So our fun in the sun is over. :(  It is so hard to get back to work!

We started the long road home on Friday.  We stopped in Montgomery, AL to see the capitol building.  I pointed out to Eric all the important places from my last unfortunate trip to Montgomery.  It was really emotional for me to go back there after the dump truck incident in 2011.  The capitol is very lovely.  We also so the First White House of the Confederacy.  I think the town has some charm to it.  Here is the two buildings: 

Alabama State Capitol

 

First White House of the Confederacy

After Montgomery we continued north to Birmingham (which also looks like a cute city) and eventually made our way to Nashville, TN.  Again we drove through the downtown area to see the capitol building, again very nice building.  Downtown Nashville is very charming too. I definitely want to come back here some day and show Eric around.  I was in Nashville when I was younger.  I remember it very vividly.  I won 2 life sized penguin stuffed animals on the milk can toss.  There is a pictures somewhere with me smiling with my two huge penguins and dad in the background with the trunk of the car open and he has his hand on his chin trying to figure out where he was going to put them. LOL!  Memories!  Here is a picture of Tennessee capitol:

Tennessee State Capitol

We drove through Kentucky and made our way to Mount Vernon, IL, a small town with 3 or 4 major interstates intersecting there.  Needless to say there are tons of hotels, gas stations and restaurants off one exit.  It is kind of a crazy place.

Saturday morning we started our last leg of the journey home.  We drove through St. Louis which is a construction nightmare.  I thought the Twin Cities were bad but St. Louis far worse.  Three interstates cross the Mississippi on one bridge and they reduced that bridge to one lane.  Yikes!  Thankfully I had us go around it through downtown St. Louis.  The rest of the journey home was uneventful…except when we ran into the Iowa Hawkeye fans leaving their game.  I never thought I’d run in to traffic in the middle of nowhere in Iowa!

We got home around 8pm. Swirl was very pissed at us.  He wouldn’t come out from under the bed.  And when he did finally make an appearance he meowed and meowed….”how dare you leave me for 10 days, you are going to pay”…is probably what he was saying.  He of course peed next to litter box.  Such a spiteful cat!  He warmed up by Sunday morning and was constantly at our side.  He doesn’t hold a grudge nearly as long as he did in his younger years…he is, after all, a senior citizen!

We spent all day yesterday relaxing. We went out to fill gas and get a car wash. The love bugs are still on there.  Stupid flies!  We also made a quick trip to the apple farm for some apples. Yum! 

It was a good trip but I’m glad to be home.

We departed the swamps of Louisiana and headed for sunny Florida.  Granted we only went as far as Pensacola but still it is Florida!  We went to the Naval Air Station to see the National Museum of Naval Aviation. It was quite an impressive display of lots of airplanes used by the navy and marines.  Dating back to WWI through Vietnam and probably even sooner than that.  We saw Marine One (the helicopter that the president flies in).  We got to see what the aircraft carrier looks and feels like when running drills.  Pensacola is also home of the Blue Angels so their planes are there and we even got to go inside an old one.  Just a really awesome display. We spent over 2 hours! 

After a light lunch we headed to the Lighthouse. 177 steps were a lot.  It seems like it was harder this time to climb up then the last time.  I guess I’m really out of shape! LOL! It was a lot hotter too.  Unfortunately, they have had a lot of rain so the water wasn’t the beautiful emerald color it was last time…it was brown :( See…

We wound our way back to Orange Beach, AL for the night.  Our room is very nice, balcony with a waterfront view but I wasn’t upgraded like last time.  So we just have standard queen beds with no microwave or fridge.  This is the first hotel on the trip that we didn’t get those and it is the most expensive…go figure!  The beach is great…this is a white sugar sand beach.  We took a dip in the gulf, the water is really warm! We went to a local pizza joint for dinner and of course played some mini golf.  We like our mini golf. We both won free game tokens which we used this evening. 

Today we spent the entire day either on the beach or by the pool.  It was such a beautiful day and the waves were great.  So much fun. I don’t think I got burned, maybe a little on my face. But my freckles really came out!  My face is very brown…not tan…stupid freckles.  We ventured out in the middle of the day to a local cheesecake place, Hope’s Cheesecake Incorporated.  Cheesecake Factory step aside, this place has you beat!  We got the red velvet and Twix.  The red velvet was good but the Twix was beyond delicious.  Best cheesecake ever.  After a day of swimming we went to the Hurricane Grill and Wings.  Meh.  My steak was very peppery…if you know me that means trouble.  My mouth is still tingling.  And it really wasn’t that great.  I wasn’t impressed with this place.  Thankfully, I had a slice of Twix Cheesecake waiting for me at the hotel.  We used our free mini golf games and played the “harder course” and both of us finished under par (we tied, I won rock, paper, scissors so I win!)  

Well I guess this means our vacation is technically over.  Tomorrow we started the 20 hour drive back home.  I’m ready to get home and see what Swirl has been up to.  I’m sure we will be greeted with pee next to the litter box and a pissed off cat who will punish us for a few days.  To the “Vet Specialist” who said that cats are not spiteful obviously never met Swirl or any other normal cat.

MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE:
http://www.kim-eric.com/2013/LoneStar/LoneStarBaseball.html

What a weekend.   Let see where to begin. Well our 10th Anniversary came and went.  Not much happened. We both worked. After work Eric went to class while I cleaned the car and went grocery shopping. Very romantic, eh? Saturday was much the same. I made Monster cookies (and broke another spatula), cleaned the house and picked up a few things at Costco and Eric had class.  

