The Froooozen Tundra ....

... ok, well maybe not frozen in the middle of October, but that is what you think when you hear Lambeau Field.

This past weekend, after a couple of years of talking about it, our family went to everyone's first (except Dad) Packers game at Lambeau field. When we were discussing which game to go to there was only a couple of choices due to my brother's work schedule and then after we found out we were expecting we decided that a November or December game might not be a great idea either. So, we got tickets to the Packers vs Colts game October 19th at 3:15PM.

We decided to make a day of it. The whole family (8 of us) left Cedarburg at 9:00AM so that we could go to the Packer's Hall of Fame and get some lunch before the game. Really interesting to see how a team got started in nowhere Green Bay. We also got to see the three Super Bowl trophies.

We ate at Curly's (Lambeau) Pub inside the stadium. Excellent food, I had a heart attack on a plate which was excellent. 1/2 lb hamburger, saurkraut, and a smoked sausage on top. Oh... and deep fried cheese curds as an appetizer.

Then the game. Our seats were awesome, 45 yard line maybe 50 feet from the sideline. I was surprised by the number of Colts fans at the game (not that I can blame them for wanting to come to a game at Lambeau) but they were quickly drowned out by a very loud home crowd, that only got louder after the first interception return for a touchdown, but went absolutely crazy after the second 99 yd return for TD.

All in all, I really don't think that we could have a better first experience at Lambeau.

More pictures can be seen here.

It was a very long day for this pregnant girl, but totally worth it!! I really enjoyed the Hall of Fame. With being a Packer fan for only about 6 years, it was great to see where the team got thier start. Seeing the Super Bowl Trophies and rings was pretty cool. Hopefully we'll add another in the next 10 years : ) It was a great game and a great day spent with family at the infamous Frozen Tundra, and the fact that the Pack beat the Colts.....PRICELESS!!

Timing the Market

So I know that most of you don't find my posts as exciting as Shawnna's (dang pregnancy bias) but I going to keep posting anyways.

The last couple of weeks have been kind of interesting with the huge roller coaster ride that the stock market has been doing, but what is interesting is people's reaction to it. Listening to people at work talk about taking all of their money out of stocks and waiting for the "bottom" of the stock market before they put it back in.

If it was that easy I think everyone would be doing that. But the risk is that you wait too long and you don't get your money back in in time. Here is link to an article about what your return would be if you missed just the best 5, 10 or 20 stock return days. By just missing the 10 best days in almost 10 years, your return would drop from 8.4% to 3.4%. That is a lot of money to give up to try and "beat" the system.

If you still think that you can time the market, try your luck at http://www.chartgames.com/ which allows you to try and buy and sell stocks at historical positions based on stock charts. It is pretty interesting and shows how difficult it is to "time" the market.

So us, we will continue saving just like we have been, realizing that the same amount of money is buying more shares now which will help in the long run.

Ok, I'll get down off of my soapbox now.

I see your lips moving, but all I hear is Blah ,Blah, Blah. : ) I love you honey : )

26 year wait

So this weekend, I got to experience something that hasn't happened since I was 2 years old.... playoff baseball in Milwaukee. The last time the Brewers were in the playoff was 1982 with the likes of Yount, Cooper , Gantner, Molitor and Fingers.

I have been a Brewer's fan for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of watching the Brewers on TV and listening to them on the radio. I have witnessed many many years of extremely bad baseball, but the last couple of years, you could see that things were starting to click.

The last two years, as it has looked like there is a possibility that they could make the playoffs, the Brewers have made a small number of playoff tickets available for people who enter into an online drawing. Well, last year, even though my entire family put their names in, nobody got drawn. Well this year, I got drawn for the division series. Through a slight misunderstanding (my screw up) I bought tickets for Home Game 2 (Game 4), which after the Brewers lost the first two games in Philly were looking a little doubtful. But Saturday night the Brewers won game 3 and I was off to Wisconsin.

So, I left Indiana at 10:30PM Sat to drive to Wisconsin for the 12PM game on Sunday. The atmosphere at the game was awesome, nothing like 40,000 Brewers fans (maybe 20 Philly fans) screaming and banging inflatable "thundersticks" for 9 innings.


Unfortunately, the Brewers couldn't make it two wins in a row and their season was over. So, back to Indiana I drove making it back at 10:30PM on Sunday.

So, 24 hours, 600 miles, 18 gallons of gas, 4 hours of sleep, 4 homers by the Phillies, 2 runs by the Brewers, 1 new hat and 26 years of waiting all added up to one awesome experience that I hope to repeat next year.

Dyson Vacuum

So we love our Dyson vacuum which we bought last year. I'm pretty sure it is the only reason we have a prayer of keeping up with the massive amounts of fur that our four animals shed.

When a shoelace attempted to be sucked up last week, the vacuum all of a sudden started making a huge racket when the brushes were being used. I took a look at it as much as I could, but couldn't really see anything. The belt appeared intact and nothing appeared to be wrong with the brushes.

