Our new CA addition

So, once again, it has been a while since we have posted. We have been busy! Doing what, exactly, I am not sure I could say. I frankly don’t even remember what we did a few weekends back. We haven’t done any huge adventures lately- though we are still making sure to try one new thing every weekend.

Our biggest news is our new addition- Lucy! Some very wise woman said to me that some of the best decisions are those that are not well thought out. Well, let’s hope this is the case, as this decision was not thought out AT ALL. We were looking for fish. Darn adoption agency. We walked by and were sucked in. Ok- I was sucked in. Jeff wanted to keep walking, but I couldn’t! There she was- my little chi-weenie. She’s a tiny little thing- she makes Sammy look like a giant. She is incredibly well behaved for a new dog, and she and Sammy are doing just fine together. Her favorite thing is to find a lap- any lap will do- and climb on in. Jeff looks fantastic walking this little tiny thing into his office with her hot pink leash and harness. And it really is too bad for him that he is married, as she is a little chick magnet! It is definitely different having two dogs in the house, but, really, everything else is different- why not this too!

So since Lucy has been around, we have been trying to do dog friendly things. The day after we got here, we headed to a new beach in Santa Cruz that allows dogs. It was a great spot- lots of seals and sea otters right off the beach. And not crowded at all. One thing I think is pretty funny is that we are East Coast beach folks- we get up early to arrive early before it gets too hot or crowded, then leave right after lunch. Here, of course, this means we are almost the only ones on the beach when we get there as it is still crazy foggy and chilly. And we leave as the fog lifts and everyone else is arriving. Doesn’t matter- we burn in the hot sun, and Ellie is afraid of the water, so it all works!

This past weekend we had a great picnic at Vasona Park in Los Gatos. Such a great park- a lake, lots of open spaces, the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and a train and carousel for Ellie. All dog friendly! We set up a tent, walked the dogs, relaxed, ate, rode the train, then headed home. A wonderful day to spend the day, and all went home tired.

We have now been back from our last trip East for over a month. Life is normal now- we have our routine, places we like to go, etc, but we are missing family and friends. Ellie had our first playdate today since we got back in August. Happily, we have Jeff’s parents coming for a visit on Friday, which will be great. Ellie is very excited to see Nana and Grandpa, and I think Jeff and I are looking forward to being around our family again. We are so used to regular visits to both sides, so to even go this long is odd for us.

Our next update will be full of new adventures as we have some good ones planned for Nana and Grandpa. We will also have had house guests for quite some time, which will also be a new experience for us! And, finally, hopefully we will have CA license plates on BOTH cars after our 6th trip to the DMV. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!!

Making every weekend an adventure

Ok, so it's my turn for a post.  If you can't tell by the poor grammar and spelling mistakes....it's Jeff.  Anyway....one of the things we really focused on with this move is "making every weekend an adventure".  One of my colleagues moved his family here and spent every weekend making sure to explore the area.  That sounded great to us, so we decided to steal the idea and really take advantage of our time here.  We had originally planned on spending the weekend in Arnold CA, out by Calaveras Big Trees State Park which is a huge Sequoia grove...well, the "Rim Fire" really f'd up those plans and we had to cancel due to air quality issues.  So what do you do during a long weekend with no plans?  Well, here is what we did:

Saturday

We hit Gilroy Gardens which is kind of like a Bay Area version of "Storyland" in New Hampshire but with nicer landscaping and food options.  Needless to say, the little one LOVES this place and pretty much kooked out until she was so tired we were a walking meltdown.  Good times.  After that we hit the Gilroy shopping outlets for some retail therapy.....which was great, score one for Jeff on the clearance rack.

Sunday

Ridiculous day on Sunday.  We went to Muir Woods, which is a redwood grove and "old growth" forest.  So cool.  Like, you can't even imagine how cool it is if you've never been there.  We go there right when it opened and got to walk around the park before the masses arrived.  Picture below, doesn't even do it justice

We left there and headed to the Marin Headlands and got a chance to see the Golden Gate bridge from the North Side and check out the amazing fog blowing into the Bay.  Again, pictures don't do it justice.

