June 15, 2007

• Catching Up

  So we made it safe and sound. Well, we are safe. I’m not sure if we were “sound” when we left Hawaii, so does that really apply? I don’t think so. The goodbye scene at the airport was pretty dramatic, lots of tears
  and airport security asking if Ducky was going to be all right. I think
  they were wondering if we needed a straight jacket, or just a valium.We arrived at LAX very early Monday morning. It was 5:30 am CA time, putting us at 2:30 Hawaii time. We were all a little giddy from lack of sleep. I hung out with Ducky waiting on her flight to Salt Lake to join her friend Pablo the pancake. Hubby and Squirt hung out with the dog, cats and luggage. The animals by the way were excellent travelers – I can’t tell you how relived I was about that! I had pictures of the passengers hunting us down and giving us “beef” – hawaiian pidgin, sorry, couldn’t resist.
  
  We then took a very expensive and very full taxi/van to the vehicle processing center. There Squirt and I hung out with the dog, cats and luggage while hubby did the mountains of paperwork required by the government in order to complete ANY task. We got in the car about 11:30 and we were all totally wiped out! We headed for Barstow – just a few short hours down the road. There we unloaded the necessary items and each took a 4 hour nap. When we finally came to, we rinsed off with a quick swim, ate some food and then — went back to BED!!
  
  Day 2 we left Barstow and headed for Flagstaff. What a gorgeous place! I forgot how pretty N. Arizona is! We took our time, started late and didn’t hurry. We got there about 4:30 plenty of time for a trip to Slide Rock, which was lots of fun. Rasha it turns out LOVES to hike. And Squirt got to cool off in some ice-cold water and slide on some rocks. Since our clocks are all screwed up, we were up late and slept in late.
  
  Day 3: We got a late stop and ran into traffic due to construction. We stopped at meteorite crater and checked it out. Then headed out for Albq. We arrived in town at 5:30 – just in time for rush hour (excellent planning on our part huh?). On the up side our suite is sooooo nice!! Really upscale. I have been loving the jacuzzi and indoor pool. We’ve started looking for a house, rental for now.  We’ve found a few areas we really like, but we want to live here for awhile before making decisions about buying.
  
  I’ve also been drooling over all the stores and restaurants. It is nice to have choices and options. Of course on Sunday before we left I was snorkeling. I have to say I miss the ocean already. I’m glad Albq. is greener than CA and especially Barstow. We were about to panic in Barstow wondering “what in the heck did we do”?
  
  I’ve tons of pictures. I’m going to start with some from graduation and Mother’s day and the retirement picnic. I’ll add more as I get more caught up!
  
  
  
     
  These are black coral earrings and necklace. I received the earrings for Christmas, and the mama turtle with the two baby turtles for Mother’s Day. Aren’t they gorgeous? Then my diploma, along with all the paraphanellia I bought an the breathtaking lei Hubby and girls got me graduation night.
  
       
  Here’s a close up of the lei, gorgeous right? I’m drying it for preservation.  And my next to last Maui sunset –FOR NOW!
  
  
         
  
  Here’s Squirt with her purple hair — and some plumeria from the tree in front of our church (our church is awesome, I have more pictures of that to come too!). The background is the sky, it just turned out perfectly solid blue. I was laying on the ground and looking up. Plumeria is my favorite tropical flower — well, beside Red Ginger and Bird of Paradise.
  
  Alright – enough for now. Those who stuck with it, I applaud you! I’m off to visit and catch up.
  
  

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  Question of the Day:
  
  What is your favorite flower – and why?

  • 11:32 pm
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