Phase 3 vacation summary- Hawaii

So I am just going to post some pictures here. I will eventually get around to getting a whole album up...

First off, yay for landing in Houston before this huge thunderstorm hit. Boo for our flight from Honolulu being delayed until 2am...yay for good sushi restaurants within walking distance of the airport, boo for super cold airplanes, yay for bringing jeans to change into and sticking my feet into my purse to keep them warm :) (yes I really stuck my feet into my purse and it really did help...I slept the whole rest of the flight!)

After delaying my flight to Oahu by a day, the girls (Lydia and Emily (they are sisters and I went to school with Lydia...we've known each other for 17 years!!!) picked me up and we headed out to the Likelike (pronounced 'leaky leaky") Highway, a really pretty drive on Oahu). We stopped at Chinaman's Hat for some pictures, drove around to see some of the pretty beaches and overlooks (and saw some humpback whales spouting off the shore!!!), saw Haunama Bay, and the sunset.

Me, Emily, and Lydia in front of Chinaman's Hat

Sunset near Haunama Bay

The next day we woke up very early (4am!) and went to hike Diamondhead Crater.

Lydia, Emily, and me on Diamondhead Craater, Honolulu in the background

We met up with another group of my friends (Tima, Katrina, and Mark, and their friend Patty) for breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants on Oahu, Eggs and Things.

The gang at Eggs and Things

Then we all flew to Maui. Our condo was awesome! Within barefoot walking distance of the beach (Kamaole II) in the town of Kihei (south Maui). We hit the beach first thing of course :).

Our beach

Since Tima and all only had a few days on Maui, they were going to cram as much as possible into those days. We joined them at 3:50am to drive up Haleakala, the dormant volcano, to watch the sunrise. The elevation is just over 10,000 feet and it was freezing! (literally).

Sun rising on Haleakala (yeah, we were above the clouds...so cool!)

Me and Tima on Haleakala

The girls...thawed out finally

Then we drove the Road to Hana and hiked to Waimoku Falls (407 foot waterfall).

Me and my old roomies, Tima and Katrina


Lydia and Tima

Big waterfall

I talked Emily and Mark into joining me in the waterfall!!!


Wahoo!

We then visited Wai'anapanapa State Park and the black sand beach. Alas, we couldn't swim in it though...you can see why...

Ooh pretty black sand (it wasn't soft though...)


Umm, yikes.

We went to Lahaina, really quaint old town, good shops, and we went to the Old Lahaina Luau, which was a lot of fun. We sat with a great group of folks and had a really fun time with them.

Taking out the kahlua pig


Enjoying my mai tai



Sunset from Lahaina

At the Old Lahaina Luau (all the girls at our table and some friendly visitors :) )


After our botched kayaking/snorkeling, seasickness/freezing adventure (of which we have NO pictures from!). We spent our last beach day on this beach, Makena Beach. Wow.


Sunset from the condo balcony (our last night on Maui)



Last picture on our beach (it was sooo windy so we weren't too sad about not being able to have one last beach day)

Our last day on Maui we went back to Lahaina and drove around the coffee plantation. And then got one last iced coffee at the Maui Planatation Coffee House. Yum!


I really like coffee

Great trip. Great great great.

World Cup 2010

I just found out that we (my brother, my friend Jana and her husband Scott) got our tickets for World Cup 2010. It is in South Africa!!! And the best news is, its during a beta cutout so no silly Shuttle launches can get in the way! (beta cutout means that the sun angle is too high (Shuttle will get too hot) during a particular timeframe...this one just so happens to extend over the world Cup timeframe). ::happy dance, happy dance::

Feeding the Fishies

So we signed up for this tour that takes you kayaking around the island and then you snorkel from your kayak. Cool right? Yeaaaaah....

So holy-choppy-water-Batman. And guess who didn't even think to take her Dramamine. And when you get out of the kayak to snorkel you still bob up and down and side to side cause of the stupid lifevest. I did get to see sea turtles! And a ton of colorful fish...

I also fed the fish...twice...hope they liked my breakfast.

Maui :)

So I've been too exhausted at the end of each day to blog, and the internet is having issues so I only managed to get one photot loaded...but, let me just say, I heart Maui and am never coming home. Nope. (I did spend a whirlwind 12 hours on Oahu as well, taking the girls to all the sites I saw the last time I was here...fun and tiring!)

We have an amazing condo with an ocean view and about a 2 minute walk from a bee-yew-ti-ful beach.

Me on the baclony of the condo..ocean is behind me :)

Yesterday we woke up at 3am to drive to the summit of Haleakala (the inactive volano here) to watch the sunrise. Breathtaking and frostbiting (elevation 10,000 feet). Then we drove back down and drove the Road to Hana. This road has 671 turns (no, I didn't count, someone else did in my travel book). Talk about hairpin turns! The have these one lane bridges that tell you to yield to oncoming traffic- thing is, the turns are so tight, you can't see the oncoming traffic...so we decided youd need to be a Jedi or something to determine if there was oncoming traffic (believe this decision generated a LOT of laughter and ensuing dorkiness).

Then at the end of the Road, we did a four mile hike into a waterfall and I STOOD UNDER A WATERFALL!!!! And I got two people to do it with me too! Everyone else was dissuaded by the "Danger of falling rocks beyond this point" sign. Good thing I feigned illiteracy ;-).

Great trip so far. Today is church and then we are going to crash on the beach for the rest of the day for some much need recuperation :D.

Not coming back.

Phase 2 drama

So phase 2 of my vacation was supposed to consist of a whirlwind trip down to Tucson to visit my parents, a haircut, back to Phoenix to visit some friends and then fly out to Hawaii...

But, it's me, right?

So instead, that stomach bug I had for a bit in Idaho decided to come back, this time full force and I ended up in urgent care being pumped with fluids because I couldn't keep fluid, well, in. I am such a fan of anti-nausea medicine by the way. And can you say holy high fever batman?

So obviously, I wasn't going to be able to make my original flight to Hawaii. After keeping down some jello and a popsicle, I spent an hour on the phone with Expedia last night (I'll spare you the bloody details but I ended up having to "speak with a supervisor"), I delayed my flight by a day, which isn't bad at all, since that is one of the days we were going to be on Oahu and I've already been there.

So, I am now going to go sit on my bum, eat a popsicle, watch a Doctor Who and continue to recover.

Definitely ready for phase 2 to be over... :)

Vacation- Phase 1

Sign of a dork? You break down your vacation into phases...good thing I am not in denial huh?

So, anyways, phase 1 of my vacation is completed. I spent the last 5 days up in Boise, ID with my sister and her family. I have the cutest nephew ever. Don't even bother trying to argue with me. I don't feel like creating a photo album, so you'll have to scroll to see the pictures. I had a great time, lobster, nephew, shopping, nephew, BBQ, nephew, stomach bug, nephew, hockey game, nephew...that about sums up phase 1...

Me and John Michael


"Sissa, you're a dinosaur!"

"But I make a better dinosaur"



John and Monica making a lobster tail dinner. Yum!


Home pedicures (my sister painted the flowers!)

Feeding the ducks


Making faces...there are several more of these that may grace future blogs


This isn't his Easter basket...this one was left unattended


Awesome spinach-artichoke bites that Monica made for our pre-Easter BBQ


Hockey game! Boise Steelheads vs some Vancouver team


John Michael telling me about a picture he made for me

::cough, cough, gag, cough::

What's with the coughing and gagging? Oh that would be me trying to get my stomach out of my throat. I have no idea what on Earth motivates cars to honk at people who are running (ON the sidewalk, at least 3 feet from the road) but please, for-the-love-of-not-making-someone-die-of-a-coronary-as-they-are-finishing-the-last-leg-of-their-run, STOP IT. I don't particularly care for the Adam's-appleish look that a stomach-in-the-throat gives me.

Oh and as a side note, I WILL remember your license plate number to report you as I fall to the ground, convulsing.

Sweet

So twice this past week, a friend of mine popped into my head, very randomly...you know that whole "hey I've haven't talked with so-and-so in awhile, I wonder how she is doing?"...then on Wednesday, she popped into my head yet again and I got this feeling like "hmm, okay God, maybe you are trying to tell me something"...so I emailed her and asked her how I could be praying for her. I got a response pretty quickly. Turns out, she had prayed specifically twice this week for someone to pray FOR her, as she is going through a pretty rough patch. How cool is that? It's so neat when God uses us as tools in someone else's life...He blesses the person who requested the prayer, and He also blesses the person whom He uses...quite sweet. Lesson learned: think twice when someone "randomly" pops into my head...it may not be as random as I think :)