6.13.2008

Vacation Part II

This is long overdue. Part II of vacation, my very first 2 week vacation ever. I covered Kauai in Part I, now on to Maui.

We arrived on a puddle jumper plane and headed to the Marriott Wailea. No ocean view room this time, but still very nice. We had heard about an amazing pool so we immediately went to check it out. It was amazing. It's called the serenity pool. No cell phones. No kids. Sunset. Poolside bar service. Ocean. Need I say more?














It's been over a month since we were there so a lot of the things I wanted to write about are lost from my mind. But these are the things that stand out:

1) Whale watching at the Pacific Whale Foundation. If you don't see a whale, you get a free ticket for another whale watching tour. And we were at the tail end (no pun intended) of whale season, we we were just expecting to have to come back to Maui sometime to use our free ticket. But just after we left the harbor, we saw it. A small spout. At first we were certain that it was someone scuba diving, working for the company so everyone thought they saw a whale. But alas, it was the real deal. We saw some amazing whales, very close up.
2) Paia - very cool hippy town on Maui. Went to the Flatbread Company - highly recommend.
3) Ceviche at Cafe O'Lei - we went back to have it a second time - it was that good. We convinced them to make it for us, even though it wasn't on the lunch menu. Apparently we weren't the first to do this.
4) Sitting out on a lanai at J's friends' house in Pukalani, having a nice dinner, with an amazing view of the island.
5) Secret Beach - I won't tell you where it was (see the name), but it was pretty cool. The waves were amazing.

I think that's about all for my vacation post. I wish I had written this on the plane home...

One thing I do know - I'm ready to go back!

5.12.2008

Vacation Part I (and blogging in general)

So, blogging. As I mentioned previously, it’s new to me. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while and have been talking to some people in my book club about starting one. Anyway, someone I know who is huge into blogging (even goes to Blog World, can you believe there is a Blog World?!) said something that really inspired me to get going with this endeavor. A blog is a great way to document and journal your thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc. that can be wonderful for many reasons. 1) It’s an instant “record” of what you have done to help you remember what you were thinking and doing at a particular time, event in your life. When I’m 80, I can easily look back and see what I was thinking when I was 33. 2) Think about what you know about your parents versus what your kids can know about you. If I ever have children, they can know so much more about me than I will ever know about my parents. I think that’s pretty cool. By the way, I can’t take credit for those ideas, but I was obviously inspired by them so I am sharing them.

The point of starting this was to write about my vacation. I went on a tangent about blogging.

Vacation. I should have written this a week ago so everything would be fresh in my mind. Actually, I should have written this while still there lounging at the pool sipping mai tais. The trip started out in Kauai, a quiet paradise island. I’ll just write about Kauai for now and will fish with Maui and the rest later.

We stayed at the Marriott in Lihue (awwww LIHUE….inside joke for J). The day we got there, we learned that a 30-year old flight attendant had drowned just outside our hotel in the not-so-rough surf. That made us a little leery about going into the water. In fact, on our second to last day there we realized we had been in Hawaii for a week and a half and hadn’t done more than dip our toes in the ocean. (We were definitely made fun of for this by J’s friends who live in Maui). For the first 4 days of our vacation, we didn’t do much at all. Basically vegged out at the pool, reading, sleeping, talking, making fun of J for being obsessed with his iPhone, you know, the basics.

One thing that I did for the first time on vacation was Bikram Yoga. It was crazy. They crank the heat up to like 100 degrees and you do yoga. It was amazing. And hot. And very hard. And hot. I felt so good afterwards (although I think I stretched some muscles that I hadn’t used in years, if ever). I had never sweat so much in my life (no, not even at field hockey practice in Kentucky those 95 degree August afternoons). But, it was good enough to go back, and despite being a few minutes late to our second class, we did it again. The second time was easier for me in that it was less intimidating. It was still pretty difficult, as my body wasn’t used to folding and bending like that. But still felt good. The studio was in this great little town called Kapa’a. It was a kind of laid back hippy-ish town with super nice, welcoming people. We loved it, and went back for dinner a few times.