After Eric’s class, we drove down to Mankato and meet my family. We went out for dinner. I had an awesome steak!  It was delicious.  And of course Mike and Mom and to tell them we were celebrating our 10th anniversary so we got a cake and champagne. It was also Bradley’s birthday so he also got cake…but no champagne for him.

After dinner we went swimming at the hotel. When we got sick of that, we played Dirty Clubs…a card game that would never end.  I think Mike ended up winning. Bradley had over 40 points (not good!). Eric and Bradley finished off a bottle of champagne. They were definitely “feeling” it. 

Sunday after breakfast we went to Flandrau State Park in New Ulm.  This is one of my favorite parks because it has a nice sand bottom pool. We try to visit at least once a year. It was the perfect day for it…hot and humid!  We had a picnic lunch and then went swimming for an hour or so.  After swimming we gathered around the picnic tables and played some lawn games.  After everything was packed up and we were ready to leave…Bradley popped the question!  Danielle demanded a soppy story first and then said, “I suppose.” Yep, Danielle is engaged! I couldn’t be happier for them.   I’m very disappointed in myself.  No picture of the ring…I’m not a very good photographer…I should have been all over this.

Well the last two post have been wedding related.  Hmmm...

The next one will be travel related...we leave for our vacation in 32 hours and 24 minutes... 

:-)

So I like to “countdown” to things and right now there are really 4 countdowns going on.

1 – Our 10th Anniversary (can you believe it has been 10 years!)

2 – Eric’s last class (hopefully his thesis will get approval)

3 – The Lone Star Baseball Adventure (on the road again…)

4 – Triathlon (I really haven’t trained, oh no)

So first things first…our 10th anniversary is coming up in a week.  We have had a crazy 10 years but I’d say most of it has been happy.  I’m sure I will reflect on that later.

If Eric gets his thesis approved, he will be done with school in 8 days and 18 hours. Fingers-crossed this will be the end of his master’s program but I’m very fearful it may not be.

The long awaited and highly anticipated Lone Star Baseball Adventure road trip is in 12 days and 20 hours. The name is kind of a misnomer.  Yes we are going to be spending many days in Texas and we will be going to two Twins baseball games (one in Arlington, one in Houston) but we are also heading over the he beautiful state of Alabama.  Even though my last trip to the Orange Beach area ended badly, I still have fond memories of the area.  I loved our hotel and I loved the beach.  When people tried telling me that Jamaica had white sugar sand beaches…I said no, these aren’t white beaches; Orange Beach, AL has white sugar sandy beaches. We are spending a few days there and then we are making the long way back home.

Last but not least is the Triathlon.  That is in 30 days and 12 hours.  I really haven’t trained. I’ve gone on a few long rides.  I know I can do it but I could do so much better if I was training.  Eric hasn’t trained either and said that the will be walking some of the 5K. It should be interesting…

 The long 4th of July weekend is over.  I’m so sad. I really enjoyed my 4 day mini vacation.  Let’s see what did I do all weekend?  I spent quite a bit of time in the car, hence the “road tripping” title.  After work Wednesday we got an oil change…exciting I know!  Then we went for a little ride around Chaska, Carver and Jordan.  I wanted to see if the Minnesota Valley SRA campground was open.  We had quite a bit of rain a while back and the river was near flooding in Shakopee so I thought it might affect the campground. Surprisingly, it is closed for the season.  I’m not sure why and the DNR website doesn’t say why.

Thursday we went to Boston Market for lunch and took it to the local park and had a picnic. Not your typically picnic fare but it was cheap (50% off family meals). There is a really nice park by our Boston Market.  We walked around the park and enjoyed the warm air.  After that, I had to go to the 4th of July Celebration in Eden Prairie.  We played our annual concert. Normally we leave afterwards but my friend, Jenny, convinced us to stay for the fireworks.  So we stuck around and watch her kids play in the new playground in the park.  The fireworks were not bad, the show last about 25 minutes.  After fireworks there was a massive traffic jam and it took us almost an hour to get home.

Friday morning we went to the DMV at the courthouse (and stood in a very long line) to renew Eric’s driver’s license and to renew the tabs on our car…$332 later we came home with stickers and a piece of paper saying Eric can drive.  Man the State of Minnesota likes their taxes!  

We packed up the car and slowly made our way to Rice Lake State Park in Owatonna.  We definitely didn’t take the most direct route, we went through towns I’ve never been to before. We decided the weather was perfect for camping.  We met DJ and Ethan there.  We walked down to the lake (which they are drawing down :( this summer so no canoeing) and that was about the extent of our hike.  We made burgers on the open fire…I am very impressed at my outdoor cooking skills. And of course the delicious s’ mores later. We didn’t stay up too late which is unusual. Sleeping was very comfortable.  The weather was perfect.  We awoke to the birds chirping and the massive amount of daddy long leg spiders covering our tent. Thankfully they were on the outside! We packed up our site and headed to Mankato.  Danielle asked us to come see her new place.  We went out for lunch and then spent some time at her new apartment. It was nice, the typical starting out apartment.  We left there in time to make it back for 4:30 Mass.  Of course it wouldn’t make sense to take the most direct route so instead we decided to venture into Le Sueur; you know the home of the Jolly Green Giant.  Not really out of our way but it was nice to finally see what the town looks like. After driving to Mankato for over 10 years and seeing the sign for Le Sueur, I finally drove through the town.  It was cute.

