Juneau was by far our favorite stop. I think it had to do with our excursion. We took a helicopter ride and hiked Mendenhall Glacier. It was amazing!
We were shuttled to the airport where we were given cold weather gear. Then we took a helicopter ride and landed ON Mendenhall.
Close up of the glacier:
After getting off the helicopter, we carefully (it was super slick) walked to the equipment area and got crampons (boot spikes), helmets and our ice axes. Awesome!
The guy on the far right was our guide, Doug. He was the best ever.
I didn't realize how large Mendenhall was until I was standing on it.
The terrain was varied and breathtaking. Because the glacier is moving and melting, the terrain changes constantly. At the beginning of every season, guides go up the glacier to map out new trails.
After a safety talk that included dire warnings, we hiked around the glacier for a couple of hours.
A "pond" like this can be 20-30 feet deep.
One of the rivers/streams we crossed. These rivers eventually go into a hole and then under the glacier. We were cautioned to always watch our step because if we fell into a river like this, we would be washed under the glacier and they wouldn't be able to find us.
An ice wave:
For some perspective, our guide walking by the same ice wave:
You can't tell in this picture, but there's a runoff waterfall:
Steve coming down a small hill.
For more perspective, another group of hikers on the glacier:
One of the people in our group asked if they ever found fossils when the ice melted. Our guide said no. They occasionally find bears or a moose that fell in a crevasse *snicker*, but never fossils. The ice isn't that old. If I remember correctly, Mendenhall moves around 100 feet a year down the mountain side. Don't quote me on that.
He also told us that a while ago a hiker disappeared on Mendenhall. Five years later, another hiker found his hand sticking out of the ice when the glacier brought him further down the mountain. Creepy! It appeared that the guy fell and hit his head.
After our awesome hike, we did a little sightseeing on our way back to the airport.
Herbert Glacier. The dark stripes is silt the glacier carved off the mountain side.
Like I said before, this excursion was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was expensive, but it was worth every penny.
On our shuttle ride back to the ship, the van driver told us some funny things. When Walmart first opened in Juneau, they had to close it after 1 hour to restock the shelves. The first week McDonald's opened, they had to close because they ran out of food. He said people fly to Juneau just to get McDonald's. And they usually order food to take back to other people.
I asked the driver for food recommendations. The first place he mentioned sounded like a tourist trap, so I asked where the locals go. He then recommended two places. One of them was Pel Meni. They only serve one thing: Russian meat-filled dumplings with hot sauce and curry powder on top. The dumplings were really, really tasty.
We then walked around Juneau a bit. It's not very big though with only a population of about 30,000 people. Juneau is also land locked, so you can only get there by boat or plane.
Their very plain looking capitol building:
We went back onto the ship for awhile and then headed out again. We stopped at the library, so I could use the internet. There's internet on the ship, but it's slow and overpriced. After the library, I saw the sign for the second place the van driver recommended, Tracy's King Crab Shack. Steve tried to talk me out of getting anything, but it didn't work. When is the man going to learn not to get in between me and food?
The king crab was, of course, very fresh. And it's cooked to order. I was in heaven.
I'm usually pretty good about sharing, but I only gave Steve a little piece to try. I just couldn't waste that goodness on a man who doesn't even like crab. ;)
Then it was back onto the ship and our next destination.
Next up: Skagway (where do they get these names?)
We were shuttled to the airport where we were given cold weather gear. Then we took a helicopter ride and landed ON Mendenhall.
Close up of the glacier:
After getting off the helicopter, we carefully (it was super slick) walked to the equipment area and got crampons (boot spikes), helmets and our ice axes. Awesome!
The guy on the far right was our guide, Doug. He was the best ever.
I didn't realize how large Mendenhall was until I was standing on it.
The terrain was varied and breathtaking. Because the glacier is moving and melting, the terrain changes constantly. At the beginning of every season, guides go up the glacier to map out new trails.
After a safety talk that included dire warnings, we hiked around the glacier for a couple of hours.
A "pond" like this can be 20-30 feet deep.
One of the rivers/streams we crossed. These rivers eventually go into a hole and then under the glacier. We were cautioned to always watch our step because if we fell into a river like this, we would be washed under the glacier and they wouldn't be able to find us.
An ice wave:
For some perspective, our guide walking by the same ice wave:
You can't tell in this picture, but there's a runoff waterfall:
Steve coming down a small hill.
For more perspective, another group of hikers on the glacier:
One of the people in our group asked if they ever found fossils when the ice melted. Our guide said no. They occasionally find bears or a moose that fell in a crevasse *snicker*, but never fossils. The ice isn't that old. If I remember correctly, Mendenhall moves around 100 feet a year down the mountain side. Don't quote me on that.
He also told us that a while ago a hiker disappeared on Mendenhall. Five years later, another hiker found his hand sticking out of the ice when the glacier brought him further down the mountain. Creepy! It appeared that the guy fell and hit his head.
After our awesome hike, we did a little sightseeing on our way back to the airport.
Herbert Glacier. The dark stripes is silt the glacier carved off the mountain side.
Like I said before, this excursion was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was expensive, but it was worth every penny.
On our shuttle ride back to the ship, the van driver told us some funny things. When Walmart first opened in Juneau, they had to close it after 1 hour to restock the shelves. The first week McDonald's opened, they had to close because they ran out of food. He said people fly to Juneau just to get McDonald's. And they usually order food to take back to other people.
I asked the driver for food recommendations. The first place he mentioned sounded like a tourist trap, so I asked where the locals go. He then recommended two places. One of them was Pel Meni. They only serve one thing: Russian meat-filled dumplings with hot sauce and curry powder on top. The dumplings were really, really tasty.
We then walked around Juneau a bit. It's not very big though with only a population of about 30,000 people. Juneau is also land locked, so you can only get there by boat or plane.
Their very plain looking capitol building:
We went back onto the ship for awhile and then headed out again. We stopped at the library, so I could use the internet. There's internet on the ship, but it's slow and overpriced. After the library, I saw the sign for the second place the van driver recommended, Tracy's King Crab Shack. Steve tried to talk me out of getting anything, but it didn't work. When is the man going to learn not to get in between me and food?
The king crab was, of course, very fresh. And it's cooked to order. I was in heaven.
I'm usually pretty good about sharing, but I only gave Steve a little piece to try. I just couldn't waste that goodness on a man who doesn't even like crab. ;)
Then it was back onto the ship and our next destination.
Next up: Skagway (where do they get these names?)
- Current Mood:
mellow - Current Location:Home
Lee, this is a good example of how to use "That's what she said."
If you can't read it, it's a detention slip from a junior high school. The reason for the detention: "Another student made the comment 'You need to push it in further.' (innocent comment) and Dalten added 'That's what she said.'"
My friend posted this on Facebook and I couldn't stop laughing. If Dalten was your kid, what would you do? I would probably punish him and then hide in my room so I could laugh.
If you can't read it, it's a detention slip from a junior high school. The reason for the detention: "Another student made the comment 'You need to push it in further.' (innocent comment) and Dalten added 'That's what she said.'"
My friend posted this on Facebook and I couldn't stop laughing. If Dalten was your kid, what would you do? I would probably punish him and then hide in my room so I could laugh.
- Current Mood:
bored
Our first official stop in Alaska was Ketchikan. It is the most southeastern city in Alaska with a population of about 8,000 people. It is also the fifth largest city in Alaska. That's pretty sad. It is landlocked, which means you can only get there by air or by sea. It's a very pretty town.
We left the cruise ship early in the morning for our excursion. Our first activity was canoeing across a mountain lake. Got to love safety gear!
We had perfect weather, so the canoeing was enjoyable. Our guide told us that it had been raining all week and she had a hard time keeping spirits up when people were wet. Yes, that's right. They don't cancel tours because of rain. We were very lucky.
When we got to the other side of the lake, we went on a little nature walk and learned about Alaska's vegetation. So now I'm going to drop some of my newly acquired knowledge on you. Don't you feel lucky?
Some kind of mountain berry. Hmmmmm....don't think I was listening when she told us what it was called, but I know it's not a raspberry.
This is skunk cabbage. We were told that it's named that because it tastes and smells awful. The only thing people use it for is to wrap salmon. Bears, on the other hand, have another use. The flower bulbs at the base of the plant is a natural laxative, so the bears eat them when they come out of hibernation to jump start their systems.
Ferns and Devil's Club. Devil's Club have a lot of thorns on the stem and on the back side of the leaves. They are very painful and difficult to get out, so we were told to steer clear of those plants.
This fallen tree is an example of a nesting tree. Saplings are growing on top of it. Their roots will grow through and around the nesting tree. When the nesting tree is gone, the roots of the trees will remain above ground. Some of the trees looked like they were on stilts.
Our tour guide is holding a mushroom she pulled off this tree. Bears eat these mushrooms before hibernating to back up their systems. The tree she's standing on is a good example of what happens when a nesting tree is gone. At the beginning of this season when they came up to check on their site, they found a bear hibernating in this tree.
Alaska has a low biodiversity and a high biomass. That means that there isn't a large variety of plants. However, what plants they do have, they have a lot of. That is the only reason why I remembered the names of anything.
After our nature walk, we stopped for a snack that included clam chowder, smoked salmon, rolls and jam. Yummy!
Then it was back across the lake and time for jeeping.
We shared a Jeep with a couple from Salt Lake City. Small world. The guy that cooked the clam chowder was from Ogden. Very small world. Anyway, we took turns driving on the very bumpy dirt roads. The roads were originally used for logging, which I couldn't believe because they were so narrow with sharp turns.
Now I must apologize for the next few pictures being extra blue. I didn't check the settings when I took the camera out and one of the dials was set to the wrong setting. To be completely honest, I don't know what the right setting is, so it wouldn't have mattered if I had looked. This is what happens when you give a complete amateur a complicated camera. *sigh*
A picture taken by someone who knew what they were doing. The purple flower is called Fireweed. After forest fires, this flower grows like crazy and chokes out other plants, hence the name. The flowers bloom from bottom to top and die from top to bottom (I think). The natives used this flower as a calendar back in the day.
The last half of the dirt roads had huge puddles from all the rain. The husband from the other couple and I had tons of fun driving really fast through them and splashing water and mud everywhere. We were all laughing and screaming. Definitely the funnest part of the day.
On the way back to drop off the Jeeps, the tour guide got on the CB radio and quizzed us on what she had told us. Since I was driving, Steve was in control of the radio and he went crazy. Our Jeep totally schooled the others during the quiz, so in between the questions Steve would say "Red Jeep 101 Rules!" and trash-talked the other Jeeps. That was also very funny.
After we were dropped off in town we walked around a bit and I took some more blue pictures. The "Main Street"
It didn't take long for us to get bored, so we just went back to the ship.
We had a great dinner that night in the dining room. It consisted of cream of corn soup with chorizo, cod fritters, ravioli for me, and sirloin steak for Steve. We were pretty beat after that, so we called it a night.
Next up: Juneau and the excursion that put all others to shame
We left the cruise ship early in the morning for our excursion. Our first activity was canoeing across a mountain lake. Got to love safety gear!
We had perfect weather, so the canoeing was enjoyable. Our guide told us that it had been raining all week and she had a hard time keeping spirits up when people were wet. Yes, that's right. They don't cancel tours because of rain. We were very lucky.
When we got to the other side of the lake, we went on a little nature walk and learned about Alaska's vegetation. So now I'm going to drop some of my newly acquired knowledge on you. Don't you feel lucky?
Some kind of mountain berry. Hmmmmm....don't think I was listening when she told us what it was called, but I know it's not a raspberry.
This is skunk cabbage. We were told that it's named that because it tastes and smells awful. The only thing people use it for is to wrap salmon. Bears, on the other hand, have another use. The flower bulbs at the base of the plant is a natural laxative, so the bears eat them when they come out of hibernation to jump start their systems.
Ferns and Devil's Club. Devil's Club have a lot of thorns on the stem and on the back side of the leaves. They are very painful and difficult to get out, so we were told to steer clear of those plants.
This fallen tree is an example of a nesting tree. Saplings are growing on top of it. Their roots will grow through and around the nesting tree. When the nesting tree is gone, the roots of the trees will remain above ground. Some of the trees looked like they were on stilts.
Our tour guide is holding a mushroom she pulled off this tree. Bears eat these mushrooms before hibernating to back up their systems. The tree she's standing on is a good example of what happens when a nesting tree is gone. At the beginning of this season when they came up to check on their site, they found a bear hibernating in this tree.
