September

Well, I can't believe September is almost over. It has been a fun month for Patrick and I. We decided that we don't take advantage of where we live enough. So, in the last month we went to see Fred Armisen (guy who plays President Obama on SNL), Ed Helms (from The Office and the new movie The Hangover), a one-man-show in Beverly Hills and the beach for some boogie boarding. Oh, and in the middle of all that Patrick severely sprained his ankle and we had to take him to Urgent Care. It's been an exciting month.

Both the Fred Armisen and Ed Helms shows were held at the Largo in LA. It's a really intimate venue that seats about 60 people. So, for both shows we were really close to the stage. The exciting thing about the Largo is that you always know who the headliner is but you never know who else will be there to perform or just be in the audience. At the Armisen show we saw Margaret Cho in the lobby (I'm surprised I recognized her. We're not really huge Cho followers, but it was definitely her). Patrick and I both loved the Ed Helms show. No one in the audience wanted it to end. Two more cast members from The Office came that night to perform, along with Patrick's absolute favorite comedian Demetri Martin. We had no idea any of these other performers were going to be there and when Ed introduced Demetri Martin, I thought Patrick was going to pee himself from excitement. It was a really great night.

The one-man-show we went to was written and acted by a teacher that has worked in an urban LA school for the last 13 years. It was really excellent and got you thinking about the school system and how communities need to get involved (also a little depressing when you realize the magnatitude of issues schools face). Again, it was in a really small theater; I think it sat 20. On the website for the show it said you can dress casual. So, Patrick and I dressed casual: Patrick wore jeans and a nice shirt, I wore a dress and cowboy boots. Waiting in line to get into the show, however, we realized casual in Beverly Hills was on a whole other level. Oh, well...

This last weekend we decided to go to the beach because our A/C broke and the repair guy wouldn't be able to come out until the next morning. Well, it was going to be over 100 degrees that day and there was no way we were going to survive in our hot apartment. So, we thought it would be good to go to the beach where it is usually about 20 degrees cooler. When we got to the beach, it was still warm but there was also such a heavy marine layer (fog) that you couldn't even see the water or the end of the pier, even when you were standing on it. Once in a while the fog would lift and you could see a ton of surfers out in the water. Regardless of the fog, we swam in the waves and Patrick went boogie boarding. It was a weird day at the beach weather wise but lots of fun.

Oh, yeah, we also celebrated our 2 year anniversary this month. Patrick baked me cookies (which was really cute because I'm always the one that bakes) and I made us a picinic to take to the park. It was nice and relaxing and some good quality time together. It was great to have such a low-key anniversary since the rest of the month has been so hectic. Happy 2 years to us!

Grandma

Since I was in Oregon for girl's weekend, I made it an extended stay so I could visit with my family. My mom, sister and I took 4 days to go to Canada and visit my grandma. My grandma lives on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and growing up, my family would drive up to the island once or twice a year to see Grandma and Grandpa.

Our main goal was to spend time with Grandma, but I was also really looking forward to being on the island. It had been 5 years since I was last on the island, which is way too long when you are used to visiting at least once a year. Salt Spring is an incredible place. Too many wonderful things to list, but some of my favorite memories of the island are swimming in the lakes on warm summer days, walking down to the wharf (which I always called the dwarf) to see starfish clinging to the pillars and the clams spitting, playing in the snow one Christmas out front of my grandparent's house, driving around the island to look for deer early in the morning, picking ripe berries out of the neighbor's garden... Once again, too many wonderful memories to list them all.

My grandpa's been gone for 10 years and my grandma now lives in a apartment complex for senior citizens. A couple of years after my grandpa died, my grandma sold the house that my grandpa had built and moved into the apartment. It was a good decision because the house and yard were just too much work, but it definitely feels different to not stay at the house. I have so many memories of that house and when you drive by it now it doesn't even seem like the same place. There used to be a driftwood sign out front announcing the Armstrong residence and a beautifully manicured lawn to greet you. I remember there always being homemade chocolate chip cookies, the freezer filled with homemade jam and my grandpa's amazing pancakes that were only complete once spread with grandma's homemade tayberry jam. I remember the crystal bowl that was unfailingly filled with mint chocolates (still has that at the apartment, thank goodness). I remember sleeping on the cot and snuggling down into Grandpa's WWII sleeping bag, inevitably waking up with feathers all over me. I remember watching for families of quail and deer that would roam through my grandparent's backyard. I remember sitting on the sunroom floor, looking through the slides from when my mom was a kid. I remember laying on the shag carpet, playing cards with my sister or having my grandma teach me a new card game or sitting at the yellow kitchen table putting a puzzle together with my grandma.

