Day 5 - Big Island (Hilo)

Tuesday
Kim says: Once we landed in Hilo (on the east side of the Big Island), we jumped on the shuttle to the rental car place to pick up our white PT cruiser (notice a trend?). We then headed to Volcano National Park, the best known attraction in this area. When we got to the park, we discovered lots of warning signs about the high levels of sulphur dioxide gas from the volcano - and in fact, part of the road was closed because of it.



That, of course, didn't stop us. We stopped at several places along to Crater Rim Drive to see the steam vents, sulphur banks, big craters, lava flows and a lava tube. The lava tube was especially cool. It's essentially a large tunnel made of lava, and we were able to walk all the way through it. We then headed south about 20 miles to the area where the active lava flow meets the ocean. The road is blocked off part at a certain point due to the lava flows in early 2000. We hiked along that lava for awhile and saw where the lava bluffs met the ocean.




Next we headed to Black Sand Beach, which is made of lava rocks and dust from the volcano. There were lots of tide pools there, and it was a neat place to spend some time.



We stopped to see two waterfalls on the way back to the ship (Pe'epe'e Falls and Rainbow Falls), but both were showing the effects of less rainfall than usual. Pe'epe'e Falls was neat though because you could hike down a narrow path to a rock bed in the middle of the stream by the falls.

Eric says: Another PT Cruiser? Ugh. Something smells funny. Cool stuff. More cool stuff. It's dark. I'm walking on lava! Haha - peepee falls!

Day 3 and 4 - Maui

Sunday
Kim says: When we woke up, the ship was just docking in Maui. We grabbed breakfast at the buffet and headed to the rental car shuttle. After picking up our ride (a silver PT Cruiser), we headed east to the Hana Highway. The Hana Highway is known for its beautiful scenery – and hairpin turns, one lane roads and narrow passes. Fortunately, Eric was the driver…and he made it look easy! Along the road, we stopped and hiked in several places and saw waterfalls, scenic overlooks and beautiful views.



Once we got back to the ship, we headed to deck 11 for some pool/jacuzzi time. We also enjoyed the drink of the day - the "fruit bowl." That night, we listed to an Eagles tribute band, which was decent.

Eric says: Hungry, where breakfast? Hate PT Cruisers - so ugly. Left. Right. Left. Right. Ooh. Left. Right. Left. Left. Yikes! Right. Left. Aaah. Now go back.

Monday
Kim says: Up early again, and after a quick breakfast at the buffet, we were off the ship. Since we parked the car in the shipyard overnight, we were on the road in no time.

First stop was Haleakala Crater, Maui’s highest peak. A popular excursion is to get up at 3 a.m. to watch the sunrise over the crater and then bike 18+ miles down. But we're not crazy, so we didn't do this. Instead, we waited until the reasonable hour of 8 a.m. and watched the crazy fools bike down the mountain... in the rain. As we drove up the crater it got colder and colder - which we hadn't really anticipated. Fortunately we had beach towels with us, so I ended up using that as a blanket. With the rain, the views weren't great, but it was neat to watch the clouds float by. While we were there only for a minute, we did make it to the 10,023 foot summit.



To warm up, we drove straight to Makena Beach Park. The water was gorgeous, and I really enjoyed laying on the beach. (It actually felt like vacation!). Unfortunately, Eric hates the sand, so we didn't stay too long.



Our next stop was the Iao Valley Rainforest, which looks like a scene straight out of Jurassic Park. There were bluffs that went straight up into the sky, streams and waterfalls, and tons of trees.



That night, we watched improv from The Second City, which was hilarious. Eric stayed to watch the "Not So Newlywed" game while Kim went to bed early - the choppy waves were too much.

Eric says: Crater time! Left. Right. Left. Not again! Brrr it's cold up here. Touch the cloud. Ugh, covered in sand. Awesome valley. "Aloha, aloha, you say aloha, I say aloha". "First kiss in GMC van? That was your first wife!"

