Idle Time

It's amazing what happens to you when you go from having a ton of stuff to do (i.e. a wedding) to not much at all. One of the ways I'm now filling my time is by making a scrapbook of our honeymoon. I've never even attempted this and now I spend a lot of time doing it. John's step mom supplied me with the tools as a gift for one of my showers. I have to tell you, though, that I'm really horrible at it. I misspell details and can't quite seem to cut a straight line, but I find it oddly comforting to organize our trip this way.
Who knows what I could tackle next!

Worthy Cause

I'm pretty addicted to Oprah. I tape her show every day thanks to the miracle of DVR. Today she showcased an organization called Angel's Gate which is one of the first known animal hospices of it's kind. Located in Long Island, founder Susan Marino has devoted her life to taking care of more than 200 physically challenged or seriously ill animals that were abandoned, neglected or abused. Many even have severe deformities as a result of puppy mills. 

Needless to say I started bawling over this story as I am a huge dog person and think it's amazing that someone would devote so much time and resources to taking care of these animals. My heart just went out to them. I made a very modest donation (in honor of our own beloved rescue dog, Duke) and encourage you all to do the same. Their funding comes solely from donations. Read more about them at www.angelsgate.org.

Mail for the Future

I get a lot of magazines and catalogs in the mail but today there was a new one...

I thought the cover was kind of cute so I began to flip through it and start to see pages devoted only to baby and kid furniture!


Um, woah! Let's not get ahead of ourselves people. I was disturbed to say the least. Not only do people ask me all the time now when John and I are going to start preparing to have kids but now random catalogs are?
Here's what the 'Our Story' paragraph reads on the back:
"It's the typical boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl have baby, boy and girl can't find anything they like for their baby's room..."
What the heck! If this is typical then I'm in for a rude awakening.

Snip, Snip

One could say I'm a tad less energetic today after watching last night's primary results but I'm still proud of Philadelphia (not sure what to make of those of you out past Harrisburg- come on!).

Yesterday I got my hair cut which I've been dying to do since the day after the wedding. I know a lot of people like to have an opinion on my hair but I'm not one for very long locks. Never was. Thankfully my husband totally feels the same, so I went in to see my lovely hairdresser for a chop and...BANGS! I'm slowly getting used to them, but overall like that they are just different.

Check it out below, but keep in mind that I have no make-up on. Sorry Mom :)

Vote!

Today marks a very exciting event not just for myself but for the state of Pennsylvania as all eyes are on us this primary day. I woke up early this morning so that I could give myself enough time to stop at the polling station in Hatboro and cast my vote for Barack Obama. While there I was greeted with a hello and handshake from our town Mayor "Norm" and given a bright pink slip of paper that solely read DEMOCRAT. I was all prepared to be bombarded with eager volunteers curious as to who my support would go to, but alas there wasn't a lot of fanfare. I was in and out of there in 5 minutes.
Still, I'm really proud to be a citizen of PA. While Barack may not take the state tonight in victory, the numbers of people turning out to support him will no doubt be impressive and I'm happy to have taken part in it. I've been moved by his message and with the way he has handled himself, especially with Hillary's attack ads in full force (and believe me they have been- I got three pre-recorded calls a day this last week from her camp doing just that).

No matter what your views are it feels good to express your opinions with the power of voting and everyone should take part in the process. I'm not one for preaching but in this case it's important enough to warrant it.

So Vote!

Picture This

Tomorrow I will have been married for three weeks. I guess time flies when you spend 10 of the last 21 days in Hawaii. Anyway, I'm getting back to the swing of things at work which has been busy. I have also been severely neglecting my house, as I make calls to friends and family and plow through some thank you cards, clean and figure out where to put all the stuff used in the reception in our cramped house. One of the major tasks at hand, though, is widdling through the 1200 pictures that my photographer has already finished editing and submitted to me. I can't tell you how awesome it is when a person gets something done in a quick fashion, knowing you are going to be looking forward to it!
Seriously, though, I know it's just a wedding album but how do you really take 1200 shots and choose 70? I don't even know what is truly supposed to go in one of these. Any suggestions?

