Day 2: July 30, 2006

Pretty much a perfect day. We woke up and watched a bit of San Diego news (no Ron Burgundy, though), and then ate breakfast up on the sun deck. Then, we headed out to Torrey Pines State Reserve and Beach. We drove up to the visitor’s center and looked out at the ocean vistas (Amy would be proud). Then we decided to find a grocery store to stock up on food. We found a Trader Joe’s and bought some two dollar wine and this weird blood red orange soda and a box of clementines. Then we went next door to Ralph’s to get other food that was a little cheaper and more available than at TJ’s. We were both wearing maroon A&M shirts and were recognized by a Texan who was a t-sip.

We went back to Torrey Pines and headed to the beach. It was so fun. The waves are so big – a lot bigger than Galveston. I had to get used to that, but it was great fun. I swallowed some sea water. I started wondering how anyone who goes to UCSD or lives in the area gets any work done. I would just want to hang out on the beach and village all day instead…

After we had our fill of the beach, we hiked a bit on a trail for some more picture taking opportunities (although, Adrian doesn’t need much to encourage him to take pictures). It was nice because the clouds had begun to dissipate and the blue skies were out. It is so beautiful.

After Torrey Pines, we headed back to our cute inn and talked and relaxed a bit. Then, we walked around the village some more on Prospect Street. I had read in a guidebook that Prospect Street is like the Rodeo Drive of La Jolla and boy were they right! Just on that one street we saw: a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, a Bentley, a Porsche-Carrera GT, a pink Cadillac, and several Land Rovers (also, throughout our day, we must have seen about 5 Priuses). It was pretty crazy.

After car goggling, we sat on some rocks at the cove and watched the sun set. Once the sun hit the horizon, it really started zooming down (or we started zooming up?). Also, I really think I saw a puff of smoke come up into the air just as the sun completely fell into the ocean.

At around 8:30, we heated up our leftovers from Jose’s (our room has a fridge and there’s a microwave on the premises) for dinner and ate on the sun deck and talked for awhile. Now, we are relaxing and trying our two dollar wine. Sadly, it turns out that we don’t like it too much…

Day 1: July 29, 2006

Mark Ricci took Adrian and I to IAH in the morning, so that we could catch our flight to San Diego. It was so exciting to me to be going to the airport together, where we would BOTH get on the plane together. It seems like all our airport ventures in the past has left one of us behind, while the other flew away. I would always be so sad when that happened, but now it won’t happen again since we’re MARRIED now!


The plane rides were pretty uneventful. I have decided that I like flying with my husband though, because I get to lie in his lap and it’s a very comfortable sleeping position for me. :)

When we got to San Diego, we picked up our luggage and rode the shuttle van to pick up our rental car, which ended up being a Corolla. Then we drove to our hotel for the first 2 nights of our trip – The La Jolla Inn in the La Jolla village. It is a really cute little inn. They have a nice, little breakfast that they will either deliver to your room or up on the sun deck that overlooks the water and the village streets. They also have lemonade and cookies from 2-7 pm. Another great thing about the inn is that it includes parking in a parking garage a block away.


We spent our first night in La Jolla in the village, where we walked to the cove and park. We saw a wedding going on in the park. The cove is so pretty and the water is so blue. After walking along the water, we walked around the village area and looked at all of the shops and cafes that line the streets. We ended up eating dinner at Jose’s Courtroom, a Mexican food restaurant.



We came back to our room pretty tired from the day’s traveling and excited about tomorrow. :)

our honeymoon :)

I have been keeping a journal of each day of our honeymoon to San Diego and I thought I would post them here. :)

wedding reflections...

we're married! overall, i think the wedding went pretty well. i hope people weren't too bored or anything. i suppose there are some things i would change like: perhaps the music should have been louder (no one danced :( ); i felt we were kinda disorganized about some things, but i think that's okay. we got way too much food, but on the plus side i got to use my new food sealer to vacuum seal tons of meat. not very many people signed our picture mat, b/c it was hidden under a football. :( oh, hee hee, also, our kiss was really short b/c i pulled away since i felt so weird about everyone staring at us...

i am glad that we hadn't been planning our wedding for a really long time, b/c it goes by so fast and it would be more disppointing to have things not turn out as expected. but i think it was a good wedding. i think the kids had a lot of fun at it. adrian's nephews were busy trying to catch fish for most of it. :) i did feel like adrian and i for some reason weren't together for a lot of it. and i hope i talked to most of the people that were there...but i think that i am glad that it is over, i was kind of sad at first b/c there was a small feeling like that was the last time in my life to be lovely. but it is good to not have to worry about silly detail things and to just get on with our new life together. :)

less than a week...

so we get married in less than a week...is everything ready? no, of course not. there is slight freaking out going on...i feel like we have the major things figured out, but it is all those little details that are not really in place...ugh...i suppose a part of me wants everything to be perfect because it'll be my only wedding, but then again, i just don't have time due to ITS (which is really cool this session by the way - we are creating a proposal to do educational research based on the intervention we created last summer) and i think some of those details are silly (like wedding favors - do people really want these or care?)...also, i feel like i haven't been very bridely by undergoing beautifying treatments before the wedding, but then again i don't have time and i don't really want to spend the money...but on the plus side i've been riding my bike to and from ITS (sometimes our science team even meets on west campus for extra riding) and also home for lunch so that is about 40 minutes of riding a day in the heat, so perhaps that has helped with weight loss, although it isn't a consecutive 40 minutes...

