Malvern...

So I've officially been working for Siemens for 7 1/2 years.  One of the fun things about working for such a large, multinational company is how many different Siemens locations there are worldwide.  They have a presence in pretty much every country, state, and region.  As expected, some locations are bigger and more "famous" than others in the Siemens world. 

In the time I've been working for this giant octopus of a company, I've been privileged to visit some of their bigger (and smaller locations):

Concord, CA (home base for 7 years)

Berkeley, CA (home base for the past 6 months)

Mountain View, CA

West Sacramento, CA

Sacramento, CA

Hoffman Estates, IL

Cary, NC

Erlangen, Germany

Forchheim, Germany

Kemnath, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Nürnberg, Germany

And my most recent, and long-awaited Siemens destination?  Malvern, PA.

Ever since I started at Siemens Healthcare I've wanted to visit the corporate headquarters location in Malvern.  I've worked with a lot of different colleagues located in Malvern, received company-wide emails about Malvern, and heard about the huge complex there.

I can now officially say I've been to the offices in Malvern.  I traveled to the infamous office with my manager for a two day workshop related to the huge project we're currently working on.  

I had hoped that I'd have the opportunity to see something of the area while I was there, since it was my first time in Pennsylvania, but unfortunately our days were packed and I didn't get to see much outside of the office and hotel area.  Although I did try to grab a few pictures on the road while we were sitting in traffic heading back to the airport.

My thoughts on the location:

-the area is beautiful!  So quaint and green.  And as my manager said, there are churches on every corner!

-the office complex is HUGE...at least 3 corporate buildings with 5 floors full of Siemens employees.

-it is a terrible place to try and navigate...there are no maps (that I could find) and people are listed in the corporate directory by their cube number (which includes no indication of what building or floor they are in/on)

-security is a little bit crazy...you not only have to badge through the front door, but there are doors in many of the main hallways that also require you to pass your badge over to get through

All in all it was great to finally see this mysterious location I've heard so much about and I hope I'll have the opportunity to visit again...and hopefully take some time to see the surrounding area too!

Pretty lake we drove by (please excuse the reflection through the window)

 "The Classic Diner" where we had lunch on our way out of town.

FiLoLi

Fight.  Love.  Live.

One of my very favorite places I've discovered in the Bay Area is Filoli.  It's a National Historic Site in Woodside, which consists of an elaborate (and huge!) mansion built in the early 1900's.  Eclipsing this lovely home are acres of spectacular gardens.  I discovered Filoli last year and have been back 3 times since then (most recently on April 13th).

After visits in April, June and August I've decided I most enjoy the spring flowers...bluebells, wisteria, tulips, poppies, irises. The colors are spectacular!

John Muir House and Miscellaneous Shennanigans

Our ongoing quest: to visit (in some cases) little-known tourists attractions in the area.  The stop this weekend?  John Muir House in Martinez.

First we met up in Pleasant Hill for some tasty Greek food at Daphne's.  Then we headed up to the house.  The house and surrounding orchards are beautifully preserved and I felt like we were stepping back in time.  However, the surrounding city creates something of a jarring backdrop to the pastoral beauty of the land.  Nevertheless, it was lovely (I carefully avoided the jarring angles in my pictures to preserve the fantasy).

It was something of a confused day - at one point it was simultaneously sunny and raining big fat drops on our heads as we explored the grounds.  But the temperature was warm and the showers were brief, so it didn't cause us much discomfort.  And the skies were lovely.

We did get a little goofy about halfway through and had an impromptu photo shoot along the way.  The subject?  Awkward (and/or stereotypical) high school portraits - including prom and senior pics.  We might look pretty ridiculous, but we had a great time!

Oh...and I pretty much loved this palm tree.  I really think I need one of these...

Local Travels?

A couple of dear friends and I have decided that while we're currently unable to plan extravagant trips to exotic, distant venues, we will explore the interesting, kitschy, and/or lovely sights in our own Bay Area backyard.

Here's a short list we came up with of some of the places we'd like to go:
-Golden Gate Park
-Monterey/Pacific Grove
-Hearst Castle
-Sacramento Old Town
-Sacramento Capital area
-49 mile scenic drive through SF
-90 minute walk through the Marin headlands
-Filoli
-Winchester Mystery House
-Coastal drive
-Colma (who doesn't love a city with more dead people than living?)

We already crossed one item off our list since brainstorming - the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose.

As a fan of all things Egyptian since a young age I can't believe it's taken me this long to visit a museum, dedicated to Egypt, which is so close to home.

