Swamp Crack.

While in Louisiana, Steve and I went on an airboat ride through the swamps in search of gators. Little did we know, we came at the perfect time, because the day we went was the day before alligator hunting season started. Which means the gator were plentiful!

Can't say that we have this in California....

Notice the lack of insects buzzing around? We expected there to be bugs everywhere, but we only saw dragonflies.

Billy keeping his distance.

Nom nom nom.

Whenever someone found a gator (usually Steve), our tour guide would stop the airboat and pull up right next to it so we could get a closer look.

[SOMEONE IN THE BOAT]: "What are you throwing at them?"

[GUIDE]: "Marshmallows."

[SOMEONE]: "......Marshmallows?"

[GUIDE]: " Yeah. Everything in the swamp eats marshmallows. That's why we call it swamp crack."

RibbFest

DISCLAIMER: I stole all these photos from Iris' Facebook. :P

The last week of August was a busy one for Steve and me. We started off with a drive down to Sac to visit our friend Korea (and eat at Gunther's Ice Cream, delicious), spent the night, then woke up early to get to So Cal in time for RibbFest/friends reunion.

The proper way to drink beer during RibbFest

Rib toast

Reunited with our college friends for a pre-RibbFest soccer match

Nomming with Lindsey, one of the RibbFest hosts

The bone pile

In short: we played some soccer, swam a little bit, ate lots of ribs, drank lots of beer, and hung out with lots of friends. The following day found us at an awesome gourmet bratwurst place in Orange County with Greek Matt and Jessica for brunch and at the movies + Dave & Buster's for a double date with Steve's brother David and his girlfriend Jackie before heading out to see Steve's mom that evening.

The following day (Monday morning), we hopped on a plane heading out to The Big Easy - New Orleans, Louisiana!

Beertown USA

This post has been a long time coming, since we visited Bend back at the beginning of August.

Bend, Oregon has the most breweries per capita than anywhere else in the United States - approximately one for every 9,000 people. I also happen to have an aunt who lives there, and the girls soccer team that Steve and I coach happened to have a soccer tournament there at the beginning of August. So, Beertown USA, here we come! (Or came, since that was over a month ago.)

Our girls were put in the Gold division at the tournament, and unfortunately did not move on to the championship game. But they played hard, scored some goals, and have definitely improved from the first tournament back in May - so we are very much looking forward to the rest of the season. (More on coaching in another post, I promise.)

Since I've got a lot of catching up to do on this blog, here's our Bend trip in pictures:

Look at all the pretty colors!

Chickens at my aunt's house :D

Billy relaxing on my aunt's back porch during the sunset.

Since my aunt lives in the boonies, with beautifully clear skies and absolute quiet, I wanted to see the sunrise. So Steve and I got up at 6am, only to find too many clouds to really see it. Oh well...

Brew Werks was probably my favorite of the 7 breweries we visited in the four days we were up there.

Billy wanted to come rafting with us. Despite his little plastic bag poncho and my semi-waterproof shirt, he still got soaked! The first time he's had a bath... ever. :P

                      

We went rafting on the Deschutes River - Before picture of Steve and my aunt Leslie.

Before picture of my dad and me. Neither of us had ever been rafting before.

About five minutes after we set out, it started HAILING.

The raft behind us.

After picture of Steve and Aunt Leslie - soaked to the bone.

After picture of my dad and me. A wave knocked me off my seat! Luckily I ended up in the middle of the raft two people back, instead of in the river.... (Also, my waterproof camera had water on the lens, which is why my dad's face is blurry - he is not a ghost, I promise.)

Billy met some friends while strolling along the banks of the Deschutes as it ran through the town.

There was a car show going on downtown while we were there.

In case you can't tell: this police car has been turned into A GIANT BARBEQUE! They are grilling in the front, smoking meat in the middle, and adding wood in the trunk.

And yet more beer.

A Short Thought.

