Mastering the Waters

Here is the Vacaville pool where I have started swimming in the Masters program each day at noon.  The beautiful hills of Vacaville sit just beyond the pool, and I often see red tailed hawks flying right overhead while swimming backstroke. My coach, Karen, is awesome. She has been a leading researcher in biology at UC Davis and is a fabulous teacher. In one day's time she's helped me improve my butterfly, which I never thought possible! I've also met some pretty cool people in my class. Yesterday Karen told me that the guy in the lane next to mine was an NCAA swim champion from Tennessee. Not only did he start his practice 5 minutes after me, but finished 20 minutes BEFORE me! Wow, quite impressive.  

Oui Oui for Crepes!

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm attempting to cook more while being a "travel wife." One of my new favorite dishes to make Todd is crepes. I recently got this recipe from Parade magazine. It's a simple recipe and the fun part is filling it with different yummy ingredients. The first time I filled the crepes with ripe peaches, today I made both turkey & cheese for savory crepes and strawberries & blueberries for sweet crepes. Here's a pic of my sweet crepe.

Crepe Recipe:

1. Combine 2 cups milk, 1 cup flour, 3 eggs, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla (for sweet crepes), 1/4 cup melted butter. 

2. Grease crepe pan each time with a pad of butter... mmm

3. Pour in small amount of crepe batter and swirl to just coat the bottom of the pan.

4. Cook first side for 2 minutes. Then flip (I use 2 butter knives to do this) and cook on the other side for 1 minute.

5. Lay crepe on a plate, place your yummy ingredients in the middle, and roll.

6. Bon Appetit!

Pena Adobe Park

This is definitely a park that we'll be bringing visitors to. Todd and I discovered it one night after dinner when the sun was setting. Beautiful rolling hills with lots of winding trails for walking, jogging, or biking. The hills are pretty steep, but the vistas are worth the climb. I think it's a great way for people to see the Vacaville countryside. Here's one shot I got that evening. 

The Pear Apple

Todd's coworker brought him these pear apples from his garden yesterday. They are delicious! They're an exact blend of what a pear and what an apple taste like. Very juicy too so you have to have plenty of napkins around when you eat one. This is yet another lovely thing about California, everyone seems to have fruit trees in their backyard.

Winters

Winters is a cute cowboy town just north of Vacaville.  My husband, Todd, and I would love to find a place to rent there. Last week we stopped by after work for dinner at the Bucktown Steakhouse and to wander the streets reminiscent of the wild west.


Other awesome sights from the past week: a real cowboy tending his crops, a meadow full of small yellow butterflies, several fields of sunflowers all coming to the end of their bloom, and as shown here, palm trees, a personal favorite.

Sensing Change

My first week here in Vacaville has been a completely new experience for the senses.


First of all, it's averaging about 95 degrees a day, so as soon as you step outside you feel like you're in an oven. A big delicious oven. It's the perfect excuse to slather myself in sun lotion and sit by the pool, I call it my "dose of vitamin D." I usually carry extra layers of clothes, but a tank top and shorts is really all one can tolerate here. One thing that I'm learning from the locals is to park in the shaded areas of the parking lot. I wondered why I got front row parking at Target while everyone elses' cars were clustered around the trees, until I came back to leather seats where I could literally hear my skin sizzle... yikes! 


I've experienced some pretty neat sights in my first couple of days. While driving my husband to work this morning, we crested a hill and straight ahead were eight big beautiful hot air balloons taking off. Wish I had my camera with me, it was really awe inspiring! I think I just added "ride a hot air balloon" to my California bucket list. Then I drove in a big circle around Vacaville to get a feel for the area and nearly ran over a wild turkey crossing the road. Is there a joke there? I think so...Finally, every street and parking lot has gorgeous trees with thick pink flowers on them. Even the medians on the highways have them. I need to find out what they are called.


That's all for now!

Intro

The reason I've left my familiar, rainy Seattle surroundings to become a "travel wife" is to be with my husband who commutes weekly to California for his work. While doing the Monday - Thursday commute with him, I thought it'd be nice to start a travel blog.



Here are some goals for this blog: 
1) To share my travels and experiences in Northern California
2) To keep connected with friends and family back home
3) Since I quit my job in project management, I know I need some structure to my days so that I don't drive myself or my husband crazy! As anyone who knows a good project manager can testify: PM + nothing to organize or plan = is not a pretty sight.
4) I would also like to improve my writing skills

Two things I'd really like to pursue while taking some time off from work are exercising more and learning to cook. Before, working left me weary and full of excuses NOT to exercise, let alone plan a meal. So now, excuses aside, I'd love to do both! And I feel grateful to have the opportunity to do so.  Other things I'm interested in are learning to crochet or knit, wine tasting, and photography, which I plan to include in my future blogs.


So join me as I explore new territory, and feel free to comment too! I'd love to hear thoughts or feedback on my postings.