Emily and Mitchell in the USA

Hey it's Mitchell writing this one! First some back story So for almost 2 months at this point my knee has been swollen, I stopped cycling to work when I realised it wasn't going down but carried on doing our various hikes, dancing at our wedding, going to a music festival etc. It would off and on hurt a bit after the wedding and I saw a doctor soon after we'd got back and I'd had an Xray confirming that my bones were fine. Well this week after the dancing and then walking across the beach my knee was hurting to put weight on it. It wasn't super painful but it was getting to the point I was very concerned I was doing permenant damage by not letting it heal. After trying in vain to talk to my doctor on the phone about what to do now the xray had come in, and taking a day working from home so I could lie in bed, doing all my experiments sat down, and borrowing a crutch from a friend, on Friday after a morning at work Emily took me to urgent care. It was basically just...

This weekend we had a trip with some friends! We picked up Pam and Klaudia from campus and then we drove over to the beach. We started with brunch in San Clemente at a cafe. The place was a little odd, with hippy style clothes for sale in the back and it was the first place I've been in California which didn't serve lattes, just filter coffee. But we got some big plates of food to fill up for the day.  After eating, we parked at our hotel car park, but couldn't check in yet, so we got an Uber to the festival venue. It was very busy outside with loads of people walking along the path to the beach park. As we entered through the main gates we received a light up wrist band for the evening party and our 21+ bands ready to purchase drinks. We walked in and found our bearings. It was a very small festival with just one stage right next to the beach. There were palm trees all around (hence the name) and we got some drinks and sat down on the grass to listen to the first band. All...

We were back out into the wilderness this weekend!  As it was May 4th this week, it meant there was a star wars quiz at the Haven City Market. We put together a team last minute and Mitchell was very helpful with answering all the questions while I shared Goodreads accounts and talked about Lorraine's new house with the girls. We (they) came second! On Thursday, I drove back to LA to do another TV filming. This one was a night shoot for a show I hadn't heard of before, and it took place on a real street in LA, with traffic and people walking around just around the corner. I got back around 3am, but they did give us a hot meal and as many snacks and as much coffee as we wanted.  On Friday evening, we drive down to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park for some camping! (with a quick stop at McDonalds for a snack to sustain us on our journey) It was dark by the time we arrived, but we're pros at getting the tent up now, so with some lanterns it didn't take too long. We started up th...

This week was a busy one, Mitchell's been busy at work with some radiation experiments and together we've been out and about. On Wednesday I met Mitchell on campus for the monthly meet and greet with the international department and then in the evening we went shopping for costumes for the weekend. We went to the Goodwill in Riverside and managed to put together two outfits with what we found there.  On Thursday I had some time, so I took myself on a picnic at Whitewater Preserve. I drove towards the desert into the oasis. There was a large picnic area with shady trees and a man made series of deep ponds with trees lining them and bright blue dragonflies skipping about.  I took a trail down to the canyon overlook. There was a small stream to follow with some wildflowers dotted about which I had to cross a couple of times. On the other side, there was the main river which was filled with raging water. The end of the trail was actually closed because there was too much water in ...