February 2008 Drive from OR to MN

Here are a few pictures from our mid-February drive from Corvallis, Oregon to Bemidji MN. We got really lucky with the weather and had clear roads the entire way. Since we got a late start on the first day, we don't have many pictures of Oregon, Washington and Idaho (only 1 worth posting, of the snow at a nice little rest stop; click on pictures to see larger images).


We saw some absolutely beautiful scenery in Montana (National Grasslands) and North Dakota (Theodore Roosevelt National Park). There wasn't much snow, but it was really cold (single digits F) and at times really windy. We didn't spend much time outside, to say the least!

I really liked coming up to the Rockies in Montana, the way the mountains loomed up in the distance. I can only imagine being a pioneer over a hundred years ago and looking up at those mountains (coming from the opposite direction, obviously), wondering how in the heck I was going to get over!

Once we were in North Dakota the terrain flattened out a lot, although there were lots of hills in these weird almost moon-like landscapes in the area around Teddy Roosevelt NP.










North Dakota









Theodore Roosevelt National Park













Full moon over the plains of North Dakota









Blow, wind blow!!










Our truck and the U-haul trailer. :-)

Welcome to -20F Dr. Licata!

So much has happened since we last updated the blog! The most important of which is that on December 20, 2007, Julian very successfully defended his dissertation! The last few weeks were a bit stressful, but come show time, Julian really pulled out all the stops and gave a great talk. He got lots of questions from people in the audience afterward and handled them all without problems. He also did a spectacular job during the closed session with his committee members and, (the bugger!) didn't even have any revisions! It was a very happy day!!

We spent Christmas in Corvallis with friends (Eben, Daniel and Moni, Dani). I subjected everyone to Lutefisk, which is the x-mas eve tradition in Erika's family, and Moni brought this incredible Chilean dish. I'm sure everyone was very happy that she did...! After dinner, we played killer Trivial pursuit until 4am (didn't think it could be done, did you?!). I'd really like to know if anybody under the age of 50 can answer the damn pink questions...
For New Year's J and I stayed home and cooked an incredible meal followed by fireworks (the real kind, courtesy of our neighbor - the other kind came after the champagne ;-)) and champagne. Very yummy!! :) We definitely had a lot to be grateful for in 2007, not the least of which for me was having my hubby back (no more PhD!)!


We're going to be updating our blog more often now, so come back for more soon, including our winter wonderland drive from Oregon to Minnesota! Did I mention that it was -20F out the night we got to my parents' house...?