Dreading what I would find out, I called the Dyson customer service to find somewhere to get the vacuum serviced. After hearing a message saying they were experiencing higher than normal call volume, I was thinking here we go. But after only 30 seconds I had a rep on the line. I explained my problem, he got our vacuum registered (always keep receipts for big purchases) and then told me to take the bottom cover off again and to actually take the brush and belt completely out. I hadn't completely taken the belt out previously, but as soon as I did, it was immediately obvious that the ridges on the belt had been melted off creating a cm gap on the belt.

The rep said that he would send a new belt and would actually send a new roller brush also because they had modified the design since we bought it and had a wider belt now. Unfortunately it will take 7-10 days to get here and as I asked if he could get it any quicker (7-10 days of no vacuuming in our house is not pretty) he said he couldn't, but that he would have them send an extra belt so that we wouldn't have this problem again. Oh, and no charge for all of this.

Kind of a nice customer service experience and kind of cemented our happiness with the Dyson.
And because I know you are all wondering....It was me who sucked up the shoelace. But Dan sucked up part of a tee-shirt 2 weeks ago!!

UPDATE: New parts came on Saturday. 4 days after Dan called!!!

Comcast out... U-Verse In

So we finally decided to get rid of Comcast after losing channels (we can get you back those channels if you just upgrade to the next package) and the bills increasing.

We opted to try AT&T U-Verse since I didn't want to hassle with any of the satellite dishes and it looked like a pretty good deal. $200 cash back, free month and one free DVR. The installation took about 3 hours with no major issues. Digital signal, 4 channel simultaneous DVR, and a bunch more channels (including my favorites, NFL Network, Big Ten network, multiple FSN's, multiple ESPN's, Shawnna got her GameShow Network back). and CMT!

And all of this for about the same as Comcast was charging us. Going from a VCR to the DVR has been kind of nice (I know I know... stepping into the 21st century). We will see as we have it for a little while.

Photoshop

So we recently purchased Photoshop Elements to do some photo editing since I couldn't do everything that I wanted with some of the free programs out there (Picasa is pretty good for a free program but didn't have everything).


The program has tons of options of things to do and I am just starting to get into it. One of the best things so far is the ease of blotting out pieces of the picture that you don't want. It really helps to take an ordinary picture and kick it up so that it really pops.





The first picture is the original. The second has been touched up to remove the ugly sign from in front of it. The third, I played with the colors and made the photo look a little older. It takes a little bit of time sometimes (mostly when I am messing around with seeing what it can do) but makes for some very pretty pictures.

DC Trip - Day 3 and 4

July 4th - we were planning on getting up and going to a parade, but didn't look at what time the parade started until the parade had already started. So instead, we decided to take the Metro downtown. We avoided the National Mall due to the ridiculous crowds but we walked around a little bit, visited the aquarium (avoid this, def not worth the money), and then headed back to Andy's apartment.

That evening we walked down to "downtown" Gaithersburg to watch the fireworks. They were spectacular. The show last a long time and the finale was extremely impressive.

Last Day - On our last day in DC we decided to take a bus tour of the city, where you can get on and off and see all of the sites. We went with Tourmobile mainly because one of the stops was out to Arlington Cemetery. We started the day with stops at Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial which were cool because you have seen pictures of all of these places, but it is completely different in person. The story about the Jefferson memorial, where the statue looks across the Tidal Basin and looks at the White House so that he is always overlooking the current president.

Next, we stopped at Arlington Cemetery to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A very moving experience, especially when there is a wreath laying ceremony going on. Information on the ceremony. It is quite an honor to be able to volunteer for this duty.

Our last couple of stops were to the Korean War Memorial (my grandpa served during this war) and the WWII Memorial (Shawnna's grandpa served in Europe). The Korean War Memorial is 19 soldiers reflected in the stone lines (19 more soldiers) to represent the 38th parallel. The WWII Memorial is spectacular. All 50 states are represented and the memorial is split into the European front and the Pacific front, divided by a fountain.

We left the next morning to make the 9 hour drive back to pick up the "kids" from the kennel and get ready for work the next morning. All in all, a great trip, that I am sure we will make again (probably in the fall or spring to avoid the crowds).

Thanks to Andy for the 5 star accommodation, the excellent tour guide services and the evening entertainment by Jade.

Washington DC Trip - Day 1 and 2

So I realized that we hadn't posted yet about our trip out to Washington DC over the 4th of July and here it is almost the August.

We left Tuesday evening after dropping the dogs off at the kennel. The plan was to stop in Morgantown WV for the night since it would be almost 11 before we got there. The hotel was very nice, Waterfront Place Hotel and we wished that we had gotten there a little earlier and enjoyed it a little more.

Got up in the morning (my birthday) and made the final three hours drive to DC. We stopped in to see Andy at work and then headed downtown on the Metro. We saw the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History before heading back to Andy's apartment. It was nice because he lives about 10 minutes from the Metro, but unfortunately it was another 45 minutes from there to downtown.

