Running With Scissors

Reckless

I was feeling a little reckless today (too much caffeine I suspect) so I entered the lottery for a permit to hike up Half Dome this summer. Hopefully the snow will be gone.  It will be all I can do to carry enough Diet Coke water to get me to the top.

The reason for the lottery to climb is that they are now limiting the number of hikers who attempt the climb per day. Why a limit? Because for the last part of the hike you use these cables:

That makes me tired just looking at it. I think I'll make reservations at The Awahnee Hotel too. I'll have earned it!

 

Sedona Sojourn

I spent the weekend in spectacular Sedona, Arizona celebrating my sister's big birthday.  It is a truly stunning place and combined with the charming company (that means you Sue and Renee'), delicious food, luxurious spa treatments, and free-flowing wine -- made for a memorable weekend.

The hiking was wonderful. We even searched out one of the famed Sedona vortexes (yes, I know it should be vortices, but in the local vernacular it is vortexes -- I'm trying to fit in!). I'm not sure what I think of all the spiritual energy theories, but I do think that Sedona is perhaps the most serene place I've ever been.

Above we are at the Airport Mesa Vortex.  Below, I believe, is an unofficial, yet well labeled, vortex.

Sue and Renee' "hanging out." I'm really glad that juniper held on!

Yes, I do take advantage of every opportunity to take a load off.

Happy Birthday Susie!

Next time, remember to bring two of the same shoes.

 

 

Taking it SLO

Spent a nice long weekend up in San Luis Obispo with the college boy. We stayed at a new (to us) hotel that I've always wanted to try, the Apple Farm Inn. I can only summon one word to accurately describe it: CUTETASTIC!!!

I'm all for a little cottage chic, but everything had a ruffle, bow or flower on it. Seriously. This is the bathmat. Yes, the bathmat with a bow on it for crying out loud.

It was a little overwhelming. The halls were all decorated with these little furniture vignettes. Cute, until you notice that everything (even the fake plants) had price tags on it -- that is definitely a new approach to marketing.

Questionable marketing practices and the need to take a running start to get into the bed aside, it's a nice hotel and I don't think you can get much closer to Cal Poly.  They have a restaurant (and gift shop!) on site which was pretty good and the boys enjoyed large platters of meat for dinner.

One More London Photo

When they offer to create a statue of me (oh come on, you know it's bound to happen -- ok, maybe not) I think I will decline. I don't look good in bird poo.

Travel Advice

Travel Tip #1:  Don't fly in first class if you're not going to be able to afford it every time you fly overseas. Trust me. I just spent 22 hours in steerage and I know of what I speak. It's hard to fold yourself up like origami after you've been in the good seats.

Travel Tip #2:  Don't complain about flying third class when someone is taking you along out of the goodness of his heart and your only responsibility for the whole trip is to be pleasant.

Travel Tip #3:  Get half-price theater tickets at TKTS  in Leicester Square. We Will Rock You is good at full price, it is great at half price. [How about that? An actual travel tip buried in there!]

Travel Tip #4:  January is traditionally a big sale time for retailers. I got an awesome deal on a polka dot wall clock from Emma Bridgewater. Of course I can't find it on their website, but trust me, it's cute.

 

Travel Tip #5:  Walking tours are fun! Look how happy Charlie is. Actually it wasn't the tour making him that happy, it was the pub.

Travel Tip #6: The American Airlines lounge has teeny, tiny cans of Diet Coke -- so get two at a time.

Kauai: A Chicken's Eye View

To me Kauai just wouldn't be Kauai without the breathtaking Na Pali Coast, Bubba Burgers in Hanalei, waterfalls, and chickens. You gotta love the chickens. They are everywhere, amusing the tourists and driving the locals bananas (coconuts?). For chickens (or people) -- I don't think it gets any better than Kauai.

This rooster was just hangin' poolside and came over to check out my pedi.

 
 This chicken was watching kayakers on the Hanalei River, then decided he was more interested in my shrimp burger.

Ahhh, a beautiful valley near Princeville. Look at the taro fields.  And the chicken.

Look! It's a great big cave. And a little bitty chicken.

Back at the hotel, it's time to relax on the balcony with a cocktail and some -- wait for it -- chickens.

And now it's time for me to answer that age-old question:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

He crossed the road to get a shave ice!

Guess Where I Am

Yes! You guessed it -- Kauai. There's nothing like relaxing by the pool, gazing out at the beach with a foofy drink in one hand and a good book in the other.  Unless it's doing all of that and having a rooster cock-a-doodle-doo right under your chair. I'm still trying to get that foofy drink out of my hair.

Chicken encounters aside (although I'm on the lanai drinking wine and feeding Wheat Thins to a mama chicken and three little babies even as I type) we are here in paradise celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Now that I've discovered the joys of a laptop and free wireless I will upload some of my other photos and post them here. Although I think it will be hard to top a photo of a chicken on the beach.

I'm Rich!

I have many, many dollars.  Sand dollars, that is.  Look at my haul.  I love them and clearly I can't get enough of them. I know you're jealous.  I scored all my loot last week in Pismo Beach when I went to visit my college boy.  It was a great trip.  My college roommate Wendi came down from Sacramento and we stayed at a nice hotel that was new to us and we got a rockin' deal because it was mid-week. 

We took Casey and his friends out to dinner a couple times (to the ever-popular Firestone in San Luis Obispo and Rosa's in Pismo) and made a pilgrimage to Costco to replenish the cupboards in the boys' apartment.

Every time we go up to Central California I insist on a long walk on the beach to hunt for sand dollars.  I consider myself lucky if I find five or six, half of which I usually break on the way home.  The last couple of trips I've been skunked -- no sand dollars at all.  But we made up for it this time!    The first day -- zero sand dollars -- it was just to close to high tide, I guess.  Wendi did find a big, ol red starfish though -- we admired him and let him be.  But on our last morning -- there were hundreds!  I really wanted to fill up the back seat of my car, but I settled on stuffing the little plastic bag from the yarn store (yes, I bought yarn, it's a sickness).  I have no idea what I'm going to do with my treasures, any ideas?

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

1.  Five baseball games in six days is a lot.  A whole lot.
2.  Hush puppies are delicious.
3.  The Liberty Bell has legs. And sneakers. Who knew?
4.  Taking the subway to baseball games is the only way to travel.
5.  Cleveland rocks.
6.  The GPS does NOT work better if you yell at it.  Or call it names.
7.  There's a reason that there aren't many tourists in Washington D.C. in August.  It's hot.  Really, really hot.
8.  Pittsburgh is quite pretty.
9.  I-95 is really as horrible as everyone says it is.
10. There's no place like home.

Now That's Entertainment

I am easily amused.  I admit it.  And the easiest way to amuse me is to sit me in front of the ocean with a crisp, cold glass of Chardonnay.  Our hotel had balconies overlooking the water, Charlie brought the Chardonnay (and a corkscrew -- excellent!), and the people in the room above us provided the free show.  First, they leaped around on their balcony (at least it sounded like they were leaping around) for a while, which was not all that amusing.  But then they started talking (loudly) about whales -- sure enough, waaaayyyy out in the ocean there was a whole lot of splashing and spouting going on. Very cool.  Then, they busted out what must have been a super-size bag of Cheetos and began tossing them to the sea gulls.  I'm not ordinarily a fan of sea gulls because I spent the better part of every high school lunch period a) trying to keep them from stealing my Doritos and b) trying to avoid being pooped on.  But these sea gulls had talent.  They swooped and dove and caught those Cheetos in mid air.  Highly entertaining.  Equally entertaining were the people below us on the sidewalk begging for Cheetos.  Some of them even caught one.  Next time I go to Pismo I'm bringing binoculars (for the whales) and Cheetos for the gulls.