Visits, Cabins, and NASCAR

I know, I know, what kind of a blog takes so long to update? I heard an earful of this at work today from a coworker whom I won't name (but this worker knows who they are). So what has been going in? Heather and I have entertained family, gone to Michigan, and I just returned from a work trip. Let's get right into it!

First family to visit, Josh, Miranda, and Maya. Always a lot of fun when the whole clan comes up for a visit. Maya changes more and more each time we get to see her. This trip we had fun with a new talent of hers, which is making faces on demand. "Make a mad face Maya!"

I have some great video that shows this new skill off. Maybe someday when I figure out how to get it on the internet, I'll place a link! We started that weekend by going first to see Jen and Steve at their home and some rounds of some bean bag toss game that captivated everyone for hours. I don't remember the name, but it was definitely addicting. After visiting we all went over to Toyota Park for a Chicago Fire soccer game, and then a fireworks display after the game. Maya gets pretty scared of fireworks, but she warmed up to them before it was all over.

Next next few days were spent relaxing and hanging around the house mostly. With our car it is kind of hard taking 5 people anywhere unless we take public transportation. But that worked out ok because relaxing is what the group wanted to do. We played a lot of XBox 360 the next day. Then on Monday, their last day here, Josh helped me with my wiring project at the house. For those wondering what I could have been wiring, it is data cable for a home network. Got a few new holes in the wall to fill, but that's ok, the place is now (mostly) networked!

Moving on now....

The next weekend, my parents (Bob & Phyllis) came into town to see my LSSO concert. It had been probably 15 years since they had last seen me play a concert. What an interesting weekend! First off, it should be said that LSSO weekends are always fairly busy. I have a dress rehearsal on Saturday, then another rehearsal and finally the concert on Sunday. In between I generally need to squeeze in some last minute practicing. Added to this, I also record the symphony so I lug all of my recording gear to the shows. Also, I sit Concertmaster, and lastly I'm now the President of the LSSO as well. My parents expected this to be a busy weekend for me, and they were very understanding of how much hometime I would actually have.

So what made this weekend more interesting than any other concert weekend? Well to start there were some significant work issues I had to deal with remotely. It plagued me from Friday through Monday. Anytime I didn't have my fiddle up to my neck, I had a cel phone on my ear trying to resolve the work issues. Then on Saturday, on my way home from rehearsal, I got rear-ended! Fortunately nobody was hurt, and the damage was just cosmetic, but it was a perfect cap to the day. Actually, it snapped me out of my funk because the day was wearing on me.

The concert on Sunday went well, and was a nice day. This was a great way to start the season. There was a great audience, and the pieces were fun to play. Afterwards we all went to a local restaurant, Reza's. It's a bit of a tradition after the show to go grab a good meal and celebrate everyone's hard work. I was glad my parents were able to be a part of it all as the LSSO is a big part of my life. The next day my parents had to fly back to Washington. Will be seeing them next at Christmas!

Our next weekend a group of us rented a house in Michigan and decided to get away from it all. The house was really nice, and it had a hot tub! We grilled out every night, played games, snuck in some golf, and had a few glasses of wine. Here is a picture of the nutty gang.


After coming back into town, I then had to head right back out of town to Texas for a work trip. It was a long trip, but an interesting one. I got to see a NASCAR race, something I've never seen before. Below is a picture of someone's car who was retiring from racing. I think the driver's name was Terry something. I'm sure any NASCAR fans reading this are ready to string my up for not knowing this person, but I just don't follow racing I'm afraid. Anyway the experience was neat. These cars go crazy fast, and are crazy loud. Very energetic, and with about 200,000 people at the race, very popular and enormous.


Unfortunately after I returned I brought a small head cold back with me which I'm currently fighting. So this being Friday night, I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend to rest! With Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure I will be posting sooner than later this time. Until next time...

JY

So this is married life...

