Post 84: Closed the storage unit!

Monday, Aki and I went to Utah to close the storage unit. We decided that we would travel home on Friday instead of Thursday so we can have a little bit of a vacation. He took a HUGE amount of pictures that I am hoping to sift through today and I will put at the end of this blog maybe tomorrow morning.

So, let’s try to do this in chronological order…..

The Night before: Sunday

We put Tucker in a pet hotel because we were worried him and Chiyo would fight while the Vet Tech folks who come round to take care of Nacho and Chiyo were out. So we shoved him in there with plenty of cuddles and kisses to last him the week.

The trip to Utah

This was fine. We left earlier than anticipated and got our coffee. No big issues. It was getting progressively hotter as we went across Nevada and Utah. Clearly. We stopped off at the Storage Unit, because we brought a whole shitload of stuff from the California apartment that we wanted to have taken away, but did not want to go through the whole sifting and sorting to donation groups. ….more about this later…because we do prefer to donate rather than throw away….

Got to the hotel safe and sound. With one exception. I was extremely grumpy and low on energy. We ended up going to Cafe Rio where we had the Sweet Pork Salad Bowl. They are EXTREMELY good,….but a calorie bomb. At this point, I was just extremely hungry and tired. I ate too fast and my stomach hurt a bit, but I was alright. I can’t remember if we went to Barnes and Nobel that evening or we just went home and crashed. I am pretty sure it was the latter.

Tuesday: Sorting the Storage Unit

We went back Tuesday in the early morning to the Storage unit to check on the last bits of what I wanted to bring back to California with me. We made the sad decision to not take the cute couch, because it would cost more to get back to California than it is actually worth. Hopefully, we can find one similar to replace the big giant honkin’ couch we have now. We moved furniture and put everything into the car except for the bike, which we were going to take the day of.

We only had to spend about an hour and 45 min, and we were done! We went back to the hotel and washed our hands and Aki washed his feet since he had sandals. I think that day we went out to the Ramen store that is a bit far out. I think we came back and walked around the Sugarhouse park. We definitely went to Barnes and Nobel and had the most amazing drink….once again, LOADED with sugar. It was SO good though. I’m on vacation, so a little extra is ok…NO BINGING, FOR GOD’S SAKE.

Wednesday: Got Junk?!

Why yes we do! I had scheduled the Got Junk folks to come and pick up stuff between 9:30 and 11:30. Aki was already taking things out and putting them in the hallway of the storage unit. He took the bike out and moved it to the side. They came a little early, but they got everything in. 3 really nice guys. Though, the trucks were a little smaller than I would have imagined. It is a little over $500 to fill one truck….If it was me packing, I could have shoved everything in one truck…but then it probably would not be safe to transport. Lol. It took almost 2 trucks and I paid a little shy of $1,000. I know, that is a lot….but when I calculate the cost of the storage unit, hotel, gas, wear and tear on car, and my own time….it is more than worth it. AND getting back to what I mentioned earlier about donating….this group will try to donate what they can. So, I feel pretty good about it.

And, yes…..there are a lot of folks that would rather spend their time getting every bit of money out of each item by putting it on eBay or craigslist or whatever. Just thinking about that stresses me out. I don’t want to have to deal with any of that….so this is the route I went and I am happy about it…you go and sell your own shit.

I should say that before this, we did go to sunset coffee to grab a London Fog. This was my last London Fog… :(

After this…..we put the bike in the hotel room and went to look for some sunglasses near Sunset Coffee…but instead, we ended up at a closing Bed Bath and Beyond getting a couple items. We then went back to the hotel and then to Buffalo Wild Wings. Another calorie bomb. I think that evening we just got some food from Whole Foods and ate dinner in.

