Just another day in California

Isn't it great to have nice family?
In our great journey across the States we have set up camp in California. Sheri's cousin, Liz, has allowed us to make use of her house in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. At this moment Sheri has returned to the Netherlands to file for Dutch citizenship. Unfortunately, this could only be done after April 26, which is the date that we have been together for 3 years officially (in reality, we yesterday did a phone-celebration of our 4 year anniversary of knowing each other.) We felt it would be wise to apply as soon as possible as you never know what rules could change to foil any attempt at becming a Dutchie. The allowance of dual citizenship for instance; Sheri being an American married to a Dutch person will at this moment allow her to keep both passports. Handy for travels to places where Americans are not the flavor of the month and handy to be able to work throughout the European Union. The process will take about one year, resulting (hopefully) in a letter from the Queen in which she welcomes Sheri to the Netherlands. (earlier Sheri received a letter from the mayor of Amsterdam, congratulating her on her succesful completion of the integration classes).

So what does one do while waiting for the wife to return?

Internet, sweet internet.
At this very moment I am on the roof patio of Liz's building (see picture) enjoying the sun and working on this blog. The internet is unwittingly provided by some neighbor who has not secured his wireless signal. As a matter of fact there are 7 wireless signals within reach of which 1 (one!) is secured. I am very thankful and amazed. The bright sunlight makes it a bit of a challenge to see anything on the computer screen, but that is a luxury problem.


The beach,
The apartment is very close to a lovely strip of beach. I haven't done any swimming or lying on the beach yet, but I did go for a jog - all the way to Muscle Beach (the place where all day long people work out in the sun and work even harder at showing off their bodies). Running in the sand is exhausting.
I've discovered that in the video arcade on the pier there are pinball machines!! It has been ages since I played one so I will be sure shoot some balls later.

Reading,
I finally know who the father is.....
I've just finished; "I Know This Much Is True" by Wally Lamb. Great book, very "unputdownable". Now I have started "Shantaram" which already from page 1 is funny and gripping. Sheri loved it, but has already warned me that the end is not so funny.

Cooking,
Even though I will mostely be eating by myself this week, that doesn't mean that I don't cook. The leftover I freeze for our journey up north.

Tivo,
A great invention that I don't think exists in Holland. I don't need to describe what it is because others have done that enough: See Wikipedia description

San Diego

Yesterday and today we spent in San Diego. Sheri's uncle Harry and aunt Ellie (Liz's parents) live there and they invited us for Passover. Always nice to see them and also a chance to see some more family. I was very happy to finally meet grandpa Mike. Sheri always speaks very lovingly about her "adopted" grandpa and now I know why.

Coming from a Catholic family it was interesting to experience the Passover dinner and learn a little bit about the rituals.
If you want to learn also: www.holidays.net/passover

We also did a 3 mile hike up Pyle and Cowles Mountains, the highest peaks in San Diego. Good to get some excercise after all that lovely food.

Sedona to LA

The desert is in bloom! After a very wet spring, the desert areas of the Southwest are green and flowering, making what is otherwise a dull drive very interesting. We tried to keep track of all the diffent kind of cacti (saguaro, prickly pear, barrel)and flowering plants (ocotillo, rapeseed, century plants and many, many more!).

Tip to travellers: Go to the southwest and southern California in April. The variety, the colors and the beauty of the vegetation is unbelievable. That said...some of these areas had record-levels of rain this spring and I think that the incredible bounty was a bit unusual.

We were abruptly shaken from our wildflower glee by car-shaking winds. The area around Palm Springs, California is known as a wind tunnel (thus the impressive fields of wind mills (I guess "turbine" would be a more appropriate word for this modern equipment.) We stopped at a rest area and could barely stand up. The wind was whipping so ferociously and the dust was flying. They even had police officers on the highways motioning for people to slow down due to the near "white-out" (it was more beige, but that doesn't sound right...a beige-out) conditions due to blowing sand.

If you're keeping track, that's white-out number 2 for our trip. Whooopppeeee!

Soon we joined the insane traffic of LA...I am not referring to the amount, though it was more than we'd yet seen, but more to the number of trucks and the speed at which everyone was travelling (80 mph/120 kph bumper-to-bumper) and the crazy zig-zagging in and out of traffic that some drivers do. Nonetheless, we made it safely to our haven in Santa Monica.

Albuquerque to Sedona

On the way to Sedona, Arizona, we stopped in the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park for a hike. Most people drive through the park and take short, marked trails through designated areas. The park ranger informed us that we were free to hike down into the "painted desert" area and simply wander. Since we had both seen the Desert from the strategically placed look-out points, this was a great way to experience the colors, textures and sounds of the desert and the petrified wood.

We drove south from Flagstaff, Arizona amongst the pine trees and cool air, through Oak Creek Canyon a bit before sunset. The quality of light reflecting off the red cliffs and the rock itself was amazing. Arriving in Sedona at sunset is something that everyone should experience.

We spent the next two days with friends who work for Pink Jeep Tours. They got us a tour to Native American cliff dwelling ruins and took us out in their own jeep for some awesome, near vertical 4-wheelin' on the red rock of the Broken Arrow trail. Very exciting!

