Hawaii Day 2 - Haleakala & the Beach

While we still had the effects of jet lag, we got up stinking early and drove the 2 hours to the top of Haleakala National Park - to a lookout that was at 10,000 feet in elevation - to watch the sunrise. It was freezing cold up there and very windy, but we were still in shorts because it wasn't as cold as Salt Lake City. After the sun came up, we hiked around the crater to a cinder cone. It was a crazy landscape - hardly any vegetation at all!

After that, we went to the beach. Swam a little, blew up our floaties, tried to ride the waves on our floaties, and decided we would try renting some body-boards from a shop we saw renting them for $2.50 a day.

We also went back into downtown Lahaina to get some dinner and ice cream... again. 

Hawaii Day 1 - The Arrival

We arrived in Maui around 1:00 pm on Tuesday, February 1st. I packed flip-flops in my carry-on bag and boy was I grateful! My feet immediately started to roast right when I got off the plane - because it was 80 degrees and I had just come from 10 degrees in Salt Lake City. I picked up the rental car - and we got a free upgrade to a minivan! Which was great since we had 4 girls and a monstrous amount of luggage to cart around. It also worked out great for carrying around our play toys - floaties that we bought, body-boards that we rented, etc. It wasn't as great for the Road to Hana day, but I'll address that in another post.

My phone was awesome to provide navigation to all of our destinations and it got us to our hotel which was an hour away from the airport - in Lahaina. We had the best view of the ocean and the island and we were on the top floor - the 12th floor! We roamed around downtown Lahaina that night, ate our first plate lunch at Aloha Mixed Plate, got some ice cream, and checked out the monster banyan tree in downtown!

I'm Outta Here!

And off to here, as in Maui. Don't be jealous. 

I'll blog all about it when I get back. :)

My Little Roommate

I have a roommate again. But this isn't just any roommate. She's my niece! Jennifer! She moved in with me at the beginning of December and will stay here through the end of this semester in April. She's here under the guise of saving money for a study abroad, but she's chiefly here because she had some crazy roommate drama last semester. I'm talking two suicidal roommates, one anxiety-ridden roommate, and her other two normal roommates were utterly absentee roommates. Who gets those kind of odds for crazy roommates? Apparently Jennifer. I've never heard of that kind of luck - even in all my years of having roommates. So I finally convinced her to move in with me.

And it's been great! It's kind of fun to come home to someone to talk to. And it's delightful to watch movies with someone - like we are this very moment. And speaking of movies, the poor girl has been deprived of all the best girly movies (like the classic 5-hour Pride & Prejudice, Becoming Jane, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Gone with the Wind,  An Ideal Husband). We are going to rectify that this semester.

But my favorite thing about living with her.... is when she wears this:

This... is her plush-a-licious... and in my book it is the snugg-a-licious. I just can't take her seriously when she wears it! And I just start into giggling fits every time. LOL! She loves it. And she wears it all the time. And she laughs with me. And she instantly knows what I'm smiling about when I start to smile while talking to her. And then we start laughing together.

Jennifer is also 19 years old. I'm 31. We've got a little bit of a span, but we're getting along great. And she's handling my crazy, stuck-in-my-ways, comments with class! And the best part about her being 19....??? She hardly has any stuff, so we had no problems fitting her into my kitchen and guestroom and I didn't have to give up my beautiful kitchen organization -- like my baking center! :)

The End is Nearing....

The end of my anxiously waiting for Hawaii that is! I leave in 8 days. I'm so excited. I have all my plans figured out: scuba diving, surf lessons, hiking, snorkeling, laying on the beach reading a book, luau, shaved ice, plate lunches, waterfalls, whale watching . . . it's going to be fabulous.

On a more recent note, I went to Logan this weekend to visit Teri and Kelly. We had a pretty good day of skiing! I wasn't on my game, but one can't always be, right? And as usual, they treated me to some yummy food and a movie. We saw Unstoppable in the theater. It was intense. I liked it. :)

And a little side note that I need to keep on the down-low at work: I got another award at work. This one is a Performance Award that I got for excellent performance for the past year. It came with a little $$$. That will help with my trip to Hawaii and boosting my savings! Of course taxes are going to take a chunk out of it I'm sure. Yay for taxes!

A Couple Things on a Thursday

• This week, I've slept four nights with laundry that needed to be folded on my bed.
• I passed my SCUBA skills update last night so I'm good to go SCUBA diving while I am in Hawaii next month. I still have trouble equalizing my ears, but I think I figured out that swallowing helps me equalize my ears more than anything. 
• I've fish-tailed my car twice in the past two weeks (on the crazy ice that won't melt because of our long lasting, below-freezing temperatures we've had) - both on the night when I have had school. One was in the parking garage up at the Salt Lake Center; the other was coming out of the park-n-ride parking lot. I can assure you that I now know that my natural reaction is to turn my steering wheel the way you are suppose to when fish-tailing.
• I have zero plans for this upcoming 3-day weekend except to do homework. Zero fun plans. Kind of strange. But next weekend will make up for it when I go to Logan to visit Teri and Kelly.

2011: Fresh with No Mistakes in It . . . Yet

Happy New Year! I think I've started a tradition of going snowshoeing on New Years Day. Some friends and I went snowshoeing up the Alpine Loop road behind Sundance and Timpanogos. It was lovely, but very cold! It was 1 degree that day while we were out there.