Day 1 and 2 - Oahu

Friday
Kim says: Woke up at 4 a.m., and Kim’s dad picked us up at 5 (thanks!). All of our flights were on time, which was great. The unfortunate part was that we had a four (yes, count them…FOUR) hour layover in San Francisco. On first glance we thought maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. San Fran airport has to have lots of shops, restaurants and people-watching to entertain us, right? Wrong. It appears their airport was under construction, so we flew in and out of the international terminal…which had a whopping 10 gates and one restaurant. So that ended up being a very long wait. But we got into Hawaii on time, grabbed a cab, made it to the hotel, and promptly fell asleep at 7 p.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT).

Eric says: Ugh, too early. Tired of San Fran. On flight movie. Yay! Bad Brendan Fraser movie. Boo! HIMYM episode. Yay! No sound. Boo!

Saturday
Kim says: With the time difference, we were up before the crack of dawn. We wandered down the street to a McDonalds (the only thing open that early) and grabbed a bite to eat. Then since the buses didn’t begin running until 7:30ish, we decided we’d just walk to Diamond Head. After all, we could see it from the hotel, so it couldn’t be that far. Ha. So, we walked along Waikiki Beach and then up the looooooooong hill towards Diamond Head. Turns out the walk was about 3 miles, but we did see some beautiful sights we would have missed on a bus! Diamond Head itself was really neat, and the views from the top were amazing! We also enjoyed the zoom on our new camera…definitely a huge improvement from our other one.




Since the walk up was so long (and it was much hotter by the time we left the park!), we decided to take the bus back to the hotel. But we ended up waiting an hour for the bus we needed – maybe we should have walked after all!

When we got back to the hotel, we packed up and headed to the pier to catch our ship – the Pride of America. The embarkation process was much easier and faster than we anticipated, and we were on ship in no time. Our rooms weren’t ready yet, so we had the lunch buffet and explored our home for the week. Not much later, we were able to get into our room – which actually felt more spacious than we guessed. (Imagine spending the week sailing in your college dorm room…but with a bathroom).



Eric says: Weird, 4:30 feels like 10:30. Long walk, tired. Longer hike. More tired. Nice view! Our bus? No. Our bus? No. Our bus! Small room, move over.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy mothers day to all our favorite people. We hope you had wonderful and relaxing days. (And that you didn't have to cook or clean at all!)

In honor of Mother's Day, we had Kim's dad over for dinner (yeah, you read that correctly), and we had steaks, corn on the cob, salad and green beans. It was our first official cookout for this year - at least, something other than quickly throwing burgers outside! The corn on the cob was amazingly delicious for this early in the season too, so that was a nice treat.

Going back in time, Saturday was a super busy day. We dropped Eric's car off at the shop for an oil change, and that turned into its own saga. Then we headed up north to the FedEx facility to pick up our new camera - yay! Then we went to Leah's (Mike and Erin's daughter) first birthday party. Leah was as cute as ever...even when she got a brain freeze from the ice cream cake! We also got to see several people from college at the party...including Barbi and her daughter Laura.


The birthday girl

So we mentioned that Eric's car had been dropped off for routine maintenance that morning. They called us about 1 (while we were at the party) to say the rear brakes needed replacing, too. Fine. So we leave the party at 3 to go pick up the car since the shop closes early on Saturdays. We get there and see that Eric's car is still up on the lift. Well, they have to be almost done, so we go over to the mall and kill NINETY minutes. Then we go back to the shop. The car is still up on the lift. What?! Eric went inside and they said to come back in another 40 minutes...but no, there's no problem, don't worry. So we go waste another 40 minutes walking around Target and go back to the shop. It's still up on the lift! Finally (after the shop was closed) we got the car back.

There was probably more to our week, but it's hard to remember now.

Current gas price: $2.23/gallon.

May flowers...and May showers

It's May - we made it! This past week was an incredibly busy one at work, and we were both so happy to make it to the weekend. Kim was also really excited because she finally finished her 2007 scrapbook (okay, so it's not exactly a timely finish, but it's done!). She plans on taking a bit of a scrapbooking hiatus for a little while, but hopefully the 2008 album will be just as fun to do. And then we'll be almost caught up to the current year!

