Maui

It would be impossible for me to write about every detail of Maui, so here are some highlights:

Sunrise at the top of Haleakala Crater. We got up at 3:00 in the morning to get there at 5 am, then we took a small hike up to a quiet area and watched as the sun came up. Very cool experience.

We spent tons of time at a beach in Wailea that was really close to our condo. The picture below was actually taken when we pulled off the side of the road coming back from Lahaina.

We braved the road to Hana one day and it was absolutely georgeous! I'm sure anyone who has been to Maui has done the drive. From what everyone was telling me before we left, I was expecting a one lane dirt road...don't get me wrong, it is a very windy and difficult road to travel, but not nearly as bad as what I had expected. There are positive and negatives about visiting in August....positive: there was hardly any traffic, negative: the waterfalls were not as grande because it's not the rainy season.

We stopped by a number of waterfalls along the way, but I must say, I was more intrigued by the coastline. It just seemed so raw and natural.

I took my shoes off and waded in the cool mountain water...very refreshing. I had my suit on, but didn't really feel like getting all wet then getting back into the car for the rest of the drive.

Believe it or not, people actually cliff dive from the exact point that I am standing in the picture below. The guy in the picture is standing on a rock ledge in the water, so you can see how small the landing area is. You would have to be nuts to do that!!

As I said before....hardly any traffic!

My pack mule!

We went to a show one night in Lahaina that was said to be the best show on Maui and after seeing the show we have to agree! It was actually a magic show that might as well have been a comedy act. It is over 21 because of the humor, but Warren (the magician) keeps it pretty clean.

It was a very small theatre and Jimmy and I just happened to get lucky and be able to sit in the front row. Well, you can see the 'helpers' sitting in the very front row, but we were the next row back.

We headed up to the north end of the island for one day and it rained on us 3 times! We were totally unprepared, but it didn't last long. The picture below was taken when we took a trail along a beach in Kapalua. It was just stunning!

We took over 300 pictures, so the thought of doing a blog post about our trip seemed kind of daunting. I hope you enjoyed the pictures that I picked out and the next time anyone goes to Maui, call me! I have a fantastic travel book to loan you that will give you all kinds of ideas on things to do!

Del Mar

On a hot summer day in early August, we decided to take a trip to the beach town of Del Mar and check out some racing! This was my first experience at a horse track and I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I must say, it was very exciting. I think my biggest fear was seeing an accident on the track...like a horse falling or jockey falling off or something, but nothing like that happened. It was a beautiful day to spend at the track!






The horses were georgeous! I honestly wasn't sure whether this was going to be Quarter racing or Thouroughbred racing, but it was the big dogs. There were many big name Jockey's racing like Mike Smith and Joe Talamo, so that was pretty cool to see.





The excitement of the crowd as the horses came around the last turn was more than I expected. I mean, you hear it on TV for the big races, but the crowd really gets into it! I even found myself cheering out loud. When you have such huge wagers on a certain horse, it gets pretty intense...I think our average bet was $2. Haha. We won enough to pay for the $7 parking fee.



The next picture I took for you mom....who would name a horse Jakesam? That's hilarious. If they wouldn't have scratched, I totally would have bet on them!

They even had a couple races on the grass track. I couldn't believe how they mangle the turf by taking off from the starting gate. I can't imagine the maintenance that goes into keeping the turf looking nice.

Dog Days of Summer

I'm finally back to blogging and there is no real good reason that I haven't over the last few weeks. I chalk it up to the fact that it's hot, I haven't been spending time doing stuff outside so I haven't been taking any pictures. Who wants to read a blog without pictures? I'm not quite ready for winter to get here yet, however, I can't wait to start doing outdoor activities! Hiking, walking, golfing, sitting outside in the evenings, etc. All of that is just a thought right now as I crank up the air conditioner and turn the fans on full force.
This is probably the one and only time of year that I'm thankful to have a gym membership. I love walking outside, but at least I can go and walk somewhere. I'm glad that I decided to keep the membership....only after threatening to leave last winter did I get the lowest monthly rate that I've ever heard a gym offer. $19 a month. Yup. They wanted to keep me that bad.

Here are a few pictures that I did take...you may not be able to notice, but I staid within a 20 foot radius of our front door. Basically I was just checking out how bushy our front courtyard had become. It's amazing how fast things grow in the heat!! Much faster than in the winter months.

Above, Jimmy is diligently taking care of our crazy hedges...I admire him for getting the motivation to to this midday. I mean - there comes a point where you just can't stay inside anymore regardless of the temperature! And you may see a little mist in the picture...that's because Jimmy turned on misters that I had completely forgotten were installed by the previous owners. However, after living in the house for over a year, I find it odd that they installed misters along the sidewalk leading to the front door. It would have made MUCH more sense to install them above the back patio. Nobody sits and hangs out and entertains on a walkway leading to the front door...why does it call for misters? Oh well.

