“I've got nothing to do today but smile.”

Another month, another bunch of photos and fun memories to add to the collection! Work has gotten a little better over the past month. I'm doing more of my own scheduling and (kinda) figuring out the way around Salinas a little bit more.. Most days it feels like I'm living out of my car, but I guess that's just what home health does to you; I've got myself a mobile office. Even though it's boring and/or stressful some days, there are some really great cooks in Salinas - last week I enjoyed some fresh produce and homemade tamales, platanos, and a burrito from some generous patients! 

Besides work, I've spent most of my time at the climbing gym, going to trivia on Cannery Row every Wednesday night, and hanging out with Kevin when we get the chance! 

Amy (another PT traveler friend I met in Loma Linda) and I went to Point Lobos for a gorgeous walk followed by a delicious meal on Cannery Row. 

The hike itself was easy (flat), but a must-see for anyone in Monterey because there are tons of beautiful views, the irreplaceable smell of the ocean, and lots of animals to see! 

Red moss on this tree...
lots of amazing plants and
flowers along the trail!

Don't let my t-shirt fool you... it was WINDY and CHILLY! 

A few of Carmel from the other side of the park

Sea lions! A lot of moms with their babies
and a few still pregnant!

We rounded out an awesome weekend with a trip to San Francisco for the Giants game on Sunday. 

It was so great to finally get my first baseball game of the season, even if it was the wrong black-and-orange team :-) 

The O's have inconveniently traveled to California every time I am UNable to get to a game - sad! I have one more shot in August (when the O's travel here to play the Giants), so here's hoping I'll finally get a chance to get to an O's game this season! 

The following weekend I headed back down to LA for food, fun, new friends, and a trip to Disneyland. We had a great time, and I bought an annual pass so I can have lots more magical days this year! Sadly, though, Space Mountain (the only ride better in DisneyLAND v. WORLD) was closed.. so sad!

Sea otter mama and baby!

And fiiiiiiiinally, Kevin got to come visit ME up in Monterey for the past two weekends! The best part was that he worked in San Jose all week, so got to see each other a lot and see some new cities too! We took the advice of MANY and went out for sushi at "the best place in town" (which really was pretty delicious), saw Iron Man 3 (liked it), visited the Monterey Aquarium (fun, but I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be!), and ate some more amazing meals, including one at Hi-Lo Barbeque in San Fran where Kevin's friend works, which was GREAT!! 

View on the way to Six Flags... at the top of the hill in
San Francisco about to descend the mountain of city streets!

After dinner one evening, while walking down the pier, we heard lots of noise coming from under the boards... We looked under and sure enough, there were twenty or so sea lions just barking away! A little further down the pier we saw these little guys swimming around and munching on some crabs! 

First few of the Golden Gate Bridge!
Foggy on both trips over it!

This weekend we decided to go to Six Flags, so we spent Friday night in San Francisco. We stayed at Hotel Tomo, a boutique hotel in Japantown, which was a pretty interesting place! While we were there, we got a chance to hang out with Kate and Eric, two of the best people I know!! It felt good to hang out with some other Marylanders and reminisce a little about Baltimore and PT school and catch up :-) Thanks for meeting us out and introducing us to yet another great California restaurant, guys!

We spent Saturday at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, which is basically a combo of roller coasters and zoo/animal park. It was a gorgeous day: sunny and warm (the park is inland of the bay so it isn't cold like San Fran, yay!). And, to finish out the day, I tried In-and-Out for the first time... I can't say I'm as crazy about it as everyone else in California, but it was good for fast food :-)

Here's wishing for a happy Sunday/Mother's Day for all! 

I've got my toes in the water, toes in the sand...

Monterey Bay

It has been a BUSY month! I've moved twice and started my new contract doing home health in Salinas. I'm currently living in Monterey, sharing an apartment with a girl whose boyfriend is going to be working out of the state/country for about a year. She's got an adorable kitty too, which so far hasn't given me too many sniffles… The hardest part is not picking her up and playing with her because she's so cute!! So far, I've just been orienting with other therapists (mostly other travelers) and just getting used to the computer system and the hours of documentation that come with doing home health. It's nice to spend the day outside and moving from place to place, but I'm mostly just excited about exploring Monterey and San Francisco (only a 1h/30-40m drive!) :-) I will get my own patients on Thursday. 

Kevin, our instructor for the day!

Before I left the (hot, dry, smoggy) Inland Empire, I got to spend some great times with friends and boyfriend. I finally squeezed in a surf lesson! Jeff and I both made it up onto our boards a few times! The water was chilly but bearable once I was focused more on standing up than being cold! 

Pre-sub ball picture on the balcony...
downtown San Diego behind us!

Kevin took me to his Navy Sub Ball (so fun!) and we spent the weekend in San Diego. There was a science and engineering expo downtown that we found while we were walking around, which was pretty cool too. Lots of demo's and vendors and interesting stuff to get people into science. 