AH! But we did go to Barnes and Nobel in the evening to just read and have a tea or something. We were sitting there and some older gentleman sat 2 tables away just watching something on his phone. Some super tall, lanky guy with a hat on a string, hanging down his back came over to the guy and stood by his table and said, “Hello! My name is Alexander. I come here a lot. I wanted to ask you a question about Philosophy.” The older guys just said no thanks. Aki and I just looked at each other and both of us know our responses if this were to happen to us……. But this dood goes over to his friends sitting at a group table on the other side of the cafe. This guy gets up again and goes to a couple random women….doing the same thing…..So, he is scouring the store for maybe a school project?! I get up to walk over by the magazines where he is currently not at. Any time I see him, I am going the other way just in case. ….Luckily Aki and I never get asked anything. Whew!

Thursday: Bumming around

We walked over to The Original Pancake House and passed by this place that used to be my laundromat….which was originally a quite disgusting place.

Now it is some antique store. Looks ages better if you could believe it. OH….on the way, we kept running into this one guy that had a pitbull and a frenchie that were the same color! Light grey with a little light brown on the chest! Such an awesome color combo and sweet doggos!

ANYWAY….Aki and I split some plain crepes and a sausage patty! We went back into the hotel room and decided to skip going to the mountain base since we had a good parking spot to load and unload all our stuff in the morning. We walked all the way to Liberty Park.

We walked around the park to get to Tracy’s Aviary.

Once in the aviary, it started to rain. So we walked around a family with screaming children to a cafe on the other side of this pond. I ordered 2 iced caramel macchiatos and went up the steps to sit with Aki and wait. It was raining a little harder. The screaming children wanted to come up the stairs and play. Aki and I just stared at the steps and them as they were coming up….they backed down. The parents wanted to see what was up there….which is fine, but they let their kids run around screaming. They were so loud in this semi-enclosed space that I had to plug my ears. The parents realized that their kids were extremely loud and over-hyper, running around, that they just took them downstairs to not disturb others. I have to give those parents awareness-kudos. I know kids are hyper and who does not want to see happy kids….but the screaming parts where you can clearly use your indoor voice…..none of these children were babies where I would COMPLETELY understand…..we are talking 3 years and up. The type of kids that scream:

“Look Mommy! A door!”

That kind. But they left to go and enjoy and scream at some birds. The lady had not call us for the coffees by this point and it was over 5 min and no other customers. So I went down and waited by the register. A few minutes later someone came over….they were training this one tall lanky dude that seemed a little high. I said I had been waiting for 2 iced caramel macchiatos. The original lady that took my order came around and handed me a hot one and said that they are working on the other. I just said, “that’s great, but I ordered iced”….she said that she would get those going. It did sound like the guy was being trained. I just said I would go back up stairs and wait to be called. 10 minutes later she comes up with 2 caramel macchiatos….iced…..with no straws…..lolololol. So we just drank the coffee and then drank the caramel at the bottom…… Whatever…..we went out as it slowed on raining and enjoyed the birds. They seemed to have some new birds too!

We were collecting Pokemon along the way and Aki helped me understand the game more….it sucks the life out of my phone battery. That is what I learned.

Anyway, after the Aviary, we walked around to find a Koi pond….and we found it. It was pretty actually. One thing we noticed was that the trees and sky in the reflection of the pond were much crisper and clearer in the photos from the phone than from the bare eye.

We started walking back to the Hotel, but we were planning on stopping by Jinya….a ramen joint that they just built a branch of in a shopping center near my old apartment. Calorie Bomb! BUT SO FUCKING GOOD. Though, on the way, it did just start pouring down rain. We got completely soaking wet. But Jinya was well worth it!

We just walk around the area a bit more and retire to the hotel room. This is one of my favorite areas of Sugarhouse…..they make it so nice by this little plaza.

That night it rained REALLY hard.

Friday: Going home

We got everything in the car really early and we were out by 5:30 (after getting gas) MST. We decided to not get the London Fog and just go. It was a good choice. We stopped by the Salt Flats and got some pics. It was like 6:45am….MST…..and it was like 60 F.

Cold.

The rest of the trip was delightfully uneventful. We had a couple traffic jams outside of Sacramento, but ultimately avoided a lot of rush hour. :) We got home, got the shit out of the car….went to pick up Tucker….ordered pizza and went to bed. That’s about it. I gained weight, obviously, so my health is what I am going to focus on next. :)