Is that Mr. Cruise ... TOM Cruise? ~ Hawaii Day 5

When we last met I was in bed green from being seasick! Man, the boat was rockin' that night, and not for any fun reasons either!

Thursday morning had us docked in Kauai for a day and a half. We slept in until 8:00 a.m. on this morning and when I woke up I was as good as new and ready to go! We did our usual of eating breakfast and then walking a mile.

Again, we had no plans this day. I hadn't researched the island and we hadn't rented a car. Our intention was to take a taxi to the beach, and that was it. We were delighted to realize that Kalapaki Beach was right around the corner from where we were docked. We took the free shuttle there and settled in for the day.



Kalapaki Beach was actually walking distance from the ship. It sits outside the Marriott Beach Club of Kauai, a beautiful hotel right on the water! (A place Rick and I plan to visit again!)


When we got to the beach we found a spot and just laid out on our towels.


Then Rick decided to do some body surfing.


I watched for a bit and then decided to walk over to some lava rocks and look for shells. Sitting watching the waves come in was so relaxing!


Rick saw a group of people playing sand volleyball. He loves sand volleyball, and has never actually played it on a beach. So, he joined the group (which ended up being a big group of the crew that was off for the day). He had such a great time!




Is that Tom Cruise from Top Gun? Nope, it's my sexy husband!

This was my view from the lawn chair I was in.


Tom Cruise wasn't on the island, but we learned that they are taping a new Pirates of the Carribean. Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush were at this beach the week before. We saw Kevin McNally who plays Joshamee Gibbs in the movies. I didn't want to bother him, so just took a picture from far away.



After a long day in the sun we went back to the ship. Again we found some pool chairs in the shade and I read. We had some snacks and then went to the room to get ready for our Teppanyaki reservations.

This was the only night we got really spiffed up. Not too bad if you ask me!



At our dinner date we met two couples from Australia. We had as much fun talking about their homeland as they had talking about ours. We found out that in Australia it is winter right now. I guess I never thought about it! And, at every port there were free shuttles to Wal-Mart and K-Mart, which I thought was so odd. But the couples told us how much cheaper products are in "the states" and that they come on these trips to shop, especially at K-Mart! They said, "K-Mart has everything!"

After dinner we were really tired, especially Rick, so we turned in at 10:00. This was the latest we stayed up all week.

Menu Plan Monday ~ Back to Normal

Well, the vacation is over and as hard as I look I can't find the buffet line in my house. So, that means it's time to get back to cookin'! And, in this heat, that's not too motivating. So this is what we are having this week ...

Monday ~ Grilled BBQ and pepperjack chicken and linguine (with spices from my garden)

Tuesday ~ Frozen lasagna and breadsticks

Wednesday ~ FFY (Fend for Yourself)

Thursday ~ Chicken tetrazzini

Friday ~ BLT and chips (with those yummy tomatoes from my garden!)

Saturday ~ Grilled chicken salad

Sunday ~ Breakfast for dinner

Super Daddy Rick

Happy Father's Day to the Superest Dad in the Galaxy!!!


(A funny story that prompted the Super Dad theme .... When we were on our cruise there was a family. I don't intend to be mean, but they were the Clark Griswold family of the cruise. It was mom, dad, grandma and two kids. The kids looked miserable. The dad was wearing a pair of swimming trunks, a pair of swimming sandles, a khaki hat that a Boy Scout leader would wear that ties around the chin, and a Super Dad t-shirt {yes, the one with the Superman symbol}. I told Rick I was going to get him one of those shirts. He said, "Don't you dare." I said, "You mean to tell me that if Brynne bought you a Super Dad hat that you wouldn't wear it?" He said, "Nope. I wouldn't wear it. Don't let her buy it.")

So, when I saw a Super Dad gift bag, I just had to buy it. Then when I saw a Super Dad card that you could record a message on before it played the Superman theme, I just couldn't pass it up! I was really worried about pulling off the card because Eli tends to get a little stressed and then he stutters. The card only allowed you to record for 10 seconds. But he and Brynne did it on the first try and it was perfect!!!

Can you say Priceless????


When Rick saw the bag, he just laughed. And when he opened the card, Brynne and Eli were all smiles! The recorded part said, {Eli} "It is a bird!" {Brynne} "It's a plane!" {Together} "No, it's Super Daddy Rick!" They laughed and laughed!

He loved it!


We got him some new ear buds for his iPhone (because his was in the portfolio that got stolen in Hawaii), a sign for his office and a shadow box that I am going to put all of his Oklahoma State paraphernalia that is laying on his file cabinet.

We went into town to eat donuts for breakfast. Eli and Brynne both insisted on sitting in the same booth with Rick, so eating for him was a challenge.


Then we came home and got ready to go see Toy Story 3. What a great movie! I can honestly say there were tears, and not only from me. I sat there and just couldn't believe I was crying so hard watching a cartoon. But, if you've "grown up" with Andy, Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang, then you can't help but be emotional when Andy grows up and gives his beloved toys away. It's amazing to me that the Pixar group can continue to produce Toy Story movies that are every bit as good, if not better, than the first. I sure hope there is a Toy Story 4 in our future.

