I guess we really live here now...

Well, at least Andrew does. Heh.

"There are three good reasons to be a teacher - June, July, and August"

I don't know who said the quote that serves as the title of this post, but there is some truth to it! :-)

Here are the adventures we filled August with:

The Ridge Family Reunion:

The whole group from the Bear Lake portion

(stolen from Amanda Ridge)

Jetskiing - Andrew and his mom.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Andrew and his dad on the jetski... before or after his dad tossed him off. Hee.

Sleeping - Eliza Ridge

Sleeping - Andrew Ridge... hmm...

Lots of family gatherings - this one on the Brown side (Andrew's mom's family).

In general, considering people were here for about 10 days and we had lots of family gatherings/adventures, it's kind of pathetic that I don't have more pictures to share.  There are a few more that I'll put up on Facebook, but sadly, not too many.  Anyway. lots of fun was had by all (though we definitely missed Clark, Lilly, and Violet).

The following week, I headed back east to do a whirlwind tour of the mid-Atlantic states, ending at a biomechanics conference in Rhode Island.  In the meantime, Andrew drove to Iowa for more family time.  I don't know if any pictures exist from his trip, but here are a few from mine.

I flew from Salt Lake to Providence, RI (via Detroit)... waited 3 hours in Rhode Island for a flight to Philly.  Spent the first night at my mom's house (yay for Lee's Hoagies!!)  The next morning, my mom and I started on our quest to get rid of stuff in her house.  Thankfully, Chrissy arrived before we went insane.  She picked me up and off we went....

First stop - DC

Michele and Tina, eagerly awaiting the arrival of Emily Claire (who has since arrived... and is beautiful!) Unfortunately, because of my distant location, I have to trust other people's pictures for that knowledge. :-(

Excuse my appearance, I was dressed for a road trip. Not that I usually dress any different, I just feel shabby compared to Tina and Chrissy!

Next stop: Richmond, VA

Me, Stef, and Chrissy

        

We crashed Karl's birthday.  He didn't seem too disturbed... even when we decided we were too tired to cook him dinner and made him order pizza instead.  Thanks Karl!!

Our fabulous dessert.  Definitely healthy.

After two quick nights in VA, Chrissy and I headed north again.  She dropped me off in Delaware for a 3 hour tour...

Meri and Macy in McDonald's

Me and Macy in McDonald's

Then, Meri took me to the rink where I got to meet up with some friends from UD (soooo fun to see people!) and take care of signing the lease for the person who's renting my condo in Delaware.  Always multi-tasking, I am.  Anyway, I spent about 2 hours talking to Dr. Richards, then Christine became my chauffeur for the rest of the night.  We went to DBI and surprised Jen (also so fun!!), got Rita's, then went to the Robison's for a quick stop at FHE.  It was really good to see people for a few minutes and I'm really, really sad that I didn't get pictures while I was there.  

After our stop at the Robison's, I stopped at Andrew's parents' house for 11 minutes (I timed it... I was running out of time in DE, but I couldn't be 2 minutes away and NOT stop in to say hi!)  I also wanted to take pictures there (mostly to send to Andrew and make him jealous), but my phone was dead.  That's what I get for trying to be mean. :-)

Christine and I got to my mom's (with a stop to pick up cheesesteaks on the way) and hung out with her for a little while.  Christine made a middle of the night getaway (way to avoid the good-bye...) :-)

The next morning, Kika came to get me for an IHOP breakfast.  90 minutes wasn't enough of a visit for us, so  I went with her to pick up Eddie at pre-school, then to her mom's for lunch with the kids.

Eddie and Mattie eating lunch

I think he looks like he *wants* to smile.  Alas, he would not smile for a picture.  He was full of smiles the rest of the time though.

        

Mattie

        

Eddie tried his hand at photography while showing me his Thomas backpack

After lunch, Kika and I ran over to my dad's house where we said hi and collected some gifts he had for us.  (THANKS Dad!!)  Then, it was back to my mom's house and another hour of going through stuff before my dad picked me up for dinner and ride to the airport.  It was a whirlwind, but so, so fabulous to see my family and a bunch of friends.  I miss being social.

Then it back to Providence, RI for the American Society of Biomechanics conference.  Usually, I'm not a huge fan of conferences, but this time... it was actually pretty fun.  I didn't realize how many biomechanists the BIOMS program at UD has graduated, but it was fantastic to see so many students, graduates, and faculty and catch up with them.  On the last night, the organizers took us to the Sailing Hall of Fame in Bristol, RI for an "all you can eat" lobster and clam bake.  Yes, I was in heaven.

