Home for Weddings

Hi All! I've been kind of bad about posting on the blog, so I've decided to post once a week - probably on Sunday's from now on. So, I went home for a little over a week for two of my very good friend's weddings. Both of them were very nice and tons of fun. I don't have any pictures though because I relied on my friends and am waiting for them to send them to me - thanks, Pam and everyone else who sends pics! I also got to spend a lot of time outdoors while I was home. We went to Vermilion on Lake Erie for two days with Dev's family, which was great. Lots of beach time! Katie O. and I also went water skiing with my dad at Fairport Harbor. Katie is a much better skier than I am though. Hopefully I'll get better when I'm home next month. There was also lots of quality pool time spent at Allison's, which was wonderful. It was great to see everyone and I can't wait til we can all get together again! So, I'm back in Pittsburgh now. Emily and I worked for two days, but it rained today so we're hanging out in a coffee shop. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but I really hope it doesn't. We'd really like to leave here Sunday and we have two more days of collecting and one more day of fun left. After we're done here, we'll be heading up to Cleveland until mid-August. Ok, it just stopped raining, so we're go try and collect. We're looking for places to live in C-town right now, so if anyone knows of any furnished apartments near downtown or downtown let me know. Right now, we have a pretty good lead on a place on the lake on Lake Ave. on the Cleveland/Lakewood border. So, look for another update with pics this Sunday. Take care!

Home/Pittsburgh

Hey All! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. We left DC the last week of June and moved up to Pittsburgh. We are living in an area called Shadyside. It's pretty cool - there are a lot of shops and some bars and coffee shops. I went home for a weekend before I moved here for my sister, Sharon's, wedding. Congratulations, Sharon and Michael! Emily went out of town last Thursday evening and her replacement from the Portland office, Danny, didn't get here until Sunday night. So, I decided to go home for the weekend because it is only about an hour and a half away and I had nothing else to do! It was good to see everyone. I also got to see Lake Lucerne's fireworks. I'll be going home again this Friday for Sara's wedding and staying through the week for Allison's wedding. Should be good times!
So, Pittsburgh has been pretty cool so far (except for this lady who basically stole our money, which is a whole other story). Yesterday, we went downtown to see what this place is all about. We went to the Duquense Incline, which is a public transportation method (and also a great view of the city) that gets you up this big hill on the southern portion of the Ohio river. It has a perfect view of the city, which is really pretty. We were hanging out at the top of the hill when fireworks started. They were for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game (I guess they won - Go Indians!!!). So, those were nice to see.
We then came back down and hung out at a bar, Doc's, here in Shadyside. Pittsburgh has a big fireworks display tonight downtown at Three Rivers Point State Park, but there's a 70% chance of rain, so it's a little iffy right now. We'll probably go check it out anyways. Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July! See you soon!!!

The Great Outdoors in DC

So, I've managed to do a lot of outdoorsey things in DC, which is good! Last week was cool in temperature, so it was perfect for being outside. It heated back up today and should be in the mid-90's for all of next week. Emily and I went hiking one day along the Potomac River on the Potomac Heritage Trail off of the George Washington Expressway. There were lots of toads which jumped out of the path and I finally found some day lilies that I was able to pick because they weren't on private property. They're good to sautée and eat - they taste like green beans - it's a little trick my mom taught me - thanks, mom! We also went to the National Arboretum, which is about 460 acres - it's huge - we didn't even get to see everything. They have a State Tree exhibit, in which there are 51 plots of all the state trees, plus the District of Columbia tree. There were also original columns from the Capital Building that had to be removed once the Capital Building was expanded. We also went to the FDR memorial (thanks, Halle!) and strolled along past the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. There were lots of middle-school kids there with matching shirts. It made me think back to when we came here in 8th grade and how badly I feel for the teachers who had to put up with us. We took Friday off from work and went Riking, which is a name we made up for Biking and Rafting. We biked 12 miles on the towpath along the Baltimore-Ohio canal through Harper's Ferry, WV and then rafted (thanks, Sue Lynch, for the idea!) down the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. It was a lot of fun, but there were only Class I-III rapids, so hopefully we'll get to go again when we're in Pittsburgh or Cleveland because there are rivers with stronger rapids closer to those cities. Yesterday, we shopped for a little bit and then hung out on the roof-top terrace of Team 2's apt. building. The drinking started there and ended after hitting up the Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights. Good bar, good beer, good times. Today we worked for a bit and we're going to Team 2's again for pizza and pirate day, which consists of making pizza and stealing each other's music! So, that's my life in DC right now. We're planning on leaving here on June 25 and heading up to Pittsburgh. Happy Father's Day, Happy Birthday Courtney, Happy Almost Birthday to my little sis, Lindsey and Traci!!!

