Hawaii 2013

Crystal and I went to the Big Island in October 2013 on a babymoon.  It was great to run away together to a wonderful place.  Hawaii is my favorite place in the world and I can't wait to go back.  We were there for a week.  It was the week before the Ironman Championship and it was fun to watch all the athletes out training.  It only rained when we were on the wet side (duh) and we had a great time.  The waves were pretty small but I managed to ride some fun waves and Crystal enjoyed sitting on the beach reading a book.  Something I don't have a picture of here is swimming with the Manta Rays.  We went out on a night excursion and watched the rays circle in the water eating plankton.  We were in the water with them for an hour.   It was awesome!  :)

The Car!  I had always wanted to drive a convertible.  Hawaii was the perfect place.

The big island is a hugely varied place.  It can be tropical and lush in some places and a barren desert in others.

Looks like it just finished erupting doesn't it?

Sunset at 9,000 feet.  We didn't go all the way to the top because the road isn't paved and the convertible wasn't up to it.  The sunset from this high was still amazing.

Yet another sunset.  No place better to watch the sun go down than in Hawaii!

Here is some of the beautiful lush land that is normally associated with Hawaii.  Where it rains it is impossibly green and lush.  Buggy too!

This hotel was funny because it was a million mile walk from the elevator to the room.  Once we were in the room we had a beautiful view.  Getting there was a chore though!

This was a recreated fish pond that sat between our hotel and the ocean.  Hawaiins would dig these ponds and allow small fish to come in through grates.  They would get fat in the shallow water and be easy pickings.  It was a beautiful place to enjoy.

Atop the needle

We have been wanting to go to the top of the space needle since we moved up here but it has been cost prohibitive.  We figured that for all of us to go up would cost close to $100.  We were waiting for the perfect day to go up so we could see everything from Seattle’s iconic landmark.  Low and behold a Groupon came up for a 1/2 off a yearly pass.  We snatched it up and had a great time on our first visit.  The space needle is in a really fun part of town with large parks, great gardens, TERRIBLE parking, cool sculptures and wonderful museums.  Lucy loved everything but the ride up the glass elevator and actually being on top of the needle.  Emma and Chas loved looking through the binoculars and telescopes.  It wasn’t totally cloudless when were on top but there was a sunbreak so it was still beautiful.  Now that we have a year pass we can go back in the perfect day as well. 

This is a fake picture.  It is part of the price of admission.  They shoot it in front of a white screen and you can choose the background you want.  Still fun though.

Come on up to Seattle and visit.  We can get you half price tickets to the top!

Happy Pi Day!!

We commerated 3-14 by making a pie together. Of course, it was an apple pie for these WA Wards! We had a lot of fun and we fit it right into our family night lesson. Just like 3.14 is a "constant" number that can give us the circumference or area of a circle every time; we talked about how making good choices and following a "constant" truth will help us be happy, every time. It was really fun and tasty too! The kids did a great job!

HA! Caught Red-Handed

I only left for 5 minutes to go pick up Katie from soccer. No wonder the lids don't fit my pots anymore!

Nighty Night Lu

Lucy Loves her night time stories. I have been sitting on this one for a while because I couldn’t figure out how to get it off my phone. She has some that are favorites and she can say all the right things. This is one of her favorites. I particularly love “A pig says ‘Woink’!”

You will probably have to turn the sound all the way up on the computer to hear. The video is kind of quiet.

Lovely Saturday Hike

So the plan was to go hiking in the low elevations of the cascades to avoid the snow.  We were only going to be 1300 feet above sea level.  No problem right?  Wrong!  We got to the trailhead only to find a foot of snow sitting on the ground.  We had to retreat a few hundred feet and found this lovely hike instead.  We have done it several times but it is a nice place to visit.  It was sunny which is a rarity in Western Washington in March.  (march madness takes on a whole new meaning here!)

Bryce Canyon Snowman

Lucy loves the Snow!

Lucy has learned to open the front door by herself which is a nightmare for the parents.  We have to lock the door and she is just frustrated that she can’t go outside now that she knows how to get there herself.  Today she put on her rain gear and headed outside to play in the snow.  Since she could sit up Lu loved to play in the snow and take a handful and eat it.    We finally had to talk her into coming back inside because we were so cold

Beautiful Rainier

Katie had a youth activity on Saturday at Rainier.  I agreed to drive up and then went for a snowshoe trip while she was sledding.  It was an incredible day up there.  You get days like this 2-3 times a year so I was tickled to be up there.

Here is Katie at the top of the sledding hill.

I went on the most crowded trail because I was by myself.  There were hundreds of skiers and snowshoers going up and down the mountain so I had lots of company.  I asked another walker to take a picture of me with Rainier in the background.

Here you can see Mt Saint Helens and Mt Adams.  This is the first time I have seen this view from Rainier.  You have to get up above the treeline to see this.

An Avalanche.  This happened about 10 minutes before I walked up.  The wind direction had changed this day and the ridges had loaded up with blown snow.  I saw 3 avalanches this day.  You normally don’t see then because you normally can’t see very far at Rainier!  After I got above the tree line it was blowing like Idaho Falls in the winter.

It was like this all day long.  Not a cloud in the sky and lots of sun.  You can see to the left how the snow had piled up from the wind.

Tasty Treat

Here is Lucy Enjoying a sweet treat from Hawaii.  Freshly grown Pineapple from Hawaii is otherworldly good.  It is very sweet and even the core tastes good.  We even learned a new way to cut up the pineapple when we were in the Islands.  It is much easier and seems to waste less fruit.  After we had cut up this one Lucy grabbed the crown off the counter and was carrying it around saying ‘Treat!’ with a huge smile on her face.  We also brought home Chocolate covered Pineapple and pineapple candy.  None of them lasted very long!

The other thing I learned is how they plant pineapples.  They cut off the top of the plant and stick it in the ground.  From there another pineapple plant grows.  It takes 2 years for the first fruit to come off the plant and then it will fruit 2 more times.  They also plant 1000 plants per acre.  The plants grow to about 3x3 feet. and have the same consistency as the top of the plant you see above.  Picking them looks about as pleasant as hugging a saguaro.

Hi Hi Hawaii

Crystal’s reward for my my constant travel last year was a trip to the Aloha State. We have both dreamed of going to Hawaii and it was so exciting to finally go.

We spent 5 days and 5 nights on Oahu and it was GREAT. We stayed in Waikiki Beach which was ok. It is a crowded spot with lots of cars, hotels and shops. But just outside of the city lush gorgeous Hawaii opens up. We went on our 15th anniversary and it was slightly warmer than 15 years ago in IF.

Some of the activities on our trip were Snorkeling, Whale Spotting, Hiking, Swimming, Driving, Wave Watching, Sea Kayaking and playing in the waves. We never did get to see a sea turtle while we were in the water but we did see them from shore. Both Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center were incredible.

Here are a few of the pictures: