We're Back!

We are back from vacation, back to reality... it was a nice break while it lasted!

Mostly we hiked, kayaked, and snorkeled. We both actually ended up with sore muscles on vacation from all the action! I think it was mostly the hike back out of Waipio Valley...it's so stinking steep. I walked part of it backward because my sorry little leg muscles were burning so bad. However, it was totally worth it.

I wish I could bottle up a tiny bit of atmosphere and send it to you all...the smells, the sounds, the wind, the sun. As soon as we stepped off the plane, I remembered how delicious Kona smells. I don't know if it's plumeria or bougainvillea, but some flower there fills the place and makes the air intoxicating. I didn't really remember that from way back when, but they say smell is one of the most powerful senses for memory, and I guess they're right. I couldn't get enough of that scent. (Maybe that's how Monkey feels when she smells my deodorant and tries to rub herself in my armpit!? My underarms are quite like a tropical paradise, I suppose.)

Anyway, it was cool to see the U of N, where we met. It's pretty much the same. A bit of new landscape, a bit of new construction, but for the most part, identical. The rest of the city had changed quite a bit though. Most of the businesses that were there way back when have been replaced by new ones, and some areas right along the sea are still recovering from tsunami damage. That was kind of sad to see...beaches that were white sanded with debris all over them, parts of the sea wall knocked out with orange construction cones around it, and sidewalks covered up by sand. Regardless, it's still beautiful and wonderful and laid back and all around amazing. And so many doggies!! Everywhere there was a dog! That's my kind of city.

Jesse and I kept saying "Can you believe we lived here?!" I continue to be infinitely grateful for the travel experiences I got to have after high school. They were so formative for me... I wish every young person could have one year where they do nothing but travel. I think our world would be a bit of a kinder place.

Anyway, here's my vacation video! (Sorry the resolution isn't better. We are cheap and only pay for slow internet....I did not have the patience to wait for a larger file to load.)

One Decade Celebration Trip!

We leave for vacation soon, and apparently by saying that, I'm asking you to rob me. I read somewhere recently that you should never post online that you're going on vacation because it just makes you vulnerable to theft. However, I think I'm going to trust that most people who read my blog aren't interested in the 800 square feet of random, well used, really low value items hanging out in my house. But, if you are a thief reading this, let me spare you some time. Skip my place and head down a couple doors to the happy marijuana people...I bet you could find something of value in there, and it's probably green.

Anyway, back to vacation.

No wait, not vacation, first things first: Monkey's biopsy was all clear. She had a vascular tumor, and the main danger of it would have been that it would have kept growing and eventually squished up organs, wind pipes, and other necessary body parts. So it's good it's out and it's good it's not cancer. She gets her sutures out tomorrow and also hopefully receives the "all clear" to romp and play again.

Okay, now back to vacation.

This is going to come as a shock, I know, but we aren't going to Disney World, and I'm being serious.

We're going to Hawaii! It's been 10 years since we met there, started dating there.... it only seemed right to celebrate a decade of coupledom by remembering our roots. (Lucky aren't we, to have such tropical roots?)

We are planning very loosely, but I put these items on our "must-do" vacation list:

1. Snorkeling. Jesse owes me. This is the first thing he ever asked me to do after we met, but when it came time to go, he said it was "too cloudy" and we went to Borders bookstore instead. I remember since I thought we were going snorkeling, I didn't put on any makeup, and I had on old clothes over my swimsuit. When he changed plans last minute, I literally dug dirty clothes out of the laundry basket and threw on a hat since I also hadn't done my hair. It was so stinking hot that day, and humid with the cloud cover. We were walking to Borders, (which was at the top of a hill), and beads of sweat were rolling down my face. Needless to say, even though it was sort of our first (unofficial) date, I was definitely not looking my best. That's okay though... Jesse had burned his (recently shaved) head a couple days before, so he had flakes of skin peeling off his head all day from the sunburn. Quite the attractive couple between the two of us, eh!? Anyway, 10 years later - we better go snorkeling this time.

2. Kayaking at Captain Cook Monument. I never went to this place when I lived there, but I remember lots of friends telling me about it. I guess it's a popular dolphin hang out, so maybe we'll see some doing fun dolphin things.

3. Makalawena Beach. This was my favorite, favorite beach when I lived there. (Unfortunately, I didn't discover it until my final couple months there.) It's a short hike in, and pretty much no one is there. It's possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life. Jesse has never seen it, so it's top priority to spend a day there.

