Day 3 in Golden, CO

Friday we spent the day exploring the Denver area a bit, starting with Golden, Colorado. It was a charming town, with a historic main street full of little shops, a bike and dog friendly personality, and a mountainous background.

The peak in the back is called Mount Zion. The M was placed by, and stands for, the Colorado School of Mines.The town is home to the Coors Brewery. It's the second largest (Budweiser is first), but has the largest brew-house in the country. We all went on the tour, so pictured above you see Patrick & his mom waiting to be picked up by the bus taking us from the parking lot to the company, with a unique backdrop, beautiful weather & colorful flowers!

Standing in front of Coors Brewery. Below is a look into the room where the beer is made. Patrick & I were a bit surprised to find out it's made through a natural process and is cold-filtered with enzymes, since we don't think it tastes good.

Biologists are employed to run multiple, thorough tests on all batches! This shelf contains examples of all the company's beer- more than I realized, since as Patrick explained, Miller bought Leinenkugel's, then Miller & Coors merged.

We were entitled to 4 samples each, but we weren't fond enough of anything to cash in all our credits. Even so, it was an interesting tour, and the parking, admission & tastings were all free! Afterward, we walked down the mainstreet to have lunch at the old state capitol building that's been converted into a restaurant. We also found out there was a second brewery in town, owned by a geologist (go figure) who makes his own recipes in 50-gallon batches. Patrick & I bought the sampler, which included a homemade rootbeer (they ran out of one of the regular samples). It was too sweet & overpowered with vanilla flavor for our liking, but there were a couple options on the tray we thought weren't too shabby.

Mid-afternoon, we stopped in Denver to shop at the flagship REI store (an outdoor sports & recreation store). I met an employee around our age from Grand Rapids, because he noticed my Oberon earrings (bottlecaps from Kalamazoo)! He went to Christian H.S. & lived near Alpine & Leonard, but came to CO for mountains and the economy. Crazy, huh?! Patrick spent a bit of his b-day money on a mountaineering book, then we left town to avoid traffic.

We had a short visit at the home of Patrick's parents' friends, then returned to the hotel to do some laundry (oh the glamor of living out of a suitcase!) before meeting up with them for dinner (at the exotic Denny's- hehe) and to say goodbye.

Nothing else to report from that night, except we had to prepare for a major day to follow. It's gonna be difficult selecting just a few pictures for the next entry! :)

Day 2: Hays, KS to Aurora, CO

A lot of Thursday's scenery was flat farmland to begin with, as we crossed the border from Kansas to Colorado.

(Holding the camera crooked makes it look like we were on a hill though!)

Unfortunately, I missed the state sign on the interstate, so a little old lady at the Welcome Center rest stop took our picture in the lobby, and we recorded in a guest book where we were driving from.
Part of the reason the truck was stressful to drive was the alignment was off. We have to cock the wheel nearly 45 degrees to the left to keep it straight! Because of this (and strong gusts of wind), we struggled with hugging or straddling the line, but luckily it was on the side bordering the shoulder. Oh- and my GPS battery went dead our first day of driving because all three cigarette lighters, provided "for your convenience" according to the U-haul dash sticker, do not work.
When Patrick & I visited Courtney in Fort Leonardwood, we joked about the restaurant next to our hotel, since it's name was simply "Restaurant." Looks like there's more than one! hehe!

It was exciting to see the silhouette of the mountains grow closer & clearer as we approached Denver! However, Aurora (just outside of Denver) was our destination. We were delayed meeting up with Patrick's parents for a bit because Google & Garmin both had the address of the hotel wrong!

