Josh And Jody Go West(er)

Our Apartment

2008-01-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

Well, we never got around to shooting a video of our new place in SF and after we cleaned house in preparation for my Aunt Karen & Uncle Irv's arrival, we decided to shoot a video.

Our Anniversary Trip

2008-01-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

We had such an amazing first anniversary! After much planning, we were unable to load all of the camping gear on the motorcycle so we decided to do day trips to Marin from our apartment for the first half of the trip & then we headed down south along the coast for the rest of the week.

Saturday afternoon, Dec. 22nd we headed south to the LaRoccas, where the dogs would be spending their vacation with Scott, Michelle, their three kids, their dog & two cats. After spending the night with them and saying goodbye to the girls we headed back towards SF along highway one.

We stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch (such a cute town) and saw the beautiful Natural bridges.

On the way home, we stopped at a lighthouse (one of many for the trip).

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday we took day trips into Marin. It is SO gorgeous there! We can't believe it's just right over the bridge. We rode along highway one & the panoramic highway. We relaxed in cafes, had lattes and read our books. We saw tons of deer, cows & vultures.

The first morning we stopped in Sausalito and saw a man balancing rocks!

Here is the view of SF from the Marin Headlands:

The Panoramic Highway:

Love this sign:

Josh surprised me on a porch swing in the cute town of Olema with my anniversary present (a matching wedding band)!!
Out at the lighthouse in Point Reyes:

The roads around Muir Woods:

Alpine Lake:

I almost started a stampede:

One of the cute, little cafes we hung out at:

Deer were everywhere!

On Friday we headed down to San Luis Obispo and spent the night there. On Saturday we headed down to Pismo Beach, had some amazing crepes & went to see the Monarch butterfly colony.

At first we did not notice all of the butterflies & it took looking through the telescope (as pictured below) for us to realize that those brown leaves are butterflies!

Then we headed down to Santa Barbara, drove through the hills & hung out on State Street. The next morning we woke up and drove around Lake Casitas.

We spent the night in the cute town of Cambria & had a fabulous dinner at Robin's. The next morning we went to Hearst Castle. Hearst used to refer to it as his ranch (trust us, this was no ranch).

Here is his indoor pool with inlaid gold tiles:

We saw the elephant seals! Check out their trucks! There was a lot of talking & some fighting too!

There were also quite a few newborn pups:

We had a fabulous lunch at Ragged Point Inn in Big Sur:

Big Sur:

We stayed at this awesome resort, Marina Dunes, where you needed to drive around in a golf cart (every guest got one) to preserve the dunes. They upgraded us to a suite & gave us a bottle of wine. We had an amazing dinner at Casanova, breakfast in bed & hour long massages!

Trip to the Wine Country

2007-10-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we headed up to Sonoma with Danielle & Steve, who were visiting from San Diego. It was a beautiful, clear day. We stopped at the Golden Gate bridge and in Sausalito for brunch. Then we went to the Sonoma visitor center which had some cool modern art (like the blue plastic ball tree).

We hit some great wineries and found a fabulous Zinfandel at the Mayo family winery.

Our Visit to Carmel

2007-10-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

This blog post is appearing three months later, but Josh's cousins just scanned the pictures to us (I dont know where our digital cameras were).

So back in July we went down to Carmel with the pups to visit Josh's first cousin Scott, his wife Michelle & their kids. We went to Cannery Row for wine tasting (yum). We went to Big Sur (breathtaking!!) & Pebble Peach (the 17 mile drive- beautiful!).

Here we're chilling at the Big Sur River Inn after a delicious lunch!

Here we are in front of the Bixby Creek Bridge on Highway 1 in Big Sur:

Here are Michelle, Scott & Josh on the 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach stopping to check out some deer:

If you come to visit for a little while, this is a must see stop (Pebble beach is about 3 hours & Big Sur is about 4 hours away).

Family Reunion in Atlanta

2007-10-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well we are just the traveling fools :). This past weekend we went to Atlanta to visit my family. We celebrated Anna's Bat Mitzvah (she wrote a beautiful speech & everyone cried).

