New pics of Millie

We had some requests for some updated pics of Millie. She is doing very well. For a dog that was not house trained, she has been outstanding. No accidents in almost 3 weeks! She has A LOT of energy which fits well with our lifestyle. We had a little sleepover the other night when Eric and Amanda's dog, Kona, came to visit for the night. They both were a little possessive of the toys but they played well together. The four of us were resting a little after a long hike through the Blue Hills in the picture below.

We also just started obedience training and realized how much ahead of the game we were already. The other dog in the class was terrible! It was a Pomeranian that wouldn't stop barking and followed not one command. It's hard to believe that they had the dog for months with it acting like it was. Millie had no interest in the dog at all, she was far more interested in the rabbit that was in the cage right next to where we were working on the commands. Next week there is apparently a younger lab that will be joining us so hopefully that will improve things socially.

A new member of the family!

We have a new member of our the family!

Millie is a 10 month old black lab mix that we adopted today through an organization called Big Fluffy Dogs. She left Arkansas Thursday morning and arrived today.

She was a little stressed, nervous, and confused when we first met, but she has already made some serious steps to becoming the dream pet we think she will be. She is smart, we've taught her "come" and "sit" already and she is already crate trained. She is not, however, house trained. Hopefully, that will come quick. We're looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

I need some input on this...

I don't know quite what to think of this gift that I received from a student...

I was very thankful at first. But the longer I looked at it, I began to question the intentions. Is it a nice gift intending to wish me Happy Holidays? Or did she intentionally give me a present that looks like poop on a stick?

Sunrise at Haleakala

Day 6 Monday, July 28th
Haleakala Sunrise Tour, Maui

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Wuh huh?

It’s way too early to be waking up as we stumble about our room getting ready for the ride up to the top of Haleakala. I even forgot to make coffee for myself. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even remember a whole lot between the alarm going off and ending up outside the boat. We found other people waiting outside where the shuttles pick up passengers. There were a few different companies that did the sunrise tour, so it was pretty busy for 3 am.

We found other people who were waiting for the same company we were and stayed with them. Apparently I was not the only one who forgot to have a cup of coffee yet. There were some grumpy folks wondering why the heck they were doing anything that required them to be up and ready to go at 3 am.

When our shuttle showed, we all piled in for the ride to their “base” before we went to the top. For those of you who ever plan on going to Maui and doing this tour, I highly recommend the company we used; Mountain Riders. From what we heard of others, they were hands down the best, and safest option. The ride to the “base” (and to the crater, for that matter) were pretty entertaining. Our guide talked the ENTIRE way. There were a few of us who really enjoyed the cultural history lesson we got on the way up, but there were many who were visibly angry about the amount of energy this guy managed to have at 3 am. Luckily, they had coffee at their home base, which was basically a big garage with a small office next to it. We had to watch one of those boring safety videos that they always show and no one pays attention to. They also loaded us up with all of this gear to wear at the top. It seemed a little excessive at the time.

The last time I felt sustained, bitter cold wind like we did getting out of the van at the summit, it was November in Wyoming. Hawaii is not supposed to be that cold! It was a good thing they gave us that extra layer! We were all huddled around the visitor’s center at the top (it’s a national park) facing east, and unfortunately, right into the wind. As the sky grew brighter, we could see deep into the crater. We watched as clouds formed when the wind bought the moist air up the side of the crater.

Those clouds were soon filling the crater so that it looked like we were on top of a fluffy pillow of white. It was a beautiful sight to behold…for a short time.
Soon after, those clouds came right up at us. We were literally in the clouds. It was a neat experience, but we couldn’t really see the sun break the horizon.

Just before we started our long descent down through the volcanic mountain called Maui, we were able to see the sun as it came up through the clouds.

Because of the number of bad, sometimes fatal, accidents involving bicyclists descending from the crater, the park service doesn’t allow people to bike down until you are out of the park. I am willing to bet that the accidents mostly involved people on the unguided trips that others from our ship had done. Once we had left the park, they found a place to pull over and we all piled out. They emptied the trailer that housed all of the bikes and equipment (helmets, etc.) for the descent. We got on the bikes and the guide gave us one last explanation of how it was going to work. The guide led us on his bike as we rode down single file, with the van and trailer following which prevented traffic from passing. This gave us the whole lane to travel in. When it was safe and convenient, we would pull over to let traffic pass and then begin riding again.

It may sound like a boring ride, but we were moving pretty fast the whole time (top speed was around 20 mph). There were only a couple of instances in which we even needed to pedal at all. During those breaks to let cars pass, we could peel off layers and the guide would tell us some story about the history of Maui. He was really knowledgeable about the island.
These stops also gave us a chance to take in the some of the beautiful views that Maui has to offer. We stopped about halfway down at this small, local store for a quick breakfast. There were some unique flowers that I took pictures of at the store and happened to catch the bee in mid-flight you see here.