The next day, we headed downtown to do some sightseeing. First on the list was the National Archives where the Constitution, Declaration of Independance and Bill of Rights are on display. We got there early so that we wouldn't have to wait in a long line and we were glad we did. We were able to get right in line and see all of the documents without much waiting at all. The documents are so old and very difficult to read, but it is pretty cool to see such historic documents in person.

Next on the agenda was to duplicate a picture of Shawnna's grandma that was taken in 1947 after her grandpa came back from the war. Thanks to Andy, we found the fountain and got the picture.

We also saw the Library of Congress which is very highly decorated on the inside. Unfortunately you had to go on a tour to see the reading room (made famous in the National Treasure movie). By this time, Shawnna was sufficiently warm (since it was 85-90 degrees, no clouds or breeze) so we headed back for the day.

Always good to see Andy and his infectious humor. More pictures can be see here.

Fun with Hawaii Pictures

So I decided to have some fun with our pictures and created a slideshow. There is some sound and music with it.

Hawaii Slideshow

Day 11 - Last Day

Last day in Hawaii, and only a half day at that. Our flight out of Maui was for 8:30PM so we had some time to do stuff in the morning, but then we had to pack and get ready to go.

We decided to try a new beach that was supposed to have tons of sea turtles in the morning, Maluaka Beach. We got there and the waves were the highest that we had seen them and there wasn’t really a good place to enter the water. We got out there (partially because we thought that we saw turtles playing…. Stupid rocks) and were kind of disappointed. I don’t know if we didn’t go far enough left or far enough out, but we didn’t see much of anything.

We decided that we couldn’t end our trip with that disappointing snorkeling, so we headed back to our old stand by of Black Sand beach. We got in from the shore this time which was kind of difficult due to the higher waves. We hadn’t really wanted to climb over the rocks to the private beach, but I think it would have been just about as easy. We again saw plenty of fish and corral.
As we were getting ready to head back to shore, Shawnna was adjusting her mask above water and I was exploring a little further from shore. When I came back towards her, there was a huge sea turtle swimming right by Shawnna. Shawnna was just barely able to see him as he swam away.

Then, as we were heading back to shore, we found another turtle snoozing under a rock. We waited him out and he finally came to the surface and then swam right between us. We got some great pictures and a perfect end to the snorkeling. Dan really wanted to go in, but I convinced him to be patient. And out patience paid off. He came so close to me that I had to move to keep him from touching me. It was such an amazing moment for me. We spent a little time back at Po’olenalena and got to catch some waves on the boogie board. Shawnna even caught a couple. Then, unfortunately, it was time to go back and pack. This beach was by far my favorite beach to hang out and swim in the ocean. The sand was so light and beautiful. The water was crystal clear with no rocks or anything to step on. I really didn't think I wanted to boogie board. But Dan made it look like so much fun!! Honestly, the first time it happened was by accident. : ) We were out in the water, I was lounging on the board and Dan said "there's a big one coming, hang on" He wasn't kidding!! It took me all the way to the beach!! And it was so much fun!!!

We got packed, ate lunch at Pupu grill – excellent fish and chips. Spearfish (hebi) was excellent. This meal completely made up for last night. I wanted to stop buy LuLu's to get another haupia (coconut) shake, but I forgot : ( We got our water camera’s developed at Costco so we wouldn’t have to carry them home ( cheap at only $4.00 per roll) stopped at K-Mart to buy some souvenirs and then got to the airport.

We really didn’t have much luck with flights on this trip, and it continued on the way home. We checked our bags all the way through to Milwaukee from Maui, this was nice, we thought we were going to have to pick them up in Honolulu and check them again. But the ticket agent said that they couldn’t print our boarding passes for Portland to Chicago, which we didn’t really think too much of.

Maui to Honolulu to Portland, no problem. Got off the plane after flying all night and found out that our flight to Chicago had been cancelled. We go all the way to the United check-in area, wait for like 35 minutes and are told that we have been rebooked for a flight at 1:00PM (current time 7:30AM) to get into Milwaukee at 10:30PM. We had noticed a Northwest flight leaving at 8:30AM to Milwaukee and asked about that. We were told they had seats available, but that they could only give us a voucher. So we went to Northwest, got boarding passes, but no seat assignments, we had to go to the gate to get those. By this time, it was almost 8:10 and we needed to get to the gate. Got to Security, surprise surprise, special security. Everything taken out of our bags, air puff machine, swiped all electronics with special cloth etc. As we are finally heading to the gate we see that they are almost done boarding. We do manage to get two (last two?) seats, begged the gate attendant to let us grab two muffins since we hadn’t eaten in like 18 hours and board the plane seconds after the last call announcement.

Turns out that our Portland to Milwaukee flight actually stops in Minneapolis (airport number 7 for the trip) and then on to Milwaukee where we arrive only 15 minutes after we were scheduled to arrive from Chicago. And with that the vacation is officially over.

Day 10 - North/West Maui

Almost our last day. We had decided to spend the last full day on the north side of the island. We had intended to drive the loop around the West Maui section of the island but after the Road to Hana we were tired of driving. So, instead we were going to snorkel, go to the Whaler’s Village in Kaanapali, and then to see the torch lighting at Black Rock before going home.

