WE STILL ARE PENN STATE

I'm a huge talker... I never shut up. It's a problem. I am also highly opinionated. This is also a problem (sometimes). But because I am emotional and have a tendency to get hyper and/or excited about things I'm not exactly articulate.

This is especially true when it comes to the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the subsequent fallout at Penn State. I've had family members ask me what I think on multiple occasions but at the time I was conflicted and dumbfounded. I really just didn't want to talk about it; not because I was supporting the football program or mad at the country for bashing Joe Paterno, but because PSU is like a family and this was a huge blow.

My college roommate, Michele, sent me this article last week and and it is everything I wanted to say to people when I was asked, "what do you think." This person read my mind along with all other alums, current students and lovers of all things Penn State.

WE ARE MORE THAN THIS TRAGEDY 

(click link)

 "The actions of a few do not define us. The knee-jerk reactions of others will not end us. Our school taught us more than organic chemistry and music theory. It taught us to persevere. To overcome. To succeed – with honor. That is who WE are. That is what WE are."

THE NOTHING CAN'T STOP KAUAI

One of the biggest attractions on Kauai is Waimea Canyon a.k.a. the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. It's the largest canyon in the Pacific and was carved by flooding on Mt. Waialeale's summit. The landscape in the area changes pretty dramatically depending on how far you drive into it. We passed through a dry mountainous region, saw sections of red clay with almost no vegetation and stopped at the gorgeous Kalalau Valley Lookout for the most beautiful view of my life!

I could stare at the first picture forever. The way the ocean blends into the sky so you don't know where one ends/begins. OMG. Heaven. This place is a pure slice of heaven. I will say that Kyle almost had some minor heart attacks as I took pictures of the view because I was illegal and hopped the safety railing to get closer past the tree line. It's all fun and games until you're in peril, I suppose.

As we walked around the ridge of the canyon the clouds kept moving in and taking over. We joked that it was The Nothing from "The Neverending Story" coming in to destroy everything. Unfortunately, if The Nothing did take over Falkor wasn't around to save us.

We tried to stick around to see if the view came back but once the clouds descended into madness there was no view for quite awhile. I'm just happy we got to see a short glimpse because if I had driven all the way up there for clouds I would have been upset. Outside of the canyon, the sky turned back into it's brilliant blue self; The Nothing hadn't taken over the beaches so we headed to the coast.

Lydgate Beach Park is touted as one of the best beach parks on the island. It was nice, I guess, but covered in driftwood making less room to sit on the sand. We ended up sitting farther back and having to climb over the driftwood each time we wanted to get into the water. To beat the heat (and to avoid the burning of the sun), Kyle sat in the shade of some trees while in the distance I saw that someone had built an A-frame fort to lay under. I'm kicking myself for not getting a closer look, maybe playing a rousing game of indians in a wigwam, but I was preoccupied with some Fire Rock Ale and a book about WWII. That's a hardcore vacation read!

The one big adventure we planned began the following morning... a 5 hour zipline through the rainforests of Kauai. The ziplining was done on the Kipa Ranch which is where they filmed a bunch of movies, most recently "The Descendents" with George Clooney. Holla back, Georgie! One of the ziplines was 1,800' long straight across a valley. You flew above the canopy of trees and had a gorgeous mountain view. Quite possibly the best view though was Kyle in his snug outfit and helmet. Am I right?

The company, Outfitters Kauai, also has exclusive rights to a "blue pool" on the ranch. They built a water zip over it along with a couple diving platforms; one of them was 16' high! Looking down at the water from that platform was nothing short of scary. But after psyching myself out for a couple of minutes I finally decided to jump off... halfway down, I started screaming and it wasn't because I was scared! It was because I was like "OMG WHY HAVEN'T I HIT THE WATER YET!" I hit the water with a giant splash, my bathing suit bottoms went right up my rear end and all I wanted to do was jump off again.

Five hours of adventure was enough for one day though. Afterwards, I was pretty tired so we hit up a food stand called "Puka Dog" where they carve a hole in a Hawaiian sweet roll, plop a giant hotdog inside and cover it with lilikoi mustard, if you so desire. It was easily the best hotdog I've ever had.

Magnificently delicious!

We closed out the first week of vacation by hanging out at the sand pool with the resident chickens, local pig and each other. I was trying to infuse the last drops of relaxation into my blood.

I absolutely loved this island and it's chill level; I know I don't have much to compare it to since I've only been to two islands but that just means I need to invest in visiting all of them! What's next? MAUI!

Anyone want to help me earn more Hawaiian Airline miles so I can afford to go back ASAP? 

I'm not kidding!

LIVING IN A KAUAIIAN PARADISE

Our first stop on Hawaii: Part Two was (obviously) the Honolulu Airport where we were picked up by my favorite locals, The Riveras! That first day on Oahu I was running on four hours of sleep, all on the plane, but you couldn't tell. On top of getting to see the Riveras again it's like once you get to your vacation destination adrenaline kicks in and it's one big "yayyyy!" We had a couple beers at a local brewery, Gordon Biersch, and I sat back laughing while Kyle and Deana argued politics. Elephant vs. donkey who will be the ultimate ass?

Kyle and I didn't get too comfortable on Oahu though because it was off to Kauai the next morning! The flight was only 30 minutes long. It is basically take off, fly for 15 minutes and prepare for landing at the Lihue Airport.

Wham, bam, get your vacation on ma'am! (haha)

We stayed at the Kauai Beach Resort for the next few days and it was the nicest hotel I've stayed in, cheap too! Just driving up to the front of the place and seeing the landscaping was enough to make you fall in love. They even had a koi pond with a waterfall right outside the open-air lobby.

But if gorgeous landscaping isn't up your alley the view from our room was nice too. 

