Ann, Katie’s mom, is in town visiting and lets be honest, there really isn’t too much to see here in Buffalo NY. We drove her around our neighborhood and to a few of our local spots, but the big attraction we saved for last… Niagara Falls. No one had their passports handy so we couldn’t go over to the Canadian falls to see the iconic horse shoe, but we did have nice enough weather to see the American side very well. It was chilly enough (43F) to bundle up but not cold enough to hate life (like the 2 previous times we’ve went.
The city of Niagara Falls, NY is, well, sad. Many boarded up shops and neighborhoods I wouldn’t want to drive through let alone live in. Down town, by the falls and giant casino, isn’t too bad and Pine street definately has it’s charm but still not a town I would live in. We hear nothing but good things about the Canada side, but without updated passports or enhanced drivers licenses, we have yet to experience it first hand.
Back to the point, Ann’s visit to the falls was our best yet and a very fun day trip. We ended up going through Lewiston and hit up a local ice cream stand that we’ve been wanting to try since Katie was preggo. Here are a few photos of the day:
Monterey Bay
While in the bay area, waiting to go to New York, we have been taking advantage of the beautiful scenery and amazing destinations all around us. This time, we made it down to Monterey Bay on a whim. No real plans or destination, we just thought Monterey would be a pleasant escape from San Jose if even only for a 1/2 day. We didn’t make it the aquarium, but we did have a wonderful drive and lunch on Cannery Row. We only snapped 18 photos which have been posted to our Flickr gallery.
Disneyland Baby Moon
What is a baby moon? I asked Katie the same thing! Turns out that it’s your last vacation before the baby is born. Pretty slick, eh? We took ours at the place that got us in this whole mess, Disneyland in Anaheim. We always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian at the resort, but thought it deserved a better reason than just “because”… what better reason than Lucy? The hotel was amazing and because Katie was preggo, we really couldn’t go on too many rides, but that didn’t matter. This was not only our baby moon but our last trip to Disneyland for a very long time. Our goal was to walk the park, take many photos of our favorite spots and just relive the thousands of happy memories the park facilitated. To sum it all up, mission accomplished. 121 photos have been posted to our Flickr gallery.
Katie and I are road trip advocates. I think it is a very key part of our happy marriage actually. Communication is our cornerstone and when we are on one of our day trips, we get nothing but hours of communication time in. We seldom play the radio, and when we do, it’s at a very low volume.. more background noise than anything really.
This trip was, like most, 100% spontaneous. We were sitting around the apartment and just felt compelled to get outdoors. We hopped in the car and headed to Santa Cruz, about 30 miles up the 17 fwy. The 17 is an amazing drive! Very wooded and windy, nothing like we are used to back in SoCal. We left pretty late so we knew we wouldn’t get much site seeing in, but that really didn’t matter as being in the car with each other was the goal. When we got into Santa Cruz we really didn’t know where to go from there so we wandered the streets until we came across a cliff overlooking the sea. The ground was covered in ice plant and the soft dirt only found at the beach. We made our way down a narrow path overlooking the sea and stood there in awe until the sun set.
Driving home we talked about staying at a little B & B we saw and how on our next visit, we would find a sandy beach to stick our naked feet in. This is an example of our spontaneous road trips we take… while the trip may not be that great, the company always is. Photos of the day have been posted on our flickr page. 
While I am working up in the bay area, they have me in corporate housing in San Jose. The apartment is nothing stellar, but the price is right and quite frankly, it’s really not THAT bad. The part that really sucks is the loneliness. I have been up here for about 3 weeks and I forgot how much I dislike being single. Granted I have been home to LA last week, it doesn’t feel the same. I miss going to bed and talking with her at night, walking the dogs, just being near her. It’s quite a lifestyle shock.
Katie decided to come up to San Jose to visit and cheer me up… she even brought the dogs! Brave move on her part and she paid the price as poor Rex got sick in the car while driving over the 152, throwing up in her cup holders. I had the pleasure of cleaning it up when they got into the apartment complex.
I took on a grand tour of Hayward, the town I spent most of high school in. We drove by the old houses, saw a few of my schools and even ate at the pizzeria Joel worked at, Bronco Billy’s. The town hasn’t changed much and why should it? Not much going on in the Hayward hills. We visited San Francisco on the 15th, spent most of the day there. We hung out over on Pier 39, drove down Lumbard St, had a great lunch and just walked the Embarcadero. This was Katie’s first trip to the bay area but she will be moving here once the lease on our apartment in Valencia is up, so we were in no real rush to do the entire city.
