Trip to the Gulf

Today, we went with Sarah's family to see the Gulf on Florida's West coast.

It was a cold day (for Florida) and we drove up two roads along the coast. We stopped off near Crystal River, which also has a nuclear plant (kinda cool):



This also demonstrates the cold.

The coast is very swampy, and pretty with islands of trees amongst the salt water. The roads we were on went straight through the marshes, and it felt much like the fens...

We went for lunch to a seafood place near the middle of nowhere, serving food fresh from the local area. Was very nice, if also rather isolated...



Also, I realised today, Florida adds another state to my tally...

Christmas in Florida

Sarah and I have made it to Florida, for Christmas Day and Sarah's birthday.

It's warmer down here than back home, and there is less chance of a White Christmas I am told. Both of us are enjoying some quiet after a very busy few months house buying!

Here is a picture of Sarah and family on a walk this morning:



Happy Christmas all!

Location:W Bermuda Dunes Dr,Lecanto,United States

New Fridge

Bought a new fridge today. Apparently, they don't work if all the Freon is gone.... Our adventures in being real people continue!

Moving In

After a crazy move, we are now living in our new house! Much more unpacking and teething trouble fixing to do (I now know much more about how toilets work...) but we are loving living in our new place.

Some photos:


Living Room


Reading Nook



Bedroom from loft



Loft (piles and piles of boxes artfully hidden off camera).

I also worry that my statement that our attic is so huge we could never possibly fill it may come back to haunt me later....

Thanksgiving Photo's

So; finally am posting some photos from Thanksgiving in Minnesota. First; here is Sarah with the hats and items she made for everyone. As it is so cold in the North (and here too, now), these are definitely needed.

Here is us modelling said hats.

Kristine took a break from the excitement:

And here is the star of the show:

After Thanksgiving, Jim and I went to see the Gopher's game at a local bar, but Valerie and Kristine still celebrated the touchdown's at home:

Jim was very pleased by the win. Valerie was less sure:

A very good weekend, and great to meet Valerie for the first time!

Packing

Following our recent house buying spree, we returned to our new home today to check our stuff all fits in. To aid this, Sarah started taping out where everything would go into the living room:

Luckily, everything fitted in, and I helped Sarah finish off the design:

Then home, to pack up everything. This made me realise we own a lot of books, and I think based on this alone, I don't want to move again for some time....

Hopefully soon a blog from the new house.

We bought a house!

So today, Sarah and I bought a house. After a stressful few pre-closing weeks, we closed on our new house in the north of DC today!

Closing is a strange process that involves signing a large number of forms with very small writing. Also; just like my PhD certificate, the Deed for our house was not the gold-embossed parchment I expected, but I was not too disappointed...

However, after the paper-trail; we were delighted to have the keys to the new house:

I was also a little shell shocked, as demonstrated on our after-purchase celebratory lunch:

Here is a picture of our new house, we'll be moving in over the coming weeks:

My first American Thanksgiving

We spent my first American thanksgiving in Minnesota this weekend, seeing my new niece!

Heading back today after a great weekend, will post some photos soon. For now, here is one photo of her:

DC Monuments

This weekend, Sarah and I enjoyed a beautiful day in DC seeing some of the monuments. For example, we saw Abraham Lincoln:

The Korea memorial was chilling:

I also saw the White House (from a distance, admittedly):

What I liked most, however, was the pickup hockey games in the street in front of the white house, which is blocked off for security!

All in all, beautiful weather coming up to Thanksgiving....

Skyline Drive in Autumn

This weekend, we headed back to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah, Virginia, to see the National Park in autumn before it gets too cold!

Firstly, we went to the visitor Center at Dickey Ridge, and took a short walk around there. Here's the view from the top:

The walk took us past a cemetery of an early homestead in the area:

We continued out drive, and saw some amazing views. The tree's were beautiful:

Finally, we took a walk from the road along the Appalachian trail, starting here. We also used this as an opportunity for us to model one of Sarah's new crotchet creations and get some good photos:

I think the hat is brilliant. We (I was heavily involved....) have made a similar, smaller, one for our niece as a thanksgiving present.

