Day 32

We are finally halfway through Bryan's training program; 4 weeks done, 4 more to go. It's been extremely difficult spending time apart, especially in the evening. You don't realize how much you depend upon the other person until they're not there over and over again. Every morning Bryan 'wakes' me with a Good Morning text, and I look forward to it every day. Some mornings he's running a little late and it takes longer, which gets me antsy, as I inherited the worrywart gene from my mother and start thinking of all the horrible things that could've happened. We spend all day sending short messages back and forth, even though we really shouldn't even have our phones out while at work. However, many of the short flurries of conversation are over life-changing decisions. Bryan's already been made a couple of offers for positions that would set him up to be the first pick of a new store. As I drive home from work, I always get a text, reminding me to call him as soon as I'm home. And I do just that. We usually spend 45 minutes talking, and then 'head' our separate ways for dinner and evening activities. We spend most of that time still texting back and forth, and then by about 9 pm I can't stand it anymore and have to hear his voice again. It's really hard to hang up on him. I now understand why my Ginger Nannie keeps saying "I love you, God bless" over and over again and literally makes my mom hang up the phone. She doesn't have it in her heart to hang up on her daughter. Most nights, I get a surprise text telling me good night and to sleep well. These small words always make me smile. :)
This past week none of this has happened, as I've been in California with him. The days actually go by pretty quickly while he's at work, and it's been nice having lunch with him again. I've been working on a couple projects that I haven't had time to get to, and I've actually completed quite a bit of both. We've also taken time to do some 'sightseeing' here in the Sacramento area, but honestly there's not much to see. I tried Googling some info, and I found a blog that had the comment "Round Table Pizza has been awarded the best pizza in Sacramento award 6 years in a row, if that tells you anything." For those who don't know, back in 2004 we did a trip of the west coast. After a long day of driving from Lake Tahoe, through San Francisco, and up the coast of the Redwoods, we finally arrived at our destination in a small town called Arcata. We saw a Round Table Pizza and decided it was a safe bet. Not really. The place was a little dirty, and we waited forever for our order. While we waited, Bryan noticed there was a salad bar, and was bummed as we hadn't realized when we paid. But then we saw something that made us glad we hadn't. One of the employees, who was really dirty, was filling the salad bar fixings with his bare hands. He then stopped, wiped his really runny nose and continued. We about died, and almost left, when our pizza showed up, hand delivered by the manager. She saw the same thing, and went over and proceeded to yell at the boy and tell him how that was inappropriate. But to our horror, the salad bar was not changed out!
Now that you have some background, you can see why there's nothing to do here. On Monday, I had the idea to drive around Folsom Lake. In the beginning it was a stupid drive. You can't see much of the 'lake' (reservoir), as the man made walls go higher than the road (you're at sea level here). We did cross a bridge that gave a good view of the dam, but nowhere to stop and take pictures. As we continued along, we saw a road labeled with signs for the lake, and it was called Salmon Falls Road. Bryan wondered if there would be a set of falls, so we started along it. We had a Corvette behind us early on, that blasted past. The road was curvy and beautiful, and would've been awesome in a hot car like that. But we're in a Dodge truck with horrible suspension. There was one part of the road where you could see car tracks that went off and it made us somewhat squeamish. And then a stupid little white car took a blind turn wide, and almost crashed right into us. It would have sent us off the road (luckily in an ok spot), but he would've been sent barreling off a ravine. Our hearts were racing forever, and we cursed him, hoping his heart was worse. We then rounded a corner and spotted a deer! He actually hung around long enough for us to get some shots. We then realized we were so far along the road, that it was best to continue on, rather than turn around. This is when we found a river with a new bridge, where you could see the remains on either side of the old bridge. The signs around the area warned of sudden flooding due to a dam further up that occasionally opened up. There was also another bridge high above, spanning a good distance that we took pictures of. As we headed out to wind up the 'mountain' road, we then saw the best bridge of all. Just around the bend was the old highway bridge, still intact! I made Bryan go back (as I knew he'd be upset if he didn't get pictures). And boy was I right. The pictures turned out wonderful! So somehow we ended up finding a stupid small drive, that had surprises everywhere, along with some of our favorite architectural features to photograph!
Last night we had a 'date' night and went miniature (pronounced men-e-ah-chure) golfing. It's the first time we've done this together, and it was fun. We actually got a little into it, trying to be perfect, but after skipping hole 18 to do another 17 rounds, we started messing about, winging the ball everywhere. At one point, we were next to the road, when Bryan got a hole-in-one. The kid crossing the road there yelled out 'HOLE-IN-ONE! YES!!! WOO-HOO!'
It's been really nice spending this week here, and with Thanksgiving next week, Bryan will be home all week, instead of a quick 2 days. It will be extremely difficult taking him to the airport the following Sunday. I just wish teleporting existed. Maybe when we're old someone will have finally figured that out.

