I am becoming a real slacker with this blog thing. I will try to redeem myself.
Here's the gist of what's happened since the last I've blogged:
1. San Fran
What a great time! We were fortunate enough to know some people who live in the area and they recommended some great things to do, not only in the city, but also near their house located just outside the Muir Woods. We did a day hike the second day we arrived, a mountain bike ride the next and visited the city twice. The woods were incredible and the city was a lot of fun. The first time we visited the city we walked around Golden Gate Park and the botanical gardens. The second time we visited Ghirardelli square and Italy and Chinatown. My favorite new find in the city was Musee Mecanique. It's a fun warehouse-like room located on the water, packed full of old coin-operated games.
2. Down the coast we go!
We left San Fran Wednesday to try and make it to San Diego by Friday. The drive down the coast was remarkable. At one vista point, we were able to see elephant seals and their pups sprawled out along the beach. We also stopped in the Big Sur region and did a 12 mile overnight loop in Los Padres National Forest. It was a nice hike. We had amazing views of the ocean, rolling hills and spring wild flowers. The two downfalls were that it got a little colder at night than we were expecting and the ticks were AWFUL! We had to stop every minute to flick 3 or 4 off of our pants. Simon did get bit once, but apparently they do not carry Lyme disease, so hopefully no worries about that.
3. San Diego:
So here we are in San Diego. It just keeps getting warmer and warmer. I think yesterday was the first time this whole trip that I actually sported a t-shirt. We arrived in town a little sooner than we were planning because I really wanted to go to the zoo. What surprised me the most about the zoo is that along with your typical tigers, giraffes and hippos, they have many rare species and endangered animals. I don't think I could have dreamt up some of the animals we saw. Also, their conservation efforts are astounding. It made me feel a lot better about paying the $37 entrance fee. It was well worth it; a HUGE zoo! One of the largest in the world and we were determined to see everything. It took us about 7 hours, not including breaks, but we did it!
We are going to stay in San Diego probably until Monday morning at which point we will head out to Austin, TX to visit my high school friend. We are planning on hitting the Grand Canyon on the way, but want to be in Austin no later than Wednesday. Why the rush you ask? Well.... that brings me to my fourth and final point:
4. PEACE CORPS
So, I blogged about a month ago about our Peace Corps failure and how we did not get the nomination we waited over a year for. HOWEVER, what I failed to mention is that our recruiter decided to put our application on the back burner for a little bit longer, just in case any snags appeared. We had little hope that anything would happen and so did he. But, just last Monday, while we were in San Francisco, Simon received a voice mail from our recruiter who said he was able to nominate us. We were utterly shocked. He nominated us for a Sub-Saharan African program where Simon would be doing an agriculture project and I would be doing a community service, primary education project. Now, nomination doesn't mean we are in. It means that we have made it one further (AND WAY BIGGER) step. We have to pass all of the medical and legal clearances and continue to make ourselves competitive by volunteering and so forth. It is a very nerve-racking process, but we are excited and going to give it all we've got in order to get the invitation to go!
So, in a bittersweet way, we are headed back to Vermont. We are sad that we have to end this trip so soon, but we need to be in Vermont to get our medical and legal forms in order. However, our expected departure date isn't until February 2011, so we have quite a bit of time to kill.
Until then...
