White Water Kayaking Craziness

This past Sunday Zak and I were planning to go to Yosemite National Park, woke up early prepared for our 3 hour drive and then we decided it would be too far to do in one day, and since Zak has already been... I was ok with missing out. Not to mention I was up an hour before the alarm went off wondering if I would come across a bear while we were hiking and what the hell I would do? Since we were already up we began looking for something fun/adventurous to do in closer proximity to Sacramento. Zak came across this white water rafting place about an hour and fifteen minutes north of here on the Cache Canyon River. The family owned company, Cache Canyon River Trips, welcomed last minute guests so we decided it would be an exciting thing to do since I am a newbie to river kayaking and Zak loves the thrill of the rapids. We arrived, signed up, got a safety tutorial (which later came in handy!), put our life jackets on.. grabbed an inflatable kayak and off we went!

Right off the bat we hit some good rapids and since I was up front I got soaked! It was so much fun to take them head on, and when we got a break we pulled over to enjoy the scenery.

About 2 miles past our start point there is a pull out where we could get our BBQ lunch. We weren't really hungry but we paid for it so we got out and ate anyways! :) By this point, every inch of us was soaking wet! Here is a photo of me heading to our lunch:

Ok back on the river we go! One of the river guides (who were strategically placed along the river) was nice enough to snap a photo of us as we headed back down the Cache Canyon River. 

Here is a video of us taking on a small rapid! (Sorry if it makes you dizzy!)

The next series of photos depict Zak and I taking on the largest rapid on the river called "The Mother" and after we were done with it I decided "The Mother #$*@^$" would be a better name. In these photos you will notice that our faces go from shear excitement to... oh sh*t we aren't in the kayak anymore! ("The Mother" Photos courtesy of Cache Canyon River Trips.. we paid $25 just to re-live this moment) (click to enlarge)

It happened in a split second and before I knew it I was being drug underwater by a class 3 rapid, reciting in my head "Do I have my hat? Wheres my hat? Oh crap can't let go of the paddle!" Then I remembered what we learned in the safety course to put your feet in front of you if you happen to fall into a rapid to avoid hitting your head on a rock. Ok check.

 "Wheres my husband?! Ok I see him..hes ok.. now how the hell do I keep from drowning? Sweet a big burly man is jumping in after me, he will rescue me!" (Thanks to the river guides strategically placed on the river, or else I don't know how badly beat up I might have gotten!) So after what seemed like at least a 5 minute struggle to get me out of the current (in reality probably only a minute) I was pulled up onto a rock and reunited with my husband who proceeds to say "Nikki don't freak out, you are ok". Semi-freakout in 3-2-1... after regaining my thoughts and coming out of a shock like state, I realized that I had successfully rescued my hat and kept a hold of the paddle the whole time! Mission accomplished! Now if only I had put not swallowing water first on the list..

After a river guide told us where to find the paddle that Zak let go of we hopped back in the Kayak and headed back down the river...this is my scared face..

So long Mother Rapid... until we meet again..

So thats it for our adventure, bruised and banged up we traveled a few more miles down the Cache Canyon River, and hit a few more rapids. In all it was a great experience and would do it again if I had the chance! 

To see more photos of our white water experience click here.

Wagyu and Wine

Another fabulous weekend here in the Moreland...hotel? It was our last weekend in Sacramento so we had to make it a good one! Friday night we went to an AMAZING restaurant called, The Kitchen Restaurant. The world class chefs literally cook your food right in front of you with top notch ingredients ranging from sea scallops fresh out of the water, wasabi fresh from the root, and the most tender wagyu beef we had ever tasted.

Here is the set-up of the restaurant so you can get an idea of what we experienced...

We could walk around the whole restaurant, including the kitchen in the back, like it were our own! They only have one seating a night for dinner and the menu changes monthly, it is truly a one of a kind experience.