Ahhh, we are one month into it. Congrats all around. Heather and I have discovered something new about ourselves, we both equally enjoy not having to plan for weddings and receptions night after night! We have taken advantage of most of this recently aquired time to relax, work on thank you's, and pick up a couple of things for the house. It's been nice, and we are enjoying the leasure pace.

We received our photos a couple of weeks ago from my Uncle Ed and Aunt Kathy (the wedding photographers). They did an amazing job, as you will soon see. He took somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200+ pictures, so I've selected some of our favorites and put them online. I didn't put them into the body of this message as before since it would make this huge! So here is a link to the album:

Wedding Pictures

I also posted some pictures that Ed and Kathy took of us around Napa. Actually it was all around the Freemark Abbey Winery, they were really nice and let us run through their vineyards.

Jeremy and Heather in Napa

We have some upcoming adventures around the corner. Josh, Miranda, and Maya will be visiting in a couple of weeks, we might go see the CSO, we are going to see a Cubs, Sox, and Bears game, we have one more wedding to go to, then a nice trip to Michigan to get out of the city. Then before you know it, the holidays are here! We should have another post in the coming weeks is ultimately what I'm getting around to saying. See you then!

JY

The Honeymoon - Kauai

We landed today and are back in Chicago. The house is still in one piece, and Murphy was happy to see us. I compiled this posting while on one of the many flights today, enjoy!

Friday - August 11, 2006

Today we arrived on Kauai! The oldest of the Hawaiian Island chain (well, technically there are more islands in this chain, but this is the oldest of the livable, visited islands). We arrived in the morning, grabbed our rental car, and headed towards the Sheraton in Poipu where we were going to stay. Since we arrived a little before check in, we decided to stop in the town of Koloa along the way for some lunch. Afterwards we headed right over to the hotel.

There is a small story regarding the hotel. We traded in Starwood points for the hotel. Originally when we booked the hotel, we only booked 5 of the 7 nights. It was later we were able to book the two additional nights. Because these were now two reservations, we feared they would try and make us move rooms after the first 5 nights. Heather contacted Starwood prior to heading out to make sure that wouldn't be an issue, and they indicated they would combine the reservations. After arriving at the hotel, we found out that did not happen. However the lady working the hotel front desk (through asking questions) knew we were on our Honeymoon. She hooked us up with a beach side view, and got everything combined! Originally we had garden view rooms. Way to go Starwood, thanks!

Our first day was simple, we napped, then went out shopping for some new sunglasses, then we ate dinner. First we tried to eat at a restaurant called Roy's that was close to the Sheraton, however you needed reservations to get a table there. Instead we went to the Amore restaurant in the Sheraton for dinner. It overlooks the beach, and was a nice restaurant.

View at Sheraton

View back towards Sheraton

View from our room, what a hook-up!

Did I mention the chickens everywhere?

Saturday - August 12, 2006

Saturday we decided to knock out a bit of the sight seeing. First thing we did was head up to the Hanapepe Valley lookout. Last time I was here it was completely fogged in so I never saw the view. I really missed out before, I'm glad it was as clear as it was this day!

After viewing the Hanapepe Valley we headed back down the road to the Waimea Canyon. This is often called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It is amazing how large and colorful the canyon is, you would never think it was on this small island.

Once we had our fill of the canyon, we headed back towards Poipu and stopped off for lunch at a microbrew restaurant. Then we went on to take a look at the Wailua Falls. Some people may recognize these falls from the opening sequence of "Fantasy Island". To wrap up the day we swung by the Spouting Horn in Poipu to watch the water shoot out of the lava tubes near the ocean. That night we decided to indulge in room service, no reservations needed for that!

Jeremy & Heather at the Hanapepe Valley

Heather at 3400 ft.

The Waimea Canyon backdrop makes for a great picture!

Waimea Canyon

Wailua Falls. The plane, the plane!

Jeremy & Heather at Wailua Falls

Spouting Horn

Sunday - August 13, 2006

I got to surf for the first time today! I signed up for surf lessons, and took on the waves. Heather cheered me on from the beach and took some cool pictures. It was not as hard as I thought it might be, but hard in a different way. Getting up and standing was actually pretty easy, keeping yourself standing up is the tough trick. It was a lot of fun, I'll definitely do it again next time I can!

