Matt and Ashley Faus

Here are some videos cataloging our adventure.

Thanks the crazy holiday travels and our willingness to take a 12 hour delay, AirTran gave Ashley and I each two free round-trip tickets to wherever they fly, which includes Jamaica! Not sure when, but sometime in 2010.

We had an overnight layover in Milwaukee on our way home, so we took advantage of the local art museum.

We had an awesome Christmas break over the past two weeks.  There are plenty of stories, but it’s really late and I just spent a good deal of time getting all the pictures up.  I’ll link in the videos here, and hope Ashley adds some prose to describe our vacation!

Matt and I enjoyed a wonderful Labor Day weekend with a 2-night camping trip at Big Sur! We’ve had reservations for a few months, and we were really excited to head out. We’ve both been going a mile a minute with work, church, and rehearsals, so a weekend in the middle of nowhere sounded AWESOME!

We took a leisurely drive down to Big Sur, and stopped to take pictures on the INCREDIBLE view on Highway 1. Highway 1 runs along the coast, so you can see mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. We are always astounded by the beauty of the scenery, and it makes for much more enjoyable driving conditions

We picked out the perfect campsite online, and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was large and mostly secluded. Unlike Yosemite, where the campsites are literally on top of each, Big Sur had quite a bit of separation and trees between each site. We decided to be really high-maintenance and bring our blow-up mattress to sleep on… and I have to say, why haven’t we been doing this for all of our camping trips? It’s AMAZING, and it’s not like we’re having to carry our gear on our backs, so why not? Matt also cooked wonderful steaks, chicken and potatoes for dinner. We used most of the chicken to make sandwiches to take on our hike the next day.

We had a lazy breakfast of bacon, eggs, and coffee, and then headed out the see the falls. BIG disappointment! After you’ve seen the falls at Yosemite, a little 20 ft. drizzle of water is not impressive. However, the weather was nice, and it was a good warm up for the day We decided to hike up to Buzzard’s Roost after lunch, and enjoyed a great view at the top. You could see the moutains all around, and there was no one at the top. Both trails were pretty empty during the day, so it was really fun to spend some alone time together. We put our feet in the stream on the way back, and the cold water was so refreshing on our tired feet Matt made pork for dinner, and we roasted marshmallows by the fire.

We debated going on an 8 mile hike during our fireside conversation, but made the final decision on the way to the park down the road. The hike began with a 1 mile route to the beach, which was surrounded by huge hills… that we realized we would be climbing on the next leg of the hike. We started up the hill at a strong pace, and made it to the half-way point in about 2 hours. Make no mistake, this “hill” was at a pretty steep angle, with plenty of wind and sun to beat us up However, the scenery was well worth it, and the view from the top was all the gratification we needed We thought it would be easier to head down, but we found out that the other side of the trail was only about 1 foot wide, with brush and grass on either side. We each slipped a few times, but managed to make it down in one piece We realized that we are a bit out of shape for our spring Half-Dome trip, but hiking is such a fun past-time. We topped off our strenuous exercise with the utterly healthy Round Table pizza. Bad choice, to say the least!

Big Sur was a great weekend, wait ’til you see the top of the hikes…. you’ll be jealous!

One of my college friends decided to take a little summer vacation and visit us in California! He and his girlfriend arrived on Thursday evening and left Monday evening, for a long weekend. We took it pretty easy Thursday night, with a nice dinner (thanks Ashley!) and just chatted for a while. I took off on Friday, and we embarked on a leisurely 4 hour drive to a campsite at Yosemite Lakes, which is a private campground about 5 miles west of the Highway 120 entrance to Yosemite National Park. The campgrounds were pretty crowded, but luckily ReserveAmerica had a deal where we could stay in the “members only” spots. I can’t imagine the other spots, they must have been tiny!

We were able to setup camp rather quickly, and then walked down to swim and lounge around in the stream at the campgrounds. We cooked up some filet mignon and ribeyes with loaded baked potatoes for dinner and had a great time hanging out by the campfire. We were lucky to have a campfire at all, it took us quite some time (and money) to find someone who would sell us firewood!