After breakfast, we continued down and ended in the little hippie town of Paia (Woody Harrelson is a local). It was a good thing we were done when we got there, too, because it started POURING as we piled back into the van. When we got back, we spent the rest of our day napping poolside. We had a Big Island waiting for us the next day! It wasn't until later that week that we found out some of the people on our ship got into accidents on the unguided tours. One man separated his shoulder. Another was going too fast and lost control, crossing the road (luckily there were no cars) and went off the road, getting fairly banged up.

Day 5 Sunday, July 27th
Kahului, Maui

Many mornings on the ship, including this first one, went like this. I would wake up, make a cup of coffee, sit on our balcony as we came into port and read. Most ports that the ship pulled into were not that appealing, they were basically merchant ship docks. When Rachel awoke, we would go to the Aloha Café for the breakfast buffet. Rachel would get her fresh fruit, yogurt, and cereal. I would have my eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast, pancakes, or whatever else they had to pack some weight on. I would also have fresh fruit; it was too good to pass up.

After breakfast, we left the ship to with the plans to rent a car to head to Lahaina for the day. It’s funny how plans change. First of all, we were told there was public transportation that would take us to Lahaina and with me being the cheap guy that I am, I thought that was a much better idea than renting a car. Unfortunately for us, this was not exactly the case. There was public transportation all right, it was just impossible to find and only left every hour. We wandered around looking for it and found it about five minutes after it had left. So, with my tail between my legs, we went back to the ship and boarded one of the shuttles that took us to a rental car facility at the nearby airport. Kahului is not quite what I had thought of when I thought of Maui. The port and the airport are just about the only visible reason why there is a city there. After boarding the shuttle, the driver said to us, “I hope you are not trying to drive to Lahaina, there was an accident on the only road that goes there. The back up is about 5 hours.”

Plan B. We rented a car with Avis and throughout our trip, we had the BEST experience with this company. I would highly recommend them. We tried renting with Hertz on the Big Island and they didn’t have any cars despite giving us a reservation (classic Seinfeld scene). There were other people were having the same problem as us. We canceled our reservations with Hertz, went next door to Avis and did fine.

Anyway, we decided to head south to Kihei and Wailea. We were going to be getting up VERY early in the morning for the sunrise on Haleakala and wanted to take it easy, so we planned to go to the beach for some relaxation and sightseeing. We ended up at the beach right in front of Grand Wailea Resort and the Four Seasons in Wailea. It was a beautiful beach (is there any other type on Hawaii?) with some fun waves. It did get a little windy which made our decision to depart early a little easier.

After the beach, we headed south on a narrow road toward Makena. A pseudo-local (transplanted from New Jersey) that we met at the beach told us that it was a nice ride and it takes you through the last active lava flow on Maui. It was great; we saw fields full of pumice, great views of Molokini (a crescent shaped island off the coast), and we experienced some of the unequaled Hawaiian hospitality.

We had pulled over on the side of the road in order to take some pictures along the coast. There were a couple of locals fishing right next to us. As I set the camera up, one of them came over and offered to take our picture. We gratefully accepted and he took the pictures of us that you see here. In one of the pictures, you can see Molokini behind us. If memory serves me correctly, the local told us that Molokini was a military site where they used to test weaponry. He then gave us a mango that he had picked that morning to take home with us. Not quite the treatment you get from strangers in Massachusetts, or just about anywhere else for that matter. That was a great note to end our day on, so we headed back to the ship for an early dinner and bedtime before our trip up to the top of the island.

Post trip comment: Many people have already asked us about why we skipped the road to Hana. Our feeling was that we really wanted to do the sunrise on Haleakala and that the road to Hana would have taken up too much time for only being there a day and a half.

