Thanksgiving 2009 in LA

This year, we spent Thanksgiving in Los Angeles with Inga (Kersti's sister), Paul (Inga's better half), Leslie (Kersti's mom) and Kappy (fam friend). Being SoCal rookies, we didn't leave until late in the morning on Thursday, and thus got to sit in 4 hours of traffic! But it was all worth it, as we had a fabulous dinner at Kappy's, an old friend of Leslie's, who graciously hosted us. The next day we visited Paul and Inga's place, where they are busy studying for their Law Degrees. Paul even showed me his loop machine for his guitar, now I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas! We went out to a nice healthy brunch at a French cafe, and then dropped Leslie off the airport before meeting up with friends in LA.

Jason Taylor (JT), hosted us at his new apartment, and we had a fabulous time despite Kersti's sickness. He recently bought a place in Santa Monica, so we had to be sure to break it in for him. Peggy and Andrew met up with us, and we first headed to a tres chic burger joint/bar, and then to a dive bar to listen to one of JT's friends play in a band. We had met some of his friends years ago, so it was fun to hang out with the LA crowd! We then headed to a courtyard themed bar before heading home.

The next morning we headed to Santa Monica beach for some volleyball, as both JT and Peggy have mad skills. It was a beautiful day with clear skies, and we finished the games off with a few acrobatic antics before heading home.

Paul, Inga, Kersti, and Leslie at brunch

The sisters fighting for the last seatbelt (in a parked car, of course - no moving infringements here!)

Kersti bundled up for the arctic weather of LA, which only she felt.

Kersti squinting for the camera

Andrew, Kersti, Bill, Peggy, and JT at JT's new apartment

Some LA celebrities

A beautiful day at Santa Monica Beach

The Dartmouth crew

How we've grown since college

Demonstrating our newly acquired acrobatic skills

Pre-Thanksgiving

Now that we are back in the States, we decided to revive the old tradition of Pre-Thanksgiving! It started while we were at Dartmouth--the cross country team would have a full turkey dinner a week before everyone went off for the actual holiday. Once we moved to California, we continued the tradition!


This year, we invited our friends down to San Diego for the weekend! Dan, Phil and Telisa flew down from the Bay Area and Andrew and Peggy drove down from LA. Unfortunately, Jason (JT) got really sick so he couldn't make it, but at least we will see him over real Thanksgiving when we are in LA! We also met Telisa's friends, Jessica and Reese, who drove down from northern san diego to hang out on Friday night and Sunday.


It was a perfect weekend! The weather was fabulous, and we spent the days playing beach volleyball right in front of our apartment. Except for Peggy, who is close to becoming a professional, I think we all need to practice a bit!

Kersti headed a wonderful meal as always. She and Peggy (with Dan's emotional support) prepared a perfect (well, slightly undercooked!) Turkey, with a tasty cranberry infused stuffing. Dagny's Yams, mashed potatoes ala Peggy Johnson, green beans with leeks, a second stuffing, corncake, pumpkin pie, apple pie with Apples-by-Telisa, and pumpkin cheesecake made for quite the feast!





The whole gang ready for Pre-Thanksgiving dinner!



The design on the back of our T-Shirts! Poultry in Paradise! Thanks to Amy for the great slogan. This picture was actually taken from our patio, turkeys and all!

The front of our T-shirts, designed by Kersti!

Prepping the turkey... this was the first time for both me and Peggy, so we learned a lot! Thank goodness we had each other -- it's a 2 person job!

Peggy and Kersti in front of their masterpiece turkey. Ummm... lesson learned about the location of the thermometer ;)

Dan is ready to eat already!

Our ever-entertaining friend, Andrew, drove down from LA for the weekend. We hope to be able to see him more often now that we are only a few hours away! That's the closest he and Billy have been since 1997.

The girls modeling their t-shirts

Peggy and Kersti out on the town after dinner!

The butheads out on the town, look out!

The gang out and about causing mischief.

Andrew demonstrating the art of sleeping bag stuffing the next morning after a long and fun night!

San Diego

Kersti and I moved to San Diego last week! We hope to find more permanent jobs while we rent a place for the short term. It gives us an opportunity to see what it's like to live in So Cal! We're staying on Sail Bay, in the Pacific Beach neighborhood. The apartment has fantastic views of the bay, and a nice beach and walking path is right out front. Not much privacy as there's a lot of foot traffic on the beach, but a fun spot. As we are both working from home, we figured we might as well stay somewhere nice! We will be here through the holidays, and then hopefully find a longer term place at the start of the next year, depending on our job situations.

The beautiful view of Sail Bay from our living room! There are sailboats, water skiers, and rowboats zooming around outside our window everyday!

Kersti hard at work in her makeshift office

The view from our bedroom

Not a bad office view!

The view from our small balcony, with the rowers heading back in

Our living room

Halloween in San Francisco

Kersti and I went out in San Francisco for Halloween to the Nightmare on Van Ness party. Our friends Phil and Telisa hosted us in the city prior to heading out to the club, in their fabulous apartment with a beautiful view of the eerily silent Bay Bridge (it was closed due to part of it falling down and crushing a few cars and a truck--no injuries, though!).

