Kauai 2009

Rick & I spent a week in Kauai in April....this was our second time to that island and hopefully not the last; we love the the slow pace of Kauai!! On this visit we stay in Poipu, so we experienced more of the south side of the island this time.


One thing we did was to spend time at the Waimea Canyon ---- WOW, is it beautiful!

We took a dinner cruise that was awesome.

An another fun thing we did was to take a ride on ATVs that showed us sites around the island where many movies were filmed....like Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park.




We also visited an authentic Hawaiian Village and the "Spouting Horn"

Hilltop

On December 10th, Kathy & Dave drove Mykie, Bootsie and a few of Mykie's things down to her new home. Hilltop is a small residential home in Escondido (currently there are only 8 residents); it's a lovely place on about 10 acres and the caregivers truly care about the residents. The adjustment for Mykie hasn't been easy, but that's to be expected. She is the highest functioning one there, which is frustrating for her, but has made a few friends already.

Kathy & Dave had the chore of sorting through and packing Mykie's belongings. Kelly was able to come down too for a few hours and she was a huge help! Rick & I have rented a storage unit and have the task of moving all of Mykie's things down after Christmas. It really is hard to be the parents of our parents!! However, it is GREAT to have her nearby so that we can see her often :-)

On Saturday, December 20th, Hilltop had a Christmas Party for the residents and their families. The owners had a buffet set up and also a little program introducing all of the families and employees....and there was even some singing......karoke style. After the party was over, we hiked up to the top of the property to see the incredible views. Here are a few pictures.

November 2008

Rick & I flew to Flagstaff on the afternoon of Nov. 25th and Ali flew in later that evening. We spent the night at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams that night.

Early Wednesday morning we got up and took the train up to the Grand Canyon, which was about a 2 hour ride. There was a variety of entertainment on our rides! It was cold, overcast and a little drizzly; our tour guide said that we were lucky because a lot of people don't get to see the Grand Canyon like that. Wednesday evening we spent the night at the Maswik Lodge and on Thanksgiving morning we awoke to snow!!! We were on our own to explore the town and the views until the train left on Thursday afternoon.

Again We stayed in Williams and then headed home on Friday.....which was a bit of an adventure in itself, but adventures are always exciting :-) We looked around Flagstaff until our flight was scheduled to leave. In fact we got to the small Flagstaff airport a little early - so the three of us past the time playing a game. As it got close to the time of our departure, we realized that there might be a problem......our plane hadn't arrived and our flight had been canceled :-( So now,what to do was the question?????? Well, fortunately, our rental car was still available, so we rerented it and debated on whether to drive to Phoenix and possibly make a flight from there or drive home.....our decision was to go with a sure thing, which meant driving home. Since our flight had been scheduled to leave about 6:00 p.m., that meant that we arrived home around 2:00 a.m PST!!!! Then, of course we still had to get up and drive to LAX on Saturday to return the car and pick up our car at the airport!!!!

Molly & John's wedding

We  traveled to North Carolina for Molly & John's wedding.  On Friday when we arrived, it was raining.  The "pig pull" was outside at Kathy & Dave's home, so Kathy & Dave added a tent type covering, so that no one got wet!  Everyone had a great time.  

The day of the wedding was beautiful and clear and just a little cool.  Unfortunately we forgot our camera, so you'll have to check out Kathy's blog for those pics :-)   Molly & John are a wonderful couple.   Rick & I felt blessed to be able to be a part of this special day.  Since our flight didn't leave until Monday, we enjoyed hanging out with Kathy, Dave, & Joanna after the wedding too.

Prescott, AZ

On Friday October 19th, two friends from work, Lori & Nahid (Jolah) took a "ROAD TRIP". We drove to Prescott, AZ to visit our good friend, Janet, who retired a year ago. The drive is about 7 hours one way. Above is a place we stopped for lunch - this was about the entire town; we ate in the cafe and some men were cleaning their guns in the adjacent bar - how fast can we eat???!?!?!?!?

Janet's husband, Tom, was so kind to give us the gift of a girls weekend - so he left to enjoy a weekend in Laughlin. Janet showed us around the town of Prescott - an old western town. The first afternoon we spent walking up Whiskey Row (know for having about 47 bars on the street at one time). We shopped a little and had a drink at The Palace; it had some wonderful old pictures and artifacts and apparently, Wyatt Earp used to hang out at this bar!!!!!

Friday evening, Nahid cooked us an authenic Persion dinner - YUM! And we talked until midnight (way past my bedtime).
On Saturday, Lori & Nahid took a hike, while Janet & I worked on some card making items. Then we headed back into town and shopped a little and had lunch. The time flew by and Sunday morning came all too soon, so we headed home :-( Next trip to AZ???????

I count my friends as special blessings.

Glacier, Seattle, & Tahoe

On July 19th Rick & I had Starbucks in Oceanside, lunch at Seatac and dinner in Glacier National Park - crazy, huh? We flew in to Kalispell, Mt. and rented a car and drove up to meet Rick's sister, Kathy, and Dave in Mini Glacier. When I was young I had camped at Glacier and Rick had never been there before, so two days really wasn't long enough, but it had been a few years since we'd seen Kathy & Dave so it was really special. Kathy & Dave were our private tour guides to the park....so we saw some pretty amazing sites. During the evenings we introduced Kathy & Dave to one of our favorite board games, "Ticket to Ride" and I think we got them hooked too!!!!

We saw a mountain goat and her baby at the side of the road and a moose in the lake.

We flew from Kalispell to Seattle on July 28th and spent the night with Becky & Sean and the boys.....another quick visit.....but we love every visit - no matter how short :-)

Ethan is soooo cute in his hat!!! I have some fun reading books on the computer with Micah & Ethan while Lucas is at school.

Finally for our originally planned trip.....Lake Tahoe

We spent two days in Tahoe at a timeshare visit we'd earned while in Kauai last year. This one is in South Lake Tahoe. One of the things we decided to do while there was to take a lunch cruise on the lake. It was beautiful!! The ride lasted about 2 hours. The boat was smaller boat, which meant there weren't a lot of people on the cruise, so we got to know some of the other passengers, which was really nice.

The larger paddle boat would have been fun but not as intimite.

The flight loads were pretty full....so we decided to drive home rather than fly. Neither or us had ever been down 395, so that just added to our adventure!!