Dustin touring a ridiculously posh boat.  This is his pirate face, of course.

Boats in the Sailing Hall of Fame

The view from the dock where we ate dinner

And that's all the pictures I have from that....  And since really, pictures are the fun part, I think we're done with August!

Alaska (or, Our Honeymoon, part 3)

So, Andrew and I felt like we never really got to take a honeymoon (we only got to drive cross country together 2 weeks after getting married and then go to Vegas for a few days after I was done the Spring term, but... neither of those was a "real" honeymoon.)  Our plan was to find something really, really fun to do this summer and, suddenly, it was the middle of the summer and we didn't have solid plans.  We kept trying to figure out how to do a trip to Alaska, but kept getting really frustrated by high prices, a plethora of options, and our stunning lack of decision making skills.

After a conversation with new friends we've made here in Provo (pause for the shock of the fact that we've made new friends in Provo............ ok, back to the story now), we decided to just take the "easy" route and look for a round-trip cruise from Seattle to Alaska.  I have wanted to go to Alaska for as long as I can remember.  A few years ago, I decided that, regardless of circumstances, if I managed to finish my dissertation and actually get a PhD, I was going to reward myself with a trip to Alaska.  Thankfully, Andrew was easy to convince. :-)  I was a little uneasy about the cruise thing... I like to blaze my own path when travelling. In this case though, there was something to be said for letting someone else do most of the planning for us.

So, we decided on the cruise.  Then we decided on the cruise from Seattle.  Then we actually *found* the cruise, in the right price range, at a time we could go!  The departure date was 7 days from when we booked it, so it was a rush to get ready, but really... minor details.  The most difficult part was figuring out how to get a prescription for the anti-seasickness patch for me, since my one previous experience overnight on a boat was.... well, not so comfortable for me.  Anyway, we figured that out, got the suitcases packed, and got in the car to start to drive to Seattle.

The drive to Seattle was *awesome*.  Northern Utah is nice, Idaho was a little boring, Oregon was pretty amazing, and then... Washington state.  I didn't think we'd get better than some of the views driving through Oregon until we hit the Wenatchee National Forest in Washington.  *sigh*  If only I could have captured it on film.

Entering Oregon 

(got to check off states 44, 45, and 46 for me on this trip. talk about productive!)

The view from a viewpoint on the highway in Oregon

Anyway.  We made it to the suburbs of Seattle (Issaquah, to be precise) in good time, found a hotel (the lovely Motel 6), and went to bed, ready to drive the last 45 minutes to park the car and get to the pier in the morning.  We had made a reservation to park our car for a week at a hotel in Seattle, with the understanding that we would spend one night there upon our return.  All good plans....

The morning of July 9th, the day we would be leaving on the cruise, began innocently.  I woke up earlier than Andrew and decided to make a run to a drug store.  I also discovered that the Seattle temple was a mere 10 minutes from our hotel, so I stopped over there as well.  Upon my return to the car, I discovered that the car wouldn't start. *sigh*  I called AAA, who sent someone out in record time.  The guy informed me that he needed to replace the battery.  Upon doing so, he realized that there was also something wrong with the alternator.  This created a number of problems.  1) Andrew was still at the hotel. 2) I couldn't really drive the car. 3) Towing the car wouldn't help get Andrew, me, and the luggage back in the same place. 4) We still needed to figure out how to get the car fixed and get to Pier 91 in Seattle.

In the end, I drove back to the hotel (gotta love the "avoid highways" setting on the GPS) and we waited for a tow truck.  Then we felt really stupid when we realized that the mechanic they were going to tow us to was 0.8 miles from our hotel.  We decided to just chance it and drive ourselves to the mechanic.  Thankfully, we made it unscathed and the mechanic was really friendly and helpful!  We told them the situation, including the fact that we wouldn't be able to readily get in touch with them until we returned. We made arrangements to communicate and asked for help figuring out how to get to the pier.  We figured we'd have to pony up the dough and spend $50 on a taxi.  But no! The mechanic printed out directions for us to take public transportation which, luckily, left from a bus station down the block from the mechanic.  The catch was, it left in 4 minutes.  After a truly Amazing Race type run (picture Andrew and I, 2 backpacks, 3 suitcases, and one small piece of paper documenting our route), we made it to the bus.