We dressed up as Dwight Schrute and Angela Martin from The Office. It was really a blast and I loved my costume. Kersti found this ridiculously perfect trenchcoat for me in the garage, as well as a stylish light green short sleeve dress shirt that worked perfectly with a green tie I have. We picked up some cheap glasses and did a little hair styling, coupled with printing out some business cards and name tags, and we had some pretty sweet costumes. Plus, we got to act like Dwight and Angela all night! Kersti had no problem... of course, no one knew she was dressed up as anything ;)

The costumes were a huge hit at the party. People were literally yelling "DWIGHT!!" from across the room, and asking me to take pictures with them. I was surprised how easily everyone recognized the costume. Angela wasn't as easily recognized, but Kersti had a fun night as well. Phil and Telisa were really generous to host us, and Phil organized a limo to the club which made a lot of sense given our numbers and the difficulty in getting cabs. Plus, we were able to arrive in the style to which we are accustomed. (that's a joke)

It was a great night, and Dwight and Angela really lived it up! Now, if we had just had Michael Scott there!

Dwight and Angela partying it up

Dwight's Business Card, I printed out a bunch to hand out, but they didn't last long!

Dwight and the gorilla having a stare down

Dwight and Angela getting ready to go out on the town.

Phil and I playing some DJ Hero at his place

Kersti, Dan, Telisa, and Phil

The full group before going out (minus Alex who is blocked by Telisa's hat!)

Mr. T hanging out with Dwight Schrute, who would've thought?

German Tourist Club

To celebrate our combined 60th birthday (my 31st and Kersti's 29th), we got together with our friends and went for a hike in Mill Valley (just north of SF across the golden gate) to the German Tourist Club, a German beer garden set in the woods. After a short 45-minute hike up a lot of stairs, we had some beautiful views along the ridge before descending back into the redwoods surrounding the Club. The Club has some spacious decks with nice views and that wonderful forest feel to it with the dampness and the tall redwoods. Luckily for us the weather could not have been more perfect... cloudless gorgeous sky.



We spent the whole afternoon there, enjoying the German beer and playing games (including some Boggle), as well as delicious snacks that we had packed in. Kersti's cousing Christopher and his girlfirend Chandra made the long drive down from Fort Bragg, so it was really great to see them again! We then hiked back down, which seemed a lot easier, either because it was downhill or because we were all a bit tipsy!



Halfway up the hill, we decided to stop for a picture at a dangerous spot..

After a lot of stairs, we had a fantastic view. Stinson? Beach is just over the hill. Does anyone know how far you can see with the human eye? This came up on the hike and we were unable to resolve it.

The happy birthday couple

The crew at the German Tourist Club!

Enjoying the German beer and all that delicious food we carried up and down the mountain. Btw, who carried the trash?

Who knew Boggle could be so funny?

Christopher after his long drive, congrats to Chris on his Forester license!

Happy Hikers, Phil and Telisa! We'll see them soon in San Diego soon as well!

Heather and Kersti relaxing after the hike ... kersti w/ a fizzy tab! Heather skeptical that this would turn out to be a good picture.

Back in San Francisco, Kersti had brunch with her old friends, Marissa and Heather at a lovely cafe on a gorgeous day!

Climbing in the Pinnacles

So, our friend Brian is an avid climber and invited us to go camping and climbing in the Pinnacles this weekend. Kersti couldn’t make it as there was a family birthday party to attend to, but I was able to go for part of the weekend. Our friend Byron from Australia is currently at Berkeley under a Fulbright scholarship, and he is also a big climber so it was good to get a chance to catch up with him as well. We drove down late Friday night after work and set up camp. It was a clear night with no moon so the stars were really fantastic. The next morning we went rock climbing on a difficult climb with a crazy inverted shelf at the top. It was my first time climbing but I gave it a good attempt. I wasn’t able to get past the shelf but I was able to get quite a ways up! It is a much rougher sport than I realized, and we were all pretty cut and bruised up afterwards. It was a hot weekend, but fortunately they had a pool at the campsite that we were able to make good use of.

This weekend also marked the start of our 28 day metabolic cleanse that Kersti and I are doing, as well as Amy! So far so good, it has been a challenge to resist a lot of the food and drink but hopefully it will help me find out which foods are good for me. Fortuitously the diet ends the day before my birthday, so I will have very good reason to celebrate!



Kurt, Dan, and I back together causing mischief again!

Our Dartmouth buddy Jason (JT) came up for the weekend from LA. We had a fabulous time, doing some way too hard runs, playing tennis, and going into the city. Unfortunately, this is the only picture we took, but it was really great to catch up with him. Hopefully we will be seeing a lot more of him now that we are back in California.

Where we climbed in the pinnacles. The horizontal ledge is at the top, it was a lot harder (and further) than it looks, as I quickly found out.

Brian, however, made it look easy.

Byron also handled it with ease, but at least this shot shows how hard it was.

Now it's my go, I just don't look as smooth...

I successfully go the ledge, but then fell, I still need some practice!

Here's Byron climbing the other wall

I'm not sure he should trust me belaying...

Byron on his way back down, I guess I can belay after all!

Scenery near where we were climbing

Dan and I celebrating our survival