Past four 4ths of July

Last night at the Bush Museum, Adrian and I recounted all of our 4ths together. Our first in 2003, we were in Shelter Cove, CA. We stood on the beach and watched the fireworks that people in boats shot off. In 2004, we were camping in Great Smoky Mountains NP (no fireworks there, but it was a nice 4th of July). In 2005, Adrian was in Wyoming or Boise (I can't remember which place), and Lucy and I watched the fireworks from the front porch of the old Foster house (kind of a pathetic 4th for me I suppose). This year in 2006, we rode our bikes to the Museum, listened to the symphony and watched the fireworks. It was fun. I particularly liked riding our bikes. We passed tons of cars in bumper to bumper traffic on our way back. I wonder what we'll do next year...

uhh...

someone left a plastic bag on my doorstep this afternoon. Its contents are: a burned copy of the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, a sports bra, and a tiny t-shirt that says Windsor on the front. I am hoping that someone got the wrong house and it isn't some sort of weird voodoo thing...

an owl!

Adrian and I saw an owl this evening in the backyard!

sigh

Remember when I said I was done with my mini-mester course? Well, I'm really not. The graduate students have to complete 10 short papers on 10 different plants that were assigned to us by Friday. I am not done with those. :( I can't seem to find all of the information that they want included in these papers. I spent hours in the library and hours searching databases and google scholar. I am considering just turning in what I have...it is only worth 45 points and I'm sure I'll get at least some points with the info that I currently have. I just can't spend anymore time on this. I want to start working on things more interesting (and more neccessary) - like my thesis. :( I hate turning in incomplete, low-quality work, but this is getting quite old and discouraging...

pilates!

Today, Amy and I went to our first pilates class! We will be going every Tuesday and Thursday night in June to strengthen, tone, and relax (hurrah!). :)

One thing I learned: we are supposed to be constantly holding our stomachs in! I have been trying it tonight - it's kind of hard and uncomfortable so I'm not sure how long I'll last...

honest or just dumb?

I am done with my mini-mester course (which was actually a pretty good course - I learned a lot). However, we did have to buy $140 worth of books. Since this is actually the official first week of summer session I, there was a possiblity that I could return my books and get my money back. But I don't know, I felt a bit dishonest about it. So, now I'm stuck with these two huge reference books of the Aquatic and Wetland Plants of the Southeastern United States. The're actually pretty nice reference books - I'm just unclear as to when I'll need to use them...

dinner party :)

Last night, we had the opportunity to put in the two leaves of our new table! Mariann, Shawn, Andrea, Shane, Bret, and Sarah all came over for dinner. Our table is huge when it is expanded and doesn't quite fit in the little room alotted for it. But all of the food fit on it which was nice. I made the taco crossiant thing (Adrian's favorite) and lumpia (Mariann's favorite).

Even though our new table came with 6 chairs, we still didn't have enough chairs for everyone and had to use a stool and my computer chair, but I think it's better to have more friends than chairs then the other way around. It was a good time. We will have to entertain more. I am hoping that we'll have some perfect summer nights so that we can eat on our picnic table at some point.

Alas, I wish I had pictures to share of everyone around our huge table, but we didn't think to take any until everyone had gone...

it's here!

The Austin City Limits line-up is finally here! And Nickel Creek WILL be there! I am most excited about Nickel Creek, Ben Harper, and the Shins. I will also be interested in seeing the String Cheese Incident, John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne, Aimee Mann, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Willie Nelson, and Van Morrison.

too many papers...

Blech, I am trying to clean the purple room and get everything organized in there, but it is muy overwhelming. I have an insane amount of papers and binders that I need to keep as resources, but there are so many, and they are not all that organized...

funny wedding stuff

hee hee, this is a sentence from an article I happened to read about wedding planning on the internet. It goes like this, "Your wedding is a show - this is show business. This may sound crass or insensitive but let's get real. Your obligation is to put on a show that impresses the women, period. Forget about the fathers, the brothers, the uncles, the male business associates invited - plan your wedding specifically for the women planned to be in attendance. Give the women a good show and your wedding will be a success, guaranteed."

Isn't that horrible and weird???

tonight, Adrian and I went to the basketball banquet. It was quite fun. we got to see a lot of famous people (famous to Aggieland anyways), and I shook Antanas Kavaliauskas's hand (I had to look up how to spell his last name).

Also, I am taking a mini-mester course on Wetland Delineation. It is from May 22nd until May 27th and it goes all day, from 7am until 7 or 9pm. I went to a meeting for it today. It sounds like it will be somewhat intense, but I think it will be some good, practical experience. I almost think that with my experience with my thesis work (being in a wetland) and this class that I could possibly get a job as a wetland scientist...

sigh, I still don't really know what I want to DO. I'd like to do something interesting that leaves at least some sort of impact. I'm not too sure of the REAL importance of wetland scientists, but maybe I overthink things like that.

I had thought about teaching every once in awhile, but I don't know if I really want to do that full time, and I don't want to deal with discipline of little people at all, really. I also think that I might miss the opportunity to be directly involved in science, but I have enjoyed my TA stints and some of my experiences in the 5th and 6th grade classes. However, it usually takes me days and days to prepare one lab, and I don't think I could make a good, hands-on lesson everyday.

I think one of my favorite parts of teaching is when talking with a student makes both me and the student really explore and think about the topic. I think it's fun when BOTH of us learn something from our discussion. Perhaps that is selfish of me, I am not sure...