Aloha...

Today is may last day here. I fly out tonight and arrive back in SLC Monday morning.

It's been a fascinating and wonderfully fun filled trip!

Maui Gold

There are three main parts to te island of Maui. The eastern mountain of Haleakala, the western mountain (known primarily as West Maui) and the valley that connects the two. Yesterday we drove The eastern part and saw the city of Hana. Today we did the western part and saw Lahaina. Beautiful and vastly different. I also am sick of the car! lol

Tomorrow is a farmers market and beach day.

Wowi Maui

The days are starting to melt together and my skin is browning like a soft cookie in the oven.

I love it here.

First Maui Sunset

Today was a long and short day. It started early. I went on a few walks with Clay and his wife Sidney around the area we're in called Pukalani.

We spent a large part of the day at the church house where we also had dinner -- which was amazing. Lots of rice and meat.

Aaron and I raced up the hill in front of the church twice and tied both times. I also did 13 summer-salts (sp?) down the hill. Great vacay so far!

First Maui Sunrise

Landed late last night and was up relatively early this morning. I watched the sunrise and ate Fruit Loops. Life is good. =)

Hawaii

So I've just embarked on my Maui adventure. I'm sitting at the Delta Sky Lounge enjoying gratuitous and copious amounts of cookies.

Here we go!!
(PS: Shout out to my sister Dynelle for pointing out the Blogger App!)

The In-Between

 Wahoo for the holiday season!! I've got 3 Pandora stations set on my computer and iPhone and have helped set up two trees already!

Because I'll be on Maui for over a week, I've had to get a lot of the preparations out of the way this week. And.... I didn't have my car again for a week. That was a bummer. They have fixed everything* and the car is working now.


*I hope, who knows really.

Yummy inversion. The first of the season. It tasted awful.

So - now off to Maui. =)

Have a good one!

Happy Thanksgiving

The holiday as a kid vs. as an adult.

The lesson to learn from this: gravy is neat. #truth

Natural History Museum of Utah

 Ladies and Gents! The Natural History Museum of Utah is finally open! Traffic in the area - especially parking - has been intense.

The museum offered free tickets to the public for its inaugural day and I was quick enough to grab two. So naturally I took Audri since we both are trying to hit up a lot of museums this year.

How often do you see people lined up to get into a museum?! Let me qualify that... How often do you see people lined up to get into museum in UTAH?! At an Apple Store, yes, but a museum! Sweet, sweet science!

Opening day was a Friday and our tickets were for 11 AM.

 The building the museum is housed in is actually called the Rio Tinto Center. All the copper that encases the structure is from the Bingham Copper Mine, which I think is really cool.

Also in the cool department is the little weather station at the top of the building. I'm an admitted weather nerd and even contemplated the idea of going into meteorology after my third grade weather map project turned out as well as it did. It was awesome. ...I digress.

We were told that it was a good idea to start our tour on the top floor and walk our way back down. When you go, don't do this. Bottom to top will help keep everything in an ordered time-line. Native Americans, to plant life, to dinosaurs to earth's formation was a bit of a brain twist.

All of the exhibits are very well done. So much to see and so much to do! Literally do! A good 70% of the pieces are "hands on, let me show you how this works" kind of stuff.  For example, to help you understand how Lake Bonneville formed, you have to turn a handle and make it rain on the Wasatch Mountains. Lots of rain = frighteningly huge lake that covers the city! Rain = bad. That's what I learned.

 Take a look at the picture to the right. C'mon, do it. Can you guess what it is?

It's an ant farm! Tja!! I asked a staff member what they feed the ants to make them do that, because I've seen A Bug's Life, so I'm almost an expert and I don't' remember these types of structures.

My question when unanswered, but I bet it's sugar. Sugar is awesome.

 There was another piece that showed 48 different rocks/crystals and such from all over the state. Each was labeled to show where it came from. Sadly, not a single one was from Uintah County. Box Elder had TWO! I pointed this out to the staff member, a geologist who was apparently very proud of his display...  He said they had a limited space so they had to be discerning. Not wanting to seem ignorant and being completely ernest, I asked why gilsonite wasn't included. It is one of a kind and only found in Uintah County. The answer was "well, bla bla bla". There is no good answer to that question. I'll have Riley donate a piece to them. If the museum is to represent Utah, then it should represent all of Utah.

 It was a wonderful visit. I highly recommend going. There is plenty to see and learn about our great state!

