Merry Christmas from Sara & Craig

Merry Christmas!

Instead of doing a card and newsletter for Christmas, we thought we’d put together a little online scavenger hunt. Use the clues below to check out some things we’ve been up to this past year.

The biggest news of the year is that we bought a house! Denver is now officially home! Click here to see photos. It might help if you remember the city that we lived in before Denver. Click here if you can’t figure it out.

In addition to getting all domesticated, we’ve also been incredibly busy with other things like buying new furniture from a home goods store that finally opened in Denver. These photos are a glimpse into some of our favorite parts of this past year. Click here if you can’t figure out the password.

Craig’s work has been busy this year, check out some of his favorite projects with…what’s the name of his company again? Click here if you can’t figure it out.

As always, we’ve seen a lot of movies this year. Go to http://2explorers.com/INSERT YOUR ANSWER HERE to view a list our favorite movies of 2011 on IMDB. Hint: This actor whose initials are GC appears in more than one of our favorite films of the year. Insert this person’s last name into the URL above. Click here if you can’t figure it out.

Have a great Christmas and happy new year!
Sara and Craig

 

LA – NC

We have come a long way since leaving Denver in early March. We’re currently in DC and getting ready to head to Cincinnati! Since Texas we have been to Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Unfortunately, we still don’t have a camera but here’s a little summary of the cities we went to and some pictures from my iPhone:

After Texas, we headed to New Orleans and spent one day there. It wasn’t much time but we got a great hotel in the French Quarter and spent the day walking around and eating muffalettas and beneighs!

From there we went to Anniston, AL to spend a few days with a highschool friend of ours and his family. It was great to catch up and eat some great southern food.

After Anniston, we headed to Atlanta, then to Tallahassee both, for a day of shooting interviews. Since we were there such a short time we didn’t really get to see any sights.

From there we headed down to Ft. Lauderdale for a couple of days. The weather was great and it was just warm enough to go swimming in the ocean which made me, Sara, very happy! Also, my dad was there for a conference so we got to hang out with him in the evenings. After that we headed to Tampa for a shoot and then onto Jacksonville to see my BFF from college.

After Florida we headed to Charleston, SC which was such a cool city. The downtown area and all the old homes were amazing. We didn’t have much time there but we did explore the downtown area a bit and ate some great southern food!

From there we spent one day in Raleigh for a shoot and then headed to DC which brings us up to date.

Riverwalk

The Alamo

Ft. Lauderdale Beach

A great Columbian restaurant in Tampa - the sangria's were so good!

One of the many homes in downtown Charleston

Fountain in downtown Charleston

We weren’t planning on getting to Cincy so early but we are both exhausted and ready to go home. So we decided to cut a big portion our time on the East Coast. We’re sad but so ready to get back to Denver. We’ll be in Cincy for the next 3 weeks, looking forward to hanging with all of our family and friends!

 

Texas

Well we’re back on the open road! We ended up staying 5 weeks in Denver and got back on the road at the beginning of March. We headed through Oklahoma City (we stopped to hang out with the fam) and then down to Texas. Unfortunately, we have no photos to share because our car was broken into our first night in San Antonio. They took are camera, GPS and iPod…I think our insurance company is really loving us right now. However, we feel really lucky that’s all they took. We accidentally left Craig’s camera in the car that night but they got no further than the glove box. If they had taken Craig’s equipment we would have been in big trouble! So now it’s just the hassle of dealing with the insurance company. And this means I’ll have to actually write this blog:>

Other than the theft, Texas has been an experience with it’s own unique culture. Texans are super proud of their state (I think they’d still like to be their own country),are terrible drivers (there are times when I thought we were done for) and into guns (sounds like the 4th of July when you’re on the hiking trails because they have shooting ranges in public parks). So I was pretty surprised that each city we went to was very different from the others. San Antonio was our first stop. It’s very Texan but the whole riverwalk thing is very cool.

Then we headed to Austin for a few days and hung out with a good friend of Craig’s. Austin is a great town. Lots of fun shops, great music scene and good food to eat. We got our fill of barbecue and fried avocado tacos…very tasty!

Now, we’re finishing up our week in Houston. It’s surprising how diverse Houston is…while hanging out in a city called Sugarland and surrounded by NRA members we’re eating Indian and Cuban food and seeing Bollywood films.