As we were driving that morning we realized we had forgotten the Maui Revealed book. So we sort of remembered where the first place (Honoloa Bay) to snorkel was. We finally found it and there were a ton of cars there. Once we got into the water it felt a little more crowded than some of the other places, but not bad at all. We started on the left side and it wasn’t bad, ( I don’t think that we went far enough) but then we decided to swim across the bay. As we did, we saw a small stingray. He got away pretty fast but we were able to get a decent picture before he was gone. He was only a foot or so across, but had a 5 foot long tail. Seeing a sting ray was freakin' awesome!! He was small, but holy cow.. a sting ray!!!

When we got across the bay we ended up in the middle of a school of fish. This was really cool. The completely surrounded us and then all of a sudden two large tuna type fish came flying through and the school of fish went crazy. They were swimming in a circles and darting around us as they were chased. It was like swimming in a Discovery channel show. The rest of the snorkeling was very good and the corral just kept getting better as you went further up the right side.

After a couple of hours of snorkeling, we went to the Whaler’s Village (it's a mall on the beach)and looked around for awhile, had lunch at Leilani’s on the Beach. The food there was excellent. I got the fish tacos and Shawnna got fish and chips. Both were great, the fish tacos were huge for the price. A great bargain and great food.

Next we went up the road to Kahekili Beach Park. I did some quick snorkeling but there was a strong current and breeze that made it a little more difficult. Otherwise, we just relaxed on the beach. The beach had some nice facilities so we were able to change before we headed back to the Whaler’s Village to watch the torch lighting at sunset. It is pretty cool as he walks out to the Black Rock point, lights the torch, throws the fire into the ocean and then dives from the 25 ft high rock. After this we had the kind of long drive back to Kihei.

We ate dinner at Fred’s Mexican Café after everyone in the condo guest book raved about it. But, we weren’t really that impressed with either the food, or the service. By this time it was late and time for bed before our last day in Hawaii. This place was packed every single night we were there. We thought it must be good if it draws that much of a crowd. It was terrible. We waited forever for water. Had it not been so late, we would have left right then. Waited forever for food. We've been to plenty of packed mexican restaurants and have never had to wait so long or had food that bad. I honestly didn't know you could mess up a burrito that badly. A pretty disappointing last dinner.

Day 9 - Relax and Luau

Ready for another day of relaxation on our Southside beaches. We started our day off at the black sand beach and Shawnna and I hiked to our “private” beach over the rocks and started our snorkeling. Again we saw a wide variety fish and coral, but the highlight was Shawnna finding a sea turtle. He was taking a nap underneath a rock. He had tucked himself under a rock and was just laying there. We watched him for a little while until he came out, went up to the surface, and then went back under his rock. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures because as we had been taking pictures, I noticed the camera had filled with water. Evidently, dropping an underwater camera is bad. This was the first sea turtle I was able to see while snorkeling. It was amazing. Especially since I was the one that spotted him. I fell in love with sea turtles today.

We went back to Ahihi Cove. Nothing really new and exciting there. Then by this time, it was about time to head back to get ready to go to Lahina and our luau at Feast at Lele.
We wandered around Lahina for a while before the luau. Shawnna got her picture taken under the huge Banyan tree and we browsed around the shops downtown. When it was finally time to be seated, we were surprised to be seated at a table for two within 3 ft of the stage. We also go a fresh flower lei and a mai tai as we walked in.

Feast at Lele is a little different than the typical luau. It is a four course dinner representing four different Pacific ethnicities, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Samoa. They would serve a course and then do a small show, such as a hula or other native dance. Our seats were awesome since the show was right in front of us. Shawnna discovered her new favorite drink, a Lava Flow, which is a pina colada with bananas and strawberry puree’. The food was excellent and we had a great time. We got some great pictures of the fire dancer which was the last performance of the night. All in all, it was an excellent time.
I am so happy we chose Feast at Lele for our luau. It was so nice to have our own table and to be served instead of having to go through a buffet line. The cost is a little more than some other luaus, but worth every cent!

Day 8 - Road to Hana

Road to Hana. We tried to get an early start today to try to beat the crowds but we weren’t real successful. We started the approximately 60 mile (from Kahului) drive to Hana and at first it wasn’t too bad, but eventually we started getting to the real curves. We stopped along the way, first at a small farmer’s stand for banana bread and my favorite, raw sugar cane sticks. The Road to Hana is a road that follows the eastward (windward) coast of Maui, and when I say follows, I mean follows. The road is known for having approximately 620 curves and 46 one lane bridges.

After this our first real stop was at Pulalau Falls. This is back off of the highway a little ways and we got to hike on a pretty nice boulder stream bed. Unfortunately, we got back to the falls, there wasn’t much of anything flowing from the waterfall.

Next was Upper Waikani Falls, aka Three Bears Falls, which was very pretty, though it was only flowing a little. This turned out to be the theme of the trip. Lots of green, lots of curves, but very little water. The next two falls were Hanawi and Makipipi Falls.