Yesterday was a day of relaxation. But it was stinking hot we decided to get wet to cool off. We went to the water park at Valleyfair and hit all the slides, lazy river, raging rapids and of course the wave pool.  We were there about 2 hours.  We were starving afterwards so we went to Eden Prairie to Punch Pizza (delicious!).  After a couple of hours of watching TV, I treated Eric to Dairy Queen.  We got a car wash too and decided to “dry it off” by going for a ride.  Well the ride didn’t start off that great because the concrete on Hwy 169 exploded which put us in a very long line up of cars going very slowly.  Then we drove down to Jim’s Apple Farm for some candy.  I found maltesers…my favorite!   Look a whole box:  

Isn’t it disappointing that is the only picture I took the whole weekend!  And it is blurry! I’m really losing my photography abilities! We took the back roads back home and ran into a thunderstorm. So much for drying off the car.  LOL!

As you can tell the long weekend involved two things, eating and driving.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

We had a fun, exhausting weekend in the DC area.  We flew out to DC Thursday afternoon. Eric’s cousin, Elizabeth, picked us up at the airport.  First stop was the Burger Joint for some delicious burgers.  We didn’t really do anything the rest of the evening except get friendly with the various critters at the house.  

Friday morning Tropical Storm Andrea decided to pay us a visit (what is it with me and hurricanes on vacation?). We knew it was coming so some of us came prepared.  I had a little umbrella which was a life saver.  I was still got wet but I wasn’t soaked to the bone like Eric and my camera was saved from the torrential down pours. Elizabeth kept saying the heavy stuff is still coming. LOL!  Elizabeth, Amanda, her daughter, Eric and I ventured down to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s plantation. I had visited the place in 1995 with my mom and dad.  I remember some parts of it but some of the exhibit places were new. We checked out the plantation and the museums. After lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn, we went to Old Town Alexandria. We didn’t get out, just drove around the streets that George Washington traveled.  We also drove up to the Masonic Memorial to Washington.

Soaked at Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon

Saturday turned out to be a great day.  Eric and I took the Metro into downtown DC and rented some bikes and biked around the monuments.  It was so nice to not have to walk the whole distance. We biked over 8 miles so I couldn’t imagine walking all of that.  We started at the Capitol and made our way down the National Mall, over the Tidal Basin to Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the slow making our way to the Lincoln Memorial with stops at the George Mason, FDR, MLK and Korea Memorials. MLK is a new one. On our way to WWII Memorial we stopped by Vietnam. So we saw all the monuments and even a few new ones that I haven’t seen before. It was a great day. My arms and face got sunburned. I bought sunscreen, just forgot to put it in my camera bag before we left Elizabeth’s house. Oops!

Eric at the Capitol

Lincoln Memorial

Kim on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Washington Monument in back.

After we finished with our biking tour we took the Metro back to Springfield and we went out for dinner with Elizabeth and Amanda at a really good steakhouse and then she took us around downtown DC so I could take pictures of the monuments at night. It was such a beautiful night.  I got some good pictures.

WWII Memorial at night

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Memorial at night

Lincoln Memorial at night

Sunday we started the day at Ford’s Theatre, the place Lincoln was shot and across the street at the house that he died. It was an interesting presentation; I learned a lot more about his assassination. 

The Box where Lincoln was shot - Ford's Theatre

After that we went down to National’s Ballpark to see the Twins play the Nationals. The park was nice, nothing to special.  It didn’t really have a view of anything.  You can see part of the capitol dome in one part of the stadium but that was about it. I got a picture of me and President Taft. The highlight of the day was the Presidential Race.  Teddy Roosevelt was winning but he was tackled by a giant cicada bug (cicadas are large insects, about an inch and a half long, with black bodies, red eyes and delicate wings, they only surface every 17 years, and now is the time). George Washington won.  Poor Teddy never wins. 

Me and President Taft

Presidential Race...Teddy is winning!

Teddy was tackled by a cicada bug (check out the red eyes)!

Nationals Ballpark

So that is our DC trip in a nutshell.  It was fun!

More pictures can be found:
Mount Vernon and Old Town Alexandria, VA

Biking DC & Monuments at Night

Ford's Theatre & Nationals Park

So I have convinced Eric that biking around the monuments in Washington DC makes more sense than riding the silly trolley again or walking again. Now don’t get me wrong, the trolley is great if you need the misinformed history lesson by tour guides who try (and fail miserably) to be funny.  And yes it is great for those who are immobile, like say after knee surgery.  But we’ve done the trolley (and also a private tour through the Department of Interior thanks to Callista Gingrich).  And walking the monuments is just a daunting task.  Trust me, we have walked the monuments.  Actually we did 5 monuments (Washington, Lincoln, WWII, Vietnam War and Korean War) by forced march in one hour…in 100 degree heat and 100% humidity.  That was courtesy of Hiram. So we have done it both of those ways, but we haven’t biked to them.  Doesn’t that sound pleasant? Let’s go for a little bike ride, stop to see the monument, go for another little bike ride, stop to see the monument, repeat. So that’s the plan, we are going to bike around the city.  I’m so excited.  And it isn’t really that expensive.  We can rent a bike for $35 all day.  That is a little cheaper than the trolley and less taxing on the feet than walking. 