4. Hiking Waipi'o Valley. This is a super steep hike - 25% grade, the road plummets 1,000 feet in 1 mile. Can't wait, though it's likely I'll wheeze my way out on the hike back out of the valley. =)

5. Some hang out time at the U of N. Actually, we're staying on the YWAM base (hello cheap accommodations!). It will be fun to see if things are how we remember, and we have a person or two to stop by and pay a short visit. Plus, a few years ago, we bought an engraved brick as part of a fundraiser they were doing, so we have to find our brick.

6. Papakolea Beach. This is another place that Jesse never got to see while he was there. I only went once or twice, but there's something about it worth seeing, even if just for the feeling it creates in you. I find it to be eerily beautiful... no one is really there. It's just this sudden drop where you can climb down to the small green sand beach that's protected by the cove. Part of the eerie is the noise of the wind blowing across South Point. It's a constant howl. Anyway, I think the place feels creepily deserted and powerful, yet also beautiful. We might make a stop at Punaluu Beach on our drive to South Point. The only thing I really remember about Punaluu is the giant sea turtles that hang out on the beach, and how unpleasantly course the black sand is.

As always, we are flying stand by. Flights are looking good right now, and I'm hopeful they stay that way. The nice thing about non-rev is the price. The bad thing about it (among many) is that you often get back-seat-middle and are separated from the people you're traveling with. As such, I spent part of the day reserving books at the library.

Seems weird we are leaving so soon. We usually do fall vacations, and it's pretty much always Disney. It's easy to get hyped up for that (in part because Disney is great at sending propaganda.) Comparatively, I've hardly even thought about this vacation until now.

Horton will be staying with Grandma and his buddy, Riley, while Monkey and Bean are off to be spoiled at Pete & Macs. I admit, I roll my eyes at my own self having them board there. It's expensive, they get all kinds of crazy things, like doggie daycare (aka group doggie playtime), one on one walks, an afternoon Kong treat, a king sized kennel....it's all so very spoiled, white, ridiculous.... I know that. But, I also know it's pretty much the only place where I don't worry about them or spend the evenings feeling sad with mental pictures of them laying cooped up crowded in small metal kennels bored out of their minds with racing anxiety and confusion about what is happening and why their owner abandoned them. They are always happy to go to Pete and Macs and I know they keep them so busy, they burn off any anxiety that they would have about not being at home. Plus, we get super cute doggie "report cards" when we get back that I always hang on the fridge. (Go on, judge me, I don't blame you.)

Anyway, that's pretty much it...next time you hear from me I'll hopefully be sun-tanned, beach-worn, and pineappled-out.

Back to Life...Back to Reality....

Remember that 90's song? It's been stuck in my head since our plane landed. We had a great time on vacation, but reality slapped us back into shape quickly as Jesse jumped head first into a crazy semester and I went back to work.

Lows of vacation -

*Having a 17 hour travel day getting there. Non-rev is either totally awesome or really sucky, and I guess it was our day to get "really sucky" as we got bumped from flight to flight to flight.

*Missing our dinner reservations due to said "really sucky"

Highs of vacation -

*The food (and the photos to prove it...) We ate, and ate, and ate some more. For the most part, Disney chefs treat vegans well.

*Laying by the pool/laying in a hammock with no place to be and nothing to do

*Test Track - one of our favorite rides. The premise is that you are a crash test dummy, so you sit in a car and go through all of the safety tests, like Belgian Blocks, barrier test, ABS tests, etc.

*24/7 with Jesse!

Anyway, here's my vacation video montage - kinda cheesy, and not actually directed by Jesse, as the video says, but I don't know how to remove that part of it in imovie.

We Made An Honest Effort

Okay, now it's your turn to judge me. Why? Because with the world at our fingertips, we have chosen to return to Disneyworld. I know, I know.... just hear me out.

We really did make an honest effort to go elsewhere. In fact, we went so far as having reservations at a lodge in Port Renfrew, BC. And we had our days there pretty much planned - Botanical Beach, Juan De Fuca Trail, kayaking, the world's largest fir tree...it would be grand.

So what's the problem with that, you may ask?? The more we added up our activities, our hotel, our rental car, our meals....it got to be really expensive. I know some people are willing to pay off vacations after they are done, but for me, the best way to maximize my enjoyment is to have it totally paid before we even go. I started obsessing about whether or not I'd even be able to enjoy, or if I'd be there the whole time looking at how much each activity cost, and then choosing the cheapest. Maybe I am a tight wad. (That gene is definitely loud and clear in some of my relatives.) But, either way, I just don't like the idea of paying for vacation a month or two after it's long gone and over.