Then we drove down to the ocean via Nahiku Road. It was even greener than the road to Hana. The views of the raw coast line of this side of the island are amazing. Black lava rock getting pounded by the surf. It really made the couple mile drive down well worth it. We ate lunch down by the shore, which was supposed to be normally pretty deserted but there were quite a few people there. One of the issues with following guidebooks.

We then made our way to Wai’anapanapa Black Sand beach. The beach itself is actually smaller than the name, but it is a true black sand beach, made from pounded lava rock. From the beach, you could also see a sea arch of lava and walk into a lava tube cave.

Next was the actual town of Hana, which doesn’t really have a whole lot of anything. But, we did take a quick hike down to a Red Sand beach, but just as we got there, it started to rain.
I should tell you that you can't move real quick on the "trail". There's a reason that there is a "No Trespassing" sign. But that didn't stop us LOL. So we didn’t get all the way down to the beach, but it is pretty cool because there a small sheltered cove is formed by a red rock wave break.After Hana, the next stop was Kipahulu State Park with the 7 Sacred Pools. This is a series of waterfalls and pools that are supposed to have healing powers if you bath in each one in series. Just as we started back, we saw a rainbow, very pretty.

Then, was the unfortunate drive back which took almost 4 hours to get back to the condo. By this time, we barely had time to grab some dinner at Da Kitchen. Good local Hawaiian food, good price and huge portions. Then time for bed.



OK, I have to come up with something positive to say about this..... well, the coast line was very beautiful. The true black sand beach was neat. I just didn't enjoy spending all day in the car. Folks say, "It's not about getting to Hana, it's about the drive there"...well the drive lasted ALL DAY. I would have rather been spent the day in the water. Dan agrees. Maybe it would have been more enjoyable had the water falls been flowing.

Day 7 - Relaxation in Maui

Relaxation day. We decided that since we didn’t know how Shawnna would be feeling, we would stay a little closer to home and go snorkeling/beach bumming in South Maui.

Our first stop of the day was to Ahihi Cove. This was in a fish preserve and was supposed to have some really impressive fish because fishing was not allowed. We geared up and got in the water. Within 15 feet we were already seeing all sorts of butterfly fish, trigger fish, and many others. Shawnna was still pretty apprehensive about snorkeling, so we only went out for about 30 minutes. Shawnna came back in to rest and I headed back out for a little while longer. The right side of the cove had a pretty impressive array of fish. I even saw a spotted eel hiding in the rocks pretty close to shore.

Next we headed for a black sand beach called Oneuli Beach. The black sand comes from a cinder cone hill that was formed during one of the last eruptions. The beach itself is tucked back on the terrible bumpy dirt road, but this makes it a little less crowded. As we were walking the beach, we noticed a lot of shells and soon we were finding a bunch of sea glass also. We collected a good amount of both shells and glass and then Shawnna decided to lay down under the umbrella and read for a while, while I went snorkeling.

I climbed over some rocks on the left side of the beach and found a sheltered little sand cove. It was pretty easy to enter from the little point and soon I was out snorkeling. The coral at this beach was amazing. Maybe not quite as many fish, but a good variety and the water was beautiful. As far as you could see in either direction, the coral stretched. As I was getting ready to come back in, I saw the first sea turtle of the trip. He was lazily swimming away from me and I was able to get a couple of pictures before he disappeared. Back at the little beach, I happened to look down and find a piece of light blue sea glass which is a really rare color since there is so little actual glass that is that color. Brown, green and white are the most popular. Because of beer bottles.

It was getting to be close to lunchtime, so we packed up and went to the next beach on our list, Po’olenalena Beach which has a convenient little parking lot near Makena Surf. We set up our umbrella and ate our packed lunch on an almost deserted beach. We went for a couple of quick swims and by that time Shawnna needed to lay down so we headed back to the condo.

Shawnna wanted a normal burger and fries for dinner so we tried Peggy Sue’s which had great burger and fries. But the highlight of the meal was the milkshakes. Shawnna got haupia, which basically is a coconut flavored milkshake and I got the Hula pie. Both were excellent and we were one of only a couple of people in the 50’s style diner. Oh my god that was the BEST milk shake I've ever had!!! Indescribably good!!! The best part was that it was a hand made milk shake and after they filled your glass, they brought you what was leftover too! Another relaxing sunset and then off to bed.

