Monterey

A couple weekends ago, we headed down to Monterey. Actually, I guess it was Valentine's weekend, but we didn't really realize this until we planned it all. We found a super cheap hotel about 1/2 hour away in Salinas that was having a winter special. It was $35.00/night. It was terrible. So bad, Tim wouldn't even shower. Now, granted he has a thing with showers, but still...

The first day we got there, we had some time so we found a couple thrift stores. Check it out on my other blog for deets on that.

It was my first time using my new fancy camera.

Highs: the aquarium, seeing a baby seal born right on the beach (photo below of baby and mama touching noses), and eating at a delicious fish restaurant.

Low: seeing the baby seal, about 2 minutes after being born, get taken out to sea by a wave.

Winter

We didn't get to Death Valley. We ended up in Chicago. Tim's grandpa actually passed away right before Xmas. So, we got tickets to head out to Chi-town. Although the circumstances were not good, it was nice to see everyone. I got to meet some family members that I haven't met yet. It was cold. We slid the rental car into the wall at the airport due to the ice storm. We ate at a couple of our favorite places. We got to see snow again.

Last week, I headed to the Seattle area for work: flew into Seattle, headed to Tacoma for a night, drove over to Vashon Island, then drove into Seattle for two nights. I got to see two great people: my former boss and a former teammate from AmeriCorps NCCC. Fun! Oh yeah, I also did a lot of work! Here are some photos of the work/living site for a current (and upcoming) project with Camp Sealth.



Yeah, not bad, right? This last photo is of a project a team completed last year - perfect NCCC project!

I also ate a cupcake from a place called Hello Cupcake. It was delicious - moist and not too sugary. I usually make sure I research the important stuff before I travel, like cupcake shops, vegetarian restaurants and bakeries.


This past weekend, we went to the Marin Headlands before going into San Francisco. We had to walk across a scary suspension bridge. It was pretty cool. And also pretty.







Every time I see the ocean, I'm reminded of how lucky I am to live here. There are so many people that live their whole life dreaming of the day they get to see the ocean and here I am....