Santa Rosa

The next item we decided to mark off our bucket list was the Charles M. Schulz Museum.  I was a HUGE fan of Peanuts as a kid, so I had this on my "to-do" list for a long time.  It did not disappoint!! There were comic strips and statues, Charles Schulz Studio, and a special exhibit on hockey in the Peanuts cartoon.  It's a small museum, but very good and as a Charlie Brown fan, I loved every minute of it.

This mural is made up of Peanuts Comic Strips

Emmy Award for the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special

Me and my friend, Charlie Brown

Sparky's Studio

After the museum, we even drove to Sebastopol to see Charles Schulz grave.  He always said that no one else would ever write Peanuts, so now we just have "Classic Peanuts" but that's okay with me.  I still love Charlie Brown and the gang and will enjoy "Classic" for as long as they let me.

Coloma & Lake Tahoe

For our 12th wedding anniversary we decided to go back to where it all started.  Now that we're living in the Bay Area, we're only 4 hours away.  We thought we would go there often, but as of today, we've only been this one time.  At any rate - we made reservations at the same place we stayed when we were there in 2007 for our 4th anniversary - the Black Bear Inn.

We left after I got off work on Friday and drove part of the way - mostly just so we could start our weekend getting outside of the traffic of the Bay Area.  We woke up on Saturday morning and decided that our first stop would be Coloma, CA.  Coloma is home to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park - the place where gold was first discovered in 1848 by James Marshall.  This discovery then started the Gold Rush of 1849.  After all, now that we're California residents, we thought we should take in some state history!

We walked around Coloma for a few hours.  We went through the museum, saw the American River and the recreation of the mill where James Marshall worked, and the actual place in the river where the first flakes of gold were discovered.  We learned about "placer" gold - which is the gold that is panned directly from the river - and we also learned how miners go after the gold deeper in the earth. After all that, we drove up to the cemetery and visited the James Marshall Monument where the statue of Marshall points down to the place where he discovered gold.

Site of the Mill where James Marshall worked when he found gold in the American River.

The American River

The exact spot where gold was discovered in 1848!!!!  At least as best we could tell...

Monument to James Marshall

James Marshall points to the spot where he discovered gold.

From Coloma, we drove on to South Lake Tahoe.  This time our room at the Black Bear Inn is one of the cabins behind the main building.  We actually really liked this arrangement.  Instead of eating breakfast in the main room with strangers, we had it delivered to our room.  So awesome!!!  After checking in and getting acquainted with our room, we walked to the restaurant where we had our reception and had some dinner.

Our cabin at the Black Bear Inn

The next morning we planned to hike down to the Vikingholm Castle and tour the home, but we didn't make it in time to get a parking place, so we decided to visit the Tallac Historic Site instead.  Tallac was once home to a very upscale resort in the late 1800's.  What is left now are 3 private homes that were built during that era - the Baldwin House, the Pope House, and Valhalla.  The area is not that exciting, but does give an idea of how the rich and famous put Lake Tahoe on the map.  After the depression, the houses fell in to ruin, but are now park of the Forestry Service.

The Baldwin House

The Pope House

Valhalla

Of course we couldn't go to Lake Tahoe without going to our rock.  We discovered a new and improved Logan Shoals!!!  It is quite spiffed up - I must say!!!

Happy 12th Anniversary!!

Rain was coming, so we drove from Tallac over to Carson City and checked out the Capitol Building.

A storm brewing across the lake from Logan Shoals

Nevada State Capitol

On Monday morning, we headed back home, stopping in Truckee, CA for lunch and a look around their historic downtown area.

We had a really nice time at Tahoe.  As I write this 16 months later, I hope that we will make more time to visit Tahoe.  It's such a beautiful place and is, of course, really special to us.  It does suffer from some of the same problems as San Francisco - i.e., over-crowding and ridiculous traffic.  But, I'm still in love with the that beautiful blue lake.

Van Halen

On July 16th we joined a couple of our new friends and went to the outside concert venue at Shoreline to see Van Halen.  We saw this version of Van Halen a few years ago at the AAC, and enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time.  Shoreline is like the Starplex in Dallas - assigned seats near the stage, then a large lawn area behind that.  We opted for the lawn because it's really fun (and cheap)!  One thing I noticed was a vast amount of pot smoking.  Everywhere.  In Texas you definitely smell it, but here, we were surrounded by it.  We still had a very good time and checked off an item from our California bucket list.  At least - after we put it ON our bucket list.  Haha!!

