The Goodrums

Michael with his new ride

Michael has made several trips to Hawaii for work in 2008 and 2009. We decided that I would try to tag along on one so that we could tackle Mauna Kea, highpoint #24.

Michael left for Hawaii on June 15 and worked for a week in both Kauai and Oahu before I arrived. I flew in over the weekend (Saturday) and we were able to go see some of Oahu over the weekend. We drove to the North Shore on Saturday and celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by hiking the Diamondhead on Sunday (and having one of the best dinners of my life at Roy's).

















Along the North Shore                                             From the top of the Diamondhead

Michael worked from Monday through Thursday morning and I had the most relaxing vacation that I can recall. I packed up my beach bag and went to the beach to read a book all day. I did go see the USS Arizona Memorial (Pearl Harbor) one day. But otherwise, I just relaxed. It was great.

















USS Arizona Memorial

Once Michael finished work on Thursday, we flew to the Big Island. We stayed at a beautiful resort on the Kona side of the island.

On Friday, we decided to tackle highpoint #24. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to hike Mauna Kea. There is a road to the top. However, everything said you needed a four wheel drive car to get to the top and we had a Toyota Corolla. So we decided to do the 6.5 mile, 5000 ft vertical one-way hike from the visitor's center to the top. What they didn't tell you is that the trail is scree and sand the entire way. You take one step and slide halfway back down. There is no scenery and no wildlife (aside from the wolf spider that was aggressively attacking Michael's foot at one point). And it misted and fogged all the way up the mountain. By the time we were heading down, we were completely drenched, cold and miserable. Thankfully some good folks who worked at one of the observatories on top gave us a ride down - upon which we discovered that Michael totally could have gotten that Corolla up that road. Ugh.

















At the top of Mauna Kea

When we finished the hike, we drove around the Hilo side of the island and took the northern route back to the resort. There are a number of beautiful gorges and waterfalls. The scenery is such a contrast to the southern part of the island, which is largely lava fields and fairly barren.

















Rainbow Falls outside Hilo

On Saturday, we spent the morning at the beach and then explored a valley on the north side of the island. We then drove around the southern tip of the island toward Volcanos National Park. We stopped at a green sand and black sand beach along the way. We didn't make it to the actual park until late in the day, but we managed to go hike quickly through a lava tube and see the active volcano before the sun set. (My lungs did not get along with the volcano and I came home with a nice respiratory infection). We ate dinner at the restaurant in the park and got to see the volcano glow pretty brightly at one point during our dinner.






















Waipaio Valley                                     Michael on a green sand beach

















Black sand beach

On Sunday, we relaxed at the beach in the morning and snorkeled at the cove where our resort was located. We saw a few sea turtles and several fun fish. In the afternoon, we drove to another valley overlook and then took a route through the mountains and the central part of the island back to the airport.

We had overnight flights (on two separate airlines at that) and made it home to Denver mid day on Monday. A nice restful vacation ended with sleep deprivation makes for a hard transition back!

You can see the full Hawaii picture album here.

It's sad that our only trip to the mountains so far has been my work trip to Vail. Hopefully we'll remedy that soon!

We did manage to get in a nice hike before we returned to suburbia. In my world it was the ideal hike: hike up, take the ski gondola down (save the knees)! The gondola saved us from a nice afternoon thunderstorm as well.

















Mt of the Holy Cross above on the left

In early June, we took a quick weekend trip to Amarillo for Michael's 10 year high school reunion. We arrived on Saturday morning and Michael took me on a from-a-distance tour of Pantex, one of his project sites. We then attended the noon picnic and tour of the "ugly high school."

In May, we traveled to D.C. In my previous job, I had traveled to D.C. each and every summer to host a grueling conference where we worked these chaotic 22 hour days in a hotel basement and never saw the light of day. This year, I got to return to D.C. but in an entirely new context. Instead of hosting the conference, I attended the conference. I had some minor responsibilities but it was cakewalk compared to what I was accustomed to. I did had some surreal moments while there, though.

• This year's conference was held in the exact same hotel that our past conference was held at. I had to quell a rising panic attack when I walked in.
• There was a particular attendee who has similar features to my former boss. I did several double takes.
• I actually ran into a couple people that I used to work with while we were up on the Hill. There happened to be a pharmacy conference going on at the same time as our conference. What are the chances?!

Our blog has seen some serious neglect over the past few months (err half a year). The pace of life has not slowed much, as we had hoped for 2009. Yet we've had some great experiences - from visitors to travel to life changes. I'll be attempting to update it a bit here.

A couple highlights:

At the end of February, a bunch of friends descended on Denver (yay!). We got to hang out a bit with Kim and Fleetwood (and meet their daughter, Logan) while they were in town for their friend Neil's wedding. That same weekend, Michael's coworker, Beka, along with family and friends came up for a ski weekend in Vail. We got to join them for a day. While the company was great, the skiing left something to be desired...

In early March, we trekked out to Boulder to attend the A&M v. CU basketball game - one of the final games of the season. The Ags prevailed in what was a testy game and went on to March madness.

