KerMatt: July 2011

South Bay Area Apartment Hunting

Many of you have asked how our apartment hunting went in San Jose (besides the craziness of the car). We realized during our first day of hunting that we were in way over our head and probably should have planned ahead more or planned more time to look. San Jose and it's surrounding areas have so many apartments!

We looked at probably 40 or 50 different apartments, condos, and duplexes in the 3 and a half days we were there. We went with a list of about 25 from Craigslist that I had found before we left Utah. But then we found a lot more just driving around specific areas.

Matt and I went into this adventure not quite sure what we wanted in an apartment exactly, but we came out knowing two things - Matt wanted some kind of air-conditioning and I wanted a washer and dryer or hookups for a w/d in the apartment. I just can not imagine going back to a laundromat style again, especially when we will both be working full-time.

Matt had his eyes opened in one of the first apartments we looked at when he found out they did not have any air-conditioning. I had lived in San Diego in an apartment without A/C so I knew they do make houses and apartments without a/c but Matt had not come upon this yet. Only two of the 40 apartments we looked at had central air-conditioning and several more had a wall A/C unit in the living room.

The best part was the way that each sales person would try to spin it and say things like "but we have the nice ocean breeze here so you really don't need it" or "you really don't need it with the wind that blows continuously through here" or "you can pay $400 more a month and live in our nice upgraded apartments which have the A/C wall unit." First of all, San Diego has an ocean breeze, San Francisco has an ocean breeze, but SAN JOSE DOES NOT HAVE AN OCEAN BREEZE. I just felt like they thought we were idiots when they told us something like that.

Most of the apartments we looked at were smaller than our apartment in Draper now and we were surprised how much older they were. They were all more than twice the rent too! We loved the Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino area but we just could not find a place that we both loved that was in the price range we wanted to pay.

After our extensive search and the car trip home to hash it out together, Matt and I chose an apartment complex called "The Woods" located just south of Downtown San Jose. We were truly impressed with the management and the way they run their complex and were thrilled to find out we could sign a 6-month lease without having to pay hundreds more a month relative to a 12-month lease. So this way, we will have a nice place without being locked in for a year while getting to know the area and spend more time house hunting.

We love the Woods complex which really is a mega-complex of 6 different complexes, five swimming pools, a large theater room, 5 fitness centers, a rent able guest suite and 1500 apartments in one. It is really its own neighborhood and we are able to have a 2 bed / 2 bath with a washer / dryer and air-conditioning. They also don't allow any dogs in the complex, only cats, which we were happy about (sorry you dog lovers) but we have experienced too many people in apartments who don't take care of their dog poop or control their dog's barking.

Inside The Woods

Duramwood Village, where our apartment is located

Kitchen view inside our model

One of the swimming pools at the Woods

We are excited to start over and see how The Woods fits as our new home. And since we will have the guest bedroom we wanted, we'd love visitors :) Check out the following link for a video tour we found on their website: http://www.woodsapartments.com/videotour.php

We love you all and want to give a shout out to all those who have helped us get to know more about the San Jose area (Rachel and Carrie Langlois, Tiffany and Steve Stock, Emily Harris, Brad Moss, Sean Kelly, Peter Chapman, Lane McGhee and others...)

We do know our new address and if you want it, just ask.

Heroes of the Highway

We would like to dedicate this post to the two tow truck drivers that picked us up along our treks to and from San Jose when Keri's Honda, Sparky, overheated twice. One of the tow truck drivers called himself a "hero of the highway" and though in my mind (Keri), I had a million sarcastic ways to make fun of him for saying that, I held my tongue and actually found it quite fitting.

These tow truck driver take their jobs very seriously and really try to make you feel comfortable and laugh about your situation. They were very simple but genuine men and we are grateful for their help.

On Wednesday night (June 29th), we had already driven about 9 hours and were about 2 more hours away from Fairfield when Sparky overheated going through the Donner Pass in California. It was around 1 or 2am in the morning so you can imagine how unhappy we were to have to stop. We had to be towed about 20 miles back to Truckee and should have paid $150 since we had the basic AAA membership which covers only 5 tow miles, but our wonderful tow driver went ahead and waived that for us.

We spent the night at the Truckee Donner Lodge worried about our car and if we were going to be able to make it down to San Jose to check out apartments. We only had a couple days to look as it was. Since the mechanic told us it would take a day or two to fix our car, Keri's wonderful Aunt Lori came and picked us up from Roseville and then drove us down to Fairfield, where we picked up Keri's parents car.

