A 2-car garage that now actually fits 2 cars

We cleaned out the garage last night to make room for the new car. Blackjack hasn't taken a ride in the Fit yet but he found his "seat" without any help. Gotta love hatchbacks.

Have a Fit!

After hours and hours of negotiating (including an overnight break), we finally drove away with our new car. A Honda Fit. We've been wanting a Fit for months, but weren't expecting to get one in orange! Excuse me, "copper." But the color is really growing on me, I love it and it's so fun to drive! Now we just have to go make room in the garage for it . . .



While we were at it we decided to get Steve a new car too . . .


J/K, but doesn't he look great next to it! Some day I'll have me a convertible. But probably not in blue.

Santa Cruz

Last weekend we took an excursion down to Santa Cruz. We started at The Mystery Spot up in the Santa Cruz redwoods. Very interesting, but it really bothered me that I couldn't figure out the weirdness. Perhaps there is something to it. They call the area a "gravitational anomaly."

Steve is actually standing straight, or at least he thought he was!


Craziest house. I immediately felt dizzy the moment I stepped inside.


Even the trees in that area grow crooked.


Before heading to the Boardwalk we decided to have some fun with our GPS and see what bizarre tourist attractions might be around. And boy did we find something. Just a few miles down the road we found this little museum:



Bigfoot!








We finally made it to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We dipped our feet in and MAN was it FREEZING! Nobody was really in the water, most were just sanbathing or playing volleyball.


We tried out one of the rides . . . The Haunted Castle . . . ends up it wasn't so haunted. But the spider on top was a little spooky.

Mt. Diablo

Since moving back to California we've been trying to get out and do some kind of site seeing every weekend. It's been great fun! Two weeks ago we went out to Mt. Diablo. That was the first time we'd been there since high school. The drive wasn't as scary as I remembered but I still had to remind Steve to slow down on the curves because otherwise you're pretty much destined to drive right off the cliff. This is no joke, I remember this happening to a woman from church growing up. I've been scared to death of driving on Mt. Diablo ever since. The woman survived, luckily, and with only bumps and bruises. I remember she looked black and blue from head to toe.

ANYWAY, here we are, on the "devil mountain." Mt. Diablo was also the name of our school district growing up. The devil's school district, it's got a nice ring.


On a clear day you can see San Francisco and the Golden Gate. This day was not a clear day, but it was still really pretty from the top. We could see Antioch, Clayton, Concord, Martinez, and parts of Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek.


Me, looking for spiders in one of the caves . . .

Visitors!

Last weekend we had our first real visitors stay with us for a few nights. My sister and her family came to see Pleasant Hill where we grew up and San Francisco. I headed out for them one day to do some touristy stuff.

First we headed to the San Francisco coast to catch the low tide at 6:30 in the morning. I had forgotten how cool the tidepools were. And to think growing up here we took field trips to see these kinds of things all the time. Lucky us!

A starfish.

A sea anemone.

Eww, a huge crab!

Seals . . . just taking it easy.

The cute Gardner Family. And all of them smiling at the same time!

Next we stopped to walk part of the Golden Gate Bridge.

View of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.

Then we headed off to see the redwoods in Muir Woods. Sadly, this is the only picture I took while there. I love the smell. I even bought a Christmas ornament made from real redwood that really smells like redwood. Is it the holidays yet???

It was a fun time with the Gardners. Not only did we get to hang out and visit but I got to do some siteseeing I hadn't done since I was a kid. Come back again soon!

Single or Multiple Subject? That is the question . . .

I'm really confused. As I've posted previously I am working on making a career change into teaching. I thought I was pretty well convinced on teaching middle school math. But now I'm not sure, I'm still considering grade school (upper grades preferably).

