Home in San Diego

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week. We moved in to our apartment and have both started our jobs. In the mean time we took a trip to San Francisco for a family wedding of Katie's. For now we have posted some new pictures of our trip down from Sacramento to San Diego, our new apartment, and San Francisco.

We will keep you all posted. For Now here are the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/katiefitz918

The Eagle Has Landed!!

Our mission in Sacramento has been completed, and it's only 10 a.m.! We are both now licensed to practice nursing in the state of California... Much to our surprise, the process was quite ea sy. The man behind the desk was so friendly, and said "Welcome to California" before we could even say why were were there! We now have the day to explore our first California stop...

Thanks to Lauran's mom and dad for safely delivering her little wagon on the semi-truck at 11 last night!!!

More to come from sunny San Diego:)

please note: we are wearing the same clothes as yesterday it is all in our efforts to fit in here in California. We are going green!

Our New Address:
2196 Fenton Parkway #217
San Diego, CA 92108

Nostalgia

This morning we woke up in Carson City Nevada. We drove for 12 hours yesterday on highway 50 from Moab to Carson City. Highway 50 is notorious for being the loneliest highway in America. Lets just say it lived up to its reputation. We saw four notable things on our journey. 1) a dust storm 2)a tumbleweed 3) a forest fire 4) a white Prius with California plates that passed us we then saw 30 miles later stopped at a rest stop. We were more than thrilled to be in an air conditioned hotel with a television and a real bed. So we took full advantage of it and ordered some food in and slept in.

We drove around Lake Tahoe this morning on our way to Sacramento. It was beautiful. We will definitely have to go back there and camp, ski, and white water raft. Drum roll please........... After two weeks of driving and camping we FINALLY made it to California. We crossed the state border right around 2pm! It was glorious. Driving on the highway to Sacramento was somewhat like the ride batman at six flags, although instead of Katie's hands being up above her head, they were clenched on the steering wheel. And all of the other drivers screaming at her.

We settled into our hotel here (thanks to Katie's mom) and decided to get a taste of home. We went to Lauran's favorite restaurant, Chevy's. It was a nice taste of home. Although it was not the same. Lauran observed that the salsa and the sauce on her enchiladas seemed to be a bit redder. After that we had to go to Walgreens to get a photo for Lauran's nursing application. We were so thrilled to be in Walgreens and in civilization that we went a little crazy. We spent about 20 minutes in the card aisle listening to the new musical cards. (they are great!). We were so excited when we told the clerk behind the photo counter Lauran's phone number for the registration process he said " and are you Lauran Miklosey" and we both looked at each other and said "THEY KNOW US HERE" . We took it easy this evening and took care of some business and we will up early to get our nursing license in the morning.

To see our photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/katiefitz918

We miss St. Louis so we visited the arch(es)

Last night we were window shopping on the main street in Moab and we came across a book shop. So we browsed through a few books, one of our favorites was Back country Betty: How to survive the wilderness in style. Well we must have been inspired when we woke up this morning because the first thing we did was take a venture to the general store here at the KOA and pick out beautiful matching MOAB tshirts. As if the tshirts weren't tacky enough on their own, we decided to fringe the arms and to both wear them today. So you will have to view the pictures on picasa. We were inspired to wear matching tshirts by one of the couples we met on the night cruise.

Katie's embarrassing moment of the day:
While walking to the bathroom to take a shower with clean clothes and my shower bag in hand while talking on the phone with Jenna, Katie heard a loud honking noise from behind, she quickly turned around to find a van with Illinois plates sitting there with male driver pointing to the ground, to Katie's dismay, there lay her underwear on the gravel road. How embarrassing... Of all things to drop.

It was a sweltering hot day in the Arches national park in Moab Utah today. So naturally we decided since it was our last day of real outdoor adventure that we should make the most of it. So we did the most hiking today than we have done our entire trip. Katie's knee from the fall two days ago, was a bit sore, so Lauran acted as a nice cane. Apparently the heat wasn't stopping anyone. We met a nice elderly couple while hiking up to broken arch. The couple was probably in their 70s. The man was walking with a bit of a limp on flat ground and he was using a single hiking stick. While we were talking to the wife sitting down below the arch, the old man decided to act as though he was 20 and take his single hiking stick and bum leg and hike up the huge incline that we did not even think about climbing up. We looked at each other as he walked up thinking "OMG, talk about being in the right place at the right time". Meanwhile his wife was just talking our ears off. 20 minutes passed and we were still talking to the wife as we observe the husband coming down the rock. He starts tapping his hiking stick on this single piece of wood to support himself to get down. We took one look at that situation and insisted we help him down. He denied the help until we informed him that we were nurses. Then we both took his hand and helped him down. THANK GOD HE DIDN'T BREAK A HIP. After we got him down he joked that he could have done that much easier fifty years ago. We laughed out loud with him while silently recovering from our mild heart attacks.

