My commute home on September 18th, or "All You Need to Know about Biking in Berkeley."

I bike to work and I bike home again every day.  I've been doing so for my 3 years in Berkeley so far.  It's a relatively fast, almost free method of commuting that even provides some exercise!

However, there are some not-so-nice things about biking here:  mainly the other bikers.  But I won't rant.  Instead, I'd tell the story of my commute home a few days ago, September 18th, and you can provide your own analysis (if you're into that sort of thing).

I begin every commute home with some downhill and take back roads to avoid traffic, which is a problem of its own, but today we're focused on non-cars.  After a couple miles I nominally take a bike trail, which is great when half of it isn't under construction.  But the worst part is they don't work on contiguous blocks...they randomly choose non-adjacent stretches to close.  One by one they fall, but none re-open...

Most bikers these days just avoid the mess of construction fences by taking the road (a "bicycle boulevard,"whatever that means) next to the bike trail.

And that brings us to the good part.

I approach a stoplight.  It's red, and there are a total of five bikes (including me).  I'm not European, so five bikes at one stoplight is a lot!  

The light turns green, and we're off.  Pretty soon it's evident that biker #1 (we'll call him "Lance Failstrong") doesn't appreciate the pace of the two bikers in front of him, so he weaves into the pedestrian lane (a fenced-off section of the roadside).  

But alas, he is soon caught by the even-slower biker #4 (let's call him "Justin Timefordinner").  But it's ok, he knows what to do.  At the next break in the fence, he weaves back into the bike lane, unfortunately taking the #3 position he'd previously occupied.  Unsatisfied, after the next car passes, he weaves into the traffic lane, pedaling furiously on his road bike and biker shoes.  

The effort pays off, when he shows up bikers #2 and #3 ("Classic Mike" and "Classic Bob") to take the prized first position.

The victory is short-lived.  A mere hundred feet ahead, a red light looms.  Forced to stop by the perpendicular stream of traffic, he is joined a few seconds later by Justin, still in the pedestrian lane.

After a short wait, we're off again.  Now Lance sees something he doesn't like: parked cars straight ahead!  By now he's got it, though.  A quick weave brings him onto the bike trail, which is actually open on this block.  Disaster soon strikes as a previously unknown biker #6 blocks the way!  Another quick weave into the pedestrian lane brings him swooping by a pedestrian, who seems temporarily flustered by the orange racer that has just passed in front of her face.

Meanwhile, 30 feet behind, Mike, Bob, and I are continuing our bland straight-line trek down the road.

A stop sign looms ahead.

Although the car next to us comes to an approximate stop, such things are troublesome for bikers.  Mike and Bob continue without missing a beat.  

Unfortunately, they had failed to notice the pedestrian simultaneously entering the intersection.  Like all bay area pedestrians, he doesn't trouble himself with things like "looking both ways" or "waiting for large metal objects traveling at high speed to pass before walking onto the street."  He does seem a bit bothered that two such objects are on an immediate collision course, so he does grudgingly halt to let them pass while "thanking" them for the "nice stop."  

Unphased, they continue the trek.

I eventually made it home to my lovely wife and adorable son.

So if you're still reading, you're either supposed to be working on something else or you found my story entertaining.  This particular commute stuck out to me as a story because it represents well the challenges of practical Berkeley life.  The city is known for "branching out" and "breaking norms," to put it mildly, which is sometimes ok.  But different isn't always better!  Sometimes "norms" are in place for a reason, and "branching out" of current traffic laws isn't a great way to experiment.
This is an area I struggle with because I, like everyone else, am tantalized by the thought of going whichever way I want and putting aside the thought of what others are doing and what is right.  This is where the issue of authority comes in:

Romans13:1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

This story was about rebellion against traffic laws and common road courtesy.  But the bigger issue is that all of us sinners are in rebellion against God as long as we live in sin and refuse to acknowledge Him.  There are consequences for rebellion that play out in every part of life (even on the road home), so let us consider wisely where we place our trust!

for the love of hangers...

That's right.  I have an odd obsession for plastic hangers.  Not the cheap ones that will sometimes come free when you buy clothing, but the nice solid ones that have a potential for all matching and making a closet look super coordinated.  However, these hangers usually cost money.  Therefore, for the time being, I had resigned myself to have a closet full of mismatched wire hangers with a few nice plastic ones thrown in.  However, this all changed the other day...

One unique characteristic of Berkeley is that there's always free stuff on the side walks*, most of the time it's junk, but sometimes, you can find something that you want/need, and you just have to pick it up and take it home.  Earlier this week we were running and came across a pile of stuff-- which included two grocery bags full of plastic hangers! (AND, the icing on the cake was that most of them were black.)  I quickly decided they would be worth carrying home, and picked out the ones I wanted while Quinn patiently jogged in place.  Quinn carried the bag of said hangers, and we were off again.  But then it happened, the bag with all the oodles of hangers broke and the hangers spilled all over the side walk.  So now, without a bag, between the two of us we had four fist-fulls of hangers.  It turns out running with hangers gives your arms quite a work out too.  We must have looked odd before running with a paper bag, but now I'm sure we looked even funnier. 

a sink full of hangers

After bringing them home and cleaning and disinfecting them, I replaced all of our old wire hangers.  ahhh.  It's so satisfying to have matching hangers-- our "closet" looks much more organized now.  Oh what I will do for hangers, and what Quinn will do for me. :)


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*as an interesting side note, becuase of this practice of putting free items on the street, people will sometimes be too quick to take items that weren't intended for the taking.  Once, there was a dinning room table on the street, and then it disappeared.  Then we saw a sign that said "please return the table that was here", and then a few days later a large dinning room table re-appeared.  At least the people who took it were considerate!

The adventure of...... School.

I'm usually not too sentimental about keeping objects that represent an era or event in my life, however this adventure of life, which is often called "school", will certainly merit an exception to that rule in my mind.

Starting on Monday, both of us will be taking classes again, which makes the "school-ness" of this stage of life a little more poignant. It's certainly not all bad, but oh, I look forward to the day when we're both finished. Speaking of which... Lord willing I will be mostly done the first week of October, and then truly and finally finished with this degree in December. Quinn will also be done with classes this December! (although he'll still have a while more to finish his degree)

As we finish each degree, I fully intend to put our diplomas in nice frames and display them on our office wall (that is, if we ever have a home office). Not because the piece of paper with signatures on it will be amazing, after all, it's only a piece of paper, but because it will be a very tangible symbol of the Lord's great faithfulness and lovingkindness to us throughout the adventures of school. Yes, school has been and will be challenging, but we have always and will always have what we need when we need it. We have a wonderful Father who knows how to give good gifts (Matthew 7:11), and we have no need to worry, because our Heavenly Father even feeds the birds (Matthew 6:26)!

But, I also look forward to the day when it will be another great testament to God's faithfulness and goodness when this adventure of school is behind us, and our diplomas are in front of us.

... and now back to that paper I've been avoiding.

What are the greatest testaments to God's faithfulness in your life?

Backpacking food

I was a little intimidated by the thought of packing nutritious, calorie rich, yet light weight food for 3 days, knowing that if I didn't pack enough, we would be hungry (not good), but if I over-packed, then we would carry unnecessary weight with us (also not good).  Some people go crazy and calculate the caloric density of each food that they bring on a trip, know exactly how many calories they want for each day, and then optimize what foods to bring so they carry the least amount of food weight as possible.  At first, I thought about doing that, but then realized I neither had the time nor the resources to make it worth figuring out.  So we took educated guesses, and it turned out quite well.

