We're not in California anymore...

Ok, we are alive but COLD!!!

We made it safe and sound to Milwaukee, moved in to our condo that sadly pales in comparison to our vacation home in Carmel...

You can see our amazing view, and yes it was snowing...

Jason and I agree we have never felt this kind of cold before.  One morning we woke up and the thermometer said 8! No, I didn't miss a number and mean to write 38, or even 28... It said 8 degrees.

WHAT DID WE GET OURSELVES INTO!?!?!

Even so, we are trying to make the best out of this, shall we say, interesting situation.

We have tried some of the local delicacies such as:

Yes, those are cheese curds...

Which are usually served fried accompanying what is called a Butterburger.  I literally almost threw up from the amount of fat in this meal alone.

We also sampled some very good beer... this was a very fun night at a great German place called Maders.  It is a well known restaurant that has been visited by many important people such as JFK, Frank Sinatra, and even Britney Spears!!

Jason insisted that we had to go to a Packers Game to see Lambeau Field.  We compromised and agreed to go right away so we could avoid the snow...

The Packers stadium was really amazing.  It was huge and in this tiny town with really nothing else going on...

To park, everyone just pays $20 and parks on someones lawn in the neighborhood.  We chose this house. Seriously!  We were laughing the whole time!! They even let us use their bathroom!

We got some food from the pub, and what do you know... more fried cheese curds, cheese and beer soup and Jason's burger even had this strange cheese butter spread on it.  After this meal we decided to stop trying the local delicacies... Our pants are getting too tight. Haha, no really...

The field was beautiful...

Jason was so excited...

  

I was just really, really cold.  Everyone around us kept commenting on how nice it was that night, I just kept my mouth shut and covered...

The sunset was beautiful...

All in all, we had a great time.  Milwaukee is nice, but its no California.  We are appreciating the fact that we get to see other parts of the country but also are realizing how wonderful we had it at home...  Its nice to know that where your family and friends live is exactly where you want to be...

You know what they say...

Theres no place like home!

Current Location:

Milwaukee, WI

Moving to Milwaukee

The time has come to leave California...  We knew this was going to happen, it just came so soon!

Having to transport 2 cars, a cat, a dog and all our stuff, the only option to get from point A (California) to point B (Wisconsin) was to drive!  We loaded up after our last day of work in Monterey, said goodbye to the beach and got on our way!

We decided to take the Southern route to avoid the blizzard-like conditions in the Rockies.  We know we are going to have to drive in snow soon anyway but wanted to put is off for as long as possible!

Our first night was spent in Bakersfield, CA... Not too interesting.

However the next day we got to Arizona...

If you look really closely you can see the "Welcome to Arizona" sign!  Bear with me for the photography for this post, most of the pictures were taken at 60 mph!

In Arizona traveled through Kingman where there were beautiful canyons and the start of route 66.  We were offered a position in Kingman, Arizona and immediately turned in down, but seeing how beautiful it is, we thought maybe someday...

In Arizona, we stayed in Flagstaff, where what do you know? There was snow on the ground! (no pictures because it was dark)  It was a nice introduction to the coldness that was to come!

After Flagstaff we continued on our way through New Mexico.  The rock formations were amazing and you could really understand why they call it "the Painted Desert."  And seriously, there is nothing there except those rocks!  It was at this point in the trip that I started getting tired and stopped taking pictures, so in place I will have professional pictures of what we actually saw :)

We stopped off in Albuquerque to let Stanley play in a dog park to get some energy out and were on our way!

From Albuquerque, we traveled into Texas were we have never seen such flat land in our lives!  It just went on, and on, and on, and on.  Then getting out of the car to get some gas we realized we had never felt such wind in our life!  It was holding us up sideways complete with tumbleweeds! Something we will never forget...

Our next stop was Oklahoma City, OK.  Here, the land was still very flat but the fall foliage was beautiful...

Jason and I spent the whole time looking out the window for signs of Tornados!  Ridiculous, we know!  I think we were watching too much weather channel at that point :)

Our Travel Companions!!

Next stop was St. Louis, Missouri.  Here we got a chance to see the amazing arch on the Mississippi River...

It was beautiful and we got to see it in the morning before any crowds got there.

It was really huge...

and very neat to see the Mississippi!

Finally, on our last leg of the trip we went through the Illinois flatlands on our way to Chicago...

There was nothing but cornfields and long stretches of road as far as the eyes could see!

But we did drive through the town of Dwight!!  We had to get out and take a picture:)

Finally, last stop was Chicago which was HUGE and had the WORST traffic!  It didn't matter, we were almost "home"!!

This is only part of the Chicago skyline, I couldn't fit it all in the camera shot!

