Maui Day 6!! The Road to Hana Part 1...

5:30 a.m.

That was the time our alarm went off to get up, get ready, and beat the traffic on the Road to Hana! (Amazing how I can get up that early in paradise to go see cool stuff, but not here at home when I need to go the gym). We didn't want to be stuck in a row of cars stopping every 3 feet or so. Our book said most peeps get going by 8:30ish, soooo we opted to get going by 6:30 or 7 am. :) We're over-achievers like that. 

We'd overheard a few people saying things like "why would I want to spend an entire day of my vacation on a freaking road?" etc... (we eavesdroped at the hotel pool. whatever). We both scoffed like "Hmph... they don't know what they're missing.. we're SO doing the road to Hana." I think deep down, we were both thinking "sheesh, I hope this really is worth it..." Lemme tell you... it SO was. The Road to Hana day was my favorite day of the entire trip! We kept pushing it back a day and then another...and then another...so we didn't get to do it til day 6, but definitely worth the wait... :) And now I shall get to the point... 

If there's one thing I need in the morning, it's some sort of sustenance. (In other words, if I don't eat, I turn into a moody b*tch. Just being honest). Lucky for us, a little fruit stand was just opening for the day as we hit the very first part of the road! My friend, Angela, had just tweeted at me that morning about some amazing smoothies they had on the Road to Hana, so I was pretty much ready to buy a smoothie at the first place I saw one b/c my stomach had heard the word "smoothie" and my mouth was watering... She wasn't kidding about them being amazing... The guy made the entire smoothie fresh right there---fresh banana, fresh mango, and fresh sugar cane! My gawd, I could go for one of those smoothies right now... yum...

Oh and yeah, we also go banana bread... Smoothies and banana bread= breakfast of champs! :) Look at me keepin it classy with my cheesy smile b/c I was half awake... In reality, Eric and I bit into these loaves like they were burritos, leaving crumbs and a hot mess in our wake. :) (more pictures of that later)

The GPS depicts the straight line that is the Road to Hana (sarcasm noted). :) We'd heard lots of people saying it made 'em carsick. We both wondered what was wrong with those people and even chuckled as we drove, feeling rather superior with our tummies of steel b/c we didn't get a lick of car sickness! (Please await the post where I take this "superiority"statement back b/c I almost puked on one of the roads in Maui... but we won't go there right now).  

Our guidebook had a couple of places that said things like "so and so owns the land on the far side, but not the near side so you can enter from there... If you choose to secure permission for entering the grounds, there is rarely anyone monitoring it soooo..." haha.. In other words, "don't be a pansy..." ha! Our guidebook=awesome. (Note me and the random fence. I mean.. it had an opening...*shrugs*) :)

Stop one: Haipua'ena Falls... There hadn't been much rainfall, but this little guy was still quite tranquil and pretty... :)

Stop two: Backtracked b/c we accidentally missed Upper Puohokamoa Falls (where the fence was from in the collage above).... Pretty pretty! I love waterfalls... a lot... You can tell by the cheesy smile on my face...ha!

Don't mind me; just hoppin' a guardrail at 8am....

But, the guardrail hopping was worth it to get this photo of Honomanu Bay just as the sun is starting to shine and welcome the new day! :) We decided we wanted to see it up close, so we referred to the trusty guidebook...  (We picked and chose what we wanted to hike to, etc at first b/c we didn't want to spend too much time at stuff early on and miss some of the stuff towards the end of the road... The guidebook warned us of people doing that.. Our guidebook was definitely for the cool kids. ;) ) 

Our fantastic guidebook led us astray a little by saying the road to the bay Eric's standing in front of requires 4WD clearance. For fear of a flat tire early on, we opted to hike it...and hike it....and hike it... And um, we arrived and saw a Prius down there. The good old Charger rental car coulda made it. Oh well... We forgave the guidebook... :)

Well worth the hike. From the book: "The beach is gravely and the swimming poor, but in the early morning, the sun creates a magnificent golden green on the valley walls, reminding you why you came to Hawai'i.." So true.... (and yes, I am writing this post with my guidebook beside me. I can't spell half these places on my own-sheesh! Don't judge me.)

