Our day(s) at the Beach

In case you haven't heard, our town got hammered by a "derecho" on Friday night and it knocked out our power at home for 48 hours...some are still without as the temperature soars above 100 degrees. Fortunately, we had already left home to head to the Eastern Shore with my in-laws for a mini vacation so we didn't have to deal with the heat and no water at home (we have a private well so no electricity means no well pump). So, this is what we have been doing while I haven't been blogging:

Swimming in the pool and the beach

Taking long morning bike rides and at least one of us falls alseep

Hanging out on the boat and also sleeping

The good news of course is that William IS sleeping which is a relief since the three of us share a room while at the shore. He is a restless sleeper, or it seems that way in the PackNPlay which means I need to drink (more) wine to actually get a good night's rest. Oh well, tough :)

We will be here for a few more days and then go hom so I can get my Lasik procedure done on Thursday! Be back next week since my little brother is in town and I have several large Memorable Designs projects to complete!

Gone but Not Forgotten

Where have I been? Well, I was in Connecticut for one week, came back for three days during which my husband had Lasik surgery and was then off to Pennsylvania for 2 1/2 days. Now I am (finally) home and I don't want to leave! Don't get me wrong, I had fun on our trips, but this house needs some attention!

William and I drove 7 hours to northern Connecticut because my close friends were getting married. This is the couple whose gift I mentioned in an earlier post and will discuss in a future post. We left on Tuesday and my husband joined us Friday-Sunday and then we headed home the following Tuesday. Whew! It was the first time I was alone with the baby so long around the clock, but we stayed with some good friends and saw my family so I had some help for which I am grateful.

The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun! The ceremony was at the Old State House and the reception was at The Hartford Club. Since these are friends from high school who started "liking" each other 12 years ago, I saw a lot of old friends which made it even more of a celebration. These two are made for each other and I am thrilled that they are now husband and wife!

The night of the wedding was my first overnight away from William. He stayed at my mom's house with her and my sister and my mom even had a little "meet and greet" with her friends before he went to bed. I know it bothered me more than it bothered him that we were apart! And no, I didn't sleep in the next day...I just couldn't wait to get up and go see him. 

We brought the baby to a small zoo at Forest Park since the weather cooled off a little on our last day in town. He is always watching things that move (me, toys, our cat, etc) so I thought he would like the animals. He was pretty attentive for a four month old and I had him in the Snugli carrier most of the afternoon so I had my hands free to shoo away any unwelcome animals.

So, we are back to the real world and our routine and I will be posting about the special wedding gift soon!

Beach Babe

 We took our little babe to the beach for the first time and he didn't seem to mind one bit! we were only there about 30 minutes so mommy could take some pictures, but we'll be going back with some friends soon for a longer visit which probably means more beach time.

Look how cute he is! :)

We also put his feet in a pool for the first time. Since we're in Maryland, the water is still cold so I don't think I'll actually be bringing him in this year, but we'll see.

Aloha in Oahu

The final few days of our trip were spent in Oahu. We stayed in Kailua which is near one of the top rated beaches in the US. or was it the world? Unfortunately, I can't remember right now. Anyhow, there was a small beach near our rental that was the home to several turtles which was pretty neat. Yes, I did go swimming even though the ER doctor advised me not to after I was bit by a dog. We also went kayaking out to the twin islands but that disposable camera is MIA which is sad because there were some great pictures :(.

We went to the beach, really relaxed and went to Pearl Harbor while in Oahu.

Pearl Harbor survivor

With a sweet photo of his wife on the end of his cane

The exhausting thing we did was hike the Koko Crater Trail. This is vertical up the side of a mountain and you hike along old railroad ties from when it used to be a work area. It was ridiculous and I did not think I could make it up. This hike was the first time I really felt pregnant and like I shouldn't be doing it. But, with several stops of nearly 10 minutes each, and Brad's encouragement, I made it! We rewarded ourselves with a trip to Sandy Beach where some of the biggest waves come ashore. Brad did some boogey boarding, but I stayed ashore.

The last day we drove around 3/4 of the island, through and around mountains, and then took another highway south to get back to the airport. Here are a few pics, but check out Picasa for more.

Secret Finds

One afternoon we headed to the Kilauea Lighthouse which is the northernmost point of the main Hawaiian islands. The lighthouse area is a nature preserve so we had to pay a small admission fee which was the first "touristy" thing we really did. During winter, humpback whales mate off the coast near the lighthouse and it is visible from where we were standing.

We went a little bit further south and attempted to find Secret Beach. Once again, vertical hike down to come out on a beach backed by trees. We did see some nudists, although that is illegal in Hawaii, but it shows you how few people were there. About one-quarter of a mile away is a ledge of black lava where we waded in the Secret Lava Pools. (Now you can tell I'm pregnant, right?)

I think we were both expecting there to be larger pools or more fish in them, but it was a neat experience nonetheless.

Dinner that night was at the Hanalei Dolphin where Brad went into the adjoining seafood market and bought a huge tuna sushi roll for $4.50 - it was delicious!! before dinner we stopped at the Hanalei Valley Lookout and asked someone to take some pictures of us together since we weren't sweaty from hiking.

Napali from the Sea

The Napali Coast is an area of Kauai accessible only by helicopter or by sea - we chose the sea route. We took a five hour boat trip on the Napali Sea Breeze with a dozen other people to see the beauty of the garden isle from a different perspective and get some snorkling in.

Beautiful, isn't it?!

There were dozens of caves, two of which we went in, and even more waterfalls - it was awesome! You might recognize some of these defined peaks from the movie Jurassic Park. There are more pictures of the coastline in my Picasa album.

Start off small? No way!

Our first Hawaiian hike was no easy feat, but looking back at the ones we did near the end of our trip, this one was pretty mellow. We drove only about two miles north of Princeville, crossed the Hanalei Bridge and some tarot fields and then started the Okolehao Trail Hike.

It was a steep uphill hike through the woods and then through red dirt ravines and hills. The goal was to see Hanalei Bay from the air. Well, we did it!! It took more than an hour to go up (I'll blame that on my constant pregnant need for water and shutterbug tendencies), but we got to relax for a bit at the summit.

It is funny looking at the pictures of me then, near the end of my 11th week of pregnancy, because I thought I was getting a belly. Well, it doesn't look like it there!

After recovering and eating lunch at the condo we drove eight miles to Tunnels Beach which is known for its snorkeling. Of course we onyl had one mask and snorkel since I didn't think of renting one in advance, but we made do with what we had. Tunnels is basically "tunnels" of coral so there isn't much sandy area in the water, whcih makes simple swimming difficult. Brad did see our first turtle though! I visited with the little guy for a bit. The Hawaiian beaches we went to were surrounded by mountains. You had to hike down to them or through areas to get to them so you didn't see any buildings from the beach which was beautiful.

On the way home we stopped in Hanalei so I could quench my craving for shave ice with macadamia nut ice cream...mmmmm!