Here is where the title comes in; do rent a tandem bike or not?  A tandem bike is only $60 for the day so we would be saving $10.  And how romantic does that sounds? “Eric and I rode our tandem bike down the National Mall.”  But alas, it probably won’t happen.  Firstly, we would have to agree on a cadence. Eric already complains when we are riding separate bikes that I never stop pedaling.  He always says “don’t you every rest”…um, no because once I get this big ass going, it is harder to stop and start than it is to keep going. So that is something we would have to work out. Secondly, there is the whole turning thing, not as easy when two are riding. And who would be captain controlling the turning??  And finally, there is only one gear.  I love switching gear often. Eric seems to get annoyed that I switch gears all the time. So we would have to cooperate with each other and to be honest, I see this turning ugly. Our nice vacation ends in divorce because of a tandem bike.  However, I just had a brilliant idea.  We get the tandem bike, Eric can do all the pedaling and I can take all the pictures while we are riding.  Hum, maybe that isn’t a bad idea after all.  

Has anybody ever rode a tandem and can offer some advice? Only 7 more days until DC. 

If I never visit Jamaica again, I’d be ok with that.  I’m not one to go to the same place over and over again.  There are only a few places I like to visit again and again namely London and Vegas. The water was beautiful and the climate was nice.

Hagglers and Ganja

I was warned about this but it really didn’t prepare me for the vast annoyance. The ganja (marijuana) was always in the air and the hagglers on the beach were very annoying.  By the seventh day I was so pissed off at being constantly harassed to buy drugs, get my hair braided and the other various things that I just got plan old rude with them. I even flipped off the one guy. It is very annoying to walk down the beach to a restaurant that was less than 100 yards away and being approached to buy drugs 4 times. Seriously!  I was standing inside the resort fence, watching the waves crash on the beach and some guy was harassing me to by ganja.  I told him over and over no but he wouldn’t leave me alone. I was so upset I had to leave the beach area. I couldn’t even enjoy the crashing waves. Everybody was smoking ganja, we couldn’t escape it.  We went on a sunset cruise and the other 7 people on the tour and the boat captain were smoking it. You can’t escape it when you are trapped on a boat with them.

Service and Food

I will never complain about slow service again. Nothing will be as slow a Jamaica.  They have this thing called Jamaican time.  It is annoying, especially for me.  You have to plan ahead for your meals and go when you aren’t hungry because by the time you get the food you will be starving. If you wait until you are hungry it is too late. A cheeseburger…a simple cheeseburger…took over an hour.  Yes AN HOUR! ARGH!  The only meal that we got fast was our breakfast but seriously how long does it take to toast bread?  As far as the food I concerned there was some really good food and some terrible food. Mostly it was terrible. Breakfast every morning was great, fresh fruit, toast and some sort of pastry.  One day we ordered pancakes/French toast and that was even delicious (but took over 30 minutes to get). The cheeseburger mentioned above was terrible…it tasted like a slice of meatloaf with cheese on top. It was gross. Thankfully the fries were good.  I had a jerk chicken Caesar wrap…it was disgusting. I couldn’t eat it. We ate Jerk Chicken many times.  The most delicious was at the jungle river tubing place. It was a chicken breast (which is unusual, it usually was dark meat) and it was juicy and wonderful.  I think that Jerk Chicken was my favorite meal, unfortunately Eric and I shared it. My favorite thing in the world was the various juices I drank.  I didn’t realize I love pineapple juice. Also there were these blended juices called Tropical Rhythms. My favorites were Fruit Punch, Mango Carrot and the Reggae Blend (Banana, pineapple, papaya, guava and passion fruit). 

Hotel and Staff

The hotel was adequate.  Our room had a view of the water so that was nice. The room was clean and the AC worked (very important for me, I hate being hot). The Wi-Fi didn’t work in the room so we had to go by the pool every time we wanted to use the internet…and it cost us $90 for the week. ROBBERY! The toilet didn’t like to flush and shower had hot water but no pressure. The last day before we left for the airport we couldn’t even use the shower! The bed was comfy and the TV had all of our favorite channels and some new channels. The pool area was nice and there was a friendly family of cats that were all over. They were so cute and some were friendly. The staff of the place was great, very helpful. I would stay there again because it was nice considering the price.

Overall
Overall I had a great vacation.  There were some things like the ganja that made it unbearable at times. But I have been there and I’ve done that. Next time I’m going to try another island. 

I know I’ve been slacking in the writing department. I guess I’ve run out of energy. LOL!  So on Saturday we went on a Jungle River Tubing Adventure.  It was lame.  First thing was they were late in picking us up at the hotel. We waited an hour and they never showed. The security guard at the hotel was nice enough to call and ask where they were. They said that I never confirmed hotel…um I called you yesterday and confirmed hotel and you gave me a pick up time. Stupid people. It was a snafu but we eventually were able to go on the later tubing tour.  We also got an awesome driver Morris. He was a fun guy and he was really early. He said he is on American time not Jamaican time. We picked up another couple from the San Francisco area…it was an interesting discussion there and back.  Morris took us the “scenic” way. Yikes what a drive through the mountains.  Narrow roads with big rigs makes for a fun/scary drive. The tubing experience was ok. The river was so mild it makes Rapid Creek look like the Colorado River.  There were a few rapids but for the most part it was nice float through the bamboo. We were also tied to each other so there was no drifting away or worries of flipping over…the best part of tubing. Oh well, we got to see more scenic parts of Jamaica and not just the beach. This was also the night one of the cats actually jumped on my lap and was head-butting me. He was so dang cute. He was lovin’ me up. And then two other cats followed us up the stairs to our room and kept guard at our door for while. When I checked back later they were still there.

