Muddy Motorcycle Riding

The boys went on a boys motorcycle riding trip after a few days of rain, so of course, all the boys got stuck at least once, and even flipped a bike.  Here are some of their muddy highlights.

Great Basin National Park

Great Basin National Park is one of the least visited National Parks, one of the smallest National Parks, and the quietest National Park.  This means that you get many of the lakes and hikes nearly to yourself. Bade and I were fortunate enough to also get the tail end of the fall foliage on our hikes.

Bade fit in some fishing at Cave Lake just outside Ely.  They were smaller fish than what Bade normally catches, but it was fun to be there since there were ducks, geese, and even ospreys swooping down and catching fish right in front of us.

Gandy Warm Springs was the highlight to this trip.  It is a bit (30 miles) of a drive up a dirt road, but so worth it.  Don’t think of this as a hot spring…it is only slightly warm, meaning the water is around 80 degrees, but the cool part is that this oasis in the desert has its own cave complete with stalactites and even fish swimming through it.  The cave goes back surprisingly far so you need to have flashlights.  We brought goggles, and put our dollar store flash lights in Ziploc bags so we could look at the fish under water in the cave.

Uintah’s Backpacking

The first rule about Uintahs backpacking is you don’t tell people where in the Uintahs to backpack.  The second rule about Uintahs backpacking is you DON’T TELL PEOPLE where in the Uintahs to backpack.  The best part about Uintahs backpacking is being able to go out in the woods without crowds.  You typically don’t even need to backpack very far in to find this restful seclusion and you don’t typically need to backpack very far to find your own personal lake.  So all I can tell you about this backpacking trip is that it is near many lakes in the Uintah’s, and was awesome!

Sadly, we only ended up staying for one night even though we planned on 2 nights, we had to head back early to rush to the hospital for, what turned out to be, a false alarm.  But we ate like kings for that 1 day.

Farewell Hawaii

Well, we started our last day in Hawaii by accidentally stepping on something sharp in the sand when we first got to the beach.  Poor Bade, he wasn’t able to comfortably play in the water the rest of the day.  But don’t worry, the day gets better…

After an unsuccessful last afternoon at the beach, we got ready for an evening at sea. We took a sunset fishing boat tour just off the coast of Waikiki and Honolulu. We caught a bunch of colorful, yet small fish that the boat captain cooked up for us.

There were around 20 people on the boat this evening, most of them were fishing, and Bade and I caught the most fish out of anyone! Go us!!

Best Oahu Hike – Koko Head

Fireworks, fire dancers, surfing and hiking, Oahu vacations are pretty awesome! The Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki launches fireworks every Friday night at 7:45, so we had dinner at the beach, watched the fireworks, then saw some street entertainment.

Surfing was great at the military beach, White Plains. The waves were long and consistent, the rentals were lax and affordable, and the boys wore themselves out catching waves for a few hours. Unfortunately they stayed so far out for the most part, that I wasn’t able to get a good shot of them on their boards.

Now, my favorite hike in Oahu was also the most tiring, Koko Head in Hawaii Kai. The hike is pretty much a straight shot up the side of the mountain following an old military supply train track. It starts with a mellow slope, but quickly steepens to the point where every step is going up 2 stair steps at once. Although this hike is tiring on your thighs and calves, the view is one of the best on the island.  You can look down the coast almost to Waikiki, over the hill and see Hanuama Bay, then behind to see up the East coast towards China man’s Hat. This is definitely a hike you want to do in the morning or evening.  Better yet, if you can catch sunrise or sunset, you will be in awe.

Mixing Work With Pleasure

In order to take this pseudo-spur-of-the-moment trip to Hawaii Bade and I had to bring some of our work with us.  Over the last few days we have done half days of work and half days of play.

We saw how ukuleles are made at Kamaka Ukulele and where pineapples are grown at the Dole Plantation.

We were also able to hike in the crater of a volcano to Diamond Head lookout.  This area was used by the military in WWII, but is now one of the most popular hikes on the island.  I’m surprised I have never done it before, but then again, the whole hike was exposed, so you have to go really early (7am clearly wasn’t early enough) to hike without being too hot :).

