Mother's Day trip to Vegas

Living in Hawaii is GREAT BUT you have to spend lots of money on jet fuel if you want to visit family on the mainland.  I CANNOT miss Mother's Day!!  Plus it was Alex's 1st birthday so perfect time for a short visit.  I had a great time not only seeing my family but my friends.  I learned that short visits are the best.  I spent two days with Janelle and the rest of the time with my girlfriend, Lana, which lives just down the street from Michelle.  I was able to visit with the entire group and still pulled of a dinner with each of my children and their family.  Everyone saw my mom on Mother's day.  She was a bit overwhelmed but seemed to enjoy the visit.  She does not like going outside of Acacia Springs much but I did take her to a lunch.  No shopping this time.

I am also learning how to garden!!  I have planted a small veggie and wildflower container garden in our outside shower.  Its a nice small place that should get enough light to grow a few veggies.  We have plants hanging and lined all around the the area.  We were able to find a connection to our shower head so we can easily water the plants.  It is quit fun...............Michelle and Joe inspired me when I visited them and we ate a delicious salad and made drinks from fresh Mint! 

So Im back home now.............Playing lots of tennis and enjoying our great weather.

A family visit.

Im adjusting better to Hawaii.  I went from being in a very familar  place where I had a job, friends, and family to a place where I knew no one except Forrest.  Its better now.  I have made friends and I dont feel like the new kid on the block any longer!


Suzy and her family just left after a week long visit.  What a blast we had.  I really enjoyed showing them a little bit of Oahu.  They really enjoyed it especially after they moved to the Marriott timeshares.  The kids loved the ocean!!  They also spent hours in our pool.  It was Abby's 9th birthday.

The day after they left, I did not even get dressed.  Going, going, going for the visit was a bit much and enjoyed a day of rest.  The following day I went into Waikiki with some tennis friends and just had a blast, shopping and eating lunch.  Two of the people had never been to Waikiki so we did all the touristy things.  Once home I stopped by for a glass of wine before I called Forrest to come and get me with the gold cart.

Today is Easter..........Normally, I would be cooking and cleaning up all day long.  Today is very quiet since Forrest is working and I really have nothing planned.  I leave for a short Mother's day visit to Vegas on 5/6 which is Alex's 1st birthday.  Im looking forward to that trip.

Spring is here!

It has been a great winter with temps hovering around 80 degrees.  It did bring  a few storms (11 inches of rain in 12 hours, 60 miles an hour wind storm and a tsunami warning)  All of which we survived but damage was done around many of the islands.  Michelle came for a birthday visit and well as Lana.  Suzy and her family are due next month!!!

Ive been playing lots of tennis and have to take a break now and then due to injuries from over playing.  Ive also joined a bunco group that plays the dice game once a month.  Meeting new friends is exhausting!  Ive attached a few pics of a few lunches and a hike.  Im still geocaching and looking into buying a new GPS unit.  Hiking here is very muddy but the sites are most unusual.  The first picture below is a hike to the very west end of Oahu. Its an wildlife protected area of the albatross (which were protecting their chicks)  Many Albatrosses were killed on Midway Island recently during the tsunami due to the fact they will not leave their young.

The grand kids are all doing great.  Next year Abby is going to be able to attend the school that Owen goes to and where Suzy is the librarian!  That will last two years until Abby goes to 6th grade.  For the first time the three of them will be in the same school!  Mason is beginning preschool on Monday and Alex is almost 11 months. 

I probably will not be in Vegas until July and that will only be for a short visit.  We will leave with Michelle and her family to our most favorite mountain spot of Hailey (Sun Valley) Idaho.  We will be there for 10 days, then I will fly back to the islands via Seattle where I will visit my cousin.  Of course, parents health may change plans.  Forrrest's dad who always had a steel trap for a mind is now in a nursing home.  We might have to go see him.  My mom is hanging in there.

We are starting a new business tied in with timeshare resells.  Forrest ran into an old colleague that is helping him until he feels he can do everything on his own.  So far so good.  We are now trying to create a pipeline of referrals.  His goal is to either go part-time with Marriott (preferred) or quit.  He basically buys banked timeshare weeks and pays that person cash, then resells them.  Im just keeping my fingers crossed because the local timeshare business is terrible.  Everyone is quitting since the deals are very flat.  As everything in the "commission world" it is up and down.  So we are looking else where and this business should work for a long time and a good retirement investment income.  I definitely dont want to go back to work!