Honeymoon Part 2

Day 3 Friday, July 25th, 2008
The North Shore

Following the excitement of the luau was going to be tough to beat, but climbing in Hawaii was definitely up for the challenge. We had arranged well before our trip out to Hawaii to have a guide (through Climb Aloha!) take us to a climbing area on Oahu. The area, known as Mokuleia, is just about the only place to climb in Hawaii. For the non-climbers out there, most of the volcanic rock that makes up the islands isn’t exactly the safest thing to climb on, not to mention painful. Luckily, there was this area that had some basalt faces that we would be able to climb on. “The Moke” is on the north shore of Oahu, which is about the polar opposite of Honolulu in both geography and lifestyle. We met some others who would be joining us in the parking lot of a summer camp that was right on the water (Talk about a sweet camp to spend time at!). It was a short drive to the trail that lead up to the cliffs. I am glad we got a guide because the trail wasn’t well marked. The approach was fairly strenuous by east coast standards; it was about 25-30 minutes of steep hiking. We stopped about half way up for a water break and enjoyed our view of the North Shore. Somewhere off to the right looking out was the famous Pipeline surfing area. Unfortunately for us, it only gets the waves its known for during the winter. Regardless, it was some of best aesthetics you could get in a climbing area.
When we got the top, we had a short break and got a description of the area and the types of climbs we were in for. It was an unusual set up at the crag compared to what most climbers are used to. On each climb, they had a string running up through the bolted anchors with a stick tied at the bottom with the name and grade of the climb. If you wanted to set up a top rope, all you had to do is tie the string around your rope and pull it through. There was no other way to access the anchors without leading the climbs. The guide started us off with some warm ups on easier climbs. We had thought about doing some leading (it’s bolted for sport leading), but with the craziness leading up to the wedding, we hadn’t done a whole lot of climbing and were relatively out of shape. There were a couple of 5.8’s (Chunky Monkey and Pig Tree) that were pretty fun for the grade, even on top rope. We kicked it up a notch after that and hit up some really fun 5.10’s. Eureka! (5.10a) and Spice of Life (5.10b) were two of the highlights. Considering there was four of us with the guide and we were on our honeymoon, we didn’t get a whole lot of climbing accomplished. We fittingly finished our climbing on Beat the Burn, a spectacular 5.10a that truly burnt us both out.
The hike down was, needless to say, a whole lot easier. Which was good, because we were just about out of water. The guide got us back to the hotel a little before dinner, which gave us just enough time to have a quick shower and head out for dinner. Unfortunately, we were both so tired and relaxed after the shower that we didn’t want to go out. I called down to the Shore Bird and order up some seafood and just walked downstairs to pick it up. We had dinner in our room that night and it was great.

Day 4 Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Disaster and Disembarkation

Today would be the day we leave on the Pride of America to head to the beautiful island of Maui. But first, we had some things to do. We spent the earlier part of the day lounging about on the beach and at the pool until it was time for what something that we agreed to do so as to save ourselves $100. In hindsight, it wasn’t worth $1000. We had agreed to go look at the new building right next to the Outrigger Reef hotel that was selling timeshare “opportunities”. For those of you who have done this, you know how painful it can be. For those of you who haven’t, take our word for it and never do it! By the end of it, the sales rep realized he was not going to sell anything to us and became a little rude. They had asked each of us to provide 10 names and phone numbers of people to contact and I said absolutely not. That was not part of the deal. He made some comment about how he was going to lose his job over it and I thought to myself, “Tough $%^@. We just spent the last 3 hours with you and you didn’t convince me to buy anything so either you’re a bad salesman or there’s something wrong with your product. Either way, a guilt trip is DEFINITELY not working on us now. I have the patience of a saint, and I had lost all of it.
We spent the rest of the afternoon unwinding by wandering around this area called Beach Walk, which is a high-end shopping district just off of the water. A little gelato put us back in better spirits. We went back to the hotel, gathered our things, and had the hotel call us a cab. The cab came, loaded all of our bags into the back (despite my trying to help, I am still not used to that kind of service), and we were off to the cruise ship. Getting on the ship was a new experience for me, but old hat for Rachel. All the security checks, etc. seemed excessive but made me feel safe at least. We got on the ship and took a self-guided tour of the ship to try to figure out where everything was, sticking to our “no elevators” rule. It’s a good rule to stick to on a cruise if you don’t want to gain 20 pounds. This way, you’ll only gain 10-15. The room was tiny, as is normal for any room on a cruise ship, but it seemed even smaller considering the huge room we had at the hotel. We went all out and got a balcony room, which was well worth it! It gave me a chance to have a cup of coffee in the morning while Rachel got some extra beauty sleep. That night we had our first amazing meal on the ship (at the Skyline Restaurant) as we set sail for Maui. It was a little rocky heading out that night, but nothing too bad. Later, we saw a show that highlighted all of the acts that we would see throughout the week. The comedian was definitely our favorite. Stay tuned for more! I think I am going to try to keep the rest of these a little more brief.

