California Love

 Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Patrick and I have officially been residents of California for over a week now and we wanted to share with you our journey so far.

About a week and a half ago Thursday, we left at 4am. Earlier in the week we said goodbye to our families and friends. To my credit, I only cried twice. Once on the car ride home from seeing Elise and twice when I had to say goodbye to my nephews. I mean, I cried other times that week (I am a human), but only those times in front of people. Also, I really held it together the morning we left my parents' house. But I attribute that to the fact that it was 4am.

Anyway, we packed up the car Wednesday night and we were packed TO THE GILLS, people. We had a S-Cargo carrier on top of the car that was full (and questionably attached to the top of the car by Patrick, Lee, and my dad). And the back portion of my car had literally no space and, one time, a muffin tin fell on Memphis.

So Thursday morning, I slept through most of Iowa. Patrick was a real trooper and did that leg pretty much on his own. Well, he drove the whole thing, but that part was without my moral support. I woke up for the tail end of Iowa and then the front part of Nebraska.

Now. No disrespect to Nebraska, everyone, but it is, like, the WORST state to drive through. And we didn't drive through part of it. We drove straight through the exact middle, which takes about 8 hours. And it's 8 hours of flatness. And 8 hours of being unsure when we'd find the next gas station (although that was Nevada too).

So I fell asleep in the afternoon of Thursday too. I pretty much sucked as a driving buddy on Thursday.   We got to Laramie, Wyoming (yes, like Fort Laramie from the Oregon Trail!) around 7:30 the first night. But it was 8:30 for us because we were then in Mountain Time, so we went back in time. So Patrick drove 16 and a half hours.

When we woke up Friday morning (at 6:30am), we found that it had, like, iced/snowed overnight.

And because we figured we were going to California, we didn't pack our ice scrapers. And the gas station didn't have any in stock yet. But they did have this random ice spray? And that helped. But that Friday morning drive was just a little treacherous. I stayed awake as moral support for Patrick that morning until I deemed it safe enough to take a nap. But then I only napped for like a half hour. I promise I'm not the worst wife ever!

Also, at this point, I should mention little Memphis poochie puppy, who was the real trooper. Poor boy is a very active doggy by nature and I think this trip was pure torture to him. But he mostly slept and laid. At first he wasn't really drinking any water either (we think because he was unsure of when rest stops would be), but then we tricked him by giving him ice. For those of you who don't know, our dog treats ice like treats. It was like Christmas for Memphis on parts of this trip.

                  

Anyway, After Wyoming came Utah, which was probably the prettiest state we drove through.

Also, it was downright enjoyable because we were in Utah for about 4 hours.

 Then came Nevada. And Nevada was okay, but it was also very long. It was cool around Reno, though.

And finally, Friday night, we made it into California! We stayed an hour outside of San Mateo since we couldn't get our keys until 9am anyway. So that night, we stayed in Vacaville (which in spanish means "cowville"...fitting for us Wisconsinites!). We got in at 8pm that night, but again, we had gone back in time (official Pacific timers now!), so Patrick drove 14 hours that day. I am a lucky, lucky gal! To show my appreciation (and because I wanted some), I introduced Patrick to In 'n Out burger.

He approved.

Saturday morning, we drove across the Bay Bridge into the city! And it was a beautiful day and it was kind of surreal that this is going to be our stomping grounds for the next few years!

We couldn't believe we made it and that the S-Cargo actually stayed on the whole trip! Like, seriously guys, there was duct tape and random things tied and zip ties and the thing made weird noises the whole time.

We got our keys and all the boxes arrived so we set to work unpacking!

With the priority being (obviously) the kitchen, I set my goal to get most of it unpacked Saturday night. I did pretty well Saturday. So well, that we got our first grocery shop Saturday night. This is where we learned our first California rule: Bring your own bags to the grocery store.

Now. We usually have our own bags anyway. But we JUST got here and the bagging boy looked at us like we grew up under a rock. I mean we had to buy EVERYTHING at the grocery store because so much couldn't be packed. So this was a fairly large grocery shop. So you get charged 10 cents per bag and there is NO plastic bags at all. Very environmentally friendly. But one, even if our reusable bags came out here with us, there's no way they got unpacked that day. And two, I actually use plastic grocery bags for the gigantic Memphis excrement that usually doesn't fit in those small dog bags you find at parks.

ANYway. The guy looks at us like we are cavepeople "Didn't you know that?" he asks. "No," Patrick says, "We just moved here today from Wisconsin where we give people bags for free". The checkout girl then gave us all of our bags for free and told us not to worry about it. But I've been again and I can tell you I have brought my bags each time to avoid ridicule. Lesson learned.

That night, we ate Chinese food in style. My sister Erin started me on this tradition, but I wholeheartedly embrace it. The first night in a new place, one should eat Chinese food out of the container. We also drank some champagne my parents' friends gave us.

The rest of the week, I unpacked and organized our new little living situation. Here's a small picture. Mind you, those will not be the chairs for that area (those are chairs for the table). We need new chairs. But you get the idea. And! We have a fireplace!

Monday, Patrick had his first day at Google. So he set out to work in his new gear:

What a handsome guy! And, in between unpacking and organizing, I have since set to applying for jobs and getting my RN license transferred. Definitely the "not fun" part of this whole thing. 

This weekend, though, we did a little exploring. Friday night, we went into Downtown San Mateo (it's a small quaint downtown. I like it) and had dinner and saw Bad Grandpa (so funny and so disgusting). 

Saturday we hit up a pumpkin patch in Fremont

And Saturday night we took the Caltrain into the city and had dinner at a restaurant called Town Hall. And it was so so delicious. I forgot my phone otherwise I'd have pictures. They had really great Old Fashioneds (holy grail to Wisconsinites) But the best part was dessert! We had pumpkin bread pudding with an almond brittle on top. Oh my gosh, we ate the whole thing. I can't even describe how delicious it was. It was cinnamon-y and pumpkin-y and gooey and crunchy. It was Fall dancing on my taste buds.  I'm definitely going to experiment for Thanksgiving!

So that has been our first week or so out here in the Golden State! Now that we're unpacked and everything, I'll be cooking again and can share some more fun healthy recipes! While I'm definitely not going to be as strict diet-wise, I want to work out regularly and eat well. I found that it was pretty easy to do so, so might as well stay on track! Plus. The holidays are coming up and it's way more fun to hog out when you've been working hard up until then.

Hope everyone else has a great week! We miss everyone so so much! Especially these little guys: