Furloughs, Promotions, 30 & Then Some!

Yes, it has been a while since our last post, so in celebration of my 3rd furlough day since August, I'll give the blogging another try. For those of you who do not know, California is in a financial crisis and it has resulted in 24 furlough days for me and 12 for Mary Beth. This basically means that we take a pay cut but do not have to work. So, it's not all that bad! I was able to play golf yesterday and today instead of heading into the office. Yesterday might have been the last of the summer weather as it was around 100 degrees; today, however, the high was in the mid-70's...absolutely beautiful!

Despite the furloughs, the Barnes' really can't complain. After my boss left for a job at Ole Miss, our AD has given me the chance to oversee the development office. This is a wonderful opportunity that will be great for my professional career. It's amazing how much more I have learned in just the past month and I'm sure this will continue. Mary Beth also received a nice promotion going from part-time to full-time. Her new title is Associate Director of Campus and Registrar and she is now back in a normal routine.

Last month we were able to head back to Kentucky for my sister's wedding. We had a blast and it is always great to catch up with friends and family.

Football season has begun and Fresno State has started off 1-3. Despite this, our losses have come against teams that are 12-0 and all have a legitimate chance to make it to a BCS game. So for what it's worth, we may be the best 3 loss team in the country! I am confident that we will win 8 straight, finish 9-3, and go to a great bowl game. The toughest test may come next weekend at Hawaii. Yes, Mary Beth and I are both going! It will be our first trip there, and we are absolutely looking forward to it.

This weekend should be a pleasant one as Fresno State is off. We are going to a wedding Saturday afternoon and will be hanging out around the house watching lots of college football that morning and evening.

We hope to get back to Kentucky for Thanksgiving and down to the Gulf Coast over the holidays. Will somebody please talk with the airlines and get the flights down to about half the current cost?! It costs about $600 per ticket right now! That doesn't mean that you can't come out here for about half that price! It's amazing how they take advantage of holiday weekends; but, that's the nature of supply and demand.

To close, for those of you who didn't know I just hit the big 3-0. I guess it's not all that bad!

Until next time!

Coleman

Summer highlights

Sorry, not the best pic, but Coleman and I were happy that my parents visited us in late May. They flew into San Francisco where we spent the weekend before showing them Fresno. My mom had visited once before but it was my dad's first time..We all really enjoyed touring Alcatraz...view from the lawn on the island in the pic below.

Coleman and I spent July 4th weekend in Vegas. The definite highlight of the weekend was Friday night where we had dinner at Table 10, Emeril's restaurant in the Palazzo Hotel, and then on the the Cirque du Soleil show, LOVE...It was awesome....Pic of me outside The Mirage where LOVE is playing.

Coleman and I Saturday night inside the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino. Awesome dinner at Strip Steak then hit the tables then the Prive Lounge


Fresno friends all traveled to South Lake Tahoe the 2nd weekend in July for Lindsay and Dan's wedding. Dan worked with Coleman at the Bulldog Foundation and recently accepted a job at Oregon State. Lake Tahoe is such a beautiful place...next time we'd like to go back when it is snowing...but the summer there is beautiful!



More to come......In August we'll be back in San Fran for a fun weekend then we head to Kentucky for Coleman's sister- Brooke's wedding!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Us!

Wow! We can't believe that it has already been 1 year! What a year- I would definitely say that the theme of our first year of marriage was TRAVEL! It is so nice that at this point we are free to jet away pretty much when we want- it has been an amazing first year and look forward to it getting even better from here!

We spent the anni weekend in San Diego- the place where we got engaged 2 summers ago :) It was a wonderful weekend and we hope to make San Diego a permanent vacation spot for the future...A few pics from the weekend....

Coronado Bridge - outside Petco Park

Day at Sea World

Shamu night show


Petco Park- Home of the San Diego Padres

Polar Bears at Sea World

Yelp!

I wanted to share with our friends, if you haven't used this site before, I encourage you to check it out! www.yelp.com offers user Reviews and Recommendations of Top Restaurants, Shopping, Nightlife, Entertainment, Services and More. You can even create your own account to make your own reviews....I was thinking that with all of the traveling, hotel staying, restaurant adventures, and wine country trips we make, it would be a shame for me not to document our reviews, raves, and hopefully not too many rants:)

So, I have started adding reviews when I have time...Needlesstosay, I have a lot to catch up on so this may be a process, but I am really looking forward to seeing everything in the end...More than anything, this will help me document our trips!

So, if you are travelling and looking for reviews, check it out! You'll probably get a wider range of reviews on metro areas, but it's always a good place to check out wherever you are going!

While I am at it, I want to share a few of the other websites we frequent when making travel arrangements:

www.tripadvisor.com
A good website again, for reviews, honest opinions and true traveler photos! I have gotten great tips from reviewers from here on making reservations, rooms to request in hotels, who is offering deals on priceline.....

www.kayak.com
flight comparisions

www.hotwire.com and www.priceline.com
Coleman is the expert on these sites so I may have him make a blog soon on his tips when working with these sites.


Enjoy!

are you ready....

more wine country adventures...

We finally got up to the northern CA wine country...funny, this is the most known area (Napa/Sonoma) for wine, and we managed to see almost all of the other wine areas of CA until finally travelling north! We were up in the northern Sonoma county area and Sonoma. Stayed in Healdsburg- northern Sonoma county....A gem truly! Lovely town....

With our travelmates, Sam and Meagan Barkley at FF Coppola's winery, Rosso & Bianco
Bella Winery, Underground cave tasting room, north Sonoma
Toad Hollow tasting room, downtown Healdsburg
Rows of vines, Sonoma, CA

Yosemite National Park

A few weeks ago we went to Yosemite. We are so lucky to have such an amazing place so near to Fresno. We drove up and spent the day hiking some trails and taking in the amazing views. We went at a great time, when the waterfalls were flowing and most of the snow had melted. We can't wait to go back and hike more trails!

Take a look a the slideshow below.....