Day 29

For any training that Bryan has to do, the company always changes his schedule to M-F, 8-5 pm with every Sat and Sun off. I wish this could always be his schedule, as it would match mine and we would have more than 3 days together each month. We decided to go to San Francisco on Saturday, one of our most favorite places. We headed out early, and took a northerly route, as the Bay Bridge had been shut down earlier in the month for repairs. On our new route, we accidentally found Infineon Speedway, which is one of the tracks NASCAR races on each year. It was only 30 minutes from San Francisco. We will definitely plan a trip around this race in the future. It was a nice day Saturday, but not quite as clear as the previous time Bryan had come out. We stopped and took pictures on the hills north of the bridge, and then set off to find the beach that has views of the bridge. I've seen many pictures and couldn't wait to have our opportunity. We did find it, and it is called Baker Beach. It was beautiful, and we walked all the way across to the cliffs to get our shots. On our way, we saw a naked man. Luckily, he was laying face down, sunning his backside, which was hairless. There were also a group of boys trying to surf a little; seemed kind of funny after hearing all about my mom and dad's trip to Hawai'i and the north shore. We then went up the steepest, sandiest staircase possible, which happened to be next to the naked man. He was now turned on his side, giving full exposure. It's amazing how difficult it is to keep looking straight ahead and to the right, even when you do NOT want to have a looksy. He knew this behavior was getting him attention. He was so vain, he put Narcissus to shame. After hiking up the side, we headed over to a lookout of the bridge on top of the cliffs. I can't wait for Bryan to finish developing these pictures to post. I'm sure they are postcard worthy as usual. It was then time to find our Greek restaurant and have a delicious lunch. This turned into a horrible adventure. We spent 2 hours driving all over the city in a Dodge truck (this week's rental) trying to get to where we wanted. The biggest problem was unexpected road work and one way streets, with no left turns allowed anywhere. We finally were able to find it, and got lucky with a parking space about 3 blocks away. The food was wonderful! Just like I remembered it. We loved it so much, we ordered again with food to go. We spent the rest of the day taking pictures of the bridge down by Crissy field, and then went to Coit Tower again and took the ride up and got some night pictures. A word to the wise; make sure to go with an empty bladder. The facilities there are not for the weak, or the germaphobic. We left the city and took one last look at the viewpoint parking lot on the north side. I will miss her til the next time we come back.
Sunday we spent in Sacramento. There is not much to do here. I had spent time Friday afternoon finding places to go, and could only come up with the governor's mansion, the Stanford mansion, and the city cemetery. The mansions wanted $5 entry fees for each of us, so we bypassed the tour and just took pictures of the outside grounds. The Stanford mansion was ostentatious to the max, but I still loved looking at it. There were several pieces that interested us, and we'll need to remember them to include in future home improvement ideas. The grounds also had a persimmon tree, which had hardly any leaves, and the fruit were in season, with a few on the ground smushed. It looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie. We'll definitely post pictures of this once we can. The cemetery was beautiful. All of the plots are separated into smaller plots for families (or specific groups) and are surrounded by bricks or concrete, with the inside raised up from the surrounding pathways. There was a Masonic plot, a military plot (filled with mostly veterans from the Civil War), a fireman's plot and several mausoleums. One grave was of the third governor of California, and he was buried in the Mason plot. Another was a gentleman who had started out in the US, moved to Canada and got involved with the uprisings against the British empire, and then had to escape back to the US and ended up here in Sacramento to live out the remainder of his life. There were also many workers in the cemetery, who kept looking at us funny, especially at me. When we got back to the truck, there was a sheriff's van that drove in, with Work Release Prisoners on the side. Oh. Time to leave. We then came back to the hotel to get all dressed up for dinner. We were going to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, and were not going to make the same mistake as last time in San Francisco. We ended up being a little fancier than most of the patrons, as the Roseville location seemed a little more relaxed. Our waiter was a little loud and obnoxious, but he provided the same great service we had received the previous time. When asked for drinks, I inquired if they had flavored lemonades. He said no, but that the bartender could probably make up something. So I asked for a strawberry lemonade, and got the best concoction I've ever had. Our steaks were great, and Bryan could have been in seventh heaven with the fries. We even got dessert, which was scrum-diddly-umptious! I thoroughly enjoyed our special date night, as we had dressed all up like the old days. We should do this more often.
Well, off to more adventures this afternoon once Bryan is off work. I wonder where (and what) we'll find next?