There are a lot of girls in my family (you could say thats an understatement). Here's a picture of the 13 cousins:

We also celebrated my Grandma & Grandpa's 63rd wedding anniversary! Here are my sisters, Kari & Nina, with our Grandpa & Josh:

Here is my Grandma (on the right) with my great Aunt Margie:

Saturday night at Alyssa & Marty's was a lot of fun because they have a lot of toys to play with...here are just a couple:

But of course the best was just hanging out all together. Josh & I stayed at my sister Nina & her boyfriend Max's apartment along with my new step sister Audrey & my sister Kari & her husband Ami.

Max is a big fan of threadless shirts too:

Here are Nina & Audrey:

Heres my Mom & Larry:

Josh & his biggest fan:

My favorite picture (Erin, Josh, Kaylin & Maya)

Staying in a Yurt

2007-09-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

Last weekend for Josh's 30th birthday we traveled by plane, car & ferry to see Leigh & Deb in the middle of nowhere outside of Port Townsend which is way outside of Seattle. We had a blast!! They live in a yurt; yes, a yurt with a separate bathhouse and an outhouse (that is so Roman with the two toilettes next to each other facing the woods- its a 3 walled structure). Deb made us pizzas and we drank champagne and caught up. Saturday Leigh made us Belgium waffles with strawberries and homemade whipped cream, had a couple of lattes and headed into P.T. Had some beers and apps along the water and strolled around, went out for tapas for dinner & had a dance party on our return. Sunday we had eggs, potatoes & toast and headed out. Their yurt is cool and their cats are sweet. We got to hear the coyotes and about Leigh's encounter with a huge boy sized raccoon while we slept, but I didnt see any animals :( except for Raja & Igor!

Josh & Leigh trying to knock over some wooden pins.
The famous car shot!
Breakfast time in the yurt.
Hanging out in P.T.
Saying goodbye :(

Catch Up Time!

2007-07-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well, things here have been pretty crazy! We moved downstairs in what should be our apartment, decided to look for a new apartment, found one (YAY) after many craig's list browsing nights, appointments and open houses.

Plus, I now have two nanny jobs to keep me busy for the summer. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be watching a 6 month old all day (she is SO cute) and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons and evenings I will be watching twin 3 year old boys.

We are off to High Sierra for the weekend (a music festival in Quincy, CA)!! We are psyched! http://www.highsierramusic.com/

We'll post more on our return...

Fabulous Weekend

2007-06-24T01:34:00.000-07:00

The weather here continues to be abnormally warm with clear blue skies (hey, we're not going to complain).

Friday night we went out with Matt and Emilie; it was so great to see them! We had a fabulous dinner and then went bar hopping until we ended up at this packed Irish pub.

Needless to say, we slept well and when we woke up Saturday close to noon we headed on down to the Panhandle of GG Park for the Panhandle Bandshell Grand Opening Celebration put on by our friend Jen. It was awesme; there were acrobatics and bands and people on stilts. Lyla and Naama got to meet a lot of cool people and little kids.

Then we went over to Jess & Joon's for a wonderfully relaxing evening. It's so funny to see two couples, a baby and 5 dogs all curled up together to watch a movie. By the way we saw "Deja Vu"; it was really good.

Naama Gets Sick :(

2007-06-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

So the night before Josh's big first day at frog, Naama got sick. I took her out to the yard at 2am to go potty and she returned with such an itch! All night she was scratching and pacing and because she didn't sleep, we didn't sleep. Her whole face was swollen! At 7am I ran out to the drug store and bought her some children's liquid benadryl.

The swelling went down and after we dropped Josh off at work we went to play at the aquatic park. The girls had a blast on the sand and in the grass and I thought she was all better.

Then we came home and the throwing up began...

So to the vet we went. They gave her meds and said she shouldn't throw up anymore. But all night long (yes, we were up again) she was throwing up and running back and forth between the bedroom and the living room.

So back to the vet again...

I had to leave Naama this time for x-rays (that was rough). So Lyla and I went to my school to work until we could pick Naama up. Lyla did okay; I thought she would freak out without Naama.

Well, there was no obstruction so no surgery- thank goodness. She had eaten some toxic debris from the construction and it was passing. She got more meds and a bland diet (boy is she hungry all the time- she sits in the kitchen looking up at the counter, poor girl).

But she is doing great now!

Here is Josh leaving work after his first day at frog in SF. The rest of the month he's working on a project in the Palo Alto office.