Once I finished surfing, we ate some lunch in the room and decided to do some snorkeling. After finding a snorkeling book about Kauai, we decided to go to the Beach House beach. However after getting there it turns out they were having a surfing contest. Now the surfing contest was further out than we would snorkel, so they didn't get in our way, but it was hard finding some beach to call our own.

The snorkeling in Beach House beach was ok. The water was a little muddy because the surf was up. We didn't really see anything we hadn't seen before. Unfortunately the camera battery died shortly after entering the water, so I didn't get any great pictures.

Afterwards we headed back over to the hotel and decided to relax at the pool. Heather and I are both working on books right now, so we had some reading to do. We hung out there until the sun went down, then we got ready for dinner.

Dinner that night was at Gaylord's restaurant. It was a pretty good meal, however we've discovered what wine snobs we are becoming. They had a wine of ours we like, Ferrari-Corano's Sienna, however you could tell they improperly store the wine. It had to be 80 degrees outside, and so was the wine, it was very warm. Other than that, the food was great, and Heather and I really enjoyed ourselves.

Which way to the surf?


Looking cool on the beach, sizing up my waves

Jeremy hanging 10!

Monday - August 14, 2006

Today is the big helicopter tour day! Heather had never been in a helicopter before, so she was real excited (of course I was too). The weather was perfect, pretty clear skies (for the wettest spot on earth). The ride was smooth, and really cool. We got to hit basically every part of the island. Here are some pictures...

Air Hawaii helicopter

Jurassic Park falls, can you see the helicopter dropping them off on the island?

The Na Pali coast, wow...

More of the Na Pali coast. No roads go to this side of the mountain, can probably see why

A protected beach on the West side. This beach was used in the movie Six Days and Seven Nights.

Coming out of the crater

Once we landed we stayed in the Lihue area for lunch, then went up North towards Princeville. We ended up at the Kilauea Point Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse. There are all types of birds that hang out at this point, and of course the center point is the lighthouse. We hung around a bit, explored, got some good pictures, then headed back South.

For dinner that night we went to a restaurant called Lemongrass. Again, our wine snob side came out again because they served the red wine quite warm. Other than that, it was a nice meal. Afterwards we treated ourselves to some Cold Stone ice cream. Mmmmmmmm......

Heather's new favorite drink, the Blue Hawaii

Jeremy enjoying an old fashion beer

Kilauea Point Wildlife Refuge

At the Kilauea Point Lighthouse

Tuesday - August 15, 2006

We woke up a little early this morning for some golf at Poipu. What an awesome course! Heather played as well, steadily improving as the day went on. Give her a few more rounds and she will be the secret weapon on any golf scramble team. This is such a wonderful course to play, it is forgiving and challenging. The ocean views are what postcards are made from. Interesting though, apparently there was a landslide on hole 16 not that long ago and the cart path fell into the ocean! Just natures reminder that it is slowly taking the island back, no matter how many golf courses we build on it.

Hole 16 at Poipu, and the landslide

That afternoon, we napped (as you should do after any great round of golf). For dinner we (when I say we, I mean Heather) coordinated reservations at the Beach House Restaurant. This place is booked solid every night, with great ocean views from the restaurant, and a great menu. Guess what, they knew how to store wine! Finally! We got to see the sunset, got our pictures taken, and ate a wonderful meal. What a great day!

Jeremy & Heather outside the Beach House Restaurant

Wednesday - August 16, 2006

This was the big day, we decided to spend the extra bucks and take on a full 7 hour boat tour of the Na Pali coast and Niihau. This was a great time. We started out heading right for Niihau. Niihau is also known as the "Forbidden Island". It is owned completely by the Robinson family who bought the whole island for around $10k about 150 years ago (what a bargain). Today they still own the island, but they allow the original residents to continue to live there. Visitors are not allowed on the island itself, but we can get close and snorkel the crater just off the island.

