Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for Jimmy, family and friends. I hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day tomorrow.

Daily Dash

Today my post will be about my very favorite doggie, Dash.

We rescued Dash two years ago and although he can get on my nerves from time to time he is the sweetest dog. When you rescue a dog you sometimes know very little about them. Since he is a greyhound we probably knew more about him than the average rescue. For instance we knew that Dash raced in Wisconsin for several years. We knew who owned him and that he was the first in his litter. We only knew that because of the tattoos in his ears - 85A which meant August, 2005, first born.


The other day I was bored and thinking about my retired athlete and was curious about doing an Internet search for him. His real name is Ale Dobber. You can see why we changed it....right?


Well, what do you know....I googled Ale Dobber and neat website came up. It was basically a greyhound data base. You type in the dog's name and up comes their lineage, race results and their picture.


Here is Dash in his younger years when he was racing. He looks fierce!

I also learned that Dash was born on August 3, 2005. He was one of 7 pups. His dad's name was Craigie Whistler and his mom was Rooftop Hiedi Ho. He raced in 74 races, placed 1st in 9 and 2nd in 11. He raced for 3 years. There was not a picture of Dash's mom but I do know she was a larger dog that was fawn and white. Dash's dad was large as well. He is pictured below.

Now I totally see where Dash gets his markings. (Pictures are from Greyhound - Data . com)

It is pretty neat seeing a little bit of Dash's history. Sounds like he was a busy dog. Currently, Dash is enjoying his retirement - lounging in the living room, getting lots of love and attention, going on long walks, playing with his rabbit toy and ball and eating lots of good food. So glad we rescued him!! =)

Rain rain go away.....

Wow, it has rained for the past few days. It is nice to have a little rain but I am ready for sunshine again.

Things here with us are going well. We started our bathroom project and it is looking good. I should have pictures soon of the completed room.

I will say that Anna and Jimmy will never put up a medicine cabinet together again. I am too short and not strong enough to hold the thing up and Jimmy does not have 4 arms and patience. Lessons - I learned how to level the cabinet and work a drill. Jimmy learned that I am too short for the project. After much stress, sweat and severals words the cabinet is up and will not ever be replaced again.

Another lesson - I painted my first ceiling. I need to wear glasses next time.

On another note I had my modeling debut last night. I walked the runway did my little turn and flashed a smile. Probably the closest this 5'1 girl will ever come to Top Model. The Junior League had a fundraiser at Hilldale Mall and myself along with several other lovely ladies modeled Pendelton's outfits and outerwear. It was fun going in for the fitting and picking clothing. I had four of outfits, jewely and shoes. Casual with jeans, cute dress, business and a winter look with a coat. Although a little strange having a crowd of people staring at you while you prance around, it was fun. I really liked Pendelton's clothing especially their coats.....just wish they weren't so expensive. I tallied up one outfit and I had on arond $1000 in clothing, shoes and jewels. Wow!
Someone took pictures and if they make them available I will try to post them on the blog.

see ya later alligator....

Falling for Fall

Wow, it seems that overnight the trees started to change colors. There are little hints of red and yellow here and there and the weather is really nice. A nice chill to the air at night and then around 65-70 during the day.

Things with us are doing well. Dash is good although he is accident prone. While at the kennel he ripped out his whole toe nail and then other night he fell off the bed and hurt his foot. I don't think he realizes how big he is! Swollen and limping for several days he is back to normal now.

We are about to start another bathroom project. The guest bathroom upstairs, so stayed tuned for pictures.

A taste of San Francisco

With all the talk of Hawaii I almost forgot about our little weekend getaway that we had planned several months ago.

Not two weeks after we returned from Hawaii we set out on another journey. Jimmy was invited to be a guest speaker at a few events in the Bay area so I decided to come along. I have never even been to Cali so I was quite excited.

With Hawaii being such a large trip that took planning I never even thought about San Fran.
I love to plan trips. Do the research, find fun things to do. Maybe I have missed my calling...?

Well anyway, I did absolutely no research, no planning, no trip advisor searches, no nothing for San Fran. other than packing my bags and boarding the plane. I even had no idea where we were staying. I found out when I arrived at midnight Friday night and had to call Jimmy and ask what hotel so I could take a cab. Gosh....so not me. It was fun. Everything was a surprise...oh yeah Alcatraz is here....this is where the houses are from Full House, the Golden Gate Bridge....

I arrived when his events were winding down so we could spend the weekend together. Our trip was pretty short so on Saturday we saw the highlights of the city. We rented bikes and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw quite a bit of the city this way. We did not however venture up into the city where the hills are so steep I can't imagine having a manual car. We rode along the shore and into Sausalito and then took the ferry back to San Fran. It was a really neat way to see the sights. We saw the ever so curvy Lombard Street and trolley cars.

