Hidden Trophy

After signing our lease, we were given an inventory sheet to complete, documenting the move-in condition of the house. While examining the condition of the back fence and sprinkler system, I realized that one of the two prominent bush/tree things was covered in limes upon closer inspection! From the house, they totally blended in with the leaves, making them a huge and absolutely SPLENDID surprise!

I suppose it wouldn't make much difference to some people, but we buy limes quite frequently for beverages, guacamole & other Mexican-influenced recipes, and desserts. Plus, it just feels exotic and exciting to us born city-slickers to harvest our own fruit!

At first, we picked limes on an as-needed basis. But we quickly discovered they're rock hard off the branch, and yield a lot more juice, with much less effort, after they've sat out for a week. The bush/tree was rather unruly looking too, so we decided to start pruning it a couple weekends ago and simply take all the limes from the branches we chopped, allowing them to ripen. We got a large serving bowl's worth:


(I think there was close to 30 limes in this bowl, although some were fairly small.) The tree was still smothered with limes, and continued to lean strangely from wayward branches. But since our yard waste bin ran out of space, we waited another week to finish the pruning.

Sometimes we don work gloves, but they aren't always a match for the seriously wicked thorns along the branches. As you can see, some of the needle-sharp spikes are several inches long, and even if they aren't, they'll make up for it with extra fine tips.

Lime trees aren't just sharp- if you're not careful, they could become sticky! Our yard & neighborhood is home to many, many snails. Most of the ones on the tree stick to the leaves, but I just managed to see this tiny guy clinging to a lime destined for the house. I'm not a fan of these gooey varmits typically, but this li'l one was so small, I couldn't help but think he was kinda cute. (That's the tip of my index finger, for scale.)

Like I said- smothered in limes. These are what we pulled from the snipped branches after we finished the pruning!

...which filled 3 large mixing bowls, and then some!

We were a bit overwhelmed! Needless to say, lime juice has taken a more prominent position in our diets than before, and we've begun to freeze bags of juice too!

Washing them all was a tedious process, but between ants, snails, dirt, and the occasional bird poo on the rinds, I thought it was necessary. Many tiers of limes in this photo: the bowl in the foreground, a sinkful under suds, top & bottom of dish rack, and a bowlful on the table in the background, and basically sprouting out my ears!

As they await consumption, they serve as decor. Patrick patiently stacked about two-thirds of that latest harvest on a large platter in our dining room.

Some of you are probably sick of hearing about our darn lime tree, as we've already been bragging about it for awhile. Sorry, but all the same, too bad! hehe :) We are enthralled, and are likely to be for quite some time still. :)

Oh, and as a head's up: next year you may have to deal with even more of our ranting-and-raving. The second tree/bush in our yard has wasted-away fruit and pits underneath it we haven't identified yet. We think it may be a plum, nectarine or peach tree, or at least we're crossing our fingers for that, until we find out next season!

Casual Ct.

With a street name like that, it sounds like we're running a clothing store, but that's where our new rental home is!

We ended up with a larger house than anticipated- 4 bedrooms! They are small bedrooms though, and the high ceilings give the illusion of more space. At least with all the storage space, it should be organized, right? (ha.)

Rent is about twice what we paid for our last place in MO, but it's a reasonable amount considering it's in CA, bigger, has a garage & back yard, is close to school, in a safe/nice neighborhood, came with a fridge (most places did not), and the water/sewage/garbage service is covered (which includes bins for yard waste & recycling too). Plus our options and time were slim, especially with U-haul and hotel costs adding up!

Doris (the Taurus) got some new jewelry since this photo was taken- she now has a CA license plate on each bumper. :)

Unfortunately, our inside photos aren't that great since our walls are still bare and we haven't finished unpacking and putting things away. But this gives you an idea of what the place looks like until you come visit yourselves!

The front door and entry closet are 9 o'clock to the camera. The half wall has space for storage or bar stools behind it, but right now its just a counter-top/junk holder for us. :) For those who remember, our futon is still black, but the cover got dirty during transport so it's in the laundry pile.
From nearly the same perspective as the last photo, but turned to the right: Our "book corner." The hallway to the left leads to the master bedroom. Another hallway on the right side (not shown) leads to the other "wing" of the house, as we call it.

The dining room occupies the other side of the half wall....

...and is connected to the kitchen. Sliding doors lead to the backyard.

The sidewalk wraps around the house. The side furthest from the camera leads to a side door to the garage and a gate to the front.

There's a lot of stuff on the island right now partially blocking the view, so I'm showing you a pic from when we toured the house. Obviously there are tons of cupboards, which were a pain to clean out, but are quite handy now! The dishwasher and sink are on the right side of the island.

The hallway leading to the master bedroom has a section of cupboards we're using for bath towels and sheets. The bedroom is quite plain- just a square room with a window to the backyard- so I didn't bother posting it. It has a second doorway though, into the master bathroom. Double sinks & medicine cabinet on right, separate toilet room in middle, and fairly large walk-in closet on the left.