From there, we passed some falls, but decided we were going to go for the one I'd earmarked as one I REALLY wanted to see, Three Bears Falls. See all the people standing there on top of the bridge ogling the gorgeous falls? Yeah, they didn't have the same guidebook that told them "At the far side of the bridge is a fairly easy, short path..."

 So, following Eric's lead (b/c he's admittedly WAY less clumsy than me), we climbed down to the falls... Well worth it, don't you think? :)

 Probably the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen in real life...

 We played at Three Bears Falls for awhile, snapping pics, gazing at the water, etc...

From there, we passed quite a few little waterfalls, but we could tell they weren't really flowing due to lack of rainfall so we didn't stop. Plus, it has just started to rain a little, thus making a hike a little more treacherous on lava rocks... We were ready to see one of the spots we'd been waiting for... black sand beach... and the sun came out again right before we got there! :)

Housed in Wai'anapanapa Park, black sand beach is freaking gorgeous.... Did you know that black sand beaches are often formed in mere days or weeks?! They're formed when lava flowed into the sea, shattering on contact with the ocean. Fragments formed the sand! That said, black beaches usually have a short life span (few hundred years) b/c once lava stops flowing, there's no more black sand being made...

 Look at me trying to be a cool kid with my hat until....

...I almost got very wet... haha! It's not that I didn't want to get wet, but um... I didn't have any more shoes! Comedy... 

We stayed at black sand beach a long time... and it was definitely well worth the extra playtime alloted :)

 "I wanna climb up there too! (after Eric in the above photo)" This is how a lot of photos went when there was climbing involved... I had to try to look like a bad@ss that was just as good a climber as Eric... No, no injuries were incurred this time..." (the rocks are all a LOT more slippery than they look...and sharp). 

 My footsteps... :)

 Still pretending to be Lewis and Clark, we opted to explore the lava tube cave just off the beach! I pretended to tie my shoe or something so Eric would go first... ya know.. just in case.. ;) ha!

 I make caves fashionable.

 The mouth opened up to the ocean... so cool!

 Thanks for the good times, black sand beach... Jackie and Eric are hungry and ready to hit the town of Hana for some food before more adventures on the back side of the road... :)

See you in Hana, friends.... 

In case you want a dose of the ocean waves for your Monday, here's a little clip from our trip to black sand beach: :) I wanna go back.... *sigh* 

I heart table decor!

Yesterday's post was a bit heavy so thought I'd lighten up today (the office is DEAD and I am a little bored) and post something that makes me happy...TABLE DECOR! Do I ever decorate my table? No. Do I even have a dining table big enough to decorate and also include food on it? No. haha.. But, that doesn't mean I dont WANT to...er...or at least like looking at photos of other people who decorate! :) My favs always feature some sort of candlelitness. (Yes, I just made up a word, whatever).

Goal: to someday have a fun dinner party and have awesome table decor. You're all invited. *affirmative nod*

Maybe I won't have THIS many guests at my table (*nervous face*), but still....haha.. Had to feature b/c it's so pretty, :)

via weheartit dot com

Loving purples this year. I actually have shades of deep purple nailpolish on my stocking stuffer list I'm giving to my mom for xmas. She's definitely going to read it, stop, look up, and say "Purple? On your nails?" I know my mother so well. Anyway, this is pretty...

And you gotta love some fall colors... b/c all too soon, they're just brown. And well, brown isn't as exciting as these vibrant leaves and jazz (although on closer look, I think that pumpin is fake. Whatever. Ignore that and pretend this is all real.)