We spent some time on the West coast of Oahu, snorkeling at Makaha Beach and Ko’Olina Resort beaches.  Bade typically wears a rash guard while we snorkel so he only sunscreens his legs and neck, but he took if off for about 20 minutes to body board.  I just wear my swimsuit, so I make sure to screen everywhere. Apparently I must have touched Bade’s back after I screened me, and before he went body boarding…he now has a cute little wife-y hand print tan line :). What’s a vacation to Hawaii without at least 1 sunburn?

Beaches, Hammocks and Chance Encounters

Over the last 2 days, Bade and I have chilled at five beaches, been to four viewpoints, kicked three corals and only skipped one hike (woke up too late :( ), oh…and we ran into one of Bade’s friends randomly when we were leaving the grocery store.

Sunday we spent the afternoon at Hanauma Bay and saw a cute but mangy baby mongoose, lots of big fish, and no turtles :(.

Monday morning Bade and I got up early to enjoy the sunrise at Lanikai beach (hard to find, but great view of the sun rising between/next to two islands), then worked from our car for an hour, before hunting down breakfast.

Bade’s friend we didn’t know was on the island, was walking into the grocery store we were leaving (needed to make a sudden pit stop for the pregnant lady).  We decided to make a day out of our chance meeting, running into these legit beach bums… sleeping in a treehouse/shed in some guy’s yard, hitching rides around, no schedule or plans whatsoever.  We spent all day Monday with these 2 guys, snorkeling and diving through caves, lounging and playing games at the beach, and swinging in the trees.

We snorkeled at Shark’s Cove and found some hidden caves and underwater arches that we could swim through and in to.  The cave was really scary to go in because you just went into the darkness and hoped there was something on the other side.  Going out of the cave was awesome because on the way out everything was blue with black rock silhouettes. We saw a bunch of very large turtles at Haleiwa Beach.  We watched our two friends play spike ball at Turtle Bay Beach.  Then we ended the day at Mokuauia Beach where we could see Goat Island, and the boys did tricks on a rope swing we knew about from our last visit to Oahu.

Day 1 – Wasting No Time

After 2 flight delays, we finally arrived in Honolulu, HI at 10:38pm last night (over 6 hours later than we were suppose to). The second flight delay wasn’t told to us until we were in the air; our flight was going to land nearly 40 minutes later than it was suppose to, which meant we were going to get to the airport AFTER our car rental service had closed. We downloaded Uber for a long expensive taxi ride, and made it to my cousins and crashed around 4am our time.

This morning, not able to sleep in, we got up, had breakfast, and hitched a ride with my cousin to pick up our car rental. Then we immediately headed to the mountains to start our morning with a hike. We took a 2 mile hike to Manoa Falls. The falls were at the perfect incline so there wasn’t actually a free-fall portion, but the trickle along the rocks was really pretty, and the hike to the falls was lush and gorgeous, and a bit slippery at times.

We ran our trip-starter errands, which included getting some lunch and dinner supplies for the next 2 weeks at Costco, and some beach essentials at the grocery store, then we met up with my cousin and her husband at their house, and had lunch while their 1-year-old finished napping.

In the afternoon we all headed to Bellow’s beach, which is a private beach for the military. It was a little windier than normal, so there was some concern over jellyfish. Sure enough, talking with the lifeguards we found out that the wave-breaks were full of little jellies. A few weeks ago my uncle was out here and he got stung. These tiny little jellyfish have tentacles that can stretch around 2 feet, enough to have wrapped around my uncle’s arm, then around his whole back to sting him on both sides of his body. So us girls stayed and played on the beach, while the boys braved the waves for some body boarding.

We saw a few kids who got stung, and Bade and my cousin’s husband saw a few of these tiny blue jellies next to them when there were in the waves, but they never got stung themselves.

For dinner we had steak, shrimp and some fish tacos from a little shack, which were great. And finished with some pineapple shave ice dessert. This was a great way to start our second Hawaiian vacation.

Columbia River Side

Bade and I traveled along the Columbia River on the Northern border of Oregon from Hood River to Astoria. We made this trip in just one day, so we didn’t make too many stops, but you can find our favorite stops listed below.