Alaska has a low biodiversity and a high biomass. That means that there isn't a large variety of plants. However, what plants they do have, they have a lot of. That is the only reason why I remembered the names of anything.
After our nature walk, we stopped for a snack that included clam chowder, smoked salmon, rolls and jam. Yummy!
Then it was back across the lake and time for jeeping.
We shared a Jeep with a couple from Salt Lake City. Small world. The guy that cooked the clam chowder was from Ogden. Very small world. Anyway, we took turns driving on the very bumpy dirt roads. The roads were originally used for logging, which I couldn't believe because they were so narrow with sharp turns.
Now I must apologize for the next few pictures being extra blue. I didn't check the settings when I took the camera out and one of the dials was set to the wrong setting. To be completely honest, I don't know what the right setting is, so it wouldn't have mattered if I had looked. This is what happens when you give a complete amateur a complicated camera. *sigh*
A picture taken by someone who knew what they were doing. The purple flower is called Fireweed. After forest fires, this flower grows like crazy and chokes out other plants, hence the name. The flowers bloom from bottom to top and die from top to bottom (I think). The natives used this flower as a calendar back in the day.
The last half of the dirt roads had huge puddles from all the rain. The husband from the other couple and I had tons of fun driving really fast through them and splashing water and mud everywhere. We were all laughing and screaming. Definitely the funnest part of the day.
On the way back to drop off the Jeeps, the tour guide got on the CB radio and quizzed us on what she had told us. Since I was driving, Steve was in control of the radio and he went crazy. Our Jeep totally schooled the others during the quiz, so in between the questions Steve would say "Red Jeep 101 Rules!" and trash-talked the other Jeeps. That was also very funny.
After we were dropped off in town we walked around a bit and I took some more blue pictures. The "Main Street"
It didn't take long for us to get bored, so we just went back to the ship.
We had a great dinner that night in the dining room. It consisted of cream of corn soup with chorizo, cod fritters, ravioli for me, and sirloin steak for Steve. We were pretty beat after that, so we called it a night.
Next up: Juneau and the excursion that put all others to shame
- Current Location:Home
- Current Mood:
drained
When I woke up the following day, Steve had already left the room. I decided that because it was a sea day and Steve was off doing his own thing, I really had no excuse and headed to the gym. It was completely full, so I headed to the outside track. I was surprised when I walked outside it was foggy, rainy and very windy. Completely different from the previous day. Once I got moving, the rain wasn't too bad. The wind on the other hand was terrible. It kept blowing my headphones out of my ears. Steve came up at the end of my run and we walked a few laps after I finished my 4 miles.
We had breakfast, got ready for the day and headed to our first quiz. It was on geography, so I wasn't much help at all. Steve thought he did terrible, but ended up winning anyway. Our prize: hand sanitizer. Score! I had heard that there was some sort of breakout on the cruise right before us, so they were being extra cautious. That meant no hand shaking and no serving yourself at buffets. The latter was pretty irritating.
We also played Pictionary that day, but left early to go to a reception for people celebrating their honeymoon or anniversary. There were four couples on their honeymoon and four couples celebrating their 50th anniversary. We had some orange juice (the only non-alcoholic drink available) and a piece of cake and then left.
After that, I dragged Steve to the dining room for lunch. I really do mean drag. Steve's not a fan of lingering over meals and a meal there can take about 1.5 hours. I prefer eating there because the food is better than the buffet. For lunch we were seated with a family from Georgia. They had 3 teenagers and I had fun taking to them. They were devote Catholics and prayed before eating. Their oldest daughter also mentioned attending early mass every morning on the ship. Unfortunately, this was the only time we had lunch in the dining room because another thing Steve loathes is making small talk. *sigh*
Nothing much was going on, so we decided to take a nap. When we woke up, we went outside and found that the weather had cleared up nicely. We had good timing because we had just entered the Inside Passage. It would have been a shame to sleep through the scenery.
Canada on the right and islands on the left.
That night was a formal night in the dining room, so Steve put on his rented tux and I put on a dress. We spent so much time watching the scenery all I had time to do was brush my hair, which was quite an accomplishment. My hair was extremely tangled from the wind. This was also the only night I brought a camera to the dining room.
I also took food pictures. ;)
Steve's appetizer: herbed cream cheese wrapped with smoked salmon and accompanied by caviar. (He hated the caviar, by the way.)
The most adventurous thing I ate on this trip: frog legs. The taste and texture did not remind me of chicken. They weren't too bad.
Steve then had a fish bisque and I had a vegetable consommé. Steve took a couple bites of his soup and hated it. I tasted it and wasn't a fan either. It had a very, VERY fishy taste. He ended up replacing that with a very yummy French Onion soup. I was a bit disappointed with my soup only because I confused consommé with another fancy food word like compote or something.
For our main courses, Steve had rack of lamb with mashed potatoes and I had quail with white and black truffle stuffing.
To top it all off, Steve had an open-faced apple pie with ice cream and I had chocolate cake. We also got a third dessert that we didn't ask for, cherries jubilee with vanilla ice cream. I think they had an extra and since it was melting, they decided to give it to us.
The rest of the evening was spent walking around the ship and taking some pictures.
Next up: Ketchikan
We had breakfast, got ready for the day and headed to our first quiz. It was on geography, so I wasn't much help at all. Steve thought he did terrible, but ended up winning anyway. Our prize: hand sanitizer. Score! I had heard that there was some sort of breakout on the cruise right before us, so they were being extra cautious. That meant no hand shaking and no serving yourself at buffets. The latter was pretty irritating.
We also played Pictionary that day, but left early to go to a reception for people celebrating their honeymoon or anniversary. There were four couples on their honeymoon and four couples celebrating their 50th anniversary. We had some orange juice (the only non-alcoholic drink available) and a piece of cake and then left.
After that, I dragged Steve to the dining room for lunch. I really do mean drag. Steve's not a fan of lingering over meals and a meal there can take about 1.5 hours. I prefer eating there because the food is better than the buffet. For lunch we were seated with a family from Georgia. They had 3 teenagers and I had fun taking to them. They were devote Catholics and prayed before eating. Their oldest daughter also mentioned attending early mass every morning on the ship. Unfortunately, this was the only time we had lunch in the dining room because another thing Steve loathes is making small talk. *sigh*
Nothing much was going on, so we decided to take a nap. When we woke up, we went outside and found that the weather had cleared up nicely. We had good timing because we had just entered the Inside Passage. It would have been a shame to sleep through the scenery.
Canada on the right and islands on the left.
That night was a formal night in the dining room, so Steve put on his rented tux and I put on a dress. We spent so much time watching the scenery all I had time to do was brush my hair, which was quite an accomplishment. My hair was extremely tangled from the wind. This was also the only night I brought a camera to the dining room.
I also took food pictures. ;)
Steve's appetizer: herbed cream cheese wrapped with smoked salmon and accompanied by caviar. (He hated the caviar, by the way.)
The most adventurous thing I ate on this trip: frog legs. The taste and texture did not remind me of chicken. They weren't too bad.
Steve then had a fish bisque and I had a vegetable consommé. Steve took a couple bites of his soup and hated it. I tasted it and wasn't a fan either. It had a very, VERY fishy taste. He ended up replacing that with a very yummy French Onion soup. I was a bit disappointed with my soup only because I confused consommé with another fancy food word like compote or something.
For our main courses, Steve had rack of lamb with mashed potatoes and I had quail with white and black truffle stuffing.
To top it all off, Steve had an open-faced apple pie with ice cream and I had chocolate cake. We also got a third dessert that we didn't ask for, cherries jubilee with vanilla ice cream. I think they had an extra and since it was melting, they decided to give it to us.
The rest of the evening was spent walking around the ship and taking some pictures.
Next up: Ketchikan
- Current Mood: mellow
- Current Location:Home
It's been about two months since my last entry, so I figured it was about time to update.
We've gone on 3 trips since Mexico: Boston in May, LA for the 4th of July and most recently Alaska at the end of July. Since Alaska is the freshest in my mind, I'm going to start there and work my way back to Boston.
Day 1 & 2: Seattle & Vancouver
We left our house at 5 am to catch our flight to Seattle. Red eyes aren't my favorite, but it certainly saves us a lot of money. The other nice thing about such an early flight was that we had more time in the Seattle area. We got a rental car and drove to Mt. Rainer National Park. I was starving, so we stopped at a little town on the way there. The town was very small and we only had two choices. This is what we picked:
The menu was very small and simple. We shared grilled cheese with cole slaw, biscuits with gravy and a chicken patsy (a hand pot pie). The biscuits with gravy were my favorite. Very hearty and perfect for the slightly chilly, rainy day.
Have you missed my food photos?
We then made our way to the national park. There are only two entrances to the park and unfortunately, the one we picked was closed. It certainly was a disappointment. But considering how cloudy it was, we probably wouldn't have seen Mt. Rainer even if we got into the park. We stopped at a few places to take some pictures.
It finally warmed up after a while.
We then headed back to Seattle. We checked into our hotel and walked over to Pike Place Market. I loved this place. It would be awesome to be able to shop at a place like this on a regular basis, especially for food and flowers.
We had lunch at Athenian, which was in Sleepless in Seattle. We shared clam chowder, a Monte Cristo and Fish & Chips.
We were both a little disappointed with the Monte Cristo, since the whole sandwich wasn't deep fried. It was still good though. Our view during lunch.
After lunch we just walked around and went down to the pier.
With the very early start and the time charge, we were beat. We didn't really have any interest in seeing the Space Needle (we've both been there before) or other touristy things, so we went back to the hotel and called it a day.
Before we left on our trip, I visited the Food Network's website to see where Diners, Drive-ins and Dives had been in Seattle. After watching a little video about Voula's, I decided we had to go there. It's located by the University of Washington and is a diner with a Greek twist.
The next morning we stopped there for breakfast before heading to Vancouver. We shared a Chinese piñata (like eggs benedict, but with smoked pork instead of ham, and covered with chipotle-flavored hollandaise sauce), two Greek sausages and and a Greek sausage/eggs/hash browns/feta cheese scramble.
That was a lot of food. We then hit the road. It was a very nice drive.
We initially planned on spending some time seeing the sights in Vancouver, but the drive took longer than expected and the traffic in Vancouver was terrible. So I was only able to see it from the car. I was a little bummed because I've heard great things about it and it looked like a cool town. Oh well, maybe we'll go back someday.
We dropped off our rental car and took a taxi to our ship. It took a while to get on the ship this time because we arrived at the same time as everyone else. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so after dropping off some stuff in our room, I dragged Steve to the deck with pizza. I think this picture pretty much sums up our whole trip:
I was constantly cold and ate a TON on this trip.
Vancouver from the ship:
Another picture that sums up this trip. I spent quite a bit of time being the pack mule for Steve's camera gear.
That night we had dinner in the main dining room. We both started with a goat cheese tart, which was awesome. I am a huge fan of goat cheese right now. Steve then had cream of chicken soup and I had a endive and arugula salad. I'm not really a salad person, but I was trying to get in my token vegetables for the day. For our main course, Steve had prime rib with mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots, while I had spaghetti in a white sauce with pancetta. And finally for dessert, Steve had dark chocolate-covered cream puffs for dessert, and I had crème brulee. As I mentioned before, I ate a ton on this trip.
After dinner we walked around the ship and Steve took some pictures of the scenery.
Next up: Inside Passage and more eating...
We've gone on 3 trips since Mexico: Boston in May, LA for the 4th of July and most recently Alaska at the end of July. Since Alaska is the freshest in my mind, I'm going to start there and work my way back to Boston.
Day 1 & 2: Seattle & Vancouver
We left our house at 5 am to catch our flight to Seattle. Red eyes aren't my favorite, but it certainly saves us a lot of money. The other nice thing about such an early flight was that we had more time in the Seattle area. We got a rental car and drove to Mt. Rainer National Park. I was starving, so we stopped at a little town on the way there. The town was very small and we only had two choices. This is what we picked:
The menu was very small and simple. We shared grilled cheese with cole slaw, biscuits with gravy and a chicken patsy (a hand pot pie). The biscuits with gravy were my favorite. Very hearty and perfect for the slightly chilly, rainy day.
Have you missed my food photos?
