29 January 2008

Hawaiian pineapples


The last day



We spent our last day doing two really fun things. My executive chef had told me about a noodle place in Lihue...hard to find, but worth it. We went and found it and had one of the best meals I've had. It was just us and the locals....cheap and good. It was a simple menu, and the cook knew what you ordered by the color and size of the bowl sitting on the counter. Pretty cool!

That night we went on a sunset dinner cruise to the Na Pali coast making so we had gone completely around the island. They loaded us up on a catamaran, and we saw humpback whales, bottle nose dolphins, spinner dolphins and a beautiful sunset. I took this stuff so I wouldn't get seasick and it lasted almost the whole time, and I even ate dinner. I don't think my stomach was completely recovered from the day before though. I didn't feel all that well when we got home. Anyway, the trip was fun with good food and the staff was excellent. We met a couple in town for a conference and had a good talk with them. It was a great way to spend our last day.

Snorkeling

If you ever at in Kauai and want to go snorkeling, look up kauai sea riders and Capt. Tara. She takes people out on a zodiac to go snorkeling, and her mate that day was Junior. She is a marine biologist, and he is a local. We had so much fun! We saw about 6 different pods of humpback whales on the way to our first site. I've snorkeled before, but the water was really rough that day and the place we went had about 5 currents coming in all at once, I'm and o.k. swimmer but definitely had some trouble. So I had to hang onto the boogy board she brings. IT really helped and I still got to see lots of things. T had a lot of fun. I have rarely seen him that happy. On the way to our second site to snorkel with the turtles, the engine failed, and I hate to say it, I got so seasick. I kept my breakfast, but I did not feel well at all. By the time help came, everyone was feeling a little sick. Back on shore, we had a tasty catered lunch. We are supposed to get some pictures emailed to us and if we do, I will post them up.

Waimea Canyon



The following day, we went hiking up in Waimea Canyon. It is amazing out there. The trail again was extremely muddy (I misstepped a few times and got red mud everywhere.) This was the best marked trail we hiked. The hiking is not hard in Kauai, but on some of them, even knowing how to read the map and contours, you can miss the trail. There were muddy parts of the trail, and then they had created a boardwalk to keep you out of some of the mud, and at the top, out of the swamp. I think our hike that day was 12 miles. The pictures are of the trail and the steepness and muddiness, but it doesn't really come across in the pictures as it does in person. We stopped for dinner at this great local pizza place, Brick Oven Pizza, and had a great dinner.

Kayaking the Wailua River


Our third day was spent kayaking the Wailua River in the morning. It was beautiful, and halfway through, we could park the kayak and hike one mile up to this very nice waterfall. We ended up playing "tag" with this couple that rented their kayak at the same time as we did. It was peaceful. One our way down from the waterfall, we started seeing all the guided tours starting their way up. I am so glad we did it on our own. One guy got kind of upset because he had no clue he could have rented a kayak on his own. Oops. I'm drawing a blank on what we did with our afternoon and evening.

Lunch on the Kalalau trail

The Kalalau Trail



Our first day in Hawaii, we spent getting the lay of the land and figuring out what we wanted to do and finding how to call and do it. We also went and got a permit so that we could go farther than 2 miles in the trail. We had a fun hike. We went 7 miles in, so 14 miles total. It was kind of muddy and the red dirt got everywhere, but it was worth it. We let our jet lag work in our favor and got an early start so we could drive to the trail head and take our time. The Na Pali coast is so beautiful. When we returned to the car, people were like vultures looking for a parking spot. I started feeling a little bit hunted, but we were able to give our spot to a really nice lady and her mom. The weather the whole week was great. Maybe around 70 degrees without too much humidity.

A Week In Kauai

We had a fun week in Hawaii for our honeymoon. We were able to get a condo with a kitchen and we brought some of our own food so we saved some money that way, and we enjoy eating our cooking. Note to those who go, the concierge will try to sell you all these packages and do all your reservations for you, but it is more expensive that way. T and I were able to find all our own activities and make our own reservations, which saved at least 20% or so from each activity, if not more.

Graduation



So, I am backtracking one day. At the end of T's week and our first week here, he and his friends graduated from the school they were attending. So, pictures of T and E, his roommate, and the two of us turned out good. Our week was busy. We had to get me and ID, move my stuff in, move E's stuff out and that took just about the whole time.

San Francisco



T had to work for a week on the east coast before we took our honeymoon, so on our way back to our honeymoon, we came out and spent a day in San Francisco. We decided to go hiking for the day. It was a good long one, I think 10 or 12 miles, from Muir woods monument all the way our to Stinson Beach. It was a great way to spend the day, and that night we went to my all time favorite Italian food restaurant, which was only blocks away from our hotel.

17 January 2008

The wedding

I don't have pictures of this day just yet on this computer, but if you want to see a few pictures of the day, click on the Blue Sky link on the left of the screen.

The wedding day came quickly. I woke up and went down to get my hair done with some of the bridesmaids, and my sister and good friend, J, brought us bagels and hot drinks. After a stop at a friend's house for make-up help, we jetted off to the resort to get dressed. I got stuck in the dress trying to get it on and it took 3 people to get me completely in. I was definitely approaching nervous. We took some pictures ahead of time outside...the wind was crazy!