On the way to the island we spotted a Sperm Whale! Actually someone noticed the spout, and I got to see another. The Captain thought it was a Sperm Whale, so he dropped a microphone in the water to listen for the sounds. The whale made a clicking sound, and he said it definitely was a Sperm Whale. I'd love to say we actually saw this huge whale, but a spout would have to do.

A little further along the captain also spotted a Pilot Whale. I briefly caught the tip of him, but didn't really get a good look.

Finally we found our way to the crater. The snorkeling was awesome, you could see for 80ft underwater it was so clear. Shortly after we jumped in the water, a Hawaiian Munk Seal (an endangered species) decided to check us out and swam right under us! I've heard about these seals before and how they are protected and that you should leave them alone if you see one on a beach in Hawaii. But this guy swam right out to us! He was a curious one, and looped back around for a few more visits during the snorkel. I can't even describe what it is like swimming with a seal. It was quite a rush.

After the snorkeling, we toured the entire crater then headed to the Na Pali coast for lunch and a tour. The views from this side of the island are incredible. On Monday we got to see it from the air, and today we got to see it from the sea. The height of these Cathedrals and cliffs are much larger than you would imagine. Everything looks smaller from above, down low it looks intense.

The rest of the day we relaxed. Truth be told I got a nice candy cane striped sunburn on my shoulder and arm. Using the new suntan sprays, it is easy to miss spots. Trying to apply this on the boat with a good breeze, it turns out only the direct middle covered that shoulder while the spray off went with the wind. We also had quite a ride that whole day. Whenever the boat traveled to a destination, you had to stand up and hold onto something. It was very tiring.

With all of this, we decided another room service night was in order. So we indulged again!

Lehua Crater off the Forbidden Island (Niihau). Image from Google Earth.

Lehua Crater from the ocean on the boat

The crater is a formation of cooled ash, which is why it is so flowing and light in color


The "Peephole" on the crater

Our first ever seen Hawaiian Monk Seal, just chillin'


The monk seal swimming over to see us


Swimming away, I'll see you later!

Ran into some Spinner Dolphins on the way back. See the baby in the middle?

Thursday - August 17, 2006

We really didn't take many pictures this day, it was our last day and we were going to milk it. We rented a cabana on the beach in the morning, and used it all day long until around 6pm. We just laid around, had the servers bringing us drinks, read our books, played in the pool, played on the beach, and relaxed. It was great.

That night we had reservations at Roy's. This is another restaurant in Kauai that a reservation is a must (we tried on Saturday walking in, that didn't work too well). Turns out there is also a Roy's in Chicago. We found a great wine (Mantra - Zinfandel Reserve 2003). It was a great way to finish our trip.

However before we called it a night, we went over to the West side of the island away from any lights, and laid on the beach watching the stars. Here is a picture I took of the sky, you can't imagine all the stars you can see when you are thousands of miles from any continent.

Can't see this in Chicago

Friday - August 18, 2006

Today we slept in, packed, grabbed some lunch, bid the island a farewell, and caught our flights home. We first had to fly from Kauai to Honolulu, then to San Fran, then to Chicago. We arrived home on Saturday the 19th at around 5pm. Wow, what a trip. We will remember it for the rest of our lives! We wouldn't have done anything any differently. It was perfect...

JY

The Honeymoon - Maui

It's Monday morning on Kauai. This seemed a good point to take a break and document everything for everyone. So let's start at the top.

Saturday, August 5, 2006

We thought we left ourselves plenty of time to get up and go to the airport. Needless to say the day before was a busy and long one, but we still managed to pack all our bags Friday night so we could roll out early. The drive went smooth, and we got to the airport 90 minutes before our flight. But then the tram train died on us at the airport, leaving us stuck at the car rental area of SFO! We waited on the train for over 20 minutes, then finally we began to move. For those of you who have been on this tram and traveled via United, then you also know that United is basically the last stop. It was real close, fortunately we made it with the help of a great kiosk bag check area United had.

