Here to There and Back Again

Yes, the silence on my blog was due to the fact that we have been away for the last few weeks – on a little business and lots of pleasure.

We first headed off to the big island of Hawaii.  This was our first visit to this island.  We enjoyed many beautiful sights – vacant beaches, black sand beaches, warm waters, palm trees, glorious sunsets, fragrant flowers and even a volcano.






They had a lovely Hawaiian quilt hanging at the hotel and I found the different patterns and the border fascinating.  Pardon the glare, but it was behind glass.


The center with the dolphins was great.



We returned home, emptied the suitcases and headed up to the beach to check out the new remodel with my sister, brother and their spouses.  While there, we collected clams for dinner, visited the pier to see the freshly caught fish that was being brought in for sale and then hit the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market to collect our dinner ideas.







Leaving there we did a quick stop at home to add more clothes to that suitcase and headed out for a few days on the road – our favorite thing to do on vacation.  We enjoyed the historic mining communities in Nevada, the Sawtooth Mountains in Stanley, Idaho and the budding of spring in Wyoming and Utah.


Although it appears to be snowing in this photo, it is actually the blowing of the seeds from the Cottonwood trees in Bishop, CA.


Full streams were everywhere.



A natural sandhill…..makes you want to grab a slide and climb to the top.


Wild mustangs.



A frosty morn in Stanley, Idaho – 22*.  This was the view from our cabin.


Spectacular red rocks of Utah at 10,000+ feet elevation.


Along the way I had fun stitching some easy little projects that the amazing and creative Wendy sent me a link.  I figured they would make cute gifts.



It will now be back to the regularly scheduled program!

Sand and Surf

We took a break from our lives last week for a few days of RandR.  We headed to a place that we consider a little slice of heaven - Hawaii.

Many years ago my DH was a Navy pilot and stationed on the island of Oahu.  Naturally, we enjoy returning and seeing the changes made over the years.  We love the easy life on the North Shore and like to base ourselves up there. 

Everyday we watched beautiful sunrises from our balcony and gorgeous sunsets as we sipped Mai Tais and Blue Hawaiis at the outdoor lounge. 

Our homes where we lived have often changed over the years, but it is always nice to revisit them and recall the terrific times we enjoyed. 

This was our house.  It has definitely seen better days.  Our view stretched the entire coastline from Diamond Head towards Makaha.

There were no gates when we lived up on the 8th floor of this building.

...and this was our backyard!!!!!

The hospital when our second son was born. 

We loved the week filled with awesome views, warm temperatures, great eats and carefree living.

Lots of time for looking upwards at the graceful palm trees.

Diamond Head

Surfboards are as good as hoses on a fire truck.

If we had not had the wonderful recommendations for the shrimp trucks, we would have never stopped.  They were fabulous and most generous in their servings.

Even the limos stop here.

There were chickens running loose everywhere.  This little one had managed to get on the road and we all stopped while mom carefully got it over to the side.

Loved the dog with a lei on the beach.

The BEST shaved ice on the island!!!!!

Our final glimpses of the wonderous colors as we left.  I can't wait to return!

How much sewing did I get done????  I picked up my cross stitch project on the flight home.  It was a long flight though so I did get a few stitches done. 

BTW....I switched back to the old interface on Blogger and managed to access Blogger with no problems.  I guess it is the new interface that kept giving me the error message on my desktop.  VERY strange.  Any one else have that problem?