In other news, there was a house fire just down the street from where I live.

The idiot brought his motorcycle into the basement to "winterize" it.  In the process the fumes from the fuel made their way to the water heater pilot light. $100,000 later you have everyone in the neighborhood pissed off at you.

Angry Birds hat! I wear this everywhere now.

To wrap this post up, I'm including a picture of a sofa I saw at Crate & Barrel. If any of you would like to give this to me for Christmas, I would be your best friend forever and ever. And ever.

Thanks in advance! Can't wait!


Happy Thanksgiving! Have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

WYNEIA and IANEWY

Wyoming. Nebraska. Iowa. All for a wedding. My roommate, Steven, and his partner Russ.

We started out on Wednesday (11/09) and packed up the rental, a Chevy Traverse - heaven knows my murderous Jetta would never have let me make it to Des Moines and back... alive. Before we even made it past the Utah-Wyoming state line we had to stop on the freeway so some yay-who could pick up his industrial ladder off the road. Yup.

I've spent some time in southern Wyoming, but had never ventured beyond anything north of I-18 or east of Rock Springs (90% of the state). That first day we wanted to make it all the way to Sidney, Nebraska - necessitating only time for quick gas stops at the Git-n-Go. The picture above is just outside the hotel there in Sidney, which happens to be the world headquarters for Cabela's. Who knew? There is NOTHING in that quaint place but the store - marked by that water tower on the right. 

  The next day, we drove across the rest of the 450 miles of Nebraska and into Iowa. (I never want to drive through that state again.) We didn't get into Des Moines until late and the wedding was the next morning (11/11/11) so we made a night of it instead of exploring the city.

The ceremony was at the Des Moines Civic Center - a large broadway theater in the heart of downtown. Steven and Russ are both huge theater fans and goers, so it was a perfect fit. The date of 11/11/11 and having Wicked playing the night of their wedding was just extra icing on the proverbial [wedding] cake.

Steven had worked out all the details for the ceremony with the Community Affairs Director, a very nice gentleman named Dale.

Everything went wonderfully and it was an experience I'll remember for a long time to come. Tonight is their reception - so there is still a lot of work to do, but it's been a great adventure.

We all went to the musical that evening and it was fantastic. My second time to see it. Afterwards I checked out the city's nightlife a bit and got ready to head back to SLC. Talk about a fast trip!

 As a poli-sci junkie, one of the highlights of the trip was knowing that I-80 is home to three cities that happen to be capitals! Here is a pic of the Iowa state capital.

The building in Lincoln, Nebraska was visible from the freeway, but I wasn't able to finagle a picture.

I also managed a pic of the Wyoming Governor's mansion, but not the capital... I'm awesome.

Imagine this sunset sans the bug streakings across the windshield. It was nice.

I had no idea that the stretch of I-80 in WY averaged 6,200 ft. On the way back the state closed the freeway between Rawlins and Laramie for a few hours due to blowing snow. No storm... just snow that was there that wanted to move around a bit. So we stopped at Lincoln Head - a marker showing the highest point along I-80 in the US.

 Another quick observation: starting in Wyoming heading east I saw that there were a dozen or so gates that are used to literally close the freeway. None of this, put a highway patrol officer out there and tell people to go back. Nope. Gates. Nebraska doesn't want to be out-done, so they had a series of gates as well, at least through Kearney. Every time we past one, I rolled my eyes and thought, "people, you need to calm down".

Now, again, coming back to SLC they actually used these gates against me! And later I realized why they are used: truckers have to be forced off the freeway or they will make a mess of everything when weather conditions are not optimal.

 Blowing snow is not fun, but it's not the end of the world. I'd say most everyone driving knew how to handle the road conditions. Again, however, truckers were being blown OFF the road. There were a large number who stayed in Laramie, lining up along the road and having a pow-wow of sorts - or napping. Sadly, even a larger number decided to clog the road, both lanes, for 300 miles - maxing out at 12 mph.

Not fun.

In this pic to the left, if you look hard, you can see that there is a line of vehicles for as far as you can see. All stopped just enjoying the wondrous Wyoming landscape.


To recap: This was my first time to Nebraska and Iowa, bringing the total number of states I've been to to 17 (not counting airports). The wedding was awesome, worth all 2,500 miles of driving I personally achieved. And, finally, no one ever needs to go to Wyoming, ever.