Steve and I were reminiscing about our Europe trip last year, so we brought up the blog to fill in the memory gaps. And I realized that I haven't touched this thing in almost three months.

This time last year, I was blogging every other day to fill everyone in on the goings-on of life out of a backpack. I was constantly behind on blogging because I had too much to do and not enough time to type it all up. And now?

*sigh*

That's not to say that we haven't been enjoying ourselves here. Work is going well and we're having a lot of fun coaching a youth girls soccer team and occasionally we find ourselves on stage at karaoke night at The Red Lion. The area is beautiful, even if it is lacking in culture. Steve brews beer with my dad sometimes, and so far everything has turned out pretty good. We celebrated Steve's birthday with a keg of beer, home-made carrot cake (made by yours truly), and lots of good friends. [A step up, perhaps, from shoveling manure on a farm like last year?] We are healthy and getting fitter by the day (at least Steve is); our apt definitely has a sense of "us" in it, even if it is a bit messy sometimes [or a lot messy a lot of the time]; and we have a trip out to New Orleans coming up soon. Not much to complain about, right?

Life has been treating us well. But I miss laying around on secluded beach coves and exploring the city's massive farmer's markets and spending every minute with my husband. I even miss playing charades with the waiters at restaurants and having only a few outfits to choose from - it definitely made getting dressed in the morning a lot easier.

More details on life these days later - right now I plan on dreaming of future adventures over a glass of wine.

Driving.

So this is my second Blog Every Day in May post, even though it's not May anymore, and even though it's been quite a few days since my last post. The next prompt I chose was this one: 

Day 12, Sunday: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life...)


When Steve and I were in Europe last year (I can't believe it's been a year since that trip!), we spent four glorious months walking, biking, and taking public transportation. The only time either of us drove was when we were working on that farm in Hungary, and then it was only a tractor. The only times either of us sat in a car was when we were hitchhiking back and forth from that farm to a music/arts festival a few villages over. And there wasn't a single moment in that whole four months that I thought to myself, "Man, you know what I wish I could do right now? DRIVE."

We never had to. The places we visited were all made for pedestrians - everything was within walking distance from everything else. After the initial shock of observing our Polish friend Anna walk us the long way back to her flat IN HEELS, we realized that, yes, anything that is three miles or less is in walking distance. Any place that was farther away or that we wanted to get to quickly was reachable by bus or subway. Occasionally we would ride bikes to places. Looking around us, we soon realized something that was the opposite of how life is in the United States: if you want to get anywhere in Europe, driving is probably the most inconvenient way of going about it.

Within an hour of arriving back in the United States, we hopped on a six-lane freeway heading home from LAX and passed by at least four accidents. Which is three more than we saw the ENTIRE TIME we were in Europe. A few days later, we were driving with a friend of ours to another friend's soccer game, and she asked us this completely absurd question:

"So did you guys miss being able to drive around in your own car while you were gone?"

Umm. No. Absolutely not.

For the last year and a half (ish) that Steve and I were in school, we were interning (then working FT) at places that were 30 miles away from where we were living. Luckily for us, our jobs weren't too far apart from each other and we usually carpooled. But those 45+ minutes of driving each way, five days a week? Awful. And we were going against traffic. Our commute would've easily been doubled or tripled if we'd had to drive in the other direction. Suffice it to say that before we went to Europe, I already disliked having to drive anywhere. And if I didn't like it when I had to do it, I sure as hell didn't like it after living for four months without it.

I don't know how people do it. I don't know why Americans insist on doing it. So to answer the question of "What do I miss":

I miss not having to drive. Ever.

Driving sucks. Cars are expensive, for one thing. Between gas and maintenance and insurance, not to mention the actual purchase of the vehicle, it's a lot more trouble than it's worth. The hectic times of the day traffic-wise are the times when people are already cranky and pissed off and ready to just GET HOME. So what happens when you put a whole bunch of annoyed, restless, irritable people in vehicles and stick them all on the road at the same time? Road rage, and accidents, and horn honking and cursing and middle fingers everywhere. Not to mention it's bad for the environment, having so many cars on the road all at once.