Honeymoon part 1

Day 1 Wednesday, July 23rd

We are going to skip over the ridiculously long flight from Newark, NJ to Honolulu to get to the entertaining bits. By the time we arrived in Honolulu, it was early evening on Wednesday. We were completely loopy from the flight out so when we arrived at our hotel on Waikiki, it seemed surreal. It is a strange feeling entering the lobby of a hotel without passing through any doors. We would soon find out that EVERYTHING in Hawaii is open like that. We were staying at the Outrigger Reef hotel, and like we had said, it was right on Waikiki. Knowing that we were on our honeymoon, they upgraded our room and boy was it nice! The room looked out over Waikiki beach right at Diamond Head, the crater at the other end of the beach. Hungry as we were, we dropped our things off and headed down to one of the two restaurants on the ground floor of the hotel. The highlight of the Ocean House Restaurant was the view. Again, it seemed so surreal after spending all day traveling, but here we were, sitting in a beautiful restaurant, looking out at the waves crashing no more than 20 feet away on Waikiki beach. We would be doing the whole experience a disservice if I didn’t mention the meal itself. The highlights were the mai tai’s, a unique Okinawan sweet potato (darker in color and starchier than normal sweet potato but no less delicious), fresh seafood including mahi mahi, and the fresh fruit. The mai tai’s, the seafood, especially the mahi mahi, and fresh fruit would become culinary themes for the whole trip. By the time we finished our meals, we could hardly keep our eyes open (It was about 3 am eastern standard time). So, we tipped our waiter handsomely (Another thing: you can tell that they depend greatly on tourism in Hawaii, the service is UNBELIEVABLE.) and “zombied” our way back to our room for the night.

Day 2 Thursday, July 24th

Waking up at 4 am was not what I was expecting the next morning, neither was Rachel. I think we both stayed in bed as long as we possibly could without getting completely restless. I was up at around six, Rachel around 7:30. I was able to get up and make some coffee without disturbing Rachel too much. I snuck out onto the balcony with my coffee and a book and it was then that the reality of where I was and what I was doing really sunk in. “Holy crap, I’m in Hawaii on my honeymoon!” I think I was smiling the entire trip from that point on. The view from our balcony was even better with that warm Hawaiian sun shining down.

When Rachel was awake, it was time for breakfast. We headed downstairs to the Shore Bird Restaurant and Beach Bar for their daily breakfast buffet. Again, the restaurant looked right out over Waikiki. We were able to get a table right next to the beach and it was an amazing breakfast. One can’t begin to explain the fruit to people who have not been to Hawaii. The honeydew, cantaloupe, and kiwi were better than any we’d had ever had. The mango and pineapple were just ridiculous. Top that off with some scrambled eggs, French toast, muffins, and believe it or not, mahi mahi, and you’ve got yourself a breakfast! We did try poi, a local staple made from the root of the taro plant. I believe that its history in Hawaiian legend is the only thing that keeps this food in production because it quite literally tastes like paste.

We spent the next few hours basking in the greatness that is Hawaii. We enjoyed just relaxing after a crazy couple of weeks. We swapped between the beach and the pool for both swimming and sunning. They were both like bath water, yet at the same time, very refreshing. I think I used an entire bottle of spf 50 that day…and I still got a little color. In the process of moving back and forth from beach to pool, we kept passing the information desk at the hotel. We had decided to do a Luau, so we figured that would be a good place to start. They had two recommendations, both of which sounded like a lot of fun. We also got a $100 coupon for agreeing to go look at some new timeshare opening up in the hotel (more on this later).

Later that afternoon, we boarded a bus with a bunch of other wide-eyed tourists headed to Germaine’s Luau. Many of the others were also celebrating either honeymoons or anniversaries, which we found is another theme in Hawaiian tourists. Our drive out to the west side of the island of Oahu was long, but our guide was very entertaining, keeping the mood light. When we got to our destination, we were immediately “lei’d” and led to a beautiful view with the sun low in the sky, right over the Pacific, where they took our picture and then shuffled us into the main area. There were at least 500 people at this place; it was huge. Needless to say with that kind of crowd, the line for the mai tai’s was long. The show itself was great. They had us gather around the pit while the removed the pig. They explained the whole tradition as the sun set in the background. The amount of food that was laid out was ridiculous; it could have feed twice the

number that was in attendance. It was more quantity than quality I must say, it was little more than some decent barbeque. After the meal, they had dancers giving us a sample of all of the Polynesian brands of dance. They even invited anyone to go up on stage to learn the hula. Of course, Rachel insisted that we go up and give it a try. I gave in, thinking to myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Well, it happened. There were a large number of men and women up on stage as they showed us some of the basics of the dance. Then, they ushered the women off the stage and just had the guys dancing in front of the whole group and I’m thinking to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The group of guys including myself with a little mai tai courage, shook it for the crowd. We were all laughing as they stared ushering us off the stage. Out of nowhere this little hula girl grabs me by the arm a pulls me aside and in so many words tells me that I’m not going anywhere.

“Oh, $#@&!!!!!”

I was on stage for about ten or fifteen minutes with just me and this hula girl as she taught me some more of the details of the hula. Turns out she thought I had “potential”. We all had a good laugh after, Rachel took about 1,500 pictures of me, and I was a hit on the bus ride home for my dancing abilities. All because of a couple of mai tai’s…and Rachel’s insistence.