Um, speaking of table decor... even BLOGGING about this makes me realize I'm getting a little older. ha! I mean really...my Christmas list consists of pyrex bowls and a veggie chopper (and some other stuff, but still!). Last year, I wanted a vacuum. If you would have asked me in college whether a vacuum would ever make my wish list, I would have laughed at you. (Note: I'm glad I'm growing up; I just amuse myself.)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in blogland! I am thankful for YOU! :)

1800 bags of thankful.

Today, Eric and I volunteered with our company and some other companies at our local John 3:16, assembling and handing out over 1100 bags of food and turkeys. Today's total exceeded 1800 when you count the morning shift... Staff and volunteers did the same thing all day yesterday and will do it again and again into the night tonight and all day tomorrow... It's just astounding.... 

some of the bags premade for the night crew since they dont have any extra volunteers for the night and are working on a very small staff... 

 Part of the assembly line Eric and I both worked... I stood to the right of the woman bending over and filled bags with one can of dessert or fruit and two cans of green beans before passing on to her to fill with corn...

We moved FAST, friends... The food is stacked high on the table and you feel as though you'll never run out...and then you're scrambling before you know it, trying to grab another box of cans and keep the line going... I put the equivalent of 2200 cans of green beans in bags in just under 3 hours....

There are so many people in need.... And like Tracy said on her blog, the face of need is much different these days with the tough economy.... (Tracy volunteered in her community yesterday doing the same thing!) The face of need includes people like you and me, who might not have a good support system and lost their jobs or are just down on their luck...

I am thankful to live in a generous community that helped these families eat a good meal together on Thanksgiving through their donations. Trucks were pulling up and dropping stuff off AS we were making the bags! I mean seriously... We'd run out of corn and be stuck substituting something else we had a surplus of...which was often less than optimal...then 20 minutes later, we'd get boxes of corn in and people would cheer! :) A semi truck dropped off a load of turkeys while we were bagging food! It was just very moving... As fast as we could bag, Eric and some of the other folks were carrying bags out to the line to be given to people. There was probably a 5 minute window or less between making a bag and it leaving in someone's hands.. Amazing.

They still need a lot. We ran out of cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes for a long time... Green beans were running low when I left... I hope even more area citizens come forward with donations tomorrow for those families who will be in that line...

A few people brought their kids to help sort and bag food... What a great experience for those kids to have in my opinion. When I was younger, there were years we definitely didn't have a lot...I never FELT that way as a kid b/c my parents made sure of that...but looking back, I get it now. And it is a perspective I'll keep with me my whole life and I'm thankful for that. I think it's important to understand that people can be down on their luck and that a bag of food isn't a hand out, it's a hand up....and often a ray of hope...

I am thankful to have great family and friends (most of which I consider part of my family :) )....I'm thankful to not have to worry about where my next meal is coming from and to have a great support system in my life... I'm thankful for those things and so much more this holiday.... :)

Weekend Recap! :)

Hi blogfriends! How was the weekend? Mine was BUSY, but really good!

Last week, I (once again) committed myself to something every single night....and it seemed like work was BUSIER than usual. (I've read that on a few blogs, so I think our offices must all be conspiring together or something). But for real.. it was BUSY, right? Anyhoo, when scheduling chaos happens, I fall off the blogging radar... haha.. Then, I binge on blogging on Sunday as much as possible.. :)

Saturday**
Saturday morning, went to Affair of the Heart (craft fair in town for a weekend) with Ashley! In retrospect, I'm highly disappointed that we didn't take ANY photos. There were plenty of good, cool, funny, random, etc photo ops there... haha.. *sigh* Oh well. Anyway, we had fun. Some of the things people come up with to create and sell surprises me....in both good and really bad *cringe* ways. As the event got more crowded, it was like the Black Friday of craft fairs.. I mean..people would stop right in front of you or block something you were looking at. People brought their own BASKETS (which was admittedly a good idea if you were buying a lot). Anyway, good times for sure. Gracie dog got some bows that she's going to hate love!