A lot of these things have gone by the wayside, but spending time with my grandma is still so special. She is one of the funniest people I know and extremely stubborn too. Whenever my mom would look at us and roll her eyes because Grandma was being obstinate, we would just tell my mom to remember this when she was Grandma's age and being stubborn!

While visiting, we just spent some great quality time together. Grandma is 85 years old and is still doing her logic puzzles and reading. She also puts together jigsaw puzzles with some of the other residents, plays ping-pong every week, and has wine and crackers with her neighbor every evening. The apartment complex has a gardener, but my grandma loves to go out and pull weeds and this year she planted a tomato plant among the flowers. Her hearing is not good, her hand did not heal properly from when she broke it playing ping-pong and she has troubles using her opposite arm but her mind is still really sharp and when she laughs she looks so young. I'm so thankful for the time I got to spend with her this summer and I hope I can go up to the island again next summer to spend some more time with Grandma!

My sister and I on the ferry. Her hair blowing over my forehead looks hilarious.

The Armstrong/MacInnis girls

My sister teaching my grandma about technology

View from the inter-island ferry

Grandma is the one who taught me all the card games I know, how to shuffle and how to back shuffle. At 85, she got down on the floor and played cards with me. I was so proud of her. She hasn't played cards in a long time because she has a hard time with her hands, but she shuffled and dealt her own cards. This was the highlight of my time with Grandma.

Girl's Weekend

Every year since high school graduation, a group of us girls get together for a girl's weekend at the Oregon coast. Some of us have been friends since kindergarten and others since high school, but the number of years doesn't seem to matter when it comes to the strength of our friendships. We've been together through the loss of loved ones, the excitement of our weddings and the joy of starting families, not to mention the memories of growing up together.

This year's girl's weekend fell in the first week of August and I was so ready to spend 3 days with my girls. We had a small baby with us at the beach because one of the girls had just had her first baby 6 weeks prior to girl's weekend. It was such a joy to spend so much time with my good friend's baby girl since I don't live in the area and won't see her again until she is about 6 months old!

Every girl's weekend seems to always be filled with eating, shopping and lots and lots of talking. We always end up in the kitchen, eating and talking and we continue talking into the early hours of the morning. Even when we get into bed, with the intentions of sleeping, we continue to talk for another hour at least.

I don't know what I would do without these weekends or without these wonderful girls. I am so thankful to have these amazing women in my life!

Kristin, Me, Kimmy and Alycia enjoying the local coffee shop.

Kimmy, I am so thankful you sat next to me in freshman math. I can't imagine it any other way!

We've been friends so long I can't remember life without Kristin.

I don't have a pic of all 8 of us, but here are 5 out of 8. Megan, Kristin, Me, Erin (& Lilli) and Kim.

Thanks, Erin, for the pictures!

Big Sur, Carmel & Monterey

The last week in July, Patrick's mom flew down from Oregon to visit us. We had been looking forward to the visit for a while. Not only was Patrick's mom in town, but it was also a great vacation for all 3 of us.

For five days we traveled up the coast to see the sights. We stayed 2 nights in Big Sur and 3 in Monterey, stopping to see Carmel-by-the-Sea on the way. In Big Sur, we did some short hikes, enjoyed the scenery, went to open mic night at the Henry Miller Library (the only time in my life I think I will see a sitar player and a violinist jam together) and relaxed on the beaches. We stayed at Deetjen's in Big Sur, which was built by a Danish man in the early 2oth century. It was rough around the edges, but all 3 of us loved it. It had charachter, and adding to that charachter was the shower arrangement. Check out the picture below!

