In the Clouds

Here is one of the posts I started in Hawaii:

Today I rode on this
This is what we were watching before we boarded. Me, forever scared of being confined in a small space, am saying lots and lots of silent prayers at this point. Prayers for the claustrophobic. And it is our only cloudy day so far! But it is still beautiful out here; I almost think the misty mountains are more beautiful.

We are strapped in, parachutes attached, Aloha bag (puke bag) in place, and. . . lift off. Once you get in you wear head phones the whole time that play music that is synchronized to the flight, and when the pilot wants to tell you some intriguing bit of info, it just interrupts the music for a second for him to let you know what you're looking at. Or staring at with your mouth wide open if you're me. Want to come? We are going clockwise around the island, leaving from the Lihue Airport.

First off(see the runway back there), our hotel:

And some beautiful farmland:


This was one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life. The pictures and my words do absolutely no justice. The ride was smooth and steady, and none of my claustrophobic fears even started to creap up. I think I was just blown away by the beauty and peacefulness of the whole thing. I wasn't expecting it to be so peaceful and serene up there. I did manage to take a few pics which I'll show you. Occasionally, you'll see the guy in front of me in the reflection. He didn't get the memo to wear dark clothing.



This is our pilot. Well, the back of his head at least. See how it's glass everywhere? Even the ceiling.

This is Jurassic Falls, I think. He pointed out so many scenes from the movie that I can't really keep them all straight. He got up pretty close to it and hovered for awhile.

This is the amazing Waimea Canyon, or the Grand Canyon of the Pacific they call it. Brad and I are driving here in a couple days to check it out more.

Can you see this waterfall? Another of the many that we saw. It was so long and beautiful. Kauai is home to the world's second longest waterfall. No pictures of that one though, sorry.

From here we went up through the clouds, over the last ridge, and decended to see the Na Pali coastline, which is inaccessible except by boat and air.

Can you see that little valley in the first pic? You cannot get here unless you kayak for several hours. Hawaiians inhabited this place untill the early 1900s when they left since they were too far from any medical care and people were starting to get sick. Now it is home to a colony of weed growing hippies. Big surprise.

And after flying through Na Pali, we rounded the corner on Honolei Bay, home of Puff the Magic Dragon. Apparently the mountain ridge resembles a dragon, and so in homage to the herb of choice grown heavliy in the area, Puff the Magic Dragon was born. Go ahead, sing the words to yourself. They are still stuck in my head. They changed Honolei to Honolee. This pic isn't quite Honolei Bay, but right next to it. It's near where that teenage surfer girl got her arm bitten off by a shark. Remember that?

After Honolei, we were flown right up into the Mt Wai 'ale'ale Crater, the rainest place on planet Earth. I was rendered absolutely incapable of taking pictures. It was emotional I tell you, the beauty. If you want to see what it looks like, click here. In fact, just look through any Kauai Helicopter pics on the web. It will blow you away.

And here we are, post ride, parachust still attached to hip. See our pilot in there? What a morning.

Home Sweet Home

You know that whole bit about finally finding an internet connection? Yeah. . . not so much. It was the sloooowest ever and so sadly I didn't really get to share much while I was actually still in Hawaii, but I did start some posts that I wasn't able to finish because of the slooooowness so I'll put those up later. It was wonderful and restful and all the things you think it might be.

Now I am home, back to work, and all the other fun and exciting things of regular life. We took the 9pm flight out of Kauai on Sunday, which means we had to stop in LA and change planes at 5am. Let me just tell you that is the last time I try a red eye. How do people sleep sitting straight up during turbulence and crying babies? I didn't get two winks in till the LA to SLC flight. I know, cry for poor me who couldn't sleep after her super long and wonderful trip to paradise. Being home now, I do feel suddenly motivated to get done all the little things that have been needing to get done. I even made a dentist appointment(gasp). But going back to life is a funny feeling after vacations for me. It makes me nervous for some reason. My stomach gets all twisty turny when I think about responsibility. I think I need to clean out my closet. That will make me feel better.

