Christ, that was Expensive, Ruth...

Well, we ended up going to Ruth's Chris Steak House as planned. It was really good as usual, but painful. Our room fridge now has about $100 worth of leftovers in a very little box...

Today, after I did my daily two mile treadmill at the gym, we walked about a mile down the beach to Whalers Village to have brunch and get some gifts. Big fun again. The weather was much more 'normal' today - not the killer hot and humid that it has been this week.

After we returned, Pam went back to the beach to finalize her burn and I rested for the evenings activities. At 4pm, we were suppose to get Ryan out of his weekly staff meeting to go on this sunset sailboat ride. He couldn't leave his work duties, so Pam and I went ahead.

To get onto the boat, we had to ride a little 6 person rubber dingy thru the waves. That was my first boat ride since my operation and I must say I was more than worried about it. By the time we got onto the sailboat, I was pretty freaked out by the experience. I was impressed that it affected me so much. But, after that, it was big fun. It was blowing pretty hard so the Cat was going fast and it was exciting. The drinks and food were good as was the company and staff. I had no problem with the boat ride, it was just the ride to the boat in the little dingy through the waves...

Ryan and his workmate met us at Whalers Village again where the boat dropped us off. The only time I got wet was using the beachside shower after getting off of the boat and I pushed the top shower button instead of the foot shower one... We had a great time and had some appetizers and drinks and shopped with Ryan before coming back to the hotel to pack and wrap up the great trip in Paradise.

Tomorrow morning, we must return back to the mainland. It will be hard leaving Paradise, but we are looking forward to returning to finish our visit with Aaron, Tara and Alana and celebrate all their birthdays. There is a big birthday party for Alana on Saturday with all the family on the beach in SoCal.

We have had a great time on the trip but look forward to getting back to DaHo...

Luau and Steam Train...

All week we have heard the resident Luau (outside Hawaiian dinner show) which is just below our room about 9 floors - Its really loud with all sorts of drums and music. So, last night Ryan got us discount tickets with VIP status. Being VIPs seats us right up front, gives us first choice of the great buffet and no line to stand in - Good stuff. During the show they let people come up on stage and do the Hula and generally make a show of themselves. Well, Pam was right up there again as last year. Hard to believe, hugh?

Most of yesterday before the Luau, I spent in the room relaxing in the AC and watching football. It was really hot and humid again. Pam went out to the beach/pool area and roasted herself. She swore she would come home with a tan and has definitely got fried, which should let her realize that goal...

Today, we feasted on left over food we have been accumulating in the room frige and went off to Lahaina to shop and ride the Sugar Cane Train, an antique steam train. It was lots of fun gave us another view of the area. While downtown, we saw a Ruth's Chris Steak House, one of my favorite restaurants. So we are going down there tonight with Ryan for dinner. I was just in the room looking at the local visitor channel, with all the local restaurants showing off their food, and have changed my mind 6 times about dinner...

While having a beverage waiting for the train, we realized that we only have two days left here in Paradise. What a buzz killer...

Our Private Cabana

Pam rented a private cabana for us this morning. Well it was more like a double lounge chair with adjustable canvas cover for privacy and/or specific body part tanning. Included is a big pitcher of ice-water and pine-apple. Also, cabana-side bar and food service every 1/2 hr or so.

It was 'really' sunny and hot today. Lanny stayed long enough to get the making of a tan on his feet and sock lines, where the sun has not shined during his fishing escapades this summer. Anyway, Lanny decided he could cook no more and went up to our room for some R & R. Pam stayed in the cabana getting toasted inside and out *wink*. The one thing Pam is insistent on bringing back with her is a Maui tan and maybe this cute little gold diamond sandal necklace *wink, wink* .

Next is to decide where we dine tonight -- perhaps we shall dine in our room like Hawaiin Royalty *wink, wink, wink*.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Just Maui'ed...

This morning, Pam was asleep so I went down to the resident gym and did my usual treadmill thing while watching the ocean and all the passers by. It was the first time I have 'walked' since leaving DaHo, and it was good. Nice gym and real close to the room.

After Pam got up, we went down to the inhouse breakfast buffet. Wow, $23 for one breakfast buffet. I must say that the cost of food here in Maui is higher than I have experienced before. Here at the hotel restaurant we ate at the first night, they have a hamburger for $21. It was Kobe beef, but it was Ho Kobe Beef called Snake River Kobe Beef - Small world or large Ho...