I posted about 80+ photos of the visit, check them out over on our Flickr page.
With our move quickly approaching, 
Katie and I flew out to Western NY to check the area out. First, there are no direct flights to Buffalo. I emphasis this point because layovers were designed by the devil himself to pit man against one another. Our first leg was from LAX to Dulles (5 hours) with a 2 hour layover, then to Buffalo (1 hour). Normally this wouldn’t have been so bad, but we thought we’d gain extra time in NY if we took a red eye. We quickly learned this was a mistake as you really don’t get that restful sleep while flying. Between turbulence, the what felt like foam-less seats.. just an uncomfortable time.
We made it safely in to Buffalo, and man was it snowing. Like full on blizzard snowing. As a matter of fact, we were one of the last flights allowed to land, the rest were being diverted. We rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara which turned out to be one of the nicest rental vehicles we’ve ever had. From the car rental lot, we scooted over to the hotel (Crown Plaza) in downtown Niagra Falls. While the hotel was very nice & comfortable, downtown Niagra Falls is a dump. The city has clearly fallen on hard times as several streets had nothing but boarded up shops and “For Lease” signs. We immediately discounted living in Niagra Falls and toured our first choice, Lewiston. Lewiston is a very quaint community, very ‘Norman Rockwell’. So far we are sold on Lewiston, but the lack of retail outlets and basic signs of life had us starting to rethink our decision to move.
A few days later, we met up with our friend Mike who lives in Niagra Falls for a grand tour of Western NY. Wow, what a difference. You how when you go to LA, you have certain assumptions about areas you think would be nice, but in reality are just awful. Turns out, Western NY isn’t so different. Mike’s tour helped us fall in love with the area. We now know of at least 3 areas where we want to look for houses to rent for at least 1 year before we think about buying: Lewiston, Amhurst or Tonawanda.
Overall, this trip proved invaluable for us. Seeing winter at it’s worst, getting to know the area, seeing how we could drive in snow… invaluable.
You know how when you live in a place with things to do but you never do whatever until friends or family come into town? Yea, believe it or not, Valencia is one of those towns. We have the first SoCal gold strike, the acres of orange orchards, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Castaic Lake & Dam, the oldest operating restaurant in LA county (Saugus Cafe), The Saugus Speedway, Saugus Swap Meet and the list goes on. See, not such a boring town after all.
Our good friends Matt and Ele came to visit and we wound up at Castaic Lake. I have seen Castaic Lake a number of times on TV as they do quite a bit of filming there but living so close, you never really think about going there (or at least I never did). Well, I have been cheating myself! The lake is just breathtaking. We wound our way around and finally ended up on the boat launch. This is no ordinary ramp. It’s massive, I mean, I’m pretty sure you could launch a submarine or destroyer from this ramp. I didn’t snap too many photos, but what I did have been posted over on our Flickr page (Link).
In short, explore your town no matter how ordinary or boring you think it is!
Long time since our last post.. but here we are.
Halloween Party
Tak and Jacob had a costume party the weekend before Halloween… right in the middle of my packing for the move. When I agreed to go, I didnt know I’d be moving the next weekend… so I told Jacob that I wouldn’t be able to make it. I could tell he was let down, but right after I hung up the phone, Tak called me back and threatened my manhood if I didn’t attend. I talked it over with Katie and we both agreed that it was too important of an event to miss out on.
We scrambled for costumes, but did a pretty good job. We went with a blue collar job theme; Katie was a 7-11 worker and I was a Ralphs worker. The party was a pretty good time. We met many new people and Jacob & Tak’s apartment looked awesome. Moe showed up as a Czech rocket troop… always nice to see teammates at social events.
Halloween Hospital Fun
So I was moving in 4 days and was packing at a fever pace. When I got home from work on the 31st, I layed down for a 2hr nap before opening a can of packing whoop ass. When I woke up.. I was felt terribly sick. Fever, nausea, chills… all the symptoms of… CELLULITUS! I had Katie come right over and she made an executive decision to take me to the ER.
Now, the Henry Mayo ER has never been a smooth process. Always over crowded and long wait times. This time, once I signed in we only waited 5 minutes before we saw the triage nurse… and another 30 minutes before I saw a doctor. While I was on the bed waiting, Katie was by my side, comforting me while I was in agonizing pain and having a terrible anxiety attack. I don’t think I could have made it without her there.
The Doctor gave me the final call.. be admitted or do out-patient treatment. I told him he is the pro and needs to make the call. Right? I mean.. what kind of doc asks the patient on treatment? The doc strongly reccommend that I stay so I gave him the call. I was admitted at 9p on the 31st and let out on the 2nd. Fisch was the only one to come visit me other than Katie. Fisch has always made it in every time I have been in the hospital… and that really says something. Granted this stay was short, but still… Fisch really is a life-friend and I am very thankful to have him in my corner.
