They Call Me Snow White

Well, now that there are only 274 more days (not that I'm counting) until my trip to Hawaii, I have some important decisions to make. One of the decisions I need to make is what to do about the my snow colored skin. If I were to lay down in the snow naked, you would not see me. Seriously. Next winter, I'll take a picture and prove it. Ha! Just checking to see if you were listening.

A little side story as proof of this. One time, my husband (boyfriend at the time) were walking down a street in Las Vegas. A guy driving by actually yelled out the window, "Get a tan!" We were the only two people there and my husband is naturally darker skinned, so it was obviously meant for me. Jerk!

So, I am very pale skinned. And I burn very easily. The few times I sat in the sun when I was younger, I would burn, turn bright red, and peel. That is why I rarely attempted the whole tanning thing. So, I need to think about how to prepare myself for the sunny weather.

I have tried several ways to do this in the past to limit the amount of laughter when I walk by people. I tried tanning lotion one summer. The results were okay but it was a lot of work and it does not last very long. Some important things I learned about using this form of "tanning".

• Trying to rub lotion onto the middle and upper part of your back is not easy unless you are a contortionist.
• It is very important to put on an even layer or you will end up with streaks and patchy spots. Not pretty.
• You have to be careful about areas like your knees and elbows or you will walk around looking like you haven't taken a bath for awhile.
• You should wear gloves unless you want orange hands and fingernails for a few days.

I have also tried a tanning booth. I did this for our last trip to Hawaii. I was actually pretty pleased with the end result and it lasted longer than the three weeks we were there. And, I never got sunburned after being outside for hours on end. The down sides to this are that it was expensive and a pain in the butt to have to go to the tanning salon every other day for two months. Another more important down side is the health risk involved. I'm not comfortable with the whole increased cancer risk so this was probably a one time thing for me.

A little piece of advice for someone new to tanning this way. Bring a watch with you and pay attention to the time you are in there. On my first week of tanning, they set the wrong time for me and instead of staying in the machine for 5 minutes, I was in for about 12. When you first start tanning, every minute is important. Let's just say that if I would have gone to a doctor, I probably would have been told that I received some sort of 2nd or 3rd degree burn. I am not kidding when I say that there was a lot of pain involved and I could barely sit and sleep for a few days. It was not good. But hey, I got a free bottle of moisturizer from them. Wasn't that generous? (insert sarcasm here)

This time, I'm thinking about a spray tan. This lowers the risks of damage to the skin, cancer (I hope) and uneven coloring. Unfortunately, this does not seem to last very long either and I would probably have to go somewhere in Hawaii for another session.

Why do I care so much anyway? I don't know. I should probably be more concerned about the roll of belly fat and the cellulite on the back of my legs and work on finding a pair of shorts that will camouflage both areas. Or maybe actually start exercising instead of just thinking about it. Ugh, now I'm depressed. Where's the ice cream?

Chicken vs. Tourists

My husband and I ran into many different animals when we vacationed in Hawaii a few years ago. We had frequent birds landing on our lanai in the mornings looking for food. It might have been the pieces of bread and Doritos we left out to coax them but who knows.

At night, we would go searching for frogs around our condo. Mostly, there were adult ones but occasionally we would find a few little stinkers hopping around. Aren't they cute?

The other frequent visitors around the condo were snails. Huge snails! Look at the size of these things! Holy cow! I have never seen a snail that large before. We probably found about 20-30 of them every night we looked.

This beautiful peacock was one of many that we came across during a tour of a botanical garden. They were just freely walking around like they owned the place. They pretty much did though, since all the people would move out of their way as they walked around. When we tried to leave, there was one that refused to move out of the way of our car. After about 20 minutes, we realized that it was looking at itself in the reflection of our car. Talk about conceited!

We also saw this little guy there. Although, it did not look like he appreciated us being there. He was giving us a dirty look and watching our every move as we walked by.

This guy didn’t look to happy to see us either.

My husband and I are animal lovers. Not crazy animal lovers but we respect the fact that we share this Earth with them and don't do anything intentionally to hurt them. They can be fascinating to watch. However, on this trip, we ran into one animal that we were not too fond of.

We had pulled over to the side of the road along The Road to Hana and noticed a trail that we wanted to explore. As we walked up to trail, we noticed there was a chicken standing right in the middle of it.

The minute our eyes met, I knew we were in trouble. I can remember those beady, little, evil eyes like it was yesterday. As soon as we got within 15 feet of that satanic chicken, it started freaking out by clucking, wildly flapping its wings, and darting back and forth like crazy. We stopped in our tracks and so did it. We would take one step forward and it would start freaking out again. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Now, this trail was only about three feet wide so there was no way we could get around the chicken so we needed it to move in order to get through. I have seen too many “when animals attack” movies to know that I was not getting near that thing. However, I was ready to fight if I had to. I was going to get past it even if it killed me!

We really didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t budging and neither were we. We were expecting that at any moment, the chicken was going to charge at us and peck our eyes out! We didn’t have any weapons but my purse was pretty heavy and I was prepared use it if I had to. Like I said, we love animals but if it came down to me or the chicken, we were going to be eating well that night. (Just kidding, we wouldn’t really eat the chicken, it being possessed and everything.) Finally, about 15 minutes into the standoff, the killer chicken gave up and ran away. We were victorious!

