3 Years of Blogging and I’ve Moved Again!

My blog has existed now for a little over 3 years. I started my blogging career back in 2009 when I prepared for my first trip to New Zealand to study abroad. Since then, life has taken me many places and encouraged me to try many things. I have also learned many things as well. I have learned that good friends are priceless, an understanding and caring boyfriend is everything to me, my family will always be there to help me when I need it, and that there is nothing more important than good health and finding all the joy in life.

I recently made the difficult decision to move back to Austin, TX (which anyone that reads this probably already knows). Austin has seemed to have sealed itself somewhere in my heart as the place I call home. I don’t know why or how it happened, but there is simply no place like it. Maybe it is all the wonderful friends I have here or the fact that I am near my family, but there is something magical about this place.

Anyways, I have been very busy the last few weeks and the move here has been tough for me. However, the good news is that I have already found a full-time job and an apartment that I love. It also helps that my apartment is less than a mile away from where I will be working for the American Cancer Society. (I will elaborate more in my next post!)

I don’t know what the coming weeks or months will bring, but I feel more prepared and ready than I have for awhile. My best friend Cait took this picture the other day when I was least expecting it. My smile speaks volumes though.

The River Walk!

Over the holiday break, Joey came and stayed with my family briefly in San Antonio. I wanted to make the most of our time together and decided we should visit the River Walk. My dad was feeling sick, so it ended up being Joey, my mom, and me!

We did lots of walking,  saw the Alamo, and explored the shops around La Villita.

My mom was the photographer for the day… so Joey and I were the star attractions. It was actually really nice to get some photos taken of us together because often it is just the two of us and we can’t take pictures. So, thanks Mom!

There is a stage on the river where performances can be held.

We were also able to enjoy some of the Christmas lights.

In the evening, we went out to dinner at one of my family’s favorite restaurants, El Jarro de Arturo. We had a really nice time and enjoyed some delicious Mexican food.

Later in the week, Joey and I were in Austin and went to a park with my sister, her husband, and their 2 kids. Ethan really loved Joey and insisted that Joey hold his hand when we were walking and read books when we were back at the house. Also, when it was time for Joey and I to leave, Ethan asked something along the lines of, “Why does Joey have to leave when Shannon does??” Suddenly, it was no longer about the fact that I was leaving, but that JOEY was leaving. It was pretty cute. Of course, I was also jealous. Such is life.

Christmas is for Kids

I am officially an old person because I have come to the realization that Christmas is no longer all about me. Christmas is all about the children and at 23 years old, I am no longer the exciting center of attention.  This year, as my 3 year old nephew excitedly opened his gifts and everyone else’s, I smiled and understood that Christmas now has a different kind of magic for me that is just as special.

I flew back to San Antonio to spend the holidays with my family. My parents and I drove up to my sister’s house on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts and celebrate with her kids before we had our own small Christmas the next morning.

My sister and her husband had a lovely Christmas tree. (All photos in this post were taken by my sister… thanks!)

Ethan loved getting presents two days in a row.

Reid received a fancy drill. Yay for home improvement projects!

I may have been given Kerbey Lane pancake mix… because I love Kerbey Lane and their pancakes! Yum!

Also, we celebrated my Dad’s birthday (which was December 19) with a delicious German chocolate cake made by my sister. Of course, we had to light his candle twice because Ethan blew out the first candle before anyone had a chance to blink.

I had a blast at my sister’s on Christmas Eve and also enjoyed Christmas Day with my parents the next morning. However, my parents didn’t take one picture on our actual Christmas Day. I guess we are all getting a bit old.

Holiday Lights and Sights Tour

I love the holiday season and I decided I wanted to do something a little different to celebrate this year. Part of my Christmas gift to Joey was to go on a holiday lights and sights tour of San Francisco via a cable car.

The downside of the adventure was that the so-called cable cars had actually been converted into buses that did not run on the rail, but on the regular street. (This is a fact the tour company neglected to advertise widely.) However, since the cable car was on the regular street, we were able to have access to more sights!

 We were given candy canes and Santa hats for the tour. The hats came in handy because it was actually quite cold!

During the tour, our vehicle broke down which caused us to have to wait for a replacement cable car for about half an hour. However, after that little bump we were able to see all the interesting sights. Also, I was able to obnoxiously wave at people walking on the sidewalk in the hopes that they would wave back merely because I was an enthusiastic, Santa hat-wearing girl on a cable car singing Christmas carols.

Oh, and Joey liked to make my Santa hat stand straight up. He thought it was hilarious… what do you think?

Thanksgiving Break!

Joey’s parents and brother came to California over Thanksgiving break and rented a house near San Luis Obispo for all of us to meet up at. We stayed at the house with his family over the break and were able to see some new parts of California.

We spent some time at Avila Beach.

We also enjoyed walking along a few of the nearby docks.

