come on, Irene

No.......seriously?

This lovely lady is about to give the U.S. east coast a big hug.  Hello Irene.  

You're eye-s, it's so biggggg.

I think I'm like everyone.  I wasn't really worried until I saw this map of the threat level, and heard our mayor say "evacuate, don't wait".  I'm still a bit skeptical that we really need to evacuate.  Tomorrow we are going to get hurricane supplies....I never thought I'd say that.  Food and water.  Probably some batteries for flash lights too since the power is supposedly going to go out.

We're EXTREME.

Maybe this means they'll cancel our exam that's on Tuesday...!  Positive thinking!

Photo Credits

{Johnson Space Center}

{Weather Channel}

quakin' earth

I thought I'd write the obligatory blog post about our safety for those of you that might have been concerned.  We are okay. 

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, the east coast got rocked by a 5.9 earthquake.  Hubs and I were in the mall when everything started shaking including us.  We were joking about how it was an earthquake, and very quickly we discovered it wasn't a joke.

I have a friend from California here, and she said it best, "for once, a natural disaster where the Californians are less freaked out than the East Coast people".  You can add Midwest people to the end of that as well. 

Another first for us.  First earthquake.  Let's hope we aren't adding "first aftershock" to that list anytime soon. 

honeymoonin'

We have safely arrived back from our week long honeymoon in Maine!  I can't say enough how much we enjoyed the beautiful state that is Maine.  It is absolutely breathtaking there, particularly in Bar Harbor. 

We arrived late on a Sunday, so we ate dinner and settled into our lovely little cottage.  We stayed at Eden Village which was so cute.  We highly recommend it!  They even had a pond with paddle boats and ducks!  It was seriously so cute.

OH, side note, we rented a car, and it ended up being a 2012 version of my little car, with all the bells and whistles.  I so wanted to buy it, but Hubs had to remind me that wouldn't be a smart economic decision right now.  Boo.

The next day we went to Acadia National Park which was amazing.  We checked out Sand Beach, and did a bit of hiking.  Sand beach was where I went into the ocean for the first time.  It was also the first time I've ever seen an ocean up close.  (The only other was flying to China, and seeing them out the plane window.)  The water was frigid.  64 degrees.  But it was nice once my feet were so numb I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

The following day it rained.  End of story for that day.  Well...we did eat.  The food was good.

The day after rainy day was one of the best days.  We started the day off by getting up early to hike The Beehive.  The Beehive trail is considered "strenuous" on Acadia's trail maps.  It is considered strenuous because it has ladder rungs and ladders to help you climb it.  If it didn't, you would die.  (Side note:  The ladders on the trail were just metal bars drilled into the cliff rocks that made what looked like a ladder on the side of the cliff, there were also actual ladders that were laid down over spaces that had gaps you couldn't jump, so that you could walk across the ladder and not fall to your death.) So we started climbing, and we get to our first ladder and I basically have a panic attack, but I go across.  After that it was pretty smooth sailing, and we made it to the top in about 45 minutes.  Scaling a mountain cliff in 45 minutes....not bad.  Here's the view from the top.


After we hiked, we went sea kayaking.  Now this was an amazing experience.  Not to mention a salty one.  We started at one side of the island, and kayaked about six miles to the other side.  We saw tons of seal, birds, eagles, and seaweed.  I asked about sharks being around since there were so many seals (I watch Shark week, I know what they eat.) but our guide said she never saw one in the harbor but that doesn't mean they aren't around....riigghhtt, and by around you mean lurking below my very close to the ocean kayak right?  If I was making my money doing kayak tours, I probably wouldn't tell my clients that I saw a shark even if one bit my leg off.  Good news is, we never saw one.  Dodged a bullet there.

                               


After kayaking we ate dinner at this fabulous little restaurant called Cafe This Way.  Super gourmet, and super delicious.  










The last and final day we were in Maine, we woke up at 4:45AM to see the sunrise over the ocean.  It was incredibly foggy the entire day, and especially in the morning, but it was beautiful.  I'll let the pictures do the talking for this one. 

After we watched the sunrise for a while, we decided to go for another early morning hike.  This time we started at around 6AM.  We had this idea to reach the top of Cadillac Mountain (the highest mountain in the park), but we couldn't find a trail to save our lives.  So we did what any young couple would do, we got lost, blamed it on each other, and decided on a trail that we just randomly found by chance that had the words "Cadillac Mountain" on it.  We looked on the trail map and it was labeled "difficult" which was less than "strenuous" so we figured it would be cake.  I mean it had to be easier than Beehive if it was less than strenuous....right?  Wrong.  Very wrong.

From the second we had to scale a small cliff, I knew we were in for it.  Sheer rock faces to scale, gigantic boulders to climb over, openings over the edges of the mountain that led, you guessed it, straight down, overall this was probably the worst choice we could have made to make it to the top.  And to make it even better, all of the rocks were wet with running water coming from the top.  Translated: Super slippery.  I honestly thought that one of us was going to get hurt, or fall off the entire mountain at some point, but just like the Beehive, you reach a point where you can't go back.  It was too dangerous to turn around and go down those slippery rock faces.

Overall it was the most scared I've ever been climbing in my life, and we probably wouldn't do it again without ropes or something.  However, there is one beautiful thing that came out of it.  The view. 

 

We also became infinitely more buff from climbing it.  Added bonus.  

This was also the day that we went whale watching and sailing.  Whale watching was indescribable.  It was so surreal to see these gigantic creatures right next to you.   The fog made it hard to find them, but when we did, oh my, was it breathtaking.  We saw four Humpback whales in total.  So worth the trip.  {Side note: Hubs and I now know we could handle a cruise because the waves were so big they made the boat move every which way, and we were not a part of the 50 or so people getting seasick off the back of the boat.}  

 

Sailing was the last thing we did in Bar Harbor.  We went on a sunset cruise on a six person sailboat called "The Chrissy".  It was owned by Captain Ed, and it was a very relaxing end to our lovely vacation.

 

Best honeymoon ever. 

and we're off!

So Hubs and I are off on our honeymoon!  We are really excited and can't wait to see everything there is to see on the lovely Maine coast!  In our absence, I will leave you with some photos of what the hubs has been cooking up for me, and what I've made for us.  I also finished finals.  So far, so good.  Still rockin' the first letter of the alphabet.

spinach, roma tomato, broccoli, and mozzarella pizza.

Rice pudding, made by moi!

portobello mushroom and spinach pasta.

stir fried leftovers. yum.

the most delicious zesty turkey with cous cous.  my fave.

you'll never guess.  banana ice cream, made with one ingredient.  sliced, frozen bananas.  best ever!

{All photo credit: Moi}

We'll see you in a week!

back to the grind

Welcome back.

We made it back to the East Coast, and it was the longest drive ever.  It's usually a two day trip, but due to some unexpected car problems, we didn't leave until Saturday.  I started school on Monday.  Therefore we had to muscle through a nonstop drive. Good news was the kitties fared quite well.  We had two kennels in the back for them, and they decided to only share one. It was surprising to say the least.  They went from hissing over a catnip hedgehog, to cuddling together in the tiniest kennel ever made. Tipsy now has a catnip mouse to keep them from fighting over the hedgehog, fyi.

School is rough, as always, and I had a hard time getting back into it. [It probably had something to do with the fact that I maybe got six hours of sleep in the two days before school started.] I think I'm back to normal though.  Optics summer final is Friday.  Yippee.

Hubs has been working hard...sort of.  He doesn't start school for over a month. [Super jealous.] However, he's taken on a new role.  Chef.  I know I was supposed to be taking this role sooner or later, but I think it suits him well.  He's been really into watching food shows all day, and we really like MasterChef on Fox. If you asked me, I think he's getting inspired by Gordon Ramsay ;), but he'll deny it. The menu this week has consisted of Eggplant Parmigiana, Thai Pork Wraps, Zesty Turkey Stir-fry, and Portobello and Spinach Pasta. I'm really impressed with his food knowledge and skills, however, I did have to help him once. So I think that gives me half of the credit...I think.

I also got to indulge in my absolute favorite food in the history of my world.  Indian food. I got some Navrattan Korma (veggie curry dish), gulab jamun (type of donut hole soaked in buttery honey), and naan (indian bread), and then I died and went to heaven...well my stomach did at least.  It's so tasty!

I obviously really enjoy studying.

I also cut my hair.  Yep, you heard that right, I cut my own hair.  Probably won't ever cut this much off again, but it was fun.  Minus the tiny daggers of hair hiding in the bathroom that traumatized me for the following days. 

Hubs and I are honeymooning in August, so get excited for that post.  We're going to Maine!  However, after watching shark week last night, I'm rethinking our sea kayaking experience.

Navrattan Korma. love love love.

Lil being adorbs.

                          

Tip.

Eggplant Parmigiana.

Thai Pork Wrap.

Thai Pork Wrap.

{Credit: Me.}