After an exhausting but beautiful day we had a nice dinner at the Moab Brewery in town. While sitting in the Bar Section we were talking and Katie noticed a cute boy at the bar. She asked Lauran if he was sitting alone or what? Lauran looked over and quickly noticed that the "cute guy at the bar" was the "cute banjo playing ranger from the park". What a small world. Unfortunately he finished his meal before we were able to serenade him with our banjos.

Now we are going to get to bed early so we can wake up at 430 in the morning and drive to Carson City Nevada.

Un Rapide!

Today we ventured onto the Colorado River, again... This time we opted for a little more adventure with white water rafting. We geared up for the day's adventure by chanting to our cupid doll (that was a prize in the enchanted unicorn band aid box Lauran's mom gave us-which we have used!) to ward off any injuries that we might incur. Reminder--WE DO NOT HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE!! We arrived at the rafting office, and were on the river by 0930 am. We were the only Americans on our boat, and here is where we made our second group of friends on this trip... A lovely French family. We quickly became great friends when Lauran learned the mother owned a botany store, and when Katie learned the father was a pediatric nurse in the float pool of a Paris hospital. We throughly enjoyed floating down the calm river, but the rapids were the best part of all! Katie was feeling the heat, so she opted to let the current take her down river a ways! She jumped in the river in a spot where the current was a bit quicker, so she ended up about a mile ahead of the raft... Thankfully we did chant to cupid before this trip because both of us firmly believe that this is what saved her from entering a class 3 rapid by herself! We eventually got her back in the boat, and we were all laughs and smiles:) The adventure ended at 1600, and NO injuries were incurred. We sadly parted with our French friends, and look forward to seeing them again on August 30th, 2678when they will join us at our apartment for all American pork and beans!!

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/katiefitz918

Does it rain in Moab?

Well here we are in Moab, Utah. Moab what is that you may ask... It is a biblical name. We learned this and much more while we have been here. Not knowing much before we came we relied on a little help from the natives to guide is in the right direction. We arrived in Moab late Tuesday night. When we arrived it was 10pm and still 93 degrees. We had the deluxe campsite this time that included power hookups and a water hookup. Rolling in style. Well for a moment anyway. We used Mr. Miklosey's tent setting up in the dark 101 class to help us out. We used our headlights to light the way for our set up. Well the lighting was not this issue, the rock hard ground was the issue for grounding the tent. We used our muscles and the mallet to get most of the stakes in, but we had to be creative for the rest. We had to tie the tent stings down with milk cartons filled with water to hold the tent in place. And its a good thing we did because that first night was windy. So windy that it provoked Katie to look up the weather forecast for Wednesday. The forecast called for a 30% chance of thunder storms through the day and into the night. The sky was overcast and the smell of rain was in the air, but what do we know, we are in the middle of the dessert, it doesn't rain here right? Well we decided to rely on a valuable source for that information, the KOA ground crew. Lauran asked the two gentleman working on the cabin across from us if it was going to rain today.... and they looked at her like she had three heads. hey both said in unison, "Rain in Moab... HAHAHAHA". So we went along with our day taking their words as gold. We took a journey up to Canyonlands National park one of two of the national parks in Moab. Upon arrival into the park we found it neccessary to stop at the visitor center for a trail map so that Katie would feel oriented. (she is a bit obsessed). When we pulled up to the center we were serenaded with beautiful banjo music coming from a cute park ranger. We walked by looking for our trail maps and he asked us if we would like to join him for his program that would be starting in 10 minutes... We inquired what the program would entail (remembering our previous prairie walk and many other learning experiences). He said it was about music and the Canyonlands. Thinking to ourselves we only live once and considering how cute this banjo player was we figured why not? Well those 10 minutes in the center flew by and before we knew it, it was time for the program we had been awaiting. All 5 of the participants sat down right in front of the center on some benches with our fearless leader (the banjo playing park ranger) in front of us. We all introduced ourselves and then the program was underway. The long awaited program consisted of the park ranger playing his banjo as the 5 participants( only 4 after the first 5 minutes) sang along on pre-printed sheets of paper. We sang/laughed hysterically two songs and then after we sang each song the ranger asked us to share with the group what the song meant to us and how it related to the national park service. And that was that. Needless to say.. we had a great time.

Who needs health insurance?
So lets go back to those smart ground keepers at the KOA. It never rains in Moab. Well shortly after leaving the center we were on our way into the canyon with our trail map in hand. Well we happen to notice some rain over across the canyons. Assuring ourselves that it would just be neat to look at, and it wouldn't really rain, we kept forging on. We decided to take a hike up on Whale Rock. Which is one of the many formations in the Canyonland. We kept seeing these stacked up little rocks along the way and we were baffled as to what they were. We thought they were naturally occurring formations or that people had stacked them while on their vacations (some people build sand castles others stack rocks). Well the hike up to Whale rock according to the sign was moderate and would only be 1 mile round trip. Well about after 20 minutes of aimlessly wondering and occasionally seeing these stacked rocks and wondering why the heck it was so hard to find this whale rock.. we kept walking figuring the scenery was pretty anyway. Just when we were turning back to go to the car we stumbled upon the real path again. So we followed up a fairly steep rock formation. Following what the sign said, Katie didn't think it would be necessary to change from her Birkenstock's into her hiking shoes. So the path lead us up on top of this huge rock structure that resembled a whale and it overlooked a huge canyon. It was like were standing in the clouds we were so high. Just as we were enjoying the top and catching our breaths a nice gift from heaven was hand delivered to us. We were instantly cooled by this continuous mist of water... OH no it was raining!!! The storm we had been observing in the distance was now right over us. Good think though, we were only on top of whale rock, which happens to be made from a certain type of rock called slick rock and slick rock it was. When we were climbing down, almost to the bottom, Katie lost her footing, thanks to the sandals and slick rock and twisted her knee and slid down the rest of the rock. We are not sure who was traumatized more, Lauran or Katie. Lauran and a slight heart attack at the sight of Katie's leg bending in a way that her foot almost touched her head. After sitting down for a moment and recollecting ourselves, we got up. Katie was fine, she only suffered a minor scrape. We are thankful that nothing more happened. We learned several lessons from this situation. 1) never trust moabians and their weather forecast 2) always have health insurance 3) dont hike up slick rock when its raining 4) dont wear sandals while hiking up slick rock while its raining.5)those stacked rocks were the trail markers, after Katie's fall, she must have had some sense knocked into her and we realized that if we followed those, we would find our car.

After learning from these lessons we decided to stay in the car and observe the beauty of the lightening storm from within car that was grounded on four rubber wheels. We got to see the storm roll over the canyon, which was really awesome. We took some pictures, so you'll have to look at them.

And it didn't rain while we spent the night in the cabin.
Camping and Raining
We decided to play it safe after the days excitement and to secure a cabin for the night instead of our tent in the chance that the storms continued through the night. So we took the tent down and relocated to a cabin for the night. After relocating we showered and put on skirts and makeup for the first time on our trip for our River boat dinner and cruise.
Preston and George were at the door greeting us to our dutch oven cooked meal. We were seated next to a couple from Lawrence, KS and we enjoyed our yummy foods that were cooked in huge metal pots. After dinner and some delightful conversation we boarded the boat for our sunset light and sound cruise down the Colorado. We were geared up for a spectacular lighting of the canyons, but we got a little more. Preston (70 yr old moabian equipped with cowboy hat and a laser pen) started off the tour by pointing out some notable features of the rocks like two holes that were ET's eyes. We might not have been able to see the 100 feet wide holes if it weren't for his 1 cm wide laser light pointing them out. As the sun set we then enjoyed the light show. The light show consisted of a pick up truck driving along the river road shining big beams of white light up on the canyon walls as music played on the boat. IT WAS BREATH TAKING! Although you could see the pick up truck with lights driving along the canyon, we tried to look beyond the truck and focus on the obnoxious campers that were camping on the river who so nicely were flashing us and the little children aboard the boat. In all reality the moon was shining over the river and there were many stars in sight. We enjoyed the cruise for other reasons than Preston would have thought.

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old!!

We found ourselves leaving Yellowstone with our sad faces on:( We traveled out of the park, and quickly entered a new one: Teton National Park. The one animal that we both desperately wanted to see was the moose, but none had crossed our paths in Yellowstone. We both crossed our fingers, did a rain dance, and shared a pipe of peace in hopes of spotting a moose (the park was located in Moose, WY!). The crossed fingers, rain dance, and pipe of peace did not send a moose our way, but we did see some beautiful landscapes. We had a lovely lunch just south of the park in Jackson Hole, and continued onto our final destination: Rexburg, ID. Awaiting for us in Rexburg, ID were two real beds, a home-cooked meal, and a delightful 17 month-old named Annabelle. We stayed the night with Lauran's bosom friend from high school, Lindsey, and her family. It was sooo nice to be in a real home, and to share some laughs with an old friend. Annabelle is just starting to talk, and is quite the smarty pants. We tried to teach her how to speak chinese(or at least our version of chinese), although she was smart enough to recognize that we were just making it up and would not repeat our "special language." She would however repeat the phrase "Hey Dude", and was even cuter than the Olsen twins when she said it! We played a few card games, learned more about blogging, and slept like rocks! We spent to morning at the park running around with Annabelle, and sadly had to say our goodbyes:( Thanks to Lindsey we hit the road with clean laundry, and a sack full of home-made cookies... More to come from Moab, UT.