Tenth Anniversary Trip

Since we have an anniversary in November we thought we'd go on a road trip to some of our favorite places to celebrate. November is on the cold side for weather so we took our trip at the beginning of October. We started with driving to Capitol Reef National Park. We took pictures along the hike...

and ended this hike at Hickman's Bridge.  It was like an optical illusion because at first I didn't notice the bridge.  It just blended so nicely with the background.  Then we hiked partway back and proceeded hiking up to the rim.  This was a spectacular lookout!  We were 1000 feet over the valley below...

...and I decided this was a nice place for a rest.

After Capitol Reef we went on to drive the scenic highway 12 toward Bryce Canyon.





It was just beautiful with the fall colors and vistas. It took us most of the day to get to Bryce Canyon because we had to keep stopping and looking around.

We enjoyed a hike down into Bryce canyon among the hoodoos...

 We stopped along the way and found a log upon which to perch for eating lunch and more importantly it had a nice view...
 



We got up close to many great formations.

Queen on her throne

 

We made our way to the top and then enjoyed going to each of the lookouts.

After hiking for a few days we thought it would be nice to end the trip with relaxing in the city.  We headed back home and took up lodging in Salt Lake City so that we could enjoy some of the sites downtown.

We walked around temple square.  Of course since I like flowers so much we lingered around the gardens a bit.




We went over to the City Creek Center to explore it a little more.  We also went there on the 4th of July and realized how big it is and decided we'd have to take more time to see it all.  The water features were interesting.  We went into Tiffany's and decided it was out of our price range :-)

We had a very nice view from the 22nd floor of our hotel of the city county building and the Wasatch Front.  
I won't forget how truly filling afternoon tea was and what fun we had with mom and dad at Sunday brunch.  It was a nice way to get away from everyday life while enjoy beautiful places and excellent food.  Somehow it always works out that leaving home makes me excited to be back!

Hello, World! We're back...

Hello, World!

This makes me think of the first program every computer science student learns:

main() {

   printf ("Hello,World!\n");

}

It has been many moons since our last post - maybe 13 or so.  And we owe you all pictures, more pictures!  But I can't right now as I don't have access to them.  But I have been thinking about our blog.

The last year has been busy, and fun, and hard.  I suppose that would be like a normal life.  We've had some vacations, fun, times with family, sickness, health, lots of work, and wish we had more time to tell you about it.

We're contemplating some retroactive entries (backdated) that will fill in some of the gaps, but we'll see. If we do, it will look like it hasn't been so many moons, but we want to backdate so the blog flows better.

Some of the big things going on:

1) Joanna still works at the library and temple.  She has been so blessed there, and she loves working in the Lord's house and helping people there.  She also works at the library still once a week, dutifully shelving books!

2) I (Daniel) am still working at the same place.  There have been changes, as I predicted.  Some good, most not so good, but fortunately while the companies want to play with benefits and time off and policies, my day to day work life stays the same, busy and interesting.

3) We got sick.  We got some exotic virus at the end of September that put us out cold for a month.  Then lingered for another six!  Our doctors said it was an adenovirus.  A particularly nasty strain.  We're feeling better again, but during that time we had to sort of check out from everything but the basics.  It really helped me feel grateful for everything I have, including my health!  We got it from a poor little 4 month old baby placed in foster care - we only had him with us for two days.  He was a darling little thing but he was so sick.  We worried about him for months as we suffered from the same illness.  But we found out recently that he is okay and doing fine!  That was good news.

4) Still working on that basement.  We're almost ready for our 4-way inspection but our theater room is still in the planning stages and I haven't wired it yet.  But the rest of the basement is pretty much ready for sheetrock!  I had to take a hiatus for a while to catch up with work and to focus on yard projects while the summer was with us.

5) Speaking of the yard, we also have yard projects.  We have plenty of things for our yard and home planned out to keep us busy for years.  Joanna loves the gardening, and the flowers.  This year, we cut a bunch of grass from the front yard and put it in the side yard, planted some bushes, and prepared to put in some curbing and flower beds in the front yard, which we'll finish next spring and summer.  We're looking forward to it!

6) We took a family trip to California at the beginning of the year.  My parents and brother joined us.  We were up and down the Southern coast for 8 days.  It was relaxing. It would have been more so if I hadn't been sick...


