Safari Park

We've checked another thing off our OC Bucket List!  We went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  Justin got me a membership to the San Diego Zoo for Valentine's Day last year so we've gotten to go several times over the year but this was the first time going to the Safari Park.  Here they have large exhibits with multiple types of animals living together to mimic the wild.  You can walk around the park or take a "safari" tour into the largest exhibit.  You can even doing a flying safari on a zipline. 

Like the zoo, this park participates in amazing breeding efforts to help endangered species.  That means seeing lots of babies!  Like this mother and 5 month old baby gorilla...

And dad playing in a box...

There were also a bunch of baby elephants!  This little guy was running around chasing deer in his pen.  Then he got scared and all of the adults ran to him to comfort him.  So sweet!

They also have special activities like the Cheetah Run, where you can see cheetahs hit their top speeds of 70 mph down a track.  The cheetah has a large dog friend that goes with it to help it feel safe.

At the end of its run, the cheetah got a nice bowl of raw meat.  That helped us feel safe, since it probably wasn't worth it to the cheetah to chase us if there was stationary food.

Finally there's the tigers.  Cause I love them.  One of the ran off when I pulled out my camera.  I guess he was shy.  That weird grey line is one of the bars of the fence - another helpful safety measure, especially since this one didn't have a bowl of meat...

Home Sweet New Home

We found a new apartment!

Ok, actually we decided on one from our trip a couple weeks ago.  And have already signed the lease so I guess this post is a bit delayed...

It's a little bit bigger than what we have now with a much larger patio and a storage closet out there for the bikes (hopefully at least most of them).  Of course it comes with a slightly larger price tag but we decided it was worth it.  Especially for laundry in the apartment which I've grown very accustom to in our current place. 

It'll still be a while before I get up there to start pretty-ing it up but I'm already gathering ideas.  Stay tuned!

Fits Like An Old Shoe

My very first pair of running shoes is on its way to the trash.  Quite a tragedy really. 
Ok, not really.  But these were the shoes that covered those first miles with me when I first started running.  And when they were broken down too far to keep pounding the pavement they got retired to "everyday" shoes.  And when they're replacements also got demoted, these shoes found a new home on the floor of my car as "dirty shoes".  Perfect for walks in creeks and hanging out in the mud.  And perfect for walking dogs when I'm volunteering at the animal shelter.  And because they live in the car there's no risk of tracking anything "questionable" into the house.

But now it's finally time to say goodbye.  While I would prefer to donate things I don't need anymore, these shoes are a bit past their prime (like years past).  So trash it is.

Since we're on the subject of my first running experiences, I'll mention how I got started.  I used the Couch-to-5k program, which was pretty great.  It's a 9 week plan that gets you running 5k (3.1 miles for those who can't visualize what a "k" would feel like).  It's nice because it really takes you up slowly and you have concrete goals to hit each week.  And it only takes 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week, so that's a win.  I've been running off and on for a few years now.  Very casually, mind you.  Never further than about 3 miles, a few times a week.  I have dreams of a half-marathon but for now I'm still in the "hobby" phase instead of the "obsession" phase that would take. 

San Juan Loop Trail

On Sunday we took a quick hike on San Juan Loop Trail in Cleveland National Forest. 

It was a beautiful trail with tree cover for a good portion and water nearby (at least now that it has rained a bit).  This is a 2.2 mile trail with only about 350 ft of elevation change.  It's a great hike for beginners or families or anyone short on time.  I particular liked this trail because it was different from some of the trails nearer to us in Irvine, which are in full sun with lots of scrub and sand.  This had that nice cool, walking through the woods, feeling that reminds me of Colorado.

There were a few overlook spots and waterfalls (these might be better after a bit more rain).  Also, there were a couple sandy beach like areas near the edge of the stream that would be fun for a photo op or for kids to explore.  Justin liked these rocks of course.

Fun, easy, quick.  We might bring a visiting friend here next week.

The trailhead has bathrooms and water.  You need a parking permit to park there but they sell them across the street (also sold? candy) so it doesn't require planning ahead.  We used our Adventure Pass which works for Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino National Forests.  You can get them at REI, Sports Authority, or other big sporting goods stores as well as online.  Daily passes are $5 and annual passes are $30 so it's hardly a bank breaker and, after seeing how well mantained these trails are, I'm happy to support the National Forests.

