Attack of the Giant GRAPE!

Yesterday Lord V and I went to the Word Market (a grocery store) in Portland so I could pick up some more fruit.

I was putting around sniffing the hind ends of pears and peaches (to check for ripeness) when I turned the corner and saw...

THIS!!

EEH! EEH! EEH! EEH! (scary psycho knife wielding music)

These grapes are freakin' HUGE!



I took a pic of them next to regular size grapes so you can see just how large they are.

*crunch*



mmmm...

Fantabulous! :D

Princess Gabby Abby!

I went to the dollar store today while waiting for new tires to be put on my truck.
Guess what they had?

Pet Halloween Costumes!




I picked up all three of the styles they had.




A Cowboy. A Princess and a Devil.

Gabby Abby says she prefers the princess one!

Your Daily Geek *SNORT*

Thank you, Jadey! This is freakin' hilarious and scaryily representative!

I Have Achieved, Geekdom!

To amuse myself while working out on my treadmill in our garage, I have been watching old VHS tapes I have of the Highlander Series.

Mmm...sword wielding Adrian Paul...purrr purrr...



So...the other evening after getting pumped up with adrenaline lifting weights, sweating on my treadmill while watching Adrian Paul lop some baddies head off on the garage TV, I swaggered into the kitchen and bellowed, "I am Duncan McLeod from the clan McLeod..." In my best Scottish accent...then flexed my girl guns at Lord V (who was watching TV in the family room), plunked down and logged onto WoW on my laptop.

As the opening music of my game wafted out from my laptops speakers...I had a sudden epiphany, My Peeps.

I am: "Geek"

Gotta Love Fall

Lunch time walkies today was awesome.

The City was ablaze with beginning Fall colors.

I shall no longer mourn Summers end and shall embrace Fall!

Have You Tried The New Instant Coffee From Starbucks?

My boss came to work today with packets of Starbucks VIA ready brew. (yay boss!)

It's the new thing Starbucks is trying to push: Instant Starbucks coffee you can carry in your pocket for emergency caffine hits.

My verdict?

Meh--it's not bad. It's sort of like higher end Hotel room coffee that you brew in their 2 cup coffee pots.

Proactive Kat

I think I might have finally grown up this past year.

Many medical situations of those close to me has awakened a proactive maturity cell inside me this past year.

Usually I treat my body sort of like how I (usually) treat the vehicles I drive.

Find the cheapest fuel and if I have time and it isn't too inconvenient, drag it over for an oil change.

*dust hands--good to go*

Seeing the age ticker click over to 44 has caused something inside me to finally wake up.

Well that and the 6 needles my rheumatologist jammed into my knees to try and help alleviate the fluid build up that mysteriously flared up when I was 29 and has never stopped reoccurring.

There is truth to the saying, "Reward does not change behavior--Pain does"

I have heard since I was 9 and was first diagnosed with a rare condition that attacks my vocal chords area--that my immune system is low.

Through all the tests the Knee Doc has been doing on my joints, they only diagnosis they can give me is, "you immune system is low".

Hmm.

Is this just Doc speak for "We don't know what the hell is wrong with you so we're blaming it on the immune system" or is it a pattern that shows both my throat issue and my joint issues are linked?

I have long thought my throat issue is related to allergies...as every Spring and Fall it gets worse and it seems I'm in those times for surgery.

I thought the allergies were things in the air--which to some degree I do believe--however, I've noticed another thing.

When I went on the low carb, high protein diet last year where I pretty much eliminated breads, pasta's, rice, potatoes..etc and just ate fruit, meats and salads--that:
1. I had tons of energy and
2. My joints had much less flare ups.

Hmmmm. Interesting.

So, I decided to grow up and start taking charge of what goes into my body to see if there is a link.

15lb loss later, I not only notice a remarkable difference in energy (that's a given with weight loss) but I've noticed the disappearance of joint pain.

Not just in my knees which would be obvious with less weight on them--but my shoulders, elbows, wrists...etc. Places that are not weight bearing joints.

Pain that had begun waking me up at night is---gone.

I'm now in the process to see if this will make a difference on my throat issues.

With the miracle of technology--I no longer am required to be knocked out and spend a day in surgery for my throat issue. I can go to the doctor and have it done right in the clinic with a 10-15 minute surgery.

No drugs. Nothing but numbing spray misted into my throat.

I drive myself home with a sore throat but zero drug after affects.

Awesome. Miraculous, really.

