Independence and Kayaking

Happy Independence Day everyone! Greetings from southern California, where it has been hot, true to form for July. That hasn't stopped us from continuing our tile project, where we are inching along, and doing a lot of other fun activities. We both had Friday off, which was a nice break. The Fridays off are becoming more and more familiar to Nick, as he now has three furlough Fridays each month. It would be nice if there was not a 20 percent pay cut that came with that. Regardless, this weekend, we took some time out to have fun.
Friday we headed down to La Jolla for some kayaking. This was our first tandem kayak experience, which, I am happy to report, did not end up in any major fights. We had a really good time exploring the cliffs and caves in La Jolla and enjoyed the surf a bit more than we had in our past kayaking experience.





Saturday we ran some errands for our upcoming trip and caught a matinee of "The Hangover." We both thought it was absolutely hilarious. It's hard to imagine a funnier film will come out this year. We then headed down to Nick's work, which happens to have a prime seat for the fireworks that they shoot off at the top of Mt. Rubidoux. The show was great and we enjoyed having a lot of space to ourselves within the gates of his office and surrounding wildlife education area. Sierra was not quite as excited about the show, but made it through all the less.
We are getting quite excited about our trip to Zion, Bryce, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton national parks. We leave on Friday and will be gone for 10 days. We will be tenting and doing a lot of hiking. Sierra will be at the Ruff House Pet Resort while we're gone. You can check to see if she's behaving herself on their web cam (http://www.ruffhousepetresort.com/outdoor-play-yard.html). Nap time is from 12-2, so you won't be able to see her between those times. For Nick and myself, we will be virtually unplugged and I am actually looking forward to it.
Hope everyone had a great fourth of July and is enjoying the second part of summer. More blogging after our trip!