Take a look at the size of the lobsters they cooked! (And fresh wasabi below that)

There were five courses in total and each of them were unique and delicious, I just loved that they used local organic farmers to acquire their vegetables. Our favorite course was the wagyu beef! It was so mouthwatering delicious, Zak's co-worker even said that he hadn't ever enjoyed a steak until that night! Here is a picture of it to get your mouth watering too!

If you want to see some more pictures of our night at The Kitchen, click here.

Today we went white water kayaking, it was crazy fun to say the least and we took a nasty spill on a class 3 rapid so I now have a very painful deep tissue bruise on my rear end- blog and pics (sorry no pictures of the rear end..lol) to follow!

*Shout out to the Dads!*

Since Father's Day is upon us I thought it would be fitting to have a blog to say thanks to our fathers!

Up first we have the ever handy Don, my dad who is always there for you whether you need worldly advice or if you would like a break down of his newest thriller-esq book.

 When I was little my dad would take me to Caprock Canyon in New Mexico and we would dig up all sorts of fossils and rocks, who knew oysters would be in the middle of New Mexico? That is one of my fondest memories growing up, and the photo below will always remind me of you Dad! Thank you for everything you have done for me in the past 21 years! We hope you have a wonderful Father's Day because you deserve it.

Up next is Jeff, Zak's father! I am lucky because my father-in-law is an awesome cook! Anything from surf to turf is delicious. We always enjoy visiting when we are in Georgia and he always makes it feel like home. And Jeff gave me the best gift of all... his son!

This is one of the only pictures I have of all of us together so it will have to do.. by the look on Zak's face there was a pretty interesting conversation going on. (This was our one year anniversary!.. The cake was still good a year later!) Thanks Jeff for being a great Dad and an awesome Father-in-Law!

And last but not least we have Phil! Phil is Zak's step-father and possibly the best fisherman in Ohio! :) It is always guaranteed that the TV will be tuned to the "Match Game" on Game Show Network when visiting Phil. We have some great memories of fishing and sitting by campfires, and hope to have many more in the years to come! Thank you Phil for being you, we hope you have a great Father's Day and hope that you catch a fish or two for us!

This is a picture of Phil, doing what he does best! I love that he enjoys the simple things in life.

*Happy Father's Day to all of our wonderful Fathers!*

The Celtics lost and our car lost a window...and a gps..

Wow! What an interesting week this has been. I can honestly say that our life is anything but dull! The absolutely-amazing-omg-is-this-really-happening-moment came when we finalllllllllllllllly got our plane tickets to South Korea! Two one way tickets to half way across the world, YAY! They tried to put us on a non-stop flight from the east coast, but uhh that would have pretty much taken us 20+ hours. So instead we are flying from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles and staying the night there. The next day we will board our flight to Seoul, Korea, which is a whopping 12 hours. When I was a young kiddo I made a trans-Atlantic flight when we moved to the States from England but only vaguely remember the trip. Since then my longest flight has been 5-6 hours... I have no idea what to do on a 12 hour flight! Zak on the other hand has made many long flights to and from Southwest Asia... just a perk of his job I suppose. (Just kidding)

In other news, when the NBA Finals began Zak and I told each other who we think would win, and during which game. Mine went like this..

Game 1- Lakers ...and they won.
Game 2- Celtics ...and they won.
Game 3- Lakers ...and they won.
Game 4- Celtics ...and they won.
Game 5- Celtics ...and they won.
Game 6- Lakers ...and they won.
Game 7- Celtics ..and they... I still can't bring myself to say it.

So you figure since I predicted all those correctly that the stars would align and the Celtics would pull through for my game 7 prediction right? Ugh, wrong. Ok ok so I was the only person cheering on the Celtics in a bar full of Laker fans, and saw my sweet victory coming in the last 10 seconds. And. Then. They. Lost. :( Gloat on Zak, gloat on.

To top off an awesome night, it turns out as we were sleeping our rental car got broken into! There were about 5 other cars that got broken into as well, so much for your "security" Hilton! Oops I forgot, the security is only here on the weekends.. because thats when all crimes happen of coarse! Heres some pictures of what we woke up to...

