Earlier this month Nathan and i journeyed to California to visit my family. It turned out to be quite the Adamo reunion, although we didn’t get everybody in the same house at the same time for various reasons. First of all, my grandparents and my two great aunts live in Corona. My cousin-once-removed, Jo, also lives in southern California. She has a friend who sold her All-Star game tickets to my dad, who was down there for a few days with his buddy Andy. My brother, currently something of a nomad, stopped by for the last couple days of our trip as well. And finally, four of my distant relatives from Belgium began a month-long road trip around the Western U.S. in California, on the same night that we arrived there.
It was great to see everyone, but unfortunately all of the portraits that were taken are on other people’s cameras, so i can’t share them here.
Here are some photos that i took:
We stayed at my grandparents’ house, which is awesome because they make some really tasty European dishes and they insist on feeding their guests as much as possible. Every morning Grandpa makes fresh-squeezed orange juice from the tree in his own back yard. He explained to me that they have two different orange trees; one that produces fruit in the warmer months and one that prefers the cooler months, and this way he gets oranges all year long. If you’ve never squeezed an orange to make your own juice, you really must try it.
Weird flower-looking cactus things
We walked around the neighborhood and i photographed a bunch of the plants in people’s yards because they were just so weird. I told this to Jo and she didn’t understand what kind of world i was used to. I told her “leafy trees,” but i probably should have just said “corn.”
We drove out to the coast on day 2, and we of course experienced a lot of traffic despite having departed in the late morning. When we got there it was cloudy and breezy and cool, and thus i was cranky. When is it EVER not beautiful in California?! We got some In-N-Out burger and then decided to lay on the beach anyway until we could check into our hotel. Gradually it got sunnier, and when we retreated to the hotel we discovered that we had gotten burned something fierce. Tip for living: if you’re a pasty Iowan, don’t just sprawl out on the beach in the middle of the day for two hours and expect not to get roasted, no matter how cloudy you think it is.
This was the view from our hotel balcony. Did i say hotel? I meant resort. That was a surprise that came with several unexpected and incontestable fees. But what’s worse is that we were too sore to even take advantage of the amenities. We made it to Karl Strauss in Costa Mesa and the beer numbed our pain slightly, but we still turned in early and headed back inland right away the following morning.
Side note: it’s been two weeks now since we got burned and i’m still a little bit peely and itchy. I don’t even want to express what a humiliating, guilt-inducing and uncomfortable situation that was. But! We still had a really nice time in California. We wrapped up our trip by exploring the Huntington Library in Pasadena, which was huge and fascinating and could have occupied us for an extra day, easily.
Nathan getting a shot of Pinky. The original.
The bonsai trees were one of the most lovely & interesting things. How do they do that?
A lot of people are enthusiastically shouting “good riddance!” to 2009 today, and that’s totally understandable. Our economy went to crap, everyone is up in arms over health care reform and some would-be martyr just tried to blow up another goddamn airplane. I, however, will be a little bit sorry to see it go. Two-thousand-nine was probably one of the best years of my life.
In early ’09 there was snow. And more snow. And then Nathan and i went to Chicago for Valentine’s day and stayed in a delightful little B&B for a couple of nights. I don’t know what it is about Chicago, but it’s just really fun to go there and stare up at the giant buildings and wander around lost and then stop by IKEA on the way home. Feeling romantic, we also stopped into a few stores in the Windy City’s Diamond District and ogled some sparklies while we were there. It was an indicator of things to come.
In March we moved into our lovely downtown loft. It was really awesome at first until we discovered more recently that 1200 square feet is a LOT to keep clean all the time and that being able to hear everything your neighbors yell at each other isn’t really all that fun. It’s been a nice setting for a few parties, but we don’t do that kind of thing terribly often, and even when we do it’s only a handful of people. We’re hoping to rent a house this spring, and hopefully not being able to hear our neighbors will be worth the effort required to keep the lawn mowed and the driveway shoveled.
In the spring Nathan and i started running together. It was a slow start for me again, but i eventually got back up to the three-mile marker again before deciding to take an extended break. It’s still extending, in fact. I got to a point where i could think about nothing but breathing and the pain i was in and that i needed to STOP every time i ran, and for the entire time that i was running. If i run again this year, i’m cranking my music UP and i’m not going to bother trying to breathe correctly. But, more likely, i’m going to get back into dancing instead. And Nathan will be joining me! We start in January, and hopefully it will help me to fit back into the jeans that have recently become too tight to wear. 
In the summer a cute bird couple laid their eggs in our sad little garden box, and we watched their babies quickly grow up & fly away. We took a trip to Oregon on what was probably the hottest week there, ever, and enjoyed visiting Portland and my family despite the shroud of fog out on the coast.
