Welcome to Montpellier tour and food extravaganza

On Saturday, Montpellier had a little welcome to the city tour shindig for free for all new residents. Naturally, I signed up since I heard we were getting lunch at the end. It started with a little breakfast of various pastries and juices and then on to the walking tour of downtown. It was kinda long and I actually lost interest about halfway through since it was about 2 hours long. Dawn and I both learned some interesting things about the city but couldn’t hear the tour guide most of the time so we ended up talking more to the other American girl near us who was with an Australian guy and a Polish couple. We actually talked so much that we eventually got separated from our group and had to run to find them.

After the walking tour, we got to sit in a huge auditorium with the 800 or so other people who attended this event and listen to the mayor of Montpellier rattle off facts about the city as well as introduce her entire cabinet of about 30 people. That took forever and obviously, no one in the audience was that enthused by the end of that introduction. About an hour after the start of this little chat, Dawn and I decided to get up and walk around waiting for the lunch to be served. By going into the wrong room, we ended up finding out that lunch was being served on the 3rd floor. We nonchalantly went upstairs and hovered around the food tables like vultures until they finally opened it up.

The food was all supposed to be local delicacies and it was…interesting. There was plenty of bread, smoked salmon, raw vegetables, little tortilla wraps with God knows what inside, some strange pastry thing that had something too sweet inside (not really sweet and not really sour, it’s hard to describe), a plate full of random pork products and sausages and of course, oysters on the half shell which had a very sea taste.

I wish I could tell you all about the desserts but the vultures that came for this little lunch gobbled up all of the desserts in a matter of minutes. By the time we got over there, there were literally crumbs left. I got a yummy lemony tart before someone snatched it off the table but couldn’t get my mitts on any éclairs or other awesome desserts. I think Dawn got some fruit before people started loading their bags with them. We also got to try some of the local wines including the Muscat of Frontignan, which is very sweet and delicious.

On our way out, they gave us goody bags with a bottle of wine from the area, a calendar with Montpellier propaganda, some free pens, lots of theatre info and a free ticket to a soccer game on Friday night!

Things I learned about Montpellier:
• 1 in 4 people are students
• 10 new people move to Montpellier a DAY
• There are about 250,000 people here and 60,000 people are students
• All construction here is of a Middle Age type. There is no Roman or Greek architecture here.

After the really long day of the tour (8:45am – 2:45pm), Laurent and his family came to Montpellier to hang out and take me to this really neat little city about a half hour from Montpellier called Aigues-Mortes. It is a city within castle walls. Very fun with great little shops and tons of outdoor cafes as per France. To celebrate Amaury’s 1st birthday, Laurent took us all out (including Dawn) for a crepe dinner.

For those of you unfamiliar with crepes, they are not just a dessert food. You can always have a crepe with sugar and lemon or nutella or maple syrup or tons of jams but you can also have a “meal” crepe with ham, cheese, ground beef, vegetables, chicken, etc. You can also get a “meal” crepe made in 2 ways. The normal way which is just a crepe with the fillings or the BETTER way which is a crepe filled with ingredients and then shredded cheese on top and grilled panini style in the oven. Very delicious indeed.

In all, it was a very long day but very fun and informational to say the least.

Your British word of the day lesson: Always say TROUSERS when referring to PANTS in the UK. Pants in the UK are the term for undies.

Quartiers Libres (Free neighborhoods)

This weekend, Montpellier had a 3 day festival, “Quartiers Libres”, that was completely free full of theatre, music, dance and whatnot. It was fun. On Friday night, Dawn and I went to this really interesting dance in the park and watched 3 women do different kinds of dancing. On Saturday we were too busy and tired to really check out the festival because of the long day that I previously described. Today we went to a whole day full of festivities by the Montpellier Arc de Triomphe. We saw a really good singing group of 3 really talented women. They were mostly accapella and really great. One of the women said she was an American from LA and had the most ridiculous American accent when she spoke in French. However, she slipped up at the end and spoke in perfect French without an accent.