The flight was great, what we remember of it. We pretty much slept the whole way, we were tired! After landing in Honolulu, we had to grab our bags, and recheck them onto Aloha airlines for an inter island hop to Maui. We had some time to kill so we grabbed lunch, then flew on over. From the airport it took about an hour to get to the hotel. For those going to Maui, note that the traffic on the West side of the island going North towards Ka'anapli is a crawl for about 10 miles around 4pm. After checking in, we decided to check things out around the resort, grabbed some drinks, and some food, and that was basically the day!

We've arrived!

The view from our room, awesome...

Heather's first island drink

Mmmmmm, Lava Flow....

Sunday, August 6, 2006

Boy were we still tired, we slept a full 9 hours straight. I think we woke up in the same positions we fell asleep in. All we craved on our first full day was rest. After slowly moving around, we got up and headed over to pick up some groceries to last us the week. Afterwards we headed over to the Whaler's Warf area which was about a 5 min. walk from our resort. It had a bunch of shops where I picked up a couple of books on Maui, and Heather picked up a new skirt. On our way back we ran into our friends Mike and Sheila. They were honeymooning on Maui as well, we went to their wedding the week before and it turns out they were staying at a neighboring resort. We joined them for lunch, then we headed back to the room. Nap time. After waking up from our nap we headed down to a restaurant at the resort for dinner overlooking the ocean. It was a nice day and evening in all.

Monday, August 7, 2006

Time to start the fun! Today we headed up north a little bit to a beach in Napili. In a snorkeling book I purchased the day before, it listed this beach as having great snorkeling so we thought we'd have fun here today. We saw all kinds of fish, it was great. I was hoping to see some cool eels or octopus, but no such luck here. They might have been there, but both are very good hiders during the day making them hard to spot sometimes.

Heather, looking for Nemo

Not quite Nemo, but his friend will do

The beach on which we snorkeled

After snorkeling we went back to the resort and hung around the pool for a bit, drinking our frozen rum drinks listening to the waves crashing. Later that evening we met back up with Mike and Sheila for a dinner at a restaurant called Sensei. Heather and Mike mostly ate sushi, while Sheila and I grabbed an entree of sorts. It was a great time, with great Mai Tai's!

Heather, Jeremy, Mike, and Sheila

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Tuesday we decided to tackle the infamous road to Hana. This is a long road that basically loops the entire East side of the island where the landscape is pure Hawaii, with waterfalls and views of the ocean all along the way. It is basically an all day thing. Most people then turn around once they get to Hana, and go back the way they came. We decided to go on. I'm sure the car rental people would be happy to hear we decided to back trail it with their Chevy Malibu. It tested every bit of that car's suspension. Basically once you get past Hana, the road quickly deteriorates and the guard rails over the bluffs go away. Many books describe this drive as a "white knuckled" drive for some people. It wasn't that bad, but you do need to pay attention as it is an ever winding road the whole way where top speed reaches about 20mph at best in places. For a section of about 5-6 miles, the road is a dirt road, then it picks up some pavement again (which is all beat up), then finally after about 7 miles of that, you are back on smooth road. It was neat though, and I'm glad we got to see the whole island. That far side of the island is pretty bare with long gradual slopes down to the ocean. The wind was heavy here, but the views were cool!

We left early that morning, around 7am, and ended up back at the resort at 5pm. It was a full day. On the way back we grabbed some food for dinner, and popped in a movie that night to relax.

Looking for the 'Blue Pools'

Heather under the falls at the Blue Pool

Jeremy taking a swim at the Blue Pool

The views along the road to Hana

Heather on the Southern part of Maui

Heather & Jeremy near the Black Sands beach

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Wednesday was all about awesome golf. We played the South course at Makena. It runs along the ocean the whole way with awesome views. Mike and I played, while Sheila and Heather road along. We got lucky, they let us go off as a twosome, and there was basically nobody in front of us or behind us the whole way! It was great, we took our time, took lots of pictures, really had a great time.