Doorway to the bedroom is to the left of the walk-in shower. Walk-in closet is to the right of the tub. Add some candles, bubble bath, and a cup of tea and this ought to be a perfect, relaxing tub. :)The "other wing" of the house is formed of two hallways making a right angle. The left hallway has another big chunk of cupboards, with a utility room beyond them on the left, a bland bedroom at the end we plan to use as an office and for the drum set, and a door to the second bedroom on the right.
Hot off the press news right here. Got these beauties delivered to the house today. SO EXCITED! We have tons of laundry built up, and I'm totally NOT going to miss the days of using a laundromat. It's a very basic dryer (pretty much the cheapest Sears had), but the washer is more high tech.
The right hallway in the "other wing" includes another door to the second bathroom. Pretty nice that it's a full bath too, for our future visitors' convenience. ;)

Past the bathroom is the door to the garage on the left, a small plain bedroom on the right we're using for our outdoor gear, and a bedroom at the end. This one has a little more visual interest, with its half-moon window and a ceiling fan. A remote control brightens or dims the lights and adjusts the fan speed. This room we are reserving for guest accommodations.

Well, there ya have it! We're still putting it together, but I'm sure we'll have it to your satisfaction by the time you visit. :)

Sequoias in Yosemite

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been a bit busy the last couple weeks. :) Now I've gotta play catch-up!

Our first week in California was mainly spent looking for housing. However, as we waited for approval on the application for the place we wanted, we took a break and went to Yosemite with Patrick's parents to see the giant Sequoia trees. They're only an approximate 1.5-2 hour drive away (depending on how slow the car in front of you takes the curves).

It was a beautiful day to visit a beautiful forest. The temperature is a bit cooler there due to the higher elevation, which was such a relief compared to the 90-100 degrees in town that week. Mild weather + potent fragrant pine trees + open window = a pleasant, sensory drive to the shuttle bus parking lot.

The squirrels here had tails longer than their bodies and fur with a pattern that almost looked like scales. Not so visible here, but I thought this photo was the best of him.

This clump was called The Bachelor and Three Graces. Two of the 3 "graces" are growing especially close, and may one day fuse. My presence gives the photo some scale.

In the prior photo, I was taking a picture too, of a lovely little visitor. :)

This one is named the Grizzly Giant. The huge limb on its right side (curving upward) is larger than any of the other "regular" trees in this forest, at nearly 7 ft in diameter. Those are people near the base.
An information plate near the Grizzly Giant provided some points of reference for the tree's height. The other items you see it being compared to are a 19-story building, a Boeing 747 aircraft, and the Statue of Liberty.

Back in the day, a tunnel was carved out of this one so cars could get through! Isn't it crazy this is just the base of the tree? You can't even see any of its limbs yet at the top of this photo!

I think this must just be a piece of bark or a leaf or something, caught by a line of spider web dangling from a tree branch. But it caught my eye since it looks like a little sea horse just sailing around in mid-air. :)

Standing near the roots of a fallen one. I believe there was actually a wake held once for a Sequoia in this park.

A few interesting details:
-We just so happened to be there on Yosemite's 120th birthday.

-We rushed to catch the last shuttle before the park was closed down for several hours. Rumor had it that a dignitary or widely known person was visiting the park. The news revealed the next day it was Oprah, embarking on her first ever camping trip! She had been at the REI in a town near Merced buying gear only hours before!

-Aside from Disneyland, this is the most popularly visited site in CA.

-I think the majority of the tourists in the park must have been European! Tour buses of people speaking foreign languages sounding like Portuguese, French, German, etc. unloaded in the lot, and we actually had a few groups staying at our hotel.

Our time was limited, so we didn't get to explore the entire trail. But we are glad we had the chance to see a good portion of it, since settling in has kept us from gallivanting since. FYI, the upcoming blog entry will have pictures of our rental house!

End of the Journey, but not the Adventure!

Not sure exactly where the time change was, but we realized we missed it when we woke up at 5 instead of 6 in the morning on Monday! Patrick and his dad went back to sleep after their showers since breakfast wasn't available yet, but I stayed up to avoid being the last one ready for once. It paid off in an additional way, since I was able to watch the sunrise over the mountains from the hotel window.

We had a perfect view of the Las Vegas Strip, except for that darn treetop covering up the middle casinos & hotels! It wouldn't have been visible in this photo anyway due to the lack of light, but it drove me crazy how close we were to a penthouse view!

Crossed into CA by mid-morning! But we still needed another 6+ hours of driving North to get to our destination.
Our drive took us through the Mojave desert. We actually saw an Oasis in the distance once too!

A lot of shrubby vegetation inhabited the area, but there were sections of these odd trees too. I'm not quite sure if they're a cactus or a palm derivative since I haven't observed one up close yet.

Now doesn't this seem like a mouth full of cheerios? What an unusual combination of letters!

And sure enough, with our large capacity vehicle and our potted plants in Doris' trunk, we were searched.... But the lady was very nice, just doing her job, and didn't make us jump through any unnecessary hoops. Just needed to open up the back so she could take a look, let her check our botanicals for any obvious diseases or bugs, and make sure our kayaks didn't have any fungi growing in the dents on the bottom. Only took a few minutes, thankfully.

