A long overdue update... finally!

Dear friends and fam:

Apologies for neglecting our swell little blog the last few weeks. Work + school + starting a new job + daily living means we accidentally ignored our life in cyber space.

Here's what has happened since our last post:

We sold our truck when we moved to CA with the best intentions of using only public transportation & our dependable little Sunfire. However, both our jobs required us to have a vehicle, so our dreams of saving our hard earned money NOT buying expensive California gas were dashed. We perused Craigslist 'til we found this beauty: a 2003 Hyundai Elantra. Nothing fancy, but he gets the job done!



Now we have two vehicles and still no parking space/garage. We refuse to pay the $250 monthly fee for that luxury, so now we both drive around the block 10 times waiting for a spot to park every day.... totally worth the $250 left in our pocket ;)


I {Amber} started my job at Children's Hospital of Stanford a few weeks ago. See the pic my proud husband shot of me on day #1-- "New Employee Orientation"... he even woke up extra early to brew me coffee, make some breakfast, and see me off! What a man!


Now I'm 3 weeks into work, and the initial stress & dread of starting a new job is slowly subsiding. It is quite different from Gillette... I'm not in Kansas anymore! The patient population is different (more transplants & medical cases, very little trauma and neuro), but it's a fabulous learning opportunity. Not so great is that I came from a happy, comfortable, empowered staff of about 20 PICU nurses... now I'm 1 of 100 nurses. ugh. Very different, to say the least :)


Happy First Day of Work flowers from my hub. I think he's mostly excited to get me out of the house to earn some $$ instead of exploring the town and spending all our dough ;)

Last weekend in GG Park was the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. {So far one of the best things of SF life is all the free concerts!}. We packed a picnic and spent the day traveling from stage to stage to see our favorite picks: Umphrey's McGee, Elvis Costello, Yonder Mountain String Band, Avett Brothers, & Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. It was a rockin' good time... can't wait to go again next year!

That little man up there is Elvis Costello
It turned out to be one of the coldest days of the year {but notice coldest day= hat and scarf... sans mittens, parka and bomber hats! Hey, we aren't complainin'}

Avett Brothers

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings--- dang, that woman can put on a show!

Will post again soon... and this time we won't wait so long! Hoping all is well with all y'all. What's new? FB us or email us! We'd love to hear from you!

When in Cali, do as the hippies do.

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day... 80* and slightly breezy.... an ideal day, I figured, to wander through Golden Gate Park {just a couple blocks from our diggs!} and find the perfect spot to relax and read. Dan was at school for the day, so I was flying solo.

Oddly, it seemed there were a lot of other people who had the same idea. Usually the park is bustling with joggers, bikers, families on sweet strolls, but today there were loads of hippies in the mix. Old hippies, cool modern hippies, young student hippies, middle- aged parent hippies... tiedye, raggy, and Urban Outfitters clad folks in swarms. They were all headed in the same general direction, and because I had no particular agenda, I decided to tag along and see where they were all going.

I could hear music in the background and the further we walked, the louder it was. Suddenly there was a sea of people and a loud, progressive band was entertaining the crowd of thousands. Every 4th person was toting anti-war propaganda or promoting Proposition 19 (to legalize marijauna in CA). There were activists of every type, about a three hundred people doing yoga on the sidelines, and the air was pungent with pot.

Unwittingly I had stumbled into the Power to the Peaceful festival; an annual international event held at GG Park for, as the website explains, "art, action, and music... highlighting mankind's similarities and celebrating our differences," that draws 50,000 attendees every year. Call a spade a spade-- it's a MAJOR hippie fest. San Fran at its finest.

I felt a bit out of place with my Gap tank top and Adidas sandles and all, but realized quickly this was stupid... nobody cared-- they were all peaceful and stoned. Michael Franti and Spearhead were the main event and next on the line up, and I ended up staying all afternoon.

Later that night Dan asked me what I did all day. I told him, and his dubious look irritated me. "You went to the Power to the Peaceful?" Yep, I did. All day long.

And I'll probably go back next year, too. :)

*Regretfully I didn't have my camera, so I snapped a few pics on my phone and borrowed some from Google images... here's a sneak peek:

Love, Life & Labor Day

A Bakke Blog update is overdue! We've been official residents for 1 month and time sure flies now that we're in the swing of things...

Dan finished work week #2 with a bang-- he's loving the fast-paced, challenging, large-and-in-charge nature of of his new position. He spends all day zipping from project to project around the city overseeing installations, assessing costs, ordering materials, managing crews, creating inventory systems, and on and on. In his own words, he's "a busy bee" from 8-5 daily.

Every evening after dinner he retires to his 'office' {& spare bedroom for visitors!} for a not so action-packed night of studying/reading/writing papers for school. His classes are every other weekend, 8 hour days... and he's thoroughly enjoying school. Conveniently, the content, classes, projects, profs, & classmates are right up his alley. So far, money well spent... and our big move to SF was not in vain.

Me, on the other hand... well, I'm a different story. My job doesn't start until next Monday, so I spend my days lounging in the morning, exploring the city/beach/parks in the afternoon, and traipsing home in the evening to either 1. prepare a delicious meal for my hardworking husband, or 2. {the more likely option} find one of a thousand delicious take out options and carry it home :) Alarmingly, I'm becoming extremely well adjusted to my lackadaisical routine & I can get quite perturbed if any real-life responsibilities cramp my style ;)

I must admit though, I'm getting just a bit bored and am looking forward to starting my new job. Dan is looking forward to my job too... I chat his ear off from the minute he walks in the door until about 7, when he gently tells me that I have to quit talking now so he can get some school work done. Oh. Ok... Instant Netflix, here I come!

