Now we just need to find a boat…again! Nick is feeling ready and FINALLY scheduled to take the GMAT on March 22 at 10 a.m. PST!! We couldn’t be more excited because this means we’ll be leaving Sacramento in the beginning of April for our next big journey.

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That’s right, snow DAY, just one day of snow over here in California. Evidently we are skipping winter this year! So we finally got some good snow and did the next obvious thing — drove up to the mountains with my parents to go…SNOWSHOEING?!

We never could have anticipated that we would go snowshoeing before snowboarding. In fact, when we all piled out of the car at Boreal (Truckee, CA) and started to gear up for a hike up Castle Peak, we noticed two snowboarders in their early 20s watching us like we were on the Discovery Channel. Nick and I knew what they were thinking, because we used to think the same way.

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Capitola, CA. We know, not quite the location you were expecting. You might have guessed by now that our trip has been a wee bit delayed. Our captain had to fly home to Georgia to deal with a family emergency and Nick has been taking advantage of the extra time to get the highest GMAT score that he can manage.

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The universe is on our side once again – we are happy to report that we will finally be departing for our trip in the beginning of Dec. We received an invitation from Capt. Logan to crew on his 55′ Gulfstar and after skyping with him and getting to know him, he seems to be a perfect match for us. He’s 63, from Georgia and has been sailing around the world for the past 20+ years. The last 7 of those years he has spent in the South Pacific, and he’s ready to venture on from his current location in the Philippines to Panama. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to go with him. The tentative schedule is to leave Cebu, Philippines the beginning of December, stop in Palau, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Hawaii …arrive in San Diego around April. From there we will cruise down the coast of Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. Continue reading »

Three things stand out the most when reflecting upon our wedding. Saying our vows on the pier overlooking gorgeous South Lake Tahoe, warding off a big California black bear from our cabin… and the most entertaining, the hours spent searching for our friend Dean’s wedding ring in the frigid waters of Lake Tahoe.

Actually four things stand out, but the fourth happened a few weeks before the wedding when Nick broke several of his ribs while wrestling our officiant at his bachelor party in Las Vegas. He doesn’t typically pick on men of the cloth, but our officiant is one of our best friends and evidently that allows for an exception. Regardless, Vegas and bachelor parties are not meant to be together, despite what men might think. Nick was in so much pain the following weeks, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to worry about a repeat visit. But this is a story about the actual wedding, so I’ll get back to that. Continue reading »

Hellloooo, California! We were both so happy to see you. Driving from Oregon to Sacramento should have been a little over a 10 hour drive, but the time seemed to fly by as we got more excited the closer we got to Lindsey’s parent’s house. We barely stopped at all. Except to get food from Sonic, our first fast-food stop of the trip. Shocking, but true! “Sheddin’ for the Weddin’” has really motivated both of us to be as healthy as possible. Even on road trips. We also stopped at the CA Agricultural Check Point, where we got through with no problems. They said, “Are you really coming from Illinois?” Nick said, “yup!” They said, “Do you have any fruits or vegetables?” Nick, “nope!” And off we went. Continue reading »

Most of day 5 was spent driving down the Gorge, which was GORGEous. But, we failed to mention previously which tools we were utilizing during our journey. We had three main map resources — 1. road atlas, 2. google maps on our phones, 3. The Garmin. We also had road trip books and other books that we picked up along the way to make sure we didn’t miss any “must-sees.” All of that being said, chances of getting lost were slim. We’re happy to report that we did not in fact get lost. We did almost throw the Garmin out of the window though, when it dropped us on a 20 mile stretch of an unpaved road. Continue reading »

Day 4: Jackson Hole is by far one of the coolest (Lindsey says cutest) towns we have ever visited. We listened to Johnny Cash’s song “Jackson” about 18 times in a 10 hour period and couldn’t get it out of our heads. We realize the song is about Jackson, Mississippi, but we figured it could have just as easily been about Jackson, WY. To our surprise, we sounded just like Johnny and June, and made plans to record a duet soon. haha…

Nick finally had his chance to try bison and Lindsey had her chance to go to a cowboy bar. Continue reading »

Day Three of the roadtrip: we finally hit our groove. Luke, the paranoid Russian Blue feline that was part of the Lindsey package passed out for most of the day thanks to the Benadryl we shoved down his throat in the morning. The front half of his long body was crammed under the passenger seat and the back half wrapped like only a cat could several times around Lindsey’s feet. Bella, the bulldog, was sprawled out behind the front seat snoring and flatulating away in her typical bulldog fashion. Continue reading »

Today was a thousand times better than yesterday. We’ve agreed to never spend 19 hours in the car again. We’re writing that here to make sure we never forget. We started the day by visiting Mount Rushmore and as Americans, are proud to check it off the list.

Romance at Mt. Rushmore

Bella at Mt. Rushmore

It’s beautiful there, especially the views of the black hills — seriously breath taking. We learned that the hills appear to be black because the bark of the young black pine trees are black in color and turn a dark cinnamon brown as they age. Continue reading »

Luke "Hiding"

Thank God we read a tip from a vet that recommended letting your cat out of it’s carrier on long drives.905 miles, 4 states and 19 hours later, we arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota. Just 23 miles from the great Mount Rushmore, which we will see on day 2. Luke and Bella were surprisingly no problem at all (See picture below. She was either loving him or trying to eat him. Depends on which one you ask.)
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