We then made our way to the national park. There are only two entrances to the park and unfortunately, the one we picked was closed. It certainly was a disappointment. But considering how cloudy it was, we probably wouldn't have seen Mt. Rainer even if we got into the park. We stopped at a few places to take some pictures.
It finally warmed up after a while.
We then headed back to Seattle. We checked into our hotel and walked over to Pike Place Market. I loved this place. It would be awesome to be able to shop at a place like this on a regular basis, especially for food and flowers.
We had lunch at Athenian, which was in Sleepless in Seattle. We shared clam chowder, a Monte Cristo and Fish & Chips.
We were both a little disappointed with the Monte Cristo, since the whole sandwich wasn't deep fried. It was still good though. Our view during lunch.
After lunch we just walked around and went down to the pier.
With the very early start and the time charge, we were beat. We didn't really have any interest in seeing the Space Needle (we've both been there before) or other touristy things, so we went back to the hotel and called it a day.
Before we left on our trip, I visited the Food Network's website to see where Diners, Drive-ins and Dives had been in Seattle. After watching a little video about Voula's, I decided we had to go there. It's located by the University of Washington and is a diner with a Greek twist.
The next morning we stopped there for breakfast before heading to Vancouver. We shared a Chinese piñata (like eggs benedict, but with smoked pork instead of ham, and covered with chipotle-flavored hollandaise sauce), two Greek sausages and and a Greek sausage/eggs/hash browns/feta cheese scramble.
That was a lot of food. We then hit the road. It was a very nice drive.
We initially planned on spending some time seeing the sights in Vancouver, but the drive took longer than expected and the traffic in Vancouver was terrible. So I was only able to see it from the car. I was a little bummed because I've heard great things about it and it looked like a cool town. Oh well, maybe we'll go back someday.
We dropped off our rental car and took a taxi to our ship. It took a while to get on the ship this time because we arrived at the same time as everyone else. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so after dropping off some stuff in our room, I dragged Steve to the deck with pizza. I think this picture pretty much sums up our whole trip:
I was constantly cold and ate a TON on this trip.
Vancouver from the ship:
Another picture that sums up this trip. I spent quite a bit of time being the pack mule for Steve's camera gear.
That night we had dinner in the main dining room. We both started with a goat cheese tart, which was awesome. I am a huge fan of goat cheese right now. Steve then had cream of chicken soup and I had a endive and arugula salad. I'm not really a salad person, but I was trying to get in my token vegetables for the day. For our main course, Steve had prime rib with mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots, while I had spaghetti in a white sauce with pancetta. And finally for dessert, Steve had dark chocolate-covered cream puffs for dessert, and I had crème brulee. As I mentioned before, I ate a ton on this trip.
After dinner we walked around the ship and Steve took some pictures of the scenery.
Next up: Inside Passage and more eating...
- Current Mood:
awake - Current Location:Home
Shortly after we got back from Mexico, Steve went to China for a couple weeks on a business trip. And since this was his first long business trip, I decided to do a few home projects. As you will see, I totally bit off more than I could chew. I tend to dive head first into things and then half way through think: "What did I get myself into?"
First up - popcorn removal in kitchen and ceiling re-texturing on the first floor:
Goodbye popcorn, hello plastic!
Before:
After:
Those last two pictures didn't turn out so great. They were hard to take without the flash completely washing everything out.
So all in all, I'm happy. The new texture covered all the imperfections that were so obvious in the living room and dining room. Plus it saved me hours of sanding time in the kitchen. Thank goodness for that! My friend's husband came over for a couple hours on a Saturday and helped me with the texturing. It was nice to have someone who knew what they were doing. You may be wondering if, after all is said and done, I think this project was worth my time. The answer is yes and no. I really do hate popcorn ceilings, but it was a ton of work to scrape it off, sand, re-texture and paint. Next time, I'll just make sure I buy a house without popcorn ceilings.
I will take this time to mention that in a moment of lunacy, I scheduled movie night in the middle of all of this. I finished painting the ceilings and cleaning up all the plastic the night before everyone came over. Lunacy, I tell you!
Project Two - painting the living room, dining room and kitchen.
The before:
The during (after 1 coat of paint):
The after:
(sorry, Steve took this picture with his wide angle lens)
I must say, moving furniture, especially our TV, by myself was not fun. I'm really happy with the results though. When Steve got home, I asked him what he thought of the color and he said something along the lines of: "It's not really what I was going for." I seriously considered punching him in the throat for that comment. But after a few days he got used to the color and likes it now. It didn't really matter if he liked it or not because I was not repainting it.
All the painting was supposed to be done by the time Steve got home, but even after staying up until 2-3 a.m. almost every night, I still had to do one more coat in the kitchen when he got home. Between that and work, I was total beat, so I took several days off to relax and spend time with Steve. Then it was back to painting.
The color in the kitchen is a more subtle change. We picked the color on the left in this picture.
Since getting his new camera and various lenses, Steve has started taking random pictures of me. Actually, it's kind of annoying because he tries to take "candid pictures" of me, so I always look like a dork or I'm a mess. Sometimes he waits in the kitchen for me to walk in from the garage and surprises me. You can imagine how thrilled I was when Steve took this picture of me pre-shower and covered in paint:
Crafty projects:
Before I started my house projects, I decided I wanted to make baby gifts for my friend. Her baby shower so happened to be the week after Steve got home. So he was none too pleased when I stopped working on the touch up/clean up in the kitchen and pulled out my sewing machine and hot glue gun.
I decided to make her burp cloths and a baby wipe clutch. I got the idea of the burp cloths from my sister-in-law Kristi, who made something similar for our sister-in-law Kelly last year. Basically you take cloth diapers and sew ribbon on them. Sounds easy, but I decided to give myself more work by sewing a TON of ribbon on them. The pink and black down the middle are two separate ribbons. I could have just done pink, but the black really made the pink pop. I never learn! I ended up unpicking the first burp cloth I finished because my seams weren't very straight and it was very obvious with the black thread. OCD much?
The baby wipe clutch idea came from Sariah. Her friends had made one and knew of a blog with a tutorial. To make it you take a plastic Huggies baby wipe traveling case and cover it with fabric and ribbon or other embellishments.
The finished products:
They were a big hit at the baby shower and several women asked me to make them a clutch when they have their next baby.
Needless to say, at the end of April I was totally burned out and I have not touched a paint brush or sewing machine since.
First up - popcorn removal in kitchen and ceiling re-texturing on the first floor:
Goodbye popcorn, hello plastic!
Before:
After:
Those last two pictures didn't turn out so great. They were hard to take without the flash completely washing everything out.
So all in all, I'm happy. The new texture covered all the imperfections that were so obvious in the living room and dining room. Plus it saved me hours of sanding time in the kitchen. Thank goodness for that! My friend's husband came over for a couple hours on a Saturday and helped me with the texturing. It was nice to have someone who knew what they were doing. You may be wondering if, after all is said and done, I think this project was worth my time. The answer is yes and no. I really do hate popcorn ceilings, but it was a ton of work to scrape it off, sand, re-texture and paint. Next time, I'll just make sure I buy a house without popcorn ceilings.
I will take this time to mention that in a moment of lunacy, I scheduled movie night in the middle of all of this. I finished painting the ceilings and cleaning up all the plastic the night before everyone came over. Lunacy, I tell you!
Project Two - painting the living room, dining room and kitchen.
The before:
The during (after 1 coat of paint):
The after:
(sorry, Steve took this picture with his wide angle lens)
I must say, moving furniture, especially our TV, by myself was not fun. I'm really happy with the results though. When Steve got home, I asked him what he thought of the color and he said something along the lines of: "It's not really what I was going for." I seriously considered punching him in the throat for that comment. But after a few days he got used to the color and likes it now. It didn't really matter if he liked it or not because I was not repainting it.
All the painting was supposed to be done by the time Steve got home, but even after staying up until 2-3 a.m. almost every night, I still had to do one more coat in the kitchen when he got home. Between that and work, I was total beat, so I took several days off to relax and spend time with Steve. Then it was back to painting.
The color in the kitchen is a more subtle change. We picked the color on the left in this picture.
Since getting his new camera and various lenses, Steve has started taking random pictures of me. Actually, it's kind of annoying because he tries to take "candid pictures" of me, so I always look like a dork or I'm a mess. Sometimes he waits in the kitchen for me to walk in from the garage and surprises me. You can imagine how thrilled I was when Steve took this picture of me pre-shower and covered in paint:
Crafty projects:
Before I started my house projects, I decided I wanted to make baby gifts for my friend. Her baby shower so happened to be the week after Steve got home. So he was none too pleased when I stopped working on the touch up/clean up in the kitchen and pulled out my sewing machine and hot glue gun.
I decided to make her burp cloths and a baby wipe clutch. I got the idea of the burp cloths from my sister-in-law Kristi, who made something similar for our sister-in-law Kelly last year. Basically you take cloth diapers and sew ribbon on them. Sounds easy, but I decided to give myself more work by sewing a TON of ribbon on them. The pink and black down the middle are two separate ribbons. I could have just done pink, but the black really made the pink pop. I never learn! I ended up unpicking the first burp cloth I finished because my seams weren't very straight and it was very obvious with the black thread. OCD much?
The baby wipe clutch idea came from Sariah. Her friends had made one and knew of a blog with a tutorial. To make it you take a plastic Huggies baby wipe traveling case and cover it with fabric and ribbon or other embellishments.
The finished products:
They were a big hit at the baby shower and several women asked me to make them a clutch when they have their next baby.
Needless to say, at the end of April I was totally burned out and I have not touched a paint brush or sewing machine since.
- Current Location:Home
- Current Mood: sleepy
After Steve graduated in December and he realized he was free, the travel bug bit him. It bit him hard. Our first trip this year was to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We had a somewhat interesting experience when we arrived at the airport. Steve had booked a shuttle before hand, so after going through customs we headed to the desk for the shuttle company. On our way there, we were hijacked by a guy who said we didn't need to go to there because we had a reservation and directed us to a different desk. Then another guy proceeded to take out maps and show us different places we could go to and stuff we could do. We had no idea what was going on. Initially, I thought he was just being nice and showing us what was in the area. Then we both realized he was trying to sell us excursions. Very irritating. We had barely set foot in Mexico and we were already being sold to. After wasting 10 minutes and saying no 20 times, he told us where we could find our shuttle. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
We finally made it outside and boy was it bright and hot. I didn't think we would be standing outside for that long, so I didn't pull out my sunglasses right away. I must have been squinting pretty hard because the guy from the shuttle company asked me if I was mad. That was kind of funny. I put my sunglasses on after that.
Since the main objective of this trip was to really relax and take it easy, we stayed at an all inclusive hotel - Secrets Maroma. It had a private beach and it was adults only. It's not that I don't like kids, but it was nice not to have little kids crying/running around or bratty teenagers being loud and annoying. And the best part, we went from this:
to this:
Sigh. I really miss the beach. The resort:
I stole the first two pictures from their website. I must say that this place was really nice, so props to Steve for finding it.
The majority of our time was spent sitting around, swimming and eating. Our typical schedule was: Steve waking up super early and going down to the beach to watch the sunrise and take pictures; Becca finally getting up; breakfast; swimming and sitting on the beach; lunch at the outdoor grill by the pool; more beach time and/or a nap; dinner; bed. The swimming part almost didn't happen because Steve forgot to pack his swimsuit. Oops! Thankfully, the gift shop had one that fit. Although I'm sure Steve would have gone swimming anyway if we didn't find one.
Since all the days pretty much ran together, I'm just going to give highlights and talk about random activities in no particular order.
A couple weeks before we left, I gave Steve the green light to purchase a Amazon Kindle 2.
I was afraid that I would be bored out of my mind, since our agenda was to do nothing. Steve was the one who initially wanted it, but I'm the one who hogged it. It's so light and small that it was easy to carry around. I used it a ton on this trip. I used it on the plane and on the beach. Once while Steve was napping, I hung out in one of the hammocks they had hanging around the resort and read for a couple hours. LOVE IT! The best part is the price of the books. The bestsellers are still kind of expensive considering there's no paper involved (around $10), but the classics are either free or very cheap. I downloaded the complete works of Jane Austen for $0.99. Can't beat that.
The resort was a lot like a cruise in the sense that they had a daily newsletter with the activities for the day. One of the activities I was able to convince Steve to do was a bike ride. It ended up being kind of ridiculous (crappy bikes with one gear and biking down the driveway to the main road), but it was nice to get some form of exercise. Plus we got to wear these awesome vests and helmets.
Aren't you jealous? We look fabulous. Before we turned around we saw the equivalent of a raccoon. I can't remember what it's called. Steve, do you remember?
Our second day there I went kayaking. At first I didn't realize there was a guide and that there was an actual destination. When you think about it, it makes sense that there would be a guide. If you go far from the shore, all the resorts kind of look the same. Anyway, the destination was the the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is the largest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world. That was certainly news to me. The reef was a ways from the shore and my arms got a good workout. Even though we got pretty close to the reef, I couldn't really see anything besides the waves breaking against it. But it was nice and sunny and the water was pleasant, so I had an enjoyable time.
After I told Steve about my kayaking experience, he wanted to go out too. We tried to go on two different days, but the water was too choppy both times. The second time we tried, we decided to go out on a sail boat. Since we didn't have any experience, we had to go out with a guide. At first I was surprised they wouldn't let us go out by ourselves because they were just tiny catamaran sailboats, but then I looked over to the ocean and saw a guy sail right into the designated swimming area, which is roped off, and almost mow over a few people. He obviously didn't know what he was doing. Anyway, the sail ride was very wet because of the waves, but nice. I especially liked that I just had to sit there and look at the water. There is something so restful about watching the waves.
Like I mentioned before, Steve and I spent a lot of time on the beach. And when I say we went to the beach, I mean we were in the water. Getting in the water isn't my favorite thing in the world because I'm not a strong swimmer and I don't like my face to get wet. The later probably stems from my fear of drowning. I don't even like to put my face directly in the water in the shower. Weird, I know. Anyway, we hardly spent any time laying out on the beach, which is what everyone else at the resort seemed to be doing. Seriously, everyone else at the resort looked like this:
Oops! I mean this:
Some other random tidbits about the beach: the sand was very fine and white, the water was very warm and part of the beach was topless. The topless part threw both of us off. The first topless chick I saw, I did a double take because I thought she was a dude wearing a speed-o. After that, we kind of avoided that area. One day we took a stroll down the beach.
Steve and his ridiculous Hawaiian shirt. He thinks it's the coolest shirt ever and insisted on bringing it. One day that shirt is going to mysteriously disappear.
We only left the resort 2 times our entire stay. One time was to go to Chichen Itza. It was a very long bus ride because it's inland and we had to pick up people at other resorts. I think we spent about 6 hours total in the bus, so that killed an entire day. We don't regret going though.
Chichen Itza dates back to about 600 AD to 1000 AD. This is El Castillo. The Mayans were huge into astronomy and had a very accurate calendar. Each side of El Castillo represents 3 months (12 months) and each side has 91 steps (364 days). Year round two sides of El Castillo are illuminated by the sun. We didn't see it because we didn't have time, but they had an observatory.
People are no longer allowed to walk to the top. I was grateful when I heard that because, if it was allowed we would have done it. I probably would have gotten heat stroke or broken a leg on the way down. Those steps are steep and narrow.
After Chichen Itza was named one of the new 7 Wonders of the World, Mexico decided to take better care of it, which is why people can't walk up it anymore. In the last few years it has really started to crumble. This also prevents anymore graffiti. Apparently there is graffiti in every language at the top. Very sad. Our guide also mentioned it was also a safety issue because people did fall down the stairs quite regularly.
Like my bangs?
What? You want to see a close up of Steve's ensemble? Ok.
Doesn't he just look awesome? This outfit and huge camera just screams TOURIST! It couldn't be too comfortable either because it was very, very hot and humid with little to no breeze. I was sweating like crazy and my skin felt like it was on fire. It was so hot I actually told Steve I was ready to go home to the colder weather. So why is Steve wearing long sleeves and pants? Our third day in Mexico Steve decided he wanted a tan. So against my very strong objections, he went to the gift shop and bought sun tanning oil with SPF 8. We went to the beach after that and he oiled up and went swimming. Sure enough, that night he looked like a lobster, hence the long sleeves to cover his burns. He bought the hat just outside the ruins because even his head was burned. When we got home I started thinking about it and noticed a trend.
Us on the Big Island of Hawaii August 2006. Steve had to wear long sleeves while hiking lava flows because he got burned.
And July 2002. Steve in long sleeves during our road trip through southern Utah because he got burned.
It seems history is doomed to repeat itself.
Back to Chichen Itza. This was a stadium.
The game was kind of a mix of soccer and basketball. The objective was to get the ball through the rings without using your hands. There is a ring on the top of each wall at the halfway point of the stadium.
The audience stood on the top of the walls which are 20 feet wide. The box seats for VIPs.
VIP box seats with El Castillo in the background.
The stadium was built with acoustics in mind. You are supposed to be able to hear someone whisper on the other side of the stadium. If you clap, it will echo 6-7 times. So you can imagine how loud it got.
The game was played twice a year during the Spring and Fall equinox or was it the Summer and Winter solstice? I can't remember. Anyway, at the end of the game, the captain of the WINNING team was decapitated. This sacrifice was considered a great honor. Hmmm, perhaps the only time it would payoff to suck at sports.
Some carvings showing the two teams. It includes the losing captain holding the winning captains decapitated head. Very gruesome culture!
Temple of the Warriors or 1,000 Columns. This was the military base and the columns represented warriors.
Here's me trying to cool off in shade every chance I got.
By a column:
Under a tree just on the edge of the shade. I didn't want the vendors to think I was interested in what they were selling. You can tell the stairs are really starting to crumble on this side.
From El Castillo it was about "4 blocks" to the Cenote Sagrado ("sacred sinkhole"). This is where they sacrificed virgins. It's a 150 foot drop to the water and then the water is another 150 feet deep.
Currently, around 200 temples have been excavated. All of the buildings had amazing carvings.
They craved snakes a lot. It was a symbol of life and energy. When the white man came and saw all the snake carvings they thought the Mayans were devil worshipers, so they defaced a lot of buildings. Personally I think human sacrifices is a bigger sign of devil worship vs. carvings of snakes. That's just me though.
Our guide told us that a new site is currently being excavated and it predates the current site. Interesting. If I remember currently, the site also predates Christ.
Our next stop was lunch. It was a buffet, but the food was so awful we both just had one small plate. It's wasn't real Mexican food. It was what they think Americans want to eat. They even had a version of fettucine alfredo with broccoli and carrots. Gag! They didn't even play Mexican music. At one point I heard the theme for The Godfather. It was a huge disappointment.
Part of our lunch stop was to see another sinkhole. No remains of sacrificed humans here. This sinkhole is strictly for swimming. Too bad we didn't know about this part of the tour and didn't bring our swimsuits. It would have felt good.
Then it was back onto the bus and to the resort. I think we both passed out. It was a very long, hot day.
One evening we headed to the outdoor theater and watched "Yes Man". The movie wasn't that great, but the soda and popcorn were rocking. We had unlimited sodas in glass bottles while we were there and they were awesome. Steve and I both agreed that the Mexican version of Fanta Orange is way better because it's less salty. They put this "salsa"/hot sauce on the popcorn and that was surprisingly good. Steve loved it and he hates popcorn.
Speaking of food, we ate a lot of it. The resort had several restaurants to choose from. We mostly ate at the World Cafe, which was a buffet that would have a different food theme every night, and the grill by the pool. We also ordered room service quite a bit, but the food wasn't as good. One night we tried El Patio (Mexican) and Bordeaux (French). El Patio and Bordeaux are more fine dining, so I didn't get my Mexican street food fix. The food was good though. Steve ended up ordering the most unusual thing we had on this trip at Bordeaux - ostrich. Doesn't sound too crazy, but the menu failed to mention that the thin slices of ostrich with the salad were raw. Steve said it was disgusting, but I wouldn't know. I wanted to try it, but the more I stared at it the more I was grossed out by it. The color reminded me of raw liver. Gag. Now I'm kind of sad I wussed out, even if it was disgusting.
When we first got to the hotel, I went through the toiletries to see what they provided. I was a little surprised to find bug repellent and then I promptly forgot about it. Boy, I'm sure sorry I did.
It looked so much worse in person. I got over 30 mosquito bites while in Mexico and they itched like crazy. I still have dark spots all over my legs from them too. It's very attractive.
On our last full day in Mexico, while we were swimming in the pool right off our patio we met our neighbors. They were leaving that day and were taking one last swim before packing. We exchanged stories about our stay and I told them about the crappy buffet we had on our tour and how sad I was that I didn't get authentic Mexican food. They told us to take a cab to downtown Playa del Carmen and we'd be able to find a place easily.
We hadn't planned on going anywhere, but after talking to them, we decided we should. So we took a cab to Fifth Avenue in Playa. The resort had several cabs on standby at all times and they checked you out at the gate which was comforting. It was about a 15 minute drive, I think. Both drivers, there and back, loved that Steve spoke Spanish and both were very talkative. Of course, they both looked at me then asked Steve if I spoke Spanish too. He told them no and then asked if I looked Mexican. *Sigh* It was bound to happen sometime on this trip.
When we were dropped off, Steve asked the driver for a restaurant recommendation. We were more than disappointed when we found the restaurants he mentioned. Both were filled with tourists and were pricey. I guess he didn't know we really wanted authentic food. After walking around a bit, I told Steve we should go down a side street to see if we can find a hole in the wall to eat in. We walked a couple blocks away from the touristy area and I saw this:
Sold! Not a white person in sight, except Steve of course. No one spoke English either.
This was what I wanted and I felt our trip was now complete.
3 tacos + 1 plate of fajitas + 4 bottles of orange soda = 110 pesos (not quite $10). We would have paid at least 200 pesos at the places the cab driver recommended. We had used all our pesos by then, so we paid in dollars and we had to wait while they figured out the exchange rate.
We had plenty of time to kill after that, so we walked down to the beach to check it out.
I'm glad we were on a private beach because it was super crowded. Not only were college students and teens there for Spring break, but since it was Easter, all the locals were out too. Apparently they get two weeks off for Easter in Mexico. That would be nice.
We still had time to kill before the cab would pick us up, so we decided to go to Haagen-Dazs because they had air conditioning. We paid dearly for it though by paying more for ice cream than we did on lunch. Also, they ran out of strawberries, so the geniuses behind the counter substituted apples. It was still nice to get out of the heat though.
When we got back to the resort, we went to the spa. For my birthday, Steve told me I could get some spa treatments while we were in Mexico, so I totally took advantage. I got a facial to soothe my sunburn, which worked because my face didn't peel, and a body buff, which means my whole body was exfoliated. The later was great for my eczema. This was my first time going to the spa and I have to say it was a bit weird. It took me a while to relax, but by the end I enjoyed myself. I could do without all the zen stuff, like dinging the triangle three times to signal the end of my session. I talked Steve into getting a massage, since his back has been hurting. He wasn't a fan of the zen stuff either and was uncomfortable sitting in a bathrobe in the waiting area with another guy, but he enjoyed the massage.
On our last morning we went down to the beach for one last swim. Then it was back to our room to pack. I was actually really sad to leave. It did end up being a nice, relaxing vacation and I could get used to doing nothing. I really do miss the beach. If I had the money, I would get a beach house.
And now just a couple random pictures. As you saw above, Steve got himself a new toy. Although I wasn't thrilled about it or the additional purchases of lenses, battery pack and other accessories, I have to admit it takes great pictures.
Some sunrises:
He also borrowed a "fish eye" lens from someone at work. It curves the outside edges.
Ok, I'm all blogged out. Later.
We finally made it outside and boy was it bright and hot. I didn't think we would be standing outside for that long, so I didn't pull out my sunglasses right away. I must have been squinting pretty hard because the guy from the shuttle company asked me if I was mad. That was kind of funny. I put my sunglasses on after that.
Since the main objective of this trip was to really relax and take it easy, we stayed at an all inclusive hotel - Secrets Maroma. It had a private beach and it was adults only. It's not that I don't like kids, but it was nice not to have little kids crying/running around or bratty teenagers being loud and annoying. And the best part, we went from this:
to this:
Sigh. I really miss the beach. The resort:
I stole the first two pictures from their website. I must say that this place was really nice, so props to Steve for finding it.
