2019 – June
Junebug.
We made our way up to Beaverton (in the Portland area) for the interview. I can’t say I was feeling it during the interview, in fact, I wasn’t sold that it would be a good fit for us. I wanted to stay away from companies that had regular layoffs (and so far it was normal at Amex, Intel, and even Nike). Met up with Gramps and nonnie (because that is what we do) and then we took a trip over to Seaside.
On our way back down we met up with some college friends (the Dunnings). While this isn’t the best photo of me there is a cheeseball known as Elijah that wanted to be part of the picture that was being taken. Afterward, we took Elijah to the Jelly Belly Factory (since the tours are free, why wouldn’t we at least stop!?) plus it gave us time to pick up a gift for Ara and Lijah.
We had gotten confirmation that Nike wasn’t interested (that was also some relief to us as well). Back in LA we kept busy with going to beaches and hitting up some spots that Los Angelinos do (like Randy’s Donuts). We visited that free airpark where the kids were able to explore planes but the difference this time is that we stopped at the gift shop to get them souvenir planes.
Los Angeles has some of the best beaches. This was also the end of our little iPhone (seen below, RIP) as the kids dropped it and left it in a bucket of water. This was not a model that had any water resistance. We got another call for an interview – this time to take a trip up to San Francisco. Not sure how we are going to swing it, but we need to. The interview in San Francisco was for a role in Portland – but they had a hub office a little closer to us and made the adjustment so we wouldn’t have to go to Portland. We needed to rotate the tires on the car before another trip because these miles were starting to pile on.
We set it up so that Arabella would stay with her Grandparents and Lijah would come with us. We wanted to make it a fun time for him (like we did the time before with the Jelly Belly factory). These two just love to snuggle at night. Inseparable, pretty much since birth (check out the photo below).
San Francisco was a blast. We took Elijah on the trolleys, took him to a trolley museum, and toured the area as much as we could by foot or trolley. I had the interview which seemed to go very well. In fact, at the end of it, the person I spoke with was wanting to know how soon I could start. I told him as long as I could find a place to live in Portland pretty quickly then that was the only thing holding me back. Before we went back down to LA, we stopped at Google, and Intel… we even drove by Apple’s world HQ.
Back in LA, the kids enjoyed having time to play with me and decorate my body as they saw fit.
We then took a trip down to San Diego. There was a location of a memorial of a massacre that happened. Click to read about it. I wanted to see the location and what became of things.. also when I looked it up I had a hard time finding any current photos of the memorial. That in and of itself was a reason to visit.
We also went to visit the Top Gun filming location. It is a little BBQ restaurant/bar where they filmed the “Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of fire” scene (amongst others).
If you look at the photos you will also see a long gate extending into the Ocean. That is the US/Mexico border south of San Diego. There was an entry into Mexico through the gate, but we couldn’t go to it as our passports were back in LA. Otherwise, there was a walkway to the other side. On the southern side of the border, it seems like everyone was having a good time. The US side was a stark contrast and hardly anyone was seen at all.
A small metal gate that divides two countries, what a thing to behold.
just Pray
note: this post was published on 08/26/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of June 2019 to keep chronological order.