Speaking of the beach, the last two days have been mostly devoted to the beach. Yesterday morning we went to Mass at the Mary of Heaven’s Gate Catholic Church just up the road.  It was an interesting experience. First off the Mass started 40 minutes late because the priest that was saying Mass was in the neighboring town and the main priest was filling in at another church.  It was fun because the main priest asked if anybody from the US was going back this week and then he gave this couple a bunch of mail. Economizing priest. LOL!  We meet a couple from Salem, SD who were staying here until February.  They have been coming here for 25 years and always stay a while.  The warned us that the priest saying mass is long winded…they weren’t kidding.  For the 40 minutes we waited the choir sang songs. They were very festive. The priest had over a 30 minute sermon.  So on top of being 40 minutes late he had a 30 minute sermon. It was 2 hours before we got out of there. And the funny thing is one of the guys trying to sell us pot on the beach the night before was playing a tambourine…Ya Mon!  After that we went over the Coco La Palm, a resort run by Minnesotans.  The service was terrible.  It took over an hour for a cheeseburger and jerk chicken and the jerk chicken was already prepared!  We were so hungry by the time we scarfed down the food. We spent the afternoon on the beach and in the water. It was so nice except for guys harassing us on the beach.  The beach hagglers are AWFUL.  We went for a walk down to the shopping mall which was closed (I guess because it was Sunday?) and the ATM was out of money.  But the ice cream place was open so Eric got some ice cream.

Today we lounged around the beach, reading and riding the waves. This is the first day the waves were actually decent and fun to play in.  We also went back the shopping mall to buy some gifts.  The ATM was still out of money. It is the closest ATM and doesn’t require a taxi ride so this was very annoying!  We had lunch at a café…both of us were very disappointed…our food was gross.  Eric also bought me a new ring with a Caribbean blue diamond. I haggled the guy down to over 70% off. I’m good and the ring is beautiful. Well time to cuddle with my cats. Hopefully they will come to me again. It is also New Year’s Eve…I wonder if I’ll stay awake til midnight…doubt it. 

I'm wide awake early from a very awful night of sleep.  Well the first 3 hours were ok and the last 4 hours were ok...it was the 3 hours in between where I couldn't sleep. I woke up around 12:30am with this insane itching on my legs. It wasn't the jellyfish sting, you can't even see that anymore their potion worked wonders. Jamaica has sand flies here which are like a mosquito   They suck. You can't see or feel them biting you but you get the welt later and it itches like crazy. I have probably a dozen or more bites on my leg and there were all itching at the same time. I scratched my legs so hard I thought they were going to bleed. Finally I got up and put cortisone cream on my legs which helped a lot. I'm so glad I brought that along.  So I tried to fall back to sleep but there there was this annoying beeping noise coming from outside our room.I have no idea what it was but it was driving me nuts.  So I turned on the TV to see the last 30 seconds of the Gopher Bowl game. The first thing I saw was the Gophers throwing the interception and Texas Tech throwing 2 passes and kicking a field goal to end the tied game.  Well that made me a little upset but I'm actually amazed it wasn't a blow out. Way to go Gophers! I thought I was tired enough to shut the TV off and fall asleep...wrong. The damn beeping noise again. Finally I put the TV back on and settled for the first Harry Potter movie and eventually fell asleep but I know it was after 2am.  I'm not sure when I shut the TV off.

Last night was lot of fun and was kind of an adventure.  We decided to a sunset cruise with the same guys who did the earlier snorkeling.  Well another group had organized a ride out to Booby Cay, an Island not far from here.  Well we got to do both.  We went out the island which was beautiful. I found an awesome seashell...I'm talking a massive seashell. We hung around for a while so they could do some snorkeling and then we went to Rick's Cafe, Lighthouse and caves.  I got a nice picture of the sunset from the cave. Then we went to Rick's where one of the guys in our group jumped from the cliffs. I don't think I would do it from that height. Maybe the smaller ones.  Crazy! The group we were with were interesting.  There were 3 couples and one other guy. They were from all over the US. The one girl was from Michigan and her father lives here part time so they were staying at his house.  The others were from Northern California, Memphis and Atlanta. The were also smoking ganja (aka pot) most of the ride. It was a long cruise but we saw lots of interesting things.

This morning we went snorkeling with Captain Papa and Capitan Sponge Bob. They work for Capitan Moses, a legend on seven mile beach.  It was so much fun. It was nice because it was only 4 of us that went so it was small group. Papa took us around the coral and brought up a starfish for us to feel. Then he brought up a sea urchin. Eric and I both held it. That was a weird feeling.  I got some great shots of underwater fish, urchins, a shipwreck anchor and cannon. It was very cool. I also got attacked by a jellyfish…AGAIN!  It is Mexico all over again.  But this spot was way better than Mexico.

Happy Birthday to me!

What a busy, bumpy day. We started the day with a 2 hour drive to Black River, Jamaica.  It was a very nice drive but VERY BUMPY.  The roads in this country are horrible!  In Black River we rode a boat up the Black River.  We got to see the crocodiles and mangroves. It was a very nice ride on a scenic river.