On Thanksgiving Day, a few more of Joey’s relatives that live nearby joined us at the house  and they even brought along their cute dogs.

It was really great to meet some more of Joey’s family. They were all very welcoming and nice!

Joey with Lucy.

The morning after Thanksgiving, Joey and his brother Charlie decided to go boogie boarding at Pismo Beach.

The rest of us went to find them a little later in the day. However, we weren’t sure whether or not we would be successful since we had no idea where on the beach they would be.

Luckily,  Joey’s mom was able to spot them from the dock and caught up to them as they were packing up to leave.

It was a bit bright that day.

On the last day of our break, Joey, his parents, his brother, and myself went to Cambria to see elephant seals on the beach.

There were a ton of them!

It was really amazing to see seals in the wild at such a short range.

I had a really great time with Joey’s family over the break and look forward to spending more time with them in the future!

Oh, did I mention it was a little sunny that day?

Las Vegas Adventure!

At the beginning of November, Joey and I went on a grand adventure to Las Vegas. The company that Joey works for wanted to reward employees with a weekend in Vegas that included airfare, hotel, and a gift card that could be used at several restaurants and shops. The only downside to this amazing trip was that if you wanted to invite friends, spouses, etc., they had to make their own travel arrangements.

So, while Joey was able to take a direct flight with the rest of the invited employees and take a group bus to the hotel, I had to travel alone with an extra connection from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. No big deal, right? Or so I thought…

My flight out of San Francisco was delayed which caused me to miss my connecting flight. I had to take a later connecting flight (which also ended up being delayed) to Las Vegas.

I finally arrived in Las Vegas around 5:30pm…

You would think that was the end of my “traveling” story.

It is not.

Joey and I had tickets to see a show at 7pm and I wanted to make sure I had a little bit of time to breathe after my stressful plane situation. After I got off the plane, I went outside to find a ride to the hotel. I had a choice between a shuttle or a taxi and I went with a taxi because I really wanted to save some time.

My choice was wrong.

Soon after I was in the taxi, we got on the freeway (which I much later learned is a ploy drivers use to make more money… it is much quicker to get to the Vegas strip when you DON’T take the freeway) and drove for probably 3-4 minutes. However, the taxi started making weird noises and the dashboard started flashing words about engine troubles so the cab driver pulled over to the side of the freeway and stopped the car. Apparently, my taxi had broken down completely and my driver kindly called taxi #2 for me.

Taxi #2 arrived within 15 minutes, but by then I was starting to worry I wouldn’t have time to stop at the hotel  and would need to meet Joey right at Planet Hollywood for the show. So, I let him know about the delay and then jumped into taxi #2. Problem solved.

The taxi started to pull onto the freeway and drove for a good 20 seconds… before being hit by another car already driving on the freeway. Me and taxi #2 had just gotten into a fairly ugly looking accident. Luckily, no one was hurt but the cars involved did not look too pretty.

So,  taxi #2 had to call for taxi #3 and I officially felt like a cursed passenger since NOTHING seemed to be going my way. All my flights were delayed and two taxis were not enough to get me to my destination.

Eventually, the 3rd taxi arrived and I was able to just barely make it to the show at Planet Hollywood (which had a delayed start as well).  Unfortunately, I still had to pay the cab fare despite all of my trials, but I was just happy to be done with all the mishaps.

The show we saw was called “Vegas! The Show” which seemed to describe it pretty well. The show was a big mixture of all things Vegas. There were singers, dancers, a magician, and even a comedian. The show captured the history of Vegas and all of the singers were impersonating past Vegas stars like Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and Tina Turner.

After the show, we went to a really nice French restaurant across from the Bellagio called Mon Ami Gabi.  We could watch the fountains (which were synchronized with music) going off at the Bellagio every 15-20 minutes. It was so nice I was able to forget about the craziness of my arrival and just enjoy the evening.

We stayed at The Venetian which is this massive hotel with a huge casino, shopping mall, restaurants, and even a small river for gondolas.
Here is some more of The Venetian. I think the architecture is really beautiful.

Venetian tower!

Me with a fancy fountain in front of The Venetian.

This is in the main entrance of The Venetian. It is apparently a magical place where you can find people playing accordions.

This is a part of the main entrance that leads into the casino. I thought the ceiling was pretty neat. Yes, I took a picture of a ceiling.

We spent most of the weekend exploring various spots on the strip. I didn’t take a ton of pictures because I was trying to just enjoy the experience rather than pull out my camera every few minutes. Nevertheless, I do have a couple more interesting shots to share.

Neat statue in front of Harrah’s.

Eiffel Tower! Sort of!

The Bellagio minus the impressive fountains going off.

Oh, and I thought I should let you know that right near our hotel we met someone famous…

Harrison Ford (as Indiana Jones)! Yay! I took Joey’s picture with our new acquaintance.

Lastly, we may have gambled a couple of dollars (literally 2 dollars) at the casino in The Venetian.

I may have played a Lord of the Rings slot machine. It betrayed me.

Despite losing a few dollars and dealing with all my initial difficulties, I ended up having a really amazing weekend that I will always remember.

Of course, on the way back to San Francisco… my flight was delayed.

Golden Gate Bridge, Volunteering, and My New Job!

Several weeks ago, I decided I wanted to take a nice long walk because the day was so nice. I ended up walking north all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge.  During my walk, I snapped a few photos that I thought would be fun to share.

I found a little marina near Crissy Field on my way to the bridge.

There were quite a few nice looking yachts and sailboats, but I am pretty sure this one was the most impressive.

I eventually made my way over to the bridge and took  a million pictures.

When it gets really foggy it is impossible to see the bridge, but luckily it was a really beautiful day!

 There are some trails that run around the bridge as well as a couple of popular cafes.

This is just a view of part of the city taken from near the bridge.

My last bridge picture. It is very photogenic.

As for my life update, I recently started volunteering at an elementary school in Pacifica twice a week for a 2nd grade and a 5th grade class. One of the requirements to get into a teacher credential program in CA is to volunteer a certain number of hours in a classroom. It has been a very informative experience for me so far and I have learned a lot about what it would be like to teach in an elementary school setting. Is it the job for me? I do not know for sure yet, but it has certainly been an interesting experience. I have already had some memorable moments with students and some moments that make me cringe, but I think that is expected when working with younger children. I had one 5th grader tell me I look like Dakota Fanning and I had a 2nd grader ask me if I was going to have a baby. One comment made my day and the other totally ruined my week. Children do not really have a filter.

I also started a new part time job as a Speech Coach at a private all-girls high school in San Jose. I am really thrilled to get back into the world of high school speech and debate because I loved competing so much myself in high school. It has been really neat getting to help edit speeches, cut scripts, and just help students with their performances. I still have a lot to learn, but I am excited to finally have my foot in the door somewhere. The only downside is it takes me 2.5 hours to get to my job by public transportation which has not been fun (it also takes me 1.5 hours to get to the elementary school where I volunteer). I have been looking into getting my car here, but there are a ton of hoops to jump through to get a car from TX to San Francisco where parking is impossible and there are a ton of extra guidelines/standards that cars have to meet. So… I guess I will just wait and see what happens. For now, I am building character.

Candy Corn Cupcakes and Big Basin Redwoods State Park

I have been trying to get into the Halloween spirit lately and found a super cute recipe for Candy Corn Cupcakes . I do not normally undertake baking endeavors, but it was actually kind of fun.

 However, by the time I finally finished making the cupcakes and the icing… I was totally uninterested in putting the two together. Luckily, Joey volunteered to ice most of them.  :) The cupcakes themselves were supposed to resemble candy corn and the first layer was yellow, the next layer was orange, and the icing was white.

You can see the layers in this picture (courtesy of Our Best Bites).  We didn’t have the fancy star tip to make the icing look as good as this picture, but it didn’t really matter because they still tasted good! Yay Halloween!

Last weekend we ended up going to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It was sort of a long drive and it felt longer since the roads were narrow and winding. However, it was totally worth it!

Yay for trees!

We hiked for a couple hours and enjoyed the peacefulness of the forest. It was definitely a fun day trip!

Warm Water Cove Park and Ghirardelli Square

A couple of weeks ago I had an impulse to see some body of water and so I  searched a map to find the closest place with water near our apartment.

Then, I walked.

And walked some more.

I ended up at the San Francisco Bay at the Warm Water Cove Park. I believe this is the same part of the bay that we see from our apartment window which taunts me from a distance.

It was a nice little park, but I am sure there are some nicer views that are a bit further away from where we live.
Regardless, I still felt pretty accomplished to have walked my way to some water!

About 2 weeks ago, Joey and I took a bus to the famous Ghirardelli Square to do some sightseeing.

It was a pretty touristy area, but there were a ton of neat shops, restaurants, and vendors that made it worth the crowd.

 Plus, it was near the water!
Hmm…there is something a little ominous in the background of this picture. What is that??

 Alcatraz! Eep!

We ended our adventure with delicious Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate from the Ghirardelli Cafe. It was definitely a nice evening!

Pacifica State Beach and Great Whale Cove

Last weekend Joey and I decided to jump in the car in search of a beach. The first beach we came across was the Pacifica State Beach which is a short drive south of our apartment.

 Although you can’t see it in this picture, there were a lot of surfers and people on the beach.

 It was a really sunny and nice day, but it was actually quite cold and windy near the water. We soon hopped back in the car to regain some warmth and search for another spot.

We ended up at Great Whale Cove which was a lot nicer and less crowded than the Pacifica State Beach.

It also had some pretty beautiful mountains.

 It was still windy at this beach (my hair went crazy), but this time we brought our beach towels to bundle up.

It ended up being a really fun day and I can’t wait to see some more of California!