7) So many little things.  We went to three home shows this year.  So we can't afford them?  That's half the fun in wandering through them.  We took a trip north to visit Joanna's aunt and uncle in Idaho.  We've had a good number of family outings.  We visited the new Museum of Natural History in U of U's research park.  We've tried a number of new restaurants, enjoyed the outdoors (when the smoke wasn't chokingly thick) and have generally kept busy with fun, projects, work, family, and service.  The simple joys of life are in the day to day.

I'll look to see if we can do a few retroactive blog entries with some nice pictures.  They're worth a thousand words, you know, and my hands hands can get mighty tired of typing... and your eyes might get tired of reading too!

We didn't mean to...

That is, we didn't mean to neglect our blog!

This is Daniel speaking. Many crazy things have happened over the last seven months. Probably many which will not get mentioned here because I just don't remember or don't have time to reminisce.

A few big things (biggest one last):

1) The company I work for was purchased by Raytheon in February of this year. There will be big changes coming up. They are taking it slow, which I like, but the honeymoon period may be ending soon.

2) We're finishing the basement. I have been planning stuff on and off for a few months, and just last weekend we did a large portion of the framing (thanks dad and Ben!!) I will likely post some pictures later on about how it's going.

2) We have had two foster placements come and go. If you ever would like a shotgun introduction to parenting, sign up to be a foster parent! Joanna and I, who have unfortunately never really been parents, got such an introduction this year.

Our first placement was only a week. It was a very cute boy from Somalia... who didn't speak English. There are confidentiality concerns, which I don't fully understand. I do know I can't use his name, but just to be on the safe side I won't say too much about his background. He was about 3 years old, and really liked to wear baseball caps. He wasn't with us for long, but it was hard and endearing at the same time.

Our second placement was three weeks, ending about a week ago. This was two half-siblings, girls, a 9 month old and a three year old. They were darling kids too. There is nothing like having your calm "adult" life immediately changed into taking care of two kids. People in our neighborhood and from my work were so wonderful. We got bags of clothes, toys, movies, all sorts of child-rearing tools flowed in, as well as plenty of moral support. The 9 month old was a beautiful little thing with reddish-brown hair and a great smile. The three year old was a bit more of a challenge - it has to be hard being passed around like this! She really liked music, and reading books. Joanna and I, while we were frazzled, felt pretty good about all this.

We didn't know how long they'd stay. It could be only weeks if a kinship placement (i.e. other family that meets minimum criteria that is willing to take the children) is found, or a few months if the parents get their act together, or forever if they don't and we adopt. It can be a real rollercoaster! Well, what happened with these little girls was that DCFS (Division of Child and Family Services) found a kinship placement, a grandmother, and they turned over custody to her. It was sad for us to see them go, but there is a special basic rule in society that I think can't be broken and shouldn't - and that is that kids stay with their family. DCFS follows this rule unless family just can't meet their needs.

I don't know if I can post pictures of our time with them or not - probably not for a while anyway, that's why this is a text only entry - but it has been a very good experience. We look forward to our next placement!

And we're still open to adoption, and trying fertility measures too, if anyone is curious.

Hawaii Vacation - Maui

So I'm going to write about Maui now as our second installment. Maui was great. Upon arriving in Maui we were pleased with our condo that had a lovely view of the ocean. Here's a panorama from our balcony.


We spent the first day there mostly relaxing and getting settled. It was nice. We drove around the north side and enjoyed seeing the Nakalele Blowhole area. It would spout at random yet splendid to watch when it did. Here's the blowhole "blowing".


Something we loved throughout our time there was watching the waves crash along the coast. The power of them was incredible.


We did happen to on this second day purchase a pineapple at a roadside stand. It was kind of small and cheap. Little did we know the tasty treasure we found until eating it a couple days later and the bowl was all of a sudden empty when originally I thought we’d enjoy it for a couple days. I don’t think I’ll ever taste one that is so good again. Seeing the Iao Needle and valley was breathtakingly beautiful being so lush and green. I loved it! Here I am with the Needle behind me.

We had to take part in a luau of course, seeing as we were in Hawaii. We chose one at which we would be served and have an easy view of the dances. The food was unique and some tasty and some not so tasty. The entertainment was captivating and the fire dance in the end was amazing.