Our meal plan looked something like this:

Tuesday

Breakfast: B&B                       

Lunch: Thai food in Pacific Grove

Dinner: garlic mashed potatoes and dried chicken

Wednesday

Breakfast: oatmeal with dried milk and dried fruit                       

Lunch: salami, cheese, and crackers

Dinner: Mountain House Freeze dried meal: beef Stroganoff

Thursday

Breakfast: pancakes                       

Lunch: tuna, cheddar, and pita

Dinner: Alpine Pasta

Friday

Breakfast: oatmeal with dried milk and dried fruit                       

Lunch: peanut butter and honey pita sandwiches

Dinner: home! Cheeseboard pizza

After planning the meals we'd eat, it was fun to package and prepare the food.  I dried some chicken in our toaster oven for Tuesday's dinner, and that turned out quite well! All other ingredients were purchased and then assembled into meals.  Since we left early, we shopped in Pacific Grove and then assembled everything in the parking lot next to our car.  I rationed everything and packaged each meal together.  Each meal was individually packaged into a quart size zip top bag along with 2 paper towels that were assigned to that meal for us to use and then to be used to clean up that meal.  For example, 1 cup of oatmeal, and 1/4 cup dried milk went in a sandwich size bag for breakfast.  I should have added brown sugar and cinnamon for flavor, but I forgot. We survived despite the tasteless oatmeal though.  All of the dinners were then put in one gallon bag, the lunches in another bag, and the breakfasts  in another.  It almost all fit in 3 gallon size bags!

Our favorite meal, which we'll certainly be making again, was the Alpine Pasta.  I found this recipe on Wild Backpacker when poking around the web for meal inspiration. We modified it a bit, and here it is for your enjoyment.  It could also be easily adapted to make an easy week-night meal.

Alpine Pasta (serves 2 hungry campers)

• 1 Pasta-Roni Butter and Herb Italiano Package (the benefit of using this instead of normal pasta is that this pasta cooks faster, and therefore saves fuel.  You also don't have to discard the water which would be a plus in bear country)
• 1/4 cup dried milk
• 4 ounces pepper-coated salami
• 2 ounces chopped sun-dried tomatoes (the dried kind, not the kind soaked in olive oil)
• 5 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated or finely sliced at home

At home: Put tomatoes into a zip lock plastic bag, prepare cheese, place in different bag. Remove Pasta-Roni from box and place in ziptop bag along with the dried milk.  Write cooking directions on paper towel or bag containing pasta.

On the trail:  Cook pasta according to package instructions. While pasta simmers, chop salami.  After pasta cooks for 5 minutes, add all ingredients and stir until noodles are done.  Enjoy!

Do you have any delicious but super easy meals?  Any memories of yummy (or not so yummy) camping food growing up?

Backpacking! (part 2): The backpacking part of the backpacking trip

When we were looking for places to go backpacking after "plan A" fell through, we picked up Backpacking California from REI, and it proved quite useful.  We've found that when you're unfamiliar with the area, having a book of planed hiking trips is invaluable.  (btw, We've found most of our shorter hikes from 101 Hikes in Northern California).  The trips are arranged by geographical area in these books, so we locate the area we want to visit, read the descriptions of the trips, and then select one!  Since we were staying in Pacific Grove and we wanted something close by, that put us in the Big Sur area.

Hike 15 from Backpacking California, "Black Cone Trail" in the Ventana Wilderness was selected as it met most of our criteria, and the the solitude level was "solitude".  We car camped at China Camp on Tuesday, which proved to be a good call since it rained must of that evening and night so we were able to keep some of our gear in the car so we didn't start the trip of with wet supplies. 

Wednesday morning after eating breakfast and packing our backpacks with all the supplies and food we'd need for the next few days, we headed out on the trail.  We took it pretty easy, and covered about 18 miles in 3 days (we didn't finish the entire "hike 15" which was 30 miles, but it was better that way).  Even though we didn't push ourselves super hard, I still thought it was pretty challenging!  There were certainly times when we looked at each other and wondered why we thought this was fun.  However, at the end of the trip we were super dirty, but we had a good time and will likely go backpacking again sometime in the future (next year?).

Although we had a positive first (for me) backpacking trip, we probably won't go back to Ventana Wilderness.  Overall, the trail is fairly bushy with very few trees, which is due in part to the many forest fires in this area over the last several decades.  It was neat to explore a new and different part of California, but next time, I think we'll try to head into the mountains.