Wine Country

So...just a quick post on my first foray into wine country as a California resident...  About 6 weeks before I joined Virgin America, they went public.  As a "thank you" some of the bankers rented a van and took the Finance Directors to wine country.  They had 2 pick-ups for us - one at HQ and one in the city for the people that live there and then we headed north.

We first stopped at Lynmar Winery in Sebastopol.  Their vineyard was really beautiful and I liked their Pinot Noir - a lot!!!  I didn't buy, but I would have if anyone else had.  Haha!!!  Our second stop was Iron Horse, where they make sparkling wine.  Their tasting room was perched on a hill with a beautiful view over the vineyards and I enjoyed our tasting - even though it was really, REALLY warm while we were there.  Lunch was next, and then we stopped at MacPhail in Santa Rosa.  Their tasting room is in town - not at their vineyard.  MacPhail was my least favorite - or maybe I was just full of wine and food by then.

Overall, it was really a fun day!  I enjoyed getting to know my colleagues a little better and had a really fun day in wine country.

Lynmar Tasting Room

Part of Lynmar's Vineyards

Iron Horse

MacPhail

Other Graduations

Emily wasn't our only graduate this year.  Kennedy graduated from high school and Carson graduated from 8th grade.  We weren't able to go to Kennedy's graduation - partly because they were limited on the number of people that could go.  But, Joe did make it to Las Vegas for his godson's big day.  I understand they had a party at the bowling alley at Red Rock Casino after the graduation, so I was a little jealous!!

Tahiti Part Deux

We so loved our first trip to Tahiti that when I heard of a super cheap deal on Perx (airline employee discount company) for the Paul Gauguin, I was all over it!  The Paul Gauguin is a luxury ship that sails French Polynesia.  I had heard of it years ago when my friend, Carole Quarles, told me about it.  She's been instrumental in my "to-do" list of travels!  At any rate - I did a HORRIBLE job of blogging this trip, but I'll try to give the highlights...

We arrived early and spent a couple of nights on Tahiti at the InterContinental before boarding the ship.  One day we drove around the island with the intention of visiting the Paul Gauguin Museum, but we arrived to find it closed.  We visited a few other attractions along the road, which were pretty, but of the islands we've visited, Tahiti is definitely the least pretty.  Our second day we spent at the resort, lounging and swimming in the 2 pools.  They were renovating some of the overwater bungalows, but we still got to stay in one and it was glorious.  We love us some overwater bungalows!

Main Pool at InterContinental - Tahiti 

Sand Bottom Pool at InterContinental - Tahiti

Apparently "Ferme" means "Closed" in French!!

On the way to the ship, we drove by the Mormon Temple.  It was curiosity as much as anything, but I do have a Mormon family.  The Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii demonstrates the prominence of the religion in the islands, so I figured it would be interesting to see.

Mormon Temple, Papeete

The BEAUTIFUL Paul Gauguin!!!  This picture was actually taken a few days later in Bora Bora.

Our cruise took us to 4 islands - Huahine, Taha'a, Bora Bora, and Moorea.  We had previously visited Bora Bora and Moorea, but did manage to see some different things while we were on those islands.  We spent the week snorkeling, touring, and sampling the cocktail of the day.

In Huahine, our excursion was a "Motu Picnic."  We went to the lagoon of Huahine - under the bridge that connects Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti.  The water was beautiful!!  From our first snorkel spot, we then traveled to Motu Murimahora for our picnic (in the water to deter the bugs!) and then across to our second snorkel spot.

Our ride for the day...

Approaching the bridge that connects Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti

The water could not be more beautiful in Huahine Lagoon.

Our next stop was Taha'a - the vanilla island.  Our excursion was an exploration of the island.  We went to a beautiful lookout point - the highest point on the island you can reach by vehicle.  We also stopped at a black pearl farm and a vanilla farm.  The scent of the fresh vanilla drying in the sun was delicious!!!

Bora Bora from Taha'a

View from the highest point of Taha'a

At the Black Pearl Farm

Fresh Vanilla

After our excursion, we had the Beach BBQ at Paul Gauguin's private island - Motu Mahana.  The food was good - drinks were plentiful - sun was shining - and we even did a little snorkeling.

