Adventures of a Midwestern Girl (and Her Hillbilly Hermit Tennessean) in Sunny, Sunny California

Last weekend, Steve and I went to Safari West for my birthday. Yes, my birthday was 5 months ago. But, for a variety of reasons (foster care raccoons; wanting to be sure it was warm September, not cold April; conference and vacation schedules of co-workers), we had planned it for this weekend. The whole Safari West experience is not cheap. My birthday present was a combined effort of my parents, Steve, and my own contributions. But it is so worth it!

We went up on Sunday afternoon after our shift at WildCare, getting up there around 4:30. The accommodations are “luxury safari tents”. They are basically like cabins, but the walls are made of canvas; each “room” is its own separate building. Even though the tents have some distance between them, because the walls are made of canvas, it is possible to hear people talking in other tents, so you do need to be a bit careful to keep your voice down. But the place is so relaxing and quiet, with just the sounds of the animals for the most part. Our tent was off at the end of the road, quite a bit away from the main area. It was perfect, just across from the lake.

There were some tents just across the road from the first animal enclosure which would have had great views of the giraffes, but there were some Sarus Cranes in there that made this huge trumpeting noise. Apparently the trumpeting of this species of bird was used as the velociraptor calls in Jurassic Park. Steve and I quickly agreed that we were glad to have a bit of distance from these calls.

After getting settled in our tent, we headed down to the main area to peruse the gift shop and take a look at the animals in the immediate area. The cheetahs were in a great position for pictures and I’m very glad we saw them Sunday because they were a bit harder to see on Monday.

Dinner was very good, with grilled meats, baked mac and cheese, salad, etc and fresh blackberry cobbler with ice cream. After dinner, everyone headed out to the lake to watch the catfish feeding. Safari West put 500 catfish in the lake 8 years ago. They have no idea how many are in there now, but these fish are enormous. Finally, we headed back to the dining area and roasted marshmallows while one of the employees played guitar. It was wonderfully relaxing. Actually, it was kind of like being at camp.

Back at the tent, we discovered that it was freezing. Because it had been in the high 90s and our tent had been stifling that afternoon, we had decided not to pay heed to the detailed instructions of how to be sure our tent was warm and cozy when we got back from dinner. It had been so hot that the last thing we wanted to do was close up the window flaps and turn on the space heater. But it cooled off rapidly when the sun went down. I think it was probably in the 50s overnight, and we left the window flaps halfway down so we could hear the animal sounds. The bed was warm and comfortable, so it was only the occasional trip to the loo that was cold.

However, in the morning, I had a long debate with myself over whether or not a shower was really necessary. Ultimately, I decided it was all part of the experience, so I headed into the open-air ventilated bathroom and turned the water as hot as it would go.

After breakfast, we headed out for our tour. It is amazing how much land Safari West has; their web site says the preserve is 400 acres. The first 2 and a half hours were spent driving around the property looking at the animals. We started in the main enclosure which holds the giraffes. There were several baby giraffes, including one that had just been born a week earlier.

After this first area, we headed off through a gate into the rangeland. The animals have acres and acres of land to roam. Ultimately, for the animals out on the range, I think it is almost like being in the wild, except that they do not need to worry about food, water, shelter, or predators.

The 3-hour safari tours are conducted mostly on these old Korean War-era trucks. There is a seating area up on top of the truck, over the head of the driver. We definitely wanted to sit up there, but we had to wait our turn. I’m actually glad that we didn’t sit up top for the first part of the tour. We went up top second, just as we started to head off-road into the range. It was quite an exciting ride at times and you know how I like a good thrill ride.

As we headed up and over a few hills, I was speculating with Steve what animals might be out there as we passed fields and fields of poop piles. Over one last hill and we got our answer.

These Scimitar Horned Oryx were enormous and they had so much space to roam.

I guess you seldom see all of the species of animals that live at Safari West on the tour because they have so much space and they just aren’t always by the road. But we saw plenty.

Let’s face it. The animals out on the range were all prey species. The only predators at Safari West are the cheetahs and a serval and they are in enclosures in the main area. So, basically, as we rode around the property we saw lots of variations on the deer/gazelle type of species. But our guide pointed out something interesting that I had never really realized before. When watching nature programs, I have wondered from time to time how different species stayed together during a stampede when a pride of lions attacked. Our guide noted that each of these different prey species has a different pattern on its butt. He called them “follow marks”. So, one species had black stripes on each cheek,

another species had a white circle around its butt (like it had sat on a freshly painted toilet seat),

another had those white circles filled in so each cheek was a white semi-circle,

and so on and so on. So each species basically recognizes the butt markings of their family members. During a stampede, as long as they follow the right markings, they’ll be together at the end. Neat.

In addition to these animals and many more, we also saw zebra, cape buffalo, and wildebeests.

We were also "trapped" by a couple of very curious ostriches. Ostriches can be very dangerous and the guide couldn't get out of the truck to open the gate we had to pass through with the ostriches so close, so we had to wait for another guide to come over and open the gate for us. In the meantime, we got some up close and personal moments with the birds. The female even spent a few minutes pecking at Steve's foot. As I said at the time, them's good eats between the toes!

After the driving part of the tour, we took another 45 minutes or so for the walking tour around the cheetah enclosures, the serval, and the lemurs.

There was an adorable baby on the lemur island. He moved so quickly that there were times I thought there were two of them. I’d be taking a picture and he’d leap out of the frame in one direction and within the blink of an eye, he was suddenly coming back in from the other direction.

Before leaving, Steve and I had a great lunch from the on-site deli and then took one last walk around the tent area and the lake. I had an absolutely fantastic time. Staying overnight at Safari West was a great experience and the atmosphere of the place actually reminded us of our most favorite place ever: Silky Oaks (from our honeymoon in Australia). I think perhaps next year we might consider taking a little mini-vacation close to home and stay there for 3 nights or so, making it our base from which to explore the area. If we do, we’ll definitely pay attention to the instructions for keeping the tent warm overnight, though.

Posted by Anne at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend, Steve and I spent some time at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. For those unfamiliar with Bay Area geography, Santa Cruz is just south of our offices and then west to the ocean. Rather than drive home Friday night and then back right past our offices Saturday morning on a 2-hour drive to Santa Cruz, we decided to leave right from work Friday and spend the night. During the summer, the Boardwalk has free concerts on Friday nights. When we were choosing our weekend, I took a look at the concert schedule and saw that the Gin Blossoms were playing on the 22nd; I had always liked them in college, and none of the other groups really appealed to us, so we decided that was the weekend to go.