Adult vs. Nonadult

My adult move of the day was my learning what the care instruction symbols on clothing tags mean.

My less-adult move was considering taking my shirt off at work to see what symbols it had and decipher them using my new knowledge.

This knowledge comes through adultingblog.com, which is very useful for those people out there trying to figure out adulting (the process of appearing to be an adult).  I'm pretty sure I made the correct adult move by not taking my shirt off at work.  See, I'm learning so much!


P.S. Please don't get the website wrong and type adultblog.  That is something different. 

Ready for My Close-Up

In the spirit of checking things off our OC bucket list, we went up to Hollywood this weekend (yes, I know that's not technically in OC).

All I was concerned with was seeing the stars and the Chinese Theatre, where the handprints are.  I'm not a big movie buff or particularly fascinated with the lives of celebrities but I couldn't move away from the L.A. area without seeing this stuff.

 I love Harry Potter, what can I say

 My feet are tiny and hers are even smaller!  It was fun to see how people have gotten bigger over the years (and not just in the waistline).

 I like that Trigger got in there too.  And the gun print.

 Movie star crime scene map.  Just in case you're, you know, a creepy stalker.

 

 

 Walk of Fame!  This picture was actually the last one and taken on Justin's cell phone because we fail at keeping camera batteries charged before adventures.

 Judge Judy's star.  I took others but this amuses me.

It was a fun trip, though a lot quicker than I expected.  There's not nearly as much that interests me in Hollywood as I expected.  I guess I shouldn't be so surprised but when you've always heard about a famous place, you kind of expect it to wow you more.

We also almost accidentally went to the green carpet premiere of the new Muppets movie (that's right, green carpet).  We got there too early to see Kermit though, sadly.

We also saw the sign but it was from a distance.  Also it was on the left.  Not sure how Miley saw it on her right...

Pretty Toes

I painted my toes with all the nail polishes I'm getting rid of.  I'll pretend it was to check if they were still good before putting up an ad listing them for free.

But let's be honest, we all know I just like pretty toes.

And yes, I had 2 different colors of blue nail polish.  And yes, I seriously considered finding another color to get rid of because then I would have a different one for every toe.  But I resisted so there's one repeat.

Then today I wore open toed shoes to a place where society women go to drink tea.  Whatever, I still think they're pretty.

100 Things

The 100 Thing Challenge is hardly a new, novel concept.  In fact there's a book called the 100 Thing Challenge put out in 2008.  In internet terms, that means it's pretty ancient.  But I liked the way it sounded.  A good jump start to cutting back on the stuff we had to move.  I had seen people do similar things on different blogs and figured I could manage.  It might be a little harder since we've only got a couple rooms in an apartment to pull from instead of a whole house but I was optimistic.

And then I read what the 100 Thing Challenge actually is.

It is NOT, as I had thought, a get-rid-of-100-items challenge.  Instead, it is about cutting down to only owning 100 things.  So ya, let's talk about how that is not going to happen.

I mean, we're a household that owns 6 bikes (yes, you're only seeing half of our total bike collection).  Obviously we are never going to be that "uncluttered".  And I'm totally okay with that.  I like having multiple types of eating utensils (instead of one spork).  So while I appreciate the thought of living so simply, ya no.

Instead I'm doing the version of the 100 Things Challenge that I had originally imagined.  I'm clearing out 100 items as a sort of detox to get us ready to clean up, pack up, and head out.  I figured once we started getting rid of stuff to hit our 100 things mark, it would make it easier to keep going and get rid of more as we boxed everything. 

It seems to have been successful!

Our 100 things includes:

• Old clothes, bathing suits, underwear (eew), socks, and shoes
• Magazines
• Curling iron, assorted makeup, jewelry, and purses (Can you tell I'm a total girly girl? no?)
• Very old camera and an (almost) 1st gen iPod Mini
• Blender (SO loud)
• Bike Trainer (bought used and it turned out to be slightly broken, a fail for me)
• Printer (got for free but never even opened the box)
• Roomba (also bought broken but we thought we could fix it, fail)
• Basketball (really? I'm 5ft tall, what was that thought process?)
• Assorted college-era lamps, posters, picture frames
• Bike parts of a variety of flavors
• A bug?  I'm not sure what I was referring to when I put that on the list

All in all, we beat our 100 thing goal and now we're on a roll! (haha, that rhymed)  Everything is being listed on Craigslist, given to Goodwill, and thrown away.  Yay!