I don’t think it actually went anywhere though. I could feel its beady eyes watching me the whole time we were on the trail. I think it was stalking us from the bushes. I swear it was!

I Can't Make Up My Mind!!

I mentioned in an earlier post that my husband and I are planning on going back to Hawaii to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. To say I am thrilled is an understatement. I have been bouncing off the walls ever since we started talking about the reality of actually going back.

Well, I am having a problem. I cannot seem to decide which island to stay on and which hotel/condo to stay at. Yeah, I know, poor me. Hey, I am not looking for sympathy here but just venting my confusion and frustration. I think the problem is that it was so perfect the last time, I am afraid of picking the wrong place to stay. Like you can actually be miserable anywhere there!

The last time we went, I did research for about 6 months prior and booked everything a whole year in advance. You should have seen the Excel spreadsheets, folders of papers, and bookmarked websites that I had put together about EVERYTHING you could possibly want to know about Maui. All my family members thought I had lost my mind when they saw what I was doing.

What can I say? I like to be prepared. Much unlike my husband who would probably take all of five minutes and book the first hotel he found on the internet (sorry sweetie but you know it's true). And that's why I always plan any trips we take. I like to read reviews from people who actually stayed at potential places to get an idea of what to expect. I like to see accommodation pictures and balcony views, locate nearby businesses, find out where the closest grocery store is, etc., etc., etc. Again, I like to be prepared!

So, this time around, I already feel like I'm behind schedule. We are looking at going next March and by now I would have everything booked. However, I can't seem to make up my mind! I just need to buckle down, make a decision, and stick with it. Wish me luck!

Here is a sneak peek at one of the condo's lanai views that I am thinking about. You cannot get much closer to the water than this!

(Picture borrowed from here.)

Can't you just feel the warm breeze and hear the water smashing against the rocks?

Dreaming about Hawaii

I'm dreaming about Hawaii, Maui in particular. My husband and I got married on a waterfront estate there and then stayed three weeks for our honeymoon. If I had one word to describe it, which really doesn’t do it justice, it would be: AWESOME!!

We stayed in a condo about 50 feet away from the water. It had a huge lanai (balcony) that was the length of the condo with screen doors that extended from wall to wall. We ended up sleeping in the living room area every night so we could enjoy the warm breeze blowing with the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep.

I am not a morning person but I woke up early every day just to sit out on the lanai for a few hours. I would just sit and watch the palm trees blowing in the wind and could hear a variety of birds singing. I would close my eyes and feel the warm gusts of wind on my face and just soak it all up. It was so peaceful just staring at the soft waves of the water and seeing mountains in the background. This is a view from our balcony. (Please excuse the quality of the picture.)

There were so many things to do and see there. Three weeks wasn’t enough time to explore everything. However, we planned ahead of time on several must do activities. One of those activities was to try parasailing, which is something I have always wanted to do. Everyone I know had a look of shock on their face when I told them we planned on doing this.

(O.k., he is not a friend or family member but you get the point.) Why were they shocked? Well, I can’t swim and I’m pretty terrified of water. I think I was so excited about doing it that I didn’t even think about being pulled by a rope while hanging 500 feet over the water. I was bummed that it only lasted about 15 minutes and as soon as it ended, I wanted to do again!

Another thing we did was jet skiing. Yes, another water activity for me. This time, I was scared as soon as I got on the water. We both drove our own jet ski and there was a large circular area that a big group of people would drive around. As soon as I started driving around, thoughts of falling in and being swallowed by a huge shark started to come to mind.

My solution to not falling in was to go really, really slow. My husband was having a blast driving like a madman around the course and he passed me numerous times. I was definitely the slowest one out there! Every time the jet ski would topple a little around the turns I would practically stop. Afterwards, my husband laughed at me and said that he reached speeds around 60 miles per hour. I think I didn’t even reach 25 miles per hour!

We did a lot of driving while we were there. We drove the Road to Hana, which is a long, winding road that goes around a large portion of the island. When I say winding road, I mean exactly that. You rarely went over 5 miles an hour because of the numerous, very sharp turns you had to make. In a lot of places, you could not see oncoming traffic and the road was just wide enough to squeeze two cars through. In some areas, the road only fit one car so you had to patiently wait until they passed you by before continuing to drive. The road did not have any side rails and during most parts you had the wall of the mountain on one side and a cliff literally inches from the road on the other side. This was definitely not for the faint at heart. I think I would have passed out if I saw one of these:

Here are some tips for anyone attempting to drive on this road. Please learn from our mistakes!

1. First, if you get car sick like me, take some medication that will help prevent this.
2. Fill your gas tank because you will drive for hours without seeing a gas station.
3. Don’t drive at night if this is your first attempt.
4. Don’t think you can drive the entire road all the way around quickly. (Ahem...it takes about 6 hours)

Every place we went, we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the island. The landscape, tropical flowers, waterfalls, lava fields, and the beaches were simply amazing. If you have never been there, I highly recommend it. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. If you have some time, I will now post all 3,000 pictures that I took. Just kidding!

We recently decided to go back for our five year anniversary, which is next year. I am so EXCITED! More about this on a later post.