So, I've made a charge to myself that I would endure these treatments as often as I could so that I could (hopefully) be on top of this disease that has run amok in my body for so many years and start showing it who's really in charge.

Will I win? I don't know. I do know that taking a proactive stance can't hurt, right?

And the added benefit of watching the pile of too-large-clothing build up on my closet floor ain't a bad side effect of my take-charge experiment, either. ;)

Moody Kat

I've been slinking around the house lately all moody Kat.

Last night as I stood in the brisk Fall evening wind grilling Honey Bourbon Chicken Breasts (mmm)I had a conversation with myself to try and figure out the moody cloud that's been hovering over me.

A lot of things (large things) were obvious. One being my Mom's (EWO) open heart surgery coming up sometime in October.

It's worrisome. This looming surgery for EWO. She's 83 and last time I saw her she appeared fragile. I worry that she won't wake up from the surgery or that there will be complications and she won't survive afterwards. I'm trying to prepare for that. To organize things that if this should happen what I would need to do with her things in Mexico and lawyers and bookkeepers etc. Mostly, I dread the grief. The loss...and...the relief.

I think that's whats really making me moody. The fact that there is a tiny part of me that would be relieved that that part of my life would be over. How wrong is that? How terrible is that? How awful?

*sigh*

I spent my childhood chanting two things to help me survive through it:

1. This will not last forever. Someday you'll be an adult, have a family of your own to love and love you.

2. You will not let her change you. You will strive to be kind, compassionate and unselfish so that one day when you stand over her grave you can dust your hands and say "I won" "It is done" and walk away without regret.

MiniWarrior and I have been fortunate to have found someone who loves us and has taken us into his life like lost foster children and has embraced us as family, opening his home and sharing us with his extended family.

Step one is complete.

The reality of Step two is more complicated.

Now that I am facing the reality where the time that I can "dust my hands" might very well be in the near future I'm conflicted, my Peeps. Seriously conflicted.

Time has softened the wounds of my childhood. Wounds that this woman created. But she is a human being whom I have history with. One who laughs and cries and dreams...and I feel ugly for the confliction inside me.

So, I'm moody for I'm very much afraid I've failed in kindness, compassion and unselfishness.

*sigh*

Weekend Goodness

I've found myself playing World of Warcraft a lot this past week.

My mind is filled with work and I find it hard to relax. Zooming around in the virtual world of warcraft helps me relax.

Is it a bit disturbing that running around killing things is relaxing?

*shifts my eyes around nervously*

I did have something cool happen in the WoW world this weekend.

I acquired and epic pet! What's that you ask?

My character is a Huntress and she has the ability to tame enemy animals to make them her pets.

Once they are her pets they fight along side her helping kill baddies.

This weekend?

I tamed a very strong cat who bears the title "EPIC" in his name. This means he's tougher then normal cats.

You see the pic of the big cat on my blog banner?

That's what he looks like!! :D

*hops around with geeket excitement and pumps a victorious fist in the air*

WOO!!

It takes so little, my Peeps.

It takes so little.

Crazy Busy

Crazy busy time at work right now.

I shall return when I can breathe again.

Meantime--I give you http://iphone-city.blogspot.com for your viewing entertainment!

*waggles fingers and zooms back to work*

Weekend Events and EWO Future Events

We had a busy weekend. Lord V's family was in town and one of our favorite couples came and stayed with us.

We had a really good time with them and the gathering of all his other relatives on Saturday--so many people in a small space though...yikes, my head is still ringing!!

Speaking of relatives...

My Mom (EWO) is supposed to go in for open heart surgery soon. Her heart has a leaky valve. :( I will be flying out to be with her somewhere in California (she has yet to send me details as to where she's having her surgery)...sometime in the next couple of weeks.

It is a bit scary as this is major surgery for anyone let alone an 83 year old woman.
She was very happy when I told her I would fly out to be with her during it--but honestly, no matter our past history, she is my Mom for godsake. Why would I leave her to go through something like this alone?! She makes me crazy but (god bless her evil wrinkled soul) I love her.

I haven't heard when she is having the surgery yet--but that is typical. She will let me know (probably the day of the surgery) but I know this about her so I have prepared my work in advance of my need to suddenly depart. I work with a great group and a wonderful boss who has worked overtime in making sure this process will be as smooth as possible for me.

So, if I should suddenly depart and disappear for a bit from blogland--you'll know I'm by EWO's side.

Office Prank and Payback!

The other night I had a dream that I got a fantastic job offer for a dream job--the only catch is that it was in Minnesota!

