Doodle's packing list

From the bloggy backlog, I present the list of clothing Doodle packed for our trip to North Carolina. (Yes, that was Thanksgiving. I just found the list I jotted down. Better late than never, right?)

When turned loose to pack her own clothes for our Thanksgiving road trip, this is what Doodle put in her bag:

• 7 short sleeve shirts
• 3 skirts
• 1 pair pants
• 5 pairs tights
• 1 pair socks
• 1 pair underwear
• 4 swimsuits
  

Apparently road trip = fun, warmth and waterplay. We ended up doing a little supplemental packing before we left.

Solo

We just dropped J off at the airport. He's flying to San Diego for a conference and will be gone for a week. (Though the story of how the airline canceled his 6am flight at 6pm yesterday is a fun one - he's currently picking up a rental car with his boss, driving to Baltimore, then taking a nonstop flight to San Diego. Quite the fiasco.)

We'll be in self-entertaining/survival mode here, which either means I'll be blogging a ton or not at all. Things should get back to normal (whatever that is) before February... I hope.

Transition

It's a bit of a rough transition from this...

...to this...

...but we're working on it.

The fresh snowfall has helped - it's better to have snow to play in (and eat) than just cold wind and gray skies.

Haleakala

Subalpine zone, Haleakala National Park

One of our last days in Hawaii J and I took a daytrip with the kiddos up to Haleakala National Park, the big crater in the middle of Maui. We wanted to see a wild Sandalwood tree (J's Master's thesis study organism), some Silverswords (plants native to Hawaii, some of which are endangered), and some Nene (Hawaiian Geese). We struck out on the Nene, but found some introduced Chukar near the top of the crater. I grumbled a little about the chukar, as a guy had pointed us to the trail saying "There's some Nene right over there!" Oh well.

The sandalwood was everything J had hoped, and even had some bracken fern (his PhD study organism) growing up and out of it. We stopped and botanized in the subalpine zone, where I would definitely spend more time given the opportunity. We saw some Vaccinium (Hawaiian huckleberries), a bunch of neat leguminous shrubs, and even found a cute yellow-faced solitary bee!

cute little male solitary bee!

The silverswords were beautiful, especially in the near-barren alpine zone where they grow. The visitor center at the top is just short of 10,000 feet elevation, and you can see everything from up there. We could see the ocean all around the island, and some of the nearby islands. It was beautiful. I'm glad we decided to head up country because we got to see some beautiful areas and explore some ecosystems that are very different from the beach.

On the long, winding drive up the mountain we saw some hitchhikers with longboards and helmet-cams, and realized they had just done something like this:



We totally would have picked up the guys just to hear their story, but with the carseats and kiddos we didn't have room for them. Bummer.

A little farther up the mountain we saw another pair of guys coming down on their longboards. Looked a little scary, but definitely a rush. The road is perfect for this; it's nice and smooth, long, well maintained, and low traffic. I'm under orders from my mom to not tell my brother about this.



Pretty amazing, don't you think?

Return from Paradise

We're back and alive. Still struggling to get back on Eastern time after switching to Pacific (+3 hours), then Hawaii (+2 more), then back to Pacific (-2), then Eastern (-3, and we got home at 4am Tuesday). Our internal clocks are all effed up. We're getting there, though.

Hawaii was beautiful and warm and wonderful. Roo still has sand on his scalp, 6 days later. Doodle and I have swimsuit tan lines. What I don't have, yet, is photos. Our camera has been on the fritz with a busted flash for about three months now (hence all the crappy, blurry photos I've been posting. Sorry.) so we decided not to bring it. My mom, step-bro, sis and sis's friend all took plenty of photos and promised to share, so as soon as we get some of those I'll post photos of our sunny, warm, beautiful escape.

In the mean time I'll work on posting some stories and tidbits from the trip while we get back into the swing of our cold, Eastern time zone days.

Happy New Year, friends!

N.C. bound

Tomorrow we hit the road to North Carolina, where we will be spending Thanksgiving with J's uncle and his family. I've met this uncle once, and not yet met his wife or kids (college-age). I'm both excited and a tiny bit nervous, but I think it'll be really good.

Happy early Thanksgiving everyone!

Bound for California!

Looking out the window at the pouring rain it's hard to believe that in ~13 hours we'll be in sunny, HOT, dry California. We're bound for the greater L.A./Orange County region for a few days of celebration. First up: J's brother's wedding. Doodle will be the flower girl with a fabulously twirly dress and, most importantly for my purple-loving diva, a beautiful purple bow. J is a groomsman and will be looking snazzy in his nice new suit. For Roo, a white button-up shirt, grayish pants and possibly a little vest if it's not too hot. For me a dress that's dressy enough to blend with my fabulous crew. I'm even planning to wear mascara. Yep, big deal. It's sure to be a big, fun bash and I'm looking forward to it.

