A Week in Paradise

We've been in Hawaii for a week, and we are leaving tomorrow to go to China. Here's some photo highlights of our visit to paradise:

<--We hiked through jungles! Jon jumped off a high cliff! (I only jumped off a little one) --->

We learned how to act like tiki statues at the PCC! -->




Among other things. . .

. . . We went snorkeling . . .

And spent quality time with our siblings. . .

And even found some alone time . . .

It's been fun and now we're moving on. See you in China!

Homeless

We did it. We moved out of Colorado. It was certainly sad to say goodbye to some wonderful friends that we have made in the last several years there, as well as to leave behind the only place we've called home as a married couple. But after finishing work, and saying goodbye to my primary class, we finished up packing up our apartment and taking care of other essentials before leaving Colorado. We were lucky to have the help of two very capable friends to load up our somewhat-smaller-than-expected Uhaul trailer. But, put a physicist and an engineer to work, and they were able to fit everything (minus one bookshelf) into the trailer. I kept meaning to take a picture, because it truly was a work of wonder! I failed to take the picture, but to give you an idea it came out looking something like this . . . . . . . . . .

After packing up the trailer and enjoying green pancakes with Elijah, Jon's dad, brother Will, and Will's friend Tito showed up and hooked the trailer onto their Pathfinder to load it all to California. We followed in our car until we made it to Salt Lake that night. The next morning the adventures really began as all five of us (yes, count them, four boys and me!) piled into the car together to drive out to Cali. This is a picture of the boys snugly enjoying the backseat (their smiles are evidence that this was taken at the beginning of the drive). . . .

We arrived in the Bay area that night, and enjoyed a restful night's sleep (read: foreshadowing of a contrast in things to come) before getting up the next morning to unload me to my job interview (which went well, I think, but I'm still waiting to get word) and then to unload the trailer into our very own storage unit. Once our business in Palo Alto was complete, the next high priority item on the agenda was for Tito to swim in the Pacific Ocean. Being from Spain, Tito grew up on the beach, and his six weeks in the United States, specifically Utah, have left him pining for the ocean. The Pacific, however, is not the Atlantic nor the Mediterranean! Will jumped in with him, and was blue after about 5 minutes. Spanish skin is tougher than we knew, though, and the call of the ocean held Tito jumping in and out of the waves for nearly an hour (the locals thought he was nuts!).

Once we dragged Tito out of the water, we got on the road again to make our way back to Utah. However, little did we know what adventures awaited us! As we were heading through the San Francisco freeway system, we heard a loud bang, and realized that no, it was not a case of road rage, but our back tire had blown. Lamont thankfully was able to move us adeptly to the side of the road, where we sat as Tito and Will put the spare on. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

With that done, we set off quickly (it being 4:30 p.m. by this time) again to find a place to get a new tire. We found a great place in Oakland. Okay, really the greatest part was that it stayed open until 5:30. Other than that, when we saw that it took the guy about 15 minutes and more than 15 tries to put the spare cover back on, we realized that we couldn't expect too much (again read: foreshadowing of difficulties to come).

So, 5:30, and we're on the road again, this time with a brand new tire and set to make it for the long haul. Not to be, however. It only took, oh maybe 10 minutes, before every time we started to go over a bump in the road, we heard the most nerve-jarring screech/grind. It seriously was a textbook case of classical conditioning because my heart started pounding and I was tensed up when I even saw a bump coming. We decided that wasn't right, so we pulled over to find out what on earth was causing that horrible sound. What we found was, well, not thrilling.

I know we've all heard of shocks and struts, you know, those things that the people at the brake place tell you to replace and you just ignore them once you hear how much they will charge you. However, most of us have never actually taken a look at the shocks and struts on our car, so let me inform you for a bit:

First off, this is what a decently used, but intact shock should look like:

One of our shocks looked like that. . . the other looked like this:

Yes, it's hanging, and no, the guy at the tire place did not notice (but are we surprised by this?)

So, the next adventure was finding a place that was open and willing to change our shock -- not happening. After several attempts, we ended up at the CA equivalent of Checker Auto to buy our own shock and then figure out how to install it ourselves. Never fear, though! These four guys were up to the challenge. . . . . . .

How many guys does it take to change a shock?

Yep, count 'em, that's four under the car (though Jon likes to point out that he was the only one actually doing anything -- besides me taking the picture of course!)

But, the shock got changed, and with very few further delays, we were back on the road by about 7:30 p.m. That then meant a long, lovely night of attempting to fall asleep in the crowded backseat of a car full of guys and then trying to stay awake in the driver's seat along the lonely roads of Western Nevada/ Eastern Utah (they're actually prettier in the dark, though). We pulled back into Salt Lake about 9:30 the next morning, and then took a few days to recover from lost sleep.

Okay, that was a long story, but I think well worth the telling! I just consider it the first in what I hope will prove a summer chock full of even better stories!!