On Sunday we went to Napa Valley and did a few wine tastings. We went to Domaine Chandon (sparkling wine), Whitehall Lane, August Briggs and Beringer. We ate dinner at Bouchon's. Very, very good food!!

Late in the afternoon we drove around the bay area and went through Berkley and Oakland. I can't imagine how expensive it must be to live here.

As you can see the trip was quite short but lots of fun. I can't wait to go back....this might be our next vacation spot.

Favorite Photo

Okay, I lied, one more post......When you love taking pictures it is really a tough decision on which ones to include in the blog and when you have 500+ to choose from it is even harder. So to really end my posts about Hawaii here are my two favorite pictures.

The first one was taken on our kayaking trip on one of the twin islands off Kailua Bay. I was pretty proud of myself that day because we kayaked about 2 1/2 miles to this island and then basically rocked climbed along the side of the island. It was a little scary but really fun! Of course I took my camera and took this photo.
This one was taken after snorkeling at Shark's Cove. We were eating dinner at Jameson's in Haleiwa. The little town is known for sunsets and during our time at Jameson's I ran across the road to take this shot. This one is probably my favorite!


Mahalo!

The last few days of our trip......

Makapu'U Beach on our last day...
Jimmy and I on the overlook near Lanai Lookout
Makapu'U Beach
Me being soak by the waves near the arch in Laie
Looking off the island on our kayak trip.
Taking a break for a picture while on our kayak trip.
Manoa Falls
Fruit stand near Waimea Bay with Courtney and Carrie.
USS Missouri
USS Arizona Memorial
Yokohama Beach

I hope my ramblings haven't been too boring. This will be my last post about Hawaii.

After the dolphin excursion we joined Bill and Courtney at Three Tables for some snorkeling. It was really hot today and we welcomed the rain shower on the beach. After beaching it we headed around the island towards the windward side and stopped at a local fruit market for fresh coconut and papaya.

On our way home we stopped at Crouching Tiger Inn for dinner and then retreated back to our hotel room after a long but fun day.

Friday we visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri "the mighty Mo." It was surreal being on the grounds. I really never expected to visit this place. I learned quite a bit about Hawaii and the attack.

We also saw the Pacific Aviation Museum which was just featured on Ghost Hunters.

After visiting Pearl Harbor we went out for sushi. ironic choice.

Then we decided to just drive around and ended up sight seeing along the Pali Highway which was breathtaking. We stopped along the way at lookouts. The mountains were beautiful, green and did I say beautiful.


After driving around for a little while we decided to visit Manoa Falls. One of my "must see" places was a waterfall and this one happens to be a major filming location for Lost. If you are a lost fan several scenes were filmed around this area.

The next day, Saturday, all six of us went kayaking in Kailua Bay. We had a great time. We kayaked about 5 miles that day and made it to a small island off shore. We packed a picnic lunch and explored the island.

Sunday was our last full day on Oahu. Much of our trip was beach hopping all over the island. One beach by morning and another one by afternoon. This morning we headed to Kane'ohe Bay near Chinaman's Hat. We snorkeled, swam and sun bathed. Then in the afternoon we headed to Turtle Bay to snorkel. We had pie at Ted's Bakery.

For our last dinner on the island we ate at Hula Grill in Waikiki and had after-dinner fruity drinks at Duke's. Ugh....even as I type this I still feel sad to leave.

Since our flights didn't leave until 8:30pm on Monday we had most of the day to play. We drove along the southern shore of the island and saw the beach were From Here to Eternity was filmed. We then decided to relax on Makapu'U Beach. This was more of a play in the waves type beach rather than snorkeling. It was rough and guys were surfing and body boarding. The waves were fun but my swimsuit almost came off so I didn't play too long.

We had plate lunches which are awesome.....lots of choices and they are so big Jimmy and I can split one. Fish tacos and pork, mac salad and rice.

In the afternoon we hiked up Makapu'U Point to see the lighthouse. It literally looked like you were at the edge of the world up there. The water was so blue. We could even see glimpses of Molokai (another island). Several scenes of Lost were filmed here too....like the cliff fight with Lock and Jack. The Lost lighthouse was also here. Not the one we saw....a "set."

At this time I realize we are ending our trip. This was last fun excursion and I am sad...=( Do we have to leave? Unfortunately, we did. Jimmy and I figured out that we can afford what was equivalent to a small shed on Oahu. We could make it work....

You know its funny when I was thinking about it but the trip to Oahu was full of smiles and laughter on the plane. Everyone clapped when we landed. We played the "half way to Hawaii" game. The flight crew was wearing flowers and people were eager to start their vacations. Now looking around the gate area everyone is wearing wilted flowers, carrying their boxed up pineapple from the Dole Plantation and looking at photos of their dream vacation. I was glad we flew out in the dark because it would have been hard flying over Waikiki and watching people on the sunny beach. I never like when vacations end but at least I came, I saw and ate plenty of pineapple.