After the movie we came home and Rick took a well-deserved Father's Day nap. Then he ditched us to go play golf.

We ordered pizza, and were kind enough to save him some. Then we had root beer floats.

I hope that Rick enjoyed his Father's Day. We enjoyed spending {most of} it with him. I hope that he truly knows what a wonderful father he is to his children. They are so blessed to have him!

Happy Father's Day, too, to my dad and Rick's dad. Hope your day was out of this world!

Just Bring Me Some Coffee, and Don't Make Me Climb Any Rocks to Get It! ~ Hawaii Day 4

On the 4th day of our cruise we were in Kona and had nothing planned.

Of course I had said that before, huh?

I told Rick that I didn't want to even climb a flight of stairs this day! And I meant it!

We got up at 7:30 a.m. (a little later again), ate breakfast and showered. We didn't even walk or run that morning. We had gotten enough exercise the two days before to last us a lifetime.

We were anchored out in the cove at Kona, which is always a beautiful view (rather than being ported in an actual port with port authority buildings and such.)



We rode the tender onto the island and just walked around. We bought some more souvenirs, including some real coffee grown in Kona at the Country Samurai Coffee Company in Holualoa, Hawaii. We talked to the wife of the owner of the coffee farm. It's pretty good, but I wish I would have bought a stronger brew.

Rick loves the trees in Hawaii .. the giant bonsai ones especially. We took lots of pictures of trees. We wish we had them like that here in Oklahoma.

Back when we first got off the airport in Honolulu, we were riding the shuttle to the ship with one of the waiters on our ship. He told us that we needed to go have lunch and a locally brewed beer at Kona Brewing Company. So, that's the only adventurous thing we did. We walked several blocks (uphill .... grrrrr ....) and had lunch and some beers. There you could get a large slice of specialty pizza and a large side salad of your choice for $7. Pretty good deal and really good food!




After our lunch we just took the tender back to the ship. We found some pool chairs in the shade. Rick took a nap and I read my book. Ahhhhhh .... relaxing!

Unfortunately we didn't listen to all of the advice from the waiter on the shuttle.

He told us that the ride out of Kona was a rocky one. I am one who takes Dramamine for the first couple of days of a cruise. But this cruise is a bit different because you never really get too far out in the ocean where it's calm. We had made reservations for a Teppanyaki restaurant on board the ship for that night at 7:30 p.m. We hadn't eaten much that day and I had started to develop a headache. I took some Ibuprofen on an empty stomach (first mistake) and then we went up to take formal portraits while we waited for our dinner reservations. We were really excited because the piano lounge singer guy was doing a tribute to Barry Manilow at 9:00 and we wanted to go hear him and have some cocktails (no, I'm not kidding .. we love Barry Manilow and we had heard the pianist practicing and he was pretty good.)

But while waiting in line for the portraits I got really seasick! Super, duper seasick! I took some Dramamine but it was too little too late. We finally decided to reschedule our Teppanyaki reservation for the next night and I headed to bed. We ordered chicken noodle soup and pb&j from room service, and I took the sea sickness pills the hostess at the restaurant gave Rick. He watched a movie and I went to sleep.

And that was Day 4. We never even touched one rock all day.

Hilo Hex and Happiness ~ Hawaii Day 3

I don't know if one of us had The Brady Bunch cursed tiki stashed unknowingly on us (remember that episode, when they went to Hawaii?), but this day had its share of hexes!

We always seem to have "that day" on our vacation where the **** kind of hits the fan. It comes unexpectedly, and I think it has to do with exhaustion. It's usually centered around the kids, but they were nowhere around on this vacation which led me to believe that we just have one of those days on every vacation.

It started out as a normal day on the ship ...

We got up at 6:30 a.m. (getting a tad more used to the time change), had breakfast and went for a run. We were getting ready to leave the ship when we realized that we couldn't find Rick's portfolio that he carries. It usually has our passports, travel documents, printed documents with confirmations of rental cars, etc., itineraries, maps, and some extra money. We turned the cabin upside down ... nothing!

So, we deduced that Rick either laid it down at the security checkpoint in Maui when we were boarding, or our cabin steward stole it. We tend to believe that it was stolen because security surrenders everything that is left at the checkpoint to the ship. Nothing was turned in. Thankfully we didn't have our passports in it. But, it did have a lot of the other documents, our headphones and about $200. (We never found it.)

Let's just say that Rick's day had not started out too good. He was really down on himself for misplacing it.

We went to get our rental car, a convertible, and they were out of them. That just added fuel to his simmering fire.

We didn't have much planned for the day, because we had already done the waterfall thing that we planned for Hilo. So, I wasn't too hyped up about our plans either. We were just ... blah!

We drove to Rainbow Falls. It was pretty, but not too exciting. We did see a really cool tree, though.