We took a walk down the beach walk today past three resorts to Whalers Village - another high priced tourist shopping 'opportunity'. There we saw a tee shirt that said "Just Maui'ed". We thought it is just too cute...

On the way back, we checked out a Italian Beachfront Dinner place, Va Bene. Tonight, they have a Prime Rib Buffet so that is where we are going tonight.

After finally getting back to the room, I had to rest - the hot humid weather is wearing me out - and Pam went down to get a tan. She said it rained all the time she was down there.

O, the play we went to the other night was good. It was about the Hawaiian's history and how they were done in by technology and the whiteman. I think I have heard that story before but it was about some other group...

The hurricane missed us except for the rain that Pam experienced today, so we will have to endure the hot, humid weather here in Paradise...

Gone to Maui...

Well, we are finally here in Maui and back online. We have a room on the top (9th) floor of Ryan's hotel - the Maui Hyatt Regency resort. When we arrived, Ryan had a welcome basket and refreshments on ice in the room. Very nice... After getting settled in, Ryan treated us to a great dinner at the hotel.

We have a Chrysler convertible rental car which is great in the Islands. We have the top down most of the time.

The trip was without problems. Throughout the many places that it could have all went to hell, it all worked out and on schedule. Its great when a plan works out. The plane was stuffed, but all was good. The weather has been hot and muggy. I have had some difficultly breathing with all the humidity so far but I should get use to it in a day or so. It has rained a little as there is a hurricane in the area, but its suppose to miss the Islands by 300 miles this weekend.

Today, we visited Ryan's house and helped his roommate get his new Apple notebook computer online through Ryan's wireless network. Cute, but expensive. We took Ryan out to lunch and he showed us all the new 10-20 million houses going up. Awesome places. Then we went to a shopping 'mall' but it wasn't much of a place for shopping. There wasn't a discount store in the place...

We are now back in the room getting ready for a play/show in the local town and dinner afterwards with Ryan and friends. It is suppose to be a big deal, so I will report on it tomorrow...

Southern California all the way...

Well, we drove straight through from DaHo to Southern California on Saturday. It was 788 miles and took us about 11 hours with lots of stops for food an gas and bathrooms. The Lincoln did great and got 25.5 miles per gallon average for the whole trip.

The traffic down here is crazier than we remember. Lots of very expensive cars going real fast and real close together. It takes full concentration while driving. We usually use the carpool lanes on the freeway which are a little easier to deal with since you can only move in and out of them at onramps every mile or so.

The new one year old granddaughter, Alana is awesome and so cute. We had big fun with her on Sunday. They now are in Oceanside on a little vacation.

Then last night, we went down to see nephew Michael and family and his parents, my brother an wife, for a BBQ and visit. Their little girl, Josephine, who is just a couple of months older than Alana is also a little darling. We had to go through most of LA to get there. It took us about 2 hours to get there and only about 1 hour returning later on in the evening. Crazy traffic as usual.

Anyway, today we are going to pick up grandson Oliver, the fly fisherman, and go to Frys computer superstore, find parts for my BMW motorcycle, and other yet to be determined fun.

Then, tomorrow morning, we are off to Maui and really ready for some serious rest and relaxation... We will write more when get get there and are more rested and relaxed...

Base Jumping and Getting Off...

Today, some crazy is trying to get the world record for the number of Base jumps made in a 24 hour period. He is jumping off of the local bridge which is one of the only 'legal' Base jumping places in the country. He is trying for 50 jumps, which I didn't think was that big of a deal, but changed my mind when I saw that he was climbing up the Snake River Canyon each time between jumps. Its about 500 feet of rock cliff and he is doing a complete jump and climb routine in 20 minutes...

And, right in the middle of all this excitement, we are in the final stages of packing and preparing for our anniversary trip to Maui, via Southern California. During this trip, there will be 4 birthday celebrations and lots of fun in the 'big city', as it were.

Communications will probably be sporadic during the trip. We will have our cell phones and the laptop, but who knows when we will be accessible. Just leave us a message and we will get back to you when we can.

Its been quite a week of preparing all the plants for automatic watering, mowing and edging, gathering, fixing, and foraging for all the stuff we will need on the trip. Tonight, we will finish all the packing and car loading for the final experience of Getting Off early in the morning...

Flags, Fire and Dalai Lama...

A couple of miles from here, right where the road work detour goes, a field of 3,000 American Flags have been installed in a field of fresh green sod. Its probably the size of a football field or so and is bordered by a backdrop of straw bales. Each flag symbolizes a casuality of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York.