Ok, I realized my poor flowers were getting choked out by mint leaves! When we bought the place, there was nothing but a patch of mint leaves in this little area. I've torn out the mint twice! All the roots and everything, then planted flowers to add some color and this is what happens. Most of what you see are mint leaves with an occasional flower. Someone please tell me some uses for a mass quantity of mint leaves! I'm not talking like "put a leaf in your tea.." I talking some recipes that call for like 10 bunches of mint. It's gotta be out there......

And finally...our pretty roses! I thought they may get fried, but they have been blooming all summer. I'm afraid to think of what will happen when we leave for 10 days next week as roses need some tlc...pruning, fertilizing and some hand watering so they don't get too dried out. What can ya do? Nothing. That's what. Just deal with it when we get back.

I was going to make this all one huge post along with our trip to Del Mar yesterday, but I'm going to make that a separate post, so stay tuned! Love and miss ya'll!!

Disneyland and such

I'm finally getting around to posting our pictures from Jimmy's birthday! His birthday was Monday and we had already decided that we were going to use the Disney passes that I had won in a raffle. Disney is about a 2 hour drive from us, so we decided (kind of spur of the moment) to drive to Manhattan beach on Sunday evening. I pricelined a hotel and we got a great deal on a Marriot a couple blocks from the beach. We got there after dark, so we didn't even go to the beach, we just grabbed a bite to eat and relaxed at the hotel.

OH, and I just remembered a funny story: The hotel had a sitting area and nice flat screen T.V. Well, we tried everything to turn the t.v. on, we couldn't figure it out...we also could not figure out how to get the lamps to come on, we tried all the switches we could find. Seriously, we were trying EVERYTHING. Finally, after about 15 minutes and no success, I broke down and called the front desk to see if there was a secret to this mystery. The receptionist said that there was no secret and she actually sent a houseman to our room to figure out the problem. He tried a couple different things that didn't work, and just as I was thinking that we must have gotten a defective room, he leans down and picks up the plug to the t.v. that was laying on the floor....not plugged in. So, he plugged in the t.v. Then he continues to plug in the 2 lamps in the room. OH my gosh...humiliating. Seriously though, to our credit, he had to like lift up the couch to plug in one of the lamps...like the plug was in the floor and the plug to the lamp was laying right next to it. OOPS. Oh well, embarrassing, but really...what hotel unplugs the t.v. and lamps?? I guess this Marriott did.

Anywyas, we went to Disney on Monday, neither one of us really knowing what to expect considering we were teenagers the last time we had been there. Let me just say, we had a blast! We got there around 10:00 and didn't leave until close to 10:00 p.m. We were exhausted the next day, but it was totally worth it. Here are a bunch of pics from our day:

This is when we first got there, they have what they call 'Main Street' that has a bunch of shops, ice cream shops, an arcade and just a bunch of cool stuff. We walked around here for a while...look at all the people!! Jimmy said he saw a statistic that something like 40,000 visitors a day flock to Disneyland!

We were getting a snack before we hit the rides. Jimmy's snack: a Chili Cheese Dog...ewwww! After that, we thought it would be a good idea to walk around and start off with some slow rides, so we went to Adventureland and started out with the Jungle Safari and Pirates of the Carribean.

I didn't actually BUY this hat...it was just fun to try on.

There are actually 2 theme parks; Disney and California Adventure. Our passes were good for both parks on the same day. They were both incredible and had awesome rides!

Waiting in line for Thunder Mountain!

The Hollywood Tower was thee scariest ride that we went on all day. Well, for me anyways, Jimmy just thought it was fun. Basically, you are in a 'service elevator' sitting in a row with other people. The elevator goes to the top of the tower, the door opens to the outside so we could see how high off the ground we were and all of a sudden the elevator plummets what seems like forever, then the door opens again on a lower floor and you all of a sudden shoot up to the top again. Crazy. They had a camera that took our picture at some point while we were falling and it was hilarious. I was clutching my bag with our camera and my wallet in it like it carried a million dollars and Jimmy was just smiling. What?! How can you smile at a time like that?

After that craziness we staid pretty low key for a while and wandered around some pretty cool areas in the park. Below, I was posing in front of an area that was in 'A Bug's Land', based on the movie 'A Bug's Life'. It was really cute.

Jimmy being silly....

And finally, after our stomachs settled, we went on, what turned out to be our final roller coaster of the day. It did me in....I screamed so much my throat hurt, my knees were wobbly and my stomach was churning. Oh geez. Afterwards we went on the ferris wheel and a really, really cool simulator that was call Soarin Over California. Then we just walked around, took in all the sites and sounds, went back over to Disneyland and wrapped up the day with some ice cream and catching a bit of the huge firework show.