I am sad to say that our awesome GPS/PMP got stolen! I have never been robbed before and feel violated! That was the first "big" purchase Zak and I made together as a couple, and we saved up for a while to get it, back when we would scrape pennies together for toilet paper. So its unsettling to know its in the hands of a thief that will probably only sell it for $25 and doesn't know its true potential! (because it is far more than just a GPS!) Ah well, at least they were too stupid to steal the Ray Ban's that were sitting right below it. So long Cowon Q5W.. we will miss your British accent, and im sorry we were stupid enough to leave you in the car!

After a couple hours of dealing with this mess, we got a new rental and are moving past this incident and learning from it!

 Zak, his co-worker and I are going out to this place called "The Kitchen Restaurant" tonight. Gourmet Chef's cook your 5 course meal right in front of you.. heres a link if you want to read more about it.. The Kitchen Restaurant. Blog to follow! Have a great weekend!

A week of squid and... magical mouthwash?!

After the bout of sickness we both contracted last weekend I was hoping for a great week ahead of us. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel as far as my allergies were concerned and Zak managed to get his way back to work! So in light of feeling better we went for a sushi night. It was a great little restaurant in the corner of a strip mall, with all you can eat sushi! We sat at the sushi bar while little boats floated around in front of us, each of the boats had different sushi, squid, fish eggs, etc. on them. I settled down with a glass of Chardonnay and my new favorite sushi roll, the "spider roll". Zak on the other hand had plans to settle down with this little guy...

(click to enlarge)

To our dismay we started feeling like sh*t again on Tuesday. So we decided to tough it out as we figured it would be another round of a 24 hour bug. Wednesday rolls around and our symptoms were getting worse so we decided to head to a clinic! But we did it the Moreland way... I took Zak in to get his stomach issues sorted out in the morning thinking that I still would get over my sore throat and fever, and he saw the doctor and we carried on with our day. But by about 8pm I could no longer stand the pain and I clearly was developing some sort of blisters on my tonsils, and off we went to the clinic again. After being asked a few times "weren't you here earlier?" I was finally able to see a doctor who later diagnosed me with tonsillitis.

The best part of this story is when we were on the hunt for a 24 hour pharmacy at 10pm. We found ourselves at a Walgreens in the middle of bum-central. I think we got asked for money about 5 times while we were there, and felt as though we were the only "normal" people inside of this store. Luckily we got some added humor when the pharmacist discovered that I had been prescribed "Magic Mouthwash" which she later re-named "Magical Mouthwash" because she felt it was more fitting for the concoction of antacid, lidocain, and antibiotic she mixed together for me.

Off we went back to the hotel for some more R&R. But good news came on Thursday when we found out we FINALLY (like 1 year later finally) got our orders for Korea! Yes, it is true readers.. we are off to the land of "not quite right" next month. I never feel that anything is set in stone though, because after all, we are dealing with the Department of the Army here... things change quickly! Prime example: the day after we got our orders for Korea, Zak got a wonderful FedEx package stating that he needs to report back to active duty. SAY WHAT?! Yes Zak did sign on for 8 years of Army (4 active duty, 4 inactive reserve), but this really happens?...yes and of coarse it would happen to us! Luckily he is already a civilian employee of the Army, so its still looking like Korea is the plan.

Thanks for reading, sending our love to you all! xxxx

PS. Have you seen "Get Him to the Greek" yet?! It is definitely a comedy must see!

Cirque De Soleil & Six Flags!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had an eventful one! The Cirque De Soleil "Alegria" was in town for the week so we decided to go to a showing of it on Saturday. It was a beautiful show, and I wish we could have taken lots pictures but there were no cameras allowed...ok...so we got one. I couldn't resist! There were all sorts of high flying acts, amazing fire dancers, and great singing! The picture below is at the end of Alegria when the whole cast comes out, they all removed their head dresses and wigs which I thought was neat. (Click to enlarge)

Here is one of me leaving the show!