Then, up in the Sun Valley about 50 miles away, the Dalai Lama is speaking to school kids and raising money with the rich and famous. I have seen a lot of coverage of his trip here on the news. He is impressive.

And to wrap it all up, Pam's sister's boyfriend, Vic, was burning some trash last week, where they lived, way up in the mountains above Sun Valley, and ended up starting a fire that is now a major disaster and has burned over 75,000 acres of pristine Ho high country. Total bummer.

So, as usual, there is lots of stuff happening here in DaHo...

9-Ball League Finals...

Tonight was the finals of my BCA 9-Ball League. Our team came in First by a lot of games. We could have not even shown up for this final week and still won. It's nice to have the best player in the league on your team... Personally, I was in the top ten players, out of thirty or so, in the league - the final scores are not published yet. Tonight was not a good night for me though - winning only two games out of six. Sometimes you get the breaks and sometimes you don't...

Pam came to watch the play tonight and was again gagged out by the smoke. Here in DaHo you can still smoke in adult only bars. And, they do smoke quite a bit there. Tonight was also the first night of the NFL season and the Raiders were playing New England. Its amazing how many Raiders fans there are here. I guess there is no getting away from them no matter how far you go. As the game progressed, the fans got much less loud - a feature of Raiders fans in recent years.

They are reworking the road into town. Now, you cannot make a left turn to get here from the bridge. You have to go two miles down the road to make a U turn and come back to get here. But, they will have it all fixed soon. They do all the road work in the fall, before the cold sets in here in DaHo...

Birthday, the Destruction Derby and Auto Warranties...

Saturday was Grandma Flora's 75th birthday. So, we took her to Jackpot to celebrate. We played the slots and Blackjack for a while and then feasted on their Saturday Night Seafood Buffet - which was great. A good time was had by all - Especially Pam...

Then Sunday, we went to the Twin Falls Fair for the last time to check out all the booths and animals and other stuff we didn't see the other night. One really tacky booth had a sign "Good Chinese Stuff" and was everything you would think it was and more... We checked out the turkeys and other animals. Pam got sneezed on by a horse which was about the most exciting thing that happened with the animals. We saw this hypnotist show that was really funny and then checked out the World Famous Duck Races which were really stupid. The only thing I can imagine is 'World Famous' must be the promoter to sell it. It's one of those things that you keep looking around thinking that Candid Camera must be close...

We ended up staying long enough to attend the Destruction Derby in the evening. It was pretty good as they go - but nothing like the Trailer Race of Destruction described before in this BLOG. The only real feature was that the 'racers' here in DaHo are a little more creative in building their 'rides' than in other Derbys I have seen in the modern world.

Then, the first part of this week, I spent researching extended warranties for the Jeep. Its current warranty is about to run out and we got our money's worth out of it - and then some... The Jeep has 100,000 miles on it now and it seems that anything costs $ 1,000, or much more, to fix. I checked out a bunch of 'internet' warranty companies and they all seemed to have a nasty side so I went down to our local dealer and got a 36mo/36,000mile extension of our current one from them. I know its hard to believe that our local dealer would be so nice as to sell us one, but that's how they do it here in DaHo...

Fishing Fair...

Well, we have recovered from the BIG party. Pam has been bring food into Dell daily to an eager group. The house is all cleaned up and party stuff all put away.

So, yesterday, I went fishing after about 3 weeks. I went down to this local set of lakes that feature really big, and usually uncatchable, Golden Trout. You can always see them swimming around, but they usually never 'take the bait' as it were...

Using my ultralight spinning outfit and a spinning lure, I finally hooked one up and after a great fight on the lightweight line, landed it. It was about 4 lbs and really pretty. It took a while to figure out how to net it from this little pier I was fishing on. I was finally able to get it down to the end and get my pole and net at foot level and get it in the net. This is the first nice fish I have caught since grandson Oliver and my fishing marathon last month. I ended up giving to an older couple fishing down the lake. They were impressed with it. The man said that they had been trying to catch one for weeks.

Then, last night, we went to the Twin Falls County Fair to see the John Michael Montgomery concert. It was quite a spectacle. Lots of lights and good sounds. They played both kinds of music - Country and Western... First, we had dinner there, feasting on Navajo Tacos - a taco salad sorta thing on an Indian fry bread base. Pretty tasty but lots of grease.

One of the big local favorites there at the fair are the famous Tater Pigs. They are a potato with a hole in the middle that is filled with a sausage. It's hard to find much more exciting than a Tater Pig here in DaHo...