Bonneville Fish Hatchery

Bade LOVES fishing, so of course he wanted to stop at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery for salmon (just west as you are leaving Hood River, OR).  Again, a stop that I was not so excited about, but this stop was one I would certainly do again.  The fish hatchery itself was fun because you could see the fish eggs, if the salmon are spawning, you can view workers getting the eggs out of the fish (really gross, but cool).  You can feed the fish, see other species like Herman the 70 year old sturgeon I’m showing off in the picture above. We were there when the workers were feeding the baby fish which was way fun to watch.  You can also head over to the dam, and view the salmon ‘climbing’ the fish ladder.  You can look at the fish underwater through windows, or go on top and view the few fish who go over the ladder rungs instead of through them.

Multnomah Falls and Other Waterfalls
Multnomah Falls is definitely the most popular and well known of the waterfalls along the Columbia River in Oregon.  Part way up the falls you will see the iconic bridge that is just a short, but steep paved walk up. We got to the falls just before lunch time and it was packed. If you are going to visit these falls, you will probably want to get an early start so that you can beat some of the crowds.

There are plenty of other waterfalls up and down the river from Multnomah.  Bade and I think that some of the other falls are even more impressive and definitely more enjoyable than Multnomah Falls.  Latourell Falls was probably one of our favorites because it is a short walk, really tall waterfall, and far down the line so there were hardly any people at it.  It is also surrounded by really unique rock overhangs and of course, bright green moss.

Vista House at Crown PointJust keep following the road from Multnomah Falls west and you will arrive at Crown Point.  If there is an ultimate location for wind, so windy you need hand rails so you don’t blow away, this is the location. We stepped out of our car (knowing it was windy we were careful with the car doors), and instantly you feel like you need to hold onto something.  As we walked, I was thinking “surely this is just bad timing” thinking that we started just as a wind gust came.  10 minutes later when the wind had yet to even waiver, I just accepted that this is the windiest place I have ever been (and earlier this year I spent a week in the windy city itself, Chicago, which is actually only the 16th windiest city, or something like that). The whole time I had to keep my toes curled around my flip flops so that they wouldn’t fly off my feet.

Other than the amazing wind experience, Crown Point provides a great view up and down the Columbia River.

Maritime Museum in Astoria
The Maritime Museum in Astoria is a little more expensive than most of our stops in Oregon ($12 per person), but it was a fun family friendly stop.  There is an indoor portion and an outdoor bay portion.  The indoor portion is more fun for kids.  Bade enjoyed touring this lightboat in the bay.

Astoria Column
The Astoria Column was another family friendly stop.  To climb to the top is $2 per car, and about 440 steps per person (if my memory is serving me well). Make sure that you buy a $1 balsa wood airplane before you climb the tower; this is probably one of the few towers or tall view point attractions in the world that not only let you throw things off the top, but encourage that you throw one of the airplanes from the top and watch it glide and dodge trees as it makes its’ way to the ground.

 

Bagby Hot Springs

Bagby Hot Springs was one of my favorite little detours (or rather, kind of large detour) of our entire trip. These hot springs provided Bade and I our first shower of the trip, plus it was in the most beautiful and unique setting possible.

We started by hiking 40 or so minutes over 1.5 miles, with only about 200 feet of elevation gain through absolutely gorgeous Douglas firs and ceder trees towering hundreds (100-200) feet above, all completely coated in moss and other lush greenery.

The hike parallels a clear greenish-blue river the entire way.

You arrive at Bagby where you see many buildings with partial roofs, and a long trough bringing 135 degree water over to the buildings where you can take a private soak, nudity allowed, or a public soak, no nudity allowed. There is a cold water spring that you can use to mix with your hot water to achieve the perfect temperature.

The private soak was really cool because each room had a long hollowed out tree you soaked in while looking up at the towering trees above. To fill the tub you pulled a wooden cork from the wall, and put a wooden cork in the drain hole.

The public soak was fun because you were able to talk and mingle with other people.  There was only 1 couple in the public soak area and one couple in the private soak area when we were there (midday Friday).

It was SUCH a relaxing downhill walk through the trees after a long bath; we were nice and clean and in a peaceful environment. I would DEFINITELY recommend Bagby Hot Springs to anyone near the area.

Getting To The Coast

Bade and I had some unexpected changes in life which freed up nearly 2 weeks at the end of September.  We had to cancel 2 of our trips we planned in September and 1 trip in October so with these 2 weeks available, without any planning, we took off for the Oregon Coast.