It was a lovely day and we spent over 2 hours wandering through the 4 exhibit halls.  I found it fascinating and  was only a little creeped out by the cat mummies (somehow I found them more disturbing than the people mummies?!?).

Sarah...in a window (she's there...you just have to look really hard)

 Two Lisas in two windows...

What's next?

SLC and Temple Square

I know this is rather late, but I don't want to forget it.

I was fortunate in December to get to spend some time in Salt Lake City and specifically in Temple Square.  I had a wonderful time exploring every nook and cranny of the Square.  Although, I somehow managed to miss the Family History Library (which is particularly ironic if you know me...).

I took about a million pictures.  Everything was beautiful, under a blanket of white snow.

Here is just a small sampling...

 Even under a blanket of snow...

Reminds me of home (Oakland Temple Visitor's Center)

By far the snowiest nativity I've ever seen (and that's counting the nativity at the Frankfurt Temple)

 I love, love, LOVE the detail on every facet of the temple.

Brief Travels Abroad

In my work I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel quite a bit, mostly in Germany. I've been there a total of 16 weeks over 8 different trips. I've been able to visit quite a bit of the country in my travels.

Some of my favorites:

-Munich

-Berlin

-Heidelberg

-Frankfurt Temple and Christmas Market

-Neuschwanstein (the castle Walt Disney modeled the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland after)

-Bayreuth (during the festival celebrating the operas of Richard Wagner)

In general I have really enjoyed my trips to Germany (sometimes despite work!).

Recently I again had the chance to travel to Germany. Unfortunately this trip was super short (I flew in on Wednesday night and flew out Monday morning) and not very fun (lots of work politics, multiple flight cancellations, and a very interesting bus trip). But...I did get the chance to visit the Freiberg Temple, which means I have now been to all the temples in Germany (there are only 2). And I spent some time on Sunday walking around the historic downtown of Erlangen.

The temple was beautiful. I arrived there quite early for the session and took some time to walk around outside and take pictures. It looked beautiful enrobed in clean white snow and there was a wonderful quiet stillness about the temple.

I love that the House of the Lord is His house no matter where on Earth you are and his spirit is always there.

I spent most of Sunday relaxing in my hotel room. But in the afternoon I decided to venture out to the historic downtown area of Erlangen (about a 10 minute walk from my hotel). I got some great shots of Schloss Erlangen (including the spot where books were burned in 1933), the fountain facing the "schloss" and some other general historic sights.

All in all, not my best trip, but I'm still grateful for the opportunities I have and have had through my work. Sometimes I can't believe some of the things I've been able to do that I would never have dreamed would be part of my everyday life.

Thoughts on 2011

As 2011 came to a close and 2012 began I took a few minutes to pause and think about the year that has passed and what I might want to do in the year to come.

I make it a point not to make New Year's Resolutions. They never work for me and I feel like they're basically a recipe for failure. I have had some success making Birthday Resolutions, but I neglected to make any this year. So perhaps instead I'll focus on some of the things I did in 2011 and some of the things I'd like to accomplish in 2012.

Here goes...

2011 - my personal year in review (including some items which I've elaborated on in this blog...)

Jan – My first cruise...to the Caribbean with an amazing and hilarious bunch of friends (Katy, Emily, Aaron, Jon)

Feb – Fabulous trip to Disneyland with Carly, Jessica, and Lisa (my now roommate!)

March – Impromptu day trip to the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco

April – The wedding of two of my favorite people: Jamie and Jason AND a long awaited work trip to Heidelberg - beautiful weather, fun companions, and I finally got to meet in person some colleagues I've been working with for several years

May – Had a fantastic time at the Mid-Singles Conference in Huntington Beach with Natalie, Melissa and Hillary (plus a bonus day at Disneyland!)

June –Everyone's gotta take a month off now and then right?

July – Made the tour of SF with Katy and one of her friends and took an awesome day trip to Sonoma/Napa with Allison including free tasting tours (olive oil, cheese, and chocolate)

August – The aforementioned Lisa moved in as our fantastic new roommate and Justin and I threw a Settlers of Catan Extravaganza

September – Amazing Labor Day weekend trip to San Diego with Amanda and Delphine

October – Trick-or-Treating at Disneyland with Katy, Jeff, and Daniel

November – Awesome birthday trip to Bodega Bay with Mom and developing my sewing skills with my very talented friends.

December – Christmastime at Disneyland with the roommates (Katy and Lisa) and CA Academy of Sciences with Katy and Hillary

Ok, reading over that is a little more like a travel log than anything else. Which actually kind of makes me pretty happy.