Backpacking! (part 1)

As I had mentioned "our big backpacking trip" a while back, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up and share some about that trip.

Like so often happens in life, this trip morphed about a million times.  Originally, we were planning on hiking across Sequoia National Forest with our friends from New Mexico, Stuart and Laura, aka Staura.  It was actually their trip, and they had invited us to go with them.  This was plan A, and honestly I was a little trepidatious about the ambitiousness of the trip--it was going to be something along the lines of 50 miles in 4 days. yikes.  I had been training for it though!  However, as I had mentioned last time, there was too much SNOW in the Sierra Nevada's to make many forays into them, and this included plan A.  We neither had the inclination, the expertise, nor the equipment to go snow backpacking for a week.  So we tried plan B, go back to the Trinity Alps near Mt. Shasta with Staura.  Rational: it has a lower altitude than Sequoia, and it's been a month since we were there last so surely the snow line must be lower.  However, creek crossings were going to be troublesome, if not impossible, but we thought we'd give it a try, rent snow shoes, and car camp with day hikes if absolutely necessary.  But neither plan A nor plan B worked because of the Las Conches fire near Los Alamos, which caused our friends to remain in New Mexico.  Cue plan C: carry out plan B, but leave out Staura.

As it turns out, we ended up at plan D.  Staura had a B&B reservation in Pacific Grove (near Monterey) for Monday night that was non-cancelable, but it was transferable. If we wanted it, it was all ours.  We found out about this Monday morning, and in the end we decided, why not?  It made for a super hectic Monday as we completely remade our plans to leave 18 hours sooner than expected, and changed the location of our backpacking trip to the Ventana wilderness to be closer to the B&B to eliminate some driving.  Once we made it to the B&B, The Inn and 213 Seventeen Mile Drive, everything settled down wonderfully and the adventures of another trip for Quacky and Quirky were just beginning.
 

A year in review

A year of married life has come and gone, and year two started off with a bang.  Excuse me for postdating this, but I would like to rewind and reflect on our one year mark, even if for no one other than myself.

Mount Shasta Bed and Breakfast

We made it on a wonderful little trip to Mt. Shasta to celebrate our anniversary, which I kept mistakenly calling "our second honeymoon".  I guess that works though-- anniversary trips should be like honeymoons, right?   We decided to be adventuresome and try staying at a B&B.  After scouring Yelp and TripAdvisor, we settled on Mount Shasta Bed and Breakfast, which was simply a delightful experience.

It was lovely having time to spend with each other without many of the distractions of everyday life and musing over what occurred in the last year and what might occur in the coming year(s).  I even discovered the delights of large, fluffy bathrobes for the first time.  I wonder why I hated the thought of them so much as a child... they seem so soft, cozy, and comforting to curl up in after a long day.


One thing we were not entirely prepared for was the amount of snow in the area.  Apparently, the west coast mountain ranges received much more snow than usual this last winter (spoiler alert-- another post to come, Plans vs. Snow).  But David, the host of the B&B, was most hospitable and lent us coats and gloves,  and then even snowshoes the day after we mentioned that there was too much snow to hike in some locations.  We were so incredibly blessed!

A few highlights from the trip in pictures...

Castle Crags
  our new favorite hike.  We hiked up into the crags.

Castle Lake
it's covered in snow, so you can't really see it, but it's below me.  If it were a clear day, we could have seen Mt. Shasta from here. We both fell in love with snowshoeing, and hope to do it again someday!

Sundial Bridge
we spent a day in Redding and Checked out the Turtle Bay Exploration Park and Sundial Bridge, which was neat, but not quite as impressive as I had imagined it.

Lorikeets!
at Turtle Bay.  I think this was one of Quinn's favorite parts about our day in Redding :)

Squawk!

weekend adventures

After a typical Saturday morning cleaning and working on projects at church we decided to practice for our big backpacking trip this summer (stay tuned for more details!).  We have a tendency to complain that there's nowhere close by to go hiking, since there are no mountains within a few hours, and East Bay is a pretty urban area.  However, there are some nice regional parks in the area, and Quinn found a 9 mile loop that we could hike in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, a mere 20 minutes from our home.