Shortly after we returned my job petered out, and so i signed up for a couple of programming classes at DMACC and started the job hunt, bidding working from home a tearful goodbye. Javascript proved to be very intriguing, and programming logic came pretty easily to me. I only applied for about three jobs in all. One was located right across the street from where we live and dragged out their hiring process so long that by the time they finally rejected me, i had started my new job at Spindustry through Robert Half Technology. I learned recently that I ended up getting A’s in both of my DMACC classes (for whatever good that will do me) and that i get to keep my job at Spindustry! Beginning January 18th, i will no longer be a contractor through RHT, i will be a full-time Spindustry employee, and i couldn’t be happier.
This fall we got engaged, and i’m learning what it’s like to have a heart that is both peaceful and elated at the same time. I bought a 2004 Honda CR-V, and it is getting us safely through the mass amounts of snow that are falling upon Iowa this winter. I’m looking forward to starting to plan our wedding in the coming year (well, i’ve kinda started) and meeting the challenge of becoming even healthier. I have everything to be thankful for and everything to look forward to, and i’m sure 2010 is going to be a great adventure.
We’ve been home for a week now, so i suppose it’s about time i blog about our vacation. Nathan and i flew out to Oregon together on the 28th of July to visit various friends and family members of mine and to look at Portland a little more closely.
We awoke at 4am in Des Moines to catch our 6am flight and arrived in Portland by 10:40am local time. It took about two hours to figure out how to get to the rental car place and get our wheels, but it was worth the $200 or so to sacrifice just picking it up at the airport. It was about 106 degrees by then and we were tired, so we headed to the Kennedy School b&b to have a drink and relax before checking in at 3pm.
Kennedy School is actually an old elementary school that has been turned into a b&b and hangout, complete with a heated sitting pool, a restaurant, three bars, conference rooms, and a movie theater with couches for seats. We had so much been looking forward to the heated outdoor sitting pool that we decided to take a dip despite the heat. The pool was a little cooler than the air at 102 degrees, but, being water and such, it felt warmer. This made getting out and sitting on the edge of the pool feel absolutely wonderful, and thanks to the heat we pretty much had the whole thing to ourselves.
We had some famous McMenamin’s burgers and beer and watched Year One in the theater (it was pretty bad, but i did laugh). We were too tired to check out the bars and instead had dessert and went to bed after the movie, having been up for something like 22 hours with only brief naps.
The next day we headed for the coast. Cannon Beach was so foggy that we couldn’t tell from the road where Haystack Rock was. We walked on the beach watching gulls and people on fun cycles drift in and out of our field of vision, and were just about to turn around and give up when i started to see the faint outline of one of the smaller rocks. We kept walking and sure enough, Haystack Rock came into vision.
There were a lot of tourists checking out the tide pools, having come to the coast to escape the heat inland.
We continued South along the coast and Nathan started to feel sick, so i took over driving. Gradually we fought our way through the traffic to Yachats, and reached the beach house where my sis Amy, her son Harper and her bf John were waiting for us. The next day we had a full house when my old friend Bonnie, my Dad, my bro Dustin and his friend Ryan all joined us. We had a lovely dinner and then made s’mores over a bonfire on the beach.
The next day Dad took us by some scenic spots that were unfortunately mostly socked in with fog. We saw some sea lions though, and Honeyman park was beautiful as ever. We had lunch in Florence (not at Mo’s) and bought some candy and ice cream for old time’s sake. Then it was on to Eugene.
Sea Lions, from a safe distance.
In Eugene we went to the Saturday Market and went up on Spencer’s Butte and down to the park below. We got some sushi with Bonnie and her new hubby Brian, and took a stroll around their new neighborhood. The next day, Dad and Mary took us along the McKenzie river into the Cascades and showed us a really lovely resort with English gardens and some popular swimming and rafting spots. We also went to Sahalie Falls, and Nathan and i climbed up to the top of the falls and then hiked down to the next waterfall downriver. The water was ridiculously blue and enticing.
For our last two nights, we returned to Portland and went to some recommended eateries and shopping districts, including Jam on Hawthorne, Powell’s books, NE 23rd, Montage and Genie’s Cafe. We didn’t explore the night life much, but i got a pretty heavy dose of that back in October with Dustin anyway. 
All in all it was a nice getaway, and i had a great time visiting and exploring with Nathan.
I’ve been away for a week on a dual vacation to Oregon and California. Dustin and i stayed at his friend Ryan’s place in Portland for two nights on the weekend. Friday was drunken and crazy–Dustin and i visited two bars and had a couple drinks at Ryan’s place before the three of us headed out again and hit three more bars that night.
The first bar the three of us visited was a piano bar in a high-rise with a spectacular view of the city lights. I had an eight-dollar mojito that really ought to have been my last drink of the night. But…
..We continued on to the Deschutes bar, where i ordered a Jubelale. It wasn’t my taste, so i traded Dust for whatever he was drinking.