So, here are some aspirations for 2012.

Places I'd like to travel this year:

-England (for work and maybe some family history?)

-Washington DC

-Salt Lake City

-Seattle

-Alaskan cruise (I hope!)

-Alcatraz

Things I'd like to do:

-establish and stick to a regular exercise plan

-attend the temple at least twice a month

-visit 2 new temples

-complete Project Management certification

-take some formal training in genealogy and attend at least 1 conference

-purge the storage in my room and get the rest of my stuff out of my parents' house

-continue learning how to sew

-explore new cooking adventures

I'm sure I could go on...and I certainly hope I get to do more travelling that that (at least day trips), but that's probably more than enough "aspirations" for the time being. Maybe I'll check-in in a few months and see how I'm doing.

An Adventure through the Amazon and Beyond...

Over the holidays I was fortunate to have quite a bit of time off (11 days to be exact!). I was really looking forward to some time away from the office.

I didn't have any big plans, just some relaxing holiday activities with the family and chill time at home.

Of course things never quite go according to plan. I did manage to have some great holiday time with family. But unfortunately I spent quite a bit of my vacation fighting off (and finally succumbing to) a cold.

By the last Friday of my vacation I was finally feeling better and ready to get out of the house. In fact I tried to find something fun to do on Thursday, but without success. So by Friday it was definitely time for an adventure!

I rounded up some friends (Katy and Hillary) and we decided to take a quick day trip around the world. On our travels we visited the rainforest of the Amazon, met some reindeer, went sightseeing under the sea in the Philippines and wandered through the wildlife of Africa. In other words, we made a visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

I had heard wonderful things about it ever since the renovation a few years ago, and it definitely lived up to all my expectations. In fact my only disappointment with the trip was that I brought the wrong camera battery and didn't get to use my favorite toy very much. Nevertheless, I still managed to get some great photos with my limited battery and the help of my iPhone.

Now...what should my next adventure be?

Birthday by the Bay

To commemorate another successful trip around the sun, my mom and I made a somewhat spontaneous, really relaxing and completely awesome trip up to Bodega Bay.

On the way up we stopped in Santa Rosa to visit my grandparents and uncle and cousins. We had a great time visiting and a tasty dinner before heading over to Bodega Bay.

I'm proud to say that my mom handled the ride to Bodega Bay remarkably well. It was dark (but not stormy) night and I don't know that I've ever driven on such a twisty, unfamiliar road, at least not in this country*. Mom was a great navigator and kept calm through all the twists and turns.

We arrived around 10 at night and checked in at the Bodega Bay Lodge. The room was spacious, but still cozy. And unbeknownst to me, my mom had arranged for a little surprise to be waiting for us: a bottle of sparkling pear cider and happy birthday wishes from the hotel staff! We quickly got the fire going, and made ourselves comfortable in our luxurious room.

I fell asleep early and slept great in the comfy bed. We both spontaneously woke up around 8:30...just minutes before the anniversary of my birth (8:36am) and continued the celebration with more sparkling pear cider and presents! I got the coolest camera ever! A Canon SX230HS. It's compact, slim, with a bunch of features (both automatic and manual), plenty of megapixels and a 14x optical zoom. I think I'm in love! Now I can run around and pretend I'm a photographer like everyone else is these days.

And by the way...when we woke up in the morning, we discovered we had a pretty sweet view.

After spending far too long lounging in the hotel, we checked out, ready to begin a roundabout, detour filled drive home. The first detour - a mini photography session in the lobby of the hotel...and outside the hotel...and next to the sign for the hotel...well, you get

the idea.

Our next stop - the beach! Where I got to play with the zoom capabilities on my camera.

By the way, any beach with a sign like this one, should probably be avoided:

Then we moved on to the harbor (with more pictures, a little shopping, and some lunch).

We had planned to drive up to Armstrong National park and spend some time with the redwoods, but time got away from us a little, so instead we just drove past on our way back to Santa Rosa. We saw some beautiful trees (and again, my mom did great as a passenger on some very twisty roads).

We made a brief stop at Duncans Mills - I couldn't resist this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I had take a few pictures!

We made it home to Walnut Creek just in time for a delicious steak dinner from Tahoe Joe's and a few more surprises.

All in all...not a bad way to celebrate another year.

*I had a particularly harrowing trip from Bayreuth to Erlangen on a very dark, very twisty German road. If I can survive that...I can survive anything...