Crissy Field

2007-06-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Another exciting day for the dogs as Josh's time away from work draws to a close. We went to Crissy field which is on the ocean right in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. The pups played in the sand and jumped into the ocean, though not very deep (they're still scared of the waves)

It was another surprisingly warm day, and Josh probably burnt his bald noggin, again.

We went out with some friends for dim sum and walked around the North Beach street fair. It was fun, we had coffee and espresso's and drank them on the patio.

Bye!

Yay!! I got the job!!

2007-06-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

I am so psyched! I got the job teaching second grade at the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish day school in Foster City. Check it out: http://www.wornickjds.org/

Here I am accepting the offer:

Now two and a half months of vacation :) I'm going to try to find a job working at a vintage clothing store (applied to one today) or an independent book store for the next couple of months; that should be fun.

GG Park

2007-06-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate Park is just phenomenal!! Seriously it puts Central Park to shame. There's a lake where people race their model boats, a lake where you can canoe or paddle boat around, volleyball courts, a polo field, a rose garden, waterfalls, an arboretum, windmills & a Japanese tea garden. We had a blast!

Then Jessica called so we met her and Raquel back at Fort Funston. We got burned even with sunscreen! I guess yesterday and today have been unseasonably warm...in the 80s. Everyone was taking off work and hitting the beach.

We actually have plans every night this weekend; not bad for our first weekend :)

Lots of Walking!

2007-06-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well the pups had a full day today (and so did we). Today was a pretty warm day so to cool off we went for a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. They were a little freaked with the passing cars but soon got the hang of it. It was so windy!

Next we drove up to Marin and went to Muir Woods. We went on a hike through the woods. Instead of taking the bridge across the river, Lyla decided to wade on through.

Then we went over to Muir Beach where the pups got REALLY dirty!! Lyla shake-n-baked Naama. They dove into the ocean and into the river and then into the sand; gross!

The Reservoir

2007-06-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

Our local doggy park is called the reservoir. It is awesome! It has amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean. Check out our pups playing on the side of the hill (soon they'll be pros at it).

PS The weirdest thing: everyone that we have met has a name that starts with a J (Jon, Jessica, Joon, Jenny & another Jon).

The dogs go to the beach

2007-06-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the slow posting, everything we own is still in boxes. We took the dogs to Fort Funston today, a great dog park right on the Pacific Ocean. It was amazing, the dogs loved it, and we met lots of cool people that gave us tons of info on the city, places to see, restaurants to eat at etc.
We even found a Burrito place that rivals El Pelon in Boston!! That's some high praise too if you know your pelon.

We'll have more to tell soon, and hopefully some of our own pictures and videos. There's a good one of me driving my motorcycle into the back of the moving truck!

-Josh

The Ride

2007-06-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

The pups had trouble deciding how to sleep in the cab of the penske between us. First they tried to share the seat (that worked for a little bit).

Then Naama decided to get down on the ground on her pillow (Lyla liked that the best). Which was fine for all of us until after many unsuccessful doggy pee breaks, Lyla decided to pee right there on the seat! Day 2 we were smarter and dryer for it: no food or water on the road.

What we looked like on the road.

2007-06-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here's what you may have seen in your rear view mirror if you were between Scottsdale, AZ and San Francisco, CA this past weekend.

Cows, cows everywhere & windmills too!

2007-06-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Slowly Making Our Way

2007-06-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Los angeles last night and stayed with Amy & Ryan. After driving 8 hours it was so great to have a home cooked meal and a nice hot shower. The pups were thrilled to have a yard to run around in and new toys to play with. Baby Ella is so cute and smells so good. Reese is still scared of the puppies but loves to watch them. Thank you for the awesome hospitality. If you ever move to Seattle you can stop at our place on the way! After a delicious breakfast we hit the road. Unfortunately these hills are slowing us down at least on the way up; we're only able to do 35 mph. We're trying to make it up on the downhill going 65 though. This is a new road for us. Hopefully Lyla won't pee all over the seat today; no food or water for them. If only they knew how to pee on something besides grass.

on the road again

2007-06-09T16:39:00.001-07:00

2 dogs 1 wife 1 husband
247 miles down...

2 redbulls so far

Saying goodbye

2007-06-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Aunt Kasey & Uncle Matt came over to say goodbye to Lyla and Naama. Uncle Matt let Lyla know that she'd be a lot happier with the weather in San Francisco & Aunt Kasey told Naama that she would get to meet a sea lion (we'll let you know when that happens).