Then we went on to Akaka Falls, a really big fall. We saw some neat foliage and it was a very impressive waterfall. But, still nothing to get us too excited.





The only other thing we had planned to do was a the four-mile Onemea Scenic Drive that I had read about. I pulled up the information on Rick's iPhone and we started driving it. It was somewhere along here that we talked about it and decided that we had to snap out of it! We were in Hawaii for goodness sake!

We rolled down the windows and took in the sounds and smells and beauty of the foliage. It really was beautiful! We came to a spot to view the Onemea Arch. This part of the island was possibly the most amazing thing I think I saw. The water was crashing into the rocky shore. The water was amazingly blue. It was something out of a movie.



We were looking for a particular trail that was supposed to lead right down to the water there across from the arch, but didn't find it. We realized we were at the end of the route so decided to turn around and try to find the trail.

On the way back we drove over a bridge. Looking down we saw a cave with water pouring out of it. I remembered reading about this. I read that if you take a small trail down to the cave, and if the water is not rushing too hard out of it, you can climb through the cave to a swimming hole on the other side of it.


We were not dressed for this! But, off we went. The rush of water wasn't too strong, but it was rushing some. The rocks were slippery!!! And it got dark in a hurry. It was a looooooong tunnel. About halfway through I almost chickened out. I was leading us. Rick was quite a ways behind. (He has tender feet and we were barefooted, so he was moving a bit more slowly). I came to a spot where I was going to have to walk through some water, not on the rocks. And it was dark and I had no idea what was under there or how deep it was. I paused. My heart was beating fast. I waited. I imagined an anaconda coming up and eating me. But then I flashed my camera flash into the water and saw that it was totally clear, monster free and only about 8 inches deep. So we went on.






When we got to the end of the tunnel there were more rocks to climb, naturally. But ahead was the little waterfall and swimming hole. I wasn't too excited about swimming in the swimming hole. But, the fall with the rushing water and stream was so refreshing and just plain cool!



Rick wanted to take pictures of me up on the rocks, so I climbed up. Here is a picture of me up there. Notice my sunglasses on my cowboy hat and my camera in my hand.



I sat down and *plop*! There went my camera into the rushing water. It sunk straight down. I screamed. I jumped in the water fully dressed. Rick came over. The water current was so strong and we were reaching down into the water, totally blind, trying to find it. I couldn't. I was panicked. There were so many rocks down in the water with little crevices. But Rick felt the strap and pulled it out. (Later we took the SD card to Walmart to check it and it was fine.) The camera was toast. I had that camera strapped to my wrist the whole vacation! Why in the world was I carrying my camera in my hand while climbing on rocks in a rushing waterfall???

I was so upset. But here's the ironic part. Rick was like, "It's no big deal. It's just a camera." I had to remind him that he wasn't so calm when he realized he had lost $200. Oh well, damage done. Thankfully the SD card still had the 100 pictures I had taken so far. And, we still had Rick's camera.

We took a bunch of pictures (with his camera) and headed back through the tunnel to our car.



When we were coming out another couple drove up and said, "Can you go in there?" We told them to definitely do it! They headed down. A bit later, though, when we drove back by, they were gone. They chickened out. Dummies. While we were down there so many cars just slowed down and looked and drove on. We wanted to scream .... "Get out of your cars!!! You're missing everything!" Remember my post about going on The Road Less Travelled while on vacation? The coolest things we did on this vacation were when we got out of the guidebooks, got out of our cars and started exploring.


And it wasn't over yet!

We drove on and found the trail we had been looking for. It's called The Donkey Trail. And, really, only donkeys should be attempting to walk down it ... certainly not two almost 40 year old yuppies in flip flops. It was a 600 ft. downward trail.



But. Oh. My. Gosh.

What we saw at the end of that trail literally makes me tear up right now. It was so beautiful I can't even begin to describe it. The pictures don't even begin to showcase its beauty!


There was a local family sitting there eating a packed lunch. What a view!

We took some pictures (Rick must of forgotten that he wasn't with a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model because he kept wanting to take pics of me at these locations in my bikini. I'll spare you most of them.)





After the very difficult walk back up the 600 ft. trail .... We. Were. Done!!!

We stopped at Walmart to check on my SD card, buy some batteries and me some new sunglasses (because those apparently went over into the stream, too.), and some snacks. We went to Hilo Hattie and bought souveniers. We returned our rental car and went back to the ship.

You'd think at this point we would have died. Instead we got some beers and climbed into the hot tub. We drank a few, went to have dinner in the Aloha Cafe and I went to bed at 8:30 p.m.

Rick stayed up so he could see the live volcano we were supposed to pass by at 9:45 p.m. Apparently he ended up not being able to see much, so he was sorry he stayed up that late. But I guess seeing any amount of a live volcano isn't something you see in Oklahoma, so it had to have value of some kind. He came to bed at some time .. I couldn't tell you when.

This was our favorite day.