Shamu(s)!!!

Soaked after riding Journey to Atlantis...
Yep, it was chilly and that's why we were
wearing jeans! (Even chillier now!)

The next weekend, I decided I to enjoy my time off before starting my job in Monterey hanging out in SoCal, cramming in some more time with everyone I know down there! Thanks again to Beth and Mike for their overwhelmingly generous welcome in their guest room!! Kevin and I met up with Jeff, Hillary, and Nardos on Friday night in Malibu for some dinner and drinks. Wish it had been a little warmer and a little more light out to check out the sights of that beautiful area, but it was still great to see everyone! We hit SeaWorld on Saturday morning then met up with Beth and Mike, who grilled out for us before we played Trivial Pursuit for the night. Sunday was mostly spent in the car, driving back to the IE from San Diego then me driving up to Monterey to move into my first rental for the week.. I spent about 4 days in temporary vacation rental before I could move into my room in Monterey - a short 3 minute bike ride to Starbucks and only another 3 minutes from there to the beach! Where I am living now is a little further to the beach (7-8 minutes by bike), but we're in the "sunbelt" part of Monterey, which apparently gets less fog than other parts!

Lifelong best friends

All in all, SoCal was an amazing time!! I had a great three months there and anticipate returning to Southern California before too long. (besides as a pit stop on the way to a Utah wedding for the weekend, which is what I did the weekend after I left!! Another fun time with my man!)

Sun setting over Key West...

And last, but not at ALL least... this past weekend, I spent a wonderful, relaxing 5 day GFW with my very best friends in Key West, FL. We ran, we swam, we stand-up-paddleboarded, we parasailed, we ate, we laughed, we mini-vanned, we sang, we danced, and unfortunately, many of us burned... (thankfully I am a sunscreen master and am minimally red ;-) I definitely needed the time with people I love so much, and I'm so thankful I got to see them all! I'm already looking forward to my trip home to Maryland in July!

Rockabilly weekend

A mix between punk rock and country rock, "rockabilly" music is a genre I hadn't even HEARD of until this weekend... but when the new roommate invited me to a show in Anaheim, I figured I might as well go check it out since I didn't have anything else going on! We had a really fun night, and it was an interesting show - not my new favorite kind of music, but it was enjoyable! The rockabilly culture is retro - greaser guys and pin-up girls.. lots of hairspray in that bar last night. 

Despite not getting much sleep after the drive home from Anaheim, I still made it to Joshua Tree National Park today to use my new National Park Annual Pass! It was a perfect day for a few desert hikes... sunny and warm, but not unbearably hot. There were a lot of people out, but none of the trails were very crowded, which made for a peaceful and quiet day in the beautiful high desert of southern California.

Hike 1: Fortynine Palms Oasis... the only hike today with any elevation change (and even then, very little). You can hear birds chirping before you round the last hill, then you're met with the beautiful sight of trees and a little shade! I was lucky enough to enjoy the oasis by myself for 20 minutes before some more hikers caught up to me!

Can you see the snow-capped mountains in the distance? Really cool to see them behind the desert and miles of Joshua trees!

Hike 2: Wall Street Mill... used during the gold-mining days. Lots of old cars and equipment to look at along the trail too!

 Hike 3: Barker Dam... The dam was built to help with a water source for the cattle being used in the area. Sadly, there was not even a drop of water in sight today, but you can see on the rocks that the water did get pretty high at one point!

"Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

This weekend came as a much needed break after a fairly hectic week. Perhaps as a result of my emotional Pisces nature, I try to make a conscious effort to feel and show gratitude for everything and everyone I have. And of course, you, reading this right now, are probably also one of the people I love the most, so thanks for being around :-) That being said, my sympathy is with those friends who lost someone they loved last week, be it baby, uncle, or father. 

Work started off with a splash on Monday when one of the housekeeping staff hit a sprinkler while cleaning (an empty) patient room. Only 2 telemetry monitors and 1 computer-on-wheels were injured in the water eruption, but MAN that place was like a rainforest - humid, WET, and smelling weird. (One can only assume a place as wet as the rainforest is smelling a little funky, right?!) Tuesday, I experienced my first California earthquake, which was much less exciting than the one in Maryland last year. In fact, I wouldn't have even known it happened if someone hadn't told me! I just thought my cell phone was vibrating my chair! (and in fact, as I'm writing this Monday night, we had another one today too!)

The rest of the week was thankfully pretty uneventful and led to fantastic weekend with Beth and Phil in San Diego. As always, every meal was AMAZING; I ate fro-yo 3 days in a row (a little ridiculous, I know...), tried a 50/50 burger of half bacon/half beef, drank a delicious new beer (banana bread, SO YUMMY), and of course, no trip to PB is complete without Fish Shop's fish tacos. Seriously, they're addicting. 