The second stop on the tour was the YS Falls.  They were beautiful.  I didn’t know that you could swim in the water around there so I was a little disappointed because that would have been fun but we waded around. It was a multiple layered waterfall. They also had swing ropes. Dang it next time I need to bring my suit.

The final stop was the Appleton Rum Estate. We had a great meal of Jerk Chicken, sweet potatoes (I actually ate them) and rice. It was ok.  Not the best but I was hunger. The tour was kind of short we got to see how they used to get the sugar out of the sugar cane and we saw the vaults in the distillery and final the ageing room.  It was interesting seeing all those barrels.  We didn’t do too much of the tasting as I don’t like rum. I tried the coconut and the mango and it burned.  Water for me please.

After that we had the 2 hour ride back to Negril on the same bum numbing drive. Crazy drivers and roads in this country. 

We were glad to get home and go out for some dinner.  Now we are just relaxing in the room and watching ALF…yes that ALF. LOL!

Well our first official day at Jamaica is done and it was fun even though it rained this afternoon.  We ventured up the beach to see what is around.  We ran into a lot of people that want to offer you stuff. They are like vultures.  Glass bottom boat rides, braiding my hair and marijuana was a common theme. We stopped a gift shop and got Eric his standard National Team Soccer Jersey.  It is really cool.  Also at this place was the original bobsled from the movie Cool Runnings. How cool is that???  We walked back on the road side and got beeped at numerous times from taxis wanting to give us a ride. They are just as persistent as the beach vendors.  We stopped to check out the Catholic church just up the road from our hotel. We meet Father Jim the parish priest.  He is from Cincinnati and works here as part of his mission...sweet mission...across the street from the beach!  He said that people from Minnesota come to this church the most followed by Wisconsin.  I thought that was interesting.  He said it must be the cold weather that makes us come here. :) After that we stopped at a small street shop for some water, Coke and cookies.  They were playing the Manchester United game on the TV in the show so Eric was watching  the game and talking with the locals while I walked around.  We had lunch at the hotel.  No Jamaica food today...burgers and fries. I know I'm bad but I wanted something that I knew I would like. Bad Kim. We finally got into the water after that. It was amazing.  I think it was warmer last night but it didn't matter it felt wonderful.  We were one of the few people in the water which was odd.

After a quick shower we flagged down a taxi, Carlton was his name, he drove us the mega grocery store where we got some food.  They probably think were sugar addicts because we stocked up on candy bars and sugary cereal. We are just like Santa, we like our sugar. Carlton waited for us to do our shopping and then gave us a ride back. That was convenient. And then it started to rain so it was really good we didn't try walking (about 2.5 miles).

We have a sweet tooth!

After the rain shower we walked down the beach to unexplored stores.  Again more hassling from vendors. I'm not kidding they are like vultures.  One of them though was nice. He was wearing a Justin Morneau Minnesota Twins Shirt.  His name was Lobster and he and his dad, Captain Moses do glass bottom boat tours and snorkeling. I think we will go with them later this week when go snorkeling.  Got to support the Twins...and those who support them. I'm looking forward to that.  We stopped for some dinner and now I'm  relaxing poolside listen to the reggae from the local nightclub..."Enjoy the Vibes." I'm surrounded by cats and a bird that keeps diving for the pool water. I also almost stepped on a crab at the bottom our of step. He scurried away.  Besides the cats, there are dogs that roam the beach and goats that roam the countryside. The cats make me happy.  It reminds me of Swirl.

Cat protecting his alcohol

From 0 to 85

Hey everybody from SUNNY and HOT Jamaica.  I'm having a great time so far.  I'm not sure what the temps is but I'm all sweaty and hot. I can't wait to jump in the water.  It will be awesome.  We went walking along the beach last night the water was amazing.

Well we got here about 5:30 last night.  It was a long day of travel.  It started at 12:30 am Christmas morning.  I woke up with symptoms that I thought was a UTI.  So I waited a couple hours and couldn't sleep so finally I went to the ER at 2:30 just to make sure I didn't have it.  The doctor said that my test came back negative but he was going to give me a prescription just in case it is in the early stages.  So I had to find the closest 24 hour pharmacy that was open on Christmas day.  Thankfully it was only 10 miles away in Savage.   I got home about 4:30. I tried to sleep but couldn't.  Greg picked us up at 5:30 for our early morning flight.  The flight to Atlanta was really BUMPY!  Atlanta to Montego was kind of bumpy too but not as bad.  Immigration and customs went by smoothly and then we got in a mini bus for the 90 minute drive to Negril. What an amazing driving. It was beautiful but also very realistic.  Big beautiful houses next to run down shacks.  I don't think there is a middle class here.

View from the room :)

Our hotel is right on the beach and our room faces the ocean. Unfortunately we didn't get a balcony but we have a sliding door so that is cool.  We got to our room just in time for the first of many sunsets.  BEAUTIFUL!  We ventured down the beach to Alfred's Ocean Palace.  They had good, cheap food and some American food for us spoiled people. I had Jamaican fried chicken. It was good but Eric's fancy chicken was much better.  I had the banana cake for dessert. It was a delicious piece of cake similar to banana bread. I think we will visit them again.

Today we are going to adventure around the beach and see what there is to offer. I'm so excited.

