Goodbye Minnesota, Hello California

So I left Minnesota bright and early this morning (i.e. taking a 6:30 shuttle from Rochester to the twin cities) to embark on my residency travel journey. But before I start telling you about how great California is, I wanted to share some pictures from my last night in MN-- a fabulous one filled with fun and friends. I hung out some with John, Wendi, and Ajit and then met Natasha, Molly and Britt at Natasha's house. We then met up with Ajit and Sean and (with the exception of Britt) hit Westfire Grille, a relatively new "hotspot" in Rochester. Although I'm not much of a dancer or drinker, it was a really fun time.

Natasha and Molly jammin'

All dressed in Natasha's clothes

Anyway, this morning, I flew from the cities to Denver and then to San Jose, CA. I was ECSTATIC to hear that the temperature was 63 degrees, in contrast to the 10 or so it was when I left Minnesota. It was just gorgeous outside. I rented a car and followed EVB's fantastic directions to TJ's apartment in Palo Alto. Erin, TJ and I hung out at his place for a bit and then took a little walk around the nearby area, a mini-downtown of sorts, called California Ave. It had all these cute shops and coffee places, with lots of YOUNG PEOPLE (many of them undoubtedly Stanford students) hanging out and soaking up the sunshine.

I finally have a pic of Erin and TJ

We then went on a little tour of the Stanford campus, which is very pretty! It's one of the (if not THE) largest campuses in the U.S. They have a gorgeous cathedral which reminded me of many of those I'd seen in Europe and lots of open green space. Erin and TJ showed me around TJ's chemistry lab a bit, and then we killed some time in the Stanford hospital waiting for one of TJ's lab-mates, Christian, to finish his experiment so we could go to dinner!

We went to this place called Gordon Biersh around University Ave. It was packed with diners even at 8 p.m. and we were lucky to squeeze into one of the first-come, first-serve bar area tables. The food was great (they have EVB's favorite garlic fries), and we all had a fantastic time at dinner. It was Erin, TJ, Christian and Mads (Danish students in TJ's lab who likely got their visas from my Mom while she was still in Copenhagen!), and another lab-mate, Ken. They are all hilarious-- I have not laughed so hard in a long time. I can definitely see how Erin loves it out here-- the people I've met so far are very friendly and great to hang out with!

Mads, Christian, and Ken

Ken and TJ, "Men in orange"
It's really late, MN-time, but I wanted to post something really quick. Tomorrow, as it's Erin's off (yay!), we will go expeditioning somewhere in the Bay area, hiking or doing something equally outdoorsy... Stay tuned... So far, I'm loving California!