We got to Santa Cruz in great time, but didn't get to the boardwalk until just after the show had started because the service at the local Denny's was, ummm, good but laid-back. Anyway, this meant that we didn't have a great selection for planting our butts on the beach in front of the stage. We finally found an open area and sat down to enjoy the concert. Shortly thereafter, we discovered perhaps why this area had been empty as 3 drunk bimbos stumbled over to re-arrange their blanket. One of them (with the biggest, blondest hair of the group) said "hold this" to Steve and thrust her purse and beer can at him so she could get to work on their patch of sand, holding her blanket this way and that and effectively blocking the view of everyone behind her.

The guards rather quickly tossed her and her brethren off the beach. Apparently, their 40 oz of Bud Light were not allowed on the beach. I was a little afraid we were going to get tossed with them since Steve was still holding the purse and beer, but we were fortunately not mistaken as part of the group. So off they went and Steve and I thought we had lucked out. But their blanket was still there and they came back shortly with new beers in plastic cups.

Which the guards promptly told them they had to chug or leave the beach. With such an option, what do you think they did?

At any rate, with the beers gone there was significantly less chance that Steve would get a beer spilled over his head.

The concert was fun; the Gin Blossoms played all of their hits. And I was really impressed with the sound system. Remember, this was outside, on a beach. Honestly, the sound was better than the last concert Steve and I went to at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland (which was really disappointing).

Staying overnight in Santa Cruz allowed us to sleep in and still get to the boardwalk right when it opened at 11AM. The day started off overcast and there weren't many people there, so we hopped on the rides quickly. I rode the Fireball again and, like last time, had great fun.

Rides generally do not make me ill; I love the teacups, much to Steve's dismay. But I may have finally met my match. The Tornado is like the teacups, but the cups are suspended in mid-air making them rotate that much more vigorously and sway in 3 dimensions, not just on the linear plane. Steve refused to go on it. I knew I could never get the thing rotating enough on my own, so I found myself a strapping young lad sitting by himself and took the seat next to him.

We did get the thing going, and it was fun, but I didn’t feel quite right afterward. Steve and I took a 20-minute break while I regained my equilibrium, but I was a little worried I would spend the rest of the day feeling off. With a little trepidation, I agreed to another ride on the Giant Dipper. And I was fine afterwards. The roller coaster seemed to shake me back into balance and I was back in ride mode!

And we were off the Logger's Revenge!

Half-way through the day, it was time for mini-golf. I'm always up for a good game of mini-golf, especially when I can take the opportunity to wipe the floor with Steve. I played an absolutely magnificent round, while Steve. . . Steve's worst hole took 15 strokes. Heh heh heh.

I was so on that I actually made the hole-in-one at the end! I didn't think such a thing was even possible, but there my ball went, right in. It must have been the laser-guided targeting mechanism in my eyes, in evidence in the picture below, that guided my golf ball straight and true.

By the time 4:00 rolled around, the boardwalk had gotten very crowded and the lines were way too long. With a 2 hour drive ahead of us, we made a final purchase of salt water taffy and cinnamon apples and headed out.

We got home tired, but happy, and were looking forward to a nice relaxing evening. But there was a phone message about a baby raccoon at WildCare that needed to go into foster care. But that's a story for another post.

Posted by Anne at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, okay, this entry is terribly late. What can I say? I've been really busy. Anyway, since I was going to Seattle for the SLA conference in June, Steve and I decided to make it a long weekend before the conference to visit our friends A & V. It had been about a year since we saw them last, so it was great to have a little time for a visit.

We started off the trip with a leisurely visit to the local zoo. Our first animal encounter may not have been quite what V was expecting, but I was enthusiastic.

Surprisingly, I was the only one who seemed to want to get my hand covered with alpaca slobber. At first, the two alpacas were over on the far side of the enclosure. I got some food out of the machine and was ready to walk over to them, but they hauled a$$ over to me as soon as they heard me put the quarters into the vending machine.

Although not into the alpacas, Steve was able to commune with an emu a couple of enclosures over.

The zoo has a pretty impressive population of macaws. They were really pretty and this one knew how to wave good-bye to us.

Of course, at a place called Cougar Mountain, one would expect to see some kitties. First, there were two beautiful tigers. The zoo had specifically requested these two boys for their coloration. They are currently in a kind of toddler enclosure (they're only a year or so old). Their permanent enclosure is going to be a couple of acres and the zoo is scrambling to finish it so it will be ready once these guys outgrow their current apartment.

The cougars were next to the tigers, but, while the tigers are young kids, the cougars are senior citizens. They are still beautiful, but you can tell the aches and pains of old age are starting to take a toll.

The next day we headed downtown. First, we decided to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Mind you, we didn't really go to the island. We just took the ferry over and back which a lot of tourists do. It doesn't cost much and it's a great way to see Seattle and Puget Sound. It was a gorgeous day to get out on the water.

After our ferry ride, we stopped in a few shops and walked through the Public Market. We had already gone there on our last visit, so we didn't spend too much time. We were kind of just killing time waiting to go on the ghost tour we had booked the night before. The ghost tour was a little bit of a disappointment as it was more of a "people who have died here" kind of tour. But it was still interesting, and the group is putting together another tour of the Public Market area that will focus more on the local history and scandals. That could be neat for our next visit.

The cost of the ghost tour included admission to an improv theatre group that was in the middle of a marathon. They'd been going at it for 24 hours or so when we went in and I think they were starting to get tired. It was, ummm, interesting. There were a few funny moments, but one half hour session was enough for 3 out of 4 of us. Besides, it had been a long day out on the water and in the sun, so we headed back to A & V's place to watch a movie.

On the way across Lake Washington, we actually caught sight of one Washington icon that Steve and I were convinced was nothing more than a tall tale used to lure tourists to the area. For years now, A & V have been saying "Oh, if only Rainier was out today" "We wish you could see Rainier" "Rainier's so beautiful". But we'd never seen it. It was still playing hard to get, but finally Mt. Rainier decided to give us a glimpse as if just to prove its existence.

