Aloha!

Welcome to Heaven!!!

At least as close as I can find here on earth! Here is the view off our balcony. Tough duty, huh! Paul & I are here in Maui enjoying this gorgeous scenery and this delightful Hawaiian culture for the next 2 weeks. I know, pretty indulgent! We haven't been to Hawaii since 2001 so we decided to trade in our Mexico weeks and stay US this year. We are super happy with our accommadations; it was a great trade.

As we sit at the pool or out on the beach we can see at least 2 of the neighboring islands. This one is Molokai and Lani is just to the left (out of the photo). A woman I was taking to out by the pool today said that at night you can even see the lights of Honolulu in the far distance (I don't know if that is true and I'm not sure what she was drinking).

We got here on Saturday and so far we have pretty much just sat in the sun and begun to decompress. This morning, I went for a
4-mile run/walk and Paul went for a 45-mile bike ride -- show off (just kidding, dear!). We have been eating very delicious, island food and have found some fun, unique restaurants. We like to find little local eateries that are somewhat off the beaten path. So far we have been to Cafe Mumbo in Paia, Cheeseburger in Paradise and The Front Streeet Grill in Lahaina and tonight we drove over to Kihei and ate at Stella Blues Cafe.

We haven't got too much planned yet but we are considering a few options like a snorkeling trip, a tour over to Molokai, maybe a luau but FOR SURE Paul is planning to ride his bike UP Haleakala, the volcano that most people ride bicycles DOWN! He is talking about riding his bike over to Hana tomorrow as some warm up for the BIG ride. I am planning to find the one quilt store on this island! That will be a highlight for me.

To be continued...

Mount Logan adventure

Every fall Paul and I like to get in an ATV outing. This year we were struggling to come up with a weekend that we could get out on. Between IRS tax deadlines and stormy, snowy weekends, we were afraid we were going to have to miss out this year. But lucky for us, we were able to take advantage of a beautifully perfect Saturday this past weekend and get our ride in.

My brother lives up in Cache Valley in Logan, Utah. He has always told us about all the great off road areas there are to explore around there so we convinced him and his cute new wife, Barbara, to take us out and show us around. When we arrived in Logan at 10 am on Saturday morning the temperature was 43 degrees in the valley... that worried me about what the temperature was going to be up on the mountain where we'd be riding. And we also realized it was the opening day of the deer hunting season so there would be TONS of hunters out there also. But being the hardy souls that we are (yeah, right) we just added some orange and a few more warm layers and took off. It was so worth it!

Our adventure took us a total of 30 miles over a wide but super rocky and gnarly dirt road. It had snowed up there over the past two weekends so there were lots of portions of the road that were covered in mud and snow and even quite icy in places. Our destination was the peak of Mount Logan which is here in this photo. The most intense portion of the ride was this last steep climb. This photo doesn't do it justice! It looked really steep and slippery and even icy. I thought there was no way I was going to be able to get up there but I watched my brother make it to the top so I decided I'd be brave and give it a go. I put my machine in the lowest gear and 4-wheel drive and then just crept up slow and steady. Turns out it wasn't as steep as it looked at a distance and it wasn't icy either just wet and muddy. I was pretty stoked when I got to the top! The view from here was spectacular. You could see the WHOLE Cache Valley and all the surrounding mountains. I swear we could almost see Bear Lake from this vantage point!

Here is my trusty ride! My machine is called "Spiderman" since it is red and Paul has a green machine just like it that we have named "The Hulk". I don't think I have ever finished a ride with this much mud caked on me and my machine. At one point along the ride I thought I could see black butterflies flittering off the sides of my machine and then I looked closer and realized it was really just big chunks of mud flipping up all around me!

What a fun way to end another ATV season. Paul cleaned up the machines Monday night and put them "to bed" for the winter. We got enough memories to get us through till next spring when we can head out again.

Fall & Winter both on the same trail

So after reviewing the weather forcast for this week, Kalita and I determined that today would be the best day for our hike. We decided on hiking up to White Pine Lake. It is located in Little Cottonwood Canyon which is another beautiful canyon just a few miles from where we live. As we drove to the trailhead, this is what it looked like. This is the most fall colors that I have seen in any of the canyons we have hiked this fall. It is really hard to capture the intensity of the colors with just my little Power Shot camera. I actually took this photo after our hike as we were driving back down the canyon.

This hike is rated as "easy". It follows an old off-road vehicle tract so the pathway is wide and well marked. No motorized vehicles are allowed in this area anymore though mountain biking is allowed. The hike is a steady uphill climb but it switches back and forth along the mountainside so it is not necessarily steep. But it does gain 2500 feet of altitude in the 4 miles up to the lake so it gets you breathing pretty heavy. We left the parking lot at 9 am and we got to the summit by 11 am. I felt great with that pace.

We went from leaf-covered trail to snow-covered trail about half the way up the mountain. The trail narrowed down to just
1-person-wide as we got up to where we were traversing over a huge rockslide area. The weekend before this past one, we had a major snowstorm here. We even had about 4 inches of snow in our yard. Of course, it hasn't stayed on the ground in the valley but up here at 8,000' - 9,000 ' elevation, there was a fair amount of snow we were treaking through. It is hard to decided what to wear on a hike like this because you start out warm in just shorts and a long sleeved shirt but then you soon find yourself needing an extra sweatshirt and some gloves.

Ta Da!!! I just love it when we get the the top! It was really windy and chilly up there so we snapped a few pictures and headed back down. We had a lot of cloud coverage on the trek up the mountain but the sun broke through the clouds and the clouds disappeared and it was sunny and bright for the downhill portion. I'm always surprised how many other people are still out hiking this late in the season (crazy like us!). We passed 3 other guys today. The total mileage was 8 miles!!! That is the furthest I have hiked this year. It really helps to have half that total come from the downhill, gravity-supported portion. We got back to the parking lot by 1 pm. I felt really pleased with our 4 hour time frame. So, so fun!!!

(PS: more weekend adventure to share with you tomorrow)

Voting day at my house

And the vote goes to....I'm still pondering!

Here is my official ballot for this year's Presidential, State and local election. It arrived in my mailbox about a week ago. I have scanned over it a few times and I think I'm just about ready to fill in my selections.

A few years ago when Paul & I went to our local polling location the lines were sooooooooo long that we decided to switch to "mail-in ballots" and we have been happy ever since. I love being able to take my time and look over every option closely and even do some further scruntinzing before I decide which way to vote.

Besides I'm excited to have a photo of this year's "historic" ballot.

No matter how you choose to vote, I just want to encourage you to be sure and take advantage of your opportunity to make a difference and have your say!

Good luck to all! and May the best people win!!