Aloha beautiful Kauai! ~ Kalalau Trail & Hanakapi'ai Falls

So we began the 1st of our 10 days Thursday morning flying TUS-LAX-LIH on American Airlines (no complaints, we and our bags all arrived safe and sound) and settled into our gorgeous condo in Princeville after a trip to Costco ... here's a link, for anyone interested in renting it, check out both the indoor and outdoor photos...it's amazing!

http://www.vrbo.com/global/siteFrame.aspx?l=26097&k=1

Yesterday, we awoke to sunny skies and decided we were ready to tackle the Kalalau Trail... at least as far as we were allowed to go without permits... which was 2 miles in to Hanakapi'ai Beach...

The first half mile of the hike was steep... but every step was absolutely worth it and we were rewarded with spectacular views as well as humpback whale sightings all along the way! 

 The rest of the trail terrain alternated between steep and fairly level but pretty technical the whole way...  especially when it got muddy!

The weather held nicely until we reached the beach where we were treated to a downpour while we ate our lunch under the canopy of tropical trees... the temperature was still quite pleasant and being the desert rats that we are, we didn't mind the rain one bit!

I also loved seeing the adorable little feral kitties that populated the beach... we wondered what they lived on until we saw a little rat farther along the trail that i wasn't quick enough to get a picture of...

 After our lunch we were energized enough to try our hand at getting to the falls, another 2 miles in... which was made even more fun (and challenging) by the slick mud from the rain...

 

 We crossed the river several times  (and nobody fell in! although i made a pretty good attempt at one point :) 

As we came into view of the falls, the music from Jurassic Park totally started playing in my head, even though it wasn't the same falls from the movie...

 

We thought our helicopter pilot friend James would appreciate a photo of the landing spot we came across :)

What we could see of the gorgeous beginnings of the Napali Coast was so breathtaking that I have absolutely resolved to come back and hike the entire Kalalau trail... we passed some other hikers that were going and coming from the experience and it just motivated me even more... especially after a story from one guy on his way out who couldn't seem to remember how many days he'd been "out in the wild", the wild boar he'd run into that probably warranted a change of shorts for him :), the crazy hippies at the end of the trail, and the overabundance of wild fruit growing everywhere!

 

 We were exhausted but happy by the days end, and mom won the prize for most visible badge of honor from falling on her forearm.... (giant bruise, scrape and knot all at once! )





I've had better

So, our cruise was a bit of a comedy of errors...  i don't want to seem like i'm complaining about being on vacation, since we are fortunate to be able to travel.... but this trip, well, to quote Jim Carrey in "Liar, Liar", .."I've had better..."

Chris's sister Michelle was joining us on our 8 day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale, and we made it without incident to FLL until we discovered that Michelle's bag did not.  Oh well, ya gotta just roll with the punches when it comes to non-revving, so the next morning we took a taxi to the nearest Target before we headed for the ship....  I'm sure we looked a bit comical #1. arriving and departing by taxi to Target, and #2. towing all our 4 roller bags into the store (Chris & i each had 2 bags that had arrived without incident)...

but fortunately our ship was not scheduled to leave that day til 7pm so we had time for M to find a skeleton wardrobe for the week... 
Upon arrival at the pier around 3pm, we discovered our ship was delayed so we settled in the holding area with Bananagrams to entertain us.... we got plenty of envious onlookers wishing they had something to pass the time with and at one point had a few half-serious bids for our game as the hours crept on... i considered holding an auction, but refrained since it would leave us without the game for the week. :)

We finally boarded and set sail around 9:30pm, no thanks to the drunken passenger from the previous cruise who decided to climb and fall from the lightpole, causing the medical emergency that created the aforementioned delay...
The next day we arrived to a slightly chilly and breezy day in Key West, so M & I set about exploring and looking for a few things to supplement her meager bit of necessities... we didn't find much aside from some charming architecture

 and a few guys on a scavenger hunt that pleaded with M for her size 6 left flip flop and bargained a trade for a newly purchased set.... she was a good sport and acquiesced, although it ended up leaving her with a much less comfortable pair of flip flops...