The Road to Hana

I found a hot spot here at out hotel in Kauai so I can actually post some pics and stuff. Hooray! I finally get to share some more of my vacation. I tell you what, the internet is expensive here and hard to find at that. Are people that laid back here that they don’t have WIFI? Apparently so.

So one day while still in Maui (we’ve moved on the Kauai since then, us crazy travelers), Brad and I decided to take the infamous ‘Road to Hana’ trip. It is this road to the city of Hana on the opposite side of Maui, where it is much rainier and therefore a lush and green wonderland with waterfalls abounding. Only down side is that round trip it usually takes all day long and is the curviest road in America. You’ve never seen curves like this. So it’s really quite a trip, and not exactly suited for individuals with back issues and an extremely bouncy rental jeep. I mean, I couldn’t even eat my ice cream (in a cup) in this thing. My spoon was not ending up in my mouth, and then I was laughing too hard to even try again. Anyway. . . Brad and I decided to go part of the way so as to still get a little of the experience, and who doesn’t want to see lush tropical Maui? So we set off at around 7am and the journey began. Even though we only went about a third of the way, we thought we might die. “Our love will take us together!” Sorry, The Notebook movie reference. We saw it together once and vowed never again since we have both never cried that hard in our lives. Gees I am really going on tangents today! I promise I am actually going to get around to the pictures. I won't be offended if you skip all this interesting narrative. Anyway. . . even though we thought we might die a few times, either from bounciness or road curves or how long the darn road is, we saw some pretty incredible sights. We drove the ‘The Garden of Eden’ which is this bird paradise. Those peacocks were very scary. I didn’t know giant birds would make me so skittish. What does that say about me? Here are some of the highlights.

It was very beautiful. But now looking back, this drive has nothing on Kauai. That island is unreal.

This is the home of the large and scary birds as well as where we had some lunch. It really is this funky little place.

And here's where we parked it for a minute and had a bite to eat. As long as the peacocks would leave us alone that is. Wanna see one?

These things were huge! And the sound that comes out of them is enough to scare you (well, me at least) to running back to your rental car in terror. Of what I'm not sure, a severe pecking or knocking you over with all those feathers maybe? This one proceeded to squak at me, leap out of the tree to search me over for food, and then head over to Brad's side of the car to see if he would oblige.

See? Okay, I realize looking at these pictures that they don't look very intimidating, but those things are fast. All in all I guess you gotta take to Road to Hana at least once, peacocks and all. Now we can say we did it.

Arrival

Aloha. We are here!!! And it is glorious. More updates later. . .

One Hell Of A Week

My friends, I sit in front of my computer this Sunday afternoon a happy man. A man who has lived his dream. If I had a life list of dreams, I could do a large check mark on one of the top lines. I WENT TO THE FINAL FOUR. Yes it is true. And as we know, the TARHEELS are NATIONAL CHAMPS. It was a dream that all started on a Tuesday......

I was at a good friend Micheal's house, one that has moved up now to a family member, when he looks at me and says: Brad, I am taking you to the Final Four. I have bought plane tickets, hotel rooms and seats on the third row. Not the third row on the balcony, nor the third row on the second tier, but the third row on the floor. I thought the joke was on me. I was excited to know the Heels were in the Final Four and to watch it, as every year, with my Natalie and my family. But it was TRUE. I was, to say the least, pumped up. We were to leave on Friday, fly to Detroit, stay at the Hotel and enjoy the two games on Saturday and the championship on Monday. Did I mention I was excited? Then I dropped everyone jaws with telling them the news. To say the least everyone was jealous and I was on cloud nine.

I don't want to bore ya'll with all the details but the weekend was a sports fan's dream. I met people like Jay Mariotti (Chicago Sun Times), Dick Vitale, Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Oliver Purnell (Coach of Clemson), Plaxico Burress (I talked to him quite a bit), Kerry Kittels, Tony Dungy, Ben Howland (UCLA), The Hansbrough Brothers, C.B. McGrath( Assistant Coach UNC), and so on and on. It was Heaven. My head was spinning around and around.

