The Honeymoon, Part 1

We finally went on the first part of our honeymoon. We spent two nights and three days in South Lake Tahoe. We stayed at the Tahoe Lakeshore Lodge and Spa which is right on the beach. We had a balcony overlooking the beach and the lake. The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed hanging out on the balcony and reading.

Bear statue in front of the lodge (now I see why
people are afraid of bears...)

View from our balcony

 The trip wasn’t exactly as we had originally planned due to a few circumstances that prevented us from being able to go rock climbing. Tom had wrist surgery a few months ago and I’m in the second trimester of pregnancy. So we decided to do some hiking in place of climbing. The first day we hiked to Roundtop Lake which is near Kirkwood. Between being pregnant and being unused to the high elevation, I was slogging along the whole time (take a step, breathe twice. Repeat). But it was great to be outside and the scenery was beautiful. Despite the slow pace (four hours to go less than five miles), we both thoroughly enjoyed the hike.

 

At Roundtop Lake

After the hike we went out to dinner at a place called Azul Latin Kitchen. I got some excellent tacos (one with fish and the other with pork belly, yum!) and then I proved that maybe I really am a fangirl after all. We were leaving the restaurant when my husband whispered, “Look over there at the guy in the green hoodie.” I slowly turned to look and then my head snapped back to my husband and I was like, “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” Sitting at a table in front of the restaurant with his hood pulled up (probably trying to avoid fangirls like me) was none other than Alex “My What Big Hands You Have” Honnold (at least that’s what I call him after the 60 Minutes interview with him where the reporter is enamored with his hands). If you don’t know who he is, he’s a professional rock climber who is known for his free solo ascents and speed record climbs of big walls. If you haven’t seen the 60 Minutes segment you can watch it here: 60 Minutes clip. Anyway, we didn’t bother him or his dining companion (maybe I’m not really a true fangirl after all). Then we saw him a little while later at Safeway, where I continued to surreptitiously watch him. I heard him say something to his companion and I was like, “Oh my god. He sounds just like he does on TV!” Sometimes, I’m such a dork.

The next day, we relaxed on the beach and had lunch at Sprouts Café, which was awesome as usual. Then we headed back to our hotel to relax some more. As we were getting ready to head out for our spa services, I got a call from one of my midwives to tell us that we are having a boy. With that news fresh in our ears, we walked down the hallway to the spa. My husband got a massage and I had a facial. It was wonderful. Then we went out for a romantic dinner at Evan’s American Gourmet Café. The food was French inspired and the restaurant is in a darling house that has been converted. We both enjoyed our food tremendously.

After breakfast the following morning, we packed up and went on a very short hike (which was all I could manage) to Cascade Falls. It was another amazingly beautiful hike with views of granite cliff faces, Cascade Falls and Lake, and Lake Tahoe.

 

Cascade Lake in the foreground and Lake Tahoe in the background

It was a perfect trip and we’re looking forward to October, when we embark on the second part of our honeymoon to Yosemite.

What I’m reading: I finished reading The Museum of Extraordinary Things and it was excellent from start to finish. I love historical fiction and I thought the author did a great job of writing about New York in the early 1900’s. I also read The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. I thought this book was really entertaining. It’s also a work of historical fiction, but it takes places in the early 1800s on a plantation. As much as I enjoyed reading this book, I kept feeling like certain parts of it didn’t ring true. I’m still reading Drums of Autumn and I’m trying to decide what to read next. I just got the newest Toni Morrison novel and the latest  Maisie Dobbs novel by Jacqueline Winspear (I desperately want to read this because I thought the series was over only to discover that this came out in the last few months), but I have a shelf full of other books waiting to be read. Ah, the dilemmas of an avid reader in the first world…

School's Out for Summer

Since less than a month has passed since I last blogged, I’ll count that as progress towards being more disciplined about blogging. While I haven’t been blogging with great frequency, I have been writing and I finished a few rewrites of a story I’m working on about a fairy. I’ve also come up with two new ideas for books, but it’s hard to tell right now if either of them will amount to much. I submitted a story for my manuscript consultation at the SCBWI summer conference and I’m pretty excited to get some feedback on that.

School’s out for summer and it’s the first year since I started teaching that it doesn’t affect me at all. I haven’t subbed in a couple months which has been great. I think I may be over subbing, but I guess I have a few months to decide. What I’d really like is to find some kids to tutor. A few of my critique group friends have school age kids so I should really see if they can put me in touch with anyone who’s in need of tutoring. It seems like a good way to make a little money and still get to teach. Subbing seems like it would meet those criteria, but it turns out there’s usually no teaching involved.

I’ve hardly been climbing lately which is a huge bummer, but I did manage to get my brother to go top roping at the gym with me so that was fun. I really need to start hang boarding to build up my finger strength again because I’ve been getting weak. The weather has been beautiful for the past few days so I’m hoping that will help inspire me since the hang board is on our balcony.

A few weeks ago I went to visit the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. It was pretty cool to see that house where he lived (it’s huge and has a bell tower with a bell that you can ring) and learn some things about him that I hadn’t know before. He was a fruit farmer and made his fortune selling fruit from the trees in his orchards. He was worth $250,000 when he died (the equivalent of $5 million now). I was surprised by his having been wealthy but I guess it explains how he was able to make so many trips to the Sierras. There’s also an old adobe house on the property which has been turned into a museum. I thought it was a worthwhile place to visit, but only if you happen to be near Martinez (it’s on the way to Davis so it was very convenient for me).

A robotic arm from Pneubotics (the company my husband works for)

 Last week we took a brief trip to Pasadena. We stayed with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and it was fun to spend some time with them. I was able to visit the school I used to work at and go to the end of the year staff party. It was great to see some of the kids I used to teach and to catch up with my old colleagues. I also went to the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Pomona. My husband’s company was there to exhibit their robots, but they weren’t actually part of the challenge. I got to watch the last part of the challenge and see JPL’s robot compete. It was cool to get to see their robot in action. They didn’t win but they did pretty well.

 

John Muir's house

What I’m reading: I finished reading Needlework by Bekah Berge (such a great read and I hope it finds its way to a bookstore soon) and Voyager by Diana Gabaldon. I read And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Housseini which I thought was pretty good but I was not in love with the multiple first person points of view. I also read The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natasha Sanmartin Fenollera which was interesting but didn’t really do anything for me. And I read a memoir written by my husband’s grandfather called Growing Up in the Santa Clara Valley: From Picking Prunes to Submarine Service by Thomas L. Allen. I’m currently reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon and The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman which is superb so far.