Yesterday I helped a neighbor-friend set up her 4th grade classroom to get a better idea of the whole teaching thing. She teaches 4th grade at a Catholic private school in Oakland. She's going to have 36 students this year! (That was actually the first time I'd driven through downtown Oakland alone, a little scary but not as bad as I was expecting). Anyway, her classroom was so cool! Just walking in got me really excited. All the books, the posters, the calendars, the desk organizers . . . even the class bunny. It just looked like a lot of fun. I know, I know, teaching is not all fun. Believe me, I know that virtually NO profession is ALL fun. But it was neat for me to feel some kind of connection or excitement with the teaching career since I have yet to find even the idea of another profession that makes me feel that way.

Although it was really neat to see her classroom, I left even more confused than before. Perhaps I'd rather teach multiple subjects instead of just math? Would math get boring after a while? Would I rather focus on one set of 30 or so students all day and get to know them better or focus on 150 students each semester for just one hour each day? I'm not sure. I feel like I need more time in the classroom to figure this out. I can't change my mind halfway through the certification program. In California you have to pass the specific certification exams prior to applying to the separate certification programs. Meanwhile I'm finding it very difficult to focus on studying my math textbooks when I'm still unsure about what I want to teach . . .

Comments welcome, especially from you teachers out there or fellow career-changers!

Clawson Rucker Reunion

Rucker Lake (Sierra Nevada)


Building the campfire with Uncle Robb. (more like Uncle "Wobb" for these boys)


Chilling by the fire.


Kristin and Blackjack playing in the dirt. For once Kristin had someone to boss around.


The swim across the lake to THE ROCK.

Halfway there . . .



This is what Blackjack was doing while the rest of us were swimming hard across the lake. After a full day of eating every possible piece of food off the ground, he was just too tuckered out to do much of anything. Notice his treat bag right by his head and he doesn't even care!


And finally, the awesome cabin in Truckee where we stayed once the excitement of camping, bugs, and dirt wore off.

Too cute not to post

Nail trimming time, too cute!

Fort Funston

Sunday we drove to Fort Funston in San Francisco with a picnic lunch. It's not only a really beautiful beach but it's an off-leash dog park. When we left our place it was in the high 80's . . . by the time we got to the beach it was low 60's in San Francisco. So strange to need sweatshirts on the beach!


The upper part of the pathway leading down to the beach was so green and pretty! We didn't get a picture of the long sandy hike back up to the parking area.



Blackjack of course had a blast teasing the other dogs.


Lots of dogs having fun. On the left you can see the dead beached seal, sad.





Hang gliding! This may be next on my to-do list . . .

The beaches in northern California are SO different than the warm beachs of Mexico or Florida! Steve and I both remember taking trips to the beach as kids where we would convince each other to get in the water because "you warm up as you get numb!" We weren't in the mood to get "numb" this trip, maybe next time.

Winchester Mystery House

Steve and I drove down to San Jose last month to tour this strange mansion. It was interesting, but more than that it was just weird. That woman was really out of it. If you've ever lived in or visited the Bay Area you may have heard of the strange Winchester Mystery House. If not, it's basically this mansion down in San Jose that was built back in the 1800's by a woman named Sarah Winchester. Apparently when her husband died she kind of went crazy and had this mansion built. But construction never stopped on the mansion, she kept having the workers continue building because a psychic told her if she ever stopped construction she would die. By the time she did die some 38 years later there were 160 rooms and the mansion was 7 stories. (the 1906 earthquake destroyed part of it and it is only 3 stories now).

There are secret passages in some of the rooms and also secret areas where she could spy on her servants. Some of the other strange details of the mansion . . .

Stairs that lead to the ceiling.

















Stairs that are so short it takes a few switchbacks to get to the same height one regular flight of stairs would take you.












Some doors open up into the wall. But this "Door to Nowhere" on the 2nd floor actually opens to the outside!


Below on the left side of the picture is a window that opens to . . . a wall. And I am standing inside a 6 inch little gap or closet looking thing that is of absolutely no use at all.


One of the ballrooms.


View from out a window.

I hear they do flashlight tours on Halloween night . . . now THAT might be a little spooky!