Many places we might feel quite silly carrying our big backpacks all loaded down around in a small-ish regional park, but hey, it's the bay area.  We did get a few odd looks, but most people didn't even notice.  Anyways, we filled up as many water bottles as we own, dragged out our camping gear, and then loaded  up our two packs.  They weighed something like 40 lbs a piece, but we didn't actually weigh them.  If something had happened and we had to stay out there longer than expected, we would have been fairly well prepared!

For most of the hike we were on a ridge, so had gorgeous 360 views of the area.  Above you can see San Pablo Reservoir, and if you turned around you would be looking out towards San Francisco and the ocean. It was also great because there weren't many people in this part of the park, and parking wasn't an issue at all.  Only downside was that the trail was paved for some of the time.  But, we saw lots of animals-- lizards, snakes, turkeys, and cows.  I was SO tired by the end after carrying all the weight ... I guess more motivation to get better at running hills, and to practice perseverance. :)

Did you have any weekend adventures? 

Friends!

One benefit of living in the Bay Area is that we get visitors now and then!  A few weeks ago, a friend who's currently at Dartmouth College was in the area on a business trip and he was able to spend a few extra days with us.  We capitalized on the opportunity and took him hiking along the coast at Tomales Bay.  It wasn't a super clear day, but the fog/clouds did lift as we reached the point (yay!).  There were also some wildflowers out, which I thought were absolutely gorgeous.  If you have a day to spend outdoors, this was a longer, but reasonable and rewarding hike with out a lot of demanding elevation changes.

And now we have the pleasure of having another friend from Los Alamos (who's most recently been in Japan) in the area for the next few months.  Alan will be over for dinner tonight, and then who knows what other things we'll find to do with him over the rest of the time.

What do you like to do with visitors?

A few dinner pics too...

Focaccia Pizza

Easy supper of grilled panini sandwiches, asparagus, and tomato soup

Crispy Noodle Cakes with Hoisin Chicken (recipe courtesy of Fine Cooking)

One of the things I have been enjoying about marriage is that there is always someone to cook for.  Granted, some days it's not as fun as others, but by and large I really enjoy cooking for someone who appreciates the food I spend time preparing.  I'm afraid I scared Quinn when I lived by myself in college and was too lazy to cook so would eat lettuce and beans, or whatever I could find in the cupboard for dinner some days. 

I really like to try new foods, however I also like to round out trying new things every week with a few good staples (something along the lines of home made chicken fingers, baked chicken or fish, or Awesome Burritos).  What do you like to do for dinner?

Some of the yummy food we make and share...

Red VelvetCupcakes:
shared with grad students

Monkey cupcakes:
shared with church ladies at a jungle-themed baby shower

"Berkeley" Crepes (stuffed with Nutella, strawberry and banana; inspired by The Crepevine):
shared with husband and sister

Yummm... now I want to eat a cupcake for lunch. I love making things that taste good look pretty too! 


ps-dinner photos to come soon ...

"O LORD, our Lord,

How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!"
Psalm 8

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Last week we found our California adventures continuing with a quick camping trip to the Eldorado National Forest, which is close to South Lake Tahoe. The trip was a nice refresher from the busyness of day to day life. Although we had a splendid time, we both agreed that it was good we didn't go camping for our honeymoon :).

On Friday, we took an all-day hike, saw a few lakes, and observed some of God's wonderful handiwork. If some parts of this current, fallen world can be so beautiful, I can't even imagine how wonderful the New Heaven and New Earth will be when Jesus returns!

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After church today we met up with some friends and rode our bikes to Ceasar Chavez Park to see Berkeley's annual kite festival. It was a nice day, a lovely ride, and some of the kites were truly amazing! The octopus above was one of my favorites. It was crazy how high some of the kites were-- some of the strings weren't even straight but curved mid-air. The nerdy-ness of some in our group could be noted in that it was pointed out that this phenomenon illustrated that strings really do have mass. (Oh basic physics class, why do you continue to lie to me? ;)) Of course, I added to the nerdy-ness by pointing out that one kite looked like a virus.

