We lived in Las Vegas for 2 years while Cynthia completed her masters in psychology from UNLV.  We really enjoyed our time there, meeting some very interesting people, having some weird and fun jobs (from working in a prison to wearing a giant duck suit around in a casino), and just having visitor after visitor bombard us with their presence, and we loved it  !! 

We ate almost daily at the Klondike Casino, their free chicken  or spaghetti dinners certainly helped us financially, since we did not have much money at all.  The two years flew by very quickly, helped along by our trips to San Diego with our friend Barb, rollerblading up and down the crowded strip with PJ (friend from Holland) and long road trips from Tijuana to Carmel.  We hiked all over southern Nevada and hit The Narrows in Utah, which was truly amazing.  Other experiences were; a free Cessna plane ride to the Grand Canyon, lived next to the Liberace Museum, frequented a local bar named the Rum Runner, always seemed to run into weird characters who had these crazy life stories, gambled blackjack at Casino Royal many times with family and friends, ate more buffets then we care to remember, and purveyed all the town had to offer.

Overall, we loved it.  It was difficult at first as I had to find employment, getting to know each other better and exploring the city. We always had visitors, when one left the other would walk right in, but, it was nice to see friends and  family often. Our two years in Las Vegas flew by, and although we loved our times there, any longer than that ...it might have killed us.  There is a part of us that will always miss something about Vegas as it was our first real adventure together.

We had a really great summer though, trying to do and see all D.C. has to offer, as well as all the surrounding activities.  Most of the time, if not all, we did it with the group of interns that Cindi met and got to be friends with.  We headed to Ocean City, Maryland together for a weekend of craziness, went out in D.C. quite a few times, they came up to NYC for a weekend, and even went white water rafting somewhere in West Virginia, I think!  New River Gorge.  Amazing.

The weekends always flew by, but since I wasn't working, and just enjoying my free time before beginning graduate school, we had a great time. Met a lot of fun people and some good friends.  To this day, we try and keep in touch with them, although it is hard with everyone going their separate ways.

Our time in Menomonie, which is near the Twin Cities, Minnesota (which are Minneapolis and St. Paul, in case you don't know.. we didn't before moving there), was a fun and amazing time.  We not only met a lot of interesting people, but got to do and see a lot of things we had never even heard of before.  First off, I have to mention prime bites, which are deep fried pieces of prime rib.  Served with a horse radish sauce, simply amazing.  Add to that deep fried cheese curds and a pitcher of beer, and you have heaven.  These are served at a restaurant with a great three tiered deck called Jake's.  It was not only great food, but we always had an amazing time with family and friends there.  Other things we did, .. drove on the ice with the car .. which is common practice there, learned a bit about ice fishing, canoed down the Menomen River numerous times with all different friends, and got to know a little bit about the Twin Cities and what they had to offer.

Ok, ok.. so we were there for my masters in school psychology at the University of Wisconsin - Stout.  I really enjoyed the university, and the the  town was exactly what I always pictured a small town to be like.  A main street with a few restaurants, bars, post office, and big tower with bell.  The entire university was so nice, people were friendly, and the education excellent.  The teacher were there to talk at all times and really helped you learn the things you needed to learn to become a school psychologist.  Just to give you an example, the parking meters cost a nickel.  Wow!  We really loved it there.  Menomonie was one of the most beautiful places, quaintest towns, and just had such natural beauty all around, with the lake, the river and trees, it seemed like a winter wonderland.  And to top it all of.. it is the only city in the United States that makes Swiss Miss Chocolate.  So at times, the air smells of chocolate !

Really, Lincoln offered us all that we had been looking for, a place where we could afford to buy a house, sit out on our small patio and have a drink.  We tried to have numerous parties, inviting all the people we knew and really enjoy ourselves.  We made a lot of great friends who were always stopping by, playing croquet, and grilling out.  I got to play basketball several times a week with other students in Cindi's program as well as faculty. 

Lincoln can not be spoken about though without mentioning our FAVORITE place to eat.  No, not a fancy restaurant, but the good ol' Watering Hole.  Amazing wings, almost as good as Buffalo's and just a great place to hangout with friends.  We went there a million times, enjoying there beer and wings time and time again.

It was in Lincoln that we really began to get into running, and running marathons, albeit at a slow pace.  We ran some with Gabe and Patricia, one with Liz, and did a half with my parents.  Surprisingly, we found the Lincoln Marathon (the first week in May) to be an amazing run, because the people are so nice, and a huge free spaghetti dinner before and BBQ afterwards.  Really a great time. 

Anyway, we hated leaving, as we had a lot of good friends there.  We hope that they will come and visit us during our time in Tampa, and that we can get a chance to visit them where ever they wind up.  So, we sold our house and most of our belongings, and once again hit the road to a new town.

Tampa Florida
2002 - 2003

Tampa Florida:  We were only here for one year, although it was a very exciting and interesting year.  We left after one year as we wanted to do a bit of traveling, as well as investigate if Cindi could obtain a post-doc or lecturer position abroad for a year.

We lived in northern Tampa, which was a bit far away from the city, but we had to do this as I worked quite far north of Tampa and Cindi worked south.  It was a beautiful time overall, as we were able to spend quite a bit of time at the beach, running outside, visiting different parts of the city, as well as had many visitors throughout the year. 

More info to come soon. :)