The other things we saw were actually less than interesting. There was some sort of slow motion dance thing that took 30 minutes to accomplish NOTHING but the 2 people were on a rock in the middle of a pond. We also saw bits of some comical farce thing but couldn’t understand it because we were too far away to really see it. Another dance thing we saw was some sort of contemporary dance with intense techno music and less-than-intense dancing. Finally there was an Algerian band that played some ok music but we were getting cold at the end so we left about halfway through their set.

Your British word(s) of the day lesson: wee = little & stoor = dust
In a sentence: There is a wee bit of stoor on the mantle.

The NEW apartment, roomies and Ikea

First things first, I have a new apartment. It’s the first one I looked at after the one I decided against. The scoop: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, one living room, one kitchen (with all the appliances including a dishwasher), and it’s on the 3rd floor with an elevator and a small patio that I get almost exclusive access to. I will be living with 2 other French girls. Valerie is in her mid-late 30’s I am guessing. I actually don’t even know her job. The other girl, I haven’t even met but she is a 3rd year law student. She seemed nice from her description. My room is really cool. There is a small twin bed, a desk and a large floor to ceiling armoire that will easily hold all of my stuff. I also have a big glass door which doubles as my window that opens up onto the small patio aforementioned. They have wi-fi and internet and all that kind of jazz. I have to share my bathroom with Valerie in the apartment. I am not so happy about that but that’s because I always wanted my own bathroom and I never get it. Oh well, some day I suppose. Anyway, I move in unofficially today since I am dropping off my checks for rent and deposit with some luggage but I will actually probably start sleeping there on Monday night.

Here is my room:

Here’s why: On Tuesday, this really great Scottish girl, Dawn, ended up in my room at the hostel and we hit it off right away. We have been hanging out, talking about stuff and having a great time. When I arrived at the hostel, I told them that I would be here for a week not knowing that you could make your reservation for one day at a time. Anyway, when I went down to the office yesterday to tell them that I would be leaving on Thursday, they were like, well, we can’t refund your money. (I paid in advance for a week.) I was like, well, that’s ridiculous because you NEVER told me that I couldn’t get my money back if I left before the week was out and I never thought to ask. So I have decided to stay at the hostel for the remainder of the week and weekend with Dawn and then move into my apartment on Monday to start my stay there on Monday night. I wish I had met Dawn earlier because I would have loved to live with her. She is really nice and fun but she is also leaving in April so that would not have really worked out for me in the long run. Also, we would be speaking English all the time which defeats the purpose of living in France and wanting a French experience. I am sure that we will hang out loads though. I feel like I have been grilling her on tons of stuff since I met her because I am very interested in Scotland and all the differences we have between languages and custom. And yes, her accent is AWESOME! And no, she does not know where the Loch Ness monster is.

(Jen and Dawn)

Yesterday, I also got to go to the French Ikea, which was EXACTLY like the American one. Right down to the restaurant of Swedish food. However, they did have a ---and I kid you not--- smoked venison wrap. And of course, I had to try it. Honestly, it tasted a lot like salmon because it was really smoked and not a lot of other taste was coming through. Anyway, I just thought that was awesome. Oh, and of course, Orangina from the fountain. Now they make Orangina with blood oranges so it tastes a little different but I love it anyway. I simply can’t get enough of Orangina, and thankfully it is so easy to get here.

I am just trying to orientate myself and know the city a little bit better. I haven’t really left downtown except to look at my apartment, which is only about 10-15 on the bus to get to the big train station downtown. There is a supermarket near my place and a florist. I still need to find the bakery shop, which is the most important for baguettes and croissants!

The apartment, hostel and McDonald's

First things first, I have decided against the apartment that I previously decided upon. I believe that it would be in my best interest to live with a roommate. A couple reasons: I want a true French experience. I won't get that if I just come home to an empty, super tiny room and feel sorry for myself while I am there because I will just sit there and not want to do anything. Having a roommate is kinda like have a built-in friend. At least someone would be obliged to speak to me and who knows, I might finally find a cool roommate. I have never been super close to most of the roommates I ever had, but I am optimistic for this venture. So, the search continues...

