To where have you gone??

To Chicago. Well first it was to Lake Tahoe, then to San Jose, then to San Diego, then to San Jose, now to Chicago, soon to Milwaukee, then finally back to San Jose. Read on for an explanation...

Wowzas wowzas wowzas, it’s been quite a while. I decided to really take a vacation when we went to Tahoe, and take that vacation I did. It’s been a pretty great few weeks. We went to Tahoe for two weeks- well, almost…I left Tahoe a few days early to drive home to SJ and fly down to San Diego for my very first Jewish wedding.

The daughter of M’s dad’s very close friend got married and the wedding was great. Like I said, I had never been to a Jewish wedding and the couple and families oh-so-nicely included explanations of the Jewish wedding traditions included in their service. Said service was quite lovely and held right outside of our hotel on San Diego Bay. We (me, M, his brother and parents) also got to enjoy quite a bit of great beach and hanging out time, including many yummy eats! Even though it was a family vacation and we strived to spend every singe minute as a unit, I had to extract myself to get in my runs. I’m more than half way through my marathon training (eeeeek and eeeeeeek!) and my mileage has been creeping up. Oddly enough, I’ve been able to stick to the running and M’s family was also very supportive in making time for me to get in my miles. All in all, the trip was super-fun and it was great to have a visit (we all hadn’t seen each other since April)…thanks for a great weekend everyone!

  

Tahoe was fabulous and very Tahoe-like for us; my family (dad’s side; aunts. uncles, cousins, animals…) rents a house on the west shore, big enough to accommodate a double digit amount of people, we go to the beach most days, there are grocery (and other thing) runs into Tahoe City, big dinners are cooked but not often eaten until 9, people are sun burnt, maybe a bear is seen, fun is had. I didn’t take too many pictures since we do this every year, but I will post some. M and two of his college soccer buddies drove up for the weekend and we sauntered over to Emerald Bay…so pretty. We hiked to Eagle Lake the next day, though I have no photographic evidence; it happened, I swear! The boys drove back and I followed a few days later to embark upon aforementioned San Diego trip.

     

Sonic's in Vacaville; my first time ever and I (and Guinness as well) was a huge fan =)

     

Kind of gross for some maybe, but not for me. 

  

Ready for a big boat and beach day! Tired after a big boat and beach day! 

Put flowers in your hair...

Boat dog keeps the waters safe. 

Floor-of-boat dog does other things.

S'mores with GIANT marshmallows...yum! 

  

Sleeping wiener dogs...

Sunbathing beauties...

"OK" view from the beach...

A series: 

Some randomness: there’s been quite a bit of eating out recently, which I guess is fun, and the school year is RAPIDLY approaching and I’m staving off thoughts of what that entails. A very sweet coworker of mine died suddenly on Sunday (read about her here); she had been diagnosed with cancer in the past few weeks and things progressed very quickly.

I'm nowhere near wrapping my head around what happened to her. Her services are tonight and I can't be there since I'm currently on a plane to the Midwest for another wedding but I'm hoping that we'll do something at school with the whole community.

The wedding we're going to is that of one of M's college soccer buddies and we got to meet the bride last year at a different wedding; I wish many years of happiness to this very sweet couple...congratulations you two!

I'm flying in early to Chicago (the wedding is in Milwaukee this Saturday) to visit with one of my favorite people. We'll hang out tomorrow (Thursday) and I'll take the train (will Cary Grant be on board?) to and from Milwaukee and fly back to Cali-Cali on Monday. School stuff officially starts for me on Wednesday of next week so this is really the last hurrah...hurrah!

Hopefully this flight is over soon, I'm ready to not be hanging in the sky (which is such a weird concept, if I think too much about it, which I try not to) and I developed a strong pain in my back. I usually get this pain in my shoulder/neck, actually, every few months. I take ibuprofen and heat the heck out of it with a heating pad but for some reason it settled into my upper right back while I was at the airport and so I sit here, nursing a Chardonnay and leaning back on a water bottle as a sort of poor-girl's airplane massage chair.

Anyway, I'm going to include some photos of the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things and the fussy child of the irresponsible parents down the aisle (he can't even walk and they're giving him coca cola; that is slightly irresponsible, no? They bought several drinks so I think that they can afford something better…I’m thinking too much and being judgey…) will calm down and we'll land safely. Also, today is my step mom’s birthday- happy birthday Leah and many more!!!

Here's to the sausage I plan on eating in Wisconsin this weekend!

***I made it (woo hoo!). We're back from eating tapas and drinking sangria. Maeve has an adorable apartment and being in the center of our great country with it's humidity and architecture sure makes me miss my Minnesota days. I'm stuffed and ready for bed (couch...my choice) so toodle-ooh friends. ***