Christmas in California

The holiday season is upon us and sadly we had relatively little time to celebrate in California. With Thanksgiving being later this year and us both flying east later this week our holiday season here was rather brief.

On the plus side we were able to get a Christmas tree just two blocks away. Due to the size of our apartment we had no choice but to get a smaller tree which allowed Jeff to carry it home using one hand, a rather comical sight in itself. As of this writing there has just been a single cat-caused ornament mishap (so far).

We did get a chance to go downtown Saturday night to see the Macy's tree in Union Square. And tonight we'll be seeing A Christmas Carol before Renee flies to New York Monday morning (Jeff heads to New York on Thursday).

And finally, congratulations are in order for the woman of the house because as of this writing she is officially done with her schoolwork for the semester (her final paper needed to be turned in today). Below is a video of her celebrating. Amy C. put it best and made Renee's day when she reminded Renee that she will never be a first semester Ph.D. student again. (That role may be left to Jeff in the future.)

Thanksgiving in Arizona

By virtue of moving west we now live a mere 770 miles from our closest relatives - Renee's Aunt Camille and cousins Anthony and Ashley in Phoenix. So naturally we decided to visit said relatives. After braving a downed power line on a major highway, a monsoon in Arizona, lighting storms in the desert, and rush hour traffic outside Los Angeles on the day before Thanksgiving, we made it to Arizona.

In order to survive many many hours together in the car, many steps were taken to keep ourselves amused, including completing multiple crossword puzzles, listening to our wedding reception music (including "I Love Rock 'n Roll" for loyal reader Janine) and listening to the Glenn Beck Radio Show to balance out our NPR-heavy radio listening habits. We were particularly enlightened by one caller's suggestion to aid the economy by eliminating all debt. Simple as that, right?

After sleeping in on Thanksgiving (which led to Renee missing the Macy's parade for the first time) we went for a run in the Arizona sun, during which we were confronted with the smell of barbecued turkey and chicken, not something either of us are used to in our midwest/east coast experiences. This was followed by a soak in Camille's hot tub, also a Thanksgiving first for us both.

Once Thanksgiving afternoon came and the Lions had lost to the Titans before our breakfast cereal was digested it came time for the meal. Anthony and Ashley cooked an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and entertained us for many hours. Both Jeff and Renee became Rock Band experts and are currently taking offers from music labels across the country.

Additionally, Anthony and Ashley recently got two kittens - Gizmo and Lexi. Needless to say they kept us amused the whole weekend. As can be seen below they took a particular liking to Renee.



Even when Thanksgiving was over the fun was only beginning. In addition to starring in a Rock Band of one Jeff kept very amused with Aunt Camille's actual drumset (he clearly plays best with a cutoff t-shirt) and Anthony and Ashley's ping pong table (a spirited doubles match was enjoyed by all). We also starred in Anthony's soon-to-debut movie on YouTube.





Before leaving on Sunday morning we were able to enjoy some authentic New York pizza (yes, in Arizona) and also watch home videos of Renee and Anthony's Grandma on Saturday night. We made a rule on the drive home to stay at least 150 miles away from Los Angeles, which necessitated a trip through the Mohave desert. At the one gas station within a 100 mile radius we saw a sign that read (paraphrased):

This is a business

We do not choose to be here

It costs a fortune to operate in the middle of nowhere

You choose to be customers

Please do not complain to our workers

Does this mean there are government-subsidized gas stations? Does anyone know if these actually exist? Plus, at this station we encountered the most unfriendly worker we're seen in quite some time. Although we figured that if we had to drive 100 miles round trip to go to work at a gas station where apparently customers complain all the time we'd be grumpy as well.

But in the end we had a great time in Arizona and are very grateful to our Phoenix hosts.

Trail Run

One of the great things about San Francisco is that we're very close to so many different outdoor settings. Yesterday we went for a trail run for the first time in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the North Peninsula. It didn't take us more than 20 minutes to get there by car but it felt like a different world compared to our busy city life.

Happy Halloween!

What more appropriate way is there to celebrate Halloween than by carving an Old English D into a pumpkin? Happy Halloween, everyone.

p.s. - Go Tigers

And they are still alive...

Happy Birthday Amy DePotty!

Looks like it's been WAY too long since we last posted. We'll try to make sure that doesn't happen again. We don't want to lose our one semi-loyal reader (Sutter).

Much has happened since our last online update. Renee is a full-blown student and is very busy with school while enjoying it at the same time. Jeff's job is going well - it was nice to see my company (Knowledge Networks) get some nationally televised recognition by carrying out polls for CBS following all four of the Presidential/Vice Presidential debates (here's a link to the online story).

After having virtually no social commitments for the first couple months that we lived here (and we certainly had no complaints about that) we've been able to see more of our family and friends in the last two months. In mid-September we had a great time in Roanoke, VA for Pete (Renee's brother) and Laura's wedding, despite getting stranded in Washington, DC on the trip back home. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a wonderful time seeing everyone there.



We've also been trying to see more of the city. We rode a cable car a few weeks ago. It was at night so we didn't get a lot of good pictures. But we were at least able to hang off the edge and channel our inner tourist. And last night during a run we visited Coit Tower, which just so happens to be celebrating its 75th anniversary today.


Speaking of channeling our inner tourist we had a wonderful time with Mom and (pre-knee surgery) Dad Lubbers a couple of weeks ago. As cliché as a double-decker bus tour sounds it really is a lot of fun and offers views of the city we've never seen before.


We had a great time with Mom and Dad as it was an excuse for Renee and I to learn more about our city and see places we had yet to visit. And who can visit San Francisco without talking about the sea lions they saw?


Overall we had a great visit with Mom and Dad Lubbers and we wish Dad the best of luck in his recovery from surgery so that the next time he's here he can join us on the famous hills during a training run.


And finally I just like this picture despite having no good reason to post it.

100 Days

We hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Although we didn't see any out of place wildlife this weekend, we spent the afternoon and evening at Pacifica State Beach about a half hour south of our apartment. It's an absolutely beautiful beach that's filled with surfers. We were there from late afternoon to sunset to allow time for Renee to get some schoolwork done.

Pacifica Beach

Labor Day sunset - the official end of summer

On Saturday we went to an Oakland Athletics/Minnesota Twins game in Oakland. Although it was essentially a meaningless game for Oakland, which is out of the playoff hunt, we were surprised at how into the game the fans were, maybe moreso than the Giants-Dodgers game we went to which is supposed to be a big rivalry. (And just for the record, there were two other people in our section alone keeping score. So yours truly was not the only one).

Saturday night was also Fireworks Night, which meant that we got to watch a very impressive fireworks display set to music from the outfield grass.

Finally, we just realized that today was our 100 day anniversary, and that we have been living in San Francisco for 52 days and sleeping in the same place every night. For the preceeding 48 days we managed to stay in 13 locations in 11 different states. Needless to say we've been enjoying the continuity.

Video of the Day

While hanging out in the East Bay today (after going to church in a town called Kensington, just north of Berkeley) we pulled into a side street with what must have been million dollar homes to simply turn around. Instead we encountered a scene we thought was much more likely in west Michigan or upstate New York. But apparently we can't get away from deer even out in the hills of Northern California.

Gas Prices

Gas prices decline for 30th straight day, 35 cents total - http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/16/news/economy/fuel/index.htm

So basically what this means is that we picked the absolute worst time frame in our nation's history to go on a road trip. That's superb.

On a completely unrelated note congratulations to Renee for scoring a 76 point word in Scrabble last night, a word ("sequoias") which also managed to use all seven letters on her tray.

Baseball Fever

We have been in the city for almost a month now and it should be no surprise that the short list of things we have done so far includes attending a Giants baseball game.