Laurent dropped me off at the hostel that my program set up for the assistants once we arrive in Montpellier. It's super cheap, which is nice. About 5 Euro a night which is about $7.50 a night. It looks exactly like a college dorm with a common bathroom and shower area. There is also a little kitchen at the end of the hall with 2 hot plates and a microwave and sink. It seems great so far and I don't have a roomie tonight so no weird people to share a room with yet. The room is a double occupancy room so any day now someone might just show up but at least it's clean and seems nice enough. The registration for the hostel is only from 2:30 - 5:30pm so if no one is there by like 6pm tomorrow, I will be roomie free again. The room has 2 desk, 2 beds, 2 armoires and 2 sinks. It's actually bigger than my previously chosen apartment if you can believe that. You can't ask for much since it's so cheap but quite honestly, I have been in much worse, much more expensive hotels.

McDonald's in Montpellier (and I think all around France) has free wi-fi which is what I shall be using until I have a more permanent residence so though I will keep you posted on my adventures, it will be a bit more limited since I don't want to hang out in here for hours at a time. :) By the way, the Royale burger was absolutely disgusting. Now, I don't normally eat at McDo anyway, but this was really shockingly bad. It's just the sauce they put on it but I could only eat like 2 bites and gave up.

Anyway, that is all for now. I will keep you posted as the search continues. Oh, if you want any pictures, I have several albums online that I can email you from the sea and whatnot. Just email me and ask.

Cyprien introduces himself

For those of you who do not speak French, I asked Cyprien what his name was and then what my name is.

Comment t'appelles tu? Cypri..prien.
(What's your name? Cyprien)
Et comment je m'appelle? ...jennifer.
(And what's my name? Jennifer)

I told you it was cute.

The Mediterranean Sea

We went on a little day trip to the Mediterranean yesterday and I thought it was really beautiful. People were even swimming. Not a lot but a few. It's pretty much like the ocean with no surfers (but a lot of wind surfers) and very few waves. The water was super clear too. Very, very beautiful and calming with the small breeze and great scent of salt water.
This is Amaury who will be 1 year old on Sun. Sept 27th. He doesn't really walk or talk yet so I have no problem with not understanding him.
Here is Laurent and Cyprien (who is 2-1/2).
This is Claire, Laurent's wife. She is super nice and fun. Very overwhelmed with her children but that's to be expected when you have two very small children at home.
One more view of the sea from another location. It was a gorgeous day and pretty calm. Warm enough for sandals but a little too cold to really want to go swimming though it was very tempting. At the end of the day, we ended up in a little cafe/bar near the sea and I had a "demi" which is slang in cafe's for a medium sized glass of whatever their cheapest beer is. It's not a bad gamble because more often than not, it's going to be something pretty tasty as far as beer goes and it's about as expensive as a Coca-Cola.

Apartment found, super tiny is its name

As you may have noticed from the name of the post, I found an apartment. It's super tiny but great for what I need. It's about the size of one bedroom. And that included the shower, sink, baby fridge, desk, hot plate and bed. You know how big a dorm room is? Divide it in half and there you go. It's about 36ft squared. Below you will see a picture of my building outside and then the next photo is of the road I will live on (which translates to Buttercup Avenue). The really tall black building in the back is downtown Montpellier. I am super close and only a 10 minute walk to the train to get to work.

I will make the call tomorrow, I think, in order to secure the apartment and have them get the papers ready. The plan is to move in there on Oct. 1 to start at the beginning of the month. Also, staying at the hostel in Montpellier (that my program set up) is actually cheaper so I am going to stay there from Monday until Oct. 1. I save a few Euro in the meantime.

