Brian Came to California!

So Brian finally made it to California this week! Fortunately I got to hang out with the guys a little but I am working for the most part so I can have days off to go to LA on Wednesday! Before I get to that. Brian arrived Thursday night at SJC around 10:30PM so Patrick and I picked him up. After catching up for a few hours we headed to bed for a big day on Friday. Brian's first day in California we took him to where else but Napa Valley. So beautiful! We did a Wine Train for lunch. It took us through Napa Valley and back and during the ride they served us lunch and you could sample wines if you would like. It was really fun and we had a great time. The food was great and Patrick let me eat his dessert (as well as mine...mooo!) The weather was beautiful! After the train ride we decided to venture off and visit a few wineries on our own. Because you can't go to Napa Valley and not tour a couple of wineries! After a long day of site seeing we headed back home. Now this is where I had to become un-fun (is that a word???...well it is now) and work the next 4 nights. So I will have to leave it up to Patrick to fill in the spaces of the next 4 days. I did get up early today and went to dinner with the guys at Aqui's...it is a California-Mexican place...organic/healthy....VERY good. We enjoyed it a lot!! I defiantly want to go back there! Afterwards I introduced Brian to Peet's!!! I think he liked it...at least I hope he liked it! I know I LOVE it!!! Anyways...LA in a few days! Until next time...
~m

Well, we have had an exciting few of days. I had a stretch of 5 days off so we tried to stay busy. waQw (Henry had to type a word there) The first day I was off we were lazy since I had worked the night before. But we still continued with our boot camp. After running we set out to Whole Foods to try and find some yummy fish. We had been looking around for fish but there aren't any good choices around the apartment. At Whole Foods we hit the jackpot! We got 5 days worth of fish and chicken!! On Friday we ended up doing boot camp, cooking and then headed over to Santana Row. We walked around down there and went to Pinkberry for dessert. My new obsession! We are going to have to open up a Pinkberry when we move back to NC because I don't think I can live too long without it! Saturday we took the BART train up to San Francisco. The BART train is like the metro in DC. We can drive up the road about 15 minutes and ride it up to San Fran. This way we don't have to worry about traffic, parking or parking tickets in the city! So we explored around the city all day. We started out by going up to see the Painted Ladies and the park where Donna Jo and Stephanie Tanner had picnics. They were having a St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival. We walked through the festival area and watched a portion of the parade. It was a very long crazy parade. After the parade we walked around the shopping district. We resisted the temptation to eat but I couldn't resist Peet's. I don't know if I have mentioned Peet's previously but it is absolutely the BEST coffee ever. Trey works at at Peet's in LA and was actually the person that introduced us to Peet's! I have no desire to ever go back to Starbucks. I guess I should add opening up a Peet's to the list of things we have to bring back to NC! After a long day of sightseeing we headed back home and cooked some yummy fish! On Sunday we did a food and wine tour in Sonoma County. We rode the BART train to San Fran again and rode a bus out to Sonoma County. So beautiful out there. Oh yeah and we finally got to see the Golden Gate Bridge and we even rode over it!!! Unfortunately the weather was too bad to get a good picture :/ We started the tour out at Mayo winery and proceeded on to a cheese tasting, another winery, olive oil tasting, chocolate tasting and then ended the day at another winery. It was such a great day! We had so much fun. We even met another travel nurse on the tour! We got her number and plan to eat dinner one night with her in the city. That brings us to today. After having two days off of boot camp we were at it again today. Today was the hardest we had done. We had to run for 5 min and walk for 1 for a total of 30 min. You might not think this is that hard but we have not really worked out for a long time so we busted our butts today! We are done with our interval training and we will start running the full time tomorrow. We are excited about this! I think that about sums up our weekend. I have to work tomorrow night and then I am off for another 2 days. Not sure what we are going to be doing those days. But I do know Brian is flying in Thursday night so we are getting excited about that. Until next time...

~m

Finally Settled...

So we have finally gotten settled and have already made a couple of road trips to San Fran and Sacramento. So the first weekend we were here we went up to San Fran to check it out...and learned one important lesson...next time we go there we will be taking the train! Traffic was crazy which in part cut our trip short. We were there for just a few hours and I managed to get a parking ticket!!! It was only $45 but still, gosh! My first ticket ever!!! It said that I was not in a marked space. Funny thing is I was in the lines and there was a meter in front of the car. Oh well. We were in Fleet Feet at the time getting new running shoes. We are on our way to a healthy lifestyle! We have started eating well and next week we are starting our boot camp training so we can get back in shape and start running regularly. Our goal before we leave here is to run a 5K! While we were there we drove down Lombard Street which was an experience. It was a straight up drive to it and a VERY winding road down...crazy (that's it in the picture above). We didn't get to see the Golden Gate Bridge on this trip but I'm sure we will visit there again since it isn't very far from San Jose. We looked for Donna Joe Tanner's house and didn't find that either;) It was a fun quick trip and I can't wait to go back. On the we passed by San Fran's airport which is the biggest airport I have ever seen AND had the biggest planes I have ever seen. There were two- story planes!! That is the kind I would like to get on!

After San Fran I started work that Monday...which it was there that I found out that the hospital is pretty much in the ghetto...it is a trauma hospital that has a lot of shootings and stabbings to come in...I guess this will be an experience! Our apartment is on the outskirts of this activity. So far we have felt pretty safe though.

So after orientation we had to ride up to Sacramento to the Board of Nursing so I could get my temporary license. We were supposed to go the Friday before but in order to save money the state of California closes all state mandated businesses every 1st and 3rd Friday of every month. The BON is included in this. When I found this out I thought I was going to lose my contract because I would have to start work without a license. But anyways...I worked it out and I have officially worked for 2 weeks now. OK..got off track there. Anyways for the trip to Sacramento we pretty much went to the BON and Marshall hopped all the way back to San Jose with the Jelly Belly factory in between. So I guess I should explain. Patrick and I are obsessed with Marshall's when we were in Fl we went to every Marshall's between West Palm Beach and Miami. So we got in the mood again and did the same between San Jose and Sacramento. I didn't have much luck but Patrick found a lot of Vineyard Vines stuff and he has this new obsession with Molton Brown Products (we discovered this product at the hotel that we stayed in in Beverly Hills) and he found some of that stuff too. I am still looking :( I guess there is always outlet shopping! Anyways we also went to the Jelly Belly Factory which was a lot of fun too. We got a tour of the factory and got a free bag of Jelly Bellys! They had a sample bar there where they had every flavor imaginable. They even had skunk, earwax, pencil shaving, vomit and the list goes on. Patrick tried the skunk one. It made his breath horrible. It smelled just like a skunk. And he said it taste like it too!

After all that excitement, Patrick has been sick for the past week but I think he is finally getting over that. We think he had a touch of the flu and are hoping I don't get it. But I think I am in the clear! So I am working the weekend off Monday and then working Tuesday and Wednesday nights then off for 5 days so I should have more things to talk about soon! Until next time...

-m