Saturday afternoon, I headed to the TU game with Eric and his dad. :) Admittedly, my feet were hurting after 3 hours at the craft fair (read: I'm a wuss) and I kinda hit a wall around halftime of the football game, but still fun...and TU WON! Hooray!

That night, Eric and I grabbed food at a local Irish pub and then headed home to watch..wait for it...wait for it... H@rry Potter! As in the very first movie! I'd never seen it! I got on the wizardry train a little late- I didn't read much for pleasure in college/law school...and by the time I was out of school, everyone was already seriously invested in the movies/books. Anyway, I just never got around to it. Gotta admit though... I'm getting into it now. I want to catch up on ALL the movies! I would love to say I'd catch up on all the books, but I really want to catch up while the current movie is in the theater if possible...

Sunday**

Sunday, these fabulous girls and I got up bright and early to cheer on our friend, Jenny, as she ran her FIRST marathon!

Check her out! This was mile 6! The guy in purple seems highly entertained by our yelling and jumping around for Jenny.. haha..

It was SUCH an awesome experience! People chuckled at our signs and seemed to genuinely appreciate the crowd there to cheer them on! The mood and energy is just amazing. A few runners even stopped and took pics of our signs... haha.. I highly recommend going to a marathon or half and cheering on the runners just once, even if you don't know anyone racing... Just a totally cool experience.

Here she comes (pink socks) with her sister in law at mile marker 19! (aka the mile marker where the runners seemed to be like "what the eff was I thinking doing this?" haha...) The wind was BLASTING them in the face on this whole leg of the run. We had trouble just holding our signs, let alone what Jenny was likely dealing with running into that wind. She rocks.

And here she is crossing the finish line after an amazing 26.2 miles!! I am so proud of her! Seeing her approach that finish line and cross over it made me totally teary eyed. I feel really lucky to have been able to celebrate such an awesome accomplishment with her. Way to go, Jenny!

A lot of the runners had kiddos that joined them for the last half mile, etc.. They'd hold their parents hand as they crossed the finish line and it was just so stinking sweet...

Then, I headed to the grocery store (so exciting, right), came home, cleaned the casa from top to bottom, and made Gracie dog some food. Yes, you read that right, I think I'm going to start making her food now. Ashley makes her own pup food and it's really easy (brown rice, egg, ground turkey, veggies). I added some pumpkin for fiber (b/c thanks to my TMI, you all know about her potty problems). She seemed to love it! I just got so tired of having to add pumpkin and other stuff to her dog food just to give her the minimum nutrients she needed, all while feeding her some combo of chicken meal or lamb meal- BLECH! A lot of forums reported good results with homemade food. With Gracie's recent digestion issues, thought it was worth a shot. If I can make her food cheaper and healthier than the bag food, it's way worth it for sure. I'll likely have to add a little dry dog food for her teeth, but otherwise... hoping this is a long term fix!  

Gracie's food! Looks yummy, right?! Do any of you make your doggie's food?

Oh and my roomie was kinda being a tinge of a Scrooge last week, not really "in the holiday spirit" this year. I thought her comments were a big fat debbie downer, sooooo what makes you in the holiday spirit like DECORATING?! I don't go all out b/c well.. that's stupid expensive and I don't own my home. Blah. (Also, I'm extremely clumsy so ladder + lights on the house seemed like a bad call). But, I got a festive wreath for over the fireplace, made some centerpieces with scented pinecones & cranberries (below), got some festive hand towels and dug out my little Christmas tree. I think I'm going to put lights in our bushes, but I'll let the roomie get used to the other festiveness first.. haha.. It's all about moderation. ;)

I feel like I have so many blessings in my life to be thankful for and, although I am usually WAY over the holidays come late December, I'm in the holiday spirit now! :)

Hope your weekend was good and you're gearing up for a happy Thanksgiving, friends! :)

Maui Day 5!!!

