Weekend...What Weekend?

Heidi writes:

The movers finally delivered our things on Thursday afternoon. One table was broke and our matress was a little dirty, but at least everything is here. I also have to apologize to Nick and Carly - apparently all of your food was packed up from our house, so we got a box full of 1/2 eaten loaves of bread and cereal and pb & j - it was pretty yucky!! However, we are in the apartment and it is wonderful! It is small, but we have enough space for us, so it's all good. We haven't completely got everything put away, but we will get around to it. I will take pictures later and post them!

Primo Vino was Saturday and it was a ton of fun...of course, the wine helped with that :-) We played bocce and drank wine all night, it was great! When Primo Vino ended, we went to Drew and Toni's house. I don't remember the whole night, but there are a lot of pictures to tell stories and boy, did we have a laugh this morning!! Needless to say, we all ended up sleeping at Drew and Toni's.


Jeff and Heidi - Primo Vino 2006

The beautiful sunset at Primo Vino!

At some point during the night, it became 80's dance party time...maybe Drew took it a little too far!!

Jeff and I went home and slept until 2:30 this afternoon - it was wonderful! We then went grocery shopping and bought a new microwave. We had a welcome bbq at 6 for all of the housing people on campus. It was nice finally getting to meet everyone. It seems like a fun bunch of people and I look forward to getting to know them more!

Side note - Chris and Tonya took pictures of Bait and Tackle for us and posted them on their website. They are getting so big!! Here is a picture of them.

Oh, one more thing - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Move-In Day...hopefully!

Heidi writes:

Does anyone else ever have problems with movers? The people that are supposed to deliver our stuff today was supposed to be here between 9 and 10 this morning - they showed up at 10:59! I went out of Wemyss Hall to meet them and they asked if everything had been packed and if the boxes were ready to go. I gave them a confused look and said that you are supposed to have my stuff and you should be dropping it off for me! The guy gave me a confused look and then got on his cell phone trying to figure out what was going on. After about a 1/2 hour, we said that our stuff was either being delivered to another house (the people at the house was expecting their stuff to be picked up) or it is still in the warehouse - and hopefully it was in the warehouse out here and not in MN!! So, the movers left and said they would find the stuff and bring it later today. I am just hoping that they have it all and that we get it today! So, in the mean time, I am moving what we brought with us over to the tiny new apartment and waiting for a call from the movers. Everyone just think good thoughts about our things and the movers :-)

I am not sure when I will be able to post again. We have internet at the apartment, but I have to figure out where it hooks up at and if we can put in our wireless router. I start training on Monday, so hopefully I will be able to write something Monday evening about how the remaining of today goes and the rest of the weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yosemite Falls and Views

On Sunday, we drove to Glacier Point, Washburn Point, and drove by Yosemite Falls. We decided not to stop at Yosemite Falls because we just wanted to get back to shower and sleep!

Glacier Point:
This is an amazing look-out point. You can see so many of the spectacular views of Yosemite. From this perch, you can look down 3,214 feet to the Valley floor!

The picture above shows Half Dome on the left and the two waterfalls are Vernal and Nevada. It was great seeing them from far away - knowing that I had hiked to the top of them!

The picture on the left shows Vernal and Nevada Falls and the picture of the right shows a close up of Half Dome. Half Dome rises 8,842 feet. It is 87 million years old!

The picture above is me - with Vernal and Nevada Falls in the background.

Yosemite Falls view from Glacier Point!

Washburn Point:

Washburn Point is about a mile away from Glacier Point. You can see pretty much the same stuff, but the view still wows me!

Jeff and I enjoying the view!




Yosemite Falls:
I took these pictures while driving past Yosemite Falls. The upper and lower falls, and an intermediate cascade, drop 2,425 feet and combine to make the tallest waterfall in North America and the 5th tallest waterfall in the world.

So those are the pictures that I am going to share with you. I hope you enjoyed all of them. If you ever come to visit and want to go to Yosemite, I will be happy to drive down there. It is great. I know that Jeff and I are planning on going back. You have to book campsites in the park a few months to a year in advance, so we will see if we can book one for next year sometime.

Nevada Falls

Nevada Falls:

After taking a little break and eating a little snack at the top of Vernal Falls, we continued the additional 900 foot climb up to the top of Nevada Falls. The 900 feet may sound not so high, but you need to remember that we had already climbed 1,000 feet to Vernal Falls and from the bottom of the trail to the top of Nevada Falls was right around 4 miles - 1,900 feet in 4 miles is a good size climb. I was excited to reach the top of Nevada Falls - what an accomplishment!