So within a day or two of deciding to go to Victoria, I accidentally stumbled across Disney's website and a couple vacation quotes were just randomly e-mailed to me. (It was all very strange, you know.) Anyway, the point is - it was a few hundred cheaper to go to Disney than to Victoria. (That Canadian dollar is right on par!!) Plus, since we are going in the off season again, we snagged the deal where we can eat free at any of the parks and resorts. That is hard to beat. And since we can rely on Disney transportation, we don't have to book a rental car...and the biggest plus? We just always have such a good time. I have nothing but wonderful memories from each of those vacations.

And honestly, because of that, I'm kind of scared to try something new. Pre-Disney we had nothing but suck vacations.

It began with our honeymoon. (Compliments of us being ignorant about off-season travel.) Everything was closed, which meant all the activities we had hoped to do were also off the table (sand dune hang gliding, bike rentals, kayaking, eating out). In fact, the only restaurants we ate at during that week were Hardee's and this place called Big Al's Diner (where we got mild food poisoning and consequently spent a lot of time hanging out in the bathroom). I think we saw a grand total of 2 other humans during our week long stay, which meant the little island was just dark and lonely, somewhat boring, and kind of sad and depressing. Indeed, I ate a gallon of mint chip ice cream all by myself that week - bought at the only grocery store that was open, who happened to be in the middle of remodeling, so they had about three aisle of stale crappy food in stock. =( I think if we had that happen to us now, we could make it fun and have a good time anyway, but being newlyweds, you just know that the expectation is that your honeymoon will be fun, and you aren't sure if you can just right out say to your new husband or wife "Hey, I can't wait until this week is over!". We freaking wrote our wedding thank you cards on our honeymoon, if that tells you anything about the suck level. Ha ha...now that I think about it, that is really funny. In such a sad little way.

Anyway, later over the first few years of our marriage, we didn't have much cash, so we tried some weekend get aways, and those also bombed for one reason or another. That pretty much summed up the first 4 years of our married life's vacations. So, as you can imagine, we were a little gun shy about vacations in general - you're out the money (which you don't have a lot of to begin with), and you didn't even really leave with good memories. When we decided splurge and go to Disney the first time, we actually enjoyed every day there. We laughed. We slept well. We ate well. We relaxed.

Back to present day - I was nervous in general about Victoria and trying something new anyway (though I do REALLY want to see Victoria), then once I saw the dollar signs just piling one on top of another, I had a momentary freak out where all of life became clear again. I had a vision of fluffy, white clouds, and suddenly, a big mouse in front of a castle appeared and spoke to me. It's all very fuzzy, but he gave me a message...something about the way to the happiest place on earth.

We're Back!

As usual, Mickey showed us a good time. But before I get too into vacation stories, let me first relieve you all by saying: My dogs survived!! I know you were all just as worried as me, right? Turns out, despite my fretting, they enjoyed themselves in doggie day care every day, ate well, and came home just as tuckered out as Jesse and I. In fact, they had such a good time, they really didn't even seem to be terribly excited to see me when we picked them up. (Gasp!) I was actually really relieved at this, because I could tell they were feeling so comfortable at the boarding place. Now that we have done it once, I think it will be much easier to do it again. Not that I want to anytime soon, but it's just nice to know that they didn't stress the whole time. In fact, they came home with a nice little report card that filled me in on their little vacation.

Okay, so now that the important stuff is out of the way and you can all breathe again...

This year, we stayed at Coronado Springs, which is probably our favorite thus far. The grounds were really nice and I think our room may have been recently redone. It was all fresh and pretty. Plus, it's a convention center so they had a lot of nice amenities, like a gym, which I only used once, but Jesse used a number of times.

Below is a shot inside our room, just as we arrived - before unpacking and messing it all up!

And here's the exterior of part of the resort below. There are 3 areas, each themed slightly differently. The building we were in was 4 stories, but you can see this one only has 2 levels. Either way, they were all really nice and happy festive.