I looked at 3 apartments today (including the one that I chose). The first one was in Frontignan, which is where I am teaching. Frontignan, as you may remember, is about a half hour drive from Montpellier. It was actually really, really cool. It was double the size of the one I chose. It's a garage that was turned into a little mother-in-law studio with an independent kitchen and a private patio. There was even a pool at the house. Unfortunately, Frontignan is really small and pretty far from Montpellier. The buses stop running in Frontignan around 9pm or earlier so I could never do anything at night because I could never get home. The neighborhood was really quiet and pretty. I just really would have preferred to be centrally located and just commute there to work. The train from Montpellier to Frontignan is only about 15 minutes. After seeing it, I didn't fall so much into love with it that I would have sacrificed being able to go anywhere at night. However, the mother of the family that would have had me there (2 kids, 17-year old girl and 14-year old boy and husband) was really nice and apparently she wants an English tutor for her daughter. So I will try my best to secure myself a little side job as a tutor with them since I will be in the city anytime I have to go to school. I hope that works out.

The 2nd apartment wasn't much to write about. It was a bedroom in a apartment with an older woman (who I think was married but she never really mentioned her husband). I would have had to share the kitchen, bathroom, living room... everything. She was also kinda weird. She mentioned that she didn't have a microwave and didn't like too many electronic devices. She took Laurent and I on a lovely little walk though around the area so we could kinda see where the buses were. Not only would I have had almost no privacy, I could never have visitors there without thinking that I was at my parent's house. It would always be like I was a guest there. I would not have felt comfortable. She also lived pretty far from downtown (about 20 minutes by bus to get to the train station). After about 15 minutes of being there, I knew I didn't want to live there.

So then we got to my chosen apartment. Now, it's super small but at least I prepared myself for that in advance. The woman who met us to show us around wasn't particularly warm but... whatever. They can't all be your best friend, I suppose. Anyway, once I move in, I will take a little video to give you a tour. God bless technology! There are only a couple downsides to living in this apartment.... one, I might have a full 12 month lease which will kinda suck because I won't really be able to break it or get a sub-letter because I have NO idea how that would work here. However, I did just look at the announcement for this apartment again and it said for the school year so I should be able to leave after the end of June. Two, there is no internet so I have to pay for that and order it for my place right away. (Though Laurent had a really good idea about getting a wireless router and offering to rent out the wi-fi to the other girls in the adjoining apartments to make some money which could possibly pay for much of the service itself) Three, I have to pay for electricity. However, in a tiny apartment like that, I can't possibly imagine that it will be that much. I am happy to sacrifice a little to have a place super close to downtown and to the trains/trams/buses. Four, the toilet is common to the closest 4 apartments, which are all women incidentally. Thankfully, it's right outside the door of the apartment but still a little silly that I have to go out of my apartment to use the bathroom. At least I can shower in my place and I have a sink. In all, I am very happy with my choice and given my price range, I really wouldn't find anything bigger or much nicer. It does not look like a total dive or anything but you know, it's tiny so there is not much you can do. I might need to get some posters or something. Otherwise, it kinda looks like a prison cell (with a shower in the corner). :) It is surely an efficiency studio for those of you who have ever lived or looked at one. That's the best way to describe it. Thank God it's only me that is going to be there for the most part. There is really no other space for anyone else.

On our way back to Marseille from Montpellier, the sun was setting so I thought this would be a nice closing image.

(A French sunset at the sea)

Banks, kids and luggage

Why not start off this post with a lovely picture of Jen and Laurent's oldest boy, Cyprien? Here you go! He is 2 1/2 years old. Hard for me to understand once in awhile because he doesn't speak clear French. He speaks baby speech French, if you catch my drift. However, hearing him say my name in French is super cute. I will try to get video of that.

Today Laurent and I went to Montpellier (where I am moving) to open my bank account, exchange my money finally, check out the city a bit and see what was happening. Here is a couple views of Montpellier from the top of a building.

This is a playground in the complete center of town. I thought it looked really cool so I had to take a picture. It's really neat if you can see the whole thing and the bottom of the playground is all rubberized so if you fall off the crazy vine you see here, at least it would hurt less.