This picture was actually taken when we were walking back down on a different trail. It is one of my favorite pictures of Nevada Falls - I love the orange flowers!









This picture was taken at a look-out point on top of Nevada Falls - it was a great view!









We ate lunch at the top of Nevada Falls. We all packed sandwiches and other snacks to bring with us. There was a little smooth rock area on the side where we sat and relaxed. We waded in the water for a while to cool down. Some of us even drank some of the water - nothing like drinking mountain snow runoff!

These two pictures (one above and one below) were taken on the climb up to the top of Nevada Falls. I was pretty hot and sweaty in the bottom picture - stopping to rest and to snap a few pictures was great!

Vernal Falls

Vernal Falls:
We hiked to the top of Vernal Falls on Saturday. It is a 1,000 foot gain to the top of the falls. The trail we followed was Mist Trail. The name comes from the fact that you get pretty wet walking up the trail from the mist of the waterfall. The cool mist felt pretty nice though - it was said to be 104 degrees in the valley! The trail was a little strenuous - you can see the trail in the first two pictures below. The spots on the camera are water drips - we couldn't take too many pictures, because we didn't want to break our camera!




Vernal Falls in the background. You can see people walking up the steps on the left.






Jeff and I posing in on Mist Trail in front of Vernal Falls. The steps behind us are part of the upward climbing trail.

We made it to the top of Vernal Falls! Kyle, Andy, Brad, Drew, Brian, Toni, Kristi, Jeff and Heidi. Jose and Niserine are in the far background.




The picture was taken at the top of Vernal Falls looking down across the valley. Can you see the rainbow?

I will post pictures of Nevada Falls and some from the rest of our trip soon!

Blogger doesn't like pictures...

Heidi writes:

I have tried to post pictures, but blogger won't even let me upload them. I will keep trying - maybe 1 or 2 more times today. There are some really cool pictures that I would like to share, so hopefully it will work again!

In other news, go see Clerks II - it is absolutely hilarious! Jeff and I went yesterday because the movie theatre is nicely air conditioned and we really needed a break from the heat - plus, we really wanted to see the movie. It is so hot here - I think we have set a record for the most consecutive days over 100 degrees! I believe it hit 115 yesterday! It used to cool down at night, but lately, it has been maybe getting down to 80 - it was still 95 at 9:30 last night! Hopefully, the power won't go out here!

Upcoming events -
We get to move into our apartment on Thursday!!
Primo Vino is Saturday!!
I start training (officially) on Monday!!

What a Weekend!

Heidi writes:

Hello! We had a great time camping and hiking Yosemite. It was amazing! We took over 250 pictures! We still need to go through them and decide which ones to post. I will probably break the weekend into a couple different posts so I can post more pictures.

We stayed at Summerdale Campground in Fish Camp, which is about 2 miles south of the south entrance of Yosemite National Park. There were about 11 people camping all together. Here are a couple pictures of the campground:




We drove into Yosemite Valley Saturday morning. We hiked to the top of both Vernal and Nevada Falls. The views were spectacular. Here is a picture of our first stop right outside of the valley. You can see Half Dome in the background, I believe El Capitan is on the left side of the picture, and I believe the waterfall on the right is Bridalveil.


I will continue to sort through the pictures and write blogs throughout the next couple of days.

I think I'll go to Boston...(or Sac-town)

Heidi writes:

Jeff and I went to Sacramento last night with Kristi and Toni to see the Fray and Augustana in concert. It was at a small place - maybe 1,000 people were there - and it was an amazing concert! I think Augustana may now be my favorite band. They opened for the Fray and did a great job. After they were finished, I walked to see what t-shirts and cds cost. The cd was $5 and the t-shirts were $10! Of course, I had to get one of each. Then, the guy selling the stuff said the band would be down in a few minutes and will sign the stuff if I wanted to wait, so I did. I got 3 autographs and photos with the band! It was fun! Unfortunately, I brought the old digital camera with and I can't find the computer hook-up for it, so I can't post the pictures. However, I will see if it comes with our stuff when the moving company brings it all next week and if it is not, then I will buy a new one and post pictures. BUT - I did some research for all of my Minnesota friends and Augustana will be playing at First Ave in Minneapolis on Sept. 17 - I highly recommend going to the show! If you want to visit there website - www.augustanamusic.com
The Fray did a great job too. The song choices were interesting, but it was still a good concert. Well worth the $20 tickets!