On our way to the road to Hana we enjoyed the awesome force of crashing waves at Hookipa lookout. The road to Hana was like having many adventures so that at the end of the day I felt like I must have lived a month to have seen so much. It was incredibly green with unending spectacular views and especially unending turns in the road. Here's looking back part of the way through our trip down the road.

There was what seemed like countless waterfall to behold and yet I never tired of them. Here's only one of the more spectacular ones.

The Waianapanapa Caves were a fun find as we neared the town of Hana and seeing yet another blowhole nearby was great. Here's a panorama in one of these freshwater caves.


We hiked along a beach-side trail here which provided yet more but the best views of the forceful waves and rocks formations carved by them. The waves were some of the highest that would be expected all winter, we heard on the news, so it was a real treat to get to see! It was even fun to happen upon spider webs here and a couple other times.

The town of Hana is a nice pleasant place and following seeing it we went to Oheo Gulch which was a nice series of tiered pools in which people we swimming and commenting on how cold it was – we didn’t swim. This was a strange thing to me throughout our trip here everywhere we went there we always people dressed in swimsuits whether or not this was appropriate for the venue. Sometimes they were more comfortable than I but other times I was more comfortable than them like when hikes included muddy areas I had on boots and their flip flops didn’t fair so well.
Driving around the rest of the island, after visiting Hana and Oheo Gulch, was interesting especially because it was so different being more desert like and quite dry. It was great for watching the sun set. We went to the Maui Ocean Center which was a great way to see many types of fish and kinds of corral in a short amount of time. Everything they showed there was native to the Hawaiian Islands.

We spent some time in Wailea and walked the beach path in front of the big resorts. It was fun to see the different resorts and stroll the beach along the way.

We had hopes of seeing Haleakala, the top of the giant old volcano in the middle of Maui. On our way to the summit, we enjoyed stopping at the Kula Lodge on the way. There was an amazing garden out back with fun brickwork. Daniel's here in front of an oven they'd actually cook their pizzas in for the restaurant in the lodge.
Unfortunately, we were disappointed to once reaching the top finding that it had clouds all the way up above the top and plenty of storminess. We spent most of our time in the visitor's center. Usually you go through clouds as you get to the summit, but the summit is usually clear so we kept having hope but the clouds didn't break. Here's Daniel and me outside at the summit. It was still worth driving up, but sad not to see the views!

We did get to see the best rainbow for our whole trip on the way back down. It was really stunning, the photo doesn't do it justice.

We had a relaxing time going to Makalua-puna point and seeing the “dragon’s teeth,” limestone that was etched away on the coastline to look like, well, dragon teeth. It was interesting and pretty. We went to see the “Warren and Annabelle’s” show after stopping to see the huge 100+ year old banyan tree. Here's Daniel under part of the tree.

The dinner show, which featured some amazing magic tricks, was so much fun and entertaining. The time went by so fast and if I wasn’t laughing I was gaping in amazement. Daniel was good to me and so I was treated to a massage at the end of each island visit with this one being at the Ritz Carlton. That was a very enjoyable spa experience. It was neat to use the rest of the spa and end with a massage. We ended our time here in Maui with walking along the Kapalua beach and enjoying a nice dinner. Here's Daniel on the beach saying goodbye to our last Hawaii sunset for a while! It was a great time!

Hawaii Vacation - Kauai

We went on a two week trip, just Joanna and me, to Hawaii last October. We agreed that I'd write about Kauai, and she would do another on our Maui experience

We spent one week in Kauai, and one week in Maui. The trip was very busy (so much to see!) and very relaxing (everything we saw was relaxing.)

I'll just hit on a few highlights from our Kauai stay. I can't imagine anyone would want to read our full many-page journal entry on it. I don't know that I'll ever read it again myself!

So, impressions about Kauai? At first it was very hot and sticky feeling. I mean, we were coming from Utah after all. But that was at the airport. And we had been on a plane, so we were already feeling a little, well, oppressed I guess you could say. We mostly got used to it, but it did pretty much remain hot and sticky. We didn't really notice when we were having fun though!

Another impression? Very green. I mean, really, very green. And that wasn't up north yet (which was beyond green.) Turns out it had been raining a little more than usual for Lihue when we arrived. We were staying just north of Lihue, at the Kauai Beach Villas. Funny thing is that we stayed here when I came just after my mission in 1997 too. I wasn't sure when I booked the place, but the memories confirmed it when we got there. I liked staying on the east side of the island because I just didn't know much about it, and it was a good home base for heading out in any direction.