Miles and miles and miles of this, with the occasional abandoned, graffiti-decorated home. First impression: boring. Second impression: apprehension about our new home-state!

We thought there were a lot of windmills in Kansas, but this took the cake! Patrick's mom told us later that this is the largest wind turbine field in the country, able to generate enough power in a year for 300,000 homes. When we drove through these hills, there were more waiting around each bend, and of varying sizes.

Past the windmills, we were surrounded about as far as the eye could see with these tall grass-covered hills. It was so startling (in a good way) after hours of flat, desolate, barren land.

We felt refreshed and relieved to see more dynamic topography, trees, and signs of civilization as we continued our route. And the sign on the left is one of many advertising strawberries, dates, peaches, etc. for sale.

Not surprising, considering all the farmland and vineyards that began to adorn the landscape. That instilled more positive feelings in us, as well!

Sometime between 4 and 5pm Pacific time, we arrived in Merced! Initial conclusions were the town was definitely more diverse, but not like we're the only white people in town! :) We've seen a pretty good spread of white, Asian, Hispanic, and some black too. Naturally that makes us a little more self-conscious, coming from 97% white Springfield, but all the people we've interacted with at the hotel, restaurants, stores, and the U-haul place (dropped off the car tow dolly; still got the truck) have been very friendly, putting us more at ease.

The town seems average- not too big or too small, rich/poor/middle class sections of town, both chains and independently-owned businesses. And as to be expected, HOT! :) However, it's much more dry out here. The lack of humidity is a mixed blessing since it makes the heat less intolerable, but it's obvious we'll need to use lotion and pumice stones religiously.

And as the title of this post suggests, even though we're here, only one part of our adventure is complete, as we look ahead to house hunting, new jobs, meeting ALL new people, and simply adjusting to the differences of being in California!

Sunday's Tri-State Travels

As we left Utah, we were surrounded again by enormous rock structures- look far ahead on the road and you'll see a semi for scale! It's dwarfed by the mountainous terrain we drove through.

We stopped at a few scenic overlooks just off the highway. The moon has often been quite visible during parts of the day, we've noticed. Seeing it over the cliffs and canyons was picturesque, but this photo doesn't do it justice since the depth of the real scene isn't apparent!

A few members of a family of Najavo descent were selling jewelry they make at these overlooks. I asked Patrick to pick me out one he liked when we were at Dragon Canyon, so I have a nifty souvenir I'm wearing in later photos. :)

Farther west in UT, there were pink-red layers of color in the distant mountains.

It wasn't a free park pass day, but with Denny & Candy's (Patrick's parents) senior pass, we got into Zion National Park for free anyway! Many of the attractions are accessed by hiking we just didn't have time for, but we drove a 5 mile path in the north section that was still enough time for us to see how the park received its name!

This is one of my favorite scenes from our whole trip. I felt like I was observing a landscape in a fantasy movie.

Not just the rock and skyline have changed- so has the vegetation! Not surprising to see cacti in desert region, but definitely intriguing to people not used to it.

There are strange trees out here. These ones just weird me out!

The drive through Arizona was an hour or less, I'd guess, but it was eventful, considering. The road took you through the middle of a giant, gorgeous canyon that words, and not even pictures can depict. But before we had time to enter it, or even get 1 mile into the state, a cop pulled us over! He claimed it looked like U-haul had altered the Arizona license plate on the moving truck and he needed to make sure it complied with the law. Wish he could have made the determination w/o making us park our large vehicle on a slanted shoulder of a slightly more congested portion of highway! Some welcome, Grand Canyon state! :P

At least he let us go immediately, without ticket or any other issue. There was a truck inspection point we skipped upon entrance into AZ (thinking it was only commercial/oversized), and got worried that perhaps the officer considered us to fall in that category, so we were happy to find that wasn't the case.
Nevada still had mountainous terrain, but with seemingly sawed off tops! I'ts amazing how flat and smooth they are.
The haze and the distance created a mysterious and lovely effect that gave a layered look to the mountains.
We arrived in Las Vegas during early evening, and ventured off in search of dinner. It was hard to make a decision, so we walked around a bit first. This ceiling decorated with blown glass was a brilliant distraction along the way.

The first convenient/reasonably priced place to eat we came across was the PBR Rockbar & Grill, which was more money than our typical eatery, but served some pretty good food. Patrick had a side of potato salad we swear was one of the best versions we've ever had. On our way back to the car, we paused for a picture with the Bellagio in the background.


Since that's also where we parked, there was no way we were leaving without watching at least one fountain show. It was a short, slow operatic song that was an elegant and romantic contrast to the busy, party atmosphere around us.

Oh- forgot to mention! What's the other thing you can't leave Vegas without doing? I was determined to at least make one play on a slot machine! :) Patrick gave me $20 to make some luck with, but after it dwindled to $13, I called it quits. Fortunately, his winnings made up for mine and actually resulted in a net $11 profit that was not staying in Vegas despite it happening there. ;)