"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."

Another week, another weekend... Because I worked on Saturday this week, I had a split weekend (Thursday/Sunday off), which worked out because there was actually some sun Thursday, yay! It's been a rainy, yucko week, though I prefer this to the chilly, snowy MD weather - sorry, friends! 


Thursday, I decided on an urban "hike" up Mount Rubidoux, which was a good walk and pretty views, even on a cloudy day! The Southwest US is definitely a different kind of beauty. Mount Rubidoux has historical importance related to the acquisition of land from Mexico, and it is also the home of the oldest outdoor non-denominational Easter Sunday church service.  

I got home Thursday afternoon just in time to crash my roommate and her friends' trip to the movies to see Les Miserables - good thing I had a cold so I was stocked up on tissues already :-)

Thanks to my awesome grandma (and her California cousin Dale), I spent Saturday night with some extended family out here in Redlands, ~20ish minutes from Colton. Surprisingly, the idea of spending my evening with a roomful of cousins (3rd cousins, once/twice removed??) I'd never talked to or met before wasn't TOO scary, and when I got there, sure enough, I had a great time and really felt like part of the family! :-) The birthday celebration was for Mark, Dale's nephew. Though no substitute for the January-birthday-celebration happening in Maryland today at Grandma and Grandpa's house, it was really nice to have some family time (and cake!). That being said, happy birthday Aunt Randi & Caroline, and Trevor - this month's beautiful birthday girls and C-Line's boyfriend! 


Today I did at least make a cameo at the Maryland birthday bash via Google Hangout (best invention ever). It was an awesome 20 minutes, and I wish I could've been there to play Mexican train with everyone... At least I got to [virtually] lick the candles ;-)

Happy last week of January! 

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year"

This week I re-entered the working world. It was a long, wonderful month off! I'm floating between floors at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC), where the people are very friendly, the cafeteria is meat and caffeine-free (religious reasons), and there are 9 floors to run up and down between patients. So far, so good! An overwhelming first day faded as I got into the swing of things. The hospital hired a bunch of travelers (as of next Wednesday, there will be SEVEN of us!) to help with the transition from paper charting to electronic documentation - chaos may be in the future... we "go live" February 5th. 

House-wise, for those who aren't in the know, I'm sharing a house with a girl, a guy, and a vocal dalmatian. All is well on the roommate front, and in fact, dude-roommate will be moving out on February 10th (yay bathroom to myself! :-) It's nice to have someone (girl roommate) to tell me where it's fun (and safe) to go! AND... the paint on the walls of my bedroom is green. Yep - this is where I'm supposed to be! 

And now, for the fun part - the weekend! Because of the APTA conference, some AAMC friends made the trip to the west coast, so I decided to spend another weekend in San Diego. With 70+ degree weather, the beach, and great friends, who could resist!? Beth and I spent Saturday basking in the beautiful California sunshine - short trip to La Jolla for some shmancy-fancy oil and vinegar for my culinary endeavors, walk to the Fish Shop to feed my fish taco addiction, and a jaunt in the dog park for Lady to get some of her RIDICULOUS energy out! Even normal, every-day events are more fun when the weather is gorgeous and friends are near :-)

 Sunday, Kamila and Sara arrived! After a long (unsuccessful) search for parking near the beach, we settled for a short walk so Kamila could put her tootsies in the sand, then headed downtown for some eats (me), drinks (them), and RAVENS. It was a nice treat to have some Baltimore friends in California :-) Glad to see you, ladies! 

Bye, bye weekend, see you again in... a week!

Play hard before hard work :-)

Just another [week] in paradise. I spent a great week with Beth - relaxing in PB and running errands, biking down to the beach, running in the sand, and taking in some gorgeous beach/city views. Jeff and Hillary (and Max!) came down for the weekend too so we could all watch the RAVENS WIN together! We found San Diego's onIy Ravens fan bar, but sadly it was too packed, and they weren't even letting people in! There were enough purple fans next door that it was still a fantastic time :-) 

Some photos of the last week with Beth, Jeff, and Hil...


Beth prepared me delicious meals every night! Thanks, B! We were pretty ambitious in starting a 2000 piece puzzle of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night.' Yep, it was as ridiculously hard as it sounds. Hence the wine in the photo.



A short and WINDY bike ride brought us to Mission Bay. We thought about continuing to SeaWorld, but turned around and watched some pretty talented kite-surfers instead! Another water sport I need to try!

Double rainbows: always cool. Even cooler in the beautiful mountains of California! I could see the entire arc of the inner rainbow, which was pretty sweet!

Yet another view of Pacific Beach... an easy 2 mile walk away! We walked down on Saturday morning to find HUNDREDS (okay maybe just ONE hundred) of surfers in the water, and only slightly less on Sunday! 

This morning Jeff, Hillary, and I drove up Soledad Mountain to check out the veterans' memorial and enjoy the beautiful 360 view of San Diego from the top of the mountain! It was a super clear day, and according to the tour guide I eavesdropped on, the mountains you can see when facing south are all the way near Tijuana! (I'm standing in front of the view of La Jolla, though :-) 
I ended the day with a nice drive back to my new home, where I was finally able to unpack! I'm no longer living out of a bag, woohoo! Thanks, world, for giving me a pretty sunset to drive into :-) 

And then there was one...

Alicia left this morning, after spending a great few days in San Diego with me. We explored Pacific Beach, La Jolla, and Coronado, ate a lot of delicious food (and fro-yo!), and spent a night out in the Gaslight district with Nardos, who kindly drove down from LA for some ex-roommate QT!

Some of our highlights:
- being 2 feet away from sea lions on the beach in La Jolla
- running to the beach and doing pushups in the sand
- finding me a place to live with a sweet roommate! (And another dude I haven't met yet)

Today after dropping Alicia off at the airport, Nardos and I ate a delicious brunch before parting ways to separately head up to LA! I spent the day in Hollywood with Jeff and Hilary,  friends who helped inspire me to start traveling and start this adventure! The three of us enjoyed a swanky wine tasting and a HUGE Cuban meal before heading home to their tiny but cute LA apartment :-) It was great to spend some time with them before they move on to their next job, wherever that may be!

Tomorrow I'll move on and head back south toward San Diego. And there will be one...

California girls!

We made it! 

After spending another day driving through the desert, Alicia and I spent New Year's Eve in Tucson last night, bar hopping down 4th Ave and making new friends! We rang in the new year with a lot of other out-of-towners (because most people living in Tucson aren't actually FROM there at all!). 

Today we spent five short hours in the car, during which time we drove through mountains, sand dunes, AND snow, all in a brief 400 miles! Off-roading on the dunes is definitely on my list of things to do while out west! San Diego greeted us with fantastic weather and of course, characteristic of our trip, a bang... our key to the house didn't work! Turns out that the key was a bad copy, so after alarming the neighbors with our attempts to jam the key into any possible hole and trying all of the windows, Beth was able to save the day (all the way from Maryland!! Thanks, B!!) and get someone out to the house to let us in and give us a new key :-)  Getting into the house was soon overshadowed by some AWESOME fish tacos.. sorry Maryland, you're already losing the food battle. 

And so begins a new chapter of our trip... Alicia and Laur take San Diego... after a nap... or maybe tomorrow.