I work about one mile from where I live, and I still drive to work all the time. Why? Because I suck at waking up early and in the afternoons now it is too blasted hot to do anything (it's supposed to hit 110 degrees this weekend) and basically because I am lazy. And I need to change that, because seriously? I. HATE. DRIVING.

So this is not so much an answer to the prompt, but more of a declaration:

I am going to drive less. Because walking or biking is less offensive to my mental health, my waistline, and the environment. This means no more waking up ten minutes before I need to run out the door and jump in my car to get to work on time. This probably means packing a lunch for work (unless I can convince Steve to bike over and bring me food :D ). This means sucking it up when it's hot outside, because you know what else is hot? The steering wheel of a car that's been baking outside all day long. And the car key after six minutes of being in the ignition (I can't count the number of times I have burned myself pulling the key out even though it only takes a few minutes to get home). I vow to spend less time rolling my eyes at other drivers and more time soaking in the beautiful sunshine. I vow to alleviate stress by both avoiding the maniacs driving down Market Street and getting some exercise in every day. I vow to spend less money on gas and more money on fresh produce at the farmer's market, which, now that June has hit, will be open on Thursday in the Promenade, which is on my way home from work. I vow to think happy thoughts on these walks, which will only take about ten minutes more than it would to drive. I vow to admire all the trees in my town and remember that by walking, I am helping the environment that those trees grown in.

I miss not having to drive... It's time to remember what that's like.

Summary of My Life.

So my cousin was participating for a while in this challenge called "Blog Every Day in May." I didn't realize she was doing it until about two weeks into May (and realized that going from hardly blogging ever to blogging EVERY DAY was a bit too ambitious), so I figured it was too late to jump in.

But I looked at all the daily prompts and I really like some of them. So I'm cheating, and just doing some of them, and I'm not going to write every day because really, I probably won't, and this will probably extend past May since we've only got a week of it left. So here goes -

Day 1: Story of your life, in 250 words or less.

I’ve done the typical life things for a twenty-something: graduated college, held down a good job, become financially stable. But those things don’t define me. They don’t really represent anything I stand for as a person.

 I love to see beautiful things, taste delicious things, and do incredible things. I am a world traveler and a wife, a planner at heart, a soccer player and coach. I have tattoos that are a statement to the kind of life I try to live, I love wearing lipstick even though my husband doesn’t like to kiss me when I do, and I don’t brush my hair very often. I have learned to fear nothing and sometimes find myself crying, not because I’m sad but because this world is so beautiful and life is so short. I am a decent writer, despite my tendency to use too many run-on sentences. I am no longer a picky eater. I often suffer from book hangover. Some bucket list items are to see as many countries as possible, learn another language fluently, get a six-pack, participate in a polar bear plunge, compete in an amateur ballroom dance competition, take a trapeze class, pay a stranger’s dinner bill, and jump in a taxi and yell “follow that car!”

I think my husband is the handsomest man I’ve ever seen, I prefer to spend money on experiences, not things, and I ALWAYS dance like no one is watching.

Above all things, I am a WOMAN. Happy and alive.

My Non-Travel Bucket List

I have started writing down bucket lists before, but they all end up turning into just a list of all the countries in the world and weird things I want to eat. So I have challenged myself to come up with things I'd like to do before I kick the bucket that don't have anything to do with traveling.

DISCLAIMER: That statement about items having nothing to do with travel may not be entirely true.