Taking it slow

So, DC has proven to be a pretty cool place to live. We have great neighbors, are within walking distance of a yoga studio and are being recognized on the streets everyday. Thanks Google. We worked really hard the first week we were here and now we're slowing things down a bit, which is nice. We're collecting downtown DC now and are being pulled over on a daily basis - no tickets so far, so cross your fingers for us! We get pulled over often because our car is suspicious looking, so I guess it's a good thing that the cops are looking out for everyone here in our nation's capital. I still don't have any pictures, but hopefully will take some soon of our apt. and post them here - sorry about that. Emily and I went out last night with some of her friends. Well they were her friend's roommates, but whatever. We went to see an 80's DJ at Black Cat and then walked ourselves down to M St to see Bassnectar at Club 5. I saw him on Jamcruise and have wanted to see him since then. He usually plays on the West Coast, so I was pretty excited to see that he was going to be in DC while I was here. All I have to say is that they don't call him Bassnectar for nothing - I think I'm a little deaf today. Anyways, I think we're going to lay low tonight and maybe go see a movie. I think we're going to a farmer's market tomorrow and maybe a museum or two. Oh, and by the by, I'll be home June 23 for my sister, Sharon's, wedding. But I leave the following day, so hopefully I'll be able to meet up with a couple of you for some lunch or something. Hope all is well. Peace.

Washington DC

Hi All! We arrived in DC on Sunday and stayed the first two nights at Gigi's house - thanks, Gigi! We moved in to our brownstone apartment, just NE of the capital building on Tuesday. It's really nice and has 2 bedrooms and exposed brick and a spiral staircase. So, again, if anyone makes their way to the DC area, just let me know and the stay is on us! We started working yesterday and have put in 2 full days so far. It's been great! However, it's super hot here so it's hard to do anything outside.
So, we are allowed to share who we are collecting this data for; however I cannot post it on the blog. So, if you'd like to know, either give me a call or shoot me an e-mail or comment and I'll fill you in. It's really exciting. Also, our company has just promoted two of the bug drivers, so we are hiring immediately. If you're interested in driving around the country with all expenses paid, just let me know and I'll forward you the information. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics to post from DC as we haven't been out exploring much because we've been working. I'd love to hear from anyone/everyone, so let me know what you've been up to. Much love! Oh, and happy one-day-early Birthday, Devon!!!

The Magical World of Disney

Hello again! First, I would like to congratulate Brian Oestrike and Justin Hewitt on their summit of Mt. Everest. I'd also like to congratulate Katie Oestrike and Rachel Rankin on being a wonderful support team at Advanced Base Camp in support of the summit. We're all so proud of the amazing feat they have accomplished for a wonderful cause, LUNGevity (www.lungevity.org). If you'd like to learn more about them and their adventure, visit their blog at www.climbforcancer.blogspot.com. Congratulations again!
I'm currently in St. George, SC aka The Grits Capital of the World. We've stopped over here on our way to DC. We're leaving shortly to go to the Grits Headquarters, which I'm sure I'll post pictures of in the near future!
So, Disney was good, but I'm glad to be gone. We stayed at a Disney Resort called Pop Culture - it has 2800 rooms and giant plastic statues of different icons from the 1950's - 1990's. We stayed in the 1970's and it was pretty cool - by cool, I mean weird!
Anyways, we collected on two different days of the Magic Kingdom. We had to wake up at 5am and be in the park by 6:30. We were allowed to collect from 7am - 7:45am each day. We collected Main Street, FantasyLand, and ToonTown the first day and then TomorrowLand, FrontierLand, and Liberty Street the second day. On the first day, we were given free hopper passes so we hit up Animal Kingdom during the day and then had dinner and fireworks at Epcot and rode the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster at MGM at night. MGM was open late for Disney Resort Guests, which we so luckily were!
We didn't do anything special the second day because we were super tired. Then on Friday, Team 2 (we're Team 6 by the way) had a friend from Miami, FL visit and we went to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure. Universal is different from Disney in that there are less Mickey Mouse crocs and less crying children, so that was nice. There are also much bigger rides there. The last bonus is that I got in free. It's a long story, but basically, I kept a hold of a 2-day pass for the past 6 years because I only used it for 1-day thinking I'd one day end up in Orlando, FL again, which I did. I learned on Friday that the pass had to be used within 6 days of the original date it was used, but they were nice and let the 6 years pass instead!
We then left today and are headed to DC. We are renting a really nice Brownstone apartment just Northeast of the Capital Building, so if you want to visit, we have a nice place for you to stay. Alright, well I've posted some photos of me being a Tourist and of the wonderful World of Disney and some of a beautiful sunrise I experienced in Jacksonville. Enjoy and hope everyone is doing just grand in B-Town, C-Falls, etc. Happy Memorial Day (Blossom Time) weekend!

Leaving J-Town

Hey everyone! Hope this finds you all doing well. We're leaving Jacksonville in two days and I'm sad to be leaving the beach, but also excited to go to Disney and then DC. I haven't been to DC since 8th grade, so I'm sure there is a lot more exciting things to do now. So, we went and saw the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra play with the Glass Camels, a Grateful Dead cover band. It was a good show - a diverse crowd due to the Orchestra and a nice venue. It was about half the size of the Palace Theater in Cleveland.

We did a little planning for DC on Saturday and then we played tourists for a day. We drove down to St. Augustine, which is the oldest city in America. We went to the Fountain of Youth and paid $7 to learn how Ponce de Leon navigated his way to the Americas, which he named Florida back then. It was great. We shared this learning experience with the usual Florida mix of senior citizens and babies with babies. We then had a craving for Mojito's so we headed over to the shopping/dining area and ate at the Columbia - it was delicious. If anyone heads that way, make sure you get the 1905 salad - they make it for you at your table. We then headed out last night to a bar - Eddie Bahama's on Jacksonville Beach. Most of today was spent at the beach and reading in the hammocks at our condo. And I've just finished making chicken parmesean for dinner, so I'm going to get to eating that.