On Sunday we drove to Six Flags in Vallejo, California. It was a beautiful day... full of sunshine and apparently everything I am allergic to in the air. Before the extreme allergy meltdown we were able to ride a few roller coasters and watch some shows! This Six Flags was a Zoo/Theme Park mix. Zak was behind the camera all weekend so I don't have any pics of him at the park... I promise he went and enjoyed himself too.. :) Here is a picture of me in front of the "Medusa". This coaster had an awesome drop, and of coarse we sat in the front! 

Here is one of a White Bengal Tiger swimming under water... 

And an Elephant under water... 

This Six Flags also had an orca show, the name of their whale is "Shouka". It was pretty neat, and im glad we didnt sit in the first couple of rows because they got soaked! 

Unfortunately the downfall of our trip was at the Shouka show.. allergy attack x10! At this point I was sneezing every 30 seconds in sets of 4-5 sneezes. My eyes were swelling shut, and I could no longer function as a happy being at Six Flags. Zak would love if I posted the picture that would pretty much sum up how I was feeling... so here it is... 

Yes, it was time to leave Six Flags. I was disappointed that we weren't able to ride any more of the roller coasters because I love theme parks. So we got back to our hotel armed with allergy nasal swabs and eye drops, and somewhere between Vallejo and Sacramento Zak and I started coming down with a stomach bug.. awesome. Needless to say Zak is off work today and we are both laying in bed, but feeling much better than we were last night! 

P.S. HAPPY *7TH BIRTHDAY* TO OUR NEPHEW ALEX AND HAPPY *17TH BIRTHDAY* TO ZAK'S SISTER BRITTANY!!! 

Hawaii!

Last Thursday Zak and I were trying to decide what we were going to do for the long Memorial Day weekend ahead of us. And since we are in California we figured it would be an easy shot to head to Hawaii! We logged onto a last minute deals website and found a great deal for a few days at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. Zak said "should we do it?!" I said "YES!" and we booked our tickets! We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Honolulu around 7pm. Here are a few pictures of us arriving in paradise.. (click to enlarge)

After we got all checked in we headed up to our room on the 29th floor of the Tapa's Tower to check out our view from the balcony! It was dark but I could still see how beautiful it was... it truly looks like paradise!

On Saturday we got up very early so we could get a full day! I was able to function at 5am for once.. but only because of the time change! :) We planned to go to Haunama Bay for snorkeling and hanging out on the beach! We missed our first two shuttle buses due to being in the wrong spot! But we finally got on one and were able enjoy the Bay for a few hours! Here are some photos from our snorkeling trip (Zak's new underwater cybershot really came in handy!):

The Hilton Hawaiian Village had great entertainment! On Saturday night we got "VIP" tickets to the "Ultimate Hawaiian Experience". So as we sat around the pool with our swag and free drinks we listened to some intense poetry, great music, and even better fire dancing! Zak got some great pictures of the Fire Dancer!

On Sunday Zak and I felt it was necessary to visit Pearl Harbor since it was Memorial Day, and we had been wanting to visit! It was a humbling experience to see the ships that fought during that time. We walked on the USS Missouri and the USS Bowfin Submarine. (The submarine was verrrrrrrrry tiny inside... I dont know how someone could live in a submarine!)

If you ever get the chance to go to Hawaii jump on that plane and do it! You will not regret it, it is a little slice of paradise that I think everyone should experience. Hope everyone finds themselves having a great week. We are heading to Cirque De Soleil Alegria here in Sacramento this weekend. Ciao!

To see more Hawaii photos follow this link: HAWAII

Urban Dare Sacramento!