Amazing views on this course

Jeremy going for the long putt, notice the island in the distance

Heather posing on this amazing downhill par 3

Heather tee'ing it up for a shot at the green

Jeremy & Heather

Afterwards Heather and I went to Wailea up the road a bit for some lunch. We found a place called the Tiki Lounge which had some microbrews and decent food.

That night Heather and I went to Lahaina and shopped around. Then we had dinner at the Kobe Steak house. When we went to the restaurant, we didn't have a reservation so we got our names on the list and hung around at the bar. The bartender was a pretty cool guy, and whenever a mistake drink came back he gave it to us! Plus whenever he made a drink of something we hadn't tried, he made just a little bit more for us to sample. We were feeling pretty good by the time we got our table. Dinner was very filling, with too much food. Both Heather and I ordered combos, and probably only finished about 70% of each if that. It would make for great leftovers on Thursday though!

Heather posing with a big wooden statue of the old King

Lahaina

Thursday, August 10, 2006

We met back up with Mike and Sheila for some snorkeling in Makena. They really wanted to see a turtle, so with some research we found that the beach in Makena would be good for this. Turns out we were right, we got to see two turtles. The first turtle was hanging out at the bottom when we spotted him. After about 5 minutes he decided to come up for some air. By this time a small crowd of snorkelers had grouped up, so with no where to really go the turtle had to pick a direction, which was right at me! I moved out of his way so he could get some air, and he hung up at the surface for a bit, then headed down. Only when he headed down, I don't think he liked the crowd, so he started heading out to sea. We all followed for a bit, but then realized what he was doing and let him go.

The second turtle was a little more hidden. He found a ledge under a reef to hide in. After he came up for air, it was amazing how he (or she) knew to go right back to his shelf to hide under. While we were waiting for the turtle to come up, I forgot to mention that Heather found this cool eel. It was mean looking with big teeth. It wasn't a Spotted Moray which we saw a lot of on Oahu a couple of years ago. This guy was a solid dark color, and was well hidden, and looked like he didn't want to be messed with, so we didn't. We also saw a Snowflake eel, which Sheila first noticed. This snorkel trip saw a lot more diverse underwater life.

A Sea Turtle coming up for air

How amazing, and graceful, he came right up too us for pictures

A Snowflake Moray Eel

After snorkeling we headed back to the Tiki Lounge for another lunch, then we did some shopping in the nearby shopping area. Afterwards Heather and I headed up further North of our resort to check out the far North side of the Western part of the island. I had read in one of the books that there was a Bell Stone by the side of the road we decided to check out. Apparently when you hit the stone (which is the size of a car) with another stone in just the right place you will get a metal clank sound out of it. While driving up to it Heather read in another one of our guide books that it isn't that interesting, and most of the time you will just look like a goofball on the side of the road banging on a big stone. I'm pretty sure we did look like that once we got to the stone, but we were able to get the sound out. The name Bell Stone makes it sound like it will ring, it doesn't. But you can get a clank sound out of it which doesn't sound like it should come from a stone. After the stone we took some pictures of the nearby coast and headed back to the resort.

Heather & Jeremy at the Tiki Lounge for lunch

Mike & Sheila also grabbing a bite


View of the Northwest side of Maui


A set of protected pools you can swim in!

Jeremy taking in the scenery

The rest of that night was dedicated to finishing off the groceries we bought and packing for the 9am flight we had the next day.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Friday was travel day, time to get over to Kauai. With the latest news the day before from England, flights were on heightened security. To be safe we got to the airport a couple of hours before our flight. The local news said that inter island flights were quicker than mainlain flights for security, it probably was true because it didn't take us long. Really the only added step was before we went to our gate there was another bag check making sure we didn't have any beverages purchased from the food court at the airport.

The flight was smooth, first we landed back on Honolulu, then onto Lihue on Kauai. We grabbed our rental car, then headed to the Sheraton in Poipu.

That wraps up Maui, on my next entry I'll review Kauai! Mahalo!

JY