The bigger character kites reminded me of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta; the biggest difference being that the kites don't have gondolas like the balloons.

The view of San Francisco from the park.

This is a picture of our new home! Personally, I think it's rather cute seeing as it's pale yellow and has an itsy front porch where I hope to put pots of flowers and herbs. We've lived here almost a week, and everything is starting to find it's own place (just in time for our gifts and my stuff to get here on Monday!).

Today is an example of why I like the new location so much... after spending the morning at home working on various things, I walked 20 minutes to meet Quinn for lunch. After lunch and playing a game of Robo Rally with some other grad students I headed out to run errands-- on foot. Two hours later my errands were complete, I had seen some interesting things, and I got some fresh air.

One of my stops included Goodwill. I wasn't really looking for a vase, but this one was just so fun and interesting looking. And then, since I had a vase, I had to stop at the little corner florist and buy a flower to go in it. :)

Married!
Well, hello friends and family. During the long silence, much has happened, but the most important is that May 29th came and went, we said "I do", and we have now been happily married for four whole weeks! We've certainly kept busy, and the time really has flown by with with our honeymoon in Maui, a weekend trip to St. Louis for some friends' wedding, finding a new apartment and moving into it yesterday, and shopping for and buying expensive items like a bed. Oh yes, and also lots of adjusting.

But the wedding! I know I must be biased, but overall it really was my favorite wedding, and most everything went exactly as I imagined it. :) Thank you so much to all of you who helped make that a reality! We are so blessed with wonderful friends who made the day so memorable. There are more pictures up on Facebook, e-mail me if you don't have an account but would like to see them.

Some of the day in pictures...

Somehow we've developed an affinity for ducks, and there were a few appearances at our rehearsal!

Singing and playing before the ceremony...I just couldn't wait for the wedding to actually START :)

We sure have some great, encouraging friends!


For the recessional we used an African music video that's played a role in our developing relationship... it has a catchy tune, and it was great watching everyone get into it.

Picture time!


And what would a wedding be without the get-away car? ...
(I'm told many of the items are courtesy of the Black Hole)

Until next time, we remain the very happily married Quacky and Quirky :)

(Pictures by Emmy Gaines, http://www.searchingforthelight.com/)

Welcome to our wedding blog (which might turn into a non-wedding blog at some future time)! We're so glad you're here. Please explore and feel free to leave encouraging comments. Most of you already know about us and how we met, but I thought I would give a recap for the record, and for those of you who might not know.

I believe every aspect of our love story bears the handwriting of God and testifies to His sovereignty. We first met at a game night at our friends (the Finnegans) house in the Summer of 2008. I (Rebecca) remember going home and thinking what a nice guy Quinn was and how wonderful it was that he wasn't an English nerd (no offense to my friends who are-- I don't know what I'd do without you!). However, I promptly put any thoughts of Quinn out of my mind and concluded that he was just a nice Summer student whom I probably wouldn't see again. During that fall we were both living in Los Alamos and attended a young adults weekly dinner group. I remember one week talking with him and saying something along the lines of "I don't think we've met before..." but Quinn responded that he thought we had. I enjoyed getting to know him as a friend in a group setting, but that was about it. When I moved to Albuquerque in January for school, I thought it was highly possible that I would, again, never see him again.

However, God had other plans. Once in Albuquerque, we started communicating over Facebook. I particularly remember being lonely sometimes on Sunday afternoons and getting on chat and talking with Quinn about the weekend and church etc. Again, I was very busy with classes and wasn't really thinking anything about it. But, Quinn had my phone number from a group hiking trip, and once I got a missed call from him-- that was curious. At the beginning of March, due to some providential car problems, I ended up picking him up from the airport and we hung out for a few hours. I think that was the first time that I decidedly decided that I really liked him as more than just a friend. After another airport pick-up and an ever increasing amount of Facebook private messages we started seeing each other every weekend, and then after Easter at my parents house Quinn asked me what my thoughts were on intentionally dating with a tentative goal of marriage. I was elated!!