Since my last update Zak and I joined a race in Downtown Sacramento CA called the "Urban Dare". It consists of running, walking, trivia about the city, dares (such as sticking your face in a plate of whipped cream to find bubble gum... then blowing a bubble) and it was an all out race with about 35 other teams! Through out the race you are allowed to use smart phones, call friends or family that have access to the Internet, and take public buses and subways(we opted out of the public transportation). As the race started we were handed our clue sheets with 11 clues and dares that we needed to complete with photos before we headed back to the start/finish. Luckily Zak and I had the smarts to print off maps of the city since we had no idea what roads lead where! Also, the clues are in no particular order so you have to figure out the answer, find what it is connected with in Sacramento, find out where that place is...and RUN! Here I am before Zak and I began our race: (CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)

Our first clue: "It is the title role of an Adam Sandler film in which Kathy Bates plays his mother. Get your picture in front of the restaurant that goes by this name." Answer: Water Boy! This one was a couple blocks away from our starting point.

After leaving Water Boy Cafe we ran into a woman who was willing to fulfill part of our "photo hunt" challenge which was "Get a picture of someone not in the race doing a cartwheel."

Clue number 3: "His statue of David now stands in the Galleria dell'Academia in Florence. Get your picture in front of the restaurant that goes by this name." Answer: Michaelangelo! This one took a bit to find since we weren't familiar with the structure of the streets yet.

Clue number 4: "This establishment that specializes in a green form of transportation, has a rhyming name. Get your picture in front of it." Answer: Mike's Bike's! We actually passed this on the way to Michaelangelo's and didn't know it!

Clue number 5: "This sea god's statue was once covered, so as not to offend a convention of home schoolers. Never mind those that were offended that the sculpture had to be covered up. Get your picture with this statue." Answer: Poseidon! I give Zak props for finding this one! It was in the middle of a bunch of buildings and had no physical address. But luckily his friend from work took explained this statue to him just days before while they were downtown, so he remembered where it was!

Clue number 6: "Go to the monument that honors California's firefighters for your spellbound dare." We ran around the capitol park a few times before finding the firefighter's memorial, but when we did find it and completed our dare which was to add up the numbers found across the memorial that corresponded with a word our team had. Once we had the final number correct we could move on..

After the dare at the memorial, we ran into an opportunity to complete our photo hunt dare! "Get your picture shaking hands with a dog." Thank you puppy for being such a good sport! :)

On to the next clue! # 7: "This ship was known as the galloping ghost of the china coast. Get your picture with it." Answer: USS Sacramento! It took forever to find this one and we had to call reinforcements aka my sister, her boyfriend, and my mother! Thankfully we found it... I was actually looking for a ship which would have been much easier to find.. instead it was an anchor!

Clue number 8: "In China, he is known as the father of the nation. Find his statue and get your picture with him." Answer: Sun Yat Sen Statue! Off to China Town we went! 

After China Town we had a dare to do a wheelbarrow race on the other side of town.. we didn't get a photo of this one though!

The next clue # 10: He said, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself..." Dont be scared. Go to his park for your bubble dare." Answer: Roosevelt Park! I took this challenge and it was a messy one! I dont have a photo, but instead I have a video for you viewing pleasure... ENJOY!

The final clue! Number 10! "Go to the market named after the street that is named after the (CDXXXII DIVIDED BY XXIV)th letter of the alphabet. Get your picture with the equine statue there. Thanks for the help with the roman numerals mom! After figuring out what they represented we added them up "18" and found the 18th letter of the alphabet...Q right? Wrong. FAIL. So we thought we had this in the bag.. running up and down Q street trying to find a market with a statue of a horse... wait... lets count again... ohhhh. Its R! We found the R Street Market... and the horse! 

As you can tell by that last photo... I was doooooooooooone. Ok so time to head back to the starting point AKA MVP Sports Grille...the only thing that kept me going was knowing there was a beer waiting for me...

So in the end we finished 25th out of 35 teams, it was about 7 miles in all that we traveled around the city and it took us 2 hours and 50 minutes. Not bad considering I didn't think we would be able to finish all the clues since we weren't familiar with the area!