reflection in the Vietnam Memorial.

Why FDR! I do declare!

Flynn's fancy camera takes awesome pictures. The Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool, and the moon.

Flynn is a natural on Capital Hill.

To get to The Thomas Jefferson Memorial we took a nice stroll along this Tidal Basin.

The Tidal Basin at sunset.

Photo fun at the Lincoln Memorial.

Can you see the four guys on the left side of the roof? I wonder what they were up to?

Each star represents 100 Americans that died in World War II. There are 4,048 stars.

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

The Waterfalls at the FDR Memorial.

The Washington Monument. It's tall.

Yep. It's tall.

The Vietnam Memorial.

The Reflecting Pool is actually a pretty good place to do some reflecting.

DC=Good times.

Philadelphia Pictures

We had a great time in Philadelphia. It was a very relaxed stay. Here are some of the pictures from our three days there.

This is a section of our bedroom in our B&B.

Flynn's aunt, Mame and first cousin once removed, Maggie.

Me and Independence Hall.

Relaxing/cooling off by the fountain in Ben Franklin Park.

Me in our kitchen in the B&B.

The other half of our kitchen.

Our bedroom at the B&B. Those blue walls were really pretty.

Flynn in Camden, NJ. Apparently Camden is one of the most dangerous cities in the US. We didn't have any troubles though.

Flynn's so cool.

Delay timer + Self portraits = photo fun!

Independence Hall from afar.

The Liberty Bell with Independence Hall behind it.

We had a great time in Philly. The End.