A Hike & A Tea Party

Some photos of Eric's Sunday morning hike in Mt. Diablo State Park (about 30 miles southwest of Berkeley).





Anne threw her second tea party last weekend. We forgot to take pictures before the event, but here are some partly devoured goodies: lemon merengue pie, peach/apricot/cherry pie. Yum.

Summer, So Far

Our summer is off to a lovely start.

Eric's coursework is officially over! He turned in his last term paper (EVER!) at the end of may and is in full-time exam prep mode for the next year. Books, books, books.

Eric was awarded a summer fellowship and will begin taking an intensive Spanish course at the end of June. In the meantime he is working on exam prep and picking up odd jobs when he can find them. He found the most interesting one after advertising his writing and research skills on craigslist. He is helping a 78-year-old man write his autobiography. They have a great working relationship and it has been a blast thus far.

Last weekend we took a little road trip with different destinations. Anne dropped Eric off at Castle Crags State Park in northern California for a three-day backpacking trip along the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a wonderful three days of quiet in the woods. (Photos of the Crags and the view of Mt. Shasta below).

Anne continued north to Jefferson, Oregon (just outside of Ashland) for a weekend visit with her friend Alyssa. Alyssa has been working as an intern on an organic farm. She pitched a tent on the homestead, fed the kids (baby goats) clover, and spent a day hoeing. That is, weeding. The trip also involved a long breakfast at the local gas station/store/greasy spoon discussing hay bale housing and other such homesteading tips. Good to know. Below are pictures of Anne's friend Alyssa and the guy who owns the farm, hard at work.

Moving to Oakland

We are officially the worst bloggers ever. After sitting in front of our computers all day long, we just haven't been able to bring ourselves to sit down and write regular updates. But we're going to work on it.

The big news from our part of the world is that we're gearing up for a move down to the Lake Merritt neighborhood of Oakland on July 1st (which also happens to be our two year anniversary!). Berkeley has been grand, but there is much more life down in Oakland—more diversity, more activity. And it has the added bonus of having fewer students and fewer crazies than Berkeley. Our new place is great. We're just half a mile from Anne's office (she is so excited about being able to walk to work) and only a few blocks from Lake Merritt. My bike commute will be a little longer, but I'll still be able to make it to campus in under 30 minutes. No complaints.

The area is very urban, as you can see from the photo (that is downtown Oakland just west of the lake), but it has a lovely park along the northern shore and a jogging path that runs around the entire lake. There are also plenty of shops and restaurants near by, and a Whole Foods just down the hill. Perfect for prospective visitors (hint, hint).

(The photo is a view looking west out onto the Bay. Our place is just to the right (north) of the lake near the little arm in the middle of the photo.)