Day 26; In Cali and Loving It!

I figured out when would be the best time for me to take a vacation and head out for a week and stay with Bryan while he was training in Sacramento. Unfortunately, we ran behind a little at work with getting our recent contest all typed in, and I spent many, many hours at work this week, hurrying to get everything in, folded, printed, prepared, metered, and on and on so I could head out Thursday for my vacation. And everything fell into place and was completed. But one piece of misfortune was added to this week. One of my coworkers, Nick, is quitting and his last day is December 4. Me and him do the majority of the work; all the printing and coordinating of sending out a finished contest, the same for marketing of our contest announcements, and the beginning to end production of books. And now I get the demanding task of trying this all on my own. It's daunting, and my vacation could not come soon enough. I'm so glad this worked out, as I will definitely need this week to recup from the past one from work and get ready for the next few months of a hellaciously ginormous project. At least I like being an overachiever...right? Maybe it's just insanity.
(Oh, and I'm ecstatic to be here and see Bryan again; he is my happiness :)

Golden Gate Bridge - Black and White

Medium Format shots of the Bridge. Digital is nice but there is a feeling you only get with film.

The Palace of Fine Arts

If you're ever in San Fran you must see the Palace of Fine Arts both in the daylight and at night, it's amazing.

Sights From California

The Story of Day 13

Luckily, the program that Bryan is currently training in allows for two extra trips home that the company pays for. We chose this weekend as it was Halloween. Last week I had bought a pumpkin, ready to take to my sister's home to carve; part of the many activities I had planned to keep me busy. When that changed for my weekend flight, I decided to save the pumpkin carving for Halloween when Bryan would be here. It was nice to be able to leave work early to pick up my hubby. His smile was from ear to ear when I pulled up in the truck. It was wonderful to see him so happy. We decided to stop and have dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Ho Ho (it's in Woods Cross). We have become regulars even though we live 1 1/2 hours away. We order a very special dinner, and when it was brought out to us, the owner came out to say hi and see how we were doing; that's how often we stop and eat here.

We decided to have Halloween breakfast instead of dinner. Usually we have a dinner date to help make the night go by quickly, as we're usually sad that we didn't get to make costumes and go trick or treating. But I had special plans for dinner. We had New York steaks with baking 'baked' potatoes (they're so much better than the bulk potatoes in a bag). And we carved my pumpkin. We each drew pictures and chose what we liked best of each to carve onto the face. We then loaded it with 10 or so vanilla candles and set him out on the porch around 5 pm. When we went to bed later around midnight, the pumpkin was still aflame. We walked out to the street and were amazed at how awesome he looked! Since I had picked such a large pumpkin (it was originally 25 lbs), it allowed us to carve a gigantic face, which glowed brilliantly with the candles. I hope it made Halloween more fun for all the kids who were out trick or treating last night, as it definitely made our Halloween a much happier holiday.