Day 6 - Haleakala Crater

I had called the weather service and found that the sunrise on the top of Haleakala was scheduled for 6:48AM. I didn’t really think twice about the time and that this sounded kind of late. We planned for a two hour drive, plus 1 hour of extra time to make sure we found a parking spot. We also hoped to catch it go from pure black to the sunrise. We packed some coffee, tea, and some stuff for breakfast and got on the road by 4AM. It was a good thing we had planned on that extra time. I must have either misheard the time for the sunrise, or the weather service recorded it wrong because sunrise was closer to 5:45AM. The drive up was uneventful, other than just the general nature of the drive. The road to the top is the greatest elevation change in the shortest distance in the world. As we were getting close to the top we were commenting how light it was getting. We ended up only beating the sunrise by about 20 minutes. Shawnna wasn’t feeling real well and we didn’t have a great spot to watch the sunrise; nonetheless, it is still a pretty impressive sunrise as it the sun peaks over the top of the clouds. Because it is so high, the sun actually rises out of the clouds which are spread out below you. Even with the time issue and not having a great "view" it was still beautiful and amazing. It was very moving experience. Some folks who go to Maui skip the sunrise completely. Saying "It's tooo early" But it is worth it!! Worth the early wake up call, the car sickness, and braving the cold. Besides, if you go early enough in your vacation your body will be ready to get up anyway. Pack a breakfast and take a nap on the beach when you get back : )

After the sunrise, we relaxed and ate some breakfast and then bundled up to hike inside of the crater on the Sliding Sands trail. We had jackets and pants and it was a good thing since it was about 38 deg F at the top of the crater. The inside of the crater is just amazing. It is completely desolate except for a couple of spindly shrubs. And the inside is untouched except for a small trail that winds its way through the crater. We took the trail for about a mile and a half and then walked back which is only a small portion of the trail. The most amazing part is the absolute utter quiet while we were hiking. We stopped for a little while and just sat there and listened to the absolute silence (I know, how do you listen to silence).

By the time that we finished hiking back to the car, Shawnna was really not feeling well and her ear and neck were really bothering her. We ended up at the Kahului Emergency Room on a Sunday afternoon. Very interesting to say the least. Also waiting were a homeless guy ranting and raving about someone hitting him on the head, a lady who looked high who had cut her hand and a little boy with an ankle injury. Needless to say it was decent people watching. After waiting about an hour, Shawnna was diagnosed with an inner ear infection which she was given prescriptions for some pain pills and a Z-pack to clear up the infection. Luckily, since it was an inner ear infection, the doctor said that she could continue to snorkel and swim as long as she didn’t notice it getting any worse.
I like how my husband says "ear and neck were really bothering her". I was in PAIN! The worst PAIN I have ever EXPERIENCED!! In so much pain that when the dr. touched the area around my ear I yelled and nearly smacked him! I was still in pain when we came home so I followed up with my doctor. Because I had a cold before we left and was still a little congested, the pressure and altitude changes during our flights over caused my Eustachian tube to not be able to regulate the pressure in my ear, causing a blockage. Because of the blockage and the congestion developed into an infection. The Z-pack sort-of worked, but because the infection hadn't drained out completely, the trip home was just as painful as the trip over. I continued antibiotics for 3 weeks. And no, the drive up and back from Haleakala didn't help things, but it was still worth it!!

We picked up her meds and came home. Watched another gorgeous sunset and called it a day.
Stay tuned......some awesome snorkeling stories coming up : )

Day 5 - Start of Maui

Started the day off with the Maui Swap meet in Kahalui. Not bad, but less handmade stuff than we were expecting. We did get some excellent mango and pineapple to eat for breakfast and then some papayas and tomatoes to take home. Our only other purchase was a turtle necklace for Shawnna and a pair of earrings for Jamie. The turtle necklace was white shell material, looked very nice and was handmade in Maui.

After the swap meet we got some various groceries and necessity shopping done and headed back to the condo so we could get ready to go to our massages. We had decided that our saved change for the past three years would go to a splurge. We thought that since this was supposed to be a relaxation vacation a massage would be the perfect thing.

We had the massage at Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea Resort. Gorgeous resort, ridiculously expensive, where like 7 nights there equals our entire vacation, but it sure was nice. Our massages included an hour of terme’ which included sauna’s, whirlpools, etc, which even I had to admit was quite enjoyable. This was done separately (men and women) and then we had our massages done together. Most relaxing 50 minutes of our life. After we were done, we both agreed that we felt amazingly relaxed.

We drove back to Kihei for dinner at Pupu’s Grill. We ordered our first drinks of vacation (Dream of Love – Shawnna, Mai Tai – Daniel) and then we had a satay sampler and the catch of day. The satay sampler came with beef, scallop, chicken and shrimp with the most delicious Thai sauce. The meat didn’t need any sauce, but we kept dipping it anyway because the sauce was so good. The catch of the day was walu and we had it macadamia nut crusted. It tasted great. Our server was hilarious and he was the one that recommended the catch of day. All in all, exactly the type of dinner that I had expected. After we got back and looked up the fish, we learned that it was actually called a “butterfish” because of the gastrointestinal problems that it tends to cause due to the high fat content. We were really glad that we had only shared a small portion.

Shawnna wasn’t feeling too well (pressure in her ear and the back of her neck) so we went to bed early. Tomorrow was Haleakala sunrise so we went to bed early since we were leaving by 3:30AM.

