Out of the Mountains

So it's been awhile...we went to Chicago on Amtrak and hung out with friends for the weekend, and then we flew to Portland, where we hung out with more friends, and then we spent the last three weeks or so in Ashland in southern Oregon with Joel's mom and stepdad. They live in a great house with amazing views of the Siskyou mountains...but they only have slow dial-up. Really, really slow--like Chinese water torture-slow. So there's lots to update. We had a great time and the wedding was perfect.

Between getting ready for the wedding and copyediting, we were pretty busy so we didn't do a lot of touristy-type things. One of the coolest things we did though was hike to Squaw Meadow on Mt. Shasta. You hike through trees and then across a moonscape valley with lots of rocks and then you hit the storybook meadow, complete with babbling brook and flowers everywhere. It was super cool--if you're ever in northern California or southern Oregon, I'd highly recommend it.

Now we're in Santa Barbara visiting Joel's dad and stepmom. We just fedex'ed the visa paperwork today so we're on track to leave for Korea in three weeks...finally. We've been waiting basically since we left Chicago to send the paperwork out and to find out for sure when we're leaving. I'm not counting on anything until the plane tickets are actually bought, but sending the visa stuff is a good sign.

Today we're going wine tasting I think, so I'll be sure to post about that and other Santa Barbara stuff later.