I am DETERMINED to knock out some more of our fabtastic Maui trip! :) The day after Day 5, we did the Road to Hana, soooo maybe I'll make some collages tonight to spare you from the ridiculous amount of pictures. Anyway, that's Day 6 so I'll worry about that later... For now, this is Day 5! 

We got there a little early... as in before everyone else.. haha..

A weird woman insisted she had the best "angle." I have the "what-are-you-doing, you-weirdo?!" smile going on. 

The start of Front Street!

Sooooooooooo pretty... *said with a wistful sigh*

Banyan Tree Park! The park is made up of ONE MASSIVE tree! So cool! An art fair was going on the day we went... 

Eric likes the Banyan Tree

Jackie likes the Banyan Tree. (After this, I saw a sign that said "Do not climb on tree." Oops)

The back door in one of the stores...The worker prolly sea kayaks on his breaks... which is bananas ...and AWESOME!

In defense of sailing lessons.... *nervous* (see the sunken boat?!)

At lunch! Check out the woman behind me raising her arms to block herself. They kept getting sprayed by ocean waves and we found their attempts to block the spray highly entertaining during our whole meal. Yeah, we're mean like that...which is why we get along so well. haha.. ;)

Yet another one that just woulda been a lil better with a flash. Eh, whatever. It's still pretty cute! 

We both got some little stuff, but really didn't go overboard shopping. We really had a good time going in and out of stores and galleries, checking out the scenery, etc. But, I have to tell you... they had a fabulous store called LUSH that I SO wish Tulsa had.... Eric got me something from there when he went to Whistler last year and it's just such a cool brand of good smelling bath and body stuff! And everything is handmade and environmentally friendly, organic, and they don't test on animals. :) You can shop online, too. 

image from lush dot com

 That night, we headed to S@nsei for sushi! (I mean....you really should have sushi in Maui if you like sushi.. Duh). Oddly enough, it had been recommended by a Brooks Bros employee from Hawaii on our Colorado trip back in July...haha.. Random, but an excellent recommendation! (And no, I dont remember how we got to talking about our Maui trip to the dude at Brooks Bros... haha)...

We didn't take any pics at dinner, but here's one after we got back! Starting to have a nice little tan goin' on... (Just looked at my arms and realized my tan is now 100% gone. Blah.)

In our hotel lobby :) 

I have no idea...

I woke up around 2am to the sound of Eric going out on our balcony... I sleepily asked him what he was doing and he said he was taking a pic of the moon. In my semi-dream state, I thought that was cool (and odd), but not cool enough for me to get up to see the picture... haha.. Anyway, when I looked the next day, I was really glad he took it...

Gorgeous... 

  So, friends, that was Day 5! We took it kinda easy since we had a 5:30 am wakeup call to get ready and start the Road to Hana by 6:30 am ahead of traffic...and Eric was still recovering from his migraine...

And... onto the Road to Hana, Day 6! 

It finally happened...

I tried to upload Maui Day 5 when it happened.

I was taken aback and just sat there in silence, staring at my computer.

I looked at my dog, but she didn't understand it either.

I got THE message.

It was written in green and in very small font.

It told me what I never wanted to hear. (being overdramatic)

I ran out of storage on my blog.

What do I do? Remove old thoughts and rantings?

*gasp* I could NEVER.

Start a new blog?

But I didn't even have a name or a concept or or or even a LAYOUT.

I had to buy more! *said in frantic tone*

Five dollars later and here I am.

If anyone says I don't take too many photos and/or yammer on too much, they're 100% lying and now I know that...

*sigh* haha...

Granted, I'm going on 4 years in May 2011 with this blog.. (FOUR YEARS.of my life. in a blog. BANANAS.) Some of my blogs are so old that I feel guilty even HAVING them anymore. I mean.. I have no idea what I was thinking or feeling back then, let alone blogging. I just ignore their existence. I don't remove them, but I don't read them either... haha.. *shrugs* Well, I might have removed SOME of them...

*slapping/wiping hands as if removing dirt* Done with that....and...

