End of Trip, Beginning of New Chapter

So, we are sorely behind in our blogging. To recap:

1) We finished our trip by driving from Bloomington to Oak Ridge, TN to visit Dan's Uncle Mike and family. Many games were played, cliffs were jumped off of (into deep, refreshing lake waters--after which muscles were sore), great meals were eaten, three cousins were seen one of whom just graduated from high school and just went off to the US Air Force academy, more games were played, waters were skiied and wakeboarded, more games were played. Awesome.

2) Then we flew to Austin, TX to see Dan's sister Gayle. It was like an oven down there...over a hundred degrees every day we were there. I (Dan) played as a sub for Gayle's softball team as the DH (so I "warmed" the bench when the team was out on the field, but since it was so hot, I was probably more of a "bench cooler" than a "bench warmer") and went 2-2 and scored a run. Evi maintained a cool acquaintance with Gayle's cat Peaches, neither were really sure what to do with the other. Many games were played here too. Katie and I had never been to TX, outside the airports, so it was neat to explore downtown Austin (heard a free concert in the park one night) and drove down to San Antonio to see the Alamo and the River Walk. Very fun.

3) We flew back to Portland, OR and stayed with Dan's parents for awhile before we found a wonderful house to rent in north Vancouver, WA. It has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (one for me, one for Bird, and, since Evi is so small, a 1/2 bath for her), a small but nice yard and...we are paying the SAME RENT as our dinky Brooklyn apartment! Love it. Although we hated the whole time-consuming process of unpacking of boxes and moving of incredibly heavy furniture bit. I am slowly mastering the manly art of outdoor grilling, which was sorely neglected in the concrete jungle of NYC. Yum. I am also loving all the readily available, super tasty microbrews from here in the PNW. I do miss me my Brooklyn Lager, though. Katie starts her new job at the clinic soon, and I will be working on my dissertation. It is great to have family (my parents, Katie's Dad and sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc.) close by. We are very happy.

4) Lastly, since we no longer live in Brooklyn, I restyled the look of the blog as you will plainly notice. Brooklyn Blogger is dead, Long live Dan and Bird's Pacific Northwest Journal!

We have already posted many pictures and videos of our trip at flickr, and will be catching up even more in the coming days, including pics of our new house, and videos of Evi, who is cutting 3 new teeth in her upper gum! Stay tuned, and, as things fall into normalcy and routine, look for more frequent updates (I hope).