I yelled in my dream, "Minnesota! Why fracken Minnesota?! It snows there 9 months out of the year!" (I know this 'cuz I went to college there and vowed never to live there again).

I mentioned this to one of my coworkers who had told me he also had a snow dream that very night! Our newest coworker over heard us pondering what two snow related dreams could possibly mean...

and said she dearly hoped it would snow as she had just moved to Portland from Alaska and already missed the snow.

I and the other coworker yelped "NO! NO! No snow for us!" in response.

She laughed. Evily.

This morning?

I came in to work to find new coworker had adorned my desk with fake snowflakes!



See?



*tsk*

Now I must teach the new one the perils of pranking the kat!

So...what is my revenge you ask?

I filled a garbage bag with packing peanuts and formed a cute snowman out of it.




Aw. Look how cute.

Aren't I nice?

Mm Hm.

I am.

I nicely arranged the snowman on her desk...

then nicely reached under and cut out the bottom of the bag...

Sooooo when she goes all "Aw how cute!" and picks it up?

Her snow wish shall be granted.

All. Over. Her. Desk.

bbbbbbbbbbbbwahahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Two Claws UP!

I watched an (older) movie yesterday over my "Play Instantly" account with Netflix.

The movie was Apocalypto by Mel Gibson.

Wow. Intense movie!

I seem to remember this movie being bashed by the critics but I honestly do not know why?

It was violent and had some gory scenes (well OK--quite a lot) but the family structure portrayed by the tribes was gripping.

I spent a large part of the movie with my hand over my mouth trying to keep some sort of control over my emotions.

I don't like the manipulation of movies when they obviously try to wrench an emotion out of you.

But this movie? Didn't need to try. The story was of an era long past but is still achingly true today.

All I can say is, "Well done, Mr. Gibson. Well done."

Summers Last Breath

I got up early this morning, donned my shorts and work out shirt, slid my feet into flip flops and headed out the door.

Today is supposed to be the last hot day of the '09 for us in Washington--so I had to take advantage. I set up the pressure washer and hosed down all the lawn furniture and cushions so they could dry in to days sunshine.

Tomorrow Lord V and I will drag them into the garage where they will hibernate until next Summer. *sigh* I shall miss our Summer evening BB Q's with our friends.

Tonight Lord V, MiniWarrior and I are headed to a friends house for a last Summer hurrah BBQ. One of my friends (and his family) who shall be in attendance has a blog now. Check it out HERE! He and his little red-headed family are closer then friends to Lord V, MiniWarrior and I...they are an extended family to us.

If you got a minute, stop by and welcome him to Blogland, will ya? :)

MiniWarrior has embraced Middle School with much joy! He comes home smiling and chattering about how much he loves school. He's so mature now its amazing to me and at times I find it hard to believe he's only 11.

I've begun documenting the last images of his quickly dwindling childhood, frantically trying to capture it because I can see it disappearing in large pieces like a lizard shedding its skin.

I know next year? I'll shake my head and wonder at where my little boy has gone.

There is still a tiny bit of evidence. Like this morning? I looked over to Gabby Abby's cat tree and saw MiniWarriors beloved Butterscotch (the stuffed kitty he's had since he was 4) laying on top of the cat tree.



I snatched up Chanda and documented it for you. Gabby Abby wandered over mid shoot and lay down beside Butterscotch.



Priceless :)

Oh HELL No!!

What's this I hear about a day of no Cats (on the internet?)



You think you can stop the cat madness?



You cannot corral and contain us! Cannot, I say!



We will break free and hunt you down.



DOWN!



Fear us...

Evening Hawk

I dragged my weary bones home from work yesterday while an early Fall sunset shimmered off the trees freshly watered from a pounding rain shower.

I sat at the kitchen table and gazed out the windows at the evening light show, then snapped up Chanda and headed out to try and capture a bit of the magic.

A hawk soared high above me swooping in and out of the spears of waning sunlight.

I tracked it with Chanda's telescopic lens snapping pictures as it played in the wind.

You can see those pictures at http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

It was a beautiful evening. The wind whipping around me and through the trees sounding like a muffled chorus as it ruffled their rain soaked branches.

I found it hard to go back inside but as I was clad in my Hello Kitty PJ's I figured I had given the neighbors enough of a show for the night ;)

Two Claws UP!!

Inglorious Bastards was a great movie!!

Brad Pitt was hilarious with his Southern accent and one liners but the real show stealer was Christoph Waltz who played the evil Col. Hans Landa.