We are here!!!  It was such a long trip but very interesting to see incredible parts of our country.  We will be in Wisconsin for 6 months and are excited to explore Chicago, a Packers game, some good beer, lots of cheese and the SNOW!!

Current Location:

Milwaukee, WI

Goodbye Monterey, We Had Fun!

3 months are over already and Jason and I are both so proud of completing our first assignment as traveling physical therapists.  It was surprisingly easy, fun and we now have no doubt in our minds that this traveling experiment is the right thing to do at this time in our lives.  We have not even left California and feel like we have seen so much already!  

 Mom and Dad came to visit us and we all went to see Big Sur...

The Bixby Bridge was incredible, just as we thought it would be.

We then went on the 17 Mile Drive and saw the Lone Cypress...

beautiful views...

and, of course, the 18th hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Course.  

Jason was infatuated, i thought it was pretty view.

We have seen so many beautiful sights here in Monterey and Carmel (this sunset was in Carmel Valley)  and feel so lucky to have gotten to stay here.  This was a perfect jumping off point to our travels and really got us prepared to take the next step...

Which by the way....

Any guesses?

We will be leaving on November 12th, 2011 for the second coldest major city in the United States.  It has a winter average of 20 degrees F, an average snowfall of 50 inches, and apparently people there also have a fondness for beer...  It also had a job offer that we could not refuse!

Give up?

Thats right! We are moving to Milwaukee!  We know we are in for a cold winter but we also know that it will be an adventure and that is the point, right?  We have received many good tips for surviving the winter (including getting booties for Stanley) and are ready to go!  We will be driving across the country to get there and hope to see many more sights on our way!!  

Brew City, here we come!

Current Location:

Carmel Valley, CA

Half Way Already?

Like they always say...

Time flies when you are having fun!

We can not even believe that our time in Monterey is half way over.  It has gone by so fast!  We have been very busy but having lots of fun.  Work is going so well.  I absolutely love home health and have already asked to continue with that setting in our next placement.  I don't know if it is just the clinic we are at here, but it is so nice to see only around 5 patients per day versus the 14 we were seeing back at home in the outpatient setting!  Work has just become so much more relaxing and has really given us some time to enjoy life which was kind of the point of this whole traveling experiment anyway!

We found a great gym here and Jason has been busy playing lots and lots and lots of racquetball, of course:)  Its not that interesting to go to the gym everyday, but one day I saw this guy as I was walking in and thought to myself "only in Carmel..."

He was gone by the time I left, otherwise I might just taken him home as a new friend for Dwight and Stanley!

DeeDee (Jason's mother) got married to Jim on August 28th in a beautiful wedding at the Moreda's dairy in Petaluma.

She looked absolutely amazing...

And the weather was perfect... (we needed some sun with all the summer gloom in Monterey)

And the view was amazing as well...

Congratulations Jim and DeeDee!

On our car trips back home for one reason or another we have been stopping a lot in Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world.  They have over 100 outlet stores there (including the Forever21 outlet), and for food, its not garlic we stop for... it is Sonic Drive In!!  We had fun ordering and getting our food from a server on skates!

The food was just ok, but it was the ambiance that kept bringing us back!

We did a little bit of sightseeing and went to Cannery Row in Monterey.  It reminded us of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco but with a nicer beach in the background.

I have had some interesting changes as well...

My hair!! No, its not the end of the world that I am a brunette now;)  I went to a super fancy hair salon in Carmel to get my highlights done, and I guess super fancy does not always correlate with super talented because somehow my hair got turned orange!  Not a good look with my coloring...  Well, I decided to just keep it easy, and with all the other changes going on I might as well use some... ready for it???  Box Dye!! Sorry Heidi!!  I dont think it looks too bad though, I think I will keep it for awhile!

BTW, look at the "interesting" painting that is on the wall in our bathroom.  We continually question the decor in this place.  A little creepy, don't you think?

All in all Monterey (really, I should say Carmel) has been good to us.  We have not had time to do much more sightseeing (we have not even seen Big Sur yet!) but are planning to do all that fun stuff once we have visitors later this month!  The countdown to our next move is now on!

Ill close with a few more pictures to brag about our living situation...

The gates at Carmel Valley Ranch...  The people who work the gates are so nice, every time we drive through, without fail, we get a smile, a wave and a cheery "welcome back!"  It's pretty nice to be welcomed home every time!  I'm sure where ever we move next something is just going to be missing...:)

The golf greens and club house...  Too bad we really can't use it because its private!!  But it is a beautiful view anyway...  Our house is just off to the right of the picture

We have not found out where we are going next but are hearing whispers of the Lone Star State.  Im going to get out my cowboy boots, teasing comb and red lipstick!  Pictures to come!

Current Location:

Carmel Valley, CA