We awoke the next day to slightly warmer weather in Cozumel, where we were pretty excited about going on our excursion of snorkeling with sea turtles off the shores of an all-inclusive whose amenities we were allowed to partake off for the remainder of the day...  chris and i even brought our own snorkel gear for this very occasion, but wouldn't you know it - as soon as we got off the ship to meet our excursion guide, he informed us that it was cancelled because there was a "scientific study" of the sea turtles taking place.... SERIOUSLY??????  and they didn't know this until that very moment?  so we were shuffled onto the last available excursion which ended up being snorkeling... in 3 different places....practically next to our ship... and not exactly off any type of secluded reef....

well, we did see a few fish, 2 rays, a lobster and a crab, as well as a french passenger who decided to blow chunks inside the boat, instead of over the side like his fellow German passenger.... (Sorry, no pictures)  :P
The next day brought us to this delightful view of the Isla de Roatan off of Honduras... another place i was looking forward to, because of its reputed amazing reefs for snorkeling....

Yep, it was raining.... all....day...long....
So we played games, while "enjoying" (insert hours of snarky comments from your truly) the view...

At this point, i was going to be coming home even whiter than i left, but we did have the possibility of sunshine the next day, as the sun decided to break gloriously through the clouds and the rain stopped... but only as we hauled anchor and left.
At last, day 5 finally did bring sunshine for our day at sea, and subsequently a massive outbreak of every passenger on the ship sprawled over every possible surface that was exposed to sun, (mostly over 60's in bikinis and speedos)... now let me take a moment to describe our environment.... our ship was the MSC Poesia

 (MSC is an Italian cruise line, although fortunately not the one that wrecked in the Mediterranean the day before our voyage --- reports of which on the news i could not avoid and subsequently resulted in a few anxiety inducing dreams that week... if i had to pick of the two, dying unexpectedly, please let it be in a fireball of metal falling from the sky {plane crash} rather than a slow and agonizing drowning, trampling and panic-filled sinking of a cruise ship!)
The Poesia was filled (to the brim it seemed) primarily with non-American passengers, so ALL the announcements EVERY day were repeated in 5 languages... English, French, Spanish, German and of course Italian.  This way they were able to fill 15 minutes of the 45 minute shows at night with just the explanation of what we about to see... although i don't think there is a language that can adequately depict the rhyme or reason to the themes of most of the "performances"... by the end of the week, we were the embodiments of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets with our snark. :)

I was also yearning for some exercise (and am unable to stay upright on a treadmill on a rocking ship) so during our day at sea, i headed to the middle outside deck of the ship to briskly walk laps but soon discovered why it was so mecifully uncrowded... apparently the day at sea was the perfect time to block off half the deck for cleaning so you couldn't make a full circle.... SERIOUSLY???  that couldn't be done on a day at port????  arghhhh... i still forcefully stomped through half laps for about 30 minutes before i gave up....

Day 7 brought us to Montego Bay on the island of Jamaica and our final excursion of Glass bottomed kayaking (i love paddle sports! yay! - for real!) and Dunn's River Falls... we got a little worried when we discovered we were the only people signed up for our excursion - yep, just the 3 of us, but they joined us with another group that was going to falls and we headed out on our 45 minute bus to the other side of the island...

we arrived at the "pirate town replica" which was a tourist trap of gift shops and a few deep voiced pirates that like to jump out and scare the tourists (i was immune... ha!) and say "ya mon"... we did get to see some dolphins and sharks that we part of other excursions and relaxed for a bit on the beach with rum punch for chris and tasty jerk chicken for lunch while waiting to go to our kayaks....

thankfully this was all uncrowded and soon we were on our way slipping through the lovely clear waters on our kayaks to the falls... i wished the kayaking was longer, but other than that it was delightful, except that the guide who was in my kayak kept sticking his paddle in my pictures.... not cool, mon!

these ruin-like structures are actually part of an old plantation that now is a guest house... pretty cool looking....

and this is Dunn's River Falls... a 600 ft climb (holding hands with 100's of random fellow tourists) which, in spite of all the people (notice a theme here?  i'm getting to be quite the crotchety hermit) was still pretty...  i managed to keep the camera dry as well as not fall into the water while we scaled the falls bare-footed (every one else had water shoes!  wimps! :)

And that concluded our day in Jamaica.... after one more day at sea, which i gleefully spent mostly packing after getting a little sun on a windy part of the ship... we were finally winging our way home in true non-rev style : FLL - MCI  - DEN - TUS
There's no place like home!