He was fantastic!

Yeah it was violent and had a couple of wince and close your eyes scenes--but for the most part it was a straight up well acted, great written, superbly shot, keenly directed movie.

How's that for a description?! :D

Inglorious Bastards

MiniWarrior is ensconced at his Dads house for the weekend and Lord V and I are off to watch "Inglorious Bastards".

I expect this movie will be violent as Quentin Tarantino directed it--but I have a (semi-guilty) love of his movies!!

I shall return and let y'all know how it is.

Anyone seen it yet?

MiniWarrior Takes On Middle School

First day of driving MiniWarrior to and from Middle school--done.

I gotta tell you. I'm so dang proud of him.

He stands as tall as the 8th graders and walks amongst them as confident as an adult.

He's thrown himself into the new school year with a smile and excitement to learn new things.

I watched him walk through the throng of middle school peers this morning and got a little Mom misty eyed. He looks so old now. Broad shouldered, skin burnt dark brown from the sun, and a smile on his face.

I have no idea what his future will hold for him. But I don't have any doubt he'll succeed higher then we could ever envision.

You go, my MiniWarrior.

I'm so so proud of you.

GabbyAbby Leg Nest

Okay Okay.

One more pic of GabbyAbby then its Homework time for you, Peeps!



There. Now back to work!

It's My Friday (Already??!!)

I took Sunday off from work 'cuz I was in Yakima.

Then I left work early Monday so I could take MiniWarrior to meet his teacher and tour his classroom before he started 6th grade today (!!!)...

Which left me Tuesday and Today for full days of work.

And now?

It's my Friday.

Huzzah!

I have no weekend plans other then driving MiniWarrior to school Thursday and Friday.
(he starts school at 8:15 now--ugh)

I shall have to plot and devise some tasty weekend plans!

Gabby Abby in Yellow

Gabby Abby wanted to show you her new dress.




Isn't she pretty? :)

Summers Last Hurrah

Truck packed, cooler filled with ice, beer and soda, Lord V, MiniWarrior and I headed North towards Castle Rock--then veered Eastward winding our way up to Yakima.

The scenery was gorgeous. Huge Ponderosa Pines with their red striped bark pressed up against looming mountain boulders.

We wound our way up for several hours then finally descended into the valley of Naches 30 miles west of Yakima.

We checked into our Hotel: The Whistling Jack Lodge. It was very quaint and had a cute window seat that over looked the Naches river below.

Once checked in, we headed out again to meet up with Lord V's family at their cabin.

We were weary from the long drive and spent the rest of the evening lazing around chatting with family while MiniWarrior trundled off to see what bugs Yakima had to offer for his collection.

The next day we all headed out to the Yakima with our trucks brimming with inflated rafts and inner tubes for our quest to ride the river.

We left a car at the end of our river ride and then drove 9 miles to our starting point. There were 9 of us total. 2 rafts and 5 inner tubes that we tied together with a long rope while we drifted down the river.

It took us over 2 hours to float the 9 mile trek. The weather was perfect and the water was freezing...there was much laughter and shrieking echoing off the Yakima canyon walls!

The next day a group of us headed up the road and hiked up to a waterfall. I don't remember the name of it--but it was a brutal uphill hike. Beautiful, but brutal on my plumpness.

Sunday (our final day) Lord V's sister, MiniWarrior and I headed out on another hike to a cave. Another brutal uphill hike--but the cave was cool. I could imagine what it was like in the old days when the explorers used such places for shelter. It was pitch black inside which made walking difficult as the tiny spears of light from our flashlights barely penetrated the inky darkness.

We repacked the truck and headed back home after our cave hike. We paused along the way to take some shots of Mt. Rainier with Chanda. See? :)



We stopped for dinner an hour from home and chomped on burgers at Lord V's favorite burger cafe, stretched our achy bones and caught up on voice mails and emails on our iPhones. I must admit, I felt a thrill of excitement to be connected to technology again! We had totally been cut off. No TV, no Cable, no Internet, no Cellphones...not even books. I had traveled to 3 different convenience stores by our Hotel searching for reading material as I had forgotten to pack a book...but nothing. No books, no magazines...nothing. When I asked the clerks if they had any reading material I could buy they blinked at me like frogs in the rain.

"Whayll, I gots a fishing manual" One offered helpfully.

...

So...yeah. We were very glad to be back in civilization!!

It was a beautiful place to visit and a very peaceful, relaxing end to our Summer vacation, though :)

More vacation images can be viewed at http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

Wickity-Wick Weekend Goodness!