Hope to hear from you soon. If  you can try to make a vacation to Hawaii!  I can show you a very different Hawaii!  No expensive excursions here!

Next visitor please...

 It has been a loooong time since Ive added a new segment to my blog.  Things are pretty routine so not much happens unless someone comes to visit!  First was Michelle, now Lana, a tennis friend from LV has arrived.  She loved to play tennis so I took her to Waianae Pick up tennis group.  It is good tennis.  Forrest and Lana are there right now and Im sitting at home recovering from the "Beginner's hike" I took her to yesterday.  We drove up to the hills of Aiea and hiked to the top of the mountain.  Many parts of the trail was even but it was so muddy and parts of the trail were washed out.  I used my phone to track the distance and I clocked over 5 1/2 miles.  I fell twice and ran into only one tree limb.  Lana had no sore muscle but I could hardly get out of bed this morning.  Tennis was the last thing I wanted to!  Today we are going to lunch and to see the movie Unknown.  Lana should have some time to spend on the beach.  She has seen the real Hawaii!  Its the best part!  Since Forrest is off for two days, we will probably go to the north shore or to the windward part of the island trying out my new GPS device.  I tried it yesterday, but once we started hiking we did not get to it.

WE also are invited to  a sunset party on Sunday after we play tennis in the morning.  People gather together to watch the sunset and have a few goodies in the meantime.  I think that will be fun.  Then we will probably watch the Oscars.  Then Lana goes home on Monday.  Here are a few pictures of the hike:

A Great Birthday!

Well, Ive turned 60.  In some crowds, Im considered the baby and in others Im old.  I feel great.  Retirement has plenty to do with that.  Im still completely busy and do not feel the urge to work again.  Bring it on........

The highlight of turning 60 is celebrating early with my family and friends in Las Vegas in early December.  The next big celebration was the arrival of Michelle to Hawaii.  Her husband joined her and were here for six days.  We did as much as possible for the time we had:  Driving the long way home from the airport, a luau, the Arizona Memorial, North Shore,  and a short boat trip off Waikiki.  They spent the night at a very neat hotel owned by Marriott:  The Edition.  This has been a very rainy winter in Hawaii and we had to deal with.

Its a rap

Ok, I  have been toying with the idea that I should renew my teaching license, just because...........I have all the credis and its is time for renewal(its my birthday 1/9).  All I need to do is turn in my credits and money and Im teacher certified in Nevada for life..........Hummm  Should I bother??  I did make a forced effort to get these credits....................Well. today I made my decision.  Why??  If I want to teach in Hawaii I have to go through all the steps, and being certified in Nevada is probably not going to help in in Hawaii. 

The deal was cinched today.......... NOOOOOO I really dont want to teach again.  I was walking my usual (very new for me)4 to 5 mile walk and I was passing a preschool.  All I heard was screaming kids!!  I said to myself, " no way could I go back".  So Im not renewing my license in NV.  Im offically out of the teaching full time mode.  I made my decision and by posting this............it is official.  I will move on. 

My first Christmas in Hawaii

I survived Christmas by keeping busy and realizing that fact I'm able to be in Hawaii for Christmas!  I was able to talk to all the kids and even did some ichatting.  Almost like being there.  Im very much excited that Michelle is coming for a visit with her husband on the 7th to help celebrate the fact that I made it to my 60th birthday.

We went to the home of my new friends, Myra & Herman, for Christmas Eve dinner.  Delish!  This was the first Christmas Eve that I can remember where I had not cooked for my family.  I only had to make dessert (I did it from scratch!)  The new me!  WE also played Scrabble and the Dombrownski's were the champs.

One of the best things we were able to do is add three more geocaches to my finds in Hawaii.  These were all west of were we live in a very remote part of the island.  We climbed hugh bolders to a cache I found, we walked up and down a steep hill looking for this cache.  Forrest finally found it and it turned into the most unusual cache of the day.  One the way back, we found our last cache, which was an easy find.  We came back to house feeling like we had our exercise for the day!

Our first cache was overlooking this beautiful view

These boulders don't look big but we really did struggle to get to this cache.

WE found this one on a very steep cliff overlooking the ocean.  A funny story is associated with it.

Our last find.  Notice the clouds are moving in!