Hawaiian punch

We went to Kauai, Hawaii for our last big trip before our baby is born in December. It was a glorious week of paradise in the land of tropical plants, red dirt, and roosters. We drove up and down the island and saw many, many beautiful places and listened to many new Hawaiian reggae songs.



Everyday we went to a different beach. The beaches on the south shore are safer for swimming and the north shore beaches are beautiful, but dangerous for swimming. I saw a sea turtle at Anini Beach. Jason saw many large fishes at the beach in front of our hotel. It is a wonderful thing to go to the beach everyday and lay on the sand.



We also drove up to Waimea Canyon. The canyon is amazing. It looks like the land before time. On the way back down, we stopped to explore by the side of the road where the dirt was really red. The reason why the dirt is red is because Kauai is so old.





Jason and I ate shave ices and they tasted like a sno cone on top of ice cream. The next shave ice Jason ate was much different. The trick is to keep the blade sharp! Maybe we will open a shave ice shack in Fairbanks one day.



We went to a beautiful waterfall. There were beautiful white birds with long, sharp tails swooping back and forth across each other over the waterfall.

There was one day that we did not go to the beach, the day we were supposed to leave was rainy. We went to the Fun Factory in Hapaa and Jason played Pop Pop Pop a shot. We won a million tickets, but Jason told the lady to give them to a little kid.



We did not make out flight home! So we got to stay another two days in Hawaii. Leaving Hawaii is very hard. The next time we go back we will have our baby with us! A keiki.

My baby update is that I am heading into the 34th week this Sunday, almost at the homestretch.

Californication

We went all over the Bay Area in California in three days. The first day was Oakland, the next day was San Francisco, then we went to Berkeley the last day. California is a land of plenty.

Oakland is pretty industrial and blue collar. They got the Raiders. We saw the stadium from the train platform when we got to Oakland and Jason booed. It was football opening day so there were groups of Raiders fans all over the place. We stayed in Old Oakland, the old part of downtown Oakland. We saw a pimp try to stomp on a pigeon, but the pigeon got away. We ate at the Pacific Coast Brewery pub. We'd ate there before and our hotel was right next door.



The next day we took the train to San Francisco. It was a beautiful day and we were very happy because the weather report had said it would be raining and we had the Giants game that night. We went to the Pinecrest, my favorite restaurant in San Francisco. I had chocolate chip pancakes. The Zodiac killer ate at the Pinecrest and you can't order your eggs poached because a long time ago the cook there shot a waitress for telling him to poach some eggs. The same old owner man was there with his calculator counting all his money at the counter. Sometimes you got to make sure that things stay the same and the Pinecrest never disappoints.



We walked all around and I bought some moccassins from a boy who loved the Smiths. He told us all about hanging out with his friend Megan and being melancholy. You can't walk around for too long in heels at 25 weeks pregnant I found out. I felt like a little squaw in moccasins. We decided to walk to the ballpark. We stopped at an Irish bar. We've been to the Giants ballpark maybe four times now. You see the big green AT & T letters and the big mitt and Coca Cola bottle and you are very happy to be there. Jason bought a hoodie and a Giants outfit for our baby. The man at the store was very interested in living in Alaska.



We still had a long time before the game so we set around in the sunshine and watched a pelican dive for fish. We went to the Hi Dive bar. We walked back to the ballpark and went in as soon as they opened the gate. It is so much fun to go inside the stadium. I love to see the big green field. Jason drank some beers and we collected all the cups, but could only get two different kinds.



Tim Lincecum had 11 strikeouts! Bengie Molina hit a homerun and Eugenio Velez hit a triple. The Giants won 9-1 against the Rockies. It was a great game. In fact it was game of the day in the paper the next day. Jason got a new work hat. His old hat is the most sweat stained hat anyone has ever seen. We walked all the way back to the train station and had a tired and happy ride back to Oakland.



The next day we spent a couple hours in Berkeley before we had to go back to the airport. We wanted to stay another day, but we did that in Seattle, and you got to go back home sometime. It was hot outside! We ate some breakfast at this nice old place and walked around until we got to the university where there were a million kids and we sat at the fountain and watched them. Then it was time to go home.



