Today was our last full day on this 7 day Alaskan adventure.  We have had the most amazing time being back on a ship. Sailing along the coast of Canada and Alaska and all that this trip has entailed.  We have had a wonderful time bonding with the Zuiderdam and I am SO looking forward to January when I will be able to call her home for a few months.  Today we hit the gym to start our day.  With the time change last night back to PT time zone when we arrived at 8:00am we had the entire gym to ourselves for the first 20 mintues or so.  Then we enjoyed another breakfast at the Pinnacle Grill, we will get one more chance to eat in there tomorrow just before disembarkation.  Then we headed back to the cabin for a big jump on our packing.  Luggage has to be out in the hallway by midnight tonight.  We will send most of our luggage out tonight and will hold back our small carry on suitcase for our last minute items.  We have enjoyed this week in the very cabin we will stay in January.  The Zuiderdam is going into dry dock the first two weeks of December for some upgrades and rennovations before the cruise.  In true Disney form, I hid some “Easter Eggs” aorund the cabin for Megan to look for when we get back on.  Just a few of our 2020 WC business cards that I wrote things on the back like; breakfast in bed, good for one manicure, good for a stuffy at the gift shop, good for one Chai Latte…. If they are still there when we get back on great, if not that’s o.k. too.  Gave me something fun to do.  Next I was off to play Bingo today, no jackpots for me.  I also learned the girls can play too, but someone 18 or older must claim the prize.  Next, it was back to the Seaview pool to watch the Polar Bear dip.  They put a ton of ice into the pool and then about 25 guests jumped into the pool.  Megan participated and Valerie choose not too.  She received a certificate verifying her accomplishment.  Both of the girls have previously participated in this event, but it was in Antartica and it was snowing at the time.  Today is was wet and raining, including inside the Crow’s nest.  The bucket brigaide came out, I hope they get that resealed during dry dock.  There was and EFFY raffle at 4:00pm and then it was time to get ready for our last dinner in the Main dining room.  We had such wonderful and immpeccable service this cruise.  Our waiters presented us with a variety of paper and metal crafts at dinner time throughout the cruise.  (See their creations below.)  We presented them each with a note and a tip to show them our gratitude.  Tonight we ordered and the three of shared a tomahawk chop steak.  It had become a tradition for us to do it at least once when we cruise.  It was my late husband’s favorite cut of meat and we love being to do it in his memory and honor.  Yes, we were in a food coma.  Next,Valerie and I attended the last performance of the Dance Company.  Tonight was themed around Billboard hits from the 50’s till today.  The show incorporated the dueling piano players from the Billboard Bar on board with a modified Mainstage with two pianos.  It was very well done.  We also had the oppprtuniy to show our gratitude to our room stewards and Melissa from the Neptune Lounge.  It is so nice to be able to express our thanks to the people who have gone above and beyond to make our vacation epecially wonderful.  Tomorrow morning we have to be up early so we can get breakfast and then be ready to step off the ship by about 8:30am.  We will catch a cab back to the Fairmont where we started this trip where we will stay for a few days.  More adventures still to come.

Today was the last port of our 7 day Alaskan cruise.  I started the day sitting on the veranda on our cabin in shorts and a tank top tanning in the sun with my morning coffee.  It was 80 degrees in Ketchikan today.  The locals were absolutely miserable in the heat.  They said every one was flocking to the beaches and that no one had air conditioning.  We were cleared to get off the ship around 11:00. We had a little time to walk around the pier and do some shopping before our 12:15 excursion.  We took a bus to the northernmost part of Ketchikan to the George Inlet Lodge.  There we walked down 79 steps to a cute resteraunt for a crab luch.  A nice red ale for me and a couple of sodas for the girls and topped off with a yummy cheesecakemcovered with blueberries.  We stopped at the gift shop where we grabbed a few souverniers and then it was the walk back up those 79 stairs.  A little harder on a full tummy but we made it  LOL!!  There was also a shuttle availible for those who were unable to make the walk.   Then we were back on the bus and back into town to attend ‘The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show”. It was entertaining, it was good for a laugh or two, and the lumberjacks were easy on the eyes.  Then we had a short walk back to the ship past the shops we had been in ealier.  We were back on the ship by about 4:30pm.   We have had extremely small excursion group this trip.  A refelection of the lower capacity of the ship maybe?  I’m not really sure.  Our group numbers have been 5, 9, and 14.  We are typically used to being on a bus full of fellow passengers so all of our excrusion have felt like VIP tours this trip.  We have been cautious while on the buses wearing our masks to stay healhty.  Note to Holland America, they need a line item on the laundry sheet for maks to be sent out for washing.  Also, today Megan purchased postcards for the first time ever.  She filled them out throughout the day and we found a post office box for her to drop them into to mail back to her friends in Cayucos.  She was very proud of herself.  Tonight we had a very delicious meal in the Pinnacle Grill.  Another wonderful walk down memory lane to indulge in a few delicacies that we had not had in quite a while.  After dinner Megan went off to spend time with the other teens and Valerie and I went to the dance companies performance entitled “Musicology”. The dance company currently on the ship is doing a wonderful job keeping the guest entertained.  There is one last performace tomorrow evening so we had a total of four different performances over the course of our week long cruise.  I will say it was more then I expected and I have been pleasnatly surprised and impressed.  Tonight was also the Organge party.  A Holland America tradition with a nod to the dominant color of the company’s logo and flag.  The Rolling Stone Club was definitely hopping.  We stayed till about 10:30 and then cuddled in with a movie.  We move our clocks back forward an hour tonight and get back onto CA time.  I am sad tomorrow is our last day on the Zuiderdam.  I know we will spend the day packing up, trying to soak up the last of our vacation, making sure we have all our questions answered in preparation for the World Cruise in January, writing thank you notes to the crew members that have gone above and beyond to take care of us, and a few scheduled activities around the ship.  We can hear the fog horn blowing again tongiht.  Over the weekend a ship collided with an iceberg in the middle of the night.  I am glad that wasn’t our ship and it definitely makes me a little nervous for our sail back to Vancouver.  But I have full confidence in our captain that he will keep us safe and sound.  Hugs from the girls and I.