The Mound Building Ants @ Little Bennet Regional Park

This weekend, we visited Little Bennet Regional Park, one junction north of Germantown on the I-270. It's getting colder out, there are not many leaves left on the trees and I had to finally put on my winter coat.

The area also contains one of the largest populations of Allheny mound building ant, which build large mounds in the forest. These ant's are cool; building multiple mounds connected by tunnels in a single colony, killing nearby trees with formic and farming aphids (ants being one of the only other species that farm other species, including aphids and fungi). Ants are very, very cool.

Here is a picture of me near the giant ant mounds:

Also, here is a picture of Sarah near a downed tree. We are not sure if it was the work of ants, or beavers. Who can tell?

Rally to Restore Sanity

Last week, we took my parents to DC on Sunday to see the Rally to Restore Sanity. The Rally was organized by Comedy Central, and we foolishly thought - it'll be busy, but its not a proper rally, so it won't be THAT busy.

This was proved false as we reached Shady Grove Metro Station to find one of the longest lines I've ever seen snaking out of the station. On getting to the Rally, accompanied by crowds of people swarming onto the Mall, we realised that whilst the rally was focused on Sanity; the nearness to Halloween led to a wide proliferation of crazy costumes:

The signs were even better:

We managed to have a picnic on the Mall before the rally by staying further down away from the crowds. It was fun, picnicing whilst all the craziness went on around us!

However, people kept flowing in, and eventually even where we were became standing room only!

There was a great feeling at the event, and everyone was polite and friendly, despite the crazy crowds. After enjoying some of the music and seeing more costumes and signs, we ran for it and got a not too crowded train out of the city.

We even got home in time to see John Stewart's final speech on TV! A great day and I was amazed at all the crowds - I have ever seen so many people together at one event before...

Ice Hockey Game: Capitals vs Thrashers

My parents are in town visiting from the UK, and to show them some excitement in DC, we took them to see an Ice Hockey game in the Verizon Centre last week.

The game was my first live ice hockey game; although Sarah used to go when she was younger to see the (now-not-a-team-any-more-although-we-don't-say-this-very-loud-around-Sarah) Hartford Whalers. The Stadium slowly filled up for the pre-game:

Once the game started, it really got busy - a sell out game. The action was frantic and great fun. Although the Caps started off behind (and suffered from a disallowed goal), they came back and eventually were in the lead....

At this point, even my parent's were getting excited.

However, the Thrasher's scored with less than 30 seconds on the clock. It was only a goal in overtime that gave the Caps the win. A very good first game to go to.

Finally, a picture of my parents on the mall in front of the National Monument:

More pictures of the visit soon.

New Game: Carcassone

Sarah and I played Carcassone, a medieval town board game, and Sarah won by a nose due to my over deployment of farms!

Connecticut Photos

Last weekend, we were in Connecticut in one of the first weekends of Fall (Autumn). Here is our car by a beautiful church near Sarah's parents. We parked here to have breakfast last weekend.

We also went to see some of the leaves (although we were early this year). To get a good view, we went Apple picking at a local orchard. Here's a view from the orchard, on top of a hill. It also shows the proliferation of pumpkins, which are having a very good year this year.

Here is me with our haul of apples:

This weekend has been quieter. We went to the Gaithersburg Oktoberfest (which was more child-orientated and less Beer-orientated than the one in Munich, I feel). We also did some house-hunting stuff; and took a walk around some nearby lakes in the area we are looking:

Driving to Connecticut

Drove to Connecticut yesterday too see Sarah's parents. 400+ miles, took 8 hours, one if which was having dinner! America is a beautiful country to drive through, wonderful scenery on the way.

Here is a pic of me at a Roadside Friendly's diner:



More pics of CT soon. We might be a little early for the really good Fall leaves....