Other than being really overwhelmed with bank information and people who talk a little too fast for me still (remember, I have only been here for 3 1/2 days), I had a nice time in Montpellier. I am very excited about living in this city. Lots of younger people (there are like 2 universities here), tons of theatres, lots of parks and generally, a really great place. I like "La Place de la Comedie". That's in downtown, where we were, and there are tons of things to do there including a gigantic Opera. I am surely going to try and volunteer wherever I can in theater or opera here. Other than it being cloudy all day, we just kinda walked around, asked for help at the tourism office for apartment searching and any kind of discounts I can get. It turns out that Montpellier is having a bit of a welcoming party to new people to Montpellier on Sat. the 27th so I am all signed up to get a tour of the city, see the town hall and have a lovely lunch of local treats. And it's all free! Free is a good thing for me since I won't get paid until the end of October.

Right now I am trying my hardest to not spend any money since I need it for my deposit and first month's rent and groceries eventually. I have multiple apartment appointments tomorrow which I will talk about more tomorrow once I get to see them.

I haven't been up to much else besides trying to make sure I have all of my paperwork in order for my teaching position. There's all these tiny little last minute details that keep getting sent via email and there are a couple things I just didn't know about. Apparently, I have to get my birth certificate officially translated in French and that sucks because it's about $45 and I have to do it because otherwise I can't get medical insurance here. And you have no choice but to have medical insurance here. I also have to get a physical. Apparently, any foreigner in the country for more than 3 months has to get a physical to make sure we aren't bringing in some crazy disease.

Anyway, it's late and I am going to sleep. By the way, for those of you I may not have emailed, I did get my luggage finally on Wednesday afternoon. 2 days after I landed. Never fear. I certainly wrote a cranky email to the airline.

Beer mixed with Lemonade

Yes, beer mixed with lemonade really does exit. It's like the adult form of an Arnold Palmer in my opinion. You can buy this in a 6 pack just like normal beer. It's called Panaché. It's beer that's kinda sweet. I liked it. Apparently, it's made by Heineken, so says their website.



Today I woke up at 2:30PM. So far no illness or jetlag though almost everyone in Laurent's apartment is sick so it's only a matter of time I suppose. Laurent's poor wife, Claire was super sick tonight and both of his kids, Cyprien and Amaury, have colds.

This evening, Laurent graciously agreed to make some phone calls to my prospective apartments since I get a little nervous speaking on the phone in French. He, not so graciously, felt the need to tell all of the landlords that I really wanted an internet connection so I could write my blog. Apparently, that's all I do. That was nice and embarrassing.

Did you know that bathrooms in France are separated? The toilet part is in one room (called the toilets in French) and the sink and shower/bath are in a completely separate room (called the bathroom in French). I just wanted to make sure you knew about this since it's very different from the US.

One more point of interest, IKEA is very popular here. I didn't know it was all over the world but yes, cheap Swedish crap can also outfit apartments in France. Who would have thunk it?

Oh yeah, and my luggage was found finally and is out for delivery but who knows when it will arrive. It's 1:00am here already and I was told not to expect it until tomorrow. How wonderful.

The Flying

As soon as I arrived in Grand Rapids to check in for my flight 2 hours in advance, they told me MOST LIKELY, I would NOT make my connecting flight in Chicago to Frankfurt due to very, very rainy conditions in Chicago that was delaying EVERYTHING. What a great way to start the day. After a moment of panic, United at least set me up with a backup plan for flying from Chicago at a later time. However, since I would be leaving Chicago later, everything else gets pushed back too. Apparently, Luftshana only operates 2 flights a day from Frankfurt to Marseille. 8:10am (my original flight) and 4:30pm. If I didn't make it on my original connecting flight (arriving in Frankfurt at 5:45am), I would arrive in Frankfurt around 10am and then I would get to wait in the airport from 10am to 4:30pm. That sounded like so much fun! But at least, on the bright side, I would have plenty of time to get a German beer and a frankfurter or bratwurst. Oh and instead of arriving in Marseille, France at 9:45AM on Monday, I would arrive at 6:20PM Monday night.