Our first stop for relaxation on Kauai? A delicious breakfast at the Art Hemingway Cafe in Kapaa. The cafe was more of an upscale breakfast joint and they made me a very happy girl by putting my muesli in a martini glass. Nothing else says "fancy oatmeal" quite like a long-stemmed glass, right?

We capped off the first day on Kauai by driving up the eastern coast towards the Kilauea Lighthouse. We originally didn't plan on visiting the lighthouse but when we saw a sign that said "9 Miles" I figured why not. As we got closer, the road opened to a straightaway jam-packed with cars; apparently, we had found the locals favorite spot to view the sunset.

It was pretty amazing to see the sun go down over the water while behind us the locals were singing and playing ukeleles.

A WALK WITH ROY G. BIV

This morning started off bright and early... actually, wait, strike that... The morning started off early around 4:45am when I was jolted awake by my alarm. Groaning, I rolled over and hit snooze cursing the day I decided to sign up for The Color Run. Who gets up this early to run for fun!? This is just nuts. I actually rolled over to Kyle and said, "I don't even want to go. Too tired." But off we went to the City of Brotherly Love for some colorful exercise.

We started off very clean and matching 22,000 other people wearing white.

L-R Karen, Toni, Me, Kyle

We got to the Art Museum area around 6:30am and it was already jam-packed with people getting ready to run. I don't think I've ever seen that many people at one time just milling around waiting to get powder thrown in their faces. Even the Warrior Dash (seemingly) had less people!

Our team name was Color Me Pretty, how precious, and it involved some co-workers that I ran with as well. I was lame though and didn't do a very good picture timeline with them.




I am a bad friend-coworker.
You can smack me.

But not until all the fun and magic happens in 3...2...1... ROY G. BIV!


7:49am and we're off! Kyle decides that my work friends have longer legs, run faster and will run the entire thing so he takes off with them. Karen, Toni and I have other plans; they're called the "we all have had some type of injury let's not aggravate it today" plans. Besides, I was totally in this thing for the magical elf dust that would be thrown on me.

So, our trio soldiered on at our own pace along with our new friends.

c/o Madeline Schueren

Pink, blue, orange, green, purple! As you ran through some of the color stations you actually saw people ROLLING in it! There were color hoarders everywhere trying to steal all the fun!! I was going to have some, they had to share! So as I ran through each station I kept yelling, "pick me! pick me! throw some at me! in my hair! pick me!" No shame.

The yellow station had the most energetic dust throwers. It was pure sunshine mayhem in that group! You had magical elf dust in your hair, up your nose and (most likely) down your pants. It was like being on the sun and feeling it's rays; it sure felt like I was on the sun considering the heat!

After I passed through it my hair would puff when my ponytail swung.

c/o Madeline Schueren (Grace!)

As we rounded the finish line I wasn't thinking, "Yay! We did it!" or "Boo! It's over." I stopped running to look at Karen and Toni and said, "A hill? At the end?! Crazy people." Ha! Ending it with a bang!

Now, I wasn't with Kyle the entire race and I'm not entirely sure when the change happened. But somewhere in the midst of thousands of people a zombie came out, attacked him and turned him into one of the undead! OMG! Just look at him! He was about ready to pounce on us and clearly had already bitten other people. He has the bloodstains to prove it!

I really wasn't in the mood to join the Zombie Apocalypse so I am glad he left me alone.

Clearly, this is the most fabulous look you've ever seen. If I had the option, I would be covered in magical dust morning, noon and night. Also, take note: It seems that Kyle has lost a little bit of zombie because he's starting to look more normal.

Haha.

Walking back to the car afterwards I was tired. Up way too early and exercising with the dawn is just too much to take; but the minute I heard someone say, "is this even legal?" I perked up. If it's illegal and fun I probably want in (hi mom!). So, Karen and I proceeded to jump into the fountain front of the Art Museum.

And that, my friends, is The Color Run. An untimed, walk-run 5K. You in next year?! HOLLA!!!

ALOHA BOUND!

The dream. It came true again.

I visited the island of Aloha for the second time in seven months. If I close my eyes I can still see the turquoise ocean transforming into a brilliant cobalt blue farther out to sea, hear the constant clucking of the wild chickens under my beach chair and smell the kalua pig roasting in the barbeque pit. If I really try hard enough I can even feel an ice cold Fire Rock Ale slipping deliciously down my throat. Refreshing!

(how was that for an annoyingly descriptive beginning, bahaha!)

But to say it started on the island is wrong, so very wrong... it all started on Sunday, June 10th at TGI Fridays...

With no food in house and staying up for 26 hours (so we could sleep on the plane), we ventured out in search of a late dinner and some drinks to hold us over. Kick starting vacation by not cooking and having a freshly made margarita is the way to go. But oh man, staying up ALL NIGHT was difficult!! Movies, steam cleaning the carpets, dance parties and yawns ensued. Too bad there isn't a picture of the dance party or the steam cleaning!

The flight on Hawaiian Airlines left from JFK, was nonstop and I know you are jealous of my 10 hours and 20 minutes of pure, pressurized cabin bliss! Knowing I normally go stir-crazy around the 4th hour into any flight I made sure to have tons of things to do including renting movies on my iPad (thanks again to my family, woo). Kyle wouldn't let me watch the movie with nudity in it though... something about kids being around and not needing to see that. If a kid can cry for 5 hours of my flight a little nudity might just calm them down. You never know.

(...space the final frontier)

This was the view for most of the trip. It was never dark because we flew into the sunrise at each time zone. The darkness was chasing us from behind, trying to force us into a restless slumber... did it work? Not until 10PM Hawaiian time (4AM EST). I escaped the Sandman that long. Whew...

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?