After the wedding we'll have a mellow day, then J's grandma is hosting a birthday party for Roo. On the guest list: 40 people so far. Yes, 40. Including kids. Forecast: loudness and mayhem and lots of love all around. It'll be great.

I'll give a full report when we're back. Until then, I'm off to pack. Gotta get the swimsuits for the beach! :D

Season of perpetual motion

This summer seems to be going by at a breakneck pace. GoatFest was a success - we have a freezer full of vacuum sealed goat steaks and roasts, waiting for us to get the hankering to eat meat once again. I may post pictures (nothing gory) once we're back. Yes, back. We are embarking on yet another roadtrip.

This summer seems to be our season of perpetual motion. Sunday we were at the City of Rocks all day. Yesterday we recovered (somewhat). Today we scramble to get last-minute things done around the house because tomorrow we hit the road again, this time for WA.

This trip will be full of family and family events. Not too much bouncing around, but we will have a full 4th of July weekend with wedding festivities galore. I'm looking forward to seeing family, maybe getting in some climbing near Spokane, and finally making the trek back to our wedding location to see if we can find the tree we planted. Good stuff. Photos will be posted sometime...eventually...after things calm down. Say, September?

Epic holiday drive

We're back from our holiday journey to the frozen north. It was fun to see family, but I am so glad to be off the roads.

Day 1 of our adventure: part of I-84 was closed. We decided to backtrack when the FedEx trucks were turning around. Lost a couple hours, but made it around the blocked area. Tried to help a guy get back on the road (too stuck - trooper called a tow truck). At least we got some snow-driving karma points. Drove on nasty, icy crap roads but made it to Boise.

Day 2: driving through Eastern Oregon. Hit a shady slippery patch on a downhill slope and spun/slid off the road. Used those karma points. Some nice guys stopped and helped us dig a path back to the road, one using a cooler lid as a shovel. Made it back on the road, and the rest of the drive to SE WA was relatively uneventful.

Time with my paternal grandparents: they loved seeing Doodle. She played, jumped, danced, and made great-grandma's antique glass reindeer nurse ("have mama milk" she said) on the mama reindeer. So cute.

Drive to my mom's: horrid. We left Xmas Eve, around 8:45pm. Slid off the road once, similar scenario to previous time. Got back on road easily. Now out of karma points. Kept driving in slick conditions. Nearly got runover by a speeding minivan, narrowly missing being rear ended by moving into the left lane. Pulled over at rest stop, chained up. Did you know that you can only go ~25 MPH with chains? And that, in doing so, it takes AN HOUR to go frickin' 25 miles?!?! Egad, that took forever. Rolled into Spo-town very late, where there was lots and lots AND LOTS of snow. Drove slowly through town, made it to mom's house by 3:45 am. Merry Christma...zzzzzz.

Christmas day: my sis flew in, only a few hours delayed. Hung out, played, had fun. Got a kick ass knitted purse from my sissy complete with snazzy quarter buttons. I *heart* it. That and my new tiger box (oh, don't worry...I'll post pics) made for a quirky, eclectic MamaBee Christmas. Doodle loved her photo book, J got his very first climbing nut... it was good. Ate lots of turkey, gravy and rice dressing. Yum.

Day after Xmas: Obligatory visit to maternal Grandma, where she gave Doodle a window-clingy stuffed animal with a tag identifying it's production date as 1990. Do other peoples' grandparents keep stuff like this around for 18 years? Followed this visit with a trip to the climbing gym. Doodle played on crashpads with Uncle T while J belayed my mom and sissy. Fun times had by all... though I do miss being able to climb with everyone. Maybe next year.

Following day: dug out the house. Massive roofalanches (snow falling off steep metal roof in large sheets) resulted in some damage to deck railing. J and my bro T dug out the deck while my mom got the snowplow stuck and unstuck plowing the driveway. Yes, my mom has to plow her driveway. Ugh. The snow was ridiculous. I dug out the mailbox area while Doodle was napping. At least we got to enjoy the hot tub.

The next day we were back on the road, this time via MT and ID. One good mountain pass and one nasty pass, plus a bunch further into Montana. Managed to psych myself out with dark and blowing snow while driving, so we stopped short of Butte for the night. Kept driving the next morning and it was pretty good. A stretch of road to Butte was slick, and just past the MT-ID border it turned to nasty blowing ugly snow. Gross. Made it past that, and the rest of the way home was great. We got home at a reasonable hour. No more snow driving karma points acquired nor required. Now completely sick of winter driving. Is it spring yet?

We were glad to spend time with family, introducing Doodle to my Uncles and hanging out with my loved ones. Hopefully, though, that'll be our last major winter trek driving all the way up north. Next time we have the holidays up there, we're flying.

Happy New Year, everyone!