For future reference - people talk to you when you have multiple suitcases and look lost on the bus in Seattle. We actually had a great time talking to the bus driver and taking in the sights on the drive into the city.  We had to transfer buses in downtown Seattle, which introduced us to a whole new set of people - equally friendly and helpful.  The second bus took us to a stop on a bridge overlooking the pier at which our cruise ship was docked.  This bus driver was also very friendly and didn't charge us any fare, but also didn't give us a whole lot of help when we were trying to figure out where to go from the point at which she dropped us off. "Down there..." was all she said, pointing to a ramp that looked like it was meant only for buses and cars.  Thankfully, yet another random stranger came to our rescue.  Some guy appeared on the bridge asking if we were looking for a cruise ship.  He led us down a rickety set of steps which led us to a US Customs officer.  He checked our passports and pointed us on our way. 

We finally made it to the boat (after a whole other issue of not knowing what cabin to direct our luggage to... which resulted in us having to drag our bags through the whole boarding process with us. *sigh* not fun.)

Anyway.  We made it on the boat!  Finally, ready to go.

Once on the boat, we had lunch at the buffet (which, I'm happy to say, didn't have very good food.  I'm so glad... I surely would have gained even more weight if the food was good there.)  Then we set about exploring our new home for the week.  

Being on a cruise was like going to summer camp for adults.  They have all sorts of activities planned for every moment of the day.  Food is available everywhere (even soft serve!), there was a library, pools, ping pong tables, and plenty of places to just hang out and relax.

I'll post pictures of the cruise on Facebook, but mostly we hung out, played cards, danced, ate, read, and when the opportunity presented itself - got off the boat and checked out the sights.  Juneau was awesome.  I got to see the Alaska statehouse!!  Considering my unexplained love of state capital buildings, it was a huge unexpected bonus.  We walked around town (both touristy and non-touristy parts), took a flightseeing adventure to see glaciers from above (not the greatest thing to do as a nervous flyer, but... it was really cool anyway), took a bus to see another glacier, and made it back to the boat just in time.

The next day, we stopped in Skagway.  We ended up taking a tour up into the mountains, which actually took us into Canada.  Then we hiked.  The tour guy said it was a simple, short hike. Liar. Still, it was pretty and at least it was cool out!  We wandered around town (highlights included the Sarah Palin store...) and got back onto the boat.  

During the tour near Skagway

Snow Angels!

The hike

Skagway

The next morning, we were up early to see another glacier.  The boat took us to about 2 miles away.  And still it looked huge.  It was an amazing blue and totally worth getting up at 5:30AM. The rest of that day and the next were spent "at sea".  So we took dance lessons, read a lot, and played trivia (btw, we won the "Name that Tune" with movie music. Go figure.)

The last day of the cruise took us to Victoria, BC. I wasn't expecting much (and really, hardly cared about stopping there), but it was also beautiful!  We had a lot of fun just wandering the city.

When we got back to Seattle the next morning, we decided against navigating *up* the rickety stairs with our broken suitcase and tired selves.  We opted for the taxi back to the mechanic.  It was quick and easy (though much more expensive).  Anyway, we picked up the car, dropped stuff off at the hotel and went to explore Seattle.  Fun city!

The next day we drove around the lake near where we were staying and headed home.  All went smoothly until about 9:30PM.  Somewhere around Bliss, Idaho I asked Andrew if his battery light was always on.  2 hours, 1 more AAA visit, a basket of fries, and plenty of fun people watching moments later, we were back on the road.  We finally made it home at 4:30AM.

Sunset in Bliss, Idaho

The trip just kept on giving when I had a withdrawal reaction to the transderm scop patch I used on the cruise to avoid motion sickness.  Apparently, a small percentage of the population goes through this... basically, what it means is that you feel motion sick when you're not moving.  So for the next 4 or 5 days, I suffered from motion sickness while at home in Provo.  Ah well, I'd much rather have enjoyed the cruise and been sick in the comfort of my own home than the reverse.

Anyway, there you have the Alaska adventure.  One of these days, I might get to blogging about the Ridge family reunion... or my recent whirlwind trip back east.  One step at a time... :-)

Catching up... July 2010

On July 1st, we got to celebrate another wedding of 2 amazing people we met in Delaware.  These two are the couple that people are talking about when you hear the phrase "perfect for each other".

Too bad you can't see Michelle's awesome red shoes in this picture.

A few days later, it was time for the Freedom Festival in Provo.  Who knew that the 4th of July was such a big thing here?

Abraham Lincoln made an appearance.

There were Princesses in the parade...

And missionaries... (only in Utah)

And floats of the Salt Lake and Provo temples.  Yup, I still get surprised by these things.  I guess I'm still adjusting to life in Utah.

A few days later, we left for Alaska... which will be it's own blog post.  Stay tuned. :-)