Happy Stitch Day to all you Disney fans! Being Megan’s favorite Disney character today is monumental day. It was celebrated in a truly monumental way here aboard the MS Zuiderdam. At 5:45 am this morning the rangers for the Glacier Bay National Park boarded the ship to start the scenic and educational presentations at 8:00am. In preparation Megan and I were in the gym at 7:00am so we could be back to our room by 8:00am. We pre-ordered room service last night so we could have a relaxing morning on our balcony as we enjoyed the sights of this amazing area of the world. Unfortunately, as we have learned during this world of uncertainty and flexibility that we are currently living in, things don’t always go as planned. As best as we can understand, something happened with the paperwork for the rangers so instead of being escorted to the bridge they were placed in isolation. Now as passenger, I give much credit and kudos to Holland America to putting our safety, health and wellbeing first and foremost in this situation. It took a while to work out some logistical and technical details, but eventually the rangers were able to deliver some of their information to the passengers through a relay of communications from their isolation area. We sailed into Glacier Bay and got to see the Margerie Glacier, Jaw Point and the Johns Hopkins Glacier. We saw gulls, seals, whales, and my favorite items that are now crossed off my bucket list, Glacier thunder and Glacier Calving. Previously, only seen by me compliments of Disney “Soaring Over the World” ride. It was something I will never forget. I got some, after photos I believe if you look closely you can see the splashing. WE got to walk on the bow of the Zuiderdam and got some great shots of the bell as well as the banner the ship is adorning for this Alaska season. It is Holland America’s 75th year of Alaskan sailing and it is definitely being celebrated. With the warm temperatures the crew struggled to try and give away the free pea soup the were serving. At 2:00pm Megan I went to the gym to have a personal evaluation from the personal trainer. Then, we hopped out to deck three so we could participate in the “On Deck for a Cause” 5k walk to benefit the Ukraine. Three laps around deck three equals one mile…so nine laps later, we completed the walk, got more exercise and raised $100 for the cause!! By then it was time to head back to the cabin to begin getting ready for our second and final Gala of this cruise. How we love dressing up!! After dinner the girls ran off to participate in the nightly teen activities and I am snuggled into the cabin writing my blog for all you to read and enjoy. Another great day. A lot of memories today of the World Cruise and of our week we spent in Antartica. Something about the blue ice, the glaciers, the floating icebergs beside the ship, being on the bow, seeing all the people crammed into the Crow’s nest…it was just a blessed time to reminisce, remember and to create new memories all at the same time. Enjoy our photos from today…we sail on to Ketchikan tonight for our last port and excursion of this trip. But you’ll have to wait till tomorrow for the details.

P.S. I’m so sorry, also like Antartica, I can not post photos tonight. I shall revise this post tomorrow and add in the photos. (Revised 6/28/22 with photos)

It was an early wake up today. Alarm went off at 6:30am this morning. The girls were a little harder than usual to wrangle up after our full day of activities yesterday. We had a 7:45am meet at the pier for our excursion this morning.