Donner Pass, where Sparky first overheated

Truckee Donner lodge where we spent Wednesday night

We ended up having the mechanic replace the water pump, the radiator, and the thermostat and he said the head gasket and engine were fine.

Keri's dad drove us back to Truckee on Tuesday, July 5th and we got only 60 miles away before the engine started overheating again. So this time it was about 1pm and we sat for an hour in the hot desert heat in the middle of nowhere (Nevada) and waited to be towed again. Thank goodness we smartened up and Matt had already upgraded our AAA membership just days ago.

Our tow driver, James, was very nice though. He told us all about how he lives at home with his parents again and had to started driving a tow truck after the economy killed his construction business. He spends his days off watching his little down syndrome brother and he worked on the Fourth of July because he felt bad that people would be left out on the highway. He is one that said he feels like a "hero of the highway".

James towed us 30 miles back to Reno where we waited another day for them to fully inspect the car. We checked in to the Sands Hotel for only $30 a night and it was really only worth that. We found out on Wednesday morning that Sparky's head gasket was blown. We had to bid adieu to Sparky until we can pull her back to San Jose with us in a month and we rented a car to get home. The rest of the trip went smoothly but we feel quite beat up and stressed out after such a long week.

Wadsworth, NV where Sparky overheated on the way home

The Sands Hotel where we stayed in Reno

Sparky in her finest days

Sparky's fate now probably

Fourth of July

During our recent trip to NorCal, Matt kept reminding me to "find joy in the journey" and I'd say that part of my joy was on the Fourth of July. We headed up to my hometown, Fairfield, on Sunday night and got to spend the Fourth of July with my fam.

Mom, Bo, Jayla and I went to the annual Fairfield Fourth of July parade to watch Dad march with the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). The parade was always a wonderful tradition for my family. Dad started out in the parade when I was in high school dressing up as James Brown and then Elvis Presley and dancing around in the parade. Now he has taken to marching with the veterans. It's probably a little more fitting for him seeing as how a white James Brown just felt a little wrong.

The parade was a little light this year more than I remember but it was still great to be able to come back and be reminded of how much culture is in Fairfield. There were groups of all of shapes and sizes and everyone was just happy to celebrate the diversity.

Downtown Fairfield during the parade

Dad, on the end. I kept trying to make him laugh including yelling that his fly was down. He takes his march very seriously.

The VFW (best part about it is that they were right behind the Disabled Veterans float).

After the parade, Mom, Dad, Bo, Matt and I all decided to drive out to Suisun Valley and hit up some fruit stands. I love driving out in the country especially since a couple of vineyards/wineries have been built in the last few years. Not that I drink but they were just beautiful to look at and it really dresses up our little hometown.

We only found one little fruit stand/bakery open but we had a wonderful time driving around all packed in one car.

We got some great treats at this little bakery, which I had never noticed, including some homemade peaches and cream ice cream.

The little bakery we found

Larry's Produce, the fruit stand we were hoping would be open

One of the vineyards in Suisun

One of the new homes built at one of the newer Suisun vineyard

We ended the night with a wonderful homecooked meal and by watching the fireworks show.

I really felt like this was a nice reminder that Fairfield was not the hick, boring town I thought it was when I moved away. It's actually quite pretty with so much diversity. Though don't get me wrong, I won't be moving back anytime soon.

Bucket List continued... or maybe not

I (Keri) wanted to hike Mt. Timpanogos one more time before we move and had arranged a hiking date with two of my former AHA coworkers. But unfortunately we had to postpone our hike due to the amount of snow STILL along the trail making it completely impassable. And the worst part is... it probably will take at least a month for all of the snow to melt.

I hiked Timpanogos once back in 2005 before I moved to San Diego but it was with a guy I did not know very well and I wanted to do it once more. Mt. Timpanogos is the second highest mountain in Utah's wasatch range and is a 14 mile round-trip hike.

We rescheduled to hike in August but now it's looking like KerMatt will be moving earlier than that.

Instead of hiking Timp, me and the girls decided to do a much shorter hike to Ensign Peak.

Keri, Red Rachel, Rachel Seangsuwan

Bucket List

In honor of our move to San Jose, KerMatt has been trying to make the most of our last days here in Utah. As part of our bucket list, we spent a weekend in St. George with Pikey and Chris and Tori, Bryan and Jackson. Sadly, Keri has not spent much time in St. George besides stopping through for food on a road trip.

As part of our weekend, we spent a day at Zion National Park - another first for Keri. We had a great time and realized now why so many people escape here during the winter. Zion was beautiful in a very dry, red-rock kind of way. We did two different hikes and had a great time with our friends before all of our lives change so soon.