The next morning, I used my fancy 3-burner camp stove to cook up some bacon and scrambled eggs to fuel our big day. Driving through Yosemite was incredible! The scenery there is unlike any I have ever seen, and the park is so big - there is so much to do! There are 5-6 campgrounds within the park and even a 4-star hotel. It’s really commercialized, but it does not detract from the beauty of the surroundings. We also found out that the weekend we were there was free entry to the park! It was a nice surprise when we got there, but it also meant that it was incredibly crowded. It took us nearly 15 minutes to find a parking spot so that we could get out and begin our hike. We set out on the John Muir Trail, which happens to extend for over 212 miles! We only made it about 2 miles up the mountain, and it was one of the most strenous hikes we have ever been on! It was pretty much 2 miles of huge stairs up a steep cliffside. We grew very tired and had to take several breaks, but the views were well worth it.

When we got up to the top of the falls, my friend and I decided to go for a swim in Emerald Pool. The snowmelt was pretty cold, but it was a hot enough day that it felt great! Yosemite valley was carved by glacier movement, so I have swam around in a glacial pool at the top of a waterfall! Refreshed by the cool waters, we started our trek down the mountain. It was MUCH easier going downhill, and we were able to get down in about 45 minutes. We walked around a little more in the park, and then started the 4 hour drive home (it took 45 minutes just to get out of the park and on the road)!

On Sunday, my friends borrowed our car to do the Alcatraz tour, and then Ashley and I took CalTrain to meet up with them later that afternoon.  We had lunch on Pier 39, walked around there, to Ghiradelli Square, and Lombard Street.  Then, we got back in the car to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and take some pics from the other side.  We also explored a little around a beach near the bridge and found a great place for a picnic next time we visit!

All in all, it was an outstanding weekend and it was really cool to catch up with old friends around the city!

A group from church planned a trip to Sequia National Park, and I was lucky enough to be able to come along! It was about a 5 hour drive from Santa Clara, but once we got there, it was very much worth the wait! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the scenery even more outstanding! We set up camp and began the incredible experience of living amongst one of the greatest parks in the nation. There were several deer spottings within our camp, and the adventures we had outside of our camp were out of this world. The views and weather were truly an experience to be reckoned with. I have posted several pictures of the event, and below are some videos I took.

Matt and I have been married for one year! We have enjoyed married life, and highly recommend it to anyone that’s found the person they are meant to be with!

We started the weekend with an ice cream date and reminiscing about our dating relationship. On Saturday, I kicked Matt out of the house for a few hours to prepare a feast from scratch. He really likes lasagna, but I never make it for him. I found an amazing recipe for Ultimate Lasagna, completed with beef, sausage, ricotta and parmesan cheese, carrots, celery, tomatoes and several kinds of spices. I cut the recipe in half, and it was still overflowing the 9 x 13 inch pan! I also decided to make some brownies layered with cream cheese from scratch. I stumbled onto the site bakeorbreak.com recently, and let me tell you, I think I’m going to get addicted. The brownie recipe is listed on the site, and it is AMAZING. To be fair, anything with four baker’s squares of chocolate, two sticks of butter, two cups of sugar, and 16 oz. of cream cheese is sure to taste good. Also, to be fair, normal kitchens are NOT set up to make entire meals from scratch! I used all of our mixing bowls and mixing spoons, and I had to rinse them off in the process… and my wimpy hand-mixer almost stopped when I tried to whip the cream cheese! But, fear not, I did eventually get all the components into their respective pots and pans to complete the cooking process. As a side dish, I made fried mozzarella from scratch, which was really tasty. Top that off with ceasar salad and two kinds of bread, and we had a feast! Matt LOVED the meal, which made me very happy. It was a great second day of anniversary weekend

On Sunday, we were up early to enjoy Matt’s anniversary gift. He surprised me with “Man of La Mancha” tickets. The tickets were special, as the musical was to be performed at an amphitheater on top of Mt. Tamalpais. We had breakfast at a cute diner in San Francisco, and caught the 9:00 am shuttle up the mountain. It was foggy all the way up the mountain, but just before we reached our destination the sun burst through the clouds! We later determined that WE had actually burst through the clouds, and that we were above the fog! Matt had packed blankets and a cooler for the day, complete with garlic stuffed olives for me We set up on the stone seats, and headed out for a hike. We hiked to West Point Inn before the show, which was 1.5 miles each way! The show was EXCELLENT, and we enjoyed the view of the bay behind the scenery. We ended up going to bed ridiculously early… it had been a long weekend!

We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating our first year of marriage, and I can’t wait for the next 50 or 60 years with Matt!