We also got to attend a regular season Nuggets game at the end of March - and ended up right in the middle of madness between the Nugget's mascot, Rocky, and a Knicks fan. We were three rows in front of all the stands action the entire game. Now the Nuggets are battling out for a spot in the NBA finals. Go Nuggets!

We took trips to OKC to hang out with the Brashares Family in both March and April. There was the road trip in March to celebrate dad's birthday (#60 - though you'd hardly guess). It was a quick trip but it's been great to be able to spend time with family. Plus, it had been almost a year since we were last in OKC so we finally got to see Mom and Dad's new furniture (and painting job). Feeling slightly out of the loop there... We were able to go back for a little longer weekend in April - for the Poor Uncle Billy Fun Run. Documentation of that event at the Brashares Family Blog.

We balanced out our family time with a visit from the Goodrums over Easter. Michael and his dad worked hard on the Jeep. Once Hank has a multi-point fuel injection system, hopefully he will pass the Colorado emissions tests and be back on the road again (after almost 2 years out of commission - and in a cool place at that). As always with vehicles, the jeep project has morphed and now includes rewiring the entire vehicle. Most spare moments of late (even still) find Michael in the garage with the jeep. We also spent a good part of May in D.C. (and surrounding high areas) with the Goodrums.

We've also been through some life transitions with a major decision about graduate school for Michael. Michael attended visit days at both CU Boulder and MIT through March and April and shared the 5-year plan in April on the blog. In the meantime, I've been adjusting to a new job. Although the jobs are very similar, it's been interesting to note the contrasts. I'm appreciating the many blessings of my new role.

Our weather has been wild through the spring and summer. After an uneventful winter with almost no precipitation, April gave us two Saturdays with two and a half feet of snow each (almost 5 feet in total). Really? May, June and July has been rain, rain, rain - with a couple funnel clouds thrown in for good measure.

Thankfully, Memorial Day weekend was one of relative calm. A chance to spend a few days at home and regroup around the house with all the busyness of late. Of course, we couldn't just sit around - we had to run the BolderBoulder for good measure.

In early June, we traveled to Amarillo for Michael's high school reunion. Although I was a bit apprehensive about the event (hanging out with a bunch of people who all know each other but don't know you), we both had a really good time.

The Amarillo trip was followed quickly by a work trip to Vail for me. Michael made it up for the final day and we did a little hiking before heading back to Denver.

Michael spent most of May and June in Hawaii for work. I got to join him during the latter part of his final trip - and we took a little vacation time while we both were there. I actually relaxed during the first part of the week while Michael worked and then we traveled to the Big Island, where we did crazy things like attempt to hike Mauna Kea (but had a good time nonetheless).

We've actually been home for most of July, including the July 4 weekend. Michael has continued to work on the jeep which is oh-so-close to being complete. We're also launching into building a deck - with a goal to complete it before Michael starts school next month (call us crazy!). The Goodrums will be coming in to help us finish out these two big projects - and we'll also have several other fun visitors in the next few weeks.

The fall should be 'relatively' calm - we hope - with Michael transitioning back into school mode. Maybe I'll actually be better about updating the blog when that happens!

If we still have any readers out there, thank for bearing with us through the silence of life chaos lately. Hope you are all doing well!

Wow, we've been home almost a month and I still haven't posted these. Hopefully a full synopsis of the trip is coming sometime this week. For now, here's a preview.




























































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Last weekend, we decided to take a road trip to Albuquerque to see how the good ol' Ags fared against New Mexico. After our loss to Arkansas State, our enthusiasm about the game waned significantly. However, we stuck with our plans to see a (relatively) cheap Aggie football game.

We carpooled to Albuquerque with some Aggie friends we met at the church we've been attending and their mountain dog, Frisco. We stayed the night with one of Michael's high school (well, college too) friends and his wife, who I ended up knowing from A&M (a complete surprise).

While in Albuquerque, we had an incident which made me determine that living in New Mexico is not good for your health. Prior to the football game, we went to eat lunch at Rudy's BBQ (green chile stew - yummm...). A guy immediately ahead of us in line passed out cold at the counter and his head slammed into the concrete floor of the restaurant. He was unconscious for a minute before he came to and had a pretty significant head injury. We immediately called 911. During the time that passed we found out that the guy had a heart condition and called again to report (and urge them to hurry up). They actually told us to stop calling! It took the ambulance over 30 minutes to get to the restaurant - and then the most disturbing part was that the paramedics casually sauntered in when they finally showed up. They were in no hurry at all. The whole thing was highly disturbing.

Here are a couple pictures from the game (which was depressing and had some of the worst officiating I have ever seen - mostly to the dismay of New Mexico).














Ol' Ag pride. Wow...

















Game time in scorching heat

The pictures we took of us at the game didn't really turn out. Oh well. It was an interesting experience and a few memories I'd like to forget.

On our 6 1/2 hour drive home, we stopped in Vegas (New Mexico, that is) for dinner at Johnny's Kitchen. Interesting digs. Here's the barber shop across the street:


















We couldn't decide if the picture on the sign is what you look like before or after the haircut. :)

"Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong."
George Carlin, US comedian and actor (1937 - 2008)