Thanksgiving
We are at my Dad’s place and guests are starting to arrive… will post more later.
Today Josh and I went to Ducky’s (a guy he plays airsoft with) US Marine Corps graduation party. The neighborhood was a little dodgy but his family had a cute little house at the end of a street and it was a nice party. They had the back yard all set up with USMC colors and Ducky was in his uniform (it has a name but I can’t remember what it is and Josh is asleep so I can’t ask). Josh and Ducky talked for quite awhile about bootcamp and all the fun things that you have to go through in boot camp. I think that Ducky was happy to have somebody who knew what he had just gone through other than the guys who had gone through it with them. I have the utmost respect for the military, but in all honesty I will never understand why somebody would voluntarily join up. Being in the military means giving up so much of yourself and putting it in somebody elses hands. I just dont’ know how you can do this. But I guess maybe its not for me to understand. I am thankful that there are people who can do it….I am just not one of them and I’m ok with that.
On the way home Josh and I stopped and picked up the season DVD’s of Futurama at his house, grabbed some dinner and headed home. When I first started dating him I was like OMG he watches cartoons…this is not good. But now I’m the one who is always like “ohhhhhhh Futurama is on”. Its a good show…and if you haven’t seen it, you need to.
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So if you saw Josh’s “new duds for the dud” post then you saw that Joshy got some new shoes!!! He thinks of shopping for himself the biggest chore EVER! I will never understand this but whatever…he did it anyways =). We even got him two pairs of shoes. One Steve Madden dress casual shoe for work because they went well with his uniform (no he doesn’t wear a uniform to work, he just wears the same thing all the time thus making it seem like uniform) Dickies and with his new jeans. OH…and I would like to add that Josh is CRAZY cute in jeans!!!!! We also got him a pair of Converse because for some reason the “Boy who doesn’t shop” (his indian name) think that you can wear the same pair of shoes for work, going out, and just chilling. I on the other hand was not raised in a barn and know that cannot be. Ok ok he wasn’t raised in a barn…he just doesn’t understand the joys of new clothes and shoes. But he’s learning.
I know he says they are more for me than for him, but everybody feels better and more confident when they look good…its a fact of life. If that wasn’t true I wouldn’t have a job right now.
And yes…I did end up going back and buying the first bed we liked…but its a big purchase I’m allowed to re-think my decisions right? I think it irritated him a little but he was a good sport and I also think he will love it when its all said and done with our new bedding. At least thats what I’m going to tell myself…haha.
All and all it was a fun day. Even the crap chores are more fun when he is around. =)
Ok folks….Have the best day ever!
Katie
So yesterday, the 9th, started out with a late breakfast of crackers and a list of errands… the most important to get a bed for the California King mattresses we have coming on Wednesday. Now, Katie has ALWAYS hated the fact that I wear nothing but military boots. She tried to buy me shoes online, but something went all quagmire and the transaction didn’t go through. I dodged the shoe bullet for a little while… but now… sigh… it’s come to this. Now, I don’t receive gifts well… at all. I fought her for a while, but in the end, she was right and I caved. It’s those eyes… who could say no?
We left the house at about 11:15a and started about town. Our 1st stop was to the fat-man store to look at some work shirts. Yea… I shop at the fat-man store. It’s the only place that I can buy off the rack and being a tubby kid.. it feels pretty good to buy anything off the rack. Now, we found about 4 shirts that were posh, but the jeans section caught her eye. For those that don’t know, I wear Dickies just about everywhere at all times when out. She saw a photo of me from 2002 where I was in Levi’s and Doc’s and has been wanting to get me into jeans ever since. When I tried on the jeans and came out the dressing room, I thought she was going to jump me! Needless to say, we got the jeans and a few shirts… but I think the clothes are more for her than for me!
Our next stop was one of the massive furniture places next to the Home Depot on Soledad Cyn Road. The 1st one was very flash.. themed and everything. The prices reflected all that bling… upwards to $3k for almost every bed. Katie saw a Wick’s on the way in, so we decided to give it a shot. On the way, we saw a little shop and pulled in real quick… mostly looking for a bathroom! We browsed the show room and out of the 4 beds in the final running, she fell in love with one of our 1st choices. With the purchase made, we were whisked off to Macy’s for shoe shopping.
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Adventures | Josh | 
April 4, 2011 11:15 pm | 
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