Day 4 - Pearl Harbor and on to Maui

Pearl Harbor today, then on to Maui. We got to Pearl Harbor around 8AM after having some difficulty in finding the right road (yes, I know, recurring theme) and even though we thought we had left early enough, we parked and saw a 150 yard long line waiting to get tickets. Luckily, the line was moving pretty well and we got our ticket for the 9:45AM viewing of the memorial. We got the audio tour and listened to that as we browsed around the exhibit and museum. The whole area is extremely moving and really makes you think about what all of the soldiers died for. The audio tour also had some of the survivors talking about the attack, it was just amazing. I would definitely recommend purchasing the audio tour. It explained the exhibits in depth and the personal stories were amazing.

Just before we were ready to go to our show and boat ride to the memorial, we realized that our camera battery was low and we had only brought the one camera. Before going out to the memorial, they show a movie about the attack and it really sets the tone for the visit. We took the boat ride out and wouldn't you know it, the camera completely died. So, unfortunately all of the pictures of the actual memorial are mental only. We did get some pictures from the shore, and some post cards of images from the memorial, but not quite the same.
We didn't really realize how much time we would spend in the sun at Pearl Harbor, so we weren't very diligent with sunscreen. Dan's nose ending up burned and blistered a bit. My arms and the back of my neck got a bit pink, but not terrible.

After we had finished, it was too late to really do anything before heading to the airport. So, we grabbed some lunch and returned the rental car before checking in and waiting for our flight.
Our 35 minute flight to Maui might have been the loudest ever because we were sitting right next to the engine and it was vibrating the entire seat. After a windy landing at Kahului Airport we picked up our rental car (Sebring Convertible) and headed to Kihei and our condo at the Kihei Akahi.

We had found the condo on VRBO (C310) and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the view of the ocean off the lanai was actually very nice. For the price we had expected a “partial” view of some part of the ocean. The condo was right off the main strip of Kihei so there was a bunch of restaurants and shops right down the road and the beach was 2 minutes away by foot. We grabbed some dinner at Maui Taco’s (excellent burrito, not great tacos) and then grabbed the beach chairs to witness our first Maui sunset. There is just something so relaxing about sitting on the beach, listening to the waves crash and watching the sunset. The only problem is that the island of Lanai gets in the way of the sunset, so that it actually sets behind the island and the inevitable clouds above the island.

Off to bed and ready for an easy day tomorrow.

Day 3 - North Oahu

Today was the north half of the island, including the famed North Shore. We got a little earlier start today but things looked kind of dreary right off the bat. They had been talking about how the winds were bringing a haze to the other islands due to the eruptions on the Big Island and the ash that was being created. They called it Vog.

Our first stop was at Kualoa Beach to get some quick pictures of the Chinaman’s Hat. This is a small island off shore that looks like, you guessed it, a hat. The next beach was interesting because we found some more sea glass and there was a lot of interesting things washed on to the shore. We saw coral, rocks, algae, etc.

Next was Bathtub beach, just north of La’ie Beach Park. This was really cool because after a peaceful walk from the parking lot along the beach, there was a sea break that was knocking down all of the waves and left perfectly calm water to shore. Along the lava rock shore, we saw crabs and lots of little fish. We wished we had brought snorkel gear with us because it would have been interesting to continue following the shore further past the lava rocks. But since we both were in sandals, we couldn’t scramble across the rocks and further. La’ie Point and Goat Island were next and while interesting, they weren’t extraordinary.

We were going to stop along the Banzai Pipeline, the famed surfing area, but even though the south shore was getting some great waves, but nothing big was happening here. So, we continued on to Shark’s Cove and the tide pool. We decided to wade into the tide pool and I threw on a mask and snorkel to get a better view of things. It was super calm and we got to see some small fish. A couple of butterfly fish and a spotted puffer fish were the highlights.
Next was Papa’iloa Beach, which was used for some “LOST” filming but was our first opportunity to see sea turtles. They were playing in the surf near the water’s edge. They would come close to swimming out of the water and then would jet back into the waves. It really was like the movie “Finding Nemo” where the turtles are just chilling riding the waves. We got some attempted pictures (some turtles, some rocks mistaken for turtles) before we got tired of the other people on the beach.

We stopped for shave ice at Aoki’s in Hale’iwa. Pretty tasty tropical flavors and not too bad a price. The lady asked if we wanted ice cream in our shave ice. I think must have looked at her like she had two heads... personally, ice cream does NOT belong in shave ice. The final beach on our trek was to Kealia Beach (sort of). Just past Mokule'ia Beach Park , this beach is where the crash site was located from Season 1. We used the “Oahu Revealed” guidebook and got to this beach used for “LOST” filming and it was beautiful. We were the only ones there and it looked exactly like LOST. We even got to see a couple of turtles, but they never got out of the water.

On our way back home we stopped at the Dole Plantation for the explicit purpose of getting pineapple knifes for the family. It turns out that they didn’t have any, but that we could order them online. If we wanted to order them online, we wouldn’t have stopped at the store. But, we did get a turtle Christmas ornament from a local artist and then some pineapple soft serve, so it wasn’t a complete loss. I ordered the knives online, out of stock there too....still waiting!