• Obtain a CPA license (so I can have a business card with fancy extra initials behind my name.)
• Design and sew a quilt. And a dirndl. So I can wear it to Oktoberfest!
• Climb a mountain. A really big one! (Like, umm. Mt Fuji in Japan? Or Mt Kilimanjaro? Or....)
• Bake a loaf of bread that does not double as a blunt object to whack intruders with.
• Learn to speak another language fluently. (As in, not just "Thank you" and "Another beer, please.")
• Compete in an amateur ballroom dance competition (Still trying to talk Steve into this one...)
• Pay a stranger's dinner bill
• Do a "Trash the Dress" photo shoot with my wedding dress. (One of the three I ended up buying. [Online, for <$400 total. Whoop.] But first I have to fit back into one... :P)
• Dress up for ComiCon (or other comparable convention of nerds.)
• Dress up for a USA game (I feel silly putting this on my list, since I already know I'm going to do with for Women's World Cup Canada 2015.)
• Learn how to ride a horse (that isn't a pony tied to a post that walks in a circle at the fair.)
• Jump off a waterfall (Steve keeps telling me to do this. I'm scared. But it'll happen one day.)
• Attach a lock to a love bridge
• Jump into a taxi and yell "follow that car!" (Should've done this in Vegas. Really, really should have done this in Vegas.)

....so that's about all I came up with, until I decided to type "bucket list" into Pinterest and see what other people came up with (because seriously, I can't think of anything more than "travel to this place" or "eat this") - here is what I've added to my list:

• Hug a penguin (I'm not sure if this is legal.)
• Participate in a polar bear plunge
• Take a trapeze class!
• Throw a party serving fake alcohol and see how many people act drunk (Too bad I'm not in college anymore.)
• Throw a drink in someone's face (I wish I could get this mad. I'm past the rage point of my life, though.)
• Attend a masquerade (why didn't I think of this myself??)
• Have a paint fight (I imagine this will happen if Steve and I ever decide to stop traveling long enough to settle down and buy a house to paint.)
• Wade through a cranberry bog
• Finish an entire big pink eraser (Seriously. Has anyone ever finished one of these??)
• Swing from a chandelier (and hope it doesn't break)

Things I have crossed off my bucket list before I had a chance to put it on:

• Marry the love of my life
• Run a marathon (Well. Complete a marathon.)
• Sing karaoke in front of a bunch of people (Every Thursday, Red Lion!)
• Smash a pie in someone's face (Technically it was cake. Marcus.)
• Eat a spaghetti taco (I was mind-boggled for a moment, seeing this on someone's list. Then I realized... I've done this before.)
• Dance even if no one else is and even if I look like a fool (which I'm sure I do.)
• Live without fear. (I'm there, finally. So I have no excuse to not cross every item off this list.)

I know, I know, I'm cheating... It isn't really writing blog posts if I'm just making lists. But Steve will tell you, there is nothing I love more than making lists. (Other than him, or Billy, or traveling, or food.)

But it's better than nothing! And now that these things are written for the world to see, maybe I'll do them sooner rather than later!

Tying Up Some Loose Ends.

Remember this post from New Year, where I said my New Year's resolution was to blog more?

Yeah. Utter failure.

And remember when I promised over and over and over that I'd post some pictures of our place?

Yeah. That didn't happen either.

I am back to remedy both of those situations.

So here's a big WELCOME BACK from me, to myself. There are a lot of things that have happened in the time I've been blog-hibernating, and some thoughts on life that I'd like to get written down, so here goes New Year's Resolution: Take Two.

And here are some fabulously blurry pictures of the past three-ish months of our life!

I'll start with a couple pics of our place, since you've been waiting so long:

Our living room. Much more "us" than it would be if it was centered around a tv.

Our kitchen, on one of its cleaner days.

Our dining area, aka the other half of the kitchen?

Sorry folks, no pics of our bedroom or our office. Both are consistently messy and mostly undecorated (still! I know. We somehow lost all our thumbtacks in the move and didn't get around to buying new ones till like... a week ago) so you will probably have to come visit if you want to see them!