Here are at least a few of my favorites from our day that definitely will hold a spot...

Hawaiian Honeymoon Part 3

One of the 'must-see' places in Maui is the road to Hana. While it's only about a 52 mile ride, it takes three hours because of it's 617 curves, 56 one lane bridges and VERY narrow roads. Most tourists take their time because of all there is to see along the way but also out of necessity as it can get dangerous if you aren't paying attention. My husband knows this can make me crazy so he lovingly drove with ease and not speed.

The first state park we stopped at was loaded with trees. Some so unique, like this rainbow eucalyptus...
It can get very windy there but like the sign said, the trees are just doing their job...


From the road you would see so many breathtaking sites that it would be hard not to stare. You can kind of make out the road in this one...

When you finally get to the actual town of Hana you realize the journey was all about the drive as their isn't much there. Before heading back on the road home we thankfully stopped at the Waianapanapa State Park. I say thankfully as the views there were unbelievable. It's like you are looking at a postcard. Here are some examples...


We especially enjoyed the black sand beach that I took full advantage of, writing our visit in the sand. The water is so rough here, though, that our tour guide CD scared us with stories of people that have died in the water either by shark attack or the strong tide. We bought this in a gas station but the 5 signs posted on the steps down made it more believable.


On a side note, my future sister-n-law asked me when we returned from Hawaii if I picked up any lava rocks to bring home. I said "yeah, three". She then happened to mention that her uncle who lives in Hawaii told her they are said to be bad luck. I now have them ready to mail back. Don't want to take any chances!

Maui was a fun island but a tad more touristy then John and I had hoped for. Taking the road to Hana was just what we needed by the end of our 5 days there. We were happy to come home but are still in awe of what we were able to see and do. We'd recommend Hawaii to anyone!

Hawaiian Honeymoon Part 2

John, our luggage and I finally made it to Maui late Friday night after a hellish time at the airport. We were originally supposed to fly Aloha but they went out of business right before we were to go on the honeymoon and we switched to Hawaiian who was feeling the brunt of another fellow airline now gone. This was our only hiccup in 10 days, though, so hard to complain at all.
The first night there we went to a luau called the Feast at LeLe. We had a great time eating and drinking but most importantly seeing a fantastic show that included, in our minds, getting to watch the sun go down over the water. Truly romantic.

And honestly, I'm not sure how this happened aside from the fact that I booked this thing months in advance, but we had amazing seats. Front row, dead center. This meant that John and I had an up close and sometimes too personal view of the dancers. Take a look...

At one point this manic looking warrior guy comes out and the host explained to us would be extending a peace offering to a man in the audience. This wound up being John. My poor husband kind of sat there as this guy grunted at him with a stick. I laughed my butt off.

One of the best parts of being in Maui for us was the delicious food we ate. Fresh fish galore. We had sushi one night that was the best I've ever had. Here we are at Kimo's a spot in the old whalers community of Lahaina where we stayed. That dessert is their Hula Pie and just as big and tasty as it sounds. We went back a second time after eating at another joint just for it again.

One day we mountain biked down Haleakala (a dormant volcano), which they said is a 38 mile ride, though John swears it wasn't that bad. We had to get up at 3:30 AM so that we could watch the sunrise before heading down. I was kind of hurting that day and it was extremely chilly at the top of this mountain so I rode in the van with our driver Joe most of the way. He was a native Hawaiian and totally cool. John was more of an experienced rider so he was in the way back as you can see here...

The views from the top were awesome. You could see all the different areas of Maui down below. We weren't always so interested in that though. Hey, it was our honeymoon! ;)

We did get a few days of beach time which was ultimately the most relaxing thing we did on Maui. The water was so blue! Here John is taking a dip. I'm not that great a swimmer so only go in so far.