On Sunday, after a long weekend of eating way too much food, and drinking way too much drink (including some fabulous rum drinks at Bahama Breeze), Steve flew home and I headed off to the SLA conference. It is always wonderful to see A & V, and Seattle is a great city. Which brings me to one last point I want to make. Seattle folks are whiners.

I loved the time I spent in Seattle. The downtown area was walkable, even with the hills, and there were lots of cool shops and places to eat. I'm sure there are places in the city where this would not be the case, but unlike in San Francisco, I never once passed a doorway and inhaled the scent of urine.

Also unlike in San Francisco, the city never had that low tide smell. Whenever I'm in San Francisco, at certain times of day, it smells like low tide. And, as you walk past sewer manhole covers, you'll often be treated to a burst of warm, stinky air. Despite the fact that Seattle is every bit as much a port city as San Francisco is, it never smelled that way.

Finally, the weather. Everyone complains about the overcast days. Granted, I was there in June and it is less overcast in the summer than in the winter. But here's the thing. Whenever I was talking to a local and I mentioned that we'd had good luck with the weather the last few days (overcast in the morning, but burning off to be sunny in the afternoon), I got an unenthusiastic semi-agreement. Like they were agreeing just to be polite, but they actually thought the weather sucked.

I worked in my firm's Seattle office on my last day there. As I was walking in the halls outside the office, some random young woman, looked at me and laughed. "Only in Seattle," she said, "would anyone be wearing a turtleneck in June." This, btw, was one of my nice fine-knit Ann Taylor turtlenecks, not some bulky fleece-lined number. I refrained from responding that this is what I would commonly wear to our San Francisco office in June. Frankly, I was a bit taken aback by her comment.

So, you've got a city that has a funky downtown, weather similar to that in San Francisco, and that does not appear to smell like urine, rotting fish, and sewage at various intervals. What's the problem, exactly?

Posted by Anne at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Steve and I went to the Maker Faire this Saturday in San Mateo and we were totally unprepared for just how many people were there. Honestly, I have never seen such a back up to get off the highway or line to get into the event. So, in the spirit of generosity, I will begin with my 2 tips for getting to the Maker Faire.

1) Pull out a map and know the alternate routes. Here in the Bay Area, I think a lot of people have GPS navigation systems in their cars. And those that don't use MapQuest or Live Maps or some other online mapping utility to get directions. But all of these electronic resources say the same thing: Take 101 and get off at the junction with 92 West, then take the Delaware St exit. And so, everyone was going this way and the backup onto 101 was incredible. Steve and I took 92 East instead and used surface streets to find our way to the fairgrounds and I'm sure this saved us at least a half an hour.

2) Buy your tickets online in advance. Always looking for a deal, I scoped out the ticket situation in advance and found that we would save $5 by buying our tickets online. Once we finally pulled up to the fairgrounds, we were stunned by the line that wound around the block. Fortunately, this was the line to buy tickets, not to get in, so Steve and I just strolled through the gate with no delay, saving us another 30 minutes to enjoy the fair.

And we did enjoy it, although I didn't always understand what I was looking at. In the first building, there were a few times when we were looking at something particularly circuit-y and electronic-y; Steve was just amazed and would turn to see the lack of enthusiasm on my face and asked if I could see or was bored or whatever. I finally, had to just tell him that I have no experience with or exposure to how these things work and I just didn't know what I was seeing. A few fair information booths were selling t-shirts that said "If you can't open it, you don't own it". That's almost a relief because it means most of the crap in our house isn't mine so it's not my problem, right?

We were both really impressed with all of the children's activities that were going on and agreed it was a great event for exposing kids to engineering and we really wished there'd been something like this when we were growing up.

I may not always have understood everything I was looking at, but I knew enough to get excited about the giant Tesla Coils brought as a 1:12 scale model of the Nevada Lightning Laboratory:

And, of course, fire, fire, heh heh, fire:

Gas prices being what they are, we explored alternate methods of transportation, too.

We also spent some time looking at the gray water exhibit and agreed that one of the many things on our wishlist for our dream house should we ever get it is a gray water system. However, we both drew the line at the waterless composting toilet. Exactly how do you explain to guests at a dinner party how much straw they should sprinkle over their waste in the toilet?

Posted by Anne at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday 11/22/07 Thanksgiving

Our last full day in Hawaii. We tried to go for a snorkel when we got up, but the waves were just too choppy. Instead, we spent most of the day at the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium. It is really a very nice aquarium, even if it is a little pricey. They’ve got some very nice reef exhibits as well as a large tiger shark that is just about to be released back into the wild.

Being Thanksgiving, many places were closed, but we did manage to sneak in with reservations at Roy’s Restaurant. Paulette at WildCare had recommended this restaurant for their chocolate soufflé (i.e. chocolate volcano). What can I say? The soufflé was absolutely magnificent.

Posted by Anne at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wednesday 11/21/07

Today we went to the last part of the island we were going to be able to explore – the northwest side. We started out by stopping at Honolua Bay for some good views of the coast and to watch the surfers do their thing. It was surprisingly fun to watch.

We had nearly reached one of our two main destinations for the day when Steve realized we were almost out of gas. There isn’t much in the way of towns or services that far up the coast, so we had to turn around and had back almost all the way to our condo, pulling into the gas station on fumes. Fortunately, while the road was windy, we were only about 10 miles up the road when we saw the gas gauge.

Back out on the road, we made our way back up to Nakalele Blowhole. It had rained pretty heavily just a few minutes before we got there, as well as much of the night before, so we decided to observe the blowhole from up the hill rather than slide down to it. There was another group down at the blowhole and one dumbass among them kept trying to sidle up to the blowhole and look down into it between waves. We kept expecting to catch a picture of him being sucked down to send in to the local newspaper. Fortunately for him, the guy had luck on his side and he managed to escape without injury.

Our final stop on the road was the Olivine Pools, so named by the authors of “the book”. These were beautiful. In spite of our better judgement, we did slide our way down the hill toward these pools. I spent some of the time on my butt, but once we got closer, the footing got rockier and was easier to manage. On a dry day, this wouldn’t have been any trouble to get to.

The waves were a bit rough, so we didn’t go into the pools for a soak, but I did make my way down the final way in order to rinse the worst of the mud from my shoes in preparation for the hike back up. The water was wonderful.

At the parking area, we had met a woman named Vanessa who we hiked down with. This was very fortunate as we were able to swap picture-taking efforts with each other in this remote location. I would love to make it back to these pools again someday.