On the way up to Monterey, we stopped in Carmel. We walked the town, had lunch and relaxed on the beach. That afternoon, we had some great wine on the patio of the Mission Ranch, which is owned by Clint Eastwood. This was one of my favorite places on our whole trip. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. Sitting on the patio, with wine glass in hand, you could see the ocean in the distance, while the fluffy grass before you was being cropped by a herd of sheep. Who knew there was something so relaxing about sheep. Wait, maybe that's why you are supposed to count them when you can't sleep?

During the 3 days we had in Monterey, we walked Cannery Row, went to some wine tasting rooms, saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium, ate our way down Fisherman's Wharf, and drove into Carmel-in-the-Valley for a day of wine tasting. On the drive back to Pasadena, we made a pit stop at the Madonna Inn, a place Patrick and I had seen online. It was just as over the top in person as it appeared online. There were buses full of tourists taking pictures of the craziness; so we joined right in...

Overall, on the trip we saw seals, sea lions, pelicans, elephant seals, jelly fish and otters. We did some short hikes and lots of walking around town. We enjoyed the sights and drank some great wine. The concensus between the three of us was that Big Sur was our favorite area and that wine tasting and open mic at the Henry Miller Library were our favorite activities.

Elephant Seals battling it out

Our first great view of the Big Sur coastline

Mom and son

Gorgeous Big Sur coastline

McWay Falls

Deetjen's

Window at crotch height and a shower that only washes your chest. Who thought this was a great idea for a shower???

Playing at the beach

Carmel Mission

Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

View from Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

Madonna Inn

Up with the Sun

It's 8 AM and I've already been to LAX and back, filled the car with gas, picked up Starbucks, done the grocery shopping and put the laundry in the wash. It's amazing what you can get done with your day when you get up at 5 AM!

This morning, I dropped Patrick and a co-worker off at the airport (they're going to Toronto for work). I don't know how I got the job of shuttle service. For all of those people that get up at 5 AM everyday and drive in rush hour traffic.... WHY??? I used to get up at 6:30 everyday and ride the subway an hour to get to work and that was bad enough. These days, we live only 2 miles from Patrick's work. Thank goodness! It sure makes life a lot more enjoyable.

I have to say, though, that being on the freeway with the masses at 5 AM gives you a feeling of camaraderie with the other fools out there that early in the morning. Commiserating in misery.

Family Visit

Last week, Patrick's brother Eric and his girlfriend Sarah came for a quick visit. They had driven across the country from Virginia and were on their way to Oregon. We were happy to have them and happy to meet Sarah.

We took them to Hollywood to see the stars on the sidewalks and Graumann's Chinese Theater, where there are hand and footprints from celebrities and they hold lots of movie premiers. They saw the freak show, tourist-trap that is Hollywood Boulevard. There are dozens of people dressed up in costumes (Elmo, Spiderman, Spongebob, Jack Sparrow, and on and on and on...) and if you attempt to take their photo they want to charge you money. Then there are the guys trying to get people to listen to their rap album. Patrick had the same guy yell at him 3 times because he didn't want to listen to the guy's music. Then there are the people trying to get you to go on a celebrity home tour. Absolute craziness!

We also showed them the Kodak Theater, which is where the Oscars are held every year. Little does anyone know, while watching the Oscars, that the Kodak is located in a mall. We walked them by the steps of the building where the Jimmy Kimmel Live show is filmed. While walking by, we saw them filming a segment out on the sidewalk for the show. We didn't stay long because you can only handle this area of Hollywood in small doses.

After lunch, we spent the rest of the day in Pasadena and the next day they left to continue on to Oregon. We had a lot of fun with them and are so glad they took the time to stop by and see us.

Happy hour drinks at Barney's in Pasadena

Backpacking Adventure - The Descent

Since we had decided there was no camping to be had at the lake, Patrick brought up the idea that we could probably make it back to the car by 7:30 PM if we hurried. I thought he was nuts, but he reassured me it would be mostly downhill and that I would be surprised by how easy it was. I had my doubts,to be sure, but we decided to shoot for the cars.