MISC PICTURES FROM FEBRUARY [Holy crap. I haven't blogged since February.]

Valentine's Day:

This is what I came home to at lunch on Valentine's Day!

Steve shucked those oysters himself. And put together the centerpiece flower arrangement.

AVENUE OF THE GIANTS, Humboldt County, CA

Eel River(?)

The view from above. 

 This is where the pictures start getting blurry, because I changed the setting on the camera to something that required the camera to be held very, very, VERY still.....

That is a tall tree. A very, very tall tree.

Between me, Billy, and my brother, we could reach maybe a third of  the way around the tree?

Party tree! The couple in the middle are my old friend Adrienne and her husband Evan, who  we were visiting in Humboldt.

The boys atop a fallen tree.

That is a redwood that had fallen over. For scaling purposes, keep in mind that my brother, standing on the ground right next to the tree, is a little over six feet tall.

A creek we found. I mostly posted this picture because Billy looks adorable in my jacket.

MARCH:

We basically didn't do anything exciting in February due to MY FIRST TAX SEASON aka I did not have a single day off work in the month of March.

APRIL:

As a celebratory MY-FIRST-WEEKEND-OFF-IN-TWO-MONTHS!!!, we met up with a bunch of our college friends in Santa Barbara for a mini-reunion and some hiking and avocado picking and other typical shenanigans. Steve and I took the train down rather than driving - and that train ride was like 17 hours long. Each way. But it was also kind of refreshing to travel around with just a backpack once more....

The view from the beginning of our hike.

Don't know if you can see it, but Iris has a big fancy camera - I took this picture as proof she was there, because she normally doesn't have any pictures of herself from our adventures.

We got lost on our hike, and asked some random guys for directions to Seven Falls (which, incidentally, were all dried up by the time we got there - 3 hours later) and they told us to continue on the trail we were walking on until we came to Pride Rock... We were pretty stoked to hear that other people use Disney references to describe landmarks besides us.

Steve and Blonde Matt helping me down a boulder. I was certain I was going to die. Thank goodness I had tall, strong, handsome blonde men to save me.

I was clinging like a barnacle to that rock.

Steve and Jane atop Pride Rock, SB version

Blonde Matt's and my feet..... You really can't tell from this picture how effing far down it was from the rock we were sitting on to the bottom of the canyon.

Carolyn, the dust from our hike washed off and adequately prepared for avocado picking.

Jane basically lives in the avocado grove. 

FOOD AND OTHER THINGS:

Carne asada tacos

Trying our hand at kalbi [Korean shirt ribs]

I guess the Deutschland jacket takes away from me pretending to be Asian?

Steve's glorious cheese pizza

Spanish sweet rolls... I forget what they're called. But Steve made them. From scratch.

Getting ready for some BEZZERWIZZER!!! [A fair warning to everyone out there: don't play trivia games with us unless you are a serious trivia game fanatic. Because that's what we are, and we will beat you every time.]

Korea Steve came for a visit!!!! :D

I love coming home to lunch already made.

Homemade turkey meatballs, courtesy of Steve.

Vegetable curry.

Some of Steve's fantastic french bread.

Homemade pretzels. Steve made the pretzels from scratch, and I stole a bite before taking a picture so it would look like a heart. Awwwww.

Steve's family's traditional Valentine's day cookie. This is a cake pan, so this cookie is much bigger than it looks.

Bacon, balsamic, and brussel sprouts. A winning combination.

Swiss chard pasta, courtesy of my dad's garden, and a pineapple-zubrowka martini.

Plantain empanadas - my mom's recipe.

Billy misses having his picture taken all the time. What a ham.

Multigrain pancakes (mix courtesy of the local flour mill) with strawberries & yogurt. And breakfast sausage. 

Bay scallop salsa-viche.

Just another day of lunch waiting for me at home.

Whew. I'm worn out and all I posted was a bunch of pictures!

But it's a good start, right? :P