Then off into the truck we went. We choose the 26 footer with the trailer on back for the car. Josh said it'd be too big for me to drive and I was fine to just enjoy the ride.

Loading the Motorcycle

2007-06-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Watch my daredevil antics as I fit a 6 foot bike into a 2 foot space.

The continuing adventures of Josh and Jody (and lyla and naama)

2007-06-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well we felt like we hadn't packed enough into the last year of our lives so we are going to up the ante. We're moving to San Francisco, CA and both of us are getting new jobs. Fortunately I've got mine already, Jody should have hers locked up soon.

Here's some video of us packing up our house, and giving a shout out. We'll have lots more to come as we continue to the Pacific!!

Our First Camping Trip on the Motorcycle.

2006-09-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

Check out the pictures at Flickr.

Check out my new Bike!

2006-09-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Of course we'll have some more scenic pictures, next week when we go on a camping trip.
Also it was raining outside so we took this one in the garage.

Our New Home

2006-08-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

We are SO excited about our new home. We found the perfect house in Scottsdale along the greenbelt (so we can go on walks and ride our bikes for miles each way). We now have a guest room so you're all invited to visit. Last night we had the inspection and everything looks great; our closing date is Sept. 28th. So pretty soon we'll be in a home!!

A tour of our new house

2006-08-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

We have a tour of our new home to show you. Its like cribs, except for the bling.

Final Numbers

2006-08-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

Total Miles Driven: 2,885

Josh wanted to keep driving around until we hit 3,000, but I wasnt letting that happen with me in the car. I couldnt wait to return the penske! By the way, on Thursday after our first night in Scottdale we pulled into a gas station to gas up before returning the penske. For some reason they have special pumps just for those who are also getting a car wash. So, we were asked to go to the other pumps and as we were turning around we heard a scraping noise...thats right after almost 3,000 miles across the street from penske is where we damaged our truck. We were scraping under their car wash sign. They had to let the air out of our tires so we could pass through. No damage was noticed by penske (really, who could see up there? not even a Bloom) and we returned to the car wash after unhitching my car to wash it.

Total Gas Cost: $1,006.86 (not too shabby)
Total Pee Stops: 22 (that's over 4 days)
Total Red Bulls Consumed: 6

Comments on the blog.

2006-08-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I just realized that this site was only setup to allow comments from registered blogger users. I've changed that to allow everyone to write comments. So please let us know you care.

Love,
Jody and Josh

Day 4: Continued

2006-08-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

5:20PM We have officially arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona. We are safe and very tired and will post some more tommorow. Suffice it to say that I have already pissed off one set of neighbors by blocking their garage with our truck and I'm hoping to be rid of the Penske tommorow.

hittin the road

2006-08-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

leavin the ritz at 6:39 in the mornin

Day 4: Wednesday August 9

2006-08-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

6:55AM Hitting the road early today after a night at the ritz we are leaving Texas. Breakfast was a treat today at the hotel. There were eggs and biscuits and gravy and hashbrowns and sausage and the eggs were even cooked individually for you. Quite a change from the cold continental breakfast we've been having.
Entering New Mexico we change over to Mountain time so we gain another hour. Also surprising was that NM is very green right now. Definitely much greener than Texas and Oklahoma, another cool thing, we haven't seen any gigantic crosses or Jesus signs. One more point in its favor.

Red Bull's consumed this morning: 0

Day 3: Continued

2006-08-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

3:00 pm We took off and headed towards Texas. After many more miles, hills and much construction, we ended up in Amarillo, TX for the night.
9:00 pm Tonight we're staying at the Ritz (oh yes we are).

Day 3: 728 miles
For your viewing pleasure, here is a little tour of our Hotel.

Tomorrow evening we will be arriving in Scottsdale!! Video of our new place to come...