As we started back down the trail from the lake, we passed multiple groups of people (we had seen only 1 other person up until this point). Some with backpacking gear and others just up for a day hike. We realized we must look pretty badass to the day hikers, since they were huffing and puffing and stopping us to ask how much further to the top. Little did they know, we were actually idiots that had just carried unnecessary gear for 2 miles. Never the less, it made us feel good to see people struggling up the mountain with nothing on their backs (if that's evil, I don't care. You would have felt the same way at that point).

When we came to the waterfall that had flooded the path, I walked right through it since I still had my sandals on from the lake. Patrick picked his way across the rocks and we continued down. It definitely felt better than going up, but the descent at this point was so steep it really strained Patrick's knees. All the same, our time coming down was much quicker and soon we were back to where we had seen the bear paw print, only by now, the sun had melted the snow enough that the lines of the print were blurred. Looking at it now you wouldn't have realized it was a bear print. This made us realize that the print must have been really fresh when we had seen it earlier. I had been hoping maybe it was left a couple days ago, but obviously not, since in a few days time that patch of snow would be gone completely.

An hour total from the summit, and we were back to our campsite. We had made it back to the campsite in less than half the time it had taken us to get to the summit. Yes, going down was much better, and from here on out it was a more subtle descent and less painful on the knees. Continuing on, we crossed the river and made good time through the forest and alpine meadows. In one of the meadows, I saw movement above us on the mountainside and realized it was deer. We stopped to watch them, until they must have noticed us and hopped off up the mountain further away.

In another meadow, walking on a particularly narrow portion of the trail bordered on both sides by thorny bushes, I heard a crash behind me and Patrick yell out in pain. I turned around to find him laying half on the trail and half in the thorns. Of course, I was concerned but I have to admit it was pretty hard not to laugh. He had stepped on an uneven portion of the trail, sprained his ankle and fallen into the thorns. Really, nothing unusual for Patrick and we were surprised he hadn't pulled this stunt already on our trip. Now that he had sprained it, though, it was much weaker than normal and he was in fear of spraining it again to the point of not being able to walk. We still had a good 3 miles to go, so we agreed he should walk in front to set his own pace and this way he wouldn't feel hurried to catch up to me if I got too far ahead.

Another river crossing, by now we had this routine down, and I went first across while Patrick took off his shoes. Half way across, I realized the river was higher and definitely stronger than yesterday so I took my time finding my balance and footing. Once on the other side, I let Patrick know the status, and carefully he made his way across.

We were back to where the giant redwoods were more prevelant and huge pinecones, bigger than my head, littered the trail. We'd had little to eat but we were feeling good and determined to get back to the car. Another hour and we were to our last river crossing. Shoes off and across we went. From the river, the trail went up. I remembered going down yesterday to get to the river, but it hadn't been a very long descent so going up shouldn't be too bad. Wrong!!! By this time, we were exhausted from carrying our gear and having hiked a good 8 miles already that day. Plus, we were sore from yesterday. Up, up, up. I was so angry, this just couldn't be right. I didn't remember going down this long yesterday. How could we possibly go up for so long???

My legs were in such pain from carrying the extra weight of my pack. Patrick was getting further and further in front of me and, at one point, when I caught up to him we both thought I was going to lose it and burst into tears. I took deep breaths and he reassured me we were close to the car. In actuality, we were only about 20 minutes away, but it felt like eternity. When we saw the car, I thought I was going to cry again but this time from relief. I looked at Patrick and said, "At some point I'm sure I'll think this was fun, but right now I just want to die."

We were both so sore. We had hiked a total of 10 miles that day. Patrick with about 40 lbs worth of gear on his back and about 27 lbs of gear on my back. We had seen giant redwoods, walked through snow and rivers, forests and meadows. We had seen some sort of rodent, a snake, fish, deer and a bear paw print. We were sunburned, scratched, scraped, sprained and filthy. It may not have been what we set out intending it to be, but I would say we had an adventure.

Through all this, I finally came to the realization that I, Jennie Sears, am a day hiker. I have fought this for years. I've always wanted to be a backpacker. I have been on some great backpacking trips and I'm sure I will continue to backpack, but today I embrace the fact that I am a day hiker at heart.

Giant Pinecone

Last river crossing. Thank goodness.

Amazing view. This was one of my favorites.

Another favorite view. If we hadn't known better, we would have thought we were in Oregon.