We also went on a long drive one day to a place called the Tedeschi Winery where we took a tour and had some fun tasting the wine and champagne they make locally. Some even out of pineapple. You know that came home with us!



This is my favorite picture of John and I. We took it in front of the skeleton of a huge Sperm Whale after dinner our second to the last night. Note I'm wearing my new V.S. dress.

Our last full day in Maui was the highlight of our time there but too many great pics for this post...more to come!

Hawaiian Honeymoon Part 1

John and I had a fantastic time in Hawaii. I feel refreshed and amazed by how much we did. We took a total of over 200 photos that I decided I'd widdle them down and share with you as a photo diary of sorts. We'll start with Kauai, the first leg of our trip. I have to say that we had no idea just how much we would LOVE this island. It was the highlight. Everything was so lush and tranquil. Kauai is less developed then some of the other islands and that shows in it's landscape, people and beautiful beaches. If you can only visit one island in Hawaii, then it's a must.

This was the view from our balcony at the Sheraton. We fell asleep with the screen door open every night to the sounds of the waves and just had a few steps to walk out to the beach each day. Heavenly...

We had breakfast a few times at the main hotel restaurant and enjoyed this view while eating...


The very first full day we had in Kauai, John and I got massages in a cabana on the beach. They were 80 minutes long and AWESOME. I think John was skeptical of this at first as it was deemed one of my activities but clearly he wound up loving it from this photo of him afterward. Relaxed much?


Down the road a bit from our hotel on Poipu Beach, there was a natural 'blowhole' that would shoot water straight up into the air every so often when the waves would crash across the rocks.
Here I am clearly getting into the Hawaiian spirit.


Kauai is such a small island that it takes virtually minutes to drive to a location like the Wailea Falls and stare out onto images like this...

Another interesting tid-bit about this island was how many chickens we saw just running around. I'm talking everywhere you turn. Here is one outside a shopping area we stopped at for souvenirs...


Kauai was the island that John and I did the most 'action adventure' type activities. I'd definitely classify these as John's choice, however, I was determined to get up the courage to do each of them as it was our honeymoon and it meant a lot to my husband. Which brings us to ziplining. The idea is they take you up to the top of a mountain where there are a series of cables you get strapped to and glide across in order to get down (7 total). Before leaving they give you a hard hat and harness and that's pretty much it. When this picture was taken I was crying a little behind my sunglasses as it PETRIFIED me to even attempt this.



John was convinced they'd have to come back and get me, especially when the guides told me I had to go before John. I spent a few minutes up there seconds from peeing my pants before I just looked over at John and the other folks in our group and went for it. Here's an example of me zipping. We were about 300 ft off the ground and this particular cable was 800 ft across. The second zipline of the day!


Here is John braving the cables as well...The next day I felt like I could take on anything so I wasn't the least bit nervous to take our helicopter ride that circled the entire island of Kauai, showing you sections that aren't even reachable by land. I was assigned to get on the chopper first which was when I suddenly realized I was going to be in a helicopter for ONE HOUR.


Everything was pretty much OK until about 15 minutes into our ride when the wind started to pick up and you could feel every movement. I squeezed John's hand so tight, kept adjusting the air temperature and wiped my forehead so many times I believe I was having some kind of a motion sickness/fear of heights/claustrophobic panic attack that our pilot even patted me on the back and said 'you made it' after we landed. Since I was sitting right next to him he was witness to my anxiousness. Even John said he got a bit queasy but of course didn't show it or promptly throw up in the bathroom upon returning to the helicopter offices like I did.
I was rewarded for my bravery and empty stomach by a stop at Ono Char-Burger for one of the BEST hamburgers I've ever had in my life. It was no more than a small shack off the side of the road, though highly recommended by Frommer's.


One of the last stops we made in Kauai was to see the Kilauea Lighthouse. It was surrounded by the most blue water on the edge of a narrow peninsula.

Kauai set such a high standard that we both didn't want to leave but were excited for the next leg which was Maui...