The luggage restrictions allow you to have 50 lbs. for each bag and I was allowed 2 bags. All night the night before I was agonizing about only bringing 50 lbs. of stuff. You would not think it was so hard until you had to make crucial decisions on what you really need for a year abroad. Or at least 5 months while I wait for my mom to come visit in February and bring me what I might also need. Weighing in at the airport was pretty stressful. First bag (the smaller of the 2) weighed 48.5 lbs. Crap! That's pretty close and that wasn't even my big bag. Bag number 2 (the big one) weighed 48.5 lbs. too! Then of course I was frustrated that I didn't bring some shirts or something to just add to the limit. Oh well.

So we ended up leaving Grand Rapids 2-1/2 hours late and we landed in Chicago 45 minutes after my flight to Germany was supposed to take off. Needless to say, I was now going to be in Chicago until 6:30pm (we landed at 3:15pm) and catch all of those late flights that I mentioned earlier. After standing in line for over an hour at the customer service desk for United (because flying international will not let you check in at the little kiosks), I got my boarding pass and got to wait around for another 2 hours before I finally left for Germany.

The silver lining in this whole flying deboggle was that I got an awesome aisle seat in an EXIT row on the flight to Frankfurt. That rocked and I was really surprised to get such a highly coveted spot on the plane. My legs were stretched out the whole way. The flight was about 8 hours long. We got dinner (beef or ravioli...I did ravioli), 2 movies ("Speed Racer" that they actually played twice in a row for some reason and "And Then She Found Me" with Helen Hunt. Neither movie was that great but it did keep me distracted. Because I was not at a window, I could not fall asleep (it's just one of those things for me). I was also right at the bathroom entrance so people were either standing near me or walking by me all the time and the lights never really dimmed where I was either. The plane was 2 levels though and that was super cool to me. I have never been on a plane that big. Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to walk around up there unless you have a seat up there so I couldn't go exploring. Maybe if I was a little kid they would have bent the rules for me but alas...
(The huge plane from Chicago to Frankfurt)

We arrived in Germany early but not early enough for me to catch that original 8:10am flight. So from 9am to 4:30pm, I had to kill time in Frankfurt. Now normally, I would be super excited to go exploring since I had so much time however, I had, at that point, been up for almost 24 hours straight and I was exhausted plus I had to carry my laptop bag and my rolling carry on around wherever I went. I did take the city train to downtown Frankfurt and walked around the gigantic train station there and outside for a little while but after about an hour and a half, I was too tired and just ended up going back to the airport to hang out there. I was a bit worried about security even though I had almost 4 hours until my flight. While walking around in downtown Frankfurt within 4 blocks, I saw 3 sex shops! I kid you not. Those Germans love them their sex shops I guess. Nude dancing is very popular there apparently since all the sex shops were also strip clubs as far as I could tell. Anyway, I did get a couple pictures of some stuff that I will post shortly and yes, I felt like a total tourist taking pictures of Starbucks and McDonald's in Germany.

(The big train station in Frankfurt, Germany where I had my bratwurst)



Yes, for those of you wondering, I did have a Bockwurst (bratwurst) and a German beer that I could not even begin to pronounce. It is so frustrating for me to have to just point and kinda grunt what I wanted because I really don't know any German and I hate assuming that people speak English outside of an airport. At the airport, I truly do expect most people to speak English and thank God for that because I would have been totally lost if things weren't also printed in English all over the airport. You would think that you could kinda figure out what some things mean because German is relatively close to English but that theory only works for like 10% of the words there. Otherwise, none of my Latin based language training helped me decipher anything! I ordered my brat and prayed that the side item it came with wasn't something horrifying. It turned out to be homemade potato salad that was really, really good! I also had a German pastry which I would assume you could get anywhere. It was some sort of donut/croissant mix. It was tasty.
(I thought this was funny. It's the local newpaper from Frankfurt as well)