In other news, the water is shut off today until 3:30 and I am stuck at home as my car is getting the ticky noise fixed - stupid turn signals! The next post will probably happen on Monday with pictures and stories about camping. I am very excited to go!

It's been a while...

Heidi writes:

Sorry it has been a few days since the last post. The end of last week was pretty slow. I went to the Farmer's Market on Thursday (my normal ritual) and had a meeting on campus most of the day on Friday. I did get to have lunch with Jeff and Alyssa Randall - she was at the plant for a couple days and we went to Matsuyamas - a really good sushi place.

On Saturday, we got up early and played tennis for over 2 hours. Brent, a Gen Mills employee, is pretty good and was kind enough to give us "lessons." He showed us how to serve and how to make our backhands better - it was fun and my serve was pretty amazing a couple times! Although, we were pretty sore Saturday evening and Sunday - my wrist and arm are still aching a little! Saturday evening we saw You, Me, and Depree - it was pretty hilarious. Jeff and I both enjoyed it. We went to the Cactus (very good Mexican restaurant) with a few people after that.

On Sunday, we got up super early and drove up to South Lake Tahoe with Kristen, Kyle, and Ted. We went on a bike ride along paved trails and saw some pretty neat sites. We rode probably 10 miles all together and my butt is pretty sore! At one point, we went on the off-road trails - not fun to me!! It was pretty scarey - we were right next to the edge of the cliff that went down to a creek and there were all of these huge rocks in the middle of the narrow trail and I ran into a few bushes along the way - my legs have the scraps and bruises to prove it! I got through it though and then the guys wanted to go again, so Kristen and I decided to wait for them - we both needed the break! Below are some pictures of the day.

These first two pictures (one above and one below) are of Caples Lake. We needed a stretch break and this one looked nice! It was gorgeous! The top picture is one of my favorites because you can see the shape of the moon in the sky.

The picture below is of me and Jeff. We stopped along the way to pose with the bear. I think it is a cute picture!

These two pictures (one above and one below) are of Lake Tahoe. We were on the south end of it, so it didn't look very big. The color of the water was amazing! At the end of the bike ride, we grabbed some food and ate at one of the beaches, then we decided to take a dip. The water was pretty cold, but it felt nice - it was a warm day!


The picture below is of Jeff through part of the off-road trail. This was one of the "easy" parts of the trail. We didn't get too many pictures of us on the bikes because we were riding (duh!), but I did get a couple of the guys when they did the trail a second time.

The picture below is of Ted - he is a pretty "extreme" biker. I chose to walk my bike down the hill!

As for the coming week - I was hoping to find a cheap plane ticket to Chicago - my Aunt Dorothy passed away and I really wanted to go to her funeral. However, I couldn't find any that were less than $500 and that is a bit much. However, we are planning on going to a concert on Tuesday evening and this weekend we will be going camping in Yosemite - I am excited for that!

Random Stuff

Heidi writes:

Not a lot has been happening here these past few days. Friday we went to happy hour and then played some yard games with some people here - it was a good time and I apologize to anyone who got a phone call in the middle of the night :-) Jeff and I went to a Stockton Ports baseball game on Saturday and saw the new Pirates movie on Sunday. I liked it and Jeff thought it was OK...I am just super excited for the third movie to come out next summer! Tonight we are going to a friend's place to watch the All-Star game - and cheering on the Twins that are there!

I have also been in a lot of contact with the U of Pacific. I have been "unofficially" working - attending meetings and doing some research. I am getting really excited. Jeff will get to see the "tiny" apartment today that we will be moving into soon. Maybe we will buy a house while we are out here - we will see what he thinks. You can't really complain about a free apartment though! I will have to take pictures of campus sometime and post them - it is a gorgeous campus!

I decided to post some pictures of Emily and Sadee - our rommate's miniature pinchers.

These two pictures are of Emily. She is very vocal and more active, but she's a good dog. I think the picture of her yawning is adorable.















These pictures are of Sadee. She spends most of her day laying on the couch - she has cancer (you can kind of see the tumors on her underside) and has had surgery on both of her back legs! She also has one of the highest-pitched barks!