Posted by Anne at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday 11/20/07

Up again today before dawn for the snorkeling trip I had scheduled to Molokini Crater. In those last moments before the alarm went off, I was dreaming that we had overslept and were going to miss the trip. Even in my dream, Steve wasn’t nearly as upset by the prospect as I was. But off the alarm went and we were out the door by 6am to drive to the boat dock. Unfortunately, due to the trade winds and choppy seas, we were unable to go to Molokini after all. Instead, they took us to their alternate site, a place called Coral Gardens. I don’t blame the tour group; every other boat out that day was going to an alternate location. It couldn’t be helped, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Molokini is supposed to be so great for snorkeling and it is a far way off the coast of Maui. Coral Gardens had decent snorkeling, but it was only a few miles up the coast from the dock and was within view of the highway we had driven to get to the dock.

Oh well, I really shouldn’t complain; we obviously don’t have things too tough.

And we did get to see a small octopus there! I tried very hard to get a picture of it swimming, but it only moved twice from one rock to another where it would settle in to look just like the rest of the rocks. It was pretty neat, though, because it changed color to a dark tone while swimming, and immediately back to a mottled pink to blend in with the rocks. If I didn’t see it moving, I would have thought it was just another rock.

Day 9 - Part 2

Yesterday, during our day of relaxation in Lahaina, Steve and I booked a sunset cocktail cruise with the Pacific Whale Foundation. It seemed like a nice relaxing thing to do. Of course, that meant only a short rest between the snorkel trip and leaving for the sunset cruise, but Steve still got a short nap in while I typed up the first part of this entry.

The sunset cruise was absolutely lovely. While it was advertised as an appetizer cruise, the food was substantial and delicious, and Steve and I didn’t need anything else for dinner. The Mai Tais were loaded generously with rum and the sunset was beautiful. (Check out my fancy new Aloha shirt!)

One thing about drinking Mai Tais on a ship is, when you walk and stumble a little bit, it’s hard to know if it’s the rum or the waves at the root of the problem. I think it was probably a little bit of both, honestly. I’m really glad we signed up for this cruise; it was a wonderful way to spend an evening.

Posted by Anne at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday 11/19/07

It was shortly after our zipline tour on Wednesday, just as he realized I had a big hike in Waimea Canyon scheduled for the next day and then we were flying to Maui at 7am on Friday so we could get an early start on the drive to Hana, oh and by the way didn’t he know that the zipline day WAS a rest day because all we had to do was show up at 11:00 and the rest of it was taken care of for us, that Steve started referring to our vacation as a death march. There is so much to see, and neither of us are lay-on-the-beach-for-days kind of people, so I had booked us pretty full when planning this trip. Obviously a day of rest was in order, but we had to plow through until after the horseback ride.

Our first full day in the Lahaina area was just that. We slept in and then drove to Lahainatown to walk along Front Street for a few hours, taking in the sights and window shopping.

I got a couple of new Aloha shirts, but that was it. We also stopped by Banyan Tree Park to observe the extraordinary tree. Planted in 1873 this single tree stands over 60 feet high, has 12 major trunks in addition to a huge core, and stretches over a 200-foot area.

After that, we went to Whalers Village Shopping Center, got some big-ass ice cream sundaes, and started to stroll along the beach path behind the shopping center. The day topped off with a fantastic and huge Italian dinner. Not much to report on this day, but it was certainly a nice change of pace from the previous vacation days.

Oh, and now that our condo is oceanfront and WEST-facing, here is the sunset from the lanai.

Posted by Anne at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday 11/18

You know how your knuckles feel when you sprain a finger and it gets all swollen? Right at the joint there, you can’t quite bend your finger, and the swollen fleshy bits touch each other more quickly then they normally do? That’s how my butt feels.

Today, we went for our horseback ride with Pony Express down Haleakala Crater. It was fantastic! It was supposed to be a 3.5 – 4 hour ride, but it was almost 5 hours start to finish. We rode down, down, down, to the crater floor, almost 4 miles in distance and down 2,400 feet.

My horse was Benny, described by the guide, Ra, as a good horse but a bit lazy. I told Ra I had dealt with lazy males before.

Steve rode Chuck. In the grand scheme of the horse hierarchy, it was clear that Benny did not like Chuck. Perhaps because Chuck wanted to get a move on while Benny preferred to lag behind.

Benny was, indeed, a bit lazy. He was okay once he got moving, but if he ever had to come to a stop, it was challenging to get him to go again; as I kicked and used the reins and “heeaw”’ed, Benny just turned his head and looked at me like, “oh, please”. It was particularly problematic when we came to a rocky downward slope. All the horses took that bit a little slowly, so the gap that had built up between them and Benny and me (due to Benny’s plodding style), was usually closed and we came to a stop as the horse in front of us started down. Convincing Benny it was time to start up again was difficult. Benny thus proved the scientific theorem that a horse in motion tends to stay in motion while a horse at rest tends to stay at rest.

But I noticed Benny chose his footing very carefully. He didn’t always just follow the horses in front of him; if he thought there was easier way, he took it. He stayed on the less sandy side of the trail, for instance. Over rocky footing he would pause and then make his choice of the best way too go. If there was a shortcut to be found, Benny found it.

On the way back up, Ra told us to be careful on the upcoming rocky incline as the horses had been known to jump over it, rather than step up. Knowing Benny by this time, I was sure he would think the quick jump was easier than the three or four careful steps-up. So, I was ready for him when, indeed, he took that incline in one hop. He was the only horse to do so.

All I can really say about Chuck, not having ridden him, is that he was one of the gassiest horses ever. I was behind him on the return journey and with just about every step there came a fart noise. It was like being in a wind tunnel. Fortunately, I had dealt with gaseous males before, too.

We had absolutely perfect weather for the trip. It was cool at that elevation, but the sun was shining brightly and there were few clouds in the sky. As we reached the summit on the return journey, it started to get mistier and mistier and the wind started to blow. By this time my ass was hurting pretty bad, too. I admit that, for the last 20 minutes or so, I was just wondering when this ride was going to end. Steve and I agreed that it was a wonderful ride and we are so glad we did it, but if it had been cold and misty from the start, it would have been an absolutely wretched day. I don’t think Steve would be speaking to me at the end of it.