Easter 2009

To make a long story shorter, we hung out a lot during the summer with many trips between Los Alamos and Albuquerque. The gas industry probably profited from our long distance relationship! In August Quinn moved to California to start grad school, and I was blessed to be able to meet his parents and all four of us moved him to Berkeley. Reality hit again late August when I was back in Albuquerque in school and Quinn was starting school in California. I had never missed someone so bad! However, we had a trip planned for Quinn to visit me in September...

On September 18, 2009 I picked Quinn up from the Albuquerque airport, and this time was by far the best. Before we left the airport, in the most creative and perfect way, he had asked me to be his wife!! I was only too happy to oblige :)


And now you know! May 29th simply cannot come soon enough, and we very much look forward to having you witness our marriage and celebrate with us the wonderful works which God has done.

For our Out-of-Town Guests
We’re so glad you’re making the extra effort to come celebrate with us and witness the beginning of our new life together!

By this point I know many of you have already made travel arrangements, but here is some general information.

If you will be flying, Albuquerque International Airport is the closest airport to fly into. Albuquerque is about a one and a half hour scenic drive from Los Alamos. (I drive back and forth frequently, and it’s really not that bad.)

For local accommodations, we reserved a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Los Alamos (http://www.hiexpress.com/hotels/us/en/los-alamos/lamer/hoteldetail). For a discounted price, ask for a room under “Looker wedding” -- they are available Thursday night through Saturday night.

Aside from wedding festivities, there is plenty to do in Los Alamos. If you like the outdoors, hiking opportunities are endless. Los Alamos also has a couple museums: a small Historical Museum, and my favorite, the Bradbury Science Museum. The down town is small, but it makes a nice afternoon of meandering. Not only does Los Alamos have many things to offer, but Santa Fe is just 45 minutes off “The Hill”. Stay tuned, there may be another post about local activities and places to eat...

We can’t wait to see you at the end of May!

Gift Registries

Here's the short story:

We're registered at Target, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Kohls, and your local missionary.

While we would love to have a lot of household things, we're already very blessed as followers of Jesus, income, food, and a roof! Our passion is the gospel, so we'd love for you to consider donating to missions what you would otherwise have spent on fancy kitchen gadgets that we might use once a month.

If you don't have a favorite missionary, here are a few suggestions:

• Jon and Carla Reinagel. Two of Quinn's good friends in Mozambique who are base directors for Iris Ministries, preaching the gospel and providing relief to orphans and local people. ( http://jonandcarla.com )
  
• Crossroads Bible Church in Los Alamos. If you designate the money for missions it will go toward missionaries around the world who are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. This has been Rebecca's home church for the past decade. (http://crossroadsbiblechurch.com/index.cgi)

The long story:

We've started a registry list for all the household things we need. We worked on it for a while and accumulated quite a few items to the list as Rebecca has mainly lived at home and therefore used her family's items and Quinn is just a bachelor. However, it took a very strange day of registry shopping to remind us of our priorities. A quick visit to Target gave us the pleasure of zapping several basic household items with the beeper thingy. Our appetites whetted, we continued to Bed, Bath, & Beyond expecting to zap a few more slightly fancier items. However, as they assigned us a "bridal consultant" who forced us to look through several catalogs of absolutely necessary fine china, $60/place flatware, and brand new luggage for our honeymoon, we realized a little better how much we were being catered to as consumers. We then conveniently remembered our commitment to Jesus and making disciples of all nations, and how we'd like to base our marriage on this firm foundation. Therefore, instead of searching for the 1200 items suggested to put on our registry, we'd rather provide all our guests the unlimited opportunity to dedicate your gift to us in the form of support for the mission of the gospel.

Hey everybody!
Save the dates are being sent imminently and official invitations will be sent in the beginning of April.
More information to follow.