The Beach House

Let me just say that if we could afford a beach house in southern California, I would probably never leave. Yes, this is Jenna here. That's how amazing it was. California is a totally different world when you live right on the beach. And we were literally right on the beach. You stepped off our patio across the boardwalk and on to the sand. It was glorious. The sunsets were amazing, the smell of the ocean was amazing, watching dolphins from our living room was amazing, eating every meal on the patio overlooking the ocean was amazing, walking along the boardwalk every day was amazing...the whole experience was just...amazing. I don't think we had a single bad day at the beach house! Not to mention we suddenly had a LOT of friends. Just kidding, our friends were there for us in our Corona days too...special thanks to the Morts, the Woods, the Mahoneys, and the Moodys/O'Tooles. We love you guys!

We lived in the downstairs of the blue house with the white balcony. 

Somehow, a huge percentage of family members made it out to visit us as well. Holly and Spencer, half the Hirt family, Mom and Dad Elbert, Mom and Dad and Steve Henrie, the Moreno Valley Elberts, the Arizona Halletts, and the San Jose Velascos (you guys are family...)! It was so much fun to spend so much time with our family and friends in such a fun place...thank you to everyone who shared it with us! 

These were two of Wayne's three favorite beach activities...I can't believe it, but I don't have a picture of him surfing!

The only problem was that any time we had friends over, we had a BBQ because that's what you do at the beach. I ate more hot dogs in that two month period than I have in my whole life combined. Wayne went surfing practically every day except Sunday, and I never went in the water once. Well, actually I did one time when this surfer girl got slammed in the kidney by her surfboard and was struggling to get out of the water without passing out. But other than that, I was content to just sit on the beach or even inside the house and just listen to the ocean and watch the waves.  Sadly, we don't have a lot of pictures, but we did have a lot of fun. Someday when we're rich we're going to buy a beach house, so you might want to start rekindling your friendship with us now.  :)

You want to move WHERE????

In August of 2007, I announced to Wayne that I thought we should move to Barrow, Alaska. Those of you who know Wayne well know that he is very analytical. I had learned this about him in the past three years, so before I presented the idea I wrote out 2 pages explaining all the benefits of moving to Barrow so I could convincingly "sell him" on it. Well, he wasn't convinced. But thankfully, he didn't outright reject the idea either. So, slowly but persistently I worked on him. I wanted to be out of California by the time the summer heat set in. :)

I'm not sure when he really started seriously considering the possibility, but at some point we started talking about how we should rent a place close to the beach for a few months if we were really going to move to Alaska. In February 2008 we were eating pizza at this little place in San Diego, and we started joking about how cool it would be to just sell all our stuff and drive up to Alaska with what we could fit in the car. It seemed crazy at first, but by the end of the meal we were both saying, "hmmm...maybe we could do it..." 

A few days later, we stumbled on an add on Craigslist for a beach house for rent from April 1-June 7. It was (miraculously) affordable! Most beach houses in the summer rent for at least $2000 a week, but we got an AMAZING deal on this one because the tenant had a lease through June but needed to move out in April. We decided to jump on it before someone else did, and in so doing our plans to move to Alaska were finalized! We would move to the beach house on April 1st, we would both quit our jobs by mid-May, we'd have a California vacation for a few weeks, and then come move-out day on June 7th we'd be on the road to Alaska! Thus began our two month dream life in our little apartment at 3306 Oceanfront in Newport Beach...

Yosemite Adventure - November 2007

The week before our big one-year anniversary, we went camping in Yosemite. It was AMAZING!!!! Neither of us had ever been there before, so Wayne took a Friday off work and we left at 4am to beat L.A. traffic. We got there just before noon and set up camp. It was so great because, being November, there were very few other campers there. We didn't have to compete for a campsite or get stuck behind a tour bus full of grannies on the hiking trails. (No offense to any grannies reading our blog...) 

Most of the waterfalls were just a trickle by this time, but it was beautiful to see the rock formations behind the falls and all the autumn colors. I would like to go back in the summer some time, but I LOVED being there in the fall! 

This is the view of Vernal Fall from the Mist Trail. However, the trail was not so misty in November since the falls were drying up. Apparently in the summer you have to wear a full set of rain gear!

This is Wayne at the top of Vernal Fall. 

At the top of Vernal Fall, there was this beautiful lake! 

Hey Wayne, whatcha doin'?

As we were walking back to the campground I thought I saw something in the woods.  I stopped to look harder and couldn't see anything. Wayne thought I was crazy, but I was sure I had seen something! I kept looking and finally I saw it....

A HUGE BUCK!!!  

We watched him for like 20 minutes...it was a really odd feeling to be that close to a huge animal out in the wild, but it was so cool!

The next day we went to Bridal Veil Fall...this is a picture looking out over Yosemite Valley.

And here's a picture of us enjoying ourselves somewhere in the park.

We got rained on the last night, so instead of having a nice leisurely breakfast and hot chocolate around the campfire, we packed up and got on the road toward home.

Next stop: Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias! SOOO pretty! It was rainy and really foggy, which made everything so beautiful. I LOVE this picture of the redwoods in the fog. 

In the parking lot on the way out we saw this famous car and had to take a picture. I wish you could have seen the look on Wayne's face when he first saw it...he was the most excited I've ever seen him!

 We had so much fun on our Yosemite trip and loved getting out of the city for a few days. The air was so FRESH!!! 

Just as a side note, our actual anniversary was on Thanksgiving Day, which we spent at home watching movies and making a big dinner just for the two of us. At one point, we got a little restless so we decided to go to the gym. 24 Hour Fitness, supposed to be open 24 hours a day. Apparently not on Thanksgiving. Who knew? We went for a little jog around the neighborhood instead. It was a wonderful day, except for the two hours we spent watching "Away From Her". Terrible movie to watch on your anniversary. Totally depressing. Other than that, we had a great day to top off a fabulous first year together!