Believe it or not, in between all that eating, we did manage to get out and actually DO a few things too :-P  Friday, Phil and I took a walking tour through PB. There were tons of people laying out on the beach and surfing because it was so hot and sunny! On the walk home from the beach, I did a little shopping. After a long day of walking in the sun, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing!

Saturday was all about the ZOO! If there's one thing that's pretty unique about California compared to many other states, it's that you can find every climate and type of weather possible here: snow, rain, fog, palm trees and beaches, deciduous trees and forests, desert, etc. So it's only fitting, then, that the zoo features animals from every climate too, even though they're all living in the same one - hot, sunny SoCal. The lynxes can live in cold up to -70 degrees F and they're living in 70+ degrees! We all ended up with pink cheeks and TIRED. Phil flew home Saturday night, while Beth and I watched Argo and Pitch Perfect... hilaaaaaaaaarious. I love a good acapella comedy!

Thankfully Sunday brought some cloud cover so we could hike without fear of more sunburn! Beth took me to Mission Trails Park for a hike, which was pretty cool. TONS of trails and lots of people hiking, running, and biking. It's definitely a sweet place to mountain bike... wish I'd discovered it sooner! 

 








Sunday afternoon I got all my hair chopped off then headed home, where I met my new roommate - nice and normal, woohoo! Overall, a fabulous week with fabulous friends! 

and the Oscar goes to...

...les Mis, for everything! I mean, was there any doubt that anyone was more amazing than Anne Hathaway as best supporting actress, baldly dying on screen?

One-day weekend #2 of 3 is now over. Even though I hate waking up and going to work, thinking it's Monday all day, and having only one day off, my coming three-day weekend gives me something fun to look forward to :-) PLUS there are actually spots in the parking garage at work on Sundays - a miracle! AND it reminds me of my days at AAMC, which seems like the most luxurious hospital in America at this point...

This weekend, I made the short trek to Palm Springs with Phil, who is visiting for the next week or so from Maryland! Phil is possibly a friend I've known longer than any other person I stay in touch with... first grade! The weather was AWESOME and we had a fun day walking around downtown Palm Springs, eating some delish food (because there truly is no other food here in California), and taking the aerial tram up the mountain. We also happened to get there just in time for a "Black history month parade," which was the strangest parade I've ever seen. There was a car every 300 yards or so with someone waving, some pimped-out cars, and a bunch of people who looked like they just walked up and decided to join a parade that day. But there were some cute marching bands in the line-up, so I did enjoy the strangeness for those!

One view from the top, light adjusted with the camera to show
the desert in the distance

Another view from the top, now adjusted to show our
long path down the cables!

We also made a pit stop at Hadley's, basically just a little market store, but FULL of goodies you don't see many other places! They sell dried goods.. nuts, grains, fruits, veggies... we bought some dried cantaloupe (my new fave!), dried mango, dried okra (the only way I like it, apparently!), and much more. Seriously, much more. In less than 24 hours, I've already chowed my way through more than half my bag of butter toffee sunflower seeds, and I'm already craving another date-banana milkshake! 

Tourist time!

One of the fun parts of living in an area for only a short time is that I'm kind of a resident but kind of also a tourist! Jeff and Hillary were kind enough to invite me to spend another fun weekend with them in LA (thanks, guys, for not getting sick of me yet! :-) Friday night we hung out in Hollywood, had a delicious dinner from Osteria Momma (SO YUMMY), and then went to Milk for the best desserts ever! I mean, how can a place selling carrot cake ice cream NOT be amazing?! 

All the carb-loading the night before paid off for Saturday's trip to Disneyland/California Adventure; we spent 15 hours walking around the parks!! The weather was perfect: almost 80 degrees and sunny (hot!). Even though I've been to Disney World before, Disneyland was still a great time! It's a lot smaller (obviously only one park v. three in Florida), and everything is jammed into what small space they have. BUT Carsland was really cute, and the World of Color was a beautiful show to end the night! Space Mountain took the prize for best ride (and it's WAY better here than in FL!) Plus, since we're in California, there were churro stands every 10 feet in the park... Overall, a really fun day.

Sunday, we headed out to Universal Studios Hollywood, for day 2 of our theme park extravaganza. Like Disney, the park here is much smaller than the one in Orlando with a ton of stuff crammed into a small area. The studio tour was really interesting - it's pretty crazy to see where movies/shows you like are filmed, and realize how much goes on to make the scene in Hollywood turn into the scene that actually airs! Universal didn't have quite as much to offer as Disneyland, plus it was RIDICULOUSLY crowded, so we didn't close down the park today, but we did have a fun time! 

Now the perfect end to a fun-filled weekend would be to have Monday off for President's Day, but alas... healthcare breaks for no one, regardless of their role in US history! Happy President's Day friends!