Drawing the New York Marathon

Just have to say, I absolutely love this.

26.2 Miles, 46 Sketches

Pretty incredible :)

Squeaky Clean

By Wednesday things are also a little hectic and we're just trying to get to the end of the week.  But we've still got a rapidly approaching move and a very long list of things to get done before then.  One of the hardest parts of leaving our current apartment is getting it cleaned up and fixed up in the hopes of getting our deposit back.  So in the hopes of making clean-up a little easier I grabbed these at Target:

And the verdict?  Love!  They really do remove dirt, grime, scoff marks, and other signs of life from all sorts of surfaces.  Justin even loved them so much he ran around the whole apartment cleaning things and didn't even give me a try!  Oh darn!  (Insert picture of me being sad, oh wait there wasn't one)

Couldn't be any simpler, just wet the "eraser" and rub it on dirty spots.  Check the back of the box for what surfaces should be avoided (obviously) but, for the most part, have at it.  It's also nice to use a cleaning product that doesn't have 20 lines of warnings about the ways it can kill you (here's a hint, don't eat it.  the end).

Scrub scrub!

It was hard to capture the difference the Magic Eraser made in pictures but here's the best I got.  See how much cleaner the right side is than the left.  Yep, easy and awesome (and only a couple bucks).

So we're a little closer to a squeaky-clean, returned-deposit-worthy apartment.

P.S. We weren't paid or given anything to write about our love of Magic Erasers, just in case anyone out there actually thinks we're important enough for that to happen...

A Big Orange Balloon

Since our move is approaching quickly now, we've made a "Southern California Bucket List" of all the things that we haven't gotten around to doing yet.  This weekend we braved the "cold" (50s) weather and went for a ride on this thing: 

Sorry for the bad quality - it was dark and the prospect of going up in the air didn't help my hands to stop shaking.

If you think it looks like a giant orange then you're right!  It is a giant orange balloon ride which hoovers over Irvine and symbolizes ... that this is Orange County I guess.  The balloon ride is part of the Orange County Great Park, what may some day be a 1,300 acre park in the center of Orange County on what was the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.  According to the website the park's master plan "embraces environmental sustainability, preserves Orange County’s agricultural heritage, and honors the military history of the former air base".  Someday is will have sports fields, community gardens, an orchard, a lake (for boating and fishing), gardens, art and cultural exhibits, and a "wildlife corridor". 


What the Great Park may someday look like (from http://www.ocgp.org/learn/design/

For now the Great Park has ... a balloon ride.  Ok, it also has a carousel, a visitor's center, a kid's play area, space for special events, and an art gallery.  Best of all, it's all free!  Second best of all?  The weekly farmer's market (complete with food trucks in true LA style).

Justin looking adventurous on a "rock" in the kid's area

It's coming down for us!

They provided a nice cage to keep us in.  And the rules also instructed us not to jump from the balloon.  Nice of them to remind me.

So overall it was a fun trip.  I can't believe it took us so long to do it!  Maybe someday we'll bring our kids to see the completed park (or grandkids?).  For now enjoy this picture of me at 400 ft.  I don't look to terrified do I?  I hide it well (in the dark).

P.S. I forgot to mention that they put a jack-o-lantern face on the balloon each October.  It's pretty fabulous :)

Adventures in Getting Married

Today is our 2 month wedding anniversary (month-iversary?)!

So to celebrate I figured I show a bit of the day.

We got married on September 4, 2011, in Littleton, Colorado.  We chose CO because it is where I'm from (so we'd have my mom in the area to help, thank goodness!).  And also because it's awesome.  Beautiful and full of unique settings and backdrops, I just love it.  Of course we did have to choose our date carefully to avoid snow, which can start as early as late September.  Also we had to be prepared for the brief downpours of rain that CO loves in the summer.  But the weather cooperated and the biggest issue was that the sun was right in the eyes of my bridesmaids and I during the ceremony.  See the squinting?

