Emily and Mitchell in the USA

This week we had our first visitors! Mitchell's mum and brother came to spend a week with us, and we packed a lot of adventures into that time.  They arrived late on Thursday and we picked them up from the airport. It was straight to bed as the adventures started first thing on Friday.  After breakfast, Mitchell went to work and I gave them a VIP tour of the botanic gardens. I even found one of the people who work there and they unlocked the greenhouse for us specially. We saw a lot of turtles in the turtle pond and plenty of interesting plants and lizards. Once we'd finished it was time for lunch and we met Mitchell on campus for some burgers.  Finding a comfy seat After lunch we headed back to the apartment complex, and as it was a nice day, decided to try out the pool. We haven't been in there since the autumn because it's unheated and it's been pretty cool, but I thought it might have heated up in the sun that day. It had not, so we had a very quick, very icy di...

This week we've basically lived in the OC.  Mitchell had an impov rehearsal there on Thursday as normal, then on Friday evening we went to go and see a band play. They didn't come to Riverside, but they did tour in a few cities around us and this one in Santa Ana was the closest and easiest to get to. It was a really nice venue, with tiered standing so wherever you stood, and however short you are, you were guaranteed at least a half decent view. The bands were fun to watch, even though we'd only heard of them that week and had only bought the tickets the day before! On Saturday we were up pretty early considering the previous late night, but had a good breakfast before heading out for a little local hike. We'd been to Box Springs before, but we started on a different trail head and followed a different path which turned out to be very steep! It felt long with so much uphill, but it took us less than two hours and we were back for lunch. It's still all green and the...

 This Friday was my birthday, so I planned an entire weekend of fun things! First up, while Mitchell was at work on Friday, I went to the big mall in Ontario which I haven't been to before. It was huge and had a lot of outlet stores, so I was able to get some new shoes and a bag for starting work, as well as some fancy chocolates and bubble bath.  I made it back home in time to freshen up and drop my bags off before picking Mitchell up and heading to the food lab. I'd invited the group from the lab and we all had dinner together (I had an eclectic mix of sushi and horchata). We were then taken to a mysterious location... We got out of the car and it was the world's largest paper cup! Who knew it was in Riverside? With no lights, signs or anything, just on the side of the road. They chose here to sing me happy birthday and held out a phone light instead of a candle which I had to "blow out". On Saturday I wanted to go back to the zoo and see all the things we hadn...

It's been a busy week for us! I've been hard at work in the gardens Last Monday, Mitchell's lab group decided they were going to Costco for some things, and we tagged along for the experince. It was very different to anything we've been to before and is definitely the place to go for snacks and baked goods. We all got some muffins to share and after the others had paid for their goodies, we went around to the front to the food hall and got some Costco pizza which I remembered as the best, and cheapest, pizza in California, and it did not disappoint. However, we didn't eat in the food court, because it was all shut off for covid safety, instead we drove to a nearby park which Quynh really liked. We sat on picnic benches under a very pretty gazebo and chatted until it got too cold for the Californians.  So much cheese!! Saturday was Mitchell's first American Improv show! It went really well and it was so energentic I was exhausted by the end, and I was only in the...