Moving on... :)

Weekend Recap...and other random rambling :)

Helllllllllo lovelies! How was the weekend? We're enjoying some darn good weather here and I hate to even MENTION it for fear I'm going to jinx it. Anyhoo, the weekend was good and it involved a.lot.of.eating. Starting description now... 

Friday night, I attended a surprise engagement party for some good friends! :) How did that work, you ask? Well, he sent out an evite to all of her close friends last week letting us know the plan that he was going to propose and then bring her over to what was supposed to be a "dinner" but would actually be a surprise party for her! So cute, right? Yeah, agreed. That's an awful lot in your face all at once, but she handled it well... haha.. :) And so glad everyone kept it a secret. That's a lotta trust in a LOT of people. *nervous* 

She was totally floored :) (and check out my friend behind the chair flipping the light switch on. hahaha...See her white tights under the chair and little hand peaking above on the switch?)

Anyhoo, Friday was fun! 

Saturday, Eric and I decided to have an indulgent breakfast. Tulsa peeps, if you haven't ever eaten at Shiloh's, you're missing out. It's good (but not healthy) home cooking. I mean they have chicken and dumplings.... YUM! Eric and I opted to see just how much food our bodies could hold by ordering all of the below... Yes, really. I'm convinced he has a tapeworm. (I really hope no one finds my blog by googling that. *shudder* haha).

(Um, and sidebar here, but speaking of home cooking, Pioneer Woman is going head to head with Bobby Flay this week! I think it's Wednesday. Set the dvrs! Eric and I have a bet going. I bet him she'll win. :) )

All of this was under $20 bucks! WHOA. and YUM.

Saturday itself was pretty uneventful (a positive thing). :) Errands here, cleaning there. Saturday night, we headed to the Hafli Fall Festival and had some awesome, authentic Lebanese food...

(Saturday was a very gluttonous day)

Today was full of errands and shopping around getting Christmas gift ideas for people. I also bought quite a few xmas presents! :) (So proud of myself for getting at least SOME of it done early).

I may or may not have come up with a few things for my own list in the process...haha... You see, every year, I get asked "what do you want?" and I never have a freaking clue. I feel lucky that I really don't NEED much of anything in many regards. But, my "I dunno" shrug frustrates the hell out of people, I know... Sooooooo, anyway, this year, I've made it a point for the past couple months to kinda jot down stuff-useful stuff, cheap stuff, spendy stuff, fun stuff, frivilous stuff, you name it- whenever I think about it (on my phone that is) so I don't forget.

As an aside, I have like 5 lists going on the phone for people's gifts. If something happens to the smart phone, I'm going to have to apologize for all the random gifts people will receive b/c all my planning will be gone...yikes! (thinking I need to back my lists up after I blog this).

Here are a few of the things I've included in my random cell phone list..

MAC is doing their holiday brush sets again!! The Sweep me off my feet one is funness! :)

I think Beauty and the Beast is coming to Tulsa's performing arts center! Wanna come with me? You know you do. (If I actually go, I feel badly for whoever sits next to me b/c I know a lot of the songs). *swaying head and humming "Be Our Guest" right now*

I want a (faux) fur trapper hat so much! I can't find one anywhere that I really like that isn't stupid expensive. I mean, it's just a freaking hat. sheesh! *sigh* I thought I found a cute one at the Gap, but after seeing it in person today, it might be TOO furry. (I seriously looked like I was about to attempt to build an igloo in it). Anyway, here's a cute one....

 I'm not a die hard fan of Vera Bradley. I mean.. it's cute, but it's just not something I've ever gotten into. That said, those massive duffel bags are freaking amazing. I mean they're the perfect.dang.size.for.everything. Need an airplane carry on? Take the duffel. Need an overnight bag for a weekend? Take the duffel. It's like the answer to everything. (being overdramatic. obviously).