I also wanted to post a couple pictures of the sailboat. Jeff's brother Andy has been working hard to refinish this and he sailed it a couple weekends ago. I am excited to get back to MN during a "lake month" and get a ride!

The picture on the left is Andy and Dad Goettl get the boat ready to sail.

The picture on the right is Andy and Kerri out on the water!

TGIF

Heidi writes:

Today I thought that I would just write a few misc. notes. I was reading through some of the old posts and realized that we left some things out. For example, during our first trip to San Francisco we laughed our butts off at the "Bush Man." He had some tree branches that he held and crouched down on the sidewalk (where there would be no bushes) and hid behind the branches that he held. When people walked by him, he would move the branches and show himself while yelling and scare all of these people. Jeff and I watched him (along with about 50 other people) for about 1/2 hour. It was super funny. Unfortenately, our camera ran out of batteries and we didn't get to take any pictures, but if we see him again, we definitely will. There are so many interesting street performers in San Francisco.

The grapes are also starting to appear on the vines. When Jeff and I were here at the end of April the grape vines were just the vines, no leaves. Now they have filled out beautifully. I took a couple pictures so you can see what we are surrounded by. Imagine fields and fields of these! I am not sure what type of grape this is - I am still learning the types.












I also go to talk to a few of my poker friends from MN last night! It was so good talking to them - I miss you guys! And Katie - I will be waiting for a picture of the new tattoo in elvish :-)

I got an email from Matt (my supervisor from Anoka-Ramsey)and he sent me a couple of pictures. I thought that I would that I would post one of Matt, Sally, and me. I miss you guys too! And congrats Sally and Dan on getting engaged!



I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fun Times

Heidi writes:

We spent Saturday evening at Josh and Outing's house - grilling and playing yard games. It was a good time. They have a new yard game - Kubb...it was pretty fun, especially playing in the dark with the wine kicking in :-)




Brent, Josh, and Jeff playing Kubb.






Sunday, we saw the movie "Click" and then went and ate at Outback. Our roommate gave us a gift card for watching the dogs.

Monday we drove up to Fairfield and toured the Budweiser and Jelly Belly factories. It was pretty fun. We were going to start at the Jelly Belly factory, but the line was insanely long, so we drove the 2 miles to Budweiser and joined the tour right when we got there. The tour started in the tasting room - 2 free drinks each! Then there was a "presentation" about how the beer is made, etc. I volunteered to be a taste-tester (I didn't do so well, but it was fun) and at the end of the tour I got a certificate saying I am a "Honorary Beermaster"...pretty sweet!

The Jelly Belly tour was a little more indepth and we got to walk around the factory more. We still had to wait in line for a little over an hour for the tour, but it was worth it. Plus, we got a handful of jelly beans while in line and then two bags each after the tour - you can't beat free Jelly Belly jelly beans!




Tuesday morning we went to Muir Woods (it is just north of San Francisco). There are tons of giant redwoods and a lot of trails. We walked this trail and kept walking and then walked some more - most of which was an up-hill climb. We ended up at a camp ground and found a ranger's station so we could buy a trail map. We were a little out of the way from where we thought we were. Luckily, we had packed a lunch so we ate that before heading back. A couple "highlights" of the hike - I tripped a lot on the trails and fell twice! The first time, the side of the trail gave way and I slipped down the embankment and caught myself on a root - I only cut my knee up a little bit. The second fall was a little worse - I slipped in mud and fell on my hands and knees. There was mud everywhere. So, I climbed down the side of the trail to the stream and washed myself up. The water felt pretty nice! The other cool thing that happened - we saw a few deer along the trail.

After that, we were exhausted, but we really wanted to go to San Francisco for fireworks. We changed clothes and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We parked by the Fisherman's Wharf and headed over to Pier 39. We ate dinner - fish and clam chowder (yummy!) and then walked around the pier for a while. Surprisely, there were 3 sea lions there - usually they don't go to the pier until the fall. The fireworks were pretty neat. They had two barges in the bay - right by Alcatrez - that shot off the fireworks - they shot off the same fireworks at the same time. We could only see one of the shows from where we were at, but it was still pretty cool. There were a ton of people there. It took us around 2 hours to get back to the parking garage and drive the 3 miles to the Bay Bridge - just nuts.
The above picture is of the sea lions being lazy. The picture below was taken from the upper level of Pier 39. There were about 4 times as more people when the fireworks started.