Day 3: Tuesday, August 8

2006-08-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

7:15 AM We are on the road! We enter Oklahoma and the city where Josh spent his childhood Tulsa.
Lunch is at the only place in town for ribs. Billy Ray's. We started with the BBQ Sampler and moved on to a full rack of Baby Back ribs. baked beans and fried okra. Delicious!
Then we went by Josh's elementary school, Skelly Elementary. The site of Josh cracking his head open in a misguided pushing game and also the place where Zac was found at the bike rack with a hammer and screwdriver...
Next we got a tour of Josh's house from the current owner. Surprisingly nothing has changed, inside or out.

lunch at billy rays

2006-08-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

its time for ribs! old school

on the road

2006-08-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

in missouri

Day 2: Continued

2006-08-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

11:30 am Josh had tried to walk to the market during our wait (and man, it was hot) and found out, it had closed. So, we went to Subway.
11:35 am We're finally back on the road. We have left Pennsylvania behind us and we headed through Ohio, Indiana, Illinios and Missouri.
Even though we lost some time, we gained an hour being in the Central time zone.
We drove through St. Louis and saw the big arch, the gateway to the west!! Josh wanted to drive the truck up the arch, but they wouldn't let him. Man!

9:00 pm We head into a Super 8 in St. Clair, MO which was surprisingly really nice (much nicer than the Days Inn the night before). This time we got to go swimming (the pool didn't close till 10pm) and we even had a huge jacuzzi (that would totally have fit 3 non-Blooms).
Day 2: 727 miles (woo hoo!!)

Day 2: Monday, August 7

2006-08-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

7:40 am and we're at the gas station filling up. A bit of an earlier start today, we are ready to rock! We encountered some rain and found for some reason there's a replay of Stern on the sirius (where is he??).
9:25 am We are rollin' along when some men roll down their window and start franticly waving at us. We pull over onto the shoulder to find that we blew out one of the tires on the car trailer (good thing there are 4 of em) and it is COMPLETELY shredded. We head for the nearest gas station and call Penske.

11:20 am Well, we lost nearly 2 hours (we had to wait an hour and 20 min.s for them), but Rich from Wingfoot Goodyear not only changed our tire, he checked the air pressure in them all (surprisingly the tires on the car trailer were overinflated and those on the truck were underinflated). He even gave Josh a gage so we could check it ourselves. Thanks Rich!!

Funny Story

2006-08-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, August 4th. Josh and his brother, Zac, are unloading our storage unit onto the Penske. Josh hands me the shrink wrap, packing tape and pocket knife and says "Throw it in the cab". For some reason I hear "throw it in the trash" (I always thought I had a hearing problem) so I ask "Are you sure?" (I know how much Josh loves the shrink wrap- he thinks it's the coolest thing ever and he collects pocket knives). "Yeah, throw it in the cab", he said. So I did. I threw it in the trash. After lunch at El Pelon (the BEST burrito joint EVER), we were driving to the wedding when Josh asked where the knife, shrink wrap and tape were. When I told him I threw them out, we were just driving by the storage unit (in our penske with the car in tow- Josh thought it better to avoid the Big Dig as the truck wouldn't take a concrete panel on the roof very well), so we pulled in and Josh reached into the trash and grabbed them. Oops!!

Day 1 (Part 3)

2006-08-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

9:00 pm We were psyched that the hotel had a pool so I called to find out where it was (by the front desk). To play it safe I decided to call back and find out when it closed...8:00pm. No HBO either (we'll have to catch up on Entourage later). We were so happy to shower and slept for 8 hours. Day 1: We drove 413 miles.

Day 1 Continued

2006-08-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

We drove through Rhode Island, Connecticut and into New York. That was frustrating to have to backtrack as we were in NY for the summer and had just left Thursday (we even pasted our old exit in Westchester). In New Jersey we stopped for some grub and could only find a BK. As we walked out of BK what did we see before us?? Yep, a subway. Oh well, next time. We drove 8 hours in all through New Jersey (which is actually pretty) and two thirds of the way through Pennsylvania (what a huge state!!) before we bunked down for the night at a Days Inn in Brookville, PA.

Day 1: Sunday, August 6

2006-08-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

10:15 am We left Alton Jones Campus surprising early after a night of partying with all of our good friends. Leigh and Deb had a fabulous wedding and they hired an extremely talented MC for the evening.

We ate, danced and hung out by the bonfire. The promise of breakfast (which closed at 9:30) got us all up in the morning. Somehow we managed to sleep with 10 people in our suite. We left West Greenwich, Rhode Island and headed towards Connecticut.

Here's our Truck.

2006-08-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

One Way all the way!