And yes....by the time we left here, we were toast.  T-O-A-S-T

Monday

On the third day the rested.  We had aggressive plans to got to Half Moon Bay with friends but all parties decided it was better to punt and relax.  Around 1pm after being so stir crazy we did go out for a little walk at the Almaden Quicksilver Trail which was very cool and a great view of the Almaden Hills.  No pictures though....I'd had enough of the camera.

So there you have it, we recovered from having to reschedule our plans and make up an ad hoc plan for the long weekend.  This weekend we'll probably hit the beach (it's supposed to be HOT) and futz around the house a bit....

More soon!

Taking some time to explore the City by the Bay!

I feel like every time I sit down to write a blog, I want to start by saying “so much has happened since I last wrote!”. I suppose I should be pleased that life is so busy and exciting…..

The biggest change is Sammy! Our old man finally joined us a little over a week ago. He jumped out of the car skinny, manic, losing hair, and kind of stinky. It only took a couple of days for him to settle in, but we believe he is very well suited to the CA lifestyle- good weather, lots of walks, no stairs to climb, and no thunderstorms to make him nervous. He is still getting used to the big dog that lives on the other side of the fence (they have evening barking conversations), but otherwise, he is all good. We are very happy to have our dog back with us.

Speaking of wild animals in the backyard, we discovered there are rats that run along the power/phone lines behind the house. My friend who grew up here was not alarmed or surprised by this. I was rather horrified. Thoughts?

We have had some great adventures over the last two weekends- both in San Francisco. Last weekend we walked the trail at Land’s End. We had to do a dog friendly trip for Sammy. We all loved it- the view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge is amazing, and much of the walk is quite easy to do with a dog and a 4 year old. The best part- you just turn around when you don’t want to go any further! We hit a nearby dog friendly beach after for a chilly picnic and some sand play. 

Today we had an old friend visiting, so we did some touristy things. The little one wanted to see the buffalo in Golden Gate park, so we headed there first. The park is amazing, and very easy to get lost in- especially when they close roads for a road race. =) The buffalo, however, are quite underwhelming, so I would not recommend going out of your way to find them. We then went to Fisherman’s Wharf for sea lions, a yummy lunch, and Ghiradelli Square. We even hiked up the ginormous hills to see Lombard Street. Sure- you can take a cable car or drive, but you won’t get to enjoy the amazing views or see little things like the beautiful little rose garden we stopped in on our way back down.

We are settling in at last now that we have been back from vacation for a few weeks. E has started school, so we have started to get into a regular routine. And the house that I once hated has started to feel like home. Jeff even got one car registered and passed his drivers license test! Very exciting. I get to share in that ridiculous CA DMV fun this week. I’m thrilled. Beyond that, the next challenge is figuring out kindergarten for next Fall. Private? Public? Ugh- I thought figuring out preschool for this year was hard! Now, suddenly, we are already in a rush to figure out kindergarten. We are happily accepting any advice. =)

Off this weekend to visit Arnold, CA and some big trees- another new adventure for the Moore clan! 

Post vacation update!

So it has been a LONG while since our last post. Much has happened! Long story short, we moved to our house, went to NH / ME / RI to visit family for summer vacation, then came back to actually settle in. Honestly, this is the craziest summer I think I have ever had....

Going back to New England so soon after moving out here was the best and worst thing we did in the process of this move. On the one hand, it made the initial move out here much easier to deal with, knowing we would see everyone in a few weeks. On the other hand, we had only been in our house for a week when we left, which gave us no time at all to settle in and get used to things. Also, spending three weeks in four different houses left me longing for home, but not really feeling like I had a place I could call home. In the end, we all decided that home was where we are as a family. Together. Just the three of us. Well- four when Sammy Dog finally arrives tomorrow!!!