The majority of our time was spent sitting around, swimming and eating. Our typical schedule was: Steve waking up super early and going down to the beach to watch the sunrise and take pictures; Becca finally getting up; breakfast; swimming and sitting on the beach; lunch at the outdoor grill by the pool; more beach time and/or a nap; dinner; bed. The swimming part almost didn't happen because Steve forgot to pack his swimsuit. Oops! Thankfully, the gift shop had one that fit. Although I'm sure Steve would have gone swimming anyway if we didn't find one.
Since all the days pretty much ran together, I'm just going to give highlights and talk about random activities in no particular order.
A couple weeks before we left, I gave Steve the green light to purchase a Amazon Kindle 2.
I was afraid that I would be bored out of my mind, since our agenda was to do nothing. Steve was the one who initially wanted it, but I'm the one who hogged it. It's so light and small that it was easy to carry around. I used it a ton on this trip. I used it on the plane and on the beach. Once while Steve was napping, I hung out in one of the hammocks they had hanging around the resort and read for a couple hours. LOVE IT! The best part is the price of the books. The bestsellers are still kind of expensive considering there's no paper involved (around $10), but the classics are either free or very cheap. I downloaded the complete works of Jane Austen for $0.99. Can't beat that.
The resort was a lot like a cruise in the sense that they had a daily newsletter with the activities for the day. One of the activities I was able to convince Steve to do was a bike ride. It ended up being kind of ridiculous (crappy bikes with one gear and biking down the driveway to the main road), but it was nice to get some form of exercise. Plus we got to wear these awesome vests and helmets.
Aren't you jealous? We look fabulous. Before we turned around we saw the equivalent of a raccoon. I can't remember what it's called. Steve, do you remember?
Our second day there I went kayaking. At first I didn't realize there was a guide and that there was an actual destination. When you think about it, it makes sense that there would be a guide. If you go far from the shore, all the resorts kind of look the same. Anyway, the destination was the the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is the largest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world. That was certainly news to me. The reef was a ways from the shore and my arms got a good workout. Even though we got pretty close to the reef, I couldn't really see anything besides the waves breaking against it. But it was nice and sunny and the water was pleasant, so I had an enjoyable time.
After I told Steve about my kayaking experience, he wanted to go out too. We tried to go on two different days, but the water was too choppy both times. The second time we tried, we decided to go out on a sail boat. Since we didn't have any experience, we had to go out with a guide. At first I was surprised they wouldn't let us go out by ourselves because they were just tiny catamaran sailboats, but then I looked over to the ocean and saw a guy sail right into the designated swimming area, which is roped off, and almost mow over a few people. He obviously didn't know what he was doing. Anyway, the sail ride was very wet because of the waves, but nice. I especially liked that I just had to sit there and look at the water. There is something so restful about watching the waves.
Like I mentioned before, Steve and I spent a lot of time on the beach. And when I say we went to the beach, I mean we were in the water. Getting in the water isn't my favorite thing in the world because I'm not a strong swimmer and I don't like my face to get wet. The later probably stems from my fear of drowning. I don't even like to put my face directly in the water in the shower. Weird, I know. Anyway, we hardly spent any time laying out on the beach, which is what everyone else at the resort seemed to be doing. Seriously, everyone else at the resort looked like this:
Oops! I mean this:
Some other random tidbits about the beach: the sand was very fine and white, the water was very warm and part of the beach was topless. The topless part threw both of us off. The first topless chick I saw, I did a double take because I thought she was a dude wearing a speed-o. After that, we kind of avoided that area. One day we took a stroll down the beach.
Steve and his ridiculous Hawaiian shirt. He thinks it's the coolest shirt ever and insisted on bringing it. One day that shirt is going to mysteriously disappear.
We only left the resort 2 times our entire stay. One time was to go to Chichen Itza. It was a very long bus ride because it's inland and we had to pick up people at other resorts. I think we spent about 6 hours total in the bus, so that killed an entire day. We don't regret going though.
Chichen Itza dates back to about 600 AD to 1000 AD. This is El Castillo. The Mayans were huge into astronomy and had a very accurate calendar. Each side of El Castillo represents 3 months (12 months) and each side has 91 steps (364 days). Year round two sides of El Castillo are illuminated by the sun. We didn't see it because we didn't have time, but they had an observatory.
People are no longer allowed to walk to the top. I was grateful when I heard that because, if it was allowed we would have done it. I probably would have gotten heat stroke or broken a leg on the way down. Those steps are steep and narrow.
After Chichen Itza was named one of the new 7 Wonders of the World, Mexico decided to take better care of it, which is why people can't walk up it anymore. In the last few years it has really started to crumble. This also prevents anymore graffiti. Apparently there is graffiti in every language at the top. Very sad. Our guide also mentioned it was also a safety issue because people did fall down the stairs quite regularly.
Like my bangs?
What? You want to see a close up of Steve's ensemble? Ok.
Doesn't he just look awesome? This outfit and huge camera just screams TOURIST! It couldn't be too comfortable either because it was very, very hot and humid with little to no breeze. I was sweating like crazy and my skin felt like it was on fire. It was so hot I actually told Steve I was ready to go home to the colder weather. So why is Steve wearing long sleeves and pants? Our third day in Mexico Steve decided he wanted a tan. So against my very strong objections, he went to the gift shop and bought sun tanning oil with SPF 8. We went to the beach after that and he oiled up and went swimming. Sure enough, that night he looked like a lobster, hence the long sleeves to cover his burns. He bought the hat just outside the ruins because even his head was burned. When we got home I started thinking about it and noticed a trend.
Us on the Big Island of Hawaii August 2006. Steve had to wear long sleeves while hiking lava flows because he got burned.
And July 2002. Steve in long sleeves during our road trip through southern Utah because he got burned.
It seems history is doomed to repeat itself.
Back to Chichen Itza. This was a stadium.
The game was kind of a mix of soccer and basketball. The objective was to get the ball through the rings without using your hands. There is a ring on the top of each wall at the halfway point of the stadium.
The audience stood on the top of the walls which are 20 feet wide. The box seats for VIPs.
VIP box seats with El Castillo in the background.
The stadium was built with acoustics in mind. You are supposed to be able to hear someone whisper on the other side of the stadium. If you clap, it will echo 6-7 times. So you can imagine how loud it got.
The game was played twice a year during the Spring and Fall equinox or was it the Summer and Winter solstice? I can't remember. Anyway, at the end of the game, the captain of the WINNING team was decapitated. This sacrifice was considered a great honor. Hmmm, perhaps the only time it would payoff to suck at sports.
Some carvings showing the two teams. It includes the losing captain holding the winning captains decapitated head. Very gruesome culture!
Temple of the Warriors or 1,000 Columns. This was the military base and the columns represented warriors.
Here's me trying to cool off in shade every chance I got.
By a column:
Under a tree just on the edge of the shade. I didn't want the vendors to think I was interested in what they were selling. You can tell the stairs are really starting to crumble on this side.
From El Castillo it was about "4 blocks" to the Cenote Sagrado ("sacred sinkhole"). This is where they sacrificed virgins. It's a 150 foot drop to the water and then the water is another 150 feet deep.
Currently, around 200 temples have been excavated. All of the buildings had amazing carvings.
They craved snakes a lot. It was a symbol of life and energy. When the white man came and saw all the snake carvings they thought the Mayans were devil worshipers, so they defaced a lot of buildings. Personally I think human sacrifices is a bigger sign of devil worship vs. carvings of snakes. That's just me though.
Our guide told us that a new site is currently being excavated and it predates the current site. Interesting. If I remember currently, the site also predates Christ.
Our next stop was lunch. It was a buffet, but the food was so awful we both just had one small plate. It's wasn't real Mexican food. It was what they think Americans want to eat. They even had a version of fettucine alfredo with broccoli and carrots. Gag! They didn't even play Mexican music. At one point I heard the theme for The Godfather. It was a huge disappointment.
Part of our lunch stop was to see another sinkhole. No remains of sacrificed humans here. This sinkhole is strictly for swimming. Too bad we didn't know about this part of the tour and didn't bring our swimsuits. It would have felt good.
Then it was back onto the bus and to the resort. I think we both passed out. It was a very long, hot day.
One evening we headed to the outdoor theater and watched "Yes Man". The movie wasn't that great, but the soda and popcorn were rocking. We had unlimited sodas in glass bottles while we were there and they were awesome. Steve and I both agreed that the Mexican version of Fanta Orange is way better because it's less salty. They put this "salsa"/hot sauce on the popcorn and that was surprisingly good. Steve loved it and he hates popcorn.
Speaking of food, we ate a lot of it. The resort had several restaurants to choose from. We mostly ate at the World Cafe, which was a buffet that would have a different food theme every night, and the grill by the pool. We also ordered room service quite a bit, but the food wasn't as good. One night we tried El Patio (Mexican) and Bordeaux (French). El Patio and Bordeaux are more fine dining, so I didn't get my Mexican street food fix. The food was good though. Steve ended up ordering the most unusual thing we had on this trip at Bordeaux - ostrich. Doesn't sound too crazy, but the menu failed to mention that the thin slices of ostrich with the salad were raw. Steve said it was disgusting, but I wouldn't know. I wanted to try it, but the more I stared at it the more I was grossed out by it. The color reminded me of raw liver. Gag. Now I'm kind of sad I wussed out, even if it was disgusting.
When we first got to the hotel, I went through the toiletries to see what they provided. I was a little surprised to find bug repellent and then I promptly forgot about it. Boy, I'm sure sorry I did.
It looked so much worse in person. I got over 30 mosquito bites while in Mexico and they itched like crazy. I still have dark spots all over my legs from them too. It's very attractive.
On our last full day in Mexico, while we were swimming in the pool right off our patio we met our neighbors. They were leaving that day and were taking one last swim before packing. We exchanged stories about our stay and I told them about the crappy buffet we had on our tour and how sad I was that I didn't get authentic Mexican food. They told us to take a cab to downtown Playa del Carmen and we'd be able to find a place easily.
We hadn't planned on going anywhere, but after talking to them, we decided we should. So we took a cab to Fifth Avenue in Playa. The resort had several cabs on standby at all times and they checked you out at the gate which was comforting. It was about a 15 minute drive, I think. Both drivers, there and back, loved that Steve spoke Spanish and both were very talkative. Of course, they both looked at me then asked Steve if I spoke Spanish too. He told them no and then asked if I looked Mexican. *Sigh* It was bound to happen sometime on this trip.
When we were dropped off, Steve asked the driver for a restaurant recommendation. We were more than disappointed when we found the restaurants he mentioned. Both were filled with tourists and were pricey. I guess he didn't know we really wanted authentic food. After walking around a bit, I told Steve we should go down a side street to see if we can find a hole in the wall to eat in. We walked a couple blocks away from the touristy area and I saw this:
Sold! Not a white person in sight, except Steve of course. No one spoke English either.
This was what I wanted and I felt our trip was now complete.
3 tacos + 1 plate of fajitas + 4 bottles of orange soda = 110 pesos (not quite $10). We would have paid at least 200 pesos at the places the cab driver recommended. We had used all our pesos by then, so we paid in dollars and we had to wait while they figured out the exchange rate.
We had plenty of time to kill after that, so we walked down to the beach to check it out.
I'm glad we were on a private beach because it was super crowded. Not only were college students and teens there for Spring break, but since it was Easter, all the locals were out too. Apparently they get two weeks off for Easter in Mexico. That would be nice.
We still had time to kill before the cab would pick us up, so we decided to go to Haagen-Dazs because they had air conditioning. We paid dearly for it though by paying more for ice cream than we did on lunch. Also, they ran out of strawberries, so the geniuses behind the counter substituted apples. It was still nice to get out of the heat though.
When we got back to the resort, we went to the spa. For my birthday, Steve told me I could get some spa treatments while we were in Mexico, so I totally took advantage. I got a facial to soothe my sunburn, which worked because my face didn't peel, and a body buff, which means my whole body was exfoliated. The later was great for my eczema. This was my first time going to the spa and I have to say it was a bit weird. It took me a while to relax, but by the end I enjoyed myself. I could do without all the zen stuff, like dinging the triangle three times to signal the end of my session. I talked Steve into getting a massage, since his back has been hurting. He wasn't a fan of the zen stuff either and was uncomfortable sitting in a bathrobe in the waiting area with another guy, but he enjoyed the massage.
On our last morning we went down to the beach for one last swim. Then it was back to our room to pack. I was actually really sad to leave. It did end up being a nice, relaxing vacation and I could get used to doing nothing. I really do miss the beach. If I had the money, I would get a beach house.
