Considering Hannah had a 4 day weekend, this was prime time to do all of our birthday celebrations. On Friday we had planned to go to the Fresno Fair (an annual event that they've been advertising a lot lately), but once we drove to it, we quickly realized why Hannah's co-workers advised us to only go during daylight hours. Fresno's fairgrounds are conveniently located smack dab in the center of the ghetto. The local community -eager to make a few bucks - was quick to offer "easy pull in and out" parking on the front lawns of their homes. Not feeling the safest, we decided against the fair and chose to spend the money on pizza, beer, and a good movie at home! Money and time better spent without fear of a good mugging.
If you haven't heard/guessed by now, Nick's big birthday gift from Hannah was a trip skydiving!!!!! It was in one word - awesome. We both went tandem - so nothing like being strapped to a complete stranger plummeting 120mph from 10,500ft. Hannah learned that she is no more graceful in the air than she is on the ground and had a much rougher landing than Nick (but for what it's worth, her tandem instructor did say that that was the fastest he's approached the ground in a landing in a while, so it's ok that it wasn't completely smooth...and the grass stains washed out just fine.) The plane in the picture is the one we jumped from! It was so tiny I didn't think we'd all fit, but we did (A total of 5 people!) When asked if we would do it again - that is an unquestionable YES. We recommend it to all our family and friends (it's not as scary as you might think and TOTALLY worth it! You only live once!)
Our jumpsuits look so good, we think we might wear them all the time!
Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting as Saturday (but can you really top freefalling?) but it was still fun. We went for a hike through one of the many trails at the Sierra National Forest , just outside Yosemite (about 1hr away). Geo didn't come along for this one, but we learned that all the trails that are a part of this system are dog friendly - so hopefully he'll be able to join us. We'd bring Echo, but he seems to have an aversion to leash walking :). The trail was beautiful with a lot of little waterfalls and hardly any people. We'll probably be back!
On our way back home we stopped in the cute mountain town of Oakhurst (Geo's hometown) to see the famed Talking Bear. Unfortunately, the bear had a frog in his throat - so we may never know what he actually says. It's a bummer Oakhurst is a little too far from the Children's Hospital - otherwise we'd definitely prefer to live there over Fresno!
Monday was just an all around crappy day. No sunshine at all and it cooled down to the 60's. One of those days to just veg out - which is what we did! Oh we did have our first experience recycling cans/bottles here though. Quite possibly the most inefficient process EVER! There are no machines you just plop the cans in.... oh no, that's too easy. You have to drive to designated recycle areas (the one we went to was the size of a large hot dog stand, maybe), wait in line, separate all your cans/plastics/light glass/dark glass into separate dirty disgusting trash can things, wait for a guy to weigh them all, and get piddly change for at least a good half hour spent doing this (we got $2.44 for a lot of stuff). And Fresno is California's leader in recycling. Don't know how that works. We miss Meijers.
That is about it for now - We'll leave you with a few quotes we're sicking of hearing in Fresno!
- "Fresno must be a lot smaller than what you're used to, huh?" (Why people assume that Fresno's population of .5 million is small is beyond us - I guess when you're comparing it to LA, but to Grand Rapids....not really.)
- "It's a lot different here than it was when you lived in Minnesota, right?" (Good question, I'll let you know as soon as we move to Minnesota. You'd be amazed how many times people have asked us this.)
- "Fresno's a great place to live and there's a ton to do! You just have to drive 3 hours and you're lots of places!" (We don't consider driving 3 hours to get somewhere still doing something in Fresno. That's like driving from GR to Chicago EVERY weekend. Gas prices don't phase Californians apparently. No ones Dutch here. So as far as staying in Fresno goes....we don't see ourselves here for long.)
Wow! You guys sure had a busy time! And it sounds like a lot of fun. We miss you here in Minnesota! Glad you are both well! Lots of love
ReplyDelete