Dinner at Tiki’s in Waikiki. Not bad, but not great. We felt that everything was kind of heavy and fried. I had mahi mahi and Shawnna had beef tenderloin medallions. Home and bed, ready for an early morning at Pearl Harbor tomorrow.

Day 2 - South End of Oahu

The plan for today was to hit the south portion of the island, Hanauma Bay, Diamond Head, Punchbowl Cemetery and whatever else that we could see on our way.

We hit the road at around 7AM and headed south around the southern tip of the island. After I realized that I didn't bring hiking attire and had to go back to the condo : ) Thankfully we weren't too far away. We also stopped at SafeWay to grab a quick breakfast, but there wasn't much to choose from. I thought it was really odd. No donuts, bagels or anything, just a few things left from the day before. Due to our late arrival we weren’t as quite up for a sunrise as we thought that we would be due to the time change. Our first spectacular view was from a lookout at Makapu’u Point. Surf, mountain, and beach, absolutely gorgeous.

As we continued to Hanauma Bay, we saw that the Halona Blowhole was blowing and decided to stop on our way back home later today. From my previous trip, I had remembered that Hanauma Bay was very calm and was hoping that it would be an easy start for snorkeling. Waves were a bit higher than I think I would have preferred, and definitely higher than Shawnna would have liked. But we did get a little bit of snorkeling done. We saw some fish, but all in all, it wasn’t that spectacular.
It was really neat to see fish so close to the shore, but because the water was so choppy I didn't feel comfortable at all.

Next we went to Punchbowl Cemetery because it was almost noon and we didn’t think it was a good idea to hike Diamond Head at that hour. Punchbowl was very impressive and it was interesting to go back to these things that I had done previously but didn’t always remember fully. We only managed to get lost a couple of times on our way to Punchbowl and down to Waikiki for lunch. We realized that the maps in the guidebooks and travel brochures are not quite enough unless you know exactly where you are going. So, we broke down and bought a map and proceeded to continue getting lost but at least we knew where were lost. Waikiki for lunch, just Subway, but we got a little taste of Waikiki, which is definitely different than where we were staying on the east side of the island.

Diamond Head Crater was gorgeous. The hike to the top is only 0.8 miles, but 600 ft of elevation change make it seem a little bit longer. The views from the top are very pretty, especially of downtown, Waikiki and down the coast. After that it was almost 5:30PM and time to get headed home if we wanted to get dinner. We stopped at a Japanese Fishing Shrine near Halona blowhole and ended up getting a great view of the blowhole.

We then continued past it and stopped at Sandy Beach. Shawnna was getting the requisite picture of feet in the surf, when all a sudden a “rogue” wave came in and soaked her about half way up her shorts. The best part is that I was ready to take a picture at the same time and actually got a picture of the wave and her reaction. Priceless.

On our walk back to the car, Shawnna found her first piece of “sea glass” which was something she had been looking forward to since she had seen it online. It is a piece of glass that had been roughed and smoothed by the ocean so that it has a smooth frosted look. By this time it was getting late and we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet. Finally back home after grabbing some quick groceries and some sushi for dinner. This is the beach where Dan gave me my anniversary gift : )

Day 1 – Travel Day

Travel Day. We had driven up from Indianapolis yesterday afternoon so that the “kids” could stay at my parent’s house while we were gone.
We woke up today around 2:30 AM CDT so that we could get to the airport in time for our 5:30AM flight. Unfortunately, we discovered that Milwaukee’s airport is not open 24 hours a day and that there was no one at the ticket counter until about 4:15AM so we sat around for 25 minutes waiting for them to show up. No problems with our flight from MKE to ORD (O’Hare, Chicago). Our next flight was scheduled for 8:00AM from ORD to PDX (Portland). From this point on it is easier to try to look at times.
8:00AM CDT – Board plane in Chicago
9:30AM CDT – Get off the plane due to engine problems after sitting on the tarmac for an hour and the gate for 30 minutes.
10:00AM CDT – Board second plane in Chicago
11:00AM CDT – Finally actually leave Chicago for Portland, realizing that there is no way that we are going to make our flight in Portland for Honolulu.
1:30PM PDT (-2 hrs CDT) – Arrive in Portland, are handed new tickets to San Francisco then on to Honolulu.
1:31PM PDT – Board plane to San Francisco.
4:00PM PDT – Flight from San Francisco to Honolulu leaves on time.
7:00PM HST (-5 hrs CDT) – Arrive in Honolulu
9:00PM HST – Arrive at condo on east side of Oahu.
Final Tally – 5 airplanes, 5 airports, 4 flights, 25 hrs awake, 2 times seeing about every hour of the day, but we still made it and we actually only lost about 3 hours of time.
The house that we stayed at is on the windward (east) side of island and it was directly under the Ko’olau Mountain Range. There was a wonderful stream that you could hear from the room and it was absolutely pitch black.
Although we were supposed to change airlines in Portland, United took care of getting us through to Honolulu. Yes, it was their fault that we weren't going to make our flight, but I was really impressed with thier service that day.