*Let me take a pause here to write about the biggest change that has occurred in sailing since we were last on a ship. The Navigator app and the television in your room are far more necessary than ever before. It is your muster instructional video upon boarding, it is you movie library (no more going to guest services for DVD’s), it is your menus for the main dining room, you can use it to contact your room steward for more towels, blankets, laundry pick up, etc, it is how you view the menu for room service, and the app and/or your room key is your excursion ticket. No more printed excursion tickets given to you on your first day on the ship. I am really going to miss having those as souvenirs of the things we have done and the places we have seen. You don’t even meet on the ship any longer, you go off the ship, meet the excursion company on the dock, they scan your app/room key with a phone or iPad and off you go. Not sure how that will work on the WC with some of the third world countries we will visit but I have no doubt they will figure it out.

So off we went on a horseback riding adventure. We were picked up by our bus with 6 other passengers and driven to the horse corrals. It wasn’t long before the long, windy, narrow, rough road remind me I had been here before. In 2016, the girls and I were on this very road riding to a mushers camp here in Skagway. Once we arrived at the stables today, we were each given a helmet and sent over to have our horsemanship experience evaluated before they assigned us our steeds. Now, I have to say that in 2016 was also the last time I rode a horse on the beach in Washington. I was assigned their one an only, massive Clydesdale then, and wouldn’t you know it, it happened again today. He was a massive, beautiful, and stubborn horse named Angus. He needed constant attention to keep him on task but we bonded quickly and he kept me safe all afternoon. Valerie was assigned the gentle lead horse named Peaches that just walked along and seemed to enjoy the scenery as much as we did. Megan rode behind me on a horse named Willow. He has a snacking problem, meaning anything green along the trail was fair game. He kept Megan on her toes. So between Megan and I, we had an amazing upper body workout today. We were on the trail for about 90 minutes. We rode out to a beautiful meadow where the horses were allowed to snack right near the previously mentioned mushers camp parking lot. Once we arrive back to the corral we were treated to a light snack, some drinks and another off road experience back to the Zuiderdam. We were back on the ship by noon. We had our first meal at the Dive In of this trip. The food was not quite as pleasurable as I remembered it. They no longer have the self service area set up outside the Dive In and they currently are not serving my beloved sweet potato fries. This is also the only restaurant you can currently order your food virtually through the app. After lunch was our first opportunity to put on our bathing suits and enjoy some pool time. Yes, it felt as surreal as it is to read it. We were in ALASKA, in bathing suits, sun tanning at the pool. A couple of blended Painkillers (a delightful tropical cocktail) for me and some virgin drinks for the girls and it was time to head back to the cabin to dress for dinner. Throughout today we ran into several people who are beginning to inquire how it is that two such young ladies (Valerie and Megan) are four star mariners already. We are having a lot of fun sharing our tales of the 2020 WC as well as sharing our excitement and anticipation for the 2023 WC. At this point I would like to request compensation from Holland America for the walking, talking billboards my daughters and I represent. There are many first time cruisers on this trip and I have been told so many times that a WC is on their bucket list. Being a young widow and having survived the pandemic I tell them that we all know that life is short and that they shouldn’t wait any longer. Make their deposit now before the trip is booked full. At 7:30 pm Megan went off to hang out with the other teens and Valerie and I attended the dance companies performance titled In Tandem. Fantastic and challenging dance steps, lifts and music. Then it was back to the room for me to get caught up on two days of my blog for you all. I hope to have a few new followers, as I was able to share my blog with several passengers today. Tomorrow, we are heading into our scenic sailing portion of this cruise. The Rangers and Naturalist board the ship at 5:45 am tomorrow and begin their presentation at 8:00am. They will open up the bow and we will have an opportunity to go out onto the front of ship. Something we haven’t done since Antartica. But all that is for tomorrow….sweet dreams to all my friends and family, new and old that are following along on our adventures. Enjoy the pictures.

Another fabulous nights sleep. I love the gentle rocking and rolling of a cruise ship. It is the most relaxing and peace-filled nights sleep I have had in a long time. We set our clocks back an hour last night. So we are now one hour behind California. This morning Megan and I hit the gym first thing. Have to burn off the calories of the extra food we are eating, LOL!! I am making smart choices, watching what I am eating, and not overdoing it on the desserts. I have made some lifestyle changes since I last cruised and I am finding it easier than I thought to stick to them. Since we worked out, we can then go and reward ourselves but eating. haha. We had another lovely breakfast at the Pinnacle grill. Then it was back to the cabin to “work”. We measured every nook, cranny, shelf, counter and walls of our stateroom. We will take this information back to CA with us and use it to prepare for the 2023 world cruise. We like to make our cabin feel like home. We will decorate it, print up family photos, bring storage cubes, magnets and suction cups, etc… Every thing we need to make the cabin what we want it to be for the 128 day journey. After we had completed that task everyone went separate direction for the afternoon. Valerie and I attended an educational talk on Ancestral Memories. A history of the Alaskan people, their culture and their almost lost language. Then we went to coloring for adults, still working on the same pieces we had previously started. Then it was back to our room to prepare for our later excursion. We were blessed to take an extremely scenic helicopter ride over several glaciers and snowcapped mountains around the Juneau area. Then we landed on the Norris Glacier at a musher camp where the dogs are in training for summer. It was by far the coldest place we had been in a while. We were able to learn about the camp, how it’s run and how the dogs are trained there. Then we were allowed to hop into a dog sled and we were off to mush a team (assisted) of alaskan huskies around the camp. Fun for us and exercise for them. What an opportunity of a lifetime. It will be an experience I will never forget. Lastly, we loaded back into our helicopter and and headed back to the helipad in Juneau and back to the ship. Since we had missed our 5:30pm dinner seating we were able to request to be sat in our servers area as we have come to know and adore our dining room team. We didn’t get back to the room till about 9:00pm. We put a movie on the television and we were fast asleep. ( That’s why this entry comes to you a day late). Please enjoy this small collection of amazing photos we took throughout our excursion. They do not do the scenery justice, but I hope you find them as breathtaking as I did in the moment I was experiencing it.

