Maui - Day 1

On the first day of our Hawaiian adventure my sister and I decided to hit the beach and find some sweet boogie boarding waves. Amy read in her book that 'Little Beach' near 'Big Beach' had some great waves...however it was 'clothing optional'. Eh...it shouldn't be that bad right? It wasn't like it was a NUDE beach right? Clothing optional sounded fine to us. She also read in the book that you had to go on a mini hike to get to the location. I was a little hesitant about that since my Achilles was still not healed, but we went anyway.

When we arrived at the beach we weren't sure where to go, and then we saw a guy on the top of this mini hill so we headed that way. Once we made it to the top the view was great!

Then when we turned the corner we saw the following sign:
Let me just say that even though it was 'clothing optional' there were hardly ANY CLOTHES being worn. The killer was it was almost ALL locals and ALL MEN! There were dudes playing football, and Frisbee. Naked...with just a knee brace on, playing Frisbee. Quite the site. As you know I am known for taking my spy photos, but I felt like it would have been disrespectful to have taken photos of the naked locals. So instead I have some boogie boarding photos for you. This first one is priceless as my sister wiping out.

This next one is of her catching a sweet wave.

We had a great time hanging out at the beach even with all the ween staring at us. We even did some snorkeling in some not so calm water.

Afterwards we met back up with the family as the dudes played golf. John had to return his rental clubs so we jumped in the car and headed to the store.

We also decided to get a shaved ice, which turned out to be one of the best ones I've ever had. Let me tell you that I have had a lot of shaved ices in my time as they are my favorite. This is one thing that I was really looking forward to going back to Hawaii. The first place we went to had the following machine, which was AWESOME, and the lady also overloaded it with the syrup. Talk about a perfect combo!


For dinner that night we headed to Roy's. John and I went to Roy's on our honeymoon in Kauai 5 years ago, and it was just as good.

Here is John in his island wear:
Enjoying our cocktails:
They even gave us warm towels at one point!

What is in the water?

I just had to say something. By the end of this year...2009...10 of my friends will have given birth. Isn't that CRAZY?? So far I've had three friends in January give birth, one in February, and one in April. The remainder of the list is as follows:

Heather - June 5th
Steph - June 28th
Brianne - Aug 29th
Jessie - Sept. 10th
Katy - Oct 12th

What else is crazy is that only 3 out of the 10 are boys. (Still waiting to hear about the Oct. baby).

Another crazy stat is that in 2007 we attended 6 weddings and now every couple are either preggers are parents except for one.

I really wanted to make these friends some homemade baby gifts, but so far I haven't done anything. I really hope I get on the ball soon!

Aloha!

I'm back and we had a fabulous time in Hawaii! I cannot tell you how thankful we are that my parents planned this trip. The first half with the family in Maui was great, and the second half in Kauai was priceless. Returning to the places we went on our honeymoon (in Kauai) where we had so much fun was awesome. I'm totally sentimental, what can I say?

However now I'm back in SLO, I'm having major post-vacation depression. I know it will pass in about a week, but it sucks! I would give anything to be living the island lifestyle right now...including basking in the warmer weather. It is FREEZING here!! Even my body is rejecting the weather. I am so sore ALL over and I don't even know what from. Oh right...it's from the cold weather! Don't get me wrong...I am trying to be positive and be thankful that I even got to go, but coming home is so hard. It happens to me every time.

There is also a slight chance I might have gotten a job, so with that looming in the horizon I'm trying to get as much done around the house as possible. Including painting the last unpainted room in our house. We will see how much I get accomplished.

For now please enjoy a few photos from the trip. I'm hoping to post about all the highlights, but as you may know, I don't always follow through.

One Reason it's Awesome to be Unemployed

Yesterday my friend Jen and I took a quick trip to the bay area to see Heather Armstrong, (aka Dooce), at her book reading/signing. I don't have time to write up a full report as we are heading to Hawaii tomorrow for a week for the first ever 'Scott Family Vacation' and I have yet to pack ONE THING! I just have to say that it was totally awesome to get to meet her, and I even got to meet her friend Maggie Mason who was there. It couldn't have been better.

Is Anyone Out There?

Has it really been over two weeks since I posted? No way! I think this has been my longest down time...and I've been here...every day. I'm not sure what to blame it on. Maybe Facebook? It's not that I lack things to post about either. It seems that blogging just hasn't fit into my daily routine. I even have blogging on my 'to do' list with about 5 different topics to write about it. For example, a couple of weekends ago I had a great time in Napa with some old high school friends, and then this past weekend John and I went to Vegas. Even with great topics there is no motivation! I think one problem is that I dink around on the computer in the morning, and then realize in a panic that I have to get other things done around the house in the afternoon.

Speaking of which...I really shouldn't be on here right now. I've got a physical therapy appointment at 11am and I really need to get in the shower. I'd like to say I'd have time later this afternoon to post more, but I can't guarantee it. John's got his college buddies coming into town this weekend for his birthday and I still have some cleaning as well as some baking to get done.

I'll do my best to post again very soon!

