Emily and Mitchell in the USA

This weekend was pretty cool. On Saturday, Mitchell had another improv show in the evening, so we went for a little hike in the park by our apartment to try out his new hiking shoes, and then we went for lunch in the little town area. I got a salad and Mitchell got an enormous sandwich! Andrea &co then picked me up to take me to the show (Mitchell was driving separately as he was meeting his team) and we went for dinner. We went to a plaza in Irvine which was entirely Asian food! It was very busy, but we went to a curry restaurant, I had mushroom curry, and then we got some milk tea.  Mitchell's show went well, it was his last one of the season and it was a pretty good one to end on. He had a good time improvising with the group, but he still doesn't like driving, so he's taking a little break from it for a bit while he decides if the driving every week is worth it.  Sunday was the pretty cool day. We had a lazy morning as we'd gotten in late the night before, but s...

It was Easter this weekend, but here in the US we don't get any days off for it. We only had a regular weekend to go adventuring, but I think we did pretty good. On Saturday, we cooked our Easter dinner (seitan flavoured with mint and lemon with asparagus and roast potatoes, followed by homemade brownie sundaes) and then did a puzzle and some reading.  Sunday was more exciting though. I'd been wanting to go to the flower fields for a while, but each time I looked it was going to cloudy that weekend, and I wanted to wait until the perfect time. Sunday was it, and we got an early start and arrived at Carlsbad (a city on the coast on the way to San Diego) for 9:30, just as the crowds were starting to come in.  The flower fields are just that, fields and fields on flowers, planted in multicoloured stripes as far as you can see. Beyond the field, the green drops away and you can see the sea. It was so lovely to walk around and see the flowers, while feeling the cool sea breeze....

This last week we had Mitchell's Dad, Annie and Frankie come and visit us. They stayed in a hotel in Riverside and had some fun travelling around while we were both at work.  On Friday, Mitchell took a day off work to take them to the zoo. They had a good time watching all the animals and then went to La Jolla cove in San Diego to see the sea lions even though it was a bit dark and then got some dinner. I stayed in bed with a book after work.  Saturday we went to the farmers market to get some tamales (which was much easier than trying to explain them) and some smoothies. There was a arty craft fair taking place in one of the parks in Downtown Riverside, so we stopped there too and I got some earrings made from eucalyptus seeds.  All the farmers market stalls Hydrated, we went for a quick drive up to the top of Box Springs to get a good view of the city from up on a mountain. We had our picnic there and took some good photos while we worked out where all the landmarks wer...

This Sunday, we went to Long Beach to visit the aquarium. Our friends had gone a few weeks ago and had told us all about it, so we were excited to go and see the fish! Saturday was a slow day for us. We spoke to Mitchell's dad in the morning because he's coming to visit soon, so we planned our week out together. We thought about going to visit a very pretty Hindu temple, but it wasn't great weather, so we decided to save that visit for when it's a bit sunnier. Mitchell also had some work to do, so while he did that I went to Target to get some frames for my certificates so that I can hang them up in my office.  But Sunday was exciting! We drove down and arrived shortly after noon. Our first exhibit had some big fish and small sharks, and later on in the day we saw some divers go in and feed them. We also saw the lifecycle of a jellyfish, elaborate cuttlefish, frogs, penguins, a giant octopus, sea otters, bioluminescent jellyfish, puffins, seals and sealions. They had a ...

 This week had been really hot, reaching 28c most days. I felt it the most when I went on a little work road trip to visit some of my libraries. I was wearing my special Library branded polo shirt and jeans (you'll see why in a few weeks) so I was really hot and sweaty just walking across the car park. Both buildings were really lovely and I got to meet some of the people I've been emailing, but haven't met in person yet. One of them even had a garden out back where volunteers were working on planting and watering new flowers.  On Saturday, we made some pancakes and then called Mitchell's mum for a bit for Mothers Day.  Not intentionally heart shaped, but cute all the same I then got picked up by Andrea and Susan and we went to a little market in Riverside. It was a crystal themed one, so it had healing crystals, intention candles, spell jars, vegan food and some vintage clothes. Very interesting! We then headed out to Costa Mesa for some desert (before our dinner) we g...