Hawaiian Vacation Take 2

More thoughts on the island of Hawai'i - the flowers there are just amazing. I liked the lava - but there's a lot of it to see. You just look and look and look, and hey - there's more lava! I wouldn't mind visiting there again, because we had only a few hours to look around, but of the four islands we visited it was my least favorite. I'd totally give it another chance, I'm sure there's more there to see then what we got a taste of.

The next day we hit Oahu. I have been there a couple of times, and John had been there before too, and we haven't been that impressed by it. I mean, come on now, it's HAWAII, right? How bad could it be? But Honolulu is a big city, and the traffic is horrendous. Getting out of Honolulu is a must if you want to spend much time enjoying the island.

This time, we got off the beaten path and John's cousin found an island we could snorkel to called Goat Island. Once we got there, we had the beach to ourselves save the two people that walked by at one point. Snorkeling out there was a bit rough, and on the way back we all decided to walk across the rocks instead of swimming. The water had gotten even more rough, so I'm glad we did.

We spent some time just tooling around the island, taking pictures at all the appropriate places, eating Shave Ice and hitting a cute little farm. The drive from Honolulu to Goat Island was beautiful and it was the best experience I'd had on Oahu. I would happily go back and probably want to stay on the North Shore. I liked the beaches there and the slower pace was nice.

We had a longer time on Oahu, (the ship didn't leave until 11pm) but we had to have our car back at a certain time, so we got back on the ship around 6:00 and went to dinner. We played some games on deck and took it easy the rest of the night.

Here we are at China Man's hat - Matt tells us that you can snorkel out to that island too - we'll have to try that some day!

Cruising - Hawaiian Style

We got home this morning from a 2 week cruise to the Hawaiian Islands with our friends Matt and Shaunee. We left out of LA and cruised 4 days to the islands, hit Hawaii, Kauai, Maui and Oahu and then headed 4 days to Ensenada, MX and than back to LA.

What a great time! We really enjoyed our time with Matt and Shaunee and the cruise was wonderful. We ended up being fairly busy, which of course I LOVE, and John was able to relax while I was running around doing 'stuff' with Shaunee.

Princess has hired a great couple who make the Hawaiian experience authentic from the minute you get on the ship. They teach ukelele classes and hula dancing classes as well as being in a band that plays in various places on the ship and they bring a general 'aloha' feeling to the ship. The four of us took ukelele classes and participated in a show at the end of the cruise that showcased the class. We probably learned a dozen songs and got fairly efficient by the end of the cruise.

I talked Shaunee into taking line dancing and we had a great time learning the dances and trying not to get stepped on. It's pretty funny trying to dance on a ship that is constantly rolling with passengers who are not exactly spring chickens! :) I had always wanted to take the lessons, and it was fun to do it with someone. My next project is to talk John into taking the real dance lessons.

We hit Hilo, Hawaii first and rented a car to tour the island. Here we are in a lava tube. We hiked into two of them and this one we needed flashlights to go through. John hit his head pretty hard on the ceiling coming out of the tube, you're concentrating so hard on watching your feet that you don't watch your head - ouch!




We also drove to the end of the road where lava had destroyed a subdivision and was still covering the road.








At the same place where lava had covered the road, there was a great lookout over into the ocean. I guess at times, the lava cliffs slough off and the area has lost acres of cliffs to them just heading into the ocean. If you know me at all, you know I was freaked out about falling into the sea never to be seen again. So I moseyed out for pictures and then moseyed back to the road! :)



This is getting long - so I'll sign off here and post more later!

John and I had a "Murder Mystery Party" at our house last week - Lethal Luau.

We had a great time, I've never seen John hamming it up quite like that. I never got a photo of all of us together, but I wish I had because the costumes were so great.

I think I'll do it again and this time I'll host - it was hard to have a part and keep the game moving. Now that I'm a little more familiar with how the game needs to flow, I think it would go more quickly and smoothly.

John's character was a bumbling tourist and my character was a bikini model. Yeah, a bikini model, that ain't happening folks. SO I dressed up in my best Hawaiian dress and called it good! I'm practicing for our upcoming Hawaiian vacation - people you need to practice for vacation, everyone knows this :)

Three Things

From the beginning of our marriage, I've asked John to play a game I like to call "Three Things." When we play, we both think of three things that we like about the other and we try not to repeat them. If you've ever read Gary Chapman's book "The Five Love Languages" you are probably recognizing that my love language is words of affirmation.

John plays along, but it's not as important for him as it is for me. He has a different love language, and I love him in his way just as he loves me in mine. Over the years as we've played our "game" we've had to get creative and though John plays, he is never the one to bring it up.

This morning, I was reading in Proverbs, and though I'm sure I've read it before I had never noticed the good news I saw today. Prov. 30 has many mentions of "three things." In fact - there are four mentions of "three things"! My game is obviously Biblical. Not only does Prov. 30 mention three things, but it increases to four things.

I think it's time to up the ante in our game - we should play Four things!

So for your reading pleasure:

“There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: 16 the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

17 “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.

18 “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: 19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman.

20 “This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’

21 “Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: 22 a servant who becomes king, a godless fool who gets plenty to eat, 23 a contemptible woman who gets married, and a servant who displaces her mistress.

24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: 25 Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; 26 hyraxes are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; 27 locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; 28 a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

29 “There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing: 30 a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; 31 a strutting rooster, a he-goat, and a king secure against revolt.[b]

Sunny Days...

Here comes summer, for reals. I'm pretty sure.

I notice that the closer I get to summer, the more inclined I am to get busy. Take this week for example, I had Bible Study on Monday night, Awana tonight, Church tomorrow night and I'm part of a focus group (that pays me, yay!) tomorrow night. Friday night is dinner and games at a friend's house and then its the weekend for a minute.

Phew.

I tend to really pick up the pace during the summer, and have noticed that my pedometer is already reflecting the walking I've been doing. And being industrious is a good thing. I believe it is a good thing, but it's also a good thing to pause now and then.

I'll be working on the pause this summer.

Spring Fever

I haven't been writing, but truly, there hasn't been much to say.

We seem to be on the upswing of the year - the time where winter is melting away, and spring is coming...slowly but surely. I'm not usually a believer in spring until the snow is gone, but that doesn't keep me from opening all the blinds and letting the sunshine in. Hmmm...that reminds me of a song!

Here's Izzy and Bella enjoying the sunshine in our living room. That huge picture window is doing a fine job of letting in the sun!

One of the advantages of melting snow is that I tend to get outside more. One of the disadvantages of melting snow is ICE! AAAAA!! So far I haven't bit it...and I'm holding on tightly to that record!

Maybe I'll think of some more exciting things to write - or maybe I'll run out right now and make some happen!

Craigslist

John and I found a cruise we'd like to go on in a couple of years that goes round trip from Sydney, Australia and circles New Zealand. It has been a life-long dream of mine to go to both Australia and New Zealand, and we LOVE cruising, so this is perfect, right?

Except, it costs A. LOT. Not so much the cruise, but getting there, and we don't want to just jump on the boat and go, so we'll want time in Australia so there's hotel and car and food and, and, and.

I had a thought, what if we saved for a trip? What if instead of just going and paying for it, we just had the money set aside for traveling? what a new concept for us! So, I started an envelope and then started looking around our house for stuff we could sell. I turned to Craigslist.

That's right, I'm going to pay for our trip one $20 item at a time. So far I have $25. I have a ways to go! :)