Shoshone Falls, ID

We left Utah and headed north through Idaho cutting from the bottom middle of Idaho over to the middle left.  Shoshone Falls are normally VERY impressive falls however, during 2013 and 2014 Idaho has been working to beautify these falls by removing the water plants and other structures that are in the photo, so the falls have been being diverted.  If I remember correctly, the work should be done by the end of the year, so feel free to visit these amazing falls spring 2015.

Sumpter Valley, OR
In Sumpter Valley we made stops at the Sumpter Valley Railroad Museum and the Sumpter Valley Dredge Museum.  The railroad museum seemed like it would be fun when they take you on the train and have a ‘train robbing’.  If we went there again we would try to be there when they are having robbings.  The dredge museum was really cool.  I went there thinking “do we really have to stop here” but Bade was really excited about seeing/touring a dredge.  Turns out, it was way more interesting than I had anticipated. I would recommend this for anyone who finds themselves in this area.

Our Route Through Oregon
We choose our route through Oregon based on what is the prettiest to drive.  This route was long, but so enjoyable the entire way.

Windy Chicago

This last weekend Bade was sent to Chicago to receive a Stevie award for his company. His work was kind enough to send me with him so that we could make a mini vacation out of it.  We stayed from Thursday to Sunday.

If you are a night-out-er, and enjoy things such as clubs, drinking, plays, musicals, dancing, or symphonies, then you will really enjoy Chicago.  There is a great night life there to keep you entertained with different night activities all week.  Or, if you LOVE museums, then you will enjoy Chicago since there are many different types of museums that you can visit throughout your stay. However, if you are more like Bade and I, not the night life type or the museum type, then you can see nearly all that Chicago has to offer you in just a few days.  Below are some of our favorite non-night-life, non-museum-lover activities.

Architecture Tour
The highlight of our trip was a boat architecture tour along all three branches of the Chicago River.  We went with an hour and a half-ish tour from Wendella Boat Tours. We took an evening tour (starting at 6:30) which barely had any people so we could roam around, change seats, and make ourselves comfortable.  The ticket agent told us that the tours are often less busy in the evening.  Plus, mid-way through our tour we had a view of the skyline with the sun setting behind it.

Art Institute of Chicago
Although we are not museum people, we did do the Art Institute of Chicago.  We only spent a few hours here, but it was fun to see the artwork. Bade really liked the armory wing, especially the Italian show armor.  I really liked the miniature rooms, and the Picasso’s and Monet’s that I recall learning about in school.

Cloud Gate (the bean)
The bean sculpture in Millennium Park, Cloud Gate, was fun at all times during the day.  It was the least busy in the morning, so you could get a picture without many other people in it.  The middle of the day was the busiest.  In the evening it isn’t as busy as the day time, and not as empty as the morning, however, this was our favorite time of the day.  Seeing the buildings reflecting in the background was fun and pretty.

Skydeck of Willis Tower
The Skydeck was a fun evening outing.  We got there just before the sunset, so we were able to watch the full sunset from the top of the Willis Tower. If I were to do this again, I would probably go during sunset, that way, when at the top, the city lights are on, and I could stay long enough to get the awesome buildings-lit-up pictures.

Divvy Bikes for Transportation
On our last full day we rented Divvy bikes to get around the city; we wish we had done this sooner.  Bikes are much better than walking everywhere, and way better than fighting traffic in a car. You grab a bike, ride it for 30 minutes or less, and put it back.  It’s only $7 for a day of this.  The main downside to this is that there isn’t a bike return near the Oak Street Beach (which is the most happening beach in Chicago).

Oak Street Beach
We didn’t have time to stop at the Oak Street Beach, although we really wish that we did.  There is a dock/pier really close, so there are tons of boats and yachts that people are just hanging out on that are docked or anchored, so there is lots of music.  There is an actual beach, not just concrete. Fun street vendors and food stands are there, as well as little activities such as volley ball, juggling tables (we went past this on national juggling day), and more. This is the beach that you want to go to if you have time to spend a day at the beach.

Weekend Festivals
We checked the Chicago Event Calendar and there are TONS of festivals and park events.  The Blues Festival was going on while we were there, which was fun to listen to. You could hear the music streets away from where the festival was being held, which gave the city a nice bluesy feel.