We spent the day we arrived just walking around the grounds and had dinner at a place called Maya Grill at the resort. It wasn't very good. In fact, it may have been the most bland meal of my life. For instance, my "salad" was greens...no dressing...no other vegetables. We decided our chef was passive aggressive against vegans and vegetarians. =) The menu had zero vegetarian options - which is really unusual. Most places list at least one meatless option. Anyway, this made it difficult to order, especially since I decided I wanted to go vegan on vacation. (Vegan = nothing with any animal products at all, including dairy, honey, etc. - I will tell you more stories of my vegan adventures later.) Anyhow, despite the bland meal, we had a great first evening at the resort.

I noticed the below newspaper headline as we were buying a little snack in the food court, and couldn't help but take a photo. I hadn't considered the impact of the recession on the feminist movement, but this decade is writing a big shift, and for a minute, I was envious of all sociology students when I read the headline - what discussions to be had! I'm saddened that the wage gap is closing in this manner, but excited to see how this all plays out in terms of equity and resources. What would Marx say??? Anyway, that is another blog post all together, so let me move back to vacation!

The next day, we headed to Magic Kingdom in the morning, which is what people usually think of when they think Disney. It's the traditional Princess/Castle type thing, and though neither Jesse or I care much for castles or Princesses, it's a right of passage to have your photo taken in front of the castle, so we happily conformed. =)


Here's us at the tail end of riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, one of our favorites at Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom is fun, but it's neither of our favorite parks. So, we decided to only do a half day there, and left for lunch at another nearby resort, and then headed over to Epcot. We met up with my parents, brother and sister-in-law at Epcot. While we were waiting, I had fun playing with the mirrors and trying to get a self-photo that had both of us in it. I think I did pretty well.



Once my family showed up, I had to do the same with all of them.


Had a great afternoon at Epcot, riding Test Track and Soarin' - two of our most favorite. For dinner, we went to the Polynesian Resort and ate at a place called Ohana. Unlike our passive aggressive Maya Grill chef, the chef at Ohana was amazing. His name is Chef TJ, and I had actually read about him online before we left. He is known for treating vegans very well, and lived up to his reputation. He came out to the table to talk with me, and explained that he would be making me a special seven course dinner, then warned me to pace myself. After that, he personally delivered each course to our table and explained to me what was in each dish. He was stinking awesome, the food was beautifully presented, and I could not have asked for better.

The above is course four. I had: 1) hummus and the best baba ghanouche of my life 2) grilled bok choy with mushrooms in yummy sauce 3) spicy ginger soup 4) wraps with pineapple and avocado spears, cucumber stuffed with chili (above photo) 5) main dish of tempura fried asparagus, tofu, rice, fried noodles and other general yumminess 6) lychee in coconut milk with berries 7) tofutti with fruit and chocolate syrup. My terrible descriptions would surely make any chef cringe...apologies to Chef TJ! He explained to me all the ingredients and cooking methods, but it was so much to take in, I just can't remember it all! All I really remember is that he used Hawaiian beer for the tempura because of the yeast in it. Otherwise, I just remember it was yummy, Chef TJ treated me with excellent service, and my tummy was so very full when we left. Later that night, we went back to Epcot for a bit, watched fireworks from the monorail, and climbed into bed late...still with a full tummy.

The next day we went to Animal Kingdom, which is my favorite park. The themeing alone warrants a day of viewing, let alone the attractions. (It would have to be on my top ten coolest jobs list to be a Disney set designer - they do a great job.)

Here's my parents happily checking out some birds.

Jesse and I with Expedition Everest in the background. Last year when I rode this, I seriously considered the thought that I may die on it. Never again, but I would recommend that everyone to do it at least once! Fishies...they were so pretty in real life - orange and blue.
Our last full day we decided to take it easy. We went to Downtown Disney, a shopping/entertainment district, browsed stores, then had some lunch and headed back to the resort. We spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, which was an awesome way to end vacation.
Below is the view I had from my lounger and I don't think it could get any better! He looks so peaceful. Unfortunately, when Jesse called to check flight loads the next day, we learned that they were really full. Our best hope of getting out of Orlando meant we had to be on the first flight out. This also meant we had to be up at 2am something (1am something Missouri time) in order to catch the bus to the airport and be there in time for the flight. We ended up getting the last two open seats on the plane and were extremely thankful. They had already announced to all standby passengers that the flight was full and they were rolling everyone over to the next flight out, but we decided to stick around the gate just in case. I'm glad we did, because at the last minute, they called us and we cruised on right before it pulled away from the jet bridge. We got home, bleary-eyed and tired...

My only complaint is that it was not long enough!

