Busy January...

Well, Matt and I had a very busy month to start out 2011!  We began by spending New Year's in Santa Fe, driving back to California, packing up our apartment, hiring a moving company, saying good bye to friends, and driving back across the country (with several stops along the way)!  Wow!  We certainly accomplished a lot in a month!

Matt started his new job as a Senior Associate in Ernst & Young's International Trade department on January 31st, and had 2 snow days his first week!  He seems to be liking his job so far, although with the snow days & a 2 day orientation in Houston, he really hasn't had a "normal" week yet.  He was excited one evening when he was at work around 6:00 & a partner called him & told him to stop working & go home for the night.  This is a definite change from KPMG where he was expected to work all hours of the day & night!  So far, it seems like the working environment will be much better for him!  Hopefully his work weeks will be less than 80 hours!

Since we had just made the long drive between California and Oklahoma twice over the holidays, we decided to take a few extra days to sight see on our move from California to Texas.  We had a WONDERFUL time!  Our first adventure was a drive from San Jose down to Los Angeles on Hwy 1 (aka Pacific Coast Highway).  The drive was beautiful, and with the help of less-drowsy Dramamine, I managed not to get car sick on the twisty, windy roads.

We left San Jose, after the movers packed up our things, on Monday afternoon & headed down to Carmel, California for the night.  We stopped on the way in Monterrey to see Fisherman's Wharf & enjoy a bowl of delicious clam chowder...it was so good!  Here are a few pictures:

 In Carmel, we stayed at a cute bed & breakfast called Carmel Resort Inn.  It was a collection of old artist studios that had been turned into individual rooms.  Ours was called Cannery Row & it was adorable! I loved the atmosphere (and affordable price) of this Inn!  We walked around the cute downtown & stopped in Cafe Carmel for a cannoli & coffee (instead of having dinner...don't tell our mom's!).  The beach was gorgeous & I could have stayed there all day.

After spending the night in Carmel, we woke up & headed the rest of the way down Hwy 1 toward Los Angeles.  The drive was amazing!  We stopped along the way for lunch overlooking the ocean, the fogged rolled in & covered the ocean (but not the surrounding mountains), crossed a historic bridge, spotted a waterfall (though we couldn't get a good picture of it), saw a beach full of elephant seals, & Matt made friends with a hungry squirrel.  What a great day of viewing God's creation!

  

Our final destination for the day was Los Angeles, actually San Marino, to visit Regina, Chris, Caleb & Aidan.  We were so excited to spend a few days with them.  Stay tuned for another post about our visit & to see some fun pictures...