Houston ends our time in Texas and tomorrow we head to New Orleans for the day. Then we continue on through Oxford, AL, Atlanta and eastward!

 

Arizona

This was a quick state for us as we only two stops: Tucson and Phoenix.

We were expecting Tucson to be like Dayton, but it’s actually a pretty cool city. It has a big art scene so there were lots of cool little restaurants and coffee shops and well, lots of art everywhere!

Walking bridge - you enter the mouth...

And exit by the rattle!

The best part of Tucson was the discovery of the Sonoran hot dog!! Here’s wikipedia’s definition:
The Sonoran hot dog, found in Tucson, Metro Phoenix, and in neighboring Sonora, Mexico, is a hot dog grilled in a processor or on a griddle, wrapped in Mesquite-smoked bacon, topped with freshly-chopped tomatoes, onions, shredded yellow or cotijo cheese, tomatillo salsa or red chili sauce, pinto beans, mayonnaise, ketchup and/or mustard, and served on bread.

Craig is enjoying his Sanoran hot dog and Mexican Coke

Lets get a close up of this deliciousness!

In Phoenix, Craig was pretty busy with shoots, so we didn’t have much time for sightseeing but we did hang with the Fullers and go on a hike.

Couldn't get in to the hockey game but had a good time anyway!

A desert hike - the cactuses are so cool!

Great view!

After Phoenix we decided to head back to Denver for a month. We are exhausted and need a break. It’s hard work living on the open road! Plus, Craig is completely swamped with work so he needs some time to catch up on all his projects. So we’ve been back in Denver a week now and Craig is cranking through work while I, Sara, am trying to get motivated to do our taxes and get my resume ready! It’s great to be back in Denver but looking forward to getting back on the road!

 

California

Well, as usual, we’re way behind on the posts. Here’s our photos from the big CA!

Our first stop in CA was Mt. Shasta. It was too cold and snowy for hiking but we stopped for a shoot for one of Craig’s clients. It’s a very small mountain/ski town so this is our only photo:

Mt. Shasta

Next we headed to the Redwoods National Parks:

Feels like were in Lord of the Rings!

The start to our 6 mile hike

Sara hugging a tree

While visiting the Redwoods we stayed near Crescent City. The Pacific Ocean is so much better than the Atlantic!

Lighthouse near Crescent City

The pacific ocean is so cool

After the Redwoods, we headed to San Francisco and hung out with some good friends who showed us the city:

San Francisco

One of our fav’s from sightseeing was the Alcatraz tour!

Alcatraz

Craig is very excited about the tour

Sara following the audio tour

Cell in Alcatraz...super small!

Looks like the movies

I, Sara, had a day to myself when Craig had to go back to Seattle for 24 hours. I went on a hike close to the ocean and then to Golden Gate Park. It was a great day!

Hike near San Francisco

Japanese Tea Garden

A really cool bridge in the tea garden

Next we headed to Yosemite. A snow storm had just moved through when we arrived and many of the roads were closed. So we were limited but we did make it in the park and went on a small hike. It’s beautiful and definately a place we’ll be going back to one day~

Yosemite in the snow

Half dome...snow cleared out later in the day

On a snowy hike

After Yosemite, we headed to LA where we flew to Cincy for the Holidays. It was nice to relax and hang with our families!

After the holidays we headed back to LA. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single photo while we were there. I, Sara, was unimpressed with the city. I was expecting New York City on the west coast and LA is nothing like it. It’s one giant suburb and it takes forever to get anywhere in the city. The only touristy thing we did was go to Hollywood and it’s a dump! Of course we did have lots of little things go wrong like all our sleeping options fell through(including camping) and we started have car troubles and some other things. So maybe we’ll have to give LA another shot sometime! We really enjoyed the weather and all the boardwalks next to the beach. That was definitely a redeeming quality!

Next we moved onto San Diego. If we ever moved to CA this is the city we would chose! The weather and beaches were great and it feels less crowded. We had a great tour guide, a friend of Craigs, who let us stay with him and showed us some of the sights!

Our friend is the shadow...it's a group photo!

Craig being a rebel and drinking a beer on the beach

Great sunset in San Diego

This ends our time in California. It was great hanging with our friends, seeing some sights and meeting some amazing people that you’ll see in the near future on Recycle Your Faith. We can’t wait to go back again!