We had a wonderful Labor Day with our first official overnight guests at the Bakke B&B! Dave and Tracy (Dan's friends from high school) came down from Eureka, CA, where Dave is in school for the year and Tracy is job hunting/ enjoying Cali life. We had an excellent time showing them around the city a bit & enjoyed our quality time together!

On the agenda:
*Exploratorium (imagine every sweet science museum exhibit that ever existed all rolled into one giant room... ages 5+, but there were probably more adults than kids... a definite must see!)
*Palace of Fine Arts, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square
*Chinatown for yummy Asian fare
*Oakland A's baseball game
*Bike tour through city parks and Golden Gate Bridge
*Relax time... food, drink, great convo & board games!

Thanks for coming, dear friends. We loved having you here and you're welcome back any time!

(you can click the collage for a sharper view)

happily employed

Thrilled to announce we were both offered-- and accepted-- new jobs this week!

What a relief. Fear of imminent homelessness? Not any more! Fretting over the financial burden of including costly protein in our meals? Nope. Life is good and we are grateful :)

Dan starts work Monday (!) at New Light Energy Design as their "Installations Manager." It's a small company that replaces costly, inefficient commercial lighting with new, sustainable options. Dan's bosses/owners also have GreenMBAs, so the three of them already jive . It's a perfect fit for him-- he'll use his electrical skills and get business thrills.

I start work in September at the Children's Hospital of Stanford in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The patient population is {somewhat} similar to Gillette, but they get a lot of transplant, dialysis, and heart kiddos. *For my nurse friends-- a lot of ECMO & oscillators... a learning curve that I'm looking forward to :)

The sweetest part of our joyful employment was sharing it with our FIRST visitors!

My college roomie and her hub conveniently planned a vacation to wine country a few months ago- perfect timing. They made a pit stop on Wednesday to see our new diggs. Then we went to lunch in cutesy neighborhood Cow Hollow, hoofed it up Lombard street {aka: the crookedest street in world}, and took in some GG bridge sights.

Highlight of the day: found and photographed the Full House house. We also relaxed in Alamo park-- the site of many Tanner family escapades & where the opening credit picnic happens {if you're a true fan you know what I'm talking about...}

On Friday we met up with Lindsay & Kurt again in Sonoma Valley for some delicious wine tasting & a fabulous celebratory dinner. *Only the best kind of friends let you intrude on their romantic rendezvous to wine country. Thanks pals-- we love ya!

Can you tell Kurt is almost done with dental school? They have some rockin' teeth.

Dan & Kurt excited for their french dinner & annoyed I insisted on snapping a pic in the fancy restaurant.
(sorry it's fuzzy)

(our turn for a fuzzy pic)

So delighted to have time with friends :)

Weekend-o-fun

Good news for peeps like us who are trying to conserve our rapidly dwindling moolah-- lots of free things to do in San Fran!

Last weekend we navigated Muni (municipal transport, aka: buses/lightrail) to find ourselves the haps in the fair city. Lucky for us, it turned out the mission district was hosting the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Cheap, ethnic, delicious food + people watching galore= feast for the senses. We had a grand ol' time :)




Sunday: conquered Muni once again {we're getting more & more adept every day!} and found our way down to a city park that hosts free concerts on Sundays during the summer. They Might Be Giants was playing, and we... well mostly Dan... were excited for yet another fun + free to-do. And this was no little to-do.

Approximately 8,000 people were there... the park was positively swimming with eager fans and other cats looking to relax on the bea-u-tiful day and listen to some rockin' tunes.

Trekking through the woods to find the concert

found it...

Our view of They Might Be Giants from the wooded hillside

Top the weekend off with some instant Netflix flicks in the eve & we had ourselves a fabulous weekend #1.

Only missing some amigos to share it with... Come visit?

We made it!

It's official: we're SF residents! We arrived safely & soundly last Sunday-- happy to report a successful, non-problematic journey from MN to Cali. However, after 6 days of car- living, tent- pitching, & slow-leaking-air-mattress- sleeping, we were definitely ready to have a home again :)

Then on Monday-- after waaaay too much headache & hassle-- our goods were delivered {side note: never never never use WeHaul Moving Co! Long story short: the fee jumped an additional $1100 after they hauled our stuff away...} So, we've spent the week making our bare bones apartment liveable... fast forward 1 week, 100 boxes, 85lbs of garbage, and a rockin' trip to IKEA, and we're finally home again.

News on the job front...ummm.... no. Rest assured friends and fam, we are searching endlessly and applying as best & as fast as we can. In the mean time we'll just keep enjoying our ramen noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches and $1.99 bottles of wine ;) Ok ok, just kidding {kind of}, but we are hopeful this week will bring promising leads on gainful employment!

Dan strapped on his backpack and went to grad school orientation on Thursday. He came home chatting away & rearin' to go... mostly excited about some potential new friends....

Here's a sneak peak of our whirlwind adventure across the wild wild west:

Sad to say goodbye to fam & friends

Finally on the road

Salt Lake City, UT

Our noble steed

Somewhere in Nevada

Lake Tahoe, CA

Last night on the air-mattress

Hallelujah! Our things have arrived!

The perfect housewarming gift from Kate & Chris!