Kauai was more relaxed, part of the land, run down than I am used to here in Utah also. Relaxed is never a bad thing. But "part of the land" and "run down" has both its appeals and its drawbacks. If you want the resort life, then no, the island doesn't feel like a resort. It is WILD, and it isn't groomed and manicured. Strange, a person would never expect that, but with all the talk of it being paradise, somehow that preconception had creeped in a little bit. No, there is rain, there is wind, you can't control the weather, there is mud, there is crazy growth. If you know and expect this, then I think one can have a blast. If not, you can get disappointed at first. I know, it is blasphemy to say Hawaii is anything but perfect. But there it is.

Okay, that said, it is an awesome place. That same "part of the land" feel is what makes it an exceptional experience. No pretentious, gaudy gardens or downtown areas. You really are leaving the world behind. You get to experience the greatest thing the world has to offer, God's creations. You can return to your roots. You can find yourself. There is nothing to distract you (provided you turn off the smartphone) and I really liked that. For the perfect environment to sit in a beach chair, read a book, and sip drinks this may not be it (maybe Maui instead) - well they had a few nice resorts, which we visited. And we did that a little here. But what we spent our time most on was exploring this amazing place. We didn't really rest. We could have done that for cheaper on the California coast or in Maui. We wanted to see jungle. We wanted to see amazing vegetation, cliffs, canyons, the power of the sea.

One of the highlights was our helicopter tour. Most of the island is very difficult to access, and sometimes it is hard to wrap your mind around how rugged and lush it is. So when we saw impassible terrain laced with waterfalls and teeming with thick vegetation from the window of the copter, we understood a little of what Kauai was about. A great overview. Here's a few pictures (these were all taken from the copter):

We snorkeled as well. Joanna had never snorkeled and I hadn't for years, so we practiced at Lydgate beach park. But with the rain and crazy waves, the snorkeling tide pool was very murky. We could see maybe 4 feet. We learned how to snorkel, and it was fun, but we didn't see much. Joanna still saw a few fish here and there, but when a guy yelled that he had seen a man-o-war (stinging jellyfish) we decided we knew enough.

A little later though we headed to Tunnels beach and snorkeled all afternoon. It was great, and there were lots of fun fish. We could see 20+ feet in the water, and that makes all the difference! We didn't take pictures of the fish (no underwater camera) but we did get a couple shots of the beach:


We resorted hopped. There are lots of resort-like places to stay in the south by Poipu, but one of them kind of overshadows the rest with its grandeur, this was the Grand Hyatt:


We also visited the Marriott in Lihue:


And the amazing St. Regis Princeville in the north:


Throughout the week, we drove all around the island, and tried to do a hike in several unique areas. We had plans, lots of plans, and we pretty much followed them, except we never got everything done. That was fine because we just picked a few and took our time. It was much better that way.

One amazing area is the Mahaulepu beach area. This place was awesome! It is dominated, between the wonderful beaches, by lithified limestone cliffs. The waves were strong that day and it was really fun to watch.

We also hiked up in Waimea Canyon. Some in the dryer part of the canyon:

...and some on the rim of the Na Pali coast between sheer cliffs and the Alakai swamp which gets hundreds of inches of rain in a year. It was certainly raining while we were there! And muddy! We had trekking poles and boots, and we still got a little muddy. Some people in tennis shoes had slipped a number of times and were slathered. Again, the beauty and greenery was beyond words.



We also hiked a very famous trail, the Kalalau trail along the Na Pali coast itself. There is nothing like winding along steep cliffs a hundred feet above the crystal blue water, with dense tropical foliage all around you and, again, plenty of mud. It was spectacular! We only made time to get to their first beach, about 2 miles in, but it was certainly a highlight of our trip! It starts from Ke'e beach (pictured looking down from the trail)...

... and we ended at Hanakapiai beach. From here you can hike to a falls (2 miles) or keep going on the Kalalau trail (with an overnight permit) for another 8 miles to Kalalau Valley and beach.

We also explored plenty of other areas, from some of the quaint towns like Hanapepe to the Kilauea lighthouse. Eight days total, and it seems like we just scratched the surface, though we did get to cover a lot of ground. Truly a beautiful and amazing place!