And now just a couple random pictures. As you saw above, Steve got himself a new toy. Although I wasn't thrilled about it or the additional purchases of lenses, battery pack and other accessories, I have to admit it takes great pictures.
Some sunrises:
He also borrowed a "fish eye" lens from someone at work. It curves the outside edges.
Ok, I'm all blogged out. Later.
- Current Location:Work
- Current Mood: exhausted
February was a pretty good month. We don't usually do anything big for Valentine's Day. Steve sent me flowers a few days early at work, which is always nice. I asked him what he wanted and he said breakfast in bed. I had to think about that for a little bit before committing because you have to wake up pretty darn early to catch Steve in bed. So Saturday was an earlier start for me. To make it extra special, I went to the butcher shop we like and got the bacon and sausage there. Both were amazing. The bacon had a nice smokiness and the sausage had a great soft texture. I love breakfast food! Anyway, after having breakfast with Steve, I went over to Rita's house to exercise.
The rest of the day was dedicated to me. After thinking about what I wanted for my birthday, I asked Steve to just take me shopping. I've mentioned before that he used to take me shopping when we were dating and I really loved that. And when I say shopping, I mean he actually picks out outfits for me. That hasn't happened in years because we have different ideas on how I should dress. After agreeing to let him have veto power over all purchases, he agreed. That afternoon we headed to the mall and I broke the bank. Steve didn't give me a limit, so I kept on going until he cried uncle. I got several work tops, some khakis and a black trench coat. It's so nice to have new clothes to wear and it was fun to shop with Steve again. Maybe I'll make it a birthday tradition. :)
For dinner we went to Via Cafe in Edina. We started with teriyaki/pineapple-glazed short ribs to start. For our main course I had seared ahi tuna over rice with tempura vegetables and Steve had pan-fried duck breast over a cheesy risotto with figs. I have to say that my favorite thing was probably the cheesy risotto. I should try to make something like that sometime. And since it was Valentine's Day AND my birthday, I insisted on dessert. It's very rare that we actually get dessert because we are always so full at the end of dinner and Steve isn't a fan of sweets. We shared a fruit bread pudding with sour cream ice cream and caramel sauce and it was very good.
On my actual birthday, Steve returned the favor and brought me breakfast in bed. That night he also cooked dinner for me - spicy beef concoction. It's one of Steve's creations. It's basically penne pasta, beef, red and green peppers with Cajun and other spicy seasonings. I heart spicy beef concoction! I had a great birthday this year.
The following week was a busy social week for us. One of Steve's co-worker's invited us to the local roller rink for her birthday celebration. And although we had already RSVP'd for her surprise party for the following evening, we decided to go anyway. I met Becca a few years ago when we went to Florida for Best Buy's Achiever's weekend and really like her a lot, so I was all for it. Steve decided to skip the roller skating, but I decided to give it a try in honor of my Classic Skating days. It was pretty obvious from my "I don't want to fall down" arm flailing that it's been 15+ years since I've skated. Actually, it was kind of scary because there were some really good skaters there. They would fly by you and almost knock you over. I ended up consoling myself later by sitting on the sidelines with Steve and making fun of them. Seriously, there was some good people watching there. The people that were good at skating seemed to be holding onto their glory days from the 70's. Anyway, we had fun and it was nice to do something different.
Here's a picture of us with Becca at the roller rink.
The following evening we went to Becca's mom's house for the surprise party and boy was she surprised. After walking in, she stood there for a while trying not to cry (happy/touched cry). It was a lot of fun and I was able to meet more of Steve's co-workers. Becca's mom also made a ton of amazing food. I ended up getting her brisket recipe because I like it so much.
On the last Saturday of the month, we met up with Mark & Co at Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate birthdays. We shared pizza and wings and then played some games. Good times.
(Steve and Miriam)
(Asher)
(Holden and Lili)
It was funny watching Holden play this basketball game. He kept on creeping to the side so he was closer to the basket.
(Amy, Asher and Miriam)
(Lili, Miriam, Mark and Steve)
March was very quiet in some ways and crazy busy in others. Stake Enrichment was on the 14th, so I was busy planning and preparing for that. This was the third time I've helped plan/execute one. I tend to do a lot of the initial leg work and then relax some during the event. That means I do the print material (invitations, handouts, program) and help with the gifts. The gifts ended up being a lot of work this year. We decided to do a 6x6 tile with our theme "Lift up Thy Heart & Rejoice" in vinyl lettering. To save money I weeded (removed the excess vinyl) and put the vinyl on the tiles. It was a massive undertaking since we needed 200, but I would rather do that then speak during the program. We had a good turnout and the day went smoothly.
I found out when we got home from Mexico this week that our Stake is being split. We will now be in the Minneapolis Stake, which means I will be released from my calling. I had a feeling I was going to be released soon. I will definitely miss working with the Stake RS president and her counselors, but I'm looking forward to not traveling for ward conferences and doing something on the ward level.
The rest of March and the beginning of April were very quiet and since this post is already longer than I expected, I'll save the Mexico post for next time.
Later.
The rest of the day was dedicated to me. After thinking about what I wanted for my birthday, I asked Steve to just take me shopping. I've mentioned before that he used to take me shopping when we were dating and I really loved that. And when I say shopping, I mean he actually picks out outfits for me. That hasn't happened in years because we have different ideas on how I should dress. After agreeing to let him have veto power over all purchases, he agreed. That afternoon we headed to the mall and I broke the bank. Steve didn't give me a limit, so I kept on going until he cried uncle. I got several work tops, some khakis and a black trench coat. It's so nice to have new clothes to wear and it was fun to shop with Steve again. Maybe I'll make it a birthday tradition. :)
For dinner we went to Via Cafe in Edina. We started with teriyaki/pineapple-glazed short ribs to start. For our main course I had seared ahi tuna over rice with tempura vegetables and Steve had pan-fried duck breast over a cheesy risotto with figs. I have to say that my favorite thing was probably the cheesy risotto. I should try to make something like that sometime. And since it was Valentine's Day AND my birthday, I insisted on dessert. It's very rare that we actually get dessert because we are always so full at the end of dinner and Steve isn't a fan of sweets. We shared a fruit bread pudding with sour cream ice cream and caramel sauce and it was very good.
On my actual birthday, Steve returned the favor and brought me breakfast in bed. That night he also cooked dinner for me - spicy beef concoction. It's one of Steve's creations. It's basically penne pasta, beef, red and green peppers with Cajun and other spicy seasonings. I heart spicy beef concoction! I had a great birthday this year.
The following week was a busy social week for us. One of Steve's co-worker's invited us to the local roller rink for her birthday celebration. And although we had already RSVP'd for her surprise party for the following evening, we decided to go anyway. I met Becca a few years ago when we went to Florida for Best Buy's Achiever's weekend and really like her a lot, so I was all for it. Steve decided to skip the roller skating, but I decided to give it a try in honor of my Classic Skating days. It was pretty obvious from my "I don't want to fall down" arm flailing that it's been 15+ years since I've skated. Actually, it was kind of scary because there were some really good skaters there. They would fly by you and almost knock you over. I ended up consoling myself later by sitting on the sidelines with Steve and making fun of them. Seriously, there was some good people watching there. The people that were good at skating seemed to be holding onto their glory days from the 70's. Anyway, we had fun and it was nice to do something different.
Here's a picture of us with Becca at the roller rink.
The following evening we went to Becca's mom's house for the surprise party and boy was she surprised. After walking in, she stood there for a while trying not to cry (happy/touched cry). It was a lot of fun and I was able to meet more of Steve's co-workers. Becca's mom also made a ton of amazing food. I ended up getting her brisket recipe because I like it so much.
On the last Saturday of the month, we met up with Mark & Co at Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate birthdays. We shared pizza and wings and then played some games. Good times.
(Steve and Miriam)
(Asher)
(Holden and Lili)
It was funny watching Holden play this basketball game. He kept on creeping to the side so he was closer to the basket.
(Amy, Asher and Miriam)
(Lili, Miriam, Mark and Steve)
March was very quiet in some ways and crazy busy in others. Stake Enrichment was on the 14th, so I was busy planning and preparing for that. This was the third time I've helped plan/execute one. I tend to do a lot of the initial leg work and then relax some during the event. That means I do the print material (invitations, handouts, program) and help with the gifts. The gifts ended up being a lot of work this year. We decided to do a 6x6 tile with our theme "Lift up Thy Heart & Rejoice" in vinyl lettering. To save money I weeded (removed the excess vinyl) and put the vinyl on the tiles. It was a massive undertaking since we needed 200, but I would rather do that then speak during the program. We had a good turnout and the day went smoothly.
I found out when we got home from Mexico this week that our Stake is being split. We will now be in the Minneapolis Stake, which means I will be released from my calling. I had a feeling I was going to be released soon. I will definitely miss working with the Stake RS president and her counselors, but I'm looking forward to not traveling for ward conferences and doing something on the ward level.
The rest of March and the beginning of April were very quiet and since this post is already longer than I expected, I'll save the Mexico post for next time.
Later.
- Current Music:Adele - 19
- Current Mood: drained
- Current Location:Work
January was a pretty crazy month for me. I had been sick on and off since Thanksgiving and so I shouldn't have been surprised when I got sick the day we got back from California. I got better for a couple of days and then I got really sick. I didn't go to work for a few days and I had to cancel Movie Night (gasp!). Steve took me to urgent care and they said it was some sort of respiratory infection. The antibiotic they put me on was working great, until I had an allergic reaction. So I went off it for a couple days and then started another round of a different one. The really weird thing about this illness was that I completely lost my appetite, which rarely happens. Not only did food sound gross, it made me nauseous. Even food commercials would make me want to throw up. And I know what you're thinking and no, I'm not pregnant. Anyway, I survived that week by eating bread and drinking 7up. If I tried to eat anything else, I would throw it up later. I ended up losing about 4 pounds in 5 days. Don't worry. I have since gained that back. Special thanks to Steve for taking care of me that week. That couldn't have been fun.
Thankfully, I got better just in time for my mom's wedding. I arrived in Utah the morning of Thursday the 29th. Rachel picked me up and we hung out a bit. On our way down to Provo, we stopped at the mall and did some shoe shopping. We ended up buying the same shoes, which I thought was funny. I then decided I was hungry, so we stopped at Sensuous Sandwich for lunch. I used to eat there a lot before I got married and it's been at least 8 years since I've been back. It was just as good as I remembered. We then went to my mom's. Most of the day was spent just hanging out and trying to help my mom while she sewed. Those dresses caused a lot of grief. Looking back, we should have just bought dresses. That would have saved my mom a lot of time since she only had 4 weeks to plan the wedding. Sariah and Ben were in town and staying at my mom's. Ben had a great time with Teo while they were there.
That night Willard, my step father, cooked dinner for us (my mom, Sariah, Ben, Abish, me, Nephi, Steff, Teo, Kalia and Rachel), which was very nice. Before going out there, I was worried that it would be awkward, but he seems to fit into our family nicely.
After hanging around for a bit and talking about possible song choices (my mom asked all the girls to sing), Rachel and I headed to Abish's to sleep. I must say that I wasn't looking forward to that since they just got a puppy and were keeping it indoors. Rachel and I were popping allergy medicine the entire time we were there. The little monster, Mockie:
I used to really like dogs and wanted one until my allergies got really bad. Now I think it's totally not worth it because I'm so miserable when I'm around them.
The next morning Abish had to work and Rachel and I went back to my mom's. We spent the morning working on the dresses. That afternoon Sariah, Ben, Rachel and I met my dad for lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. While we were waiting in the mall, I noticed this girl in a cell phone store staring at me. When I stared back at her, she asked if I was from Minnesota and if my last name was Brown. After a while I realized she was a sister missionary I used to go on joint teaches with about a year ago. I hadn't recognized her at first because she had lost some weight and changed her hair. That was really random. Anyway, it was good spending some time with my dad since I don't get to see him that often. My dad hadn't shipped Ben's Christmas present, so there was a little gift exchange. He also gave us gifts to pass along to Teo and Kalia. That might sound weird if you're not versed with our recent family history. It's a long story, so let's just say that the divorce wasn't amicable and things were complicated further when my dad remarried. Anyway, he did a great job picking out gifts. The kids loved them.
The kids were a little antsy to have their toys unpacked. It wasn't Steff's fault that the cars were screwed to the packaging.