 

Cleaned out my car today and thought "hmm.. it'd be cool to have some of those coasters in their car people have for different sports teams. I want some TU ones!" Do I even know where to find them? Nope. But, I found a pic on google images. *shrugs*

I already smell pretty awesome naturally.. (sarcasm noted), but this stuff smells quite lovely if I do say so myself. And Eric tells me it doesn't bother his allergies. (This is a blog for another time, but I've been through 3 perfumes he nixed b/c they bug him...He's pretty awesome, but his nose and I have a love/hate relationship). 

 Rompers are awesome. They're comfy and I want to sleep in them. V!ctorias Secr!t apparently heard my plea and started making rompers for pjs. I dig. I won't pose like this in mine. And my skin definitely doesn't glow like that. But, ya know.. I still want one.

So there you have it. Weekend recap. Some Christmas stuff. I wish I owned a house b/c I REALLY want to decorate. My roomie gave me a 20 minute speech about not being in the holiday spirit this year at all and yada yada, so something tells me she wouldn't be thrilled to come home and find greenery and nutcrackers...

I always do this btw... get into the holidays around now... By the time Christmas gets here, I'm kinda over all the music, the crowded stores, cold weather, yada yada ...haha...So I'm just embracing it now with that understanding. I feel like I have many blessings in my life right now and that's something to be cheery about in my book. 

Have you started shopping? What's topping your list this year? :) 

Goal: Be done blogging about Maui this week. Think I can do it? Yeah, me neither... XOXO, loves! Have a fabulous Monday! 

MAUI Day 4!!! :)

Hiya peeps! Soooo Maui Day 4 didn't have as many photos. (You can sigh of relief now). We started at the beach and then set off a few hours later in the rental car for lunch... Sadly, Eric got a migraine over lunch, so I drove us back to the hotel where we blacked out the hotel room and he crashed out for a few hours in hopes of kicking the headache without having to take his pills. His pills set him back at least a day or two, so we were hoping he caught the migraine quickly enough to take some strong pain pills, rest, and kick it in the arse that way. Thankfully, it worked. But, I wanted to leave him alone so I opted to explore.... 

Anyway, that was the overview and here's the recap... 

We may or may not have eaten Pita Paradise twice in Maui. This place was good; just sayin. It was in a little shopping center in Kihei, had friendly employees, outdoor seating, and fab food. :) Once Eric started rubbing his forehead and looking at me with an "I can't believe this is happening" face, I leapt up, got us some to-go boxes, and we hightailed it back to our hotel. I don't get migraines, but Eric gets them BADLY off and on. He loses vision, is ultra sensitive to noise and light, etc. Major suckage. :( 

Pita Paradise

Feeling pretty badly for him having a migraine in paradise, I didn't say much and tried to make sure he had everything he needed, packed a little day bag, and bailed, leaving him in peace and quiet to sleep...

There was a little path our guidebook talked about from our hotel to the other nearby hotels...I opted to explore it!

It winds all the way back and curves to the left and all the way around

There's our hotel beach.... :)

About halfway around the curvy path, I realized I was (1) surrounded by TALL greenery, (2) alone (3) and it was getting a little cloudy aka ominous. I thought "Okay, I should just keep going and I'll take the main road back..." I dunno about you, but I can ROYALLY freak myself out. It's a gift really. (sarcasm noted). So, as I was at the height of "I'm going to get attacked and this is gonna be a very bad day" paranoia, this sign pops up outta nowhere...

Possibility of CRIME?! Hell.

I was quickly put in a happy place when I saw this mini palm tree. I want one. That is all. Moving along...

I got all the way down to the Grand Wa!lea, which is a gorgeous hotel, but it's the size of freaking Disneyw0rld and when you're hiking in flip flops, Disneyw0rld is not somewhere you want to be. At that point, I hoofed it back up to the main road, not wanting to take the scary stroll back alone again on the path. One thing I didn't realize: the path had been leveled out whereas the main road was mostly uphill. So, I used my fedora as a fan and was a little glad Eric wasn't there to see me dripping sweat and cursing in my head glowing a little on my hike home. 

