So Cal, finally

<=The big building in the middle is the hospital I'm working at

Below: Mission Inn patio, Flowering cacti on Mount Rubidoux, Peace Bridge on Mount Rubidoux, the cloudy beach

Sorry it's taken so long to post. I don't know where time has gone, and honestly I have a hard time thinking of things in my life anyone would be interested in. But, my mom keeps pestering me so here goes.

When we first got here we stayed at the Mission Inn because we didn't have our furniture for our apartment and I had reimbursable money to spend for travel. The inn is a historical landmark and almost every president has stayed there since Teddy Roosevelt. The architecture was beautiful; it was a fun night of enjoying and exploring what will be our home for 3 months. We even got room service for breakfast and were the only ones in the swimming pool.

Matt and I are enjoying Riverside; it is brighter and greener than Vegas, which is what I was hoping for. I love all of the flowering trees and vines everywhere - even around highways. The cacti are flowering here too. We went on a hike up Mount Rubidoux (a small hill near our apartment) and had a great view of Riverside, including my hospital, and many flowering cacti and trees. They also have many good coffee shops here, the dark, older, local kind with baristas that know what they're doing.

Our favorite coffee shop is Coffee Depot, it's in the original train station building in Riverside with a lot of the original architecture and lots of fun events every week including the stitch and bitch knitting club of Riverside (not as cool of a name as Sin City Hookers but equally as fun). One element of the area we could do without is the heat. I know it's only spring and there is more to come (the locals keep reminding me) but 80 degrees in May is just not right.

There was a short trip to the seaside which turned out to be cold and cloudy even though it was 80 degrees and sunny in Riverside, so we watched the waves and birds and sat as long as we could without freezing since we were dressed for warmer weather. It was a fun drive and we saw a movie-making in progress. We don't know what movie but it was fun to see anyway.

That's about all the excitement as of yet, but I've had a rough schedule and not a lot of long strings of time off. I got an official contract at the hospital I'm working at for a month, and guaranteed schedule and time off (I don't have to be available for 5 days and they can call me 2 hours before work to tell me whether I am needed or not). So I should have a nice long weekend coming up and we will have some more exciting adventures to post soon.