What a good time we had in California. The next time we see the Giants, we will have our little baby with us!

Warshington

We went down to the big city to get a crib and a dresser. First we drove 30 miles east to North Bend and ate at the Double R Diner. The drive was beautiful, just great green hills piling one on top of the other. The diner is famous because it's in the show Twin Peaks. They say they also "make a damn fine cup of coffee." I'm still not used to not drinking coffee at a diner, seems sacreligious almost! I'll get back to the coffee habit in four months. The place was packed with Sunday breakfast folks, but we did get to see one man who looked just like Dr. Jacoby! He was the psychiatrist in Twin Peaks. Dana, my best friend, got us into Twin Peaks. If you haven't seen it, it is really good. We ate cherry pie, it was delicious. Jason said he had never ate cherry pie up until that point. I found that very strange.



Then we drove to Snoqualmie. They got a giant waterfall. The place was jammed with people all trying to look at the waterfall. It was a beautiful waterfall, the biggest waterfall I've ever seen.



The next day we went to IKEA. We'd never been to this giant store before. It's like a country of furniture. It's kinda weird walking through a massive building filled with living situation setups and all these people walking from one situation to another. We got our crib and dresser. I was glad to have these things bought for our son- felt pretty grown.

We went into downtown Seattle and got to thinking that we didn't want to go home that day. It was such a beautiful day there. We went to Pike's Market and ate at the brewery. Jason drank different beers and we ate a pizza Jason said was the tastiest pizza he ever ate. It was a really good pizza. Every time I gone to Pike's Market, it is so full of people. I can't tell if the people are there to for real shop for groceries or because they're tourists who want to see the men throw fish around.

We hung around Seattle for a long time, went to a couple bike shops Jason wanted to check out, and to a bar. We didn't want to leave Seattle at rush hour. We decided we would stay an extra day. Jason wanted to drink another drink at the bar, but I felt like sitting by the water and eating my leftover pizza. So we got out of there and walked to the water. There was a crowd of people all traveling in one direction, wearing Mariners stuff. Jason asked some guy if there was a game and there was! So we followed everyone else down to Safeco Field.

We were so happy to have been at the right place at the right time. We got seats three rows from the field.

There's The Kid in the dugout!



Ken Griffey Jr. up at bat! It was a thrill to see a legend so close. Another famous person we saw up close was David Cook from American Idol. This wasn't so exciting though. I was maybe excited for 2 seconds, mostly because I realized we really did have great seats. David Cook had thrown out the first pitch. He had his band with him and they were pretty obnoxious. He wanted his 50 cent change back from his pretzel. Man, talk about showing some class!



The best part of the game was seeing The Kid hit a homerun!! I don't go into games expecting such great things. The first time we saw a Giants game, we saw Barry Bonds hit a homerun and now we got to see Ken Griffey hit one. Jason spilled some beer on a man by accident, it was kind of funny. The Mariners won. We took the long walk back to the car under the bridge. So our baby's first baseball game ended up being Mariners v. A's.

We had a really great time in WA.

21 weeks and counting

Our ultrasound revealed that our baby is a boy! He is very active and likes sweets just like his mama. Baby boy is 21 weeks old. We will tell everyone his name once he is born in December.



Next month, he will go to his first San Francisco Giants game, one of many. Although he won't be able to see, we hope he will hear many Giants homeruns. Will our son be a Panthers or Broncos fan? Only time will tell. In November, we hope to go see the Boss in Washington DC. We have to buy our tickets first.

Seeing our boy in the womb was a magnificent experience. His button nose looks like his daddy's. We get to hear his heartbeat at the monthly appointments. Mama feels him every day, especially at night and early in the morning. We can't wait to meet our baby.

