Travel Stuff: Midwest and the Mountains

This fall and early winter was jam packed with gallivanting around the Sierra and the midwest. Our first trip to the midwest was for Eve and Jim's wedding, where a great time was had by all. Jon, Leah and Ira were also able to make the trip!

The beautiful bride and your nuptial correspondent dancing.

Back in California, my work was disrupted by the government shutdown. For the National Parks, it really was a huge waste of money and time. As was living at the busiest entrance to Yosemite, I saw firsthand the tourists that had come from around the world to see the Park and were unable to enter. Furthermore, the shutdown was bad news for lots of local businesses, and many workers at hotels lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, on the East Side, David was hard at work tracking down fox poop. He was finally able to move out of the trailer he loved so much (sarcasm alert) and into a more spacious and warm bunkhouse. We continued hiking and exploring hot springs on the East Side, although we stopped backpacking as much as the weather got colder. David also came to visit me a couple times in El Portal, and we did a few hikes around Yosemite Valley and made lots of delicious dinners.

David's potato harvest from the Bridgeport community garden.

Halloween: Weird dancing dude and a panda.

We headed back to the Midwest right before Thanksgiving, as my job ended and David got five weeks off for the holidays. We spent Thanksgiving with David's family and Salty(Devin), who made the trip from Chicago. South Bend got a foot of snow as we all worked together to prepare and eat a delicious meal. We also got to hang out with some of David's cousins, aunts and uncles and sample some delicious family recipes.

Back in Chicago, we met up with lots of friends. One highlight was having dinner at Breanne's. Whenever we manage to get ourselves invited to her awesome house, we know we are in for a treat.

Breanne is a genius at preserving food.

David and I parted ways in early December. Sara and David took a road trip out East to Pittsburgh and Maryland to visit family. David reports that highlights of the trip were "quality brother and sister time hanging out in the car, a nice dinner with a lot of awesome family in Pittsburgh, seeing Connor's basketball game, decorating Lara and Eric's house for Christmas together, doing a bunch of fun yard work, and going to an awesome science museum".

Meanwhile, I traveled back to Portland to defend my thesis. I was really nervous for the talking portion, so I was pretty excited to have that behind me. Leah and Jon came out for the presentation, it was really nice to have them there. I stayed in Portland another week after the defense. Although I was pretty busy with finishing touches, I was able to hang out with Leah, Jon, Ira, Chris and my other Portland friends a fair amount. It is always fun to check in on my old haunts when I'm back in Portland, which inevitably involves sampling a lot beer and good food.

Title page of thesis. Five years in the making.

We were both in Minnesota for Christmas. It was super fun to take Ira and Everett(Eve's son) sledding. We got to babysit Everett for a night, with Brenda coming in as reinforcement. We also were part of a tamale making party, making over 100 for Christmas Eve dinner. Our trip to the midwest wrapped up in Chicago, five days later than originally anticipated due to crazy weather and airline incompetence. We experienced record low temperatures in Chicago, but made the best of the situation by preforming a set of groundbreaking scientific experiments guided by our fearless leader Ellen, including blowing bubble and throwing pots of boiling water in the cold.

Although our midwestern adventures were wonderful, we were both very happy to finally arrive at out new home in Bridgeport, California. We are renting a room in a beautiful strawbale house at the foot of the mountains. The house has a great kitchen and a woodburning stove for heat. David met the owners of the house volunteering at the community garden, as they are both super nice. We're both very excited about the cozy house and hiking and snowshoeing in the gorgeous surrounding mountains and forests.