Randy and I tried out our new underwater digital camera (Vivitar ViviCam 6200W) this week while snorkeling at Blackrock at Kaanapali Resort on Maui. After years of wrestling with disposable or even refillable 35mm underwater cameras, it was soooo nice to have the luxury of taking digital photos and video and having an inkling if we got a good shot or not.

We encountered three green sea turtles who couldn’t have cared less about the swarms of snorkelers surrounding them. It was like a little bit of magic being able to swim along side them (keeping our distance because 1) they are endangered and 2) turtles can bite).

I’m loving this camera so far and it seems to be just a good back up digital camera so Randy and I don’t have to fight over the Kodak.

In a cool twist of fate, flickr.com is now allowing pro users to upload short videos. I’m loving it!

Yeah. I know. Where have I been for the last few months? Well, I started working more hours and it seems to have wreaked havoc with my life’s rhythm. It feels like I’ve blinked my eyes and suddenly went from Christmas to almost St. Patrick’s Day.

I did manage to make a trip out to Seattle to see my family a couple of weeks ago. My sister flew in from Arizona so it was a nice mini-reunion. As I get older, seeing family has become more important, more valued, and more bittersweet. Now that I’m an adult and can really appreciate my family, it’s sad that we all live so far away from each other.

Amazingly enough, I didn’t gain any weight on this trip. It’s a miracle. I discovered The Confectional, a bakery specializing in mini-cheesecakes located in the Pike Place Market. They sell this hot chocolate, I think it was Colombian hot chocolate, which was unbelievable. I only bought a shot of it (yes, it’s that rich), but now I wish I’d indulged more. The cheesecakes are fabulous too.

I’ve posted some pictures on our flickr.com photostream. I didn’t take any pictures of the cheesecakes, but there are some food pictures, some family pictures and a zillion shots of Kes (naturally).

I’ve just posted pictures on our flickr.com photostream. It was great to spend the week of Thanksgiving with Randy’s family. Monday we went with our new nephew-in-law (is that a real term?) Mikey and his new bride our niece Cindy to visit Washington, DC. We went just a few months back with my sister and her family and at that time we felt broiled, but this time, we had to bundle up. The crowds were quite reasonable and the autumn leaves gave the city’s landscape a completely different feel.

One of the highlights was our dinner at Phillip’s Seafood Flagship Restaurant. Although we eat at Phillips in Ocean City, MD every summer during our family vacation, we’d never been to this location and never tried the buffet (we normally order off the menu). The seafood buffet was yummy. The sheer volume of food choices reminded me of the buffets in Las Vegas.

Another little adventure on this trip was our stay in the Marriott Renaissance M Street Hotel. Normally we don’t stay in 4-star hotels as they are just a bit out of our price range, but when we decided to stay overnight in DC, I remembered my beloved William Shatner and his campy Priceline.com commercials. Was I going to be a namby pamby? No! I offered a measly $65 for our one-night’s stay, and it was accepted! The hotel has undergone a multi-million-dollar renovation and it is lovely from the two LG HD LCDs in our suite to the modern bathroom sink and counter top. Ever since watching the movie “Beverly Hills Cop” in the ’80s, I’d always wanted to stay in a hotel that provided the guest bathrobes during their stay. Anyhow, we enjoyed our experience very much.

I’ve posted some of the pictures from our trip to Jackonsville last month to our flickr photstream. Yeah, I know it’s been a month since the Gator Bowl, but I’ve been busy!

Okay, so it’s been harder than I thought to make time to blog. I have managed to upload more pictures to our flickr.com photostream though! If a picture worth a thousand words then I’m not doing too badly. . .

Well, instead of writing down my deep thoughts (read: babble about miscellaneous subjects) I decided to upload some pictures to our flickr.com photostream from our recent trip to Seattle. The Underground Seattle Tour was really fascinating and it’s always good to be back in the Pike Place Market after working downtown for several years, one job being only a block away from the Market. Although being back in the Emerald City was great, nothing was better than seeing my family and being all together again.

I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, just been a little busy vacationing with no decent internet connections. I actually had to sit around and relax! How crazy is that?! I actually finished reading a novel!

For now we are buried under the piles of laundry to do and half-unpacked luggage. I do feel refreshed and renewed and ready to blog regularly again, however, I need to make sure I have something clean to wear to work tomorrow so duty calls first.

We’re leaving for Seattle on Sunday and instead of packing, I am blogging. Instead of unloading the dishwasher, I am surfing the internet. Instead of pulling the two chicken breasts off of our George Foreman Grill, I’m watching QVC (I’ve just pulled the forgotten pieces of poultry off of the grill and although a bit dry now, are luckily for me, still edible). It’s not that I’m avoiding things, I just don’t feel particularly motivated.
Don’t get me wrong, I am excited about seeing my family in Seattle and getting to hang out with Randy on the trip there and back. I think it’s just the hassle of choosing what to wear, gathering all the little items, and trying to fit it all into our suitcases. Travel has lost some of its romance over the years.
I’ll see if I can’t take some interesting pictures while in the Emerald City although most of the time I’ll be seeing family, at a convention in Tukwila, or eating my way through the local favorites.

Things I’d like to do on my visit to Seattle:

I’ve uploaded a few more pictures to our flickr.com photostream but since our cat Eldar won’t move from my lap and she is sharing it with my laptop computer, my efforts to upload several pictures have been hampered. It’s hard to control a touchpad when one’s cat won’t move her backside off of it.
It’s been tough to adjust back to normal life. I think it’ll take at least a week to get back into the swing of things especially with getting over the jet lag. Randy has made some inroads into the laundry but I’ve only just opened the bills that came in the mail and have yet to really sort it. Who would’ve though taking a vacation would be so much work?
We do love Hawaii though and the trip there is worth all these small inconveniences.

It’s our last day on Maui and it’s sad to say goodbye. It’s been an odd vacation here as the restaurant that we normally go to lost its lease and moved into Lahaina. The staff there know us, especially Randy’s parents, and it was always like a big reunion with our Hawaiian ohana (family) when we would return. We did track most everyone down at the new location or their new jobs (some couldn’t wait while the owners found a new location and got it ready which took months) but the change really affected the rhythm of our stay here.
Randy’s folks have been coming to Hawaii for fifteen years and the change this year was pretty traumatic. Still, we’ve managed to have a good visit with each other, try a few new restaurants, and enjoy the aloha spirit which is still here in the islands.
I’ll have to wait to upload more of the bzillion pictures we took as our internet connection here doesn’t seem to have the bandwidth.
It’ll take us 21 hours to fly home with connections and layovers. It’ll be exhausting and backbreaking (who can get comfortable in coach airplane seats?) but worth every minute. We do love it here and can see why some folks never leave.