This year the Giants are celebrating their 50th anniversary of baseball in San Francisco and before the game they had a ceremony honoring a variety of former outfielders for the team. We knew ahead of time that we would see Willie Mays however we did not know until we got there that Barry Bonds would be there as well, making his first (we think) return to AT&T Park since playing his last game with the Giants last year. Both Mays and Bonds spoke briefly to the adoring crowd before the game.

Jeff was at AT&T Park once before but it was Renee's first trip to the park. It is an absolutely beautiful stadium with views of the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco from the concourse areas. Renee likes it because of the scenery. Jeff likes it because it was financed with relatively little taxpayer money. Although we didn't try most of it they offer a wide variety of traditional ballpark food and less-than-traditional food (sushi anyone?).

Fortunately for us the Giants were playing their cross-state rivals (the Los Angeles Dodgers) meaning we were going to witness whether or not west coast rivalries match the ferocity of east coast rivalries.

We have to admit that we were a bit disappointed in the intensity throughout the ballpark during the game. While there were certainly many Dodgers fans throughout the park (especially in our cheap - relatively speaking - seats) the game just didn't seem to boil the blood of fans such as we have both personally witnessed at Yankees-Red Sox games. Whereas both Giants and Dodgers fans would start chants such that would change letters around in certain words to avoid using actual profanity, Yankees and Red Sox fans seem to make up chants for the sole purpose of including as much profanity as possible.

There are a couple of possible explanations for this. First, the Giants aren't any good this year so the teams aren't exactly fighting for playoff position. However, despite the fact that the Dodgers aren't all that great either they are in the playoff hunt, which means that every game should be meaningful for them. Given that the game was important for at least one team we expected to feel a bit more electricity than we did.

We have a second theory as well. Our second theory is that fans (at baseball games at least) are less likely to spew hatred towards each other when they are too busy blowing on their hands to stay warm. The one thing the two of us are having a difficult time getting used to is the relatively cold summer weather in San Francisco. While we don't miss the upper 90's of Washington, DC we are a bit thrown off by the lack of summer heat. And at 9pm when the sun is down it gets downright cold in San Francisco. Consequently, the most popular stadium vendor at the game wasn't a beer guy (we don't even think we saw one) but the hot chocolate guy pictured below, who multiple times could not satisfy the demand in our section alone and had to leave to refill on both cups and hot chocolate.

Ed. note: If anyone leaves a comment with the word or even referencing steroids the comments section will be turned off until further notice

Barry Bonds and Willie Mays during the pregame ceremony

Barry Bonds addresses the crowd

The view from our Uecker seats

Gorgeous views throughout the ballpark

I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure this is the only ballpark where you can watch a game while sitting in a cable car

Renee at the stadium with the Bay Bridge in the background

Probably the most popular guy in the stadium after 8:30 p.m.

Trendsetting

We're trendsetters!

http://ourjourneywest.blogspot.com/

Leaving The City

After being in the city for all of two weeks we were faced with our first weekend during which we had nothing that had to be done. So naturally we left town for the day and headed south for the historic beachtown of Santa Cruz (for those of you who loved either of the Corey's you might remember it from The Lost Boys).


We decided to get in our semi-registered car and head down the Pacific Coast on Route 1 towards Santa Cruz. Along the way Jeff found a new sport to take up - sail surfing (see picture below). He should be an expert by the next blog update.


When we got to Santa Cruz we went to the 100 year old beach boardwalk and made plans to come back and ride the rides. In the meantime Jeff won a stuffed monkey in the toss-a-wiffle-ball-in-a-basket game. We enjoyed lounging on a blanket on the beach for awhile but didn't see a water sunset as the Santa Cruz beach is one of the few places on the coast in Northern California that doesn't face west.


In other news Jeff began taking public transportation to work this past week with mixed results. He's considering taking the bus and train still but instead of taking a shuttle bus riding his bike the three miles from the train station to work. Does anyone reading this know someone who takes a bus, train and bicycle as part of his or her commute? Well, you might soon.