Lord V, MiniWarrior and I shall be a cabin-ing this weekend.
The last weekend of Summer vacation for MiniWarrior before school entrapment.

Where the heck has the Summer gone?

Anyone...

Anyone?

*sigh*

I've really enjoyed this time off and am struggling to let the sunshine slip away to the drizzle and grey skies of Winter.


hammock goodness

30 Minutes 'Til My Friday!

We've had visitors from our Mississippi team this week at work. I've been dragging them around to local things (by our work) trying to give them the most Portland, Oregon experience as I can.

Tomorrow (if my boss Ok's it) I plan on driving them to Multnomah Falls so they can get some true Oregon/Washington Gorge experience :)

Should be fun!

Bring on my weekend. BRING IT!

I'm so ready for it.

Wear Clean Underwear and Use Your Manners!

Remember the advice your Mom gave you?

Wear clean underwear--'cuz if you're ever in an accident you don't want to go to the hospital in dirty underwear?

Now I follow that advice even though I've never understood that whole "accident/hospital/clean undies bit. Maybe it's just me? But at an age where a vigerous sneeze threatens the pristiness of my unmentionables, I'm pretty sure that if I'm in an accident? I'm not laying on the emergency table unsoiled.

You know what I'm sayin?

Now the "use your manners" Mom advice I've always strived to follow and I've worked religiously to instill that particular Motherly advice thing in my own son because it's important. I mean, let's face it...nobody likes a rude person, right?

Which brings me to reason for my rambling blog post.

Friday, I went to visit my knee doctor. He had been on Sabbatical in Italy the past year learning new doctor thingies which is cool, 'cuz I'm the first to admit that I'm an enigma and most docs that deal with me? Scratch their head and mutter things under their breath and then send me on my way.

I was sitting beside him in his office when my Doc pulled up my medical records to refresh himself as to where we were in my medical diagnosis. The first few lines at the start of the record caught my eye, "Patient is a pleasant white female who has a refreshing out look on life..."

???

I had no idea they put personality details in ones medical record!

I mean heck, you'd think they'd warn a person like our school counselors used to beat us over the head with in school. "Behave! Or your actions are going on your permanent record!"

What if I had been rude to my Doc? Would my record then say, "Rude, white female with a sour disposition who should be admitted to the nearest psychiatric hospital for daily shock treatments?"

That's some scary shizzle, Peeps. Scary shizzle.

I'm just sayin'...

So listen to your Mothers, Peeps. 'Cuz apparently? They know what they're talkin' about.

some times...

most times...

well whatever, just do it!

Nest Stealer!

Summer Time's Last Call

One more week of Summer Vacation for us and then it's back to school.

We have one more 4 day trip planned with family and then Summer will officially be over.

MiniWarrior starts Middle School September 2nd. (What's up with that, anyways?!) Summer vacation was always over after Labor day!

New beginnings for us all. I worry a bit about MiniWarrior heading into the big kids arena but I think he'll be OK.

He's such a strong, independent social bug. Something which defies the very definition of Autism.

He's clever and I think if I keep working with him on the nuances of relationships and conversation he'll survive the Junior High years as well as most kids do.

Junior High. My body shudders in rememberance of those years.

Wish us well, Peeps.

We're gonna need it.

Lazin' In The Hammock

It's official.

No Meteor shower watching for me this weekend.

However, I did get some zen hammock time in despite the freakin' Northwest clouds!



At one point MiniWarrior joined me in the hammock, wiggling and chattering my ear off.

I shooed him back to his summer time bug hunting vigil so I could continue my Cloud/Hammock Zen time. :)

Drizzly Humpday

It's my Friday--YAY!

It's raining--BOO!!

I was all set to lay on my Hammock tonight and watch the Meteor Shower that's supposed to be playing in the night sky...but I awoke this morning to grey clouds and rain showers :(

*sulk*

I was really looking forward to it!!

Hammock Goodness!!

I ordered a hammock last week with birthday money I had received.

Yesterday UPS delivered it and I couldn't wait to get home from work to set it up!

I chose a Cypress wood arch hammock stand



and a Euro Quilted Blue and White Striped hammock.



Lord V helped me put it all together yesterday and I spent an hour happily swinging in the evening breeze!

It was awesome! (sing-song voice)

End Of The Road

Once we finished chomping on our burgers at the Hana restaurant, we drove down the hill to the "ancient general store" to snag some liquid fortification for our long drive back down the Hana Hwy.

