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Tag Archives: travel

28 weeks

Third trimester, here we come. 12 weeks to go!

smiles

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vet’s day getaway

Back from a quick vacation in Santa Cruz over the long holiday weekend. Nice to get away whenever we can before the baby boy comes along. 🙂 Fresh air, food, and relaxation – and we’ll pretend that I didn’t do any schoolwork at the same time.

empty rideboardwalk shutdown during the holiday

fusilliRistorante Avanti – yum.

colorslots of art shops in SC

Also finally got a chance to take some pictures of mom-to-be! But I’ll leave that as a tease for my next post…

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hawaii 2010

Ahhhhhh, Hawaii. What can be said? I’m not sure there’s more than a handful of people who have ever had anything less than a wonderful time there. Good weather, good food, good sights…what more are you looking for? Karen and I spent 7 beautiful days in Kaanapali, Maui followed by 3 quick days in Waikiki to wrap it all up. Not all was ideal, though. I had some paper writing to finish up for the end of the semester which put a slight damper on our first few days, but once that was fully out of the way it was relaxation-city!

room view
our condo’s view

This was, I think, my fourth time to Maui and maybe eighth time to the islands in general. Not much new, but you really don’t need “new” out there. I’ll take it unchanged and familiar any day. We did take an excursion to Lanai, however, that was a first and a highlight of the trip. This little island, previously made up of mostly pineapple plantations, only has about 3000 residents and is dominated by the two resorts run by Four Seasons. There’s one town and basically one main street. Anything you want to see out toward the shores (other than where the ferry comes in) requires traveling on rocky trails in a 4×4 vehicle. Here’s our Jeep, pulled to the side of the Polihua trail as we passed through the “garden of the gods”:

the garden
the garden

driving the garden of the gods
driving the garden of the gods

Looks almost like what you’d think the surface of Mars looks like, eh? Oh, and when I said rocky, think Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride from Disneyland. For real.

I think we averaged about 10 mph through the trail. The ride’s well worth it though…at the end you get this beauty:

polihua
polihua

That’s 1.5 miles of pristine white beach, baby. No footprints, no trash, no people. Somebody build me a villa there, please.
Closer to town you see a bit more of the resorts’ influences…we stopped on our way back to say hi to the folks living at Kō’ele stables:

Kō'ele residents
Kō’ele residents

Our few days in Oahu went by quickly, but we managed to take in a few sights including the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites…I hadn’t been there in over a decade!

Ford Island
Ford Island

Arizona
Arizona

Plus, a little visit to a historic site with family ties! Check it out…my great-great-great-grandfather!

Afong Villa
Afong Villa

Good times! Oh, and can I share anything about Hawaii and not mention killer food? I think the images speak for themselves.

blue ginger loco
blue ginger loco

leilani filet
leilani filet

zippy's mix
zippy’s mix

da kitchen loco
da kitchen loco (this…was the best)

Incredibly blessed to have been over there 4 times in 4 years…what a way to be spoiled! Until next time, Hawaii!

makena
makena

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back from vacation!

just returned from maui and oahu! Not much time to write at the moment, but it was…fantastic. A bit more relaxed, a bit more tan, and now a bit more sad to be home and back to work. I’ll be sorting through my four-hundred odd photos and video over the next few days but until then, here’s a fun snap from the inside of our rental!

maui cruisin'
maui cruisin’

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three.

Aren’t vacations great? The only problem with visiting interesting locales, though, is the temptation to squeeze in as many sights as possible. Sometimes my vacations end up being as tiring as a regular work week, what with all the activity! That was the case when we visited DC late last year. So much to see, so little energy. Lots of history to take in, not enough hours in the day. Number 3 on my little countdown is one of the most photographed and famous buildings in America: The Capital.

the real usc
the real usc

To be honest, this shot took me completely by surprise. I had been by here earlier in the day and taken a few, but nothing too spectacular came up. After taking a tour of both sides of congress, we came back out and started to head off to call it a day when Kare asked me if I wanted to get any more pictures of the front of the building. I sort of shrugged my shoulders and said, “Well, I already took a few so I don’t need more, but why not…” And boom, the magic hour hit – dusk. Just the right amount of cloud cover, just the right amount of fading light, and to top it all off – almost nobody around. Boy, what a difference a few hours makes. Just goes to show ya – there’s no substitute for patience (though honestly in this case, I had none and just got lucky) and good light.

It also helps when buildings and monuments are well-lit at night specifically for viewing:

jefferson
Jefferson Memorial

lincoln
Lincoln

Oh, also in case you were interested, this is what the inside of the dome looks like in the Capital building. Easily could have made my countdown, but I figured 1 DC picture is enough:

The Dome

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