Our ceremony was going to be outside, but the weather didn't really permit it, so we got a once in a lifetime opportunity to get married in the restaurant (it was in the process of it's yearly maintenance) overlooking the ocean. Warm, dry and beautiful. Everyone we worked with was so great. Everyone looked very nice all dressed up. With the exception that my nerves finally got the best of me during the vows (I started laughing), it was a nice ceremony and the chaplain did a great job. Afterwards, we walked through the sword arch, a Navy tradition and I was welcomed into the navy.

The Reception was so fun!! We ate extremely tasty food, the DJ was excellent, and got to talk with a few friends. T and I got to dance to a few songs, and then we cut the top of our cupcake cake (with a sword, very cool.) So yummy! The only thing I wish could have been different was more time to talk with people, but I knew that wasn't realistic for the day.

Afterwards, we went to the bed and breakfast we were staying at for the night, where we were warmly greeted and shown to our room. If you ever get a chance to stay in PG and have a little spare money, I know a great place. We walked down and got hot chocolate at a place by the ocean and then called it a night.

14 January 2008

Updates

Hi to all of you who are reading this! I am a little behind in updating this, but am planning to be finished with all of it including some pictures hopefully in the the next few days. Jet lag is a little of a killer right now, and I am starting to get tired. Stay tuned though because it should be completely current by the end of the week!

Rehearsal dinner

So, a few days before the wedding, the biggest storm California has seen in years hit the coast hard. The area I lived in has lots of power outages and fallen tree limbs, so electricity went off all over the town. We weren't even sure that we were going to be able to a dinner, because most places can not even serve salad if there is no electricity. We had a few back-up plans, but thankfully, we didn't have to use them.

We started off the morning with our breakfast buddies, trying out a new place, which lost power half way through breakfast, but all their stuff worked on gas and they had lots of natural light. Then, T and his good friend, C, took me to an appointment and to pick up pictures, but it took longer than usual because tree branches kept falling in different roads, blocking them and creating lots of traffic.

My sister came down in time to go to the manicure and pedicure, neither of which I had ever done before, and I'm not sure I would do again, but it did look great for the wedding. The pedicure....I wouldn't let her take off anything with the pumice stone (we are planning to do a lot of hiking on our honeymoon), but let me tell you; getting toe nails filed is one of the most ticklish things I have ever had done. I was sitting in the salon (which had no power by the way, but very large windows with natural light) giggling away. Things did go a little bit long because there was no way to dry the nails except with just sitting and waiting (no little heat things.)
So, I ended up late to the rehearsal, but at least I wasn't the only one.

The rehearsal was funny. T's 6' something brother in law stood in for his wife who wasn't coming into town until later that evening, so two of the guys walked down the aisle together and we had a lot of fun with that. My good friend, J, came up from down south and she kept my neices very entertained. Rehearsals don't take too long thankfully.

Our dinner was at the Navy golf course in town, and it was a lot of fun. Family, good friends, and good food! We had fajitas and veggies and fruit. The dessert was all chocolate so there were many happy people. The kids all got to run around and it was just fun!

Afterwards, family came and gathered in my hotel room to spend some time together before the next day's events. It was fun!

Moving

O.K. Moving across town is no big deal, even moving a few hours away or to college, not really a big deal. Moving everything you own across the country...completely different story.

T's family and my parents came out on the 1st to help with all the things that needed to be done before we got married. They met each other that night for the first time. We went to our favorite Mexican food place and had a good time.

I definitely could not have moved without all the help from both families. It was fun! We rented a 10' uhaul, and carried all my belongings down 3 flights of stairs (no elevator) and, like tetris, puzzle pieced it in. Then, they let me drive the uhaul the hour and a half to the terminal where we loaded my stuff up into the back half of a semi truck. It was interesting to drive. When we stopped for lunch at in n out, T's brother in law said, "You drive that truck pretty aggressively." It made me laugh and I figure if I could drive 65 then everyone else should be able to as well, I was only going the speed limit. The other advantage of being stuck in the car is that T and I were able to get a lot of business calls we needed to make out of the way. (T did it, not me since I was driving.)

We turned in the u haul up in the city and then I promptly fell asleep in the back seat the whole way home. Thank you everyone for your help!

Last day of work

My last day of work was on New Year's eve, and it was so fun!! We worked 12 hours and had a party for about 400 people. I got to work the caviar station which was right in front of the main ballroom and got to meet lot of people and enjoy the live band as well. They were a great band.

It was kind of surreal though. I knew it was my last day, but we were so busy, I didn't have time to think about it being my last day. Good way to go out.... I will definitely miss being there and working with the people I did. I learned a lot and am so grateful for the opportunity to work there and learn from the people I did.

Details

In the last few weeks before the wedding, there was a crazy amount of things to get done, not to mention Christmas and New years. I worked full time until the Monday before the wedding, and spent the last two weeks before that trying to pack my apartment and get a list accomplished that each week was both sides of a sheet of paper. It was crazy. The nice thing is that T came out the week so before the wedding to help, and he did an amazing job finishing packing my apartment! If you are getting married soon, beware the small stuff....it never seems to be done.