So we didn't have to drive back home that night, I had pricelined a hotel in Long Beach which is 19 miles away. We got there late at night and slept in the next morning. All I can really say is the coast was very gloomy that day and Long Beach is ghetto. We felt like we were in the heart of L.A. until we got about 2 blocks from the Harbor, then it felt 'normal.' Still, not really a place I would want to go back to, it's not even a beach...it's just a harbor. Anyways, we had lunch at a cute place called Boston's, then made the drive back home.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!! I miss and love all my friends and family!

Summer time in the Desert equals many things: on the positive side it is very relaxing and we have time to do many projects around the house. I have time to organize and clean and make small improvements that I didn't get to during the winter. I have time to read, which I enjoy doing. I also have started making an appearance at the gym....I had to ask for new card because I had lost mine and the guy at the counter said "Welcome back, looks like it's been 322 days since you've been here!" Haha, thanks dude. Anyways, Jimmy and I have the chance to spend quality time together and neither one of us are stressed about work, which always makes us more fun to be around!
Because of my cleaning efforts this past week, I was able to discover some souveniers from our honemoon in Jamaica (2 years ago). Hence my coffee cup this morning:



Now let's look at the negative side of desert summers, which is really one and only one thing - when you step outside the heat sucks the life out of your body. Seriously. I'm not sure why people ever thought it was a good idea to inhabit the DESERT. I have an overwhelming desire to try to fry an egg out on the pavement...I even wonder if I couldn't fry one up on the seat of my car after it has been sitting in the hot sun while I'm at work??

Our good friend Tim is visiting for a couple days before he ventures to the midwest. As we speak, Jimmy and Tim just returned from playing golf and both just looked like they got sprayed off with a hose. Today temps are supposed to reach 119.

Tim is heading out on Saturday, then on Monday we get to look forward to celebrating Jimmy's 38th birthday! I was able to take Monday and Tuesday off work, so we are going to use the Disneyland passes that I won at a golf tournament a few months back. It has been probably 15 years since either one of us has been to Disneyland. I'm excited to see what it's like, and I got a great deal on a hotel in Long Beach for Monday night, so it should be a fun trip! I'll be sure to take a bunch of pictures and do a post next week.

Oh, and I have to give a shout out to Jimmy - I got home from work on Wednesday and was suprised by a clean house (he had vaccumed the entire house and cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom)and these:

Awwww...how sweet, right? I can't remember the last time that I got flowers 'just because'. The funny thing is, Tim (who used to be our roommate when we first got married), wished me a Happy Birthday upon seeing the flowers, thinking that it must be a special occasion. My birthday is in March. Funny.

Back to California

I got back to California on the 28th of June and started back to work on July 1st. Over the year's it has become an easier and easier transition. It used to be that when I came back to Cali from Indiana I was in a state of depression for a couple weeks afterwards...until finally snapping out of my funk and actually get back to being happy out here. I've accepted the summer's out here and accepted the fact that I do need to work for a living. I'm grateful to have a job to go to, I'm grateful that I have a job that allows me so much time off and that I have a supporting husband that knows how important 'home' is to me. Indiana will always be home and he knows that. We both know that we will move to Indiana...don't know exactly when it will be, but just the thought of moving back makes it easier to live so far away as funny as that may sound.

I don't have any good pictures from the 4th of July because I haven't learned how to take good pictures of fireworks yet....I welcome suggestions on how to get good pictures when it's dark out. We grilled out on our back patio and got to witness a HUGE firework show right from the comfort of our backyard. The golf resort across the street was putting on a big shindig and we had a clear view.

Wednesday, we had the chance to get out of town and go to a Dodger's game! I was looking forward to going to a baseball game and seeing Dodger Stadium that I had never been too, but I will be honest...I was dreading the drive. As it happened, we didn't hit a lick of traffic, it was all going the other way and we had a great time!! Here are some pictures that I did get:

As we were driving, we came over a hill and there it was....SMOG! Jimmy and I both think that any young kid in L.A. would probably think we were lying if we told them the sky was actually blue instead of gray with an orange/yellow hue.

Dodger Stadium was pretty cool. I had never been before, so it was neat to see a new ballpark with a lot of history. One of Jimmy's members who has season tickets was nice enough to give us tickets for this game, so we had better seats than we would have had otherwise!

And for any of you Bachelor or Dancing With the Stars fans....I got to see Jake Pavelka throw out the first pitch. Jimmy knows what an avid watcher I am of the Bachelor/Bachlorette, so he could only roll his eyes when I told him who Jake actually was. Pretty funny.

And one of the best parts of baseball games.....the food! Well known in southern california is the legend of the Dodger Dog. Supposedly the 'World's Best'. I must say, it was delicious. Along with Dodger Dogs, this ballpark is also known for it's Garlic Fries. So, of course we had to split some. Oh. My. Gosh. I really like garlic, but this was crazy! I tried to snap a picture, but it probably just looks like a potatoey, garlicy mess.

I'll be sure to post more often, but in the mean time, I miss all my family and friends! Love ya'll!!