Highlights from 2008

So, since I haven't blogged since the middle of my England Adventure about 2 years ago, I thought I should do a little recap of some of the highlights from 2008. Am I missing anything? If so let me know and I will accept, based on how big of a highlight I believe it to be ; )

Leave my job in commercial escrow at First American.
Meet Warren G on New Years in Orange County, Annett asks him if he wants to "do something"
Move from Orange County to Ventura and buy a new home in River Park.
Find my new job at Amgen as a Paralegal for the Legal Group in Clinical Contracting.
Paint our living room a baby blue that does not work, paint the guest rooms silver sage that we love.
Go snowboarding at Big Bear!
Find my new Morning Wake Up Yoga class with Katherine, Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:15am, and make new Yoga friends.
Meet Jill and Jeremy in Vegas for their annual birthday trip! Palms hotel is amazing.
Mandy comes to visit before leaving for Florida and moving to New York.

Meeting up with Michelle for lunches on her trips up and down the 101
Suffered terrible pain from gallstones found by ultrasound, and schedule a surgery date to have my gallbladder removed (realization that my body thinks I am old due to my favorite drink being a seven and seven).
Go down to San Diego for Kevin's SDSU college graduation!
Take amazing pain killer pills.
Have surgery (by a surgeon that "walks on water" in my mind) and remove gallbladders - pain free now!
My parents come to help take care of me and Tim.
Amgen's "summer shutdown" - are you serious? This company rocks!
I celebrate my 28th birthday and Tim treats me to a day spa and massage at the Ojai Resort and Spa
Annett's bachelorette party in Palm Springs! What happens in Palm Springs stays in Palm Springs.
Tim and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary of our 8/5/06 wedding with a romantic dinner with views of the ocean!
My friend Andrew comes to visit from the bookstore I worked at while we were living in Windsor, England.
Annual trip to Seattle for bumbershoot! (Tim and Dan's 9th year, my 5th year). Hang out with D&K&E&E - my favorite performances: Band of Horses, Black Keyes and Joe Bonamassa
We meet and adopt our sweetie dog, Elle.
Hiking trips in Santa Barbara!
Ben and Annett get married September 13, 2008 by far one of the most beautiful weddings ever!
We sit VIP at the MGMT, Spoon, & Beck concert at Hollywood bowl!
My first camping trip at Jalama Beach in SB!
Jill comes for a baby shower in Camarillo and to see our place and meet Elle, we try out the high security Watermark in Ventura.
Meet up with our friends, the Nacelli's in Orange County.
Meet up with the Malones in San Diego for the American Cancer Society Walk at Balboa Park.
Plan to be one of "those girls" on Halloween with my friend Molly in downtown Ventura - success.
Participate in Amgen's 2008 Tennis Open tournament. Come in 3rd place for Women's Doubles!

Barack Obama defeated John McCain and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States, I will always remember watching his victory speech up in my bed --- "change has come to America"
Start tutoring for a sweet 5 year old Daisy every Wednesday night - she is so smart!
Spend Christmas in Lafayette with all our family.

Sign up to take a winter quarter legal studies class for Contract Law at UCSB extension.
Trip to New York with the Malones to see Mandy and celebrate New Years in the big apple.

Purchase my first pair of Wellies (I think that's a highlight!)

Jet Setters Michelle & Wolf in Town for Thanksgiving

Michelle and Wolf had their flight booked to London before we even booked ours, so we had been looking forward to their visit since our arrival in England. Michelle picked the dates based on a prosegious Design Workshop Class she signed up for at the Design Center in London which happened to coincide with Thanksgiving. As all our friends and family stories begin, we pulled into Heathrow early Thanksgiving mornings and waited anxiously for them to pop out of the arrivals gate. The flight from New York is not nearly as bad as the flight from California, so we came home dropped their bags and jetted off to London (minus Chef Tim). As all tourists must do, we hitched the nearest Red Double Decker and scoped out the city! It was a beautiful day and the clear skies allowed us great views of the city sites! We stayed until the sun was setting and the Christmas lights over Regents Street were starting to be hung! Meanwhile, Chef Tim stayed home slaving over the Turkey and making further preparations for Thanksgiving dinner. Once Michelle, Wolf, and I got home the house was filled with the smell of an American Thanksgiving feast. We relaxed with wine, turkey (well the vegetarian skipped the turkey – but appreciated the tradition), stuffing, green bean casserole, mashpotoes, cranberry and orange relish….for dessert Tim made a pumpkin cheese cake that was out of this world! (More to follow on the yummy pumpkin cheesecake).

The next morning Michelle headed into London for her fashion class where she was able to network with some influential Londoners at the Champagne Reception afterwards. Sorted! Meanwhile Tim and Wolf met up in London to wander the city, see the Tower of London and then hitch a boat ride along the Thames. I had to work, but met up with the three of them later that night. We went to an area called Brink Lane a.k.a. Curry Mile – a long stretch of street with all Indian food restaurants and similar variations. After dinner we went to a bar called Lounge Lover (where Madonna recently had her birthday party). Needless to say we loved the lounge and continued our late night fun. Cheesecake was waiting for us when we got home that night (morning) and so began the tradition of late nights and having cheesecake upon arrival home.