Lincoln Park Zoo
If you have time to spend a day at the zoo, the Lincoln Park Zoo is a fun outing, especially if you have kids. The zoo is free, and there are some divvy bike rentals just outside the park so you can get there easily.  Check out the training schedule so that you can catch some of the daily training of different animals.  We saw the seal training and silver back gorilla training.

Chicago Food
If you want some authentic Chicago style food, the two things that we did were deep dish pizza from Gino’s East pizza, and a polish dog from Portillo’s. If you do Portillo’s, get some custard, you won’t regret it. If you do pizza, note that Chicago style pizza is more of a casserole, and it takes some time to cook.  Plan on waiting for your pizza for about 45 minutes. Also, if you eat at Gino’s East, DON’T order the pretzel bites.  If you really want to order the pretzel bites, ask for a salad dressing for dipping sauce, NOT the spicy mustard sauce it comes with.  The spicy mustard sauce is 3-point terrible; (1) it tastes terrible (2) and has a terrible kick a few seconds in that tickles your nose (3) then has a second kick about 20 seconds in that nearly melts your face off, forcing you to make a terrible face that encourages your significant other to keep laughing days later.

Deck Fishing

Here are a few photos of the big fish that are coming out of our little pond off our deck.

Milestone

Our truck. Yup.

A Quick Catch Up

Here are a few things I have missed in the last few crazy busy weeks.

Awesome Hawaiian Sunset

Lo and Bade enjoying the awesome Hawaiian sunset

Photos on the beach

Kisses on our Lanai

Actually went out to eat in Lahaina in a cute restaurant on Front Street.

… at a SLUG PLATE appropriate restaurant :)

There were cute lizards everywhere!

Hanging out in the park before catching our flight home

Bade took like a million photos of me at the wind surfing and kite boarding beach, even though it was crazy windy!

Bade and I gave candy to trick-or-treaters and carved our Halloween Jack-o-lanterns.

We had our wedding reception at Highland Gardens, complete with 2 wedding crashers.

Went on probably the last scooter and motorcycle ride of the season with my dad, Bade’s brother, and Bade.

Bade and I patched the roof where we only had some particle board. A few days after this, we got our first real snow (the snow is still on the ground days later).

Haleakala Volcano

2:00 AM we were up to begin heading to the top of Haleakala to watch the sunrise.  The road to get up there is crazy curvy (not as curvy as the Road to Hana, but its close) and very steep. We got to the top about an hour and 15 minutes before the sunrise, brrr.  It was around 40 degrees with a pretty good wind chill going on. There weren’t any sitting areas at the top, and there was a rather large crowd (although, we heard it was not as crowded as it normally is).

Bade and I were really excited for the sunrise and for our bike ride down, and felt bad that our parents (who had come the week earlier during the government shut down) were not able to do this because this park was closed. However, sad to say, Mom, Dad, you didn’t miss a whole lot.  The sunrise was pretty cool because it was coming up above the clouds, over some craters.  But it was freezing, and crowded.

For the bike ride, it was chilly even though the sun was up.  It was kind of fun that you could see the valley and the ocean for a good chunk of the ride down, but the haze from the morning, the sugar cane burn that night, and just general weather, made it so it wasn’t a breath-taking sight (and not really the best angles or views in general). Bade and I agreed, we would have rather had the money we spent on this outing, be put towards a boating outing or something else.  Although we still had a good time.

The beach is always fun!

Our Crab Skin King for our Sand Castle

Bade’s sand clown shoes

Bade’s creation…a sand mound on Lauren’s legs that turned into Lauren sticking her legs up a turtle’s butt.

Our First Helicopter Ride

Many places offer helicopter rides, but Maui really is a spectacular place that holds many gems that you can’t get to any other way except by air. Bade and I went snorkeling this morning, then took a helicopter ride in the afternoon.  Our helicopter took us to some of the highest peaks where it is always raining, next to some cliffs that were whole volcano walls that simply broke  away and left GIANT cliffs into the water, and over some reefs where you could see some of the sea life such as rays. I’ll admit, both Bade and I were getting a little queezy by the end.  Our pilot wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything so he would loop and sway so that we could see it all…and nearly lose some of our lunch in the process.