Another great thing I did not expect was meeting some old friend from High School which was awesome. I put on Facebook that I was going and a couple other said they were as well. On Sunday I was able to go to lunch with Racheal Ennis and her boyfriend Steve, and in turn they invited me to a VIP party that night. It was great luck that we hooked up because I made quick friends with the four guys sitting next to me on Saturday, exchanged phone numbers and got a call on Monday saying they could not make it back up from Houston and we could have the tickets. So Micheal and I invited Racheal and Steve to sit with us on Monday. We had six tickets on the third row and only four people. So I got to spread out and have jumping room. So it was fun to watch it with them as well. After the game We ran into Will Johnson, an old buddy from High School that played at North Carolina and went to the after party to see the Heels get the NABC trophy.

So you can see it was a time of the life weekend. I have not even talked about the games. Ford field was HUGE. Packed and loud. I loved it. We were sitting dead center behind Jim Nance and Clark Kelloge(CBS). The greatest view in the whole place, and got to watch it with old friends and one great one in Micheal. I could never pay him back for doing such a awesome thing for me. Anyway, do I need to say any more than what the heels said. We played inspired, with purpose and on a mission. Two top quality games from the boys and UNC's second National Championship in Five years, And I was there. I love my life.

Booked

I know that it has been awhile since I've posted, and I'm sure my all of two readers care, but we've had a pretty busy week with some good news to share: we actually booked our trip to Hawaii, which is quite a feat for me, and we're in the throes of list making and practice packing(I'll explain that one some other time). We decided to go to Kauai for five nights and Maui for five nights, thanks to all the suggestions and recommendations from everyone. Ten days in Hawaii. I have never gone on a vacation that long and can't really believe we're going. And soon too. Only problem is this is a place where swimsuits come into play. I am not a swimsuit wearer, have never in my life understood the term 'swimsuit body', and really wish the fashion was to wear those little skirt things all the time. But I'll manage:) So let me know if anyone has any great ideas for us while we're there since we finally decided on a place.

I also had to say goodbye to my husband for quite a few days last week so he could go enjoy the Final Four and National Championship Game in Detroit. If any of you know my husband at all, you'll understand what this means. I shall say no more and have him post about it. But can I just say that I don't like it when he's gone??? Even if it is to fulfill a lifelong dream and the whole trip is paid for. I still don't like it, not one bit.

Anyway, to say the least I have been in kind of a crazy state for the last week, what with trip planning and husband missing.

Case in point: Two days ago I realized about mid-morning that I had come to work with my shirt inside out. I looked down and thought, "Hmm. . . there's an awful lot of threads sticking out of this shirt." And yesterday I went to work without my purse. This may be of little consequence for some of you, but my purse houses my cell phone, wallet, ipod, numerous snacks and weird random objects that for whatever reason I deem necessary to carry around with me at all times. I feel naked without my purse, basically. My recently returned husband thankfully brought it to me while I was at lunch(Rubio's), and I was grateful to be in the company of my chap stick once again. So we'll see if I actually get to Hawaii with my head still attached, but I'll have that husband with me, and a swimsuit(ug), so that's all I need.

Sixth Picture

I saw this tag on my friend Tara’s blog, where you show the sixth picture in your sixth folder of pictures. Hers was really cool:) So I thought I’d give it a shot and see what lied in my sixth folder. At first when I realized it was my wedding folder, I was excited to see. But when I realized it was this picture, I wasn’t so excited anymore. Of all the tons of really cool wedding photos I have (and thats a lot people), it had to be this one? I mean really there’s not much to see right? You get the back of my uncle’s head, a random slew of relatives, me and Brad’s sister gearing up for what it looks like is a high five(High five? Doesn’t really seem appropriate after being married all of ten minutes. Maybe it was just a big hug.), and overall just not very interesting. But then I really looked at it for a minute and started to like it more. I had just married this big 6’7 southern boy who would turn out to be more of the man of my dreams than I could even imagine, we were greeted by family and friends, we are maybe a foot from the temple doors, and life as I knew it would never be the same. That little boy turning intently so as not to miss any of the action is my little brother Dain, who’s not so little anymore. And see Brad’s parents back there? They’re the ones with the video camera. I guess it is a fun picture. What’s in your sixth folder???