Since I hadn't heard from him, I headed to the pool to chill and read my magazine. Pool=much better than scary path. I gave it a thumbs up. Literally. 

After the magazine was read, I sighed, looked around, and wondered how else I should entertain myself... The answer was waiting for me at the adult pool... 

ahhhh pina colada.... 

Chatted on my cell phone with a girl friend, people watched, and sipped my tropical beverage. :) 

It was approaching dinnertime when I opted to head up to the hotel room and quietly shower. Admittedly, I was wishfully thinking Eric would wake up and feel 100% better! Thankfully our hotel was all-suite, so our room was a suite and I could move about the bathroom, living room, etc, without really disturbing him a lot... Sadly, he didn't get up (poor guy), so once I was showered and dressed, I opted to hit up the nearby Shops at Wailea to see what I could find there...

On the way down, this was the sunset view from our open air lobby... I remember thinking "Gosh, I wish Eric was here b/c (1) this is gorgeous and (2) he could take a WAY better sunset picture with this camera than I can..."

I didn't take any pics in the Shops at Wailea, but I stole this one from a travel website. It's an open air shopping center with some higher end stores and some little boutiques. I ended up buying Eric a little get well present, some snacks for the room, and a tropical-looking dress... :)

Shops at Wailea

Somewhere in the middle of shopping, I started to get pretty bummed. I was like "Okay, exploring was alright, pooling it with a drink was alright, but I'm kinda lonely in paradise now. :(" I headed to Cheeseburger in Parad!se in the shopping center, got us some to-go food and headed back to the room. I think the fragrant aroma of one of nature's perfect foods, aka the cheeseburger and fries, shook him awake and cured him! haha! ;) He woke up as I came in, and was feeling better! We munched on our fine cuisine on our hotel room sofa while I told him about my day's adventures...

:)

And onto day 5...... :)

Capes and Tiaras...

First and foremost, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all the men and women and their families who have served or are currently serving in the armed forces to ensure our freedom. Many of my family members are among those who have protected this great country. I am so glad and thankful we have this day in their honor. Regardless how you feel about war, politics, etc, I think we can all agree those men and women deserve a very big thank you. My thoughts and prayers are being sent to those individuals and their families today... 

I had Veterans Day off today... I ran many many MANY errands (the drycleaners had to ask me if I had ever been there b/c it's been so long. Oops.)  

One of the errands I ran took me to the mall and...........

I got the gold dress!!!! And yes, I took a picture in it b/c (1) I was excited D!llards actually had it and (2) it fit! :) And yes, I also did the skinny-arm-hand-on-hip-pose b/c I did. Whatever. (I actually made a point not to do it a lot in Maui b/c um... I do it a lot. And it looks forced. It also makes arms look skinny so there's that. Anyway, whatever). 

 Thanks so so so so SO much for all the comments about the dresses! Ya'll motivated me to get off my arse and head to D!llards today. Therefore, you kinda saved yourselves from a post two weeks from now where I whine about the store not having it b/c I waited too long.. haha.. :)

And also thanks to Leslie for posting today about Curly Girl Designs! After reading about it on Leslie's blog, I headed over and got my mom a notepad as a stocking stuffer and got myself a notepad with this fun saying... It makes me smirk a little and will be a good addition to my cloffice (cube + office). ;)

Anyway, the site has notepads, ornaments, cards, etc etc... And totally affordable! (My magnetic notepad was 6 bucks!) Thanks, Leslie, for posting about it today!

Having today off was great, but since I have to work tomorrow, I feel like I just had the shortest weekend in the world. Weird...

I'm currently watching Private Pract!ce as I blog.. Do you watch this show? It's getting SO GOOD! I also keep seeing an ad for another promising show that looks like Lost + Greys. (I'm in denial that Lost is really gone). Hope you're gearing up for a great weekend, friends!