We also did a couple of hikes in this gorgeous area to a natural rock bridge and through formations. We never did manage to feel the energy that the New Age (what do you call these people??? practitioners? believers? wackos?) folks talk about in relation to certain rock formations. They believe that at special "vortices", there is either an up- or a down-flow of energy, which they classify as male or female. The whole idea came about as the "brain-child" of a woman who visited the area about 30 years ago. Apparently, she is now finding vortices all over the US. New Age centers are everywhere and there is no shortage of companies making a buck on the spiritual experience in Sedona. Here's just one example: Sedona New Age Center

Painted desert at the start of the trail.

Northern New Mexico and Albuquerque

We took (yet another)scenic drive through high, snow-covered mountain passes to cross the state border into Chama, New Mexico. Sheri lived in New Mexico for 6 years and had heard much about this area and its historic steam train, so it was lucky that she made a wrong turn and we ended up getting to see it.

Our drive took us past the Rio Grande Gorge and into Taos for a spin around the historic plaza and a visit to the mission church made famous by Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. We tried to do the same in Santa Fe, but Sheri couldn't figure out how to get to the plaza with all the construction....no matter....one New Mexican historic plaza is much the same as the others. We decided to hit Albuquerque's plaza, instead.

We spent the next couple of days in Albuquerque staying with friends, driving around a city that was no longer recognizable to Sheri (so much development and a completely re-done downtown area), and doing a little hike in hip-deep snow (well, hip-deep for Sheri - knee deep for Michiel) on the top of Sandia Crest.

Of course, the trip was made complete by a full New Mexican meal of green chile chicken blue-corn enchilada, posole, sopaipillas and margaritas. Ole!

Southern Colorado

We finally left Denver on the 12th and drove out I-70 into the Rocky Mountain ski areas to the west. We headed south, driving over high mountain passes (over 10,000 feet) and through Breckinridge and several other famous ski areas. The mountains were completely covered with snow and the skies were deep blue, the kind of blue you get when you are at high altitudes. We stopped briefly in the old west town of Leadville, the highest community in the US and continued on Route 24, the Top of the Rockies.

As we continued south, the temperature increased and we drove into an area of high plains surrounded (afar) by snow covered mountain ranges. We got to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southeast Colorado a little before sundown. After obligatory slogs to the top of high sand dunes (and the more fun run down!), we headed to Alamosa for the night (and some surprisingly good Thai food!) [Just a short side bar about Thai food...it seems that one can find Thai food places anywhere in the US. Even on a nearly abandoned stretch of highway, we found a Thai food "shack" next to a gas station.]

Denver

We flew to Denver, Colorado to attend the Raytheon Antarctic job fair. Although many of you think that we already have positions "on the ice", we are still in the process of trying to secure positions for the austral summer season (October to February). We learned that there are many returning employees from last year and since they get priority, there aren't a lot of positions available. We did, however, have positive responses to our resumes (CVs) and had a few interviews. Now, we must wait and periodically phone, mail, nag, etc. potential bosses.

While in Denver, our friends, Stella and Lance, who live in Sedona and came to Denver to also attend the job fair, helped us to buy "Sue", our wonderful used Subaru Legacy Outback, who will act as our trusty steed from here to Alaska (and onwards!). She got a good several days of testing as we drove in high altitudes (Denver is over 5,200 feet/1,730 meters above sea level), on highways, for miles across the sprawl that is Denver and environs, and through SNOW!

BLIZZARD! In one day, the temperature went from sunny, clear skies and 70 degrees (21 celsius) to near freezing, windy and snowing. We got over 20 inches (50 centimeters) in less than 24 hours. To test out our preparedness for Antarctica, we trudged through the white-out to the local Super-Walmart for groceries and supplies.

Yeti??

Arrived in the States.

Hello everyone!

Finally a word from us. Sorry that it took so long to send out some news, but up till now we've had a very busy schedule and it took some time to figure out how this blogging works. Another apology goes to the Dutch readers; these Blog pages will be in English as it would take quite some effort to write in both Dutch and English. Feel free to send your comments (in Dutch or English) on that (or on any other matter). We will be happy to hear from you.

If there are pictures in the posts they will be small. If you want a bigger version you can click on them and get a bigger version which of course takes more time to download. After clicking on it you can choose "back" in your browser to get back to the text you were reading.
(an easier alternative is right-clicking the image, and choosing "open in new window". After you are done with viewing that big image you can just close that window and return to the text you were reading)

Sheri & Michiel

ps
This post has an incorrect date to always make it appear at the top of the page.

Hurray!!!!

What's up with the cake?

The picture of the cake relates to the warm welcome we received in New York (or more precise - in Croton Falls) where Lisa and Artie (Michiel's brother and sister in law) live. We stayed at their home for a couple of days and they showed us around the city. We got to see the rest of the family, including Jake, our very very cute little nephew , who had just had his first birthday. A party was thrown in his and our honor (hence the cake).

In New York city we did lots of stuff. We went to Central Park, to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza, the Village, China Town and Little Italy, Grand Central Station, took the Staten Island Ferry, saw a show (Cookin' - a percussion-oriented show centered around Korean chefs) etc.