maui

Oh my goodness, we were in Maui TWO months ago! Where, oh dear, where does the time go?!? We had a fantastic time and truthfully, I've spent the last two month in denial that our paradise vacation is over.  I loved it there.  Absolutely loved it.  I hate to admit it but part of me thought before our trip that I wasn't sure how much I was going to like Hawaii.  

Oh, how wrong I was.  

Seriously.  I was worried that I'd be bored.  Totally not the case.  I have to admit I perfected the art of "doing nothing".  We had high hopes of getting up early to see the sunrise at the top of the volcano and then mountain bike down.  We also thought that we would zip line through the jungle. Neither of which we actually did because: you had to wake up at 2:00 am. I'm sorry but Rule #1 for my vacations are no alarm clocks.  Maybe in future trips to Maui we will do adventurous things but this vacation called for a lot of book reading and relaxation. (Both of which were accomplished daily.) We did however go to a Luau, which was really cool.

The flight was a breeze - Oakland to Maui direct flight  (less time than flying to Milwaukee!) and we were there.  We stayed at the Westin (not the villas, the other one) in Kaanapali. I cannot say enough fantastic things about the Westin. First of all, they gave Mike food poisoning on his birthday (not a good thing) but the chef in charge of all the Westin restaurants contacted Mike himself to apologize. I love awesome customer service.  You may have taken an entire day away from my husband's vacation but your customer service is the bomb dignity.  I'm sold and a devoted customer for life. 

Ok moving on, the Westin was great. Awesome beach, that was perfect for snorkeling (which I will talk about in a bit), and directly next door to an outdoor mall (we like malls) but more importantly, the mall had an ice cream shop and 3 great restaurants, which means we didn't get into our car for 5 full days. (This in and of itself was a vacation for my dear husband who typically spends 4-5 hours a day in rush hour traffic. For reals, I'm not exaggerating. He has highway barnacles* growing on him by the end of the work week.)

*there's no such thing as highway barnacles.

anyway, the Westin was an awesome location and it had a fantastic pool area -- Four pools in fact meant that you didn't have to be sitting next to the pool listening to kids playing Marco Polo (Well you could, if you wanted but one of the pools was for adults only. We hung out by that pool all week.)  

Now let's discuss my panic attacks while snorkeling.  I have panic attacks while snorkeling. 

Yep.  The end.  

Really there isn't much to discuss but the older and older I get, the more I realize that any body of water that I swim in, must be highly chlorinated (you know, as in, no currents or rogue waves, no animals with fins, gills, teeth, with pretty tiled walls, clean and clear water and nothing evident on the floor, etc.) As it turns out, a girl that grew up in a swimming pool will only swim in a swimming pool.  I'm evidence of that.  It's all good though, I was a lifeguard while in college, so I could, if I wanted, swim in any sort of water. But I've decided, that nope, I don't really want to.  The good thing is that I was still able to see some really colorful fish during my short time in the water and Mike really really liked it.  He went out multiple times since it was so easy to see sea turtles and fish directly out from our hotel.  It was a good thing for him to do while I was soaking in the sunshine. 

 {westin pool #1 with water slide} Ok, since I labeled this one pool #1, you might be thinking that I'm going to show you pictures of pools 2, 3 and 4...let's just pretend I took pictures of those pools.  They were pretty too, just take my word for it. 

{view from our room} 

 {i call this one, "Sunset and a boat"}
original, I know!

{the best of both worlds- just down the beach from our hotel was an area that got pretty nice size waves.  I thought about taking a surfing lesson, but it got in the way of napping, reading and having nothing on the agenda. next time, watch out. I'm going to do some activities...unless the "nothing on the agenda" is available because that was really, really nice. You also might say to yourself, "but AnnE, the ocean doesn't have chlorine", to which I would reply, "sometimes there are loopholes to my rules."} 

{this is my view when I looked up from reading my book by the pool. it's a wonder how I read 4 books while I was there.}

old school Florida

 just one more post about Florida...

 Matlacha (pronounced Matt - Lachey, like Nick Lachey, only Matt) is a artsy little town in SW Florida. 

 [We took a little drive through the town, every house that we saw had a backyard that has a dock. 

 How sweet is that?]

 My mom brought me to a fish market for lunch.  Sooooo good. The shrimp was amazing! And if you remember, consuming as much fresh seafood as possible while in Florida was on our agenda.]

 Grouper (above) caught from this boat (below)...We also consumed this grouper, it might just be my most favorite fish in the entire sea.  Loved it!

Florida: the golf edition

Who wants to see some more vacation photos from Florida? 

Just go with it people, I want to share. 

 [best parents ever!
We did a photo shoot during the middle of playing 9 holes, there was a bit of a wait on the tee box, which means, perfect opportunity to whip out the camera.]

 [Mike and I waiting to tee off.  I'm a big fan of the driving range behind us because you get to hit into the water. Who doesn't love purposely hitting into the water?]

 [somewhere in the back 9]

[pretty sure this photo doesn't need any explanation,

however a photo without a caption would just seem naked,

so these are turtles.]

florida

Last week, we were in Florida visiting my parents.  There are a few things that must be on the agenda while visiting the Sunshine State:

1. Eat as much Key Lime Pie and seafood as possible

2. Find gators, geckos and possibly a wild pig.

Mike and I had never been to the preserve before.  It was a lot of fun, we saw so many animals and even on a hot day, the temperature was very comfortable walking around the slough. 

 [wood ducks]

 [baby gator]

We were quite successful in our quest to find gators, geckos and although we didn't actually see a hog, we heard one grunting up a storm.  Additionally, we saw plenty of birds, a water moccasin and when we were swimming in the pool at my parents, we had a snake swimming in the deep end...talk about a good way to clear out the pool! yuck!

Oh yes, and we enjoyed more key lime pie than one should consume in one week.  It was great!

hello, hello?

As a kid I used to test my voice after a cough by quietly saying, "hello, hello"... Yes, I know, I was a really cool strange kid. 

Pardon the month long siesta that I just took. After a week and a half vacation to Minnesota, a sweet food poisoning episode and my identity being stolen, August has been quite a month. Don't worry, I took PLENTY of pictures while in Minnesota. I received Photoshop for my birthday so while you haven't seen any pictures, I have enjoyed my time spiffying them up. Sorry, I realize that they don't all need spiffying up...I'll get better at that.  (How many times can I use the word "spiffy" in one blog entry?)

My job ends next week (Yippee!), so come Labor Day weekend, I'll be your resident super blogger/job seeker/Barkley walker/cook extraordinaire...OK, maybe not that last one, but I have big plans, my friend. Big plans and a stack of Cooking Light magazines to prove it.

enough to make your skin crawl.

Hello again! man have I a delinquent blogger. I assure you after two wonderful vacations to visit both sides of our families, we are well rested, well fed and not quite ready to wake up to an alarm this week...but that'll change, maybe.

Since we returned home to our apartment on Sunday night, we were so rudely greeted by a boatload of termites. Termites, quite possibly the grossest flying ant like bug one could imagine, especially in our bedroom! We haven't found the source of where they came from but nearly all were dead upon our arrival, so at least that made me sleep a little, just a little, better that night.

I've been known to send a home inspector or two through my college apartments so I assure you that I will be researching the life cycle of termites, why they would be dead on the carpet with no known wood to be eaten on their way there. Something like this, makes a girl like me mighty excited! woo-hoo...a project! I would have to note that our apartment complex was quick to help with the problem. Pretty sure the baggy full of dead bugs helped out that process.

Now, enough blogging, I need to learn as much as I can about termites. Until next time...