Don't Trush Someone with Spikey Hair

I've had these photos and videos uploaded for a week, but for some reason I haven't had the time to sit and write up the compelling commentary. I also realized that I haven't posted all week and tonight is my last chance as I'm heading north tomorrow. So I hope you enjoy this speedy summary of the day we spent in Solvang for the timed trail.

As we headed to Solvang there were cars parked about a mile or more outside of the town. I could not believe the amount of people! I was really worried because there was no way I could have walked that far with my bad Achilles. I had John venture into town to see if we could find a spot, and lucky enough we found one a few blocks off of the main street! I was SO thankful.

We decided to stand just after the finish line to watch the racers. Here is John in his action ready pose.
Two hours later some nice ladies snuck in next to us and mentioned that you should never trust someone with spikey hair. Do you see the lady in the white shirt and sunglasses? That is who she was referring too.

After standing for an hour or so I decided I needed to rest my foot so I sat on the ground to make sure my place was saved. I could peak out behind the posters on the rails to see some of the riders coming in. Here was my video taking technique.
Across the way we saw this really cute baby!! Check out his riding suit!
One of the first big names that came in was George Hindcapie:
We later found out that the cute baby's dad was this guy:He held the baby on stage later and we saw it on the news.

Here is Lance riding in. It was so cool to see him. The crowd went CRAZY! John got this great photo too.

Here is Levi right after he crossed the finish line and won the timed trial. He knew he was on his way to a 3-peat, hence the three fingers he is holding up.
Here are a few videos that I took.
Lance riding in:

Levi finishing the trial:

After the race John noticed the Astana bus so we headed over to check it out. Right as we walked up a huge crowd of people walked away, so I thought I might have just missed seeing Lance. I decided to hang around anyway with a bunch of other people, and low and behold Lance came out of the bus!
I didn't have anything for him to sign, so I just took some photos and videos.

What killed me were all these middle aged women swooning over him! I couldn't believe it. A sex symbol? What about an awesome athlete? Reguardless it was pretty cool to see him signing autographs.

Overall the timed trail was great and made the waiting a lot more worth our time. Despite our awesome parking spot we wound up in two hours of traffic trying to get out of the town. We were very excited about it.

Bike Riders in CA!

As some of you were aware, the Amgen Tour of California rode through the state last week and John and I were lucky to be a part of it for two days! This was the fourth year of the race and John has been lucky to go every year. I missed the race two years ago when I couldn't take time off from my new job. Last year I was lucky because it rained...and due to the rain the riders were over an hour later than expected...which meant they arrived after 5pm...after I got off work. Sweet!

One very disappointing thing about the race this year was that it was not stopping in San Luis, but it was stopping in Paso Robles instead! I know!!! The horror! All I have to say is that it's a good thing that Lance came back, because that definitely made the trip up north worth it.

The riders were expected to arrive into town around 3pm but John was able to get off work and we got into town around noon. Our early arrival was awesome for many reasons. One - we got an AWESOME parking spot, which is key when you are a gimp like myself. Two - we got to have a nice relaxing lunch at The Crooked Kilt which was tasty. Three - we had time to scout out where we wanted to watch the race.

Next to the main road was a small brick wall that we claimed. It was perfect because I was able sit and rest my foot until the racers showed up. The other reason it was perfect was because we were able to stand up on the wall for a better view.

Here was a HUGE map of the different routes on the race: (click to enlarge)Interesting how there is no action north of Santa Rosa. What does that tell you?

Here is John waiting with his 'Let Levi Ride' shirt...with the finish line behind him. (Last year Levi Leipheimer was not allowed to ride in the Tour de France because team Astana, whom he did not ride for at the time, was banned from the '08 season for doping. Even though they fired the entire old team, and hired a new team director and riders the team was unable to compete. There was a website where people could sign up to petition the UCI, the governing body of the tour, where this shirt was for sale. John sent the site out to everyone, and one of our friends bought him the shirt. He loves it!)
Here I am sitting on our brick wall with my Lance Fan.
John went to cruise some of the booths and came back with these sweet Columbia-Highroad bikers hats for us to wear. John totally reminds me of Wesley Snipes in the 90's.
We only had to wait 2 hours for the riders to show up which wasn't that bad at all...considering they rode by us in 3 seconds! It was a sprint finish, but John captured this awesome photo of the two riders battling it out for first place.
Mark Cavendish, in yellow and team Columbia Highroad, won. Yaroslav Popovych got second. (John likes Popo because he's from Luxembourg). Unfortunately we did not get to see Lance, because the bikers rode by us so fast.

After the race we tried to make it over to the awards stage but there were SO many people it was impossible. As we were walking to get to the other side of it we decided to stop directly behind the stage and a volunteer told us that the winners walk right through this area. We also found out that they did their post race interviews as well. Here is Levi. (Even though he didn't win this stage he was still in first overall.)

Here is his bike....see the #1?

While John was taking photos, I took a video of the race. You might need to watch it more than once as they go by so fast.

Overall it was a great day. Things couldn't have worked out better for us. We didn't even hit any traffic thanks to John knowing a somewhat hidden entrance on the freeway. The next day we headed to Solvang...stay tuned!