Who doesn't love a drink in a coconut?

Our view from our beach chairs

Our next stop was Bora Bora and our excursion was an Off Road Adventure.  We imagined it to be a bit like our off road adventure in Moorea from our first trip, and to some extent, it was.  We visited one of the U.S. cannons still standing in its original World War II location, when the U.S. was intent to defend these islands.  We also traveled up to the Radio Tower to have a view of the incomparable Bora Bora Lagoon, and made a stop at Matira Beach.

The U.S. WWII Cannon looking out to what it was defending.

Matira Beach

From the radio tower overlooking Bora Bora Lagoon

We spent some time relaxing on the ship and then moved on to our final island - Moorea - where we opted for a sunset cruise on our first day and a snorkel trip on the second day.  Our snorkel trip was similar to the one we did in Bora Bora in 2008 - swimming with black-tipped reef sharks and stingrays.

Sunset in Moorea

Swimming with Sharks...

...and Stingrays.

Back in Papeete, we took the ferry back to Moorea for a stay at the end of our trip at the InterContinental there.  I actually liked the resort on Tahiti better than the one on Moorea.  We didn't rent a car there, so we just spent our time at the resort.  Our bungalow on Moorea also wasn't really over the water.  It was at the edge of the water, but the main part of the building was on land.  That has nothing to do with why I liked the Tahiti resort better, but just thought I would mention it.  They have a dolphin adventure there and also a sea turtle rescue, which I thought was amazing.

Our bungalow - InterContinental Moorea

From our bungalow - InterContinental Moorea

Another Moorean Sunset

With that, our island adventure came to an end.  There are still things to see in this beautiful part of the world, so I hope that Tahiti Part Trois will be in our future.

Emily's High School Graduation

On May 17th, our sweet niece, Emily graduated from high school!!  We were there, of course, to cheer her on.  High school graduations have changed a lot in 30 years, I must say.  For example, we had ONE valedictorian and ONE salutatorian.  I believe this makes sense based on the mere definitions of the words, but now they can't have just one winner anymore.  So, there are several valedictorians and several salutatorians.  So weird, but what's important is that we are so proud of Emily and her big milestone!!!

We weren't able to make it to the party (which we assumed would be the same weekend) because we made big vacation plans!!!  Coming up next - Tahiti Part II!!!!

Move Day Part II

On April 30th, the packers came and put everything we own into boxes.  The next day, the movers showed up and loaded everything into a truck.  It wasn't smoothless.  First, we failed to make sure that the Bose Stereo that Joe's mom bought us was tagged with a number and we never saw it again.  Second, the shipment was several days late arriving in California.  Because the curb in front of our building is red, they couldn't park the truck there to unload, so they ended up putting our stuff on a smaller truck to deliver.  They still had trouble getting everything unloaded.  At first we tried using the parking lot next door, but someone threatened to call the cops.  In the end, I think they just parked at the curb, which Mike - our Maintenance Man - said everyone does.  All the moving around was pretty hard on our furniture.  About half of our stuff had at least 1 scratch.

Getting rid of the extra bed was also a challenge.  It sat leaned against the wall in the living room for several months.  Finally, Joe gave it to a friend of his that lived in East Bay.  Of course now I know that this situation is less permanent than I thought at the time, so part of me wishes we had kept the bed, but it's okay.  At least we know someone is getting to use it and we can buy another one.  Plus, I'm kidding myself if I think it wouldn't have driven me crazy to have it in our living for 2 years and a storage unit for that bed would have been ridiculous (too expensive vs. the cost of the bed).

It was pretty tough moving from a 3-bedroom house to a 1-bedroom apartment.  We got rid of a ton of stuff before we moved.  And, we got rid of a ton more stuff that we didn't have room for after we got here.  Still scrapbook stuff is piled up in the living room and it has taken over the dining room, along with the desktop computer.  We have a suitcase in the corner of our bedroom, along with a couple of boxes with books and magazines.  Sigh...  I don't know why I care, really.  It's not like we have guests or throw dinner parties.  It's just us and we're comfortable.

Could I have lived with this for 2 years?  Probably not...

In the living room...

The poor dining room...