Boulder or Bust

Back in January when they were bidding vacation days, Jesse randomly booked a weekend in July off, which happened to be this weekend. We have both been feeling slightly bored with day to day life recently and decided it would be good for us to have a little change of pace. So, Saturday morning we hopped on the early flight to Denver and then drove out to Boulder for the day with no major plans. We didn't actually take that many photos, and the ones we did take aren't that great, but here are some none the less.

It was hazy when we landed, so you could only see the base of the foothills from the airport. Here we are waiting for the shuttle to go get our rental car.

The drive into Boulder. Skies had cleared, so we had a great view driving in.

Just hanging out...

We went down to Pearl Street Mall (a pretty well known Boulder landmark). They were having an art fair this weekend, so we strolled through that for a bit and then browsed a few shops. We split a yummy lunch of tomato/basil panini and summer berry salad. Of course, Jesse opted to take a photo of me just seconds after I had stuffed my mouth with salad...thus the odd smile.

After Pearl Street Mall, we were both super thirsty and craving smoothies, so we searched for a smoothie shop to no avail, and finally ended up at a little coffee shop. We have tried smoothies at a few different coffee shops, and should know by now...they are always gross or artificial tasting. These were unfortunately no exception and left both of us feeling a bit queasy. Ironically, as we were leaving we noticed a smoothie shop just a few doors down....

Our final stop was at the Boulder Running Company. Jesse found lots of stuff to pine for, but ultimately came away empty-handed. (I got lots of good Christmas and birthday ideas for him though.)

One thing we both loved about the culture in Fort Collins/Loveland was the dog-friendliness of the city. Every third or fourth car would have a dog along for the ride, and nearly every other car had a dog gate installed in it. The store Jesse worked at let dogs come in with their owners, and sometimes they would be running around my work as well, and you would for sure see lots of them laying beneath cafe tables as their owners had lunch or coffee on the weekends. Boulder was no different. We spotted dogs all over the place and logos letting people know their pups can come along for the shopping errands.
Perhaps the only thing that could have made the day better is if we had Horton and Monkey along for the ride. =)

One last mountain pic before it was time to say good bye to Colorado again...

Vacation

We got back from vacation last night and were both feeling pretty tired. It was a lot of fun, but always too short. Now it's back to reality...broken furnaces, flooded crawl spaces, issues with hot water heaters, work, and school. =) More on those topics later - for now, we'll just think about the fun stuff. My pictures are, once again, totally out of order. Sorry. One of these days I will get a better system. Until then, I'll just make notes under each photo.

This is Jesse at The Wilderness Lodge. We had lunch here one day and just walked around the grounds. Pretty and peaceful there.
That's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the background. It's one of the roller coaster rides at Magic Kingdom.
Jesse was very happy to get his photo with Buzz Lightyear. They were showing me their manly muscles.
This is on the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride, one of Jesse's favorites. It's actually a kiddie ride, but we like it anyway because your cart has little guns where you shoot at targets and it tracks your points. It also has a control in the middle so you can spin your cart to throw the other person off. Jesse usually wins, but I have to say, I gave him some good competition this year.
This is right outside the front door of our room. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside this year. It was really nice, but I think we both prefer the place we stayed at last year.
This is back at Wilderness Lodge...just out of order!
Here's Jesse waiting for my favorite 3d show - It's Tough to Be a Bug.
Me on the safari. I think there must be some animals way back there that you can't see in the photo very well.
Shaka from Jesse! This is at Ohana - by far the best place we ate, and probably the best dining experience of my life. We had really good service and the food was great. Plus we got sat at a table where we had an amazing view (that you obviously can't see in this photo). I don't think anything could have been more perfect. (Except maybe the entertainment... a very interesting lady.)
Main Street USA (aka - the street you walk down as you enter into Magic Kingdom.)
This was our last day there. We swam, rented a sea raycer, took it easy.
This is the Boardwalk. It's a really nice little area. We ate dinner here one evening and spent some time just walking around.
That's Expedition Everest in the background. I rode it by myself last year, and vowed to never set foot on it again, as I thought I was going to have a heart attack. But, it does make a nice backdrop for photos! It's at Animal Kingdom, which is our favorite of the Disney parks.
Out of order, but this is when we were on the sea raycer. We were trying to "park" it in the middle of the lake to get a photo with the castle in the background, but it never quite fully worked.
And this was our last morning there... Jesse was making fun of my self-photos because my arm is so much shorter than his, it always cuts off his head when I hold the camera.