Finally!
What a cutie!
My uncle (dad's brother) and aunt, Gary and Colleen, arrived from Arizona for the wedding that day. Some people thought it was weird that they came, since my parents are divorced. I didn't. My mom and Colleen are best friends. If you go through the pictures from the time we lived in Washington, they had the same hair styles and wore similar clothes. Plus they've been family for about 26 years, so why end the relationship when my parents couldn't make it work? It was great seeing them and I was just sad that none of my cousins were able to make it.
That night we went to the church to set up. All I'll say is that it was a long and drawn out affair. The kids playing while we practiced our songs:
If you were wondering why Kalia was blinking a lot, it was because she was waiting for the flash to go off. Silly girl. Some pics of the kids playing:
Sisters!
(Me, Sariah, Rachel and Abish)
On Saturday morning Abish, Rachel and I ran last minute errands in the morning. My mom was planning to run the errands herself, but the night before I sat down with her and made her tell me what needed to be done so we could take care of it. I knew she didn't want to give up control, but who wants to run a bunch of errands the morning of their wedding? We got ready at her house and then it was off to the church to finish setting up. Sariah, Rachel and I decided to stop at Wendy's for lunch and while ordering Abish called with an order for 5 other people. I've never ordered so much food before!
The decorations:
The table for the bridal party:
You might be thinking "that's really simple." Yes it was and that was on purpose. My mom wisely decided to go the cheap route, since things tend to disappear by the end of the night at Samoan weddings and they did.
Finishing getting ready and family pictures:
Originally my mom wasn't going to get a dress, but then decided to go all out since this is Willard's first marriage.
What Colleen got when she asked us to do something crazy. Pathetic.
(Rachel, Abish, Sariah, Benjamin, Willard, my mom, Nephi, Steffanie, Kalia, Teo and me)
The cake:
Since they didn't know how many people were coming (people from 3 Samoan wards were invited), the ceremony was in the gym. This ended up being a good thing and almost every table was filled when the ceremony started.
Nephi walking my mom down "the aisle".
Willard is a singer and sang Josh Groban's "The Prayer" and "You're Still You" before the ceremony.
The luau/reception was right after the ceremony. I have to say that it was an interesting mix of boredom and sensory overload. There was loud music and Polynesian dancers. Mixed into that people would get up and just talk for a while. A list of some of the people who got up and spoke: their Bishop, their Stake President, the High Priest leader and Willard's uncle. Anyway, it was a very long night. The ceremony started at 4 and the luau went until 10.
The food table:
The overall craziness:
The happy couple's first dance. I thought it was very tasteful for the band to advertise during their gig.
That's Abish singing in the background. She sang "At Last" and since Sariah was smart and wussed out, "From This Moment". Rachel sang "Heaven" by DJ Sammy and I sang "My Valentine" by Jim Brickman. I've already written about my feelings on my singing experience.
Some of the Samoan dancers:
The "Slap Dance". Their chests and backs were red when they were done.
Kalia taking a nap during the festivities. A miracle considering how loud the music was.
My mom was able to get Nephi onto the dance floor. Another miracle, since he won't even dance with his wife.
The cutting of the cake:
The third miracle was the serving of the cake. So when my mom and Willard were done cutting the cake, the "MC" of the luau asked my sisters and me to come up to serve the cake to everyone else. He had us give the top layer to the happy couple and the two outside layers to certain families, which is a tradition or something. We then had to make sure that everyone else (around 300 people) got a piece of cake from the remaining two layers. I just kept thinking: "Mom should have ordered a bigger cake!" Thankfully, Colleen was there and helped me cut up the cake. She cut the cakes at almost all of our weddings, I believe. In the end, only one person didn't get a piece and she didn't want cake anyway. Whew!
And now a bunch of pictures:
Teo and Ben were dancing machines. Teo's dancing was more hip hop and Ben's was....very interesting. He's in karate, so he incorporated it into his dancing. I kept on thinking of Elaine on Seinfeld. When he sat down to rest, I told him he was a good dancer. He very seriously responded, "I know." Funny kid. He danced so hard he got a bloody nose.
So on a side note, my mom told me they had to put a $200 cleaning deposit on the church building. Apparently Samoans like to party and not clean up after themselves. Or more likely, things are broken. Case in point, at the end of the night I heard that a kid of one of the guests broke a window. He threw something at a balloon to pop it, missed and hit the window. Thankfully another kid tattled on him and the Bishop was on hand to talk to the parents. Never a dull moment!
On another side note, there was no money dance. Now that the church is more familiar with what happens at Samoan weddings, they asked them to forgo it. I guess there's something inappropriate about throwing money around in a church. Go figure. Instead they put envelopes on the tables and had a box people could put them in.
After the cleanup, we headed back to my mom and Willard's place and they opened their presents. Well first, Sariah, Rachel and I made another stop at Wendy's again and got frosties for everyone. That really hit the spot. Ben, Teo and Kalia loved helping with the gifts.
Well, Kalia mostly was interested in biting the presents and climbing on them.
What every man needs, a huge pink, hand quilted blanket!
It was another late night, so Nephi & Co, Rachel and I just decided to crash at my mom's place. I got a couple hours of sleep before I had to get up to go to the airport to catch my 6am flight. My mom and Willard insisted on driving me, which was nice. Willard does seem like a very nice guy and more importantly, he makes my mom happy.
Thankfully, I got better just in time for my mom's wedding. I arrived in Utah the morning of Thursday the 29th. Rachel picked me up and we hung out a bit. On our way down to Provo, we stopped at the mall and did some shoe shopping. We ended up buying the same shoes, which I thought was funny. I then decided I was hungry, so we stopped at Sensuous Sandwich for lunch. I used to eat there a lot before I got married and it's been at least 8 years since I've been back. It was just as good as I remembered. We then went to my mom's. Most of the day was spent just hanging out and trying to help my mom while she sewed. Those dresses caused a lot of grief. Looking back, we should have just bought dresses. That would have saved my mom a lot of time since she only had 4 weeks to plan the wedding. Sariah and Ben were in town and staying at my mom's. Ben had a great time with Teo while they were there.
That night Willard, my step father, cooked dinner for us (my mom, Sariah, Ben, Abish, me, Nephi, Steff, Teo, Kalia and Rachel), which was very nice. Before going out there, I was worried that it would be awkward, but he seems to fit into our family nicely.
After hanging around for a bit and talking about possible song choices (my mom asked all the girls to sing), Rachel and I headed to Abish's to sleep. I must say that I wasn't looking forward to that since they just got a puppy and were keeping it indoors. Rachel and I were popping allergy medicine the entire time we were there. The little monster, Mockie:
I used to really like dogs and wanted one until my allergies got really bad. Now I think it's totally not worth it because I'm so miserable when I'm around them.
The next morning Abish had to work and Rachel and I went back to my mom's. We spent the morning working on the dresses. That afternoon Sariah, Ben, Rachel and I met my dad for lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. While we were waiting in the mall, I noticed this girl in a cell phone store staring at me. When I stared back at her, she asked if I was from Minnesota and if my last name was Brown. After a while I realized she was a sister missionary I used to go on joint teaches with about a year ago. I hadn't recognized her at first because she had lost some weight and changed her hair. That was really random. Anyway, it was good spending some time with my dad since I don't get to see him that often. My dad hadn't shipped Ben's Christmas present, so there was a little gift exchange. He also gave us gifts to pass along to Teo and Kalia. That might sound weird if you're not versed with our recent family history. It's a long story, so let's just say that the divorce wasn't amicable and things were complicated further when my dad remarried. Anyway, he did a great job picking out gifts. The kids loved them.
The kids were a little antsy to have their toys unpacked. It wasn't Steff's fault that the cars were screwed to the packaging.
Finally!
What a cutie!
My uncle (dad's brother) and aunt, Gary and Colleen, arrived from Arizona for the wedding that day. Some people thought it was weird that they came, since my parents are divorced. I didn't. My mom and Colleen are best friends. If you go through the pictures from the time we lived in Washington, they had the same hair styles and wore similar clothes. Plus they've been family for about 26 years, so why end the relationship when my parents couldn't make it work? It was great seeing them and I was just sad that none of my cousins were able to make it.
That night we went to the church to set up. All I'll say is that it was a long and drawn out affair. The kids playing while we practiced our songs:
If you were wondering why Kalia was blinking a lot, it was because she was waiting for the flash to go off. Silly girl. Some pics of the kids playing:
Sisters!
(Me, Sariah, Rachel and Abish)
On Saturday morning Abish, Rachel and I ran last minute errands in the morning. My mom was planning to run the errands herself, but the night before I sat down with her and made her tell me what needed to be done so we could take care of it. I knew she didn't want to give up control, but who wants to run a bunch of errands the morning of their wedding? We got ready at her house and then it was off to the church to finish setting up. Sariah, Rachel and I decided to stop at Wendy's for lunch and while ordering Abish called with an order for 5 other people. I've never ordered so much food before!
The decorations:
The table for the bridal party:
You might be thinking "that's really simple." Yes it was and that was on purpose. My mom wisely decided to go the cheap route, since things tend to disappear by the end of the night at Samoan weddings and they did.
Finishing getting ready and family pictures:
Originally my mom wasn't going to get a dress, but then decided to go all out since this is Willard's first marriage.
What Colleen got when she asked us to do something crazy. Pathetic.
(Rachel, Abish, Sariah, Benjamin, Willard, my mom, Nephi, Steffanie, Kalia, Teo and me)
The cake:
Since they didn't know how many people were coming (people from 3 Samoan wards were invited), the ceremony was in the gym. This ended up being a good thing and almost every table was filled when the ceremony started.
Nephi walking my mom down "the aisle".
Willard is a singer and sang Josh Groban's "The Prayer" and "You're Still You" before the ceremony.
The luau/reception was right after the ceremony. I have to say that it was an interesting mix of boredom and sensory overload. There was loud music and Polynesian dancers. Mixed into that people would get up and just talk for a while. A list of some of the people who got up and spoke: their Bishop, their Stake President, the High Priest leader and Willard's uncle. Anyway, it was a very long night. The ceremony started at 4 and the luau went until 10.
The food table:
The overall craziness:
The happy couple's first dance. I thought it was very tasteful for the band to advertise during their gig.
That's Abish singing in the background. She sang "At Last" and since Sariah was smart and wussed out, "From This Moment". Rachel sang "Heaven" by DJ Sammy and I sang "My Valentine" by Jim Brickman. I've already written about my feelings on my singing experience.
Some of the Samoan dancers:
The "Slap Dance". Their chests and backs were red when they were done.
Kalia taking a nap during the festivities. A miracle considering how loud the music was.
My mom was able to get Nephi onto the dance floor. Another miracle, since he won't even dance with his wife.
The cutting of the cake:
The third miracle was the serving of the cake. So when my mom and Willard were done cutting the cake, the "MC" of the luau asked my sisters and me to come up to serve the cake to everyone else. He had us give the top layer to the happy couple and the two outside layers to certain families, which is a tradition or something. We then had to make sure that everyone else (around 300 people) got a piece of cake from the remaining two layers. I just kept thinking: "Mom should have ordered a bigger cake!" Thankfully, Colleen was there and helped me cut up the cake. She cut the cakes at almost all of our weddings, I believe. In the end, only one person didn't get a piece and she didn't want cake anyway. Whew!
And now a bunch of pictures:
Teo and Ben were dancing machines. Teo's dancing was more hip hop and Ben's was....very interesting. He's in karate, so he incorporated it into his dancing. I kept on thinking of Elaine on Seinfeld. When he sat down to rest, I told him he was a good dancer. He very seriously responded, "I know." Funny kid. He danced so hard he got a bloody nose.
So on a side note, my mom told me they had to put a $200 cleaning deposit on the church building. Apparently Samoans like to party and not clean up after themselves. Or more likely, things are broken. Case in point, at the end of the night I heard that a kid of one of the guests broke a window. He threw something at a balloon to pop it, missed and hit the window. Thankfully another kid tattled on him and the Bishop was on hand to talk to the parents. Never a dull moment!
On another side note, there was no money dance. Now that the church is more familiar with what happens at Samoan weddings, they asked them to forgo it. I guess there's something inappropriate about throwing money around in a church. Go figure. Instead they put envelopes on the tables and had a box people could put them in.
