Emily and Mitchell in the USA

This Sunday we had a very exciting day trip, we went to San Diego! It takes about an hour and a half to drive there, and is essentially a straight line to the south. We'd come prepared for all weathers, but it was quite a nice day to adventure, around 24c and partially cloudy all day, so we didn't get too hot (or burnt).  The first stop was La Jolla Cove (pronounced la hoya). There were parking spaces along the coast road, but it was busy even for 10am. We got a space quickly, but we were lucky, we didn't see another free one all day! As soon as we stepped out of the car we could hear (and smell) the sealions. They were very noisy and right on the beach by the town. There were loads of them laying on the rocks and many had babies!  Sealion pups! Along the shore there were also some birds which I think were a type of pelican as they had very long beaks. We walked along the coastline for a while, seeing more and more of the wildlife until we got to a little structure going in...

Hello!  I'll explain the dinosaur in a second We've had some small but exciting trips this week. On Sunday I wasn't feeling too well after our walk the day before (I'd had a nap right after coming home) so Mitchell was in charge of driving for the day (eek!). The face of fear First stop was the botanic gardens. Even though I've spent most weekdays there, Mitchell still hadn't visited as they're not often open on weekends. So we drove up to the visitors car park and I showed him all the best bits. Apparently I am the best bit We came home for some lunch and then Mitchell drove us out to Riverside Plaza to the cinema. It was just a regular cinema, but the chairs were recliners! I very much enjoyed lying down to watch the movie with my buttered popcorn (apparently the two default flavours here are buttered or not buttered). Oh and it was 'The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard' very funny, would recommend as long as you don't mind swearing.  The movi...

Hi it's Mitchell writing blog for once! I've been pretty busy at work, unfortunately an assay that was working fine when it was last performed before lockdown by someone no longer in the lab wasn't working for me last week. But now it's working! And it wasn't my fault (which was my first assumption when it failed)! This week we've had a few more items arrive, we now have enough plates and stuff to actually use our dishwasher! Although we don't have any dishwasher tablets so currently I'm still doing it in the sink ( Emily's note: Emily is still doing it in the sink ) (Mitchell's note: I did it one time and then she washes it too quickly) . We also had a flat pack dining table and chairs arrive which would have completed our basic furniture set, unfortunately it was missing parts for the chairs and rather than send us new parts we are having to return the whole table. We haven't tried to fit it all back in the box it came in yet but I'm n...

Happy 4th July! 🎆 We decided to celebrate traitor day by going camping in the wilderness.  It was a weekend of amazing view points and the drive up was no exception. It took about an hour and half and as we drove through the mountain, Mitchell (struggling to stay awake) finally sorted out the radio stations in the car and we found it was already tuned in to a country music station. Now this isn't usually what we'd listen to, but driving through the wide open country with desert on one side and mountains on the other, we felt it was the perfect accompanyment for our journey on the most American day of the year.   The town of Idyllwild, when we arrived, was very small and made up of mostly log cabins, all nestled within the dense trees. It was a little cooler up there, but still about 30c. The campground was huge and essentially a dirt road through the forest with patches to the sides for pitching tents. Each site had a fire pit and picnic bench and most groups had already...

Well this week didn't start so good friends. We both had pretty bad sunburnt patches from our day at Laguna beach, myself around the edges of my swimsuit and Mitchell on his very pale feet, so we've gone through almost an entire bottle of moisturiser between us this week in an effort to soothe the skin and make it less red.   Frozen yoghurt is also soothing to the skin. Probably Also soothing to the skin when you drop it on yourself :( We did venture outside the next day though as Mitchell's bought a bike! He can now cycle to work which is nice as there's a pretty good cycle lane all the way between our apartment and the University. Well, he can once he gets a bike helmet. We tried to go to the bike shop after picking up the bike, but it was closed on Sundays, and we haven't gotten around to going back yet. Monday was a day off for Mitchell as Juneteenth is now officially a public holiday in California, however they didn't annouce it until almost the day before,...