The other thing I wanted to talk about is our weekend adventures. We said from the beginning that if we were going to make this move, we would need to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the west coast. So we have! Every weekend we take one day to go somewhere new. Sitting here, we are realizing that we have only had four actual weekends here, which is rather alarming considering we moved here at the end of June. Regardless, we have gone to Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay Aquarium, a Red Sox - A’s game in Oakland, and most recently Gilroy Gardens amusement park in Gilroy. So far, we have loved all of our adventures, and most of all, the time to spend just focusing on each other has been great.

This Saturday we were planning to be tourists in San Francisco on a double decker bus, but plans may change now that Sammy is arriving. Maybe we will try a dog friendly beach or a nice hike and picnic so he can join us on his first west coast adventure! 

The Eagle Has Landed...

Well, we've made it into our house.  Barely, but we are in....as you can see it's pretty much a mess but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day right?

So we've spent the last few days unpacking like crazy with Jess carrying a heavy load during the week and me helping at night.  Crazy stuff, what's crazier is we actually really thinned out our crap...yet we still have a ton.  Yikes...it will all be unpacked soon and then life will start to feel normal.

In the meantime, we've been trying to have some fun.  We went to a little bbq/pool party on the 4th of July and then finished off the night w/ Patriotic Sundays.  That's right, with ReddiWip.....needless to say there were a lot of Beastie Boy quotes coming out of my mouth.

On Saturday we went for a day trip to the Monterey Aquarium, which is really cool.  We had a blast, checked out a ton of stuff, bought a "membership" so we plan on going there a ton and then drove up the coast to check things out.

Throw in a Bday Party for Jess with Jodi/Brad and it's been a REALLY busy week.  Hopefully we'll be close to unpacked soon and then off to Oakland this weekend for the Sox/A's game.

More soon!

Jeff

The vacation that never ends

I feel like we are on vacation. But we can’t go home. It has been all of 4 days since we arrived in the Bay area, and while we are all doing well, we are in this weird state of limbo while we wait to move into our new home.

I will backtrack a bit.... Leaving on Saturday was hard. Really hard. A lot of tears. But we made it to CA in one piece- even with what felt like 32 bags (all underweight, by the way!!). 

We got to our temporary condo and crashed. Sunday we went to visit the house. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Jeff rented this house without me seeing it. There was a considerable amount of stress on both our parts to see if I would find the place acceptable! It is a good house- great location, plenty of space. But it is outdated and pretty beat up. Wandering through, I was reminded of the condition of my Boston apartments- really old kitchen cabinets, sketchy bathtub, questionable appliances. The plan is a good steam clean and a coat of paint. Add in our stuff, some rugs, and some personality, and I think it will work just fine.

Jeff headed off to work on the bus on Monday morning, leaving E and I to entertain ourselves on a rainy day. We have done just fine finding things to do- there is plenty around here to keep us busy for months. As we explore, I am realizing how different life here is from our very small little town of Norfolk. Four lane roads through residential areas, strip malls and plazas pop up everywhere, teeny tiny little yards and one story homes, palm trees, etc, etc, etc. We are basically living in urban sprawl after spending years in the suburbs. On the upside, everything is really close!

Our cars and belongings will supposedly arrive sometime next week- ending this vacation with no end. The longer we are here, the less foreign everything seems, so hopefully having a real home base will ease the transition even more. Of course, once the stuff arrives, it becomes VERY real that we aren’t going back to our beautiful house with the big beautiful yard. Sigh.... the fun continues!! 

And so it begins...

Ok, welcome to our blog :)  Quick post but as most people know we are moving out to the Bay Area.  Jess and I decided it would be a lot of fun to create this blog to share our adventure with our friends, family, coworkers and frankly maybe even a few strangers....

We are really taking this opportunity as an adventure and going to maximize the location and do as much as we possibly can.

Jess is going to write some, I'll write some and maybe we'll even get Ellie to make an occasional guest post.

Anyway, flights leave tomorrow to San Jose........thank God for JetBlue I'll be watching the Bruins game.....

More soon

Jeff