Saturday we went on a hunt for a new digital camera - something that was still fairly compact (and travelled easily) but had a good optical zoom and could take pictures quickly in succession. After doing a ton of online research, we headed to the store to test as many as we could out in person. It's amazing what a difference it makes to actually be able to hold the camera in your hand, push the buttons, take practice pictures, etc. At any rate, two real contenders emerged and we made our final pick. Since we actually ordered it online, we're hoping it arrives (and works!) quickly...and that we're happy with our choice!

We've gotten a ton of rain here over the past week. In fact, the rain gauge in the garden suggests we got over 4 inches! Needless to say, it turned the yard into a bit of a jungle - you'd never believe that we cross cut the lawn when we mowed last week! Since the grass had gotten to be so long, we HAD to mow it, even though the yard is still very soggy in some areas. So our lawn looks a lot like a kindergartner to a pair of scissors to her hair... Oh well! At least the flowers in the garden look really good from all the rain.

It was supposed to rain again today, but it true Ohio fashion, the weather changed at the last minute. So rather than being stuck inside all day, we were able to get a lot of things done. We got some patio pavers to put next to the patio (and set the grill on ). We also finally got curtains put in the windows by the front door. Of course they don't make curtain rods small enough for those windows, so Eric had a good excuse to play with power tools this afternoon. It took awhile to get them to be the right size, but we're really happy with how the project turned out!

Since the weather was unexpectedly nice tonight, we went for a long walk. Peanut was so happy to go for the walk that he literally bounced from spot to spot. But he was one tired pup when we got home. He's been snoozing since dinner time!

Current gas price: $2.09/gallon.

What happened to spring?

Three weeks ago (ish), we got snow. This weekend, we got sunburned. And according to the thermometer, it was in the neighborhood of 92 degrees here on Saturday. What?! It stinks that we went from winter to summer with nothing in between. It does look like it might cool off to the upper 60s later this week, so maybe we'll get some spring weather yet.

This past week is a complete blur. Work was really busy for both of us...it's a toss up as to who was happier when Friday finally rolled around!

Kim played in a Scrabble tournament for the local literacy council on Thursday evening, and she had a lot of fun. Fortunately, it was a group tournament, so she was on a team with several others. The way it worked is each team got one bag of letters and the goal was to use them all up. And if you needed more letters, you could buy them for the point value of the letter (so purchasing another Z cost $10, etc.). Her team ended up placing third overall - and even got to use the word zyzzyva.

Eric drew the short straw this weekend and came down with a bug. While he rested up, Kim enjoyed the warm weather - pulling weeds and planting flowers. We sprayed the new flowers this time, and the bunnies haven't eaten them...at least not yet!

Current gas price: $1.93/gallon

Dandelion run amok

Yesterday was so busy that it felt like it was actually two days in one. On the bright side, it felt like we had a three-day weekend instead of a 'regular' one.

On Friday night, we met friends for dinner at Brixx. Since the weather was so gorgeous, we sat on the patio, and somehow 7 p.m. became 10 p.m. in no time. Relaxing with friends was a great way to end the week - and a nice change since we're normally bums on Friday night!

They were predicting the weather on Saturday was supposed to be gorgeous again (mid-70s), so we wanted to make sure we took advantage of every second of it! We got up early and did a bunch of yardwork. While Kim pulled dandelions, Eric washed all of the windows and screens. The dandelion pulling was hard work - 2 hours of work resulted in three overflowing bags of weeds, a bruised hand and only half of the yard done. Ugh! We also mowed the lawn - with mixed success since parts of the yard were still really soggy from the rain.

That afternoon, we headed south for our first festival of the year - the Maple Sugar Fest. It was a smaller festival, but still a lot of fun to walk through the craft booths and food vendors. (Mmmm, lemon shake-up season is upon us!).

Unfortunately the weather was not nearly as nice today (rain all day), but it looks like we're in for another great week and weekend coming up!

Current gas price: $1.99/gallon.