We pulled into the tiny parking lot, climbed wearily out of our rental car and there...there was the reason for making the long drive worth while.

The scene was like something from a fantasy movie. So raw. So beautiful it didn't seem real.



You see?



Magical.



Worth. Every turn. Every twist. Every mile on that endless Road to Hana

Road to Hana--Continued

After our "plank of death" experience, Lord V and I gave up on any attempts to hike to hidden waterfalls for the rest of our road trip.

As I told Lord V, " Meh, it's water falling on rocks, really not worth dying to see!"

As it turns out, we didn't have to hike to see waterfalls. Right around the next bend was a waterfall we could happily see from our car. (freakin' guidebook) I scrambled out of the car and got a close up shot and we took off again.

The best part of our "Road to Hana" trip was "The Garden of Eden". OMG, Peeps. This was totally worth the trip (and the plank of near death experience!)

It was a paradise of tropical plants, trees and flowers with a smattering of wild peacocks, ducks and parrots living amongst it.



I can't remember now how many acres this garden was--but it was too vast for me to walk it all.

It was muggy and we were still exhausted from our failed tromp to the "hidden waterfall" so Lord V and I sat at a picnic table and munched on grapes, sipped water and flipped an occassional grape to a sassy mother peacock and her baby who climbed up onto our table to scope out what goodies we had.

I left Lord V sitting at the table and headed out with Chanda. I must have taken 300 pictures and I still couldn't capture the total beauty of this place.

I saw a sign labeled "Look out point" and followed the winding path. I broke through the gorgeous foilage and stepped into a magical grassy clearing that overlooked the emerald colored waters of Maui which was beautifully framed by towering palm trees.



There was a little stone bench perfectly positioned for one to sit and drink in the scene. I dug in my pocket and took out the momento I had taken with me to Maui. A little Pittsburg Steelers emblem of Mikeys. I knelt down and dug a little hole under that bench and buried the emblem there.

"Here ya go, Mikey." I whispered. "Best view on the island. Enjoy buddy."

I patted the ground and stayed a moment sitting on that bench. If there is an after life, I knew Mikey would be grinning his famous grin I wish I could see one more time.

When I walked away, I felt the heavy sadness that I had been holding inside myself since Mikey's and Guido's death shift. I felt sadness but it was a resolved sadness that was tempered with peace. Like a scar that remained after a wound had healed, forever there as a rememberance of what was.

I hiked back to the picnic area to meet back up with Lord V. We hiked over to the view of a twin waterfall where we watched a family of tourists decide if they really wanted to fulfill their island fantasy of bathing in a waterfall pool in Hawaii. The water looked a bit murkey from what I could see from my viewing perch way above them which might have contributed to their fantasy fulfilling hesitation.

We headed on the road again. Pressing on to Hana. We stopped at a rest area for a few minutes. A sweet lady was making jewelry there. Lord V purchased one her her necklaces for me. (You can read more about that stop and see a picture of her HERE).

Our next stop was the famous "Halfway to Hana" snack shop. Lord V ordered a shaved ice cone with icecream underneath and I picked up a hunk of ice cold pinneaple which was devinely delicious!!



We were tired and we were only halfway to Hana, but we gamely pressed on.

Many twists and turns and stops followed by more turns and twists and stops later, we finally pulled into Hana.



We stopped at the Hana Beach park for a bathroom break and then took off for the town of Hana.

Which.

Was.

One restaurant.

And.

One ancient general store.

!!!!!!!

We drove 70 miles. 4 hours of winding 25 mile an hour tourist clogged road.

For a restaurant.

and an ancient general store.



It's like a bad country song.

"It's not the end result, it's the journey."

Freakin' road to Hana...

While Lord V and I sat at the restaurant and munched burgers I frantically sorted through ideas in my mind of how we could magically transport our car and us back to our hotel without having to make the windy drive again.

But alas, I could not think any escape and we climbed our weary bodies back into our car and headed back down the "Road away from &%! Hana" and the comfort of our hotel.

The drive was spectacular.

The Garden was totally worth the trip.

The memories Lord V and I pocketed inside ourselves, priceless.

And...the shot I took at the end of the Hana road?

Worth. The. Entire. Drive.

To be continued...

More pictures can be seen at http://akatseyeview.blogspot.com

Gabby Making Baby Noises

When she's not Gabbing, she loves to make little baby noises.

Gabby Abby

Gabby Abby Playing with her favorite mouse :)