However, as the mist started to come in, it was time for the most beautiful rainbow picture ever.

Tired and chilled after our ride, we headed back to the Kula Lodge and got a light lunch of soup and fruit salad before continuing on to Lahaina. It was after we arrived at the condo and I had to walk again that I noticed my cheeks had swollen to be puffier than usual.

Posted by Anne at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday 11/17

As I mentioned yesterday, Steve loves the lava tubes. There is a big old, pay-to-get-in lava tube in the Hana area that we were thinking about hitting before starting out on the road Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it didn’t open until 10 am and we were out and about by 9 am. Instead, we headed over to the Wai-'anapanapa State Park which was really worth the visit. There are some cool freshwater pools that you can hike to, complete with a legend of a crazy ancient Hawaiian king who killed his princess there after she ran away from his cruelty.

There’s also a great black sand beach, an old cemetery, and a cool sea arch. We were a little rushed because we wanted to get on the road, but it was a neat place to stop.

Our plan had been to drive from Hana around the south side of the island and head up to the Haleakala area from that direction. “The book” advised that the road was much better than it used to be and its former reputation was no longer warranted. However, “the book” was published in 2005 and an earthquake in 2006 had caused a landslide to close the highway going south. We discovered this when I asked about the road at the gas station in Hana, and it was confirmed by the signs and pictures at the national park we stopped at a little further along the road.

The landslide is still there and the road is closed indefinitely at this point. I almost wonder if political reasons are keeping the road blocked. . . i.e. the people of Hana didn’t like that the road was becoming so passable anyway.

But I digress. Since we could no longer follow through on our plan to drive all the way around the island, we would have to head back the way we came. We decided to continue south where there are some great waterfalls until we could go no further, then turn around and head back, stopping at the lava tubes on our return.

One of the nicer waterfalls to the south of Hana is Wailua Falls. It is gorgeous. There is a short hike to the right of the waterfall that will take you closer to the falls, and you can even clamor down to the swimming pool beneath, as we saw a local family do while we were there. Fortunately, due to our plan of staying overnight in Hana and not trying to get this far in one day, we got to these falls early and they were fairly deserted. When we passed by later in the day, they were terribly crowded and there was nowhere to park.

The other awesome falls on this section of road is an unnamed waterfall at Hahalawe Stream that you need to hike down to a bit. Really not far, but you have to climb down from the side of the road, maybe a 3-minute walk. At the bottom, though, is a beautiful section of waterfall that not many people have discovered because you can’t see it from the highway and, apparently, they aren’t being guided by “the book”. It is a perfect paradise down there. You can barely see the cars going by overhead, the waterfall is perfect, and there are big boulders to sit on and enjoy the scenery. Highly recommended.

Finally, we reached Oheo Gulch (aka the Seven Sacred Pools). Yes, more waterfalls. But this is a whole series of waterfalls, each with a swimming pool (more than 7, by the way), flowing into each other all the way down to the sea. Better yet, it is part of the Haleakala National Park. A “day pass” is actually good for 3 days and we were heading up to Haleakala Crater the next day, so paying here would mean we didn’t have to pay up there, as long as we kept the receipt. It was lovely there. It was already starting to get a little crowded when we were there at 11:30; I can’t even imagine it later in the day.

Oh so conveniently, the road was blocked just AFTER Oheo Gulch, so this was the end of the road for us. We headed back towards Hana as a steady stream of cars headed toward Oheo Gulch.

After a quick lunch in Hana, we drove up to the aforementioned lava tube. This was definitely worth the stop, especially if you like caves and/or geology (I’m looking at you, Mom and Dad). The Ka’eleku Lava Tube seems to be both a way to support the landowner and a labor of love. There is signage all along the tube explaining the lava flow and geologic forces at work in the formations. While a bit bummed that we couldn’t see the south side of the island, I’m really glad we were able to spend time at this lava tube.

One weird thing, though. Apparently, this lava tube was the nuclear fallout shelter for the greater Hana area back in the 1950s-60s. Just past the section of the tube that had this signage, there was a gaping whole in the ceiling of the tube, with a massive growth of flora. Now, I’m sure things grow quickly in Maui, but from the amount of growth, I’m not sure if that hole is recent enough to have been post-fallout shelter. I meant to ask the owner about it, but I forgot. Oh well.

This next picture is of Steve right below the gaping maw.

And this one is at the entrance to the tube.

Finally, we were headed away from Hana in earnest, but not before we stopped to get a picture of Steve, “King of the Road to Hana”, with the road winding away behind him.

That night, we stayed at the Kula Lodge, just down the road from Crater Highway. We had an early morning planned at the Crater and wanted to avoid a long drive to get there. Steve and I agreed that it just wasn't worth it to us to get up for the sunrise, but we had to be there early for our horseback ride!

I really liked the Kula Lodge. The room was very nice and the restaurant was excellent. It was a little pricey (both the room and the restaurant), but it was worth it to be that close to the crater. And, indeed, our meal at the Kula Lodge was still cheaper than it would have been the night before at the Hotel Hana Maui! And it was SO GOOD.

Posted by Anne at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday 11/16

"But wait," you say. "I thought the road to Hana was on Maui, not Kauai." And you would be right, my friend.

It all seemed to make such good sense at the time I was planning the trip. And, honestly, it did make sense. We got up around 4am on Friday to catch our 7:10 flight to Maui. The idea was to arrive on Maui by 9:00 and start from the Kahului airport for Hana, thus cutting an extra hour off of the drive than if we had set out from Lahaina, where we would be staying for most of our time on Maui. It worked very well, other than the 4am part.

Anyway, we said good-bye to our lovely Kauai condo and off we flew to Maui.

One of the things that makes the Road to Hana so scenic is the numerous waterfalls along the way. Some of them were flowing better than others, but here are a few that we stopped at.

Upper Waikani Falls (aka Three Bears Falls)

Pua'a Ka'a Falls

Along the way, "the book" directed us to a lava tube on the side of the road. Steve loves him the caves and lava tubes, and off he went disappearing into a hole in the ground for a good 5 minutes or more. When he emerged, he insisted I had to go in with him. I am a wee bit on the claustrophobic side, and I had just been taking some close-up photos of a massive spider whose web was hanging in the entryway to another, smaller lava tube, so I was disinclined to acquiesce.