(I have no idea what this says. :)

The flight from Frankfurt to Marseille was uneventful since I slept through the whole hour and a half. The eventful thing was that ONCE AGAIN, my luggage was lost. Both bags! They think that they might be in Germany and the earliest that they would arrive would be tomorrow morning at 10am. Thankfully, due to my horrible luck with luggage, I did pack some things to keep me going for a few days before I start running out of clean underwear. Unfortunately, my power converters and webcam were in my luggage so I can only plug in my laptop while in France until my luggage comes. I officially hate airline luggage. I mean, come on. I was in Chicago for 4 hours before that plane took off and in Germany for 7 hours before the connection. You would think that they could get my damn bags in the plane and yes, I was the only one at the kiosk reporting lost luggage.

Laurent picked me up and we went back to his apartment so I could meet his wife and his 2 very little kids. More on those adventures in another post but at the time this post is going online, I have been up for 33 hours.

The trip from San Francisco to Whitehall, MI

The second part of the trip:
From San Francisco, we started driving across the country towards the end point, Whitehall, MI.

On the first drive from San Francisco, we ended in Winemucca, NV. Now you might ask what is in Winemucca? Well, besides an RV camp with a pool, not a whole lot. Quite honestly, besides the one exit from the highway for this po-dunk town, there was nothing there. It's about 150 miles east of Reno, NV, which by the way is pretty small and very unimpressive. However, we did drive by it in the daytime so maybe at night with all the lights, it looks cooler. Winemucca was pretty boring but at least they had a pool which was a nice respite. The drive from San Francisco to Winemucca was the first time I actually wished I had air conditioning in my car. It was so flat with no cloud cover and very little to look at. In summation, Nevada, not a great state to drive through.

(The Winnemucca Camp)

After the night in Winemucca, we started the next journey of 450 miles east to a small town south of Salt Lake City, UT. The camping there was absolutely gorgeous and quite remote. There were only a couple people camping there at the same time so we had an awesome and quite large campsite all to ourselves. No showers at this campsite unfortunately. Our campsite did have a cool stone oven in the middle near the fire pit but since we had been living off of food that was cooked with boiling water, we couldn't use the oven. We also made friends with a little ground squirrel too.

(The Salt Lake Camp)
(A View from the Road in Utah)

After Salt Lake City, we drove another 500 miles to Denver to stay with my aunt and uncle who were gracious enough to make us dinner and give us a warm place to sleep. We weren't there for very long but the hospitality was wonderful. Onward to Lincoln, NE...we arrived in time to check out the cool hot tub at the campsite and then settle in for a night with the mosquitoes. At about 7am, we awoke to the sound of thunder and the minute after I put my contacts in, the rain started POURING down. After loading all the stuff in the car, the fun part came when we had to take down the tent in the pouring rain. That was fun and altogether completely wet. After rolling the tent up the best I could, we were on our way to Madison. On the way through Nebraska, one of my windshield wipers stopped working. After pulling over at a gas station that thankfully had a mechanic, they showed me that one of the nuts had come loose from the bolt that holds the wiper. So after that little fun stopover, we got to Madison.

Madison is the home of one of my best friends Anna who just had a baby girl. After meeting Eliza, we had a great time in the state's capitol touring the capitol building and the University of Wisconsin campus as well as the Henry Villas Zoo. Here we are at the zoo:
The food was excellent and Anna made an amazing tofu dish our first night there. I really had a great time in Madison with Eliza....and Anna too. We played Settlers of Catan (which is a really fun strategy game) and had wonderful pasta for dinner the next night. We had to leave on the 3rd day to see Chris and let Anna and her family start her Labor Day weekend festivities.