Patrick's parents were visiting friends who live here (which is why they are able to drive the rest of the way to CA with us), so the 6 of us went out to dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. Patrick & I split the super delicious Red Rock bison burger with jalapenos, fried onions, Z-sauce & Monterrey cheese. Mmmmm. There was also free bowls of sliced cucumbers seasoned with garlic salt on the table. At the end of the meal, I used a slice to support a candle I had been carrying around in my purse for Patrick's birthday (notice it's bent! haha!). I found it when I was cleaning our cupboards and thought I'd put it to good use! We all sang to him & made him wish on it. Everyone thought I was a little crazy, but in a good way. :)

We returned to the hotel afterward, to relax and take care of a few things. Luckily the land-line phone in the bathroom makes it easy to multitask. Haha!

Tune in for more later! Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

Goodbye, Springfield!

Two-and-a-half weeks is a quick amount of time to visit your favorite spots in town, say goodbye to friends, tie up loose ends at work, run errands and pack & clean a house! We knew that, but it still flew by faster than expected, which is why Tuesday night (Patrick's 27th b-day, by the way) our awesome pals Ben, Andrew & Heather spent several hours helping us! The majority of work was finished, but Patrick & I polished things up, depriving us of a reasonable bedtime (2:30 AM, and we got up at 6:30 to shower & implement final touches) so we'd be ready for our 8AM inspection. Luckily the place looked great & we were given a check for the full refund. Thanks to the generosity of Jackie Womble, we were able to pick up a delicious Panera breakfast (coffee was essential) with a gift card before heading out of town to the first stop on our journey: Hays, KS.
We rented the 14' truck, but were presented with a 17' at the U-haul store (no extra cost). At first we weren't happy about the larger truck (didn't want the extra weight on the mountain roads), but it ended up being for the best, as you can see our full load!


Between the truck and a tow dolly for the car, our 45' ensemble was nearly as long as a semi. I thought it was interesting, Mom, that the fun fact on the side of our U-haul was about Prince Edward Island. :)

Our friend, Alicia, gave us 2 buckeyes for goodluck, and the metal token in the middle is a souvenir from the Vancouver Olympics (thanks, Derek & Erin!) that means "Safe Journeys."


Manning the giant truck was one of the most stressful driving experiences I've ever had. Note my serious expression and death grip on the wheel! Patrick did most of the driving, bless his heart!There weren't any gas stations near the exits when we hit a quarter tank, so our plan was to hold out for the city about 30-40 miles away. With hills and wind and lots of weight, our 8.5 mpg vehicle lost gas fast though (a warning beep & digital countdown commenced at 50 miles to E), and we realized we needed to take an exit ramp and drive 7 miles out of the way otherwise we'd be stranded. (The screen was dropping 1 mile every 30-60 seconds.) This is what it said just before filling up.
Leaving Missouri, we saw some cowboys rounding up & herding cattle. Eastern and mid-Kansas was rather lovely, with rolling hills and pretty colors due to ripening crops. We also stumbled across miles of windmills- some not too far from the road. And after the scenery flattened, it was interesting to see the oil derricks pumping in the fields.Kinda cruel to put a steak ad up in a cow pasture, huh? :) The last hour of travel was tough, and when we got to Hays around 7:30 PM, we had to mess around in the hotel parking lot a bit to drop off the truck. But after walking to the adjacent Carlos O'Kelly for a late dinner, and balancing checkbooks/paying utility bills from our hotel room (we didn't have time to tend to everything before we left Springfield), we crashed for the night. Should have gone to sleep a little earlier (ended up being 11:30ish), but 7.5 hours in a comfy bed sure helped us recharge for today... which you'll hear about soon! :)

New Beginnings

It's been ages since we wrote a blog, so I figured I'd update those that we don't talk to on a regular basis on what we've been doing.  Since our last entry we've made a trip to MI to throw a wedding reception/open house and spent a week vacationing at Houghton Lake with the entire Womble Clan.  Since then, we've been to a few baseball games and helped some good friends of ours get ready to move to Knoxville, TN.  We'll post some pictures from our adventures in the near future (hopefully). 