However, with a little prodding, I followed along. Other than the fact that, in his excitement, Steve took off with the flashlight and I tripped and fell on my ass in the resulting darkness, it was worth the trip in. A little way back into the tube, after one small squeeze that made me nearly panic, the tube turned a corner and there was light up ahead. The top and side of the tube had collapsed and it was pure jungle through the opening. The roots from the trees on the surface had come through the tube and made their way down all the way into the ground below. It was really pretty cool.

In addition to lots of waterfalls along the road, the other thing you see a lot of is burned-out cars. I am not exaggerating when I say that every mile there was at least 1 abandoned, and usually burned, car on the side of the road. I did not get the sense that these cars were left over from accidents as waterfall-obsessed tourists veered off the winding road. Rather, I got the feeling that we were seeing something similar to our rubbish heap experience on Kauai. I think that when people are done with their cars, they simply park them on the side of the road to rot. Sometimes they might set them on fire. Or maybe others do it at later times when there's nothing else to do on a Saturday night. All I know is they were everywhere. Here is one such van we encountered.

We finally got to Hana late in the afternoon, around 4 pm. We were staying the night, so we got checked into our little rental unit before heading out to see booming downtown Hana. Booming it is not. I'm not even sure it has a "downtown". The people who live in Hana don't want their town to be overrun by tourists, so they seem to have gone as far in the opposite direction as possible. One of the reasons the 100-year-old one-lane bridges haven't been replaced with two-lane bridges is simply because the people of Hana won't pay for them. They want them to stay one-lane.

So, we went down to Hana Bay and walked around to the decaying old pier, trying not to piss off the locals as we went.

When I asked the lady at the rental unit where we could find dinner that night, she said we might be able to find a BBQ stand on the side of the road, but they were probably closed. As "the book" had said, there are all of 3 places to eat in Hana, and one of them is only open for lunch. So, we made reservations for the higher recommended of the 2, the Hotel Hana Maui, and settled in for a rest until dinner.

When we arrived at the hotel's restaurant, we discovered it was a buffet with some type of show, and it would cost $50 each. Looking at the menu, we didn't see much that really appealed anyway. So, we ditched the restaurant and, with just 5 minutes until the store closed, we raced into the local market and searched the shelves of dried seafood, WD-40, and tube socks for dinner items. We settled on peanut butter to eat with the pineapple bread we'd brought from Kauai, a $5 bag of Sun Chips (import fees, you know), and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cinna-bon ice cream, plus the 2 bananas we had in the car. We headed back to the rental unit where we happily ate our dinner sitting in bed. Ah, so much style and class!

Posted by Anne at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday 11/15

I swear, these are the last sunrise pictures of the trip. After this it's all sunsets. : )

Thursday was the day to re-visit the Waimea Canyon. We had gone on our last trip to Kauai, but there are so many great hikes, we had to go again. Last time we did the Canyon Trail to the Waipo'o Falls. This time, I really wanted to do the 2-mile Alakai Swamp hike. The hike through the swamp is on a boardwalk, so I figured it wouldn't be too tough, but to get there, we had to first hike the 2-mile Pihea Trail. (That would be 8 miles round trip.) We got some great views of the Kalalau Valley as we hiked across the ridgeline.

The trail was pretty tough with lots of boulders and rugged terrain. It became clear pretty quickly that we weren't going to make it to the swamp portion of the hike, so we opted to clamor our way up to the Pihea Overlook, instead.

Another couple we met as we were starting our return journey had made it through the swamp hike and, as I suspected, said the boardwalk was easy and the view at the end was magnificent. But the sun was getting low in the sky and we still had the 2-mile return trek ahead of us. I guess we'll just have to get up earlier and try the swamp hike next time.

Back at the car, we made stops at the Pu'u Hinahina and Waimea Canyon Lookouts on our way back down to the ocean.

As we were driving along the south side of the island back to our condo in Kapa'a, we saw a beautiful rainbow to the north. We were planning on stopping at the Hanapepe Valley Lookout anyway and that was about 1 minute further down the road. We came to a screeching halt at the lookout and just barely managed to capture the lingering remains of the rainbow over the valley before it disappeared.

Posted by Anne at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wednesday 11/14

Our ziplining tour with Princeville Ranch Adventures was the first of three big tours I had planned for our trip and I had thought long and hard about it before booking it. I was intrigued by the concept of soaring over rain forests, and I do love a good roller coaster, but I was also a bit concerned that I would wuss out when the time came to step off the platform. As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry at all.

There was never a moment where I felt I was in danger or that the trip was anything but fun. After the first “bunny hill” of ziplines, there were 8 more lines of increasing length. They just got better and better and we had a great time.

After all but the last zipline, we went for a quick dip in a swimming hole before having our picnic lunch. While refreshing, the swim was the one part I could have done without – it was very hard to get dry and I just felt muddy and damp the rest of the day. And, yes, my legs are glaringly white in the sun.

We ended the day tired and a bit sore from the harness, but I’m really glad we went for it.

Posted by Anne at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday 11/13

Up with the sunrise again, it was another beautiful morning.

Today, Steve and I decided to drive along the north side of the island to take in the sites there. We started by trying to hike to the Pools of Mokolea, following the instructions in “the book”, only to discover they seem to have had their distances off on this one. The half-mile hike turned out to be much longer and we turned back. Why do I even bother mentioning this aborted hike? Because it brought me great consternation as I walked along the path.

Here’s what I don’t get. Many times you will find the locals are none too pleased when the tourists get wind of their secret slice of paradise. Often a hike that is described in “the book” will have some “do not enter for fear of dragons” type of sign when you get there. Understandably, the people who live here don’t want their beautiful private waterfall trashed by swarms of tourists. Why then is it that, as we walk to these lovely spots, we often see heaps of rubbish that were most certainly not left by tourists? On the path to these particular pools, we passed a burned-out old truck, a decaying sofa, and a moldering mattress piled atop a trash heap. Later in the day, we entered a cave only to discover 2 large bags of trash. How does it make sense for the locals to try and keep tourists out and then just trash it themselves? Besides which, your average tour bus full of old fogies is not going to go on a 3 mile hike through the jungle to find the waterfall. I imagine the number of tourists interested in making the effort would keep the numbers at a manageable level.

Anyway, on we drove to the Kilauea Lighthouse and wildlife conservation area.