Once we left Madison, it was just a short drive to the Chicagoland area to see my friend Chris and just hang out a little before arriving at my mom's house. In Chicago, we went to a minor league baseball game and saw Batman: The Dark Knight. It was a fun and calm time. A note to anyone thinking about living in Chicago, please live in the city limits. DO NOT live in the suburbs. We had to drive for hours to get ANYWHERE!
(Chris and Jen)

Finally, on Sunday, Aug. 31 (13 days after leaving LA), I got to my mom's house in Whitehall, MI. We drove exactly 3,297.3 miles from door to door.

The trip up the coast of California

The trip was really in two parts so this is the first part:
We took Highway 1 which is also the Pacific Coast Highway in LA all the way from LA to San Francisco. We left LA on Monday, Aug. 18th and drove 4 hours to San Simeon where we camped for the first night. We took a trail that was supposed to lead to the ocean but it actually just led around a big hill. However, we did get to see the awesome deer that were all hanging out.

After San Simeon, we drove to Big Sur, CA. Before we got to Big Sur, we went to Hearst Castle which, if you don't know, is where William Randolph Hearst who was a gigantic, really wealthy publishing magnate, built an amazing "castle". And get this, you have to take 4 different tours in order to see all of the castle. We only took one tour because we are cheap and I don't feel the need to buy 4 different tours. But we saw the kitchen, indoor and outdoor pool, a bunch of guest rooms, the libraries and Hearst's private bedchamber which was actually really small and unimpressive. The outdoor and indoor pools were by far the most amazing things there. The pools and much of the grounds can be rented out for a mere few thousand dollars for a few hours. It was very tempting, let me tell you.
(The Outdoor Pool at Hearst Castle)

It was an absolutely beautiful drive. We pulled over all the time to look at the ocean and the breathtaking views. If you have never driven this highway, please do! It's really breathtaking and amazing!! On our way to Big Sur, we came across a ton of sea elephants.


In Big Sur, we camped in an amazing campground that was literally on top of the Big Sur river. We spent two nights here and even walked up part of the Big Sur river but it was really rocky and I was really struggling to just not trip on my own flip-flops. We hiked a bunch while here, especially up part of a mountain and had a really wonderful time though hot and very exhausting. Also, a skunk decided to make friends with us. He hung around underneath my car and in the area for much too long and made me rather nervous since he seemed hungry. Luckily, the idiots camping near us left their food in a tub outside of their tent so the skunk finally found some munchies and eventually left us alone.

(The Big Sur Campground)

We were supposed to spend the next night in Monterey but it was a little too far from San Francisco and really close to Big Sur so after going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and having a really wonderful seafood lunch, we headed up to the "Redwood Resort" in Santa Cruz, CA. It was really more of a trailer park with some limited camping but they did have a shower and bathroom so that's all we really needed and it was super duper cheap which is always a plus.

By now I am tired of setting up and taking down my gigantic 8 man tent. We did develop a bit of a routine but since it was my tent, I took it upon myself to be the tent guru. That got old. Anyway, after the night in Santa Cruz, we headed up to San Francisco for the Beck/Radiohead concert. We ended up getting into San Francisco really early and after we checked in early to our very small, very "economical" hotel room, we went searching for the concert venue. We decided not to drive since everything on the concert website said not to drive and to take all the public transport available. After an excruciatingly long bus ride (well it seemed excruciating because we were excited to get there and very hungry!), we arrived at the Outside Lands Festival. Beck went on first and he was REALLY AWESOME! Radiohead was great too. Will is more of a fan of them than I so that part of the concert was really for him but I did enjoy it.

Our hotel in San Francisco was so tiny that I was a little shocked. Quite honestly, there was room for a bed, a small table, a small TV and bathroom. I pretty much tripped on the bed as I walked into the room but you know, it was clean and all of the lamps and faucets worked. What can you really ask for? Not a breakfast that's for sure. I actually did try and get the continental breakfast the next morning but.... it was only Tang (not OJ) and some bread for toast. Apparently, an hour after being set up, you can't get a bagel or any jelly, not even an English Muffin.