Goodbye Yellow

Road Trip 2009: Day 1
Long Beach, CA to Monterey, CA
Visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey, CA to San Francisco, CA



Miles driven today=466
Total miles driven=466
# of bathroom stops= 3 (Alicia pees a lot)
# of detours= 1 (wine tasting at the Blackstone tasting room)

Road trip 2009 has started! I picked up Alicia early in the morning, who will be joining me to visit Ann for the San Francisco portion of the trip, and said goodbye to the LA traffic and dull yellow scenery. We hopped on the road and headed towards Monterey, for a little visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium before getting to San Francisco. There were wineries along the way, so we ended up stopping for a little wine tasting...



It was a beautiful and sunny day in Monterey, and we enjoyed walking around and checking out the Aquarium's new exhibit, "The Secret Life of Seahoreses." It was great, but my favorite thing there were the baby cuttlefish. Over 40 of those adorable little guys floating around and flashing their colors and patterns--oh, they were so cute.

We made it to San Francisco early in the evening, then went out for a couple of beers and dinner with Ann and some of her friends. A perfect way to end the first day of my vacation!

It's Like They Know I'm Going on a Road Trip

Gas prices are slowly creeping up again. Damn the man! Why does it have to be just in time for my road trip? Between lunch and dinnertime today, the gas station I drive by went up 4 cents and tipped above three dollars. Well, at least it's not $4.00 per gallon like last year and I'm thankful for that.

I'm officially done with work and Alicia & I hit the road early tomorrow morning.

Tune in for updates from the trip!

Today...

Starting to pack for this year's road trip! ETD: 6 days. Heading to the Pacific Northwest again, but visiting a few new places. Sadly, I will not be visiting lovely Portland this time around. That just means I will have to make a special trip up there sometime soon. This year's itinerary: San Francisco, North Coast, Oregon Coast & the Olympic Peninsula. Can't wait!

Panda Cupcakes

Made these quirky and cute cupcakes a while back for a friend.

Ahh

Sun, sand, surf.
Soaking up the sunshine.
Burying your feet in warm, soft sand.
Listening to the surf.
That is summer.

1 Camp Down, 1 More to Go

I survived. Five days with twenty-five 7 to 9 yr-olds, as always, was not as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, it was stressful prepping for the week in addition to having 400 volunteers under my belt. We dissected fish, fed sharks, collected plankton, played games and made crafts, so the week wasn't all too bad. Admittedly, I had quite a bit of fun and enjoyed my time with the kids--they were cute and well behaved for the most part, which I'm thankful for. Teaching one more week of camp this summer, then I get to go on vacation!

Out of the Loop

I currently do not have internet at home. At the very moment, I am at a local coffee shop sipping my iced vanilla latte and using their connection to write this. You don't know how much of tragedy this is for me, since I spend a considerable amount of time surfing around on the internet. I feel so out of the loop, not being able to keep up with blogs and happenings and not having access to information any time I want. Arrgh.

As for an update on me, so far this summer has been very busy at work but otherwise pretty uneventful. The rest of my summer will include 2 weeks of teaching camp, 2 weeks of vacation (woohoo! I'm looking forward to the company of trees again) and 1 week on Catalina Island (Catalina, oh how I've missed you!)

Hope you all are having a fabulous summer. Who knows when I'll be connected at home again, so I'm apologizing in advance for the neglect this blog will receive.

All In a Day's Work

Funniest thing I heard today:

"I'm a genius!"
-4 year old in my preschool class

It's funny how things work out sometimes. I was dreading teaching today--talking about water for a 2-hr class with preschoolers? It sounded miserable. A class about sharks or tidepools or coral reefs is fun. But a whole class about water? Oh brother, I didn't know how I would pull it off. On top of that, I was supposed to discuss the water cycle (can preschoolers even say the words precipitation, evaporation and condensation?), and the density of fresh water versus salt water. DENSITY?!

Yeah, so I really wasn't looking forward to teaching. And you know what? It turned out fine. Even better than fine. The 4 and 5 year olds were well behaved, adorable, and really smart. They got everything. Kids will surprise you. And they can crack you up too. I forgot how fun teaching can be.

I met a genius today. All in a day's work...

Proof that I need a vacation

Conversation yesterday...

Me: whining about something
Manager: "Jane, what's wrong with you?"
Me: "What do you mean what's wrong with me?"
Manager: "You're not right, you just haven't been the same lately."
Me, sighing: "I don't know...I need a vacation..."
Manager, chuckling: "Yes, I think so too."

So maybe I've had grumpy in my heart recently. I just need to get away for a bit to recharge. But that's not going to happen until August. TWO MONTHS away. How am I going to survive for that long?

Yearnings

Oh, how my heart yearns to travel. I want to go on a journey. To explore and breathe in unfamiliar places, to feel and taste new things. I want to meet strangers, make friends. I want an adventure. To be in awe, to be alive. Oh, how I long to travel again.