We had been here last time, but it is a beautiful place and Steve wanted to go again. It made it all worthwhile when we got to see a Wedge-tailed Shearwater chick just outside of its burrow.

We also saw plenty of nenes and a couple of albatrosses, even though these guys were pretty far away.

After the lighthouse, we took a hike down to the “Secret Beach” also described in “the book”. This is where I started to notice that “the book” is not always perfectly descriptive of the state of the trail. Yes, it is a short 10 minute walk to the beach, but it is at a 45-degree angle. Oh well, even though I promised Steve no more hikes today, of we went down the slope and found a very nice beach to eat our lunch. We were going to go to the lava pools further down the beach, but we didn’t take into account the tides, and getting to them would have been tough when we were there – just before high tide. By the way, “lava pool” in this context means hardened lava rock by the edge of the ocean that will fill up with ocean water at high tide and make a nice place to soak at low tide.

From here we continued on to the above-mentioned caves: the Manini-holo Dry Cave (home to the bags of trash) and the Waikanaloa Wet Cave.

Finally at the end of the road, we stopped at Ke’e Beach and hiked out to the tip to catch a glimpse of the Na Pali coast. There is no way to put a road through at this point, so there is no way to completely encircle the island. There is a notorious hike from here, but it is certainly not anything that Steve and I were up for. We were happy just to clamor out on these rocks for a peek.

We also managed to find the heiau (ancient Hawaiian temple) that was up on these slopes.

Finally, I took a dip in the ocean to cool down and wash off the sweat from the day. It was lovely.

On the way back, we made one last stop at the Hanalei Valley Lookout before heading back to the condo for a good night’s sleep before our big day of ziplining!

Posted by Anne at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Steve and I just returned from a two-week vacation in Hawaii. It is my general feeling that it isn’t too wise to write that we’re on vacation on my public blog while we are actually gone, particularly when it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to deduce where we live. Just asking for trouble unnecessarily. So, I wrote several entries for our vacation while in Hawaii and will be posting them over the next several days now that we are home.

Monday 11/12

We flew out of Oakland on Sunday, the 11th, and headed back to Kauai. We had been on the island 3 years ago on our last real vacation, but there was a lot we didn’t have time to do, so we decided to go back. It is such a beautiful island that this was not too big of a sacrifice on our part.

One of the benefits of travelling to the west on vacation is that, with the time difference, we get to feel like we're sleeping in, but the clock still says it's early when we get up. On Kauai, we stayed in Kapa'a in an ocean-front, east-facing condo. As a consequence, I woke up early every morning and got to watch the sunrise without any alarm clock or other trauma.

The sunrise on the first morning was gorgeous, all pinks and reds rather than the yellows and oranges I normally associate with sunrise.

The guide book series we use as our bible on these trips to Hawaii is the “Revealed” series, henceforth to be referred to as “the book”. These guys always describe such gorgeous hikes, I thought we should go on a few of them. Bright and early our first full day on Kauai, we lathered on the sun block and headed out to the Kuilau Ridge Trail. This is a very nice hike up a ridge to a lovely valley overlook. It continues on past the picnic area into a lush wilderness with views to the ocean in some spots.

Unfortunately, the first part is also a little steep. I realized quite quickly that the 2.5 miles I’d been doing on the infernal machine (our elliptical trainer) in preparation for this trip was nothing like 2.5 miles on a real, steep, hot, and humid trail. And Steve and I are late- and mid-summer chickens, respectively. On the way up, I thought to myself, “Why did I think I liked hiking? I don’t like hiking. Who do I think I am?” We took a nice long rest when we finally made it to the top.

After the hike, we stopped at the Opaekaa Falls and Wailua River overlooks on the way back to our condo for lunch.

Our last excursion for the afternoon was a short hike to Kipu Falls, which drops beautifully into a large swimming hole.

Neither Steve nor I felt particularly inclined to use the rope swing to plunge into the depths, but Steve did climb down the ladder and had a nice swim.

Posted by Anne at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A couple of weeks ago, Steve and a took a mini-break in Gold Country. We have a big, much-needed and deserved vacation planned for later this year, but we're both tired and stressed and thought a quick 3-day weekend would help tide us over until the later trip. Besides, some friends had been recommending the Mine House Inn, a bed and breakfast in Amador City, for a while and the innkeepers are retiring in October. We figured if we were going to go, we had to go now.

While there, we went to the Black Chasm Cavern in Volcano. We were both a little surprised at just how short the physical distance of the tour was, but the formations were fantastic.

Black Chasm Cavern is most well-known for the rare helictite crystals that form there. Helictite crystals are very thin and, instead of growing up from the bottom like stalagmites or down from the top like stalactites, shoot out from the walls of the cave and are most likely formed by hydrostatic pressure. They are apparently quite unusual and definitely pretty cool.

Of course, while in Gold Country, we had to pan for gold. I was a little amazed at all the equipment Steve brought with us. He even built a periscope-type thing to allow him to see clearly underwater so he knows where to scoop up the dirt and rocks that are hiding the gold!

We went out to the Mokelumne River late in the afternoon Sunday to try our luck. Unfortunately, we still had to whip out our credit card to pay for dinner that evening as all we found was pyrite. Later that night, Steve found what would've been a much better spot for panning on the map. We're keeping the location secret, though, so we can go out again next time and strike it big.

Posted by Anne at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Could someone please explain how I could live in Marin County for 8 years and never have hiked the Tennessee Valley Trail before? How did I miss this one? Other than the obvious answer that Steve and I don't get the chance to go on hikes very much.

But this weekend was different. It was 3 days! Saturday we did our chores, shopping at Target and Costco and the the like, Sunday we did our usual shift at WildCare and came home to collapse in a sweaty, exhausted heap. But Monday, ah Monday. After sleeping in and making waffles for breakfast, we headed out for a hike. I had heard once or twice about this trail, but never in much detail, just a passing comment. And Steve and I almost hiked it last spring, but, in spite of the sun shining at home, this trail, just on the north side of the Marin Headlands, was foggy and cold and drizzly and it was the first sunny day of the year, so we headed off for a warmer walk a bit further north.

It was a tad on the chilly side Monday when we started on the trail, but not too bad, and we brought layers, so off we went. And I'm so glad we did, because within 20 minutes the fog had burned off and it was gorgeous. The Tennessee Valley Trail is 2 easy miles to the beach. The upper trail is a little more difficult (really just a couple of smallish climbs), but it is worth it with fantastic views of the ocean.

The trail ends at Tennessee Valley Beach. The beach is on the small side, but it was not at all crowded and it is beautiful, with brilliant rock formations. One would think that on such a beautiful Labor Day it would be packed, but I think most people headed out to Stinson. I wonder if Tennessee Valley Beach is always so peaceful. Not to say that there weren't plenty of people hiking out to the beach for a picnic, but no where near the swarms you get at other beaches.

One wonderful thing about this beach is the sound of the waves leaving the shore. Half of the beach is sand, but the southern half is all ocean pebbles. When the waves retreat, there is the coolest sound of the pebbles rattling around, kind of like one of those rain sticks.

We were totally unprepared - we brought something to drink, but no food. I think it has been so long since we went for a hike that we forgot how to provision ourselves. Steve and I agreed that we'd have to come back with a picnic lunch sometime soon. We took the lower trail on the way back which doesn't have the great views, but is level and an even easier hike for the end of the day. Hooray for the 3-day weekend!

Posted by Anne at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Steve and I headed down to southern California last weekend for a long overdue visit with some friends and with my grandfather. We had been talking about taking this trip for several months but had never quite managed to plan it; trying to coordinate a visit with several parties can present logistical challenges. But my parents were headed out to visit with my grandfather and house sit for my godparents for a couple of weeks. Steve and I planned our visit for the halfway point of their visit. My grandfather is 90 years old and a fairly conservative German patriarch. He and my mom don't always see eye-to-eye, but let's face it. He's 90. He's not going to change and why force the issue.

So, down we headed Thursday morning to insert ourselves in the middle of the ring between rounds. We spent Thursday and Friday in Santa Barbara visiting the fam. It was absolutely gorgeous. I even got to wear a sundress for the first time this year. Up in the Bay Area it's gotten cold again at night and I've had to pull an extra fleece blanket over me. The cats love this, of course, and I'm covered by them all night.

Anyway, we had a very pleasant visit, but my grandfather does seem to get tired more easily now. The last time we visited a year and a half ago, we were able to spend an entire day with him and even went to a museum. This time he was really only good for about a half a day and then needed to go home and rest. But again, he is 90 so what am I expecting? Steve and I are hoping to visit him again early next year.

We left Santa Barbara Friday evening and headed to "The Land". Disneyland, that is. This was Steve's "reward". He loves Disneyland and I know he wishes we could go more often. I enjoy it, but think once every year or two is plenty. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't even consider this trip at this time of year. Our Disneyland-vacation-season runs October through February. But this trip was scheduled to coincide with my parents visit, so here we were at the end of March, with the 2 most popular spring break weeks surrounding our weekend, venturing in amongst the teeming masses.

It wasn't TOO bad (I would NEVER consider a day at Disneyland in, say, June) but it was much more crowded than we would've like. The Fastpasses for Space Mountain were "sold out" by 1:00; the ticket we got at noon was for a ride at 8:30 that night. Even the line for the newly renovated Pirates of the Caribbean was insane. I don't think it's been that long since the ride first opened. But now it's the Captain Jack Sparrow ride.

In fact, the entire park seems to be taking on a distinctly piratey flavor. Even Tom Sawyer Island is being re-done and the implication of what we saw is that they are focusing on the pirate lair element of the book.

Steve had the idea that they could turn the Columbia into the Black Pearl and put a Kraken in the lagoon.

Really, the changes to Pirates of the Caribbean were pretty well done (and the first animatronic Captain Jack Sparrow was so good it was downright creepy), but it's pretty obvious that the movie has been a gold mine for Disney and you can expect more piratey-goodness to extend Kraken tentacle-like throughout the park.

Unfortunately, Splash Mountain, my favorite ride, was closed for renovation. I just hope they're not replacing Brer Rabbit with Captain Jack Sparrow. . .

Happily, the crowds started to dissipate as the day wore on and more wee ones had sensory-overload-meltdowns. We never had to stand too long in any one line because we made liberal use of the Fastpasses (but we didn't go on the Matterhorn because there was no Fastpass option and a long line), and I even managed to get Steve back on the teacups with me. He just closes his eyes and spins the car for me while I giggle and whoop it up.

One weird thing about the teacups, though. The rides at Disneyland now say their cautionary "keep your hands inside the vehicle" bit in Spanish, too. At the teacups a high-pitched female voice says something about "this is Alice and welcome to my tea party" in English. But when it is time for the Spanish version, it's a dude! Couldn't they get a female for the voiceover? All I know is that Spanish-speaking Alice has a really gruff voice.

Even with the crowds, it was a pretty good day at the park (again with the beautiful weather); with our hotel close to the park, we were able to stay up well past our bedtime.

The next morning, we got up early to drive to Glendale and meet some friends for brunch. These folks moved to Glendale from the Bay Area 6 years ago when J got a job at Imagineering and we only get to see them every couple of years. Planning our visit this year was really tough partially because J has been traveling for work so much lately. We were only able to settle our plans a week or so before we were going to be there.

Although it was a short visit (C had to take the kids to a birthday party so we only saw her for a couple of hours), it's always nice to see them and catch up.

Arriving home Sunday night, we could barely cope with the fact that we had to get up in a few short hours to go to work. Oh, to have more vacation time. . .

Posted by Anne at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another set of our friends is calling it quits on the Bay Area and leaving the state. I was absolutely amazed at the speed with which they acted once they made the decision to go. Within a month and a half they had their house on the market and it sold 9 days later. They are leaving for Boston in 2 weeks.

We went to their house Saturday for a good-bye party and to play some of the vast array of board and card games B has accumulated. It was really great to see them once more.

But, jeez. Steve and I need to start making new friends before everyone we know leaves. First it was the set to Glendale, then the couple to Seattle. Now comes M and B (I just can't order the initials as B and M) to Boston, and they are likely followed by another couple considering the same move later this year.

We didn't get to see M and B very frequently, but we always had a great time when our schedules could collide. Now they are our heroes, and I can only hope that, when the time comes, we can extricate ourselves in a similar fashion.

As a side-note, we were also able to stop by the pirate store close to M and B's house before the party. I have no idea how they exist year round, but Steve had a grin on his face the entire time we were there. He was like a kid in a candy store.

Posted by Anne at 07:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)