After the cleanup, we headed back to my mom and Willard's place and they opened their presents. Well first, Sariah, Rachel and I made another stop at Wendy's again and got frosties for everyone. That really hit the spot. Ben, Teo and Kalia loved helping with the gifts.
Well, Kalia mostly was interested in biting the presents and climbing on them.
What every man needs, a huge pink, hand quilted blanket!
It was another late night, so Nephi & Co, Rachel and I just decided to crash at my mom's place. I got a couple hours of sleep before I had to get up to go to the airport to catch my 6am flight. My mom and Willard insisted on driving me, which was nice. Willard does seem like a very nice guy and more importantly, he makes my mom happy.
- Current Mood:
sore
In keeping with our tradition, we opened our presents before going out of town. Steve had very few surprises, especially since I left one of his presents in his trunk. Oops! Steve totally surprised me by buying me what I wanted. That rarely happens. And of course, I totally loved the presents Aneta let me pick out for myself. Hello red purse!
Steve doesn't like to smile for pictures, so if I ask him to this is what I get:
Steve and I arrived in LA late in the evening on the 23rd. After eating some pizza, we called it a night and went to bed. Christmas Eve was pretty laid back. We went shopping and hung out around the house. By the way, Lee and Aneta's house, especially their backyard, is awesome. I'm sooooo jealous.
That evening we had the traditional Christmas Eve party with hamburgers, etc. and banana splits for dessert. John & Co, Tyler & Co, Grandparents Brown, Uncle Doug, Ryan & Shamai, a family from church and the landscaper & guest were in attendance. It was a lot of fun.
(Steve, me and Preston)
On Christmas day, Tyler & Co and John & Co came back over to open presents. The kids were in heaven. I'm starting to think that kids should empty the stockings last because once they see candy, they're not interested in anything else it seems. Brody wouldn't give up his M&M's for anything.
(Kristi, Adam, Steve, me with Piper & Kelly)
(Me with Piper)
Here I am trying to get Brody to focus on opening his presents.
(Lee & Aneta)
That night we had an amazing dinner of prime rib (part of John's gift), potato casserole and rolls. Grandparents Brown were planning on coming over too, but they weren't feeling well. After dinner all the men went over to visit the Grandparents and the ladies just hung out. Later we had cupcakes for dessert. Brody was hilarious to watch. The kid LOVES frosting.
(Kelly, Aneta, Tyler, Kristi, Adam)
(Brody)
(Preston and Lee)
The next morning Steve and I headed over to Tyler and Kristi's. While Steve and Tyler went to multiple Best Buys and Target to get a Blu-ray player, I hung out with Kristi and the boys. I think Adam and Preston are hilarious. They say and do such funny things. When Steve and Tyler got back, they hooked up the Blu-ray player and we watched Wall-E. It was better than I expected. By then everyone was hungry, so we headed over to In-n-Out to get our burger fix. So yummy! I don't remember what we did for the rest of day. Probably just hung out and played games.
On Saturday Lee took us to lunch at Clearman's North Woods Inn to celebrate Steve finishing his MBA, John passing his CPA exam and Tyler passing the bar.
After lunch the girls went home and the guys went to a car dealership that had a car Lee wanted. They were gone a really long time because Lee decided to buy it. The paint job is not my favorite, but that's not the point. The thing hauls....butt. I almost got whiplash when Lee took me out in it. That night we just hung out some more and played games.
Sunday was also low key with just church and hanging out that evening with Tyler & Co.
On Monday Steve and I headed to Long Beach to go to Catalina Island. This little trip was part of Steve's Graduation Celebration. He booked us a room with a great view. We paid more for the balcony, but it was worth it because Steve spent a lot of time sitting out there.
After checking into our hotel, we just walked around a bit and then had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Our second day the fog rolled in and it took a while for it burn off.
The fog ended up being an omen. I slipped and fell in the shower that morning and got a big bruise on my butt. Then Steve slipped and fell while we were walking around and hurt his knee. It was a pretty rough start to the day.
That day we visited the botanical gardens. I was a little disappointed because It was mostly stuff you would find in the desert. It ended up being ok and we got some exercise walking there.
We then went to Jack's for lunch, which was my favorite meal while we were there. I had eggs benedict and Steve had Portuguese sausage, smoked ham and biscuits and gravy. We walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel and passed out. We only left the hotel again to get dinner at El Galleon, which was a total bust. We both got a variation of fettucine alfredo that was just gross. Too much sauce and it was super oily. While we were eating, we were treated to some truly terrible karaoke. Definitely a meal I would like to forget. We capped the night by walking around more and checking out the shops.
Every time we walked around I would look in this art gallery and really admire this painting by Simon Bull:
We eventually went in to find out how much it was. I was surprised to find out it was $2,000 for a replica from a paint factory a la Thomas Kinkade. Yikes! I like it, but I don't think I like it that much.
Our final day we just walked around some more before getting on the ferry. Some randoms pics from our last walk around.
Overall I think Catalina was just ok. If you couldn't tell, there isn't a whole lot to do. Although I was bored/restless on numerous occasions, Steve was able to relax and take it easy. He had a couple miserable months at the end of the year (doing the work of 3 people plus school), so he deserved the break.
We spent New Years Eve at Lee & Aneta's. Tyler & Co came over to celebrate and Kristi made a bunch of yummy food for us. We played some games and we watched a movie. Actually Tyler, Kristi and I watched the movie. The Browns are just not night people and I know Tyler was pretty disappointed with that.
On New Years Day John & Co came back up to hang out one last time. I made Chicken Wild Rice Soup for dinner and we hung out some more and played games like Apples to Apples, Trivial Pursuit and Scattergories. I love playing games and I got my fill on this trip. We were even able to get Steve to play a couple times and Lee to play once.
We spent our last day visiting people. We started with the Grandparents in the morning. After that we headed to the Village where we separately met with some high school friends we had reconnected with on Facebook. I hadn't seen Ashley in over 10 years, so it was great to see her and catch up. After Ashley took off, I walked over to where Steve was hanging out with his friend, Masha. She's a painter and very liberal, so it was interesting to listen to her talk. We later bought a piece of art from her and although abstract isn't my favorite, I like this one:
The rest of the day was very laid back. I think this was the day that we went to see Valkyrie with Lee and Tyler. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I probably wouldn't watch it again. On the way back we stopped at In'n'Out for our last meal. That night we left for the airport and then we were back home again. This was our longest trip to CA, but time really flew. It was a great Christmas.
And just because Piper is so cute, a few random pictures:
Steve totally surprised me by offering to hold Piper, although I kind of felt bad for her:
Ah, that's better.
Piper is a very cute and well behaved baby. Brody is a cute kid too and he finally warmed up to me a little on this trip.
I love this picture of Brody.
Steve doesn't like to smile for pictures, so if I ask him to this is what I get:
Steve and I arrived in LA late in the evening on the 23rd. After eating some pizza, we called it a night and went to bed. Christmas Eve was pretty laid back. We went shopping and hung out around the house. By the way, Lee and Aneta's house, especially their backyard, is awesome. I'm sooooo jealous.
That evening we had the traditional Christmas Eve party with hamburgers, etc. and banana splits for dessert. John & Co, Tyler & Co, Grandparents Brown, Uncle Doug, Ryan & Shamai, a family from church and the landscaper & guest were in attendance. It was a lot of fun.
(Steve, me and Preston)
On Christmas day, Tyler & Co and John & Co came back over to open presents. The kids were in heaven. I'm starting to think that kids should empty the stockings last because once they see candy, they're not interested in anything else it seems. Brody wouldn't give up his M&M's for anything.
(Kristi, Adam, Steve, me with Piper & Kelly)
(Me with Piper)
Here I am trying to get Brody to focus on opening his presents.
(Lee & Aneta)
That night we had an amazing dinner of prime rib (part of John's gift), potato casserole and rolls. Grandparents Brown were planning on coming over too, but they weren't feeling well. After dinner all the men went over to visit the Grandparents and the ladies just hung out. Later we had cupcakes for dessert. Brody was hilarious to watch. The kid LOVES frosting.
(Kelly, Aneta, Tyler, Kristi, Adam)
(Brody)
(Preston and Lee)
The next morning Steve and I headed over to Tyler and Kristi's. While Steve and Tyler went to multiple Best Buys and Target to get a Blu-ray player, I hung out with Kristi and the boys. I think Adam and Preston are hilarious. They say and do such funny things. When Steve and Tyler got back, they hooked up the Blu-ray player and we watched Wall-E. It was better than I expected. By then everyone was hungry, so we headed over to In-n-Out to get our burger fix. So yummy! I don't remember what we did for the rest of day. Probably just hung out and played games.
On Saturday Lee took us to lunch at Clearman's North Woods Inn to celebrate Steve finishing his MBA, John passing his CPA exam and Tyler passing the bar.
After lunch the girls went home and the guys went to a car dealership that had a car Lee wanted. They were gone a really long time because Lee decided to buy it. The paint job is not my favorite, but that's not the point. The thing hauls....butt. I almost got whiplash when Lee took me out in it. That night we just hung out some more and played games.
Sunday was also low key with just church and hanging out that evening with Tyler & Co.
On Monday Steve and I headed to Long Beach to go to Catalina Island. This little trip was part of Steve's Graduation Celebration. He booked us a room with a great view. We paid more for the balcony, but it was worth it because Steve spent a lot of time sitting out there.
After checking into our hotel, we just walked around a bit and then had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Our second day the fog rolled in and it took a while for it burn off.
The fog ended up being an omen. I slipped and fell in the shower that morning and got a big bruise on my butt. Then Steve slipped and fell while we were walking around and hurt his knee. It was a pretty rough start to the day.
That day we visited the botanical gardens. I was a little disappointed because It was mostly stuff you would find in the desert. It ended up being ok and we got some exercise walking there.
We then went to Jack's for lunch, which was my favorite meal while we were there. I had eggs benedict and Steve had Portuguese sausage, smoked ham and biscuits and gravy. We walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel and passed out. We only left the hotel again to get dinner at El Galleon, which was a total bust. We both got a variation of fettucine alfredo that was just gross. Too much sauce and it was super oily. While we were eating, we were treated to some truly terrible karaoke. Definitely a meal I would like to forget. We capped the night by walking around more and checking out the shops.
Every time we walked around I would look in this art gallery and really admire this painting by Simon Bull:
We eventually went in to find out how much it was. I was surprised to find out it was $2,000 for a replica from a paint factory a la Thomas Kinkade. Yikes! I like it, but I don't think I like it that much.
Our final day we just walked around some more before getting on the ferry. Some randoms pics from our last walk around.
Overall I think Catalina was just ok. If you couldn't tell, there isn't a whole lot to do. Although I was bored/restless on numerous occasions, Steve was able to relax and take it easy. He had a couple miserable months at the end of the year (doing the work of 3 people plus school), so he deserved the break.
We spent New Years Eve at Lee & Aneta's. Tyler & Co came over to celebrate and Kristi made a bunch of yummy food for us. We played some games and we watched a movie. Actually Tyler, Kristi and I watched the movie. The Browns are just not night people and I know Tyler was pretty disappointed with that.
On New Years Day John & Co came back up to hang out one last time. I made Chicken Wild Rice Soup for dinner and we hung out some more and played games like Apples to Apples, Trivial Pursuit and Scattergories. I love playing games and I got my fill on this trip. We were even able to get Steve to play a couple times and Lee to play once.
We spent our last day visiting people. We started with the Grandparents in the morning. After that we headed to the Village where we separately met with some high school friends we had reconnected with on Facebook. I hadn't seen Ashley in over 10 years, so it was great to see her and catch up. After Ashley took off, I walked over to where Steve was hanging out with his friend, Masha. She's a painter and very liberal, so it was interesting to listen to her talk. We later bought a piece of art from her and although abstract isn't my favorite, I like this one:
The rest of the day was very laid back. I think this was the day that we went to see Valkyrie with Lee and Tyler. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I probably wouldn't watch it again. On the way back we stopped at In'n'Out for our last meal. That night we left for the airport and then we were back home again. This was our longest trip to CA, but time really flew. It was a great Christmas.
And just because Piper is so cute, a few random pictures:
Steve totally surprised me by offering to hold Piper, although I kind of felt bad for her:
Ah, that's better.
Piper is a very cute and well behaved baby. Brody is a cute kid too and he finally warmed up to me a little on this trip.
I love this picture of Brody.
- Current Mood: tired
- Current Location:Work
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