Oh, one other thing that came up today, started yesterday.  Bade was making me into a sand octopus yesterday for quite some time.  In fact, he knew he was going to take a while, so he had planted our umbrella to shade my face. He was wearing his swim trunks and a long sleeve rash guard.  Well, it turned out that there was often a little space between his shorts and shirt that caused a cute little sunburn above Bade’s butt.

Turtles, A Mermaid and An Octopus

Good relaxing day.  Bade and I started by snorkeling while the water was nice and clear.  There were around 4-6 turtles out, ranging from giant (as long/tall as Bade) to little (a torso size). We also saw an eel who we followed for a while, and lots of large black fish.

We spent the afternoon on the beach burying each other in the sand.  I buried Bade first; he wanted to be a mermaid. Bade buried me second; I wanted to be an octopus and Bade really took his time making it perfect.  People were watching us and were really impressed with Bade’s octopus. Of course, the pictures don’t do either of these justice.

We watched the sun go down for near to 2 hours, during which Bade read aloud from “Shane” in his western style reading.  We finished the book just after the sun left the sky, and that was our queue to head out to dinner.

Road To Hana

Since the Road To Hana is ALL about the amazing views and lush environment, I figured that my blog post should reflect that. My only real details about this day is that Bade and I started in Makena just before 9, and didn’t get home until 8:20 that evening.

Walk through arboretum on the Road To Hana

Three Bears waterfalls on the Road To Hana

The coastline where the intro to Jurassic Park was filmed

Hawaii State Park view of natural lava arches and blow holes

Hawaii Lava Flow State Park

Black sand beach on Maui

Hiking Trail To Waimea Falls

I love how giant all the trees are here. They are often covered by vines and other smaller trees and plants.

This tree was huge, and the branches were so low and so big that many of the branches put down, what looked like, additional trunks.

400 ft Waimea Falls

After the fun 2 mile hike through bamboo groves so thick it seemed like evening, we came to this 400 ft waterfall. It was colder than I thought it would be, but less painful (being under that much water) than I thought.

Woot woot!

We arrived at the red sand beach after the sun had gone down, so it was hard to capture the true color of the beach. You can see in this picture, the red sand on the left, and the blue water on the right of the natural rock break.

Coming back from the red sand beach; it was a little bit of a hike. The interesting part is that getting to the red sand beach, there was a large crowd of young adults all just sitting on the beach, on their towels, gazing off into the ocean in front of them. I think that they were all waiting for the sun to go down…this is a nudist beach after all…and we were the only non-locals that were there :-/

Today was full of driving…in our mustang rental car :).  The Road to Hana was nice, but took much longer than I had anticipated.  It is only about 50 miles in length, but takes hours to go through (even without stopping). We did use the phone app, Maui Road To Hana by GyPSy, which was funny and very informative on where to stop and what you can skip.

First Day Married

For someone who loves having photos, and someone who is married to someone who loves photos and typically remembers to take them, it is kind of funny that we don’t have any photos of our first day married.

We had a lazy morning going out to breakfast at a cafe on the beach. Flew from Oahu to Maui.  Went grocery shopping so that we can cook most of our own meals this week (since we have a whole week, and we are in an area where there aren’t many restaurants). Got to our AMAZING condo right on the beach (thanks Jon!), with a full wall of windows overlooking the coast. Then just chilled at the condo.

We went out to the beach, and after laying out for about 30 minutes, we decided to snorkel.  It only took about 10 minutes before we saw 4 sting rays that all came within feet of us, and swam around us like they were curious, and saw 2 sea turtles who were swimming right next to the rays, and tons of brightly colored fish.  All of this was around 2 tiny coral mounds that don’t look like anything special. The beach was nice too.  It is in a mostly private area on a non-touristy side of the island, so it is not packed at all.  You can lay out wherever you want, and you don’t have to worry about watching your gear.  Its next to the condo so you don’t have to bring any personal items.  This is awesome!

Bade and I watched the sunset from our balcony then cooked a steak with fresh herbs from our herb garden at the condo. Sharing steak and potatoes on the balcony with waves crashing against the shore with someone you love (and you just married), does it get any better?

Ok, I need to amend this post a little.  After looking through photos on Bade’s phone, it does look like he took some photos of us out of the back porch of our condo.  See two of those photos below.