The third and final bar we visited was the Blue Moon, where i refrained from partaking in the refreshments.
Saturday i felt pretty awful, and that was the day of Dad’s wedding. He had to get me some nausea medicine so that i would be able to to function as his photographer. It was a nice ceremony, and the Hungarian dinner afterward was delicious.
I had to stay in that night to sleep off my maladies, and the next day Dustin and i hit Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom Rack before heading back to the airport. He flew back to Oklahoma, and i headed to California to visit our grandparents. Dad and Mary joined up with me there on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the three of us headed to Laguna Beach.
We had all sorts of wonderful food and drinks over the course of the week. The Adamo family is pretty small, and all were present except for Dustin for a couple of the feasts. We talked about our ancestors and i wrote down all the dates and names i could glean from the older generation. I’m contemplating going back onto Ancestry.com to try to track down some long-lost cousins so i won’t feel this mild obligation to have children anymore.
We watched some classic movies and struggled with the new technology, listened to forties music and discussed various physical maladies. The weather was perfect, of course, and yet we never used the patio because it was either “too hot” or “too cold” to do so. Grandma got mad at me once or twice for not saying “goodnight” or “good morning”. It wouldn’t have been a trip to Grandma’s house without that happening. I think i’d better visit more often, for multiple reasons.
Mom and i went on a little vacation last week, which i shall proceed to tell the story of in photos.
The first stop has no photos though, so um, just kidding. We went to Cedar Rapids to spend a night with Tim, Angie and Jamie (my brother & his fam) and stopped to see Nina & Karl’s new place in Coralville along the way. It’s nice, i’m jealous. Tim and Jamie showed us all the flood damage in their neighborhood, which was amazing to see. Almost every house has a big orange X on it, meaning nobody can enter. There’s just stuff all along the curbs in the residential area, and there was even a house that had been carried halfway into the street by the flood waters. WAY worse than the damage in Des Moines.
From there we headed toward Uncle Dave’s house and stopped at a lake on the way out of CR.
I look goofy in this pic. We were afraid the water was contaminated, so we didn’t get in.
We’ve stayed with Dave three times in the last month now, which is probably more than in the past eight years or so. It was good to visit again. From Dave’s place in Long Grove, IA we headed North to the Maquoketa Caves. We only went as far as the mouth of the big one, however, because the lights had been turned off and we had no lamp. Also, it looked extremely muddy and scary.
The mouth of Dancehall CaveWe decided to proceed to Crystal Lake Cave, just south of Dubuque, which is well-lit and clean and illuminated by a young tour guide so disenchanted with his job that he jokes frequently about how lame it is to come all the way to Dubuque, Iowa just to see that particular cave. The “Crystal Lake” was pretty silly; it looked more like a puddle that a few people had chucked coins into like an out-of-service mall fountain. I didn’t bother to try to photograph it.
I don’t remember what the different formations were called. Soda straws, maybe?
Then we went to the Mississippi River historical museum in Dubuque. I liked the animals. I’m still much like a little kid when it comes to museums.
Not doing it, just friendly.
We stayed in a cute little town called Mineral Point, Wisconsin that night at a bed & breakfast that made me wish i had a boyfriend. It was up above a brewery/restaurant which had really nice beer and food. The next morning we went to the Land’s End warehouse clearance event a few miles north. It was huge and crowded and insane, and i didn’t buy anything.
We drove all the way down to Kalona, Iowa that evening and stopped at President Herbert Hoover’s birthplace along the way. Turns out he was only in Iowa until he was eleven, at which point he moved to Oregon. Kinda like my life, but backwards. We had dinner in Iowa City and then headed down to Kalona, and caught an amazing sunset while driving. I couldn’t even begin to capture it, because out there in the country i could see the horizon all the way around us, 360 degrees, and it was all just beautiful.
We walked around Kalona a little the next day but decided against taking a tour of the Amish community there. I probably should have taken it, since i have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to live like that. No internet? Come on. What would i do with my Saturday nights?
Going back through Iowa City the next day, we stopped to see the legendary Black Angel at one of the old cemeteries. Supposedly people tell stories of how a man commissioned the statue for his deceased wife and it turned black in a day because of her infidelity. The truth is that a woman commissioned it for her husband’s grave, refused to pay for it because she thought it was ugly, and was sued by the artist and made to pay $5,000 which back in those days was a lot of money. Her name is on the grave and the birth date is 1830something, but there’s no death date. Like maybe she refused to be buried under that thing.
It’s not nearly as beautiful as the one i photographed in Rome. Few things are, i suppose.
After that we went shopping and headed home. It was nice to go on a little adventure for a while, but i always feel pretty relieved to be home again after a vacation. We’re settling back in now and will probably be heading to the Iowa State Fair before returning to the grind on Monday. Also rooting for Shawn Johnson tomorrow in the women’s gymnastics competition–representing iowa! Go team USA!