We had an outdoor ceremony followed by an indoor sit-down dinner and dancing at the same location.  It turned out to be a nice mix of formal tradition and a more relaxed playfulness.  I wanted to have the "fancy" bits because, well ... when else will I get them??  We're not exactly formal sit-down dinner party people so I jumped at the chance to go all out.  Well, a restrained and budgeted all out.

My incredible mom did the flowers (all of them, with very little help.  She also did my veil, other decorations, and stayed sane. Love you mom!).  I was crazy picky about stuff and more than a little neurotic (though I think I mostly avoided being a bridezilla) but everything turned out fantastic.  My biggest advice would be to pick what's important to you before looking online and at magazines.  If the napkin color and china pattern never crossed your mind before you started planning, don't let it become a huge deal just because you saw a really cool idea that someone of the internet did.  People on the internet have lots of ideas and it's really easy to get sucked in.  Not that that ever happened to me...

Here's more pretty pictures now.  Note that we had bubbles (this was on my "must have" list before planning ever started).

 

 

Yep, pretty gorgeous!

All the pictures were taken by Kara Pearson Photography who I highly recommend.  Honestly it was hard to pick which ones to show here because I have literally hundreds of amazing pictures (and this is coming from someone who usually hates how she looks in pictures :P)

Adventures in Apartment Hunting

If you’re like us and searching for the perfect apartment from almost 400 miles away, you know that it is really annoying.  Like super annoying.  You’re dodging Craigslist scams and pictures taken at such an angle as to miss the fact that the kitchen is too small to open the fridge door and you keep wondering why people think their space is worth $400 more than what you’re paying now for less space and why are you moving again???

We took a last minute trip two weekends ago to check the area out.  Let’s just say it was … enlightening.  As in, we were enlightened to the fact that Justin needs to get a really good offer for us to be able to live here and still eat.  

The one thing that made the whole process suck less was PadMapper.com.  Their tagline is actually “making apartment hunting suck less” and it totally did.  This site let’s you search by area, number of rooms, price, pet policy, etc. and plots on a map all the listings from all the major apartment websites.  All in one place you get listings from Craigslist, rent.com, and others.  It was a life saver for sure.  You can also overlay maps of crime reports or public transportation and, because the map base in Google Maps, you can see restaurants and shopping in the area.  All in one place!  Cue the fireworks!

Source: Screenshot of PadMapper.com

So, other than our excited discovery of PadMapper, I left slightly disheartened to get back to work while Justin stayed behind to have his final interview.  Luckily he had some time on that last day and was able to check a few more places, one of which stood out as a contender.  Finally!  Just because it was slightly above the top range of our budget was no reason to write it off yet!  It had a full-size fridge!  And a balcony big enough for more than one person!  And you could open the fridge door all the way without hitting the counter on the other side of the kitchen!  I was sold without even seeing it.   But of course no decisions could be made right away since we still had to wait for Justin to, you know, actually get the job.  Now that there is an offer and a decision to take it, stay tuned for another apartment hunting post, hopefully with a happier ending.

And So It Starts

Today is my 1 year anniversary of working at my very first job after collge.

It is just a few days from our 2 month wedding anniversary.

And it is the day we've made the decision to leave our apartment in Irvine, California, and move to Sunnyvale, CA (that's near San Fransisco - don't worry, I had to look it up too).  Justin got the news today that he's been offered a job there (technically in Palo Alto, right next door).  It's news we've been waiting for and a move we've known is coming so it's a huge relief to have a plan in the works.  But it's also slightly terrifying.  We're not particularly attached to Orange County but it's still been home for the last few years.  

Things I know about Sunnyvale so far:

• We will probably end up in another too-expensive apartments since it is one of the few places we could move that is as insanely expensive as Irvine (except of course Palo Alto which is more...)
• I know 4 people living there already.  That's 4 more than when I moved to Irvine.
• Sunnyvale consistently ranks in the top 5 safest cities in the country (for it's size).  Irvine is considered the safest big city in the country.  Both were a step-up (with regards to safety) from our time spent in St. Louis, often ranked the most dangerous city in the country.
• It's sunny?  Ok, so I don't know a lot.  Go look it up on Wikipedia if you want I guess.

So this is the story of us: 2 twenty-something newlyweds on an adventure.  We'll fill you in about what we do and what we learn along the way.  First up: finding a new apartment and our Southern California bucket list.