RIde Along

i wanted to post a few pics from my Ride Along with the GV Fire Department earlier this month...

It was relatively quiet for the first few hours, but we did finally get a couple calls... nothing involving power tools, but it was exciting to ride in the fire truck nontheless...  and i got a little look into what being an EMT in my little town would be like...  it was fun and informative and i got to partake in some killer fish tacos with the crew...

and i got to try on a cool hat :) .... it was like being on a grown-up field trip!  i used to love field trips as a kid and always wished there were more...  so maybe i won't be a fireman when i grow up, but i think an EMT is a good possibility.... :)

It's a New Year, a new day and I'm feelin' good...

So we started off our New Year in a pretty awesome way .... a helicopter ride with our dear friends Betsy and James who was also our amazing pilot!

 It was a fantastic little 10-minute tour over the Las Vegas Strip (my favorite way to see Vegas by the way, from far away! :)  It was so fun getting to go with them...  I was so excited i could hardly sit still in my seat....
Both Chris & I worked the last 3 days of December and 3 more days starting Jan 2nd, so J & B were kind enough to let us crash with them (i should have put a sign that said "have air mattress, will travel"  on my backpack!) in cozy little Boulder City which is way more my pace than the garish insanity of Vegas.  After a yummy dinner of Mexican food we grabbed some card games and movies and settled in for the night at Casa Campbell, barely making it past the clock striking 12.
New Year's Day was the helicopter ride and i can't think of a better way to start the year.

I was musing on what could be my resolutions for the year and was inspired by a blog from Jack Schull:
http://jackschull.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/3-words-for-2012/

It was about picking 3 words to focus on to help define the goals you want to accomplish and it really resonated with me...
So i decided on my three words:
GROWTH - Now i know that's a pretty general term, but i feel that i've been stagnant in many areas of my development as a person... i know that, sadly, i'm beyond adding inches to my stature :) but i'm hoping to start stretching myself out of my comfort zone of laziness and adding some challenge back into my life.  i feel like i've finally gotten beyond being stuck on something i lost a long time ago, and now that i'm finally moving forward i'd like to keep that momentum going in a positive direction.
DISCIPLINE - this is a big weakness of mine in certain areas that i'd like to get under control, particularly in exercise and relationships...exercise is self-explanatory, but i've gotten lazy with my friendships and coasted by on groundwork that i laid in the past, and now i want to be intentionally focused on contribiting in a positive way to my existing relationships and getting out of my comfort zone enough to develop a few more.
CHALLENGE- i want to be inspired to try some new things and actually have the guts to go through with it... my brother is an inspiration to me in the ways that he tackles extreme sports and activities with relish, and throws himself full force into something... when he does something, its usually in a way that that makes people stand back in awe with their mouths hanging open, (or reaching for their phones to dial 911! - kidding, Luke ;)  now i don't think i'll be base jumping or street luging anytime soon (or ever!) but it does inspire me do do the little things that i talk myself out of -- why haven't i taken a photography class yet?  or learned more about weaponry, or read the manual and learned how to change the oil on my car, or become an EMT?

Today i have something new and fun on the schedule... i'm going on a ride along with my local fire department!  From 2-8 pm i get to accompany them on any calls they get.......maybe something exciting will happen...after all, the weather is pretty nice out and that means people might be out in their yards... with power tools!!!  I've never seen a fresh missing appendage before... although my brother has tried to oblige in a few instances :) 

I'll try to get some fun photos for the next blog :)