Also, I've had two interviews-- both of them with UC-Merced.  They must have liked me because they offered me the job!  After talking it over with Atalie, family, etc. and praying, we decided that I should take it.  I sent my acceptance email on Labor Day and the paperwork was processed this past week.  My official title will be "Research Associate III" and I'll be working at the Sierra Nevada Research Institute in Merced, CA (housed in UC-Merced).  I'll be the project leader in charge of maintaining a bunch of field instruments up in the mountains, downloading the data off of them, processing the data, writing reports (ew...), and presenting the findings at meetings.  It's a bit above my head but will be a good growing experience.  The catch is that the start date is October 4th-- so we are packing up and moving out on the 22nd of this month.  It looks like I'll be spending my birthday packing the truck...  We're excited (and nervous) about the move but ready to get on with this adventure!  Now I must get back to filling boxes...

Digging out the lamp that I packed around-- oops.

The living room, with half of our belongings in it.

hello again

So it's been a while (over a month) since we've posted a blog and figured we should update everyone...

- Pat and Jackie got engaged and then promptly moved to Alaska.  We miss them a lot.

- Most of the stuff we've been up to in the last month involved helping Pat plan/do the engagement and then pack up their stuff.

- Atalie's work has slowed down once again so she's had to start selling things out her closet (yeah right- I wish!).  Sucks for us, but we're still grateful that she has some income and (somehow) still has health insurance.

-My job has picked up a little bit as I've taken over responsibilities for other people.  However, I'm running out of my allotted1,000 hours.  There's a chance, though, that a full-time "real" job will be offered this fall in replacement of an employee that's moving on to PhD school.

- No jobs prospects yet.... job postings slowed down a bit for a while so I haven't been applying.  I've seen more lately that are relevant and am prepping the resume (which is a way of saying I'm procrastinating).  Atalie, on the other hand, has applied for one job so far and spent no time looking for any other jobs.  Naughty girl.

- Other than that, we're just planning (sort of) the reception in MI coming up at the end of July.

- We've been down to AR a few times and visited Courtney for her birthday last weekend as well.  This weekend we're hanging out with her again since she gets some time off for the 4th.  Hopefully Atalie will get bored at home during the day and post some pictures.  It's more likely that she'll be doing dishes since we have no cupboard space to put them away because we're locked in an epic battle to the death with a mouse.

No strings attached

I no longer have anything holding me back from leaving Missouri... the bound copies of my thesis were returned to me last week!  Check it out:

Celebrations

Here's a quick report on how we've celebrated some of holidays and special occasions from the last month!

I bought an egg decorating kit last year that Patrick and I were too lazy to use, so we just saved it for this year! Easter crept up on us since we had been busy with wedding/honeymoon stuff, so we found ourselves scrambling the-day-of to make some plans. Our friends were already busy, so we threw together a last minute meal on our own, which ended up being rather perfect. The fridge had the makings for Shepherd's Pie (how appropriate on a day we honor our Shepherd!), which we served with a delicious red wine & elegant wine glasses from the wedding (credit goes to Mike Kujawa!). It was a lovely first Easter dinner together as a married couple!

Our friend Ben was out of town for his early-April birthday, at a conference in Washington D.C., so we hosted an honorary dinner a week later, with Pat & Jackie in attendance too. We had this beverage display waiting for him to see when he walked in the door, dined on our favorite fondue recipe, played a fun board game called Locale (compliments of Patrick's sister, Jackie), and Ben blew out a birthday candle served with strawberry shortcake.

Our friends were in class on Cinco de Mayo, so Patrick and I celebrated on our own this day too. But, we really enjoyed ourselves and the delightful dinner of loaded vegetarian tacos & margaritas we made! I tried to be festive at work with a bright pink & ruffled skirt too (thanks, Sally!). :)

Over the last week & a half, we've been regular social butterflies, with 2 department parties, 2 birthday party dinners, and a graduation lunch & dinner! But we don't have pictures from most of them, so you're out of luck. :) Hope you enjoyed these few in the meantime!