British Columbia, Canada-Taku River 2001

Less than 2 steps behind me was a drop off that I estimated to be at least 300 feet. I was so glad to get far away from the ledge!

Paris, France 1994

If my memory serves me correctly, this is a statue of Zeus and his children-it is in the Jardin des Tuileries. We found it after we walked for miles to see the Louvre and saw the signs that said the museum was closed for renovations! It was still fun walking around that area and seeing all the sights.

Paris, France 1994

It rained the whole time we were in Paris, but it was still the most beautiful city I have ever seen. I could never get a good picture with the Eiffel Tower in the background because if was in the clouds.

New Orleans, Louisiana 1998

An ornate mausoleum outside of New Orleans

Munster, Germany 1994

The spire of that church has cages-they would put various criminals inside of them until dead back in the day. Shudder.

Juneau, Alaska 2001

We are taking off from the Juneau airport in a boat plane to be flown to the middle of nowhere to a mountain lake. Then we were taken by helicopter even further to a point on the Taku River. We then rafted/roughed it back to Juneau for 8 days.

British Columbia, Canada-Taku River 2001

I found this rock on a hike we took up the side of a mountain in search of a glacier.

British Columbia, Canada-Taku River 2001

I finally got the hang of rafting-the water was so cold that it hurt to touch it. I'd have to fill up my jug and set it near the fire to get it to a temperature to be able to drink it.

British Columbia, Canada-Taku River 2001

You could close your eyes, push the button and take a picture like this everywhere we went!

Near Munster, Germany 1994

I actually forgot where this was-I think it was somewhere between Munster and Norderney-it was such a whirlwind trip.

British Columbia, Canada-Taku River 2001

I scanned some of my favorite pictures today of various trips. This is one night before bed, I loved how the clouds were among us. It got just a bit darker than this but not by much-I never did get used to it being light all the time.

Tilt Shift Photo

I found this website that you can upload your picture to and give it a tilt shift effect to. It gives it that miniature look. It works best on photos that you are above the subject. Here is the link

This is a picture I took in Las Vegas and gave it the effect:

Back Home

The last day we called in for an extended checkout until 6pm and wondered around the beach some more. We had a great last lunch at Burgers in Paradise and wondered around the beach some more.

Finally we slowly wandered back to the hotel to clean up for the trip home and get everything organized. I had packed most everything the night before thankfully!

From our balcony we saw a bunch of sea turtles out from the beach a bit. I think they might have been there the whole time but we didn't notice them. I have a thing about heights so I didn't look straight down much. Actually I think twice. I was talking to my friend Ginger when we first got there and I looked down-I think she could hear the panic in my voice!

The flights were fine, I was able to sleep a bit. We got in at about 12:45pm central time and I had to work the next day. It was tough. I am slowly losing my sunburn. Rick had an extra 2 days off to recover. I'm still in shock I think!

I'll post the last of the pictures this weekend and maybe a video or two.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far :)

Lost on the Kamehamaha Highway AKA Highway Ends Here

With directions from google maps in hand, we set off to see the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. We felt really good about how things were going until we see a sign that says "highway ends here"!

We make an illegal U-turn to get back in the direction we came from and find a Jack-In-The-Box where a nice oriental couple tells us how to get going in the right direction. Somehow we had missed a turn-off and had gone way out of the way.

We finally make it to the memorial and I am really glad we did. It is such a humbling experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was so nice and peaceful there and there was a nice gentle rain while we were there.

We made it back to Waikiki without getting lost! After eating we walked up Kalakaua avenue and I walked on the beach a bit. We made it back to the hotel and I finally talked Rick into walking on the sand. It was really relaxing to feel the sand between my toes.

We have to return the car and check out by 11 AM and we have until about 6:15 PM until the bus picks us up to take us back to the airport and back home...sigh...I don't want to leave.

We get back home on Sunday around 1 PM and I have to work on Monday-jet lag, sun burn and all! I may wear a Hawaiian shirt to work in protest of not wanting to be back!

North Shore by convertible

We finally rented a car, a nice Chrysler Sebring and headed off. After 30 minutes of getting lost after the first turn from the car rental agency we finally headed around the bed of Diamond Head. Here is a google map of our route:



We stopped a lot and took some pictures and at little roadside stands that sell fresh fruit and gifts.

We had some of the famous shaved ice from Matsumoto shaved ice in Haleiwa.

We finally ended out day at the Polynesian Cultural Center for dinner and a show.

I think it is the season for Japan and Australia to come here as that is the majority of the people we have seen most of the trip so it was funny while we were at dinner Rick hears a man ask in a heavy southern drawl "Ya'll got any ketchup?"!

We made it back to the hotel with only one wrong turn on the way back. I am tired, and sunburned to a crisp. Rick is cranky, more sunburned and more tired than I am! We both look like lobsters. All in all it was a good day and well worth renting the car. We have the car tomorrow so there is no telling where we will get lost!

We finished the day off at 11:00PM at Hagen Daaz-me a green tea ice cream in a waffle cone and Rick had a Hawaiian smoothie.

The scenic route...

We started off lost and it kept getting worse. We took the bus ride from hell and couldn't seem to get the bus drivers to help find where we were going!

What should have taken 20 minutes to find ended up taking 2 hours! We finally made it to the Iolani Palace and took the tour. After the palace tour Rick found someone on the street that gave us even more bad directions and we walked and walked until we finally got good information from a man walking his dog.

We got on a trolley and made it back around 7:00PM (We started at Noon!)

We took some pictures on our scenic tour and some were from Rick's camera from yesterday:

More of Waikiki

We walked towards Diamond Head today and stopped at the zoo, aquarium and walked along the beach. The zoo is the best one I have ever been at-the grounds were amazing with all of the beautiful plants and trees.

I was erasing a blurred picture off of my memory card and accidentally erased ALL the pictures on my memory card-I felt sick at my stomach until I remember that I had uploaded the pictures onto my laptop the night before. I still lost a few pictures from that day but made them up on the walk back to the hotel.

You can point your camera anywhere and take a great picture here. It's beautiful here with the water, lush plant life and the beach.

Tomorrow we plan on heading the other way down Kalakeanua Blvd. and see Iolani Palace, the memorials at Pearl Harbor and take a tour of the Dole Plantation.