The next morning we headed to London, caught the tube and got off in the very fashionable Notting Hill neighborhood. After strolling the streets (getting slightly lost) we headed to Portobello Market, a cool street market that has anything and everything you could imagine. We wandered for several hours browsing the street vendors and shops. Lots of neat stuff, but we came home empty handed. Later we “tubed it” to Oxford and Regents streets to see the beautiful Christmas decorations, shop a little and go to a great restaurant called Rocket. Searching for the restaurant was like finding a needle in a haystack…it was tucked away in a tiny side alley. The food was great (and not too expensive) which is tough to find in London. After dinner we went to a members only club (the girls talked our way in) and had a little dancing fun with the locals. Pumpkin cheesecake was there to greet us when we got home.

Michelle and Wolf were dropped off at the good 'ol Slough train and headed on their way!

Paris, France

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We first found out we were going to Paris the night of our rehearsal dinner, thanks to a surprise gift from Jill, Shanna, Julie, Carly and Michelle. After missing our train from Windsor to London Waterloo by mere seconds, we called a taxi to rush us into London. There we caught the high-speed Eurostar Train that took us under the English Channel and into Paris. Two hours later we arrived in Paris and attempted to walk to the hotel, but we quickly learned that the trek was far greater than we (Tim) had estimated. We finally caught a taxi after striking out several times at the supposed taxi pick-up points, and arrived at the Hotel Le A. The very chic hotel had a large and modern library and a cozy lobby, equipped with a lovely fireplace and all white furniture...not to mention an elevator that changed colors on every floor. The hotel staff was very helpful in finding us romantic places to eat and the location was perfect, just one block from the Champs Elysees.

Our first adventure was the Arch de Triumph (center of Paris) where we hiked to the top and saw breathtaking views of the city, thanks to a break in the clouds. Views included the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Seine River, the Champs Elysees, and all the roads leading up to the Arch. Since the sun was out we decided to hop onto the double-decker tour bus to get a feel for the city from above. We scoped out places we wanted to see and got some random tid-bits of information from the “not so helpful” electronic tour guide. Later that night we had an amazing dinner thanks to a recommendation from the hotel.

The next morning we headed to the Louvre by way of taxi since we were afraid to try out the local subway. After a quick bite to eat and much needed coffee we signed up for a “highlights” tour (in English of course) and then spent 2 hours on our own exploring mostly the Egyptian section of the museum and some of the Greek sculpture. The amount of art at the Louvre was unbelievable and the building itself was very impressive. The highlights tour proved to be a great decision since our tour guide was very knowledgeable and offered great insight as we admired the many works. The tour included the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Winked Victory of Samothrace and many more. After our time at the museum we took a stroll along the Seine River making our way towards Notre Dame. The scene along the river reminded us of being in a Hollywood romance movie. We crossed at Pont Neuf to the Isle de la Cite and were soon at Notre Dame. Notre Dame stood majestically on the Isle of Cite and was glowing orange with light from the setting sun. We took several pictures and then headed in for a view from the inside. After, we walked across the street for our first taste of authentic crepes at a café conveniently called the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Yum, butter and sugar crepes.

Later that night, we went to the Eiffel Tower which glows at night and sparkles every 10 minutes to the hour. Our trip to the top was well worth it thanks to the amazing views and city lights. The sky was clear and the city was glowing beneath us. After our romantic night at the Eiffel Tower, we decided to take the untraditional route and had a late night sushi dinner on the Champs Elysees. After dinner, we had a lovely stroll back to our hotel, window shopping along Champs Elysees. Kaitlin took particular interest in the Louis Vutton lights display.

The next morning we had omelets, cappuccinos and crepes at a nearby café and rushed back to the hotel to catch a taxi to the train station. We made the train with only minutes to spare…another close call. It was sad to say “au revoir” to Paris.

Julie makes her way across the pond

There is nothing like an email titled: URGENT I’M COMING from one of your best friends – 48 hours before they fly across the Atlantic. I was more then thrilled to get the news from Julie that she was going to forgo her San Diego trip to come visit! I basically went to bed, woke up, and there she was at Heathro Airport. We had a great time during her visit! Full of energy and life as always we spend the whole time laughing and catching up on our new life changes. Doing surprisingly well at resisting jet lag we met for lunch by the bookstore where I work. When I got home that night the jet lag (and Tim feeding her a few beers) got the better of her and she was sleeping. The next day Tim and I headed off for Paris and had Julie babysitting the house with her really nice English friends. Once we got back into London we went to meet her and company along the Thames in Southwark neighborhood in London. After a few beers and many laughs we went out for Turkish dinner and Julie kept the restaurant staff fully entertained. Later that night we took a hilarious train ride home (one of many to follow). Tim was then off on a week a week long work trip to Plymouth, England and Julie too-in typical flight scare fashion - took a trip to Amsterdam to explore the city. She ended up knowing someone from San Francisco on her flight there and of course she made friends once she arrived. Another highlight was going to see Willy Russel’s musical Blood Brothers on Charing Cross Road in London. The story is of two twins who are separated at birth and grow up on opposite sides of towns with very different up brings. There paths continue to cross later in life until a final clash leas to tragic circumstances. Although Julie got a cavity mid-show and I felt sick after finishing up her Amsterdam chocolates, the show was great and we were singing along and both jumped in our seats during the last scene. Once Tim was back we went out for a really yummy Thai food in the city and they didn’t even care when we decorated their paper table cloth with lovely drawings. After dessert we headed home the next day she was off back to LA. So sad to have her leave, but it makes us excited to get back to sunny so cal to see her in her new home!