The day of our second yoga class, we spent the afternoon at Waimea Canyon. It was amazing. Especially for someone like me, who hasn’t been to the Grand Canyon yet. They actually call it Hawaii’s Grand Canyon. We took our required pictures at the scenic overlook (you know, those great “self-portrait” photos where you can almost always see the arm of the person taking the photo, and usually someone’s head or ear is cut out of the picture), then headed out for a 3-hour hike down to some waterfalls. Let’s just say that I was not the quickest when it came to hiking on some of the paths, and definitely slowed the pace. But it was still great fun. We got to what we thought was the main attraction – Woipoo Falls. We were, understandably, a little disappointed, as we had been expecting to swim and splash and be happy in the waterfalls and pools. Not after we saw the warning sign about some bacteria with a really long name that might or might not be present in the water. Still, it was worth the hike. On our way back, we noticed that if we went to the right instead of the left, there was a narrow path that led to some other pools and falls that were fantastic. J was a little more adventurous than I was, and went further into the falls. All in all, a great hike.

Driving back from Waimea Canyon, we went and watched some surfers along the way. Pretty cool stuff. Then we went to one of the trip’s favorite restaurants (please don’t laugh here…) Brick Oven Pizza. I know I know. Pizza? In Hawaii?? We had eaten some great seafood the previous nights, and were just in the mood for some yummy pizza. This place had been recommended and we now know why. Best crust ever! And they give you garlic butter to dip your crust.

I know there is so much more to write about Kauai, but my fingers are hurting and if anyone is reading this, they are probably starting to day dream about other things, their minds wandering to their vacations, etc. I’ll get to Vacation Part II soon.

PS – Why doesn’t Word recognize the word BLOG? (I can already hear it…it’s Microsoft…blah blah blah)

5.05.2008

Re-Entry

I just got back from an amazing two-week vacation. Kauai, Maui and topped off with a visit to the paradise of Louisville, KY for the Derby. Now I'm back at work. Half working. Half day dreaming of vacation. Half staring at my computer. Oh wait, that's three halves. I've probably looked at my vacation pictures 25 times today. Reminiscing. Loving it.

Usually when I come back from vacation, I'm dreading work, and just so unhappy about re-entering the real world. For some reason, this time I'm just happy. In a good mood. Thinking about the good things and not worrying about how much I have to do. I think I know why. Someone I know pretty well keeps talking about and quoting Getting Things Done (GTD). I tried reading it. Personally I'd rather read a trashy novel or a non fiction about Sorority Life, etc. But I am going to try to read another chapter this week. Small steps. Anyway, my opinion (before reading the book, so no offense to J or to the author of the book...) is that all you need is a 2-week vacation once in a while. I feel so amazingly refreshed. And despite the aforementioned photo viewing sessions throughout the day, I have gotten so much done today (see, GTD!!) That was my first two-week vacation since I started working. That's all I needed.

I am going to journal about my vacation soon, I just felt the need to start my writing this way - ease into the blog thing. It's new to me. I already like it. Life is good.

4.14.2008

Fame

I'm finally getting my two minutes of fame. Perhaps? http://www.jdbstudiophotography.com/

My cousin Janet took this photo of me about a hundred years ago. Now she uses it on her photography studio website.

By the way, I'm the photo on the left, in case you couldn't tell...

4.09.2008

Funny Funny Bone

Have you ever hit your funny bone so hard that it actually becomes funny? Happened to me. Might have had something to do with the caipirihnas at Cafe 28.

4.03.2008

Book Club

Last night's book club was great! Thanks to the author, Marsena Konkle for joining us and sharing her thoughts on the book.

For next month, we will be reading two (how ambitious are we??)

1) His Illegal Self by Peter Carey
2) Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

Looking forward to it!

For those of you who asked, here is a list by month of the books we've read since the inagural book club meeting back in September:

Kite Runner
My Sister's Keeper
The Known World
Holidays on Ice
Love in the Time of Cholera
Middlesex
The Long Road Home
A Dark Oval Stone