Maui, Hawaii

The plan came together several months ago when I read that Eddie Vedder would be playing a show in Maui.  After deciding several times to go and not to go we finally said "lets just do it." What a way to celebrate our first year of marriage.  We stayed the first two days on the west coast.  It was about a 30 mile drive from the airport.  By the way if you plan on paying for your rental car with a debit card, bring a return itenerary.  It was night time when we arrived in Kaanapali so we checked in and got some rest.  We quickly went from getting some rest to getting some sun.
I didn't choose to post that picture because is it sexy, I posted it as a warning. If your skin is this pale wear sunscreen, I am still paying the price. We had an awesome lunch at the Maui Brewing Company Brewpub. Tried some unique beers including a habnero ale which was real tasty (and spicy) and the coconut porter which was absolutely amazing. We bought some fresh fish at a fish market we found. It was called Wanu or Butterfish. Our room had a full kitchen so Tonia cooked up the butterfish with some mashed potatos.
The meal was amazing. We woke up early the next day to tackle the Road to Hana. Driving the road to Hana was the most fun I have ever had driving a car. The scenery was amazing and the road was filled with twists and turns, and ups and downs, and one lane bridges. On the way to Hana there was little traffic. The way back there was plenty of traffic but it still did not take away from enjoying the ride. A little ways past Hana we found this awesome little beach.
We were the only ones there. We didn't swim. We just enjoyed our beautiful surroundings.


Back in Hana we grabbed some breakfast at Tutu's and took it down to the beach to eat. Tonia had a breakfast burrito and I had a Hawaiian favorite the Loco Moco, which we later read is "definately not considered health food."

It consisted of an egg, portugese sausage, gravy and rice. It was delicious. We left Hana for Kahului, where our next two nights were spent. Kahului is in the center of Maui and is basically the "big city" of the island. The day of the show we visited the town of Haiku. Haiku is a cool little town. I wanted to visit the Maui Cylery, which was a sweet little bike shop there. We made fast friends with the bike mechanic there and he told us about a trip he planed for next year starting in Prudhoe Bay and cutting through Fairbanks. I asked him where his tip ended. He told us Singapore. Then he opened up and told us he planed to bike around the world. Check out his website. It is an amazing journey. After Haiku we ventured back to the hotel for a bit of rest before the big show. I ran down to the venue to grab our Ten Club tickets at the venue. After a quick bite to eat we made our way back to the Castle Theater. We waited a while in the merchandise line so I could grab my poster (I grabbed a t-shirt as well). The venue was awesome, a very small theater. Liam Finn was the opening act. Pretty cool performance as he quickly changed intstruments throughout each song looping guitar and drums. The Eddie Vedder performance was incredible. He had a little setup that looked like he was just chilling in his room and home. I don't know where to begin with personal highlights. Guaranteed, Porch, Wishlist, and of course the stage banter including many Hawaii stories and tale about a naked man at his hotel. Tonia enjoyed the Springsteen cover "Drive All Night." The crowd was great, the show was great, it was an unbelieveable evening, and a great cap on our trip to Maui.

Wheres all the blogs at!?

Here is the quick early summer update.  Workin hard.  Puttin 100 plus miles a week on the bike-cycle.  Made improvements to the shed.  Addicted to twin peaks.  Gettin tan.  Fighting mosquitoes.  Considering midnight sun run.  Bumpin the replacements quite frequently. Looking forward to new wilco.  Still on the caffeine.  Is it too early to start thinking about football? Reading shampoo planet by douglas coupland.  Dug pygmy by chuck palahniuk.  Fascinated by many culture niches with in world of the bicycle. Thinking about evolution a lot lately.  Have not been bloging (haha).  In two weeks we are headed to hawaii for our one year anniversary/honeymoon/eddie vedder show.  We created the blog mostly to share our travels and we have been home based for quite a while.  We will be sure to share stories and pictures from hawaii soon after our return.  Hope all is well in your neck uv da woodz.

Vancouver, B.C.

We decided to take a trip to what Douglas Coupland calls the "city of glass". First we traveled to Seattle, WA where we rented a car and drove north.  It was an awesome idea to drive, we had a lot of fun. Vancouver was a great city. Unlike any other we have visited together.  It feels much newer than other cities.  We spent a good amount of time on the sea wall walk which gave us a great view of the city and the water.  Walked all over the downtown area including the neighborhoods of Gastown and West End.  Drank some good beer and had some good food.  We even took a few pictures.

It was Tonia's birthday.  I didn't have a kitchen so I bought us some cupcakes.