Monthly Archives: October 2008

Julie was noticing a theme with a lot of the pictures taken of me over the span of our vacation so far. Things seem to be similar to what normally happens at home. Why did we go on vacation to do the same stuff I could have done at home?

Here I am playing Wii. I totally beat all the old people and made them cry.

Here I am getting bothered by a cat while trying to use a computer:

And here I am at Walmart getting nasty gummy bears. They were some weird Japanese brand. I didn’t notice until I opened the package, but they are covered in some weird stuff that looks like dirt. I think it’s supposed to be spicy. Good thing I got some gummy coke bottles as a backup, just in case.

Today was an incredible day! We docked in Hilo, on the Big Island at about 8 am, and were off the ship and ready to go on our Lava Viewing Hiking tour by 8:15! It turned out our tour was very small – 16 people total, split between two vans – so very personal, and not packed like sardines into a big tour bus! We stopped at numerous places around the island, including the Thurston Lava Tube, Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory, and several lava viewing areas. Our highlights were walking to one of the active steam vents and craters on Kiluea, a black sand beach, and seeing some incredible lava flows. Tomorrow we are on to Maui – Lahaina. We’re looking forward to another great day!

We are currently about 3/4 of the way to Hawaii. Our first day at sea was rather rough- 10-15 foot sweels. I had a bit of a headache, but that was about it. The last two days have been perfect, and our favorite place has definitely been the solarium pool, which is covered with a sunroof, so it is warm, a great place to swim and then pass the afternoon reading! Sorry, no pictures, but hopefully those will be coming soon! We have one more day at sea tomorrow, and then we have our first stop in Hawaii – Hilo, on Thursday! Here are some pics of the first couple of days:

Phew! After standing in line after line after line, we have finally made it onto the Radiance of the Seas. We found our room right away to drop off a few of our things, and then started exploring. Well, by exploring, I mean making our way to the Lido Deck for the lunch buffet! We passed several pools, art galleries, the fitness center and the lobby along the way to the food. We are always a bit amazed at just how big these ships are, and how much they can pack in! We still haven’t seen the other dining rooms, the casino, the theaters, the shops, etc. Our first try at the buffet was a success, with the smoked bbq pork being our favorite of the meal! We set sail at 5 pm, with an obligatory muster drill at 4:30 (Justin’s very favorite part of the whole cruise – ha!).

We got into San Diego last night, and everything went well. I really dislike flying, but the flights were actually pretty good. I am pretty particular when it comes to airlines, as we have had good and bad experiences in the past. So far, Frontier has been one of our favorites. They are pretty efficient and consistent, and the planes are reasonably comfortable and quiet, which is all I am really looking for. We got in after dark, so we were in for a treat this morning when we opened up the shades on the window. Our hotel is located here:

We are on a peninsula between a marina and a bay. Our hotel room is right across the street from the bay.

It has been a really nice morning so far. We found a donut place to visit, which was awesome. It really makes me want a good donut place in Stevens Point. Copps and County Market just don’t cut it. This place had excellent raised and glazed donuts, with good shredded coconut, as opposed to the blended stuff we normally get. The lady behind the counter was surprised I got a Coke instead of coffee, but you haven’t lived until you have washed down a sugar glazed fried donut with a tall glass of Coke

After the donut run, we wandered around looking for a Walgreen’s or convenience store, as Julie forgot a brush for her hair. We found a pharmacy at around 8:55, but it didn’t open until 9, and we were standing outside when I noticed a bakery across the street. We wandered over to take a look and found a cool bakery with all sorts of different breads and rolls available. We got a demi-baguette and a Gorgonzola, red onion, and walnut focaccia. We are going to have those for lunch before we head to the ship. We can see our ship across the harbor!

We’ve certainly had a full day of cars and planes. We drove to Minneapolis this morning, checked in for our flight without problems (for the most part) and all our flights were on time (for the most part.) It turned out the fee for an overweight bag is $75!! The fee for a whole extra bag is only $25! Since one of our bags was overweight, I quickly pulled out an extra duffle we had packed and shifted things around, and then actually put in Justin’s carry-on bag inside it as well, and the ticket agent counted it as simply checking a carry-on, which apparently there is no extra fee for! Very bizarre, but it all worked out. All the bags made it to San Diego just fine along with us, and we made it to our hotel just fine as well. We have a San Diego Bay view from our window – very cool. It is good to be done for the day, but we are both very excited to get onboard the ship tomorrow!

I forgot to post these pictures yesterday after we got back from my parents’ house last night.  They recently arrived back from vacationing in Estes Park, Colorado for a week, and they came back with some pretty cool pictures.  I love this picture they took with the camera timer of themselves at Bear Lake, and, for all you doubters, here is proof that Paul CAN smile in a photograph!  I don’t know how Mom caught him, though she did say something about him being in the process of defacing park property… (aka carving his initials on the log!) 

This business about only being able to check one bag per person without paying extra is a sham.  Though Justin’s size 13 dress shoes certainly don’t help matters at all.  Yes, I was able to zip this suitcase closed, but just barely.  And a safety strap will definitely be going around it.  Don’t worry, I’m not looking for sympathy as I know we won’t receive any but I needed to post something!

Phew!!  This has been a very busy, but very productive day in and around the kitchen.  I ran to Appleton to World Market for chocolate, and it turned out to be on sale (hooray!).  Then drove over to Penzy’s Spices to pick up some sea salt for myself and cinnamon for my mom.  I also had a coupon for a free container of minced garlic, which I forgot at home, but they still gave me the free container (hooray!).  Drove home and started working in the kitchen.  Ruth!  Pay attention – these are all good recipes to use up that crazy humongous squash!  I found these few recipes on Martha Stewart’s site a couple of days ago and wanted to try them right away.  So I pulled some dough out to rise and started chopping vegetables – butternut squash, red potatoes, carrots, parsnips, red onions and smashed garlic cloves, plus some freshly ground pepper, the aforementioned sea salt, and some good quality olive oil.  Oh, and did I mention the bacon again?  Well, I had to use up the rest of the package from before – we’re going on vacation, can’t have good bacon going to waste!  With a quarter of the roasted vegetables I made the Roasted Vegetable Pizza with Ricotta Cheese.  Amazing!  All three of us really liked it a lot.  I was slightly skeptical of root vegetables on pizza, but it was a hit.  While the pizza was baking I pureed the rest of the vegetables up for the Roasted Fall Vegetable Soup.  Also fantastic, but I am saving that to take up to Wausau tomorrow evening for dinner with my parents.   Hmm… unless I need to have a small bowl now to make sure it is still okay…

And then to top it off, two desserts - one to take to share with my parents and the other for Student Ministries.  I stuck with the ridiculous caramel oatmeal squares that I have become obsessed with for my parents (also courtesy of Martha Stewart), and then made a new recipe, 

brownies topped with chocolate chip cookie dough for SM.  

In other kitchen-related work, our friends Heath, Jim & Jenn came to help us pick up and move some restaurant equipment we purchased – a big electric convection oven, a chest freezer, hand-washing sink, mop bucket and ringer, and a 20 quart Hobart Stand Mixer, which doesn’t weigh nearly as much as Jim & Justin would have you believe!

Julie and I are going to have to have a vow renewal, just so I can get this cake.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/10/sunday-sweets-super-mario-wedding-cake.html