Well it less than 70 days until 2013 which means that vacation planning has started.  Actually vacation planning started in early September when MLB released the schedule for next year.  Eric had mentioned that it would be cool if the Twins played at the Rangers and Astros in back-to-back series.  Well, MLB didn’t disappoint...August 30-September 4, the Twins play 3 games in Arlington and 3 games in Houston.   Wow!  That is two years in a row we got lucky. Last year I mentioned that I wanted to see Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and MLB granted the Twins back-to-back series on June this year. Seems like the MLB has been listening to us! Ha!

So we are planning on either driving or flying to Dallas, spend a few days there then drive to Houston for a couple days and visit with my friend, Mary Linda. Other than the two baseball games, I’m not sure what else we will do. I guess I have more planning to do.

Another trip that I’m planning is to Rapid City in late June/early July.  Apparently we are biking/running in part of a Triathlon with Eric’s sister Carrie. She is swimming, I’m biking, Eric is running.  I’m not sure which one she wants to do but I’m thinking it is the Rapid City one which is June 29th.

The other reason that I start my vacation planning in late October is because Eric needs to have his PTO for next year figured out about now.  I know that sounds crazy but because of his union they have to plan this far ahead of time.  Now he doesn’t have to plan every day but if there is a day/week he really needs off, he has to do it now.  Unfortunately, he is last man on the totem pole for next year. In his old area he was close to the top so he got any days he wanted.  When he moved to this new area in late January he went back to the bottom.  That means no PTO the day after Thanksgiving or the Monday before Christmas Eve.  How sad! I guess no Omaha for us next year.  He should be able to get off the two days after Christmas though so that is good. 

This is a good time of year.  I love planning vacations and this is great time to start.

This past weekend I traveled to the Mississippi headwaters in Itasca State Park with my friends Mary Linda, who was visiting from Texas, and Alice. It was a fun weekend but lots of driving. 

Saturday morning I picked them up at Alice’s house which is on the other side of the Twin Cities. From there it was a 4 hour ride to Itasca State Park.  I made a square pan of Special K bars as I know that is a favorite of Mary Linda.  We practically ate the whole bar on the drive up.  They are so good!  The drive was nice and smooth.  The weather was perfect, although a bit cool.  We stopped in Wadena for lunch at McDonalds. When you get up there you need to stop wherever you can find food and it will most certainly be fast food.  Mary Linda ordered a Kids meal.  Boy have they changed.  The fries were micro sized.  Think of it this way, the fries only had 100 calories…so she got 10 fries. LOL!  She also got apple slices so that was cool.  But they didn’t give her the toy.  :(

Walking across the Mississippi River

We got up the park by 2:30 and started at the headwaters first.  We walked across the rocks that mark the start of the river.  The river was very stagnant and the water wasn’t rushing over the rocks like it usually does.  That was weird.  But it was also a good thing because it made it easier for Mary Linda to walk across.  After that we drove around the wilderness drive.  It was beautiful with the leaves changing.  I got some really nice pictures.  We checked out the largest white pine tree and stopped to climb the fire tower.  There was actually a line for the tower!  The climb wasn’t too bad but it got really windy when we got to the top. It was a little scary, but the view was amazing so it was worth the trip up. Going down was actually harder because my quad muscles were freaking out.  I’m still sore from the stupid tower.

We made our way to Bemidji and checked into the hotel.  We had dinner at this fancier restaurant but the food was ok.  Considering the price, I was hoping for better.  Alice and I went for a dip in the hot tub and then spent the rest of the night watching tv and relaxing.

Hiking in Lake Bemidji State Park

Sunday morning was a bit cold. I think it was 25 when we woke up.  We had the awesome breakfast at the hotel and ventured over to Lake Bemidji State Park.  We did some hiking along the lake.  Alice took us off the beaten track and we had to scale the steep hills along the lake. When we got to the viewing area, we had to climb over (or through) a fence.  Again the trees were brilliant oranges and yellows.  It was a beautiful day for a hike. 

We took the other way back to the Twin Cities through the lakes around Brainerd.  It was such a nice drive.  We got to Alice’s house around 5 and I got home by 6.  Like I said it was a lot of driving but it was a nice weekend.  It was so nice to see Mary Linda again.

In other news, Eric’s sister Carrie called and now we (Carrie, Eric and I) are doing a triathlon next year.  Carrie will swim, Eric will run, which leaves me with the biking. When I came home Sunday and Eric told me this, my first thought was I need a new bike.  I can’t show up to a triathlon with my Townie cruiser bike with the fat seat and tires…I’d get laughed off the course.  So this is a good excuse to get a new road bike.  So I did some research yesterday and decided that between work and the Twins/Yankees game we would go to Penn Cycle and try out some bikes.  And hour later, after a 15 minute test ride, I got a new Trek Lexa bike. It is very nice. It moves so fast with little effort and it just glides. I have to get used to the tiny tires again.  But I think this will work great. I pick it up tomorrow.  I’m so excited.  Time to start training!



My new bike!!



Wow I’m a slacker!  I haven’t posted in like 10 days!  What is wrong with me?  Well…I’ve been busy!

Let see…Friday and Saturday night we went camping in Elbow Lake, MN with DJ, Abbie and Ethan.  It was such a nice weekend for camping.  The weather was perfect, maybe a bit cold for sleeping Friday night but otherwise it was a fun time.  Saturday we visited Beth at Morehead.  It is a nice campus.  Their football team sucks though.  Good thing we didn’t go to the game.  We traveled home on Sunday because I had to get ready for my next trip…RENO!