Settling In Some More

The final tally is in...and the Jeff and Renee gas-guzzling entourage of a Budget Truck, car and car carrier and a truck full of wedding gifts (oh, and all of our existing possessions) managed to suck up a grand total of 356 gallons of gasoline from Washington, DC to San Francisco. The final miles per gallon tally was about 10.3. We won't post the actual amount spent on gasoline but you can do the rough calculations. Essentially current gasoline prices can't be blamed on price-gouging or increased demand from China and India or environmental standards or even Al Gore. You can blame the two of us for sucking our country's resources dry.

In more uplifting news we managed to not break a single item on our whole trip. That is one fact we are especially proud of.

We posted a couple more pictures of our apartment below, because who hasn't been dying to know what our bathroom looks like?

There's also a picture of the building where Jeff works. His job is with a research firm called Knowledge Networks which is headquartered in Menlo Park, California but also has offices in 6 other cities. His position is working as a Research Analyst with the Government and Academic Group of the company. What that means is that government and academic clients hire Knowledge Networks to conduct surveys for them on the topic that they are interested in. The Research Analyst then assists in tabulating and analyzing survey data and assisting with the over implementation of the research. Here's a link for the actual position. A number of the employees in the group have backgrounds in survey research while others have backgrounds in the social sciences.

Anyone still with us?


The downside of the job is the commute - roughly an hour each way as Menlo Park is about 30 miles south of San Francisco. Jeff has become a fan of NPR in the last week and as a first-time automobile commuter has learned that he always needs to have something to eat and/or drink with him in the car. Trying out public transportation to and from work is next on the docket so hold on to your seats while you anxiously await that blog update.

The outside of our building. It's along side a busy road but we have an inner unit so it's actually rather quiet. The view, however, leaves something to be desired.

Our bathroom. No, there isn't a mirror above the sink. It's a bit weird.

Knowledge Networks, Menlo Park, California

Settling In

For anyone still looking at this we are settling into our new apartment and neighborhood in San Francisco. We have some pictures below of our nearing-completion apartment. If you’re wondering if it’s really as small as the pictures show…it is. But it’s a cozy place and we feel we’ve done a great job putting it together so far (let’s stop pretending– this is Jeff saying that Renee’s done a great job putting it together).

As you can see from some of the pictures below you may wonder if we’re actually just hiding all of our boxes while taking pictures of the other room. The kid who helped move us in and his Dad laughed at us as well when we thought we could fit everything. However, we proved them both wrong and have managed to create a good living space.

We’ve gone running a few times and have discovered a couple of routes (mostly along the water with spectacular views) that minimize the time spent up and down the famous hills. We definitely find ourselves more winded running here than we did in Washington, DC.

We didn’t even realize that right around the corner from our building there is a great neighborhood with lots of coffee shops (including one we already claim as our own that we’re writing from at the moment) and other independent shops. Renee is in heaven because there are organic food markets, vintage clothing and book stores, and a few antique shops. Not to mention, the nail salon that offers a 20 dollar mani/pedi combo that Jeff spotted on his way home from work.

Speaking of work, Jeff is officially a member of the professional work force again. He even has a business card. Renee registered for classes and met a few people at school so we now have some “friends” or people whose faces we recognize and names we know.

We enjoyed some quality time at the California DMV this morning and while we’re not completely done we both safely passed our written driving tests without studying (yes, we really had to take one). After the DMV we experienced Golden Gate Park for the first time and went to the Japanese Tea Garden and the Rose Garden – both were very beautiful.

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Renee is thoroughly enjoying her new All-Clad

Living Room

Kitchen

Eating area

View of the city from the Bay Bridge while arriving

We had to do the obligatory trip down Lombard Street during our first week.

Renee outside Alliant University where she will be starting school in August

Jeff enjoying a slice of pizza for one of his first San Francisco meals.

Photos from the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park

A bonzi tree, Amy DePotty's favorite plant

A rose from the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park