Monday morning Eric took my Mom and I to the airport for our adventure to Reno.  I was a bit nervous because our connection in Salt Lake City was only 30 minutes.  Thankfully we got into a gate that was sort of close to the next gate so we made our connection just in time.  The flights were uneventful. We got into Reno and met up with Dave and Joanne, mom’s friends.  We started out our stay in Reno with a trip to Rib Fest.  I’m not a fan of ribs but there was plenty for me to eat.  We had these really good Texas potatoes…fresh potato chips.  

Emerald Bay, CA - Lake Tahoe



Tuesday we started our day early with a trip to Lake Tahoe.  It is incredibly beautiful.  We drove around the entire lake.  Emerald Bay on the southwest corner was the crowning jewel.  Get it emerald…jewel.  I love puns. We also ventured up to Truckee, CA and Donner’s Pass.  It is all so amazing.  We swung by the capitol building in Carson City on our way back to Reno. It was an all-day event.

Wednesday we had breakfast at Peg’s Glorified Ham N’ Eggs…a Reno tradition.  It was good.  We took another fun road to Virginia City, NV.  If you’ve been to Deadwood, SD it is like that. Old buildings from the 1800s, old casinos from the 1800s and a gunfight.  It was a tourist trap with all the shops selling the typical corny items.  But it was interesting to see and I got my fudge!  No trip is complete without fudge. We took a train ride on a vintage train to Gold Hill to see the old mining areas. After that we took Mt. Rose highway to the summit and an awesome overlook of Lake Tahoe.

After our second day of driving we had dinner at Dave and Joanne’s son, Mike’s house.  It was a very nice house up in the hills around Reno.  We had tri-tip steak, potatoes and the best corn-on-the-cob I’ve had this year.  It was all delicious. After that we drove through downtown Reno to see it at night. It isn’t as exciting as Vegas at all. It reminds me of downtown Vegas BEFORE they did the overhang and light show. 

Thursday morning we slept in until 6:30am!! I hate being on vacation and not being able to sleep in when I can.  I went for a swim in the really warm pools. It was chilly out but the pools feel great and being it was so early it was dead there.  We enjoyed their hotel’s buffet and made our way to the airport.  Reno’s airport is small, security took us 2 minutes and mostly that was because the TSA agent was picking on us.  There isn’t much to see or do.  If you get there really early, like us, you will get bored.  The flights were empty and as a result they were really cold.  I froze on our way to Salt Lake City. I bought a clearance rack USA Olympic sweatshirt for the next flight. I’m sure glad I did as it was just as cold on that flight. We got home about 9:30 last night.

All in all it was a great week.  I had lots of fun, ate lots of food and did zero running.   I have no plans for the weekend besides eventually getting my pictures on the website. Oh and maybe a run or two.

Well we are finally home from our vacation.  Cincinnati was not that exciting.  We finally got to Cincy at about 5pm.  First stop was the Eden Park.  It is a very beautiful park on the bluffs of the Ohio.  We got some great views of the river and of Kentucky.  After that we eventually made our way to the hotel in Newport, KY.  Newport is just across the river from Cincy.  We had a view of downtown.  The hotels on the Kentucky side were over $100 cheaper and they have this awesome trolley that runs every 15 minutes and it takes about 10-15 minutes to get to downtown Cincy.  I think it was a great deal.  We took the trolley into town and walked around the Fountain Square and had dinner.  After we got back to the hotel we took a dip in the pool but it was so cold!

Friday morning we started at the William Taft Historical Site.  It was his birthplace and childhood home.  It was really interesting.  After that we did the Ride the Ducks tour.  I was a little apprehensive about the tour but it actually was quite fun and very informative...but the duck noise makers got a bit annoying.  It was way better than the stupid boat tour we took of Pittsburgh where we didn't learn anything and spent the time yelling stupid things like "Go Steelers" or "Go Pirates" under their bridges.  Anyways the Duck tour was really fun. After that we went up to the top of Carew Tower.  The observatory deck was on the 49th floor and it has 360 degree views of the city.  And it cost us a whopping $2. What a deal! The building was built in 1929 and is the model for the Empire State Building.  We walked across the  John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. The bridge was built in 1867 and people were so afraid to use it that they bribed the German immigrants by providing free beer and brats if they walked to the middle of the bridge.  That apparently got people to use it.  This was the model for the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Apparently New York uses Cincinnati as their guinea pigs. LOL! 

The game was exciting.  The Twins came from behind again to win.  We had a delay because the home plate ump was hit in the back of the head with a broken bat.  A very freak accident.  He was knocked out cold for a while but he walked off on his own. They worked with a 3 man crew after that. The Twins won 5-4.  They had fireworks after the game...they were AMAZING! They put the Target Field fireworks to shame...actually it was probably the best fireworks I've ever seen except for the Mount Rushmore 4th of July show many years ago.

We got up early this morning after being rudely awaken by 2 fire alarms at around 3am.  Seriously?  No fire but we never found out why it went off.   We rushed out of our hotel and made our way home.  We left Newport, KY at 9:05 am ET (8:05 am CT) and got home by 8:30 pm (CT).  We avoided Chicago so we ended up driving 767 miles today (it is 43 miles longer to avoid Chicago).  It is so nice to be home. It was a great road trip.