Our first sea day.  And as usual, we never had time to get bored.  Megan and I started the morning at the gym at 7:30 am.  Abs class for her and the eliptical for me.  Nothing like working out while you are cruising up a scenic straight filled with beautiful scenery on either side.  Then we were off to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.  We all enjoyed our much missed breakfast choices of cruises gone by. Next, we were off to try and learn pickleball.  Unfortunatley, it was incredibly windy making it quite challenging.  We are determined to learn how to play before the 2023 WC.  Next was coloring for adults and some time to express our creative selves.  By then it was time for lunch, I was still full from breakfast.  Then we attended a hosted wine tasting event.  Megan accompanied me and Valerie headed back to the room for a bath and to rest.  The motion of the ship is bothering her again.  We got her some green apples, anti nausea pills, and ginerale.  Then it was off to try and learn Mahjong.  Unfortunately Megan and I were the only ones to show up and since neither of us knew how to play we didn’t stay.  After that we all parted ways to do our own activities.  I heading to the Mainstage for a fabulous nature talk on the wildlife of Alaska.  Then it was back to the room to get ready for tonight’s Gala.  We love dressing up.  It isn’t the same at all on this cruise.  Hardly anyone dressed up at all.  But we looked good.  We took some photos…to come later…and had a fantastic dinner.  Then it was to the Mainstage for the first show of our trip, “Humanity” a dance performance.  It was very well done and the music was delightful.  After, the girls headed off to teen club and I headed to the Rolling Stone Club, formerly the BB King Club, for some live music.  Lastly, the comedian came on stage at 9:15pm to perform his set.  There is a reason it was for 18 and over.  It was funny, but somewhat crude.  Caused me to blush more than once.  That about sums up a day at sea.  Never a moment to get bored.  I missed having the project linus group on board. That was our go to on sea days on the world cruise.  Tonight we set the clocks back an hour as we head further north.  We are scheduled to pull into Juneau at 1:00pm and we have amazing adventures ahead. More to come tomorrow.  Goodnight and sweet dreams…curtains are all pulled shut as it is still light out at 11:15pm at night.

Photos below:  In true Holland America fashion they (the fairies) change the carpets in the elevateors every night.  In case your forgot what day of the week it is.

This lady sits elegantly inside the Mainstage. As an avid crocheter and knowing how many blankets will be knitted and croheted as future guests sit in this room, it made me laugh out loud.

The best/worst part of cruising, you ask your server to bring you two desserts to share at the table, and he decides to bring you four instead.

And lastly, our friend of the evening.  Our elephant towel creation compliments of our room stewards.

It is time to once again breath new life into my Blog.  I know how you have all missed living vicariously through me, but we really haven’t been anywhere in 27 months.  So today marks a monumental day for us that I wanted to share.  On March 22, 2020 our World Cruise ended abruptly and the world as we knew it changed around us.  That was 822 days ago.  Today, 6/22/22 my girls and I stepped onto a ship for the first time in exactly 27 months.  It was emtional to say the least.  Lots of memories came flooding back of the last time we stepped off a cruise ship and the circumstances surrounding it.  Today started a new chapter for us as well as an opportunity to bury the ghost of cruising past.  We are on the Zuiderdam in Vancouver sailing towards Alaska.  We are both on the ship and in the cabin that we intend to step back into on Jan 3, 2023 as Megan and I will embark once again on the World Cruise.  We have so much to be thankful for and consider ourselves so blessed just to be here in this moment building new memories together.  Mom is home in California following along via this blog and she is missed so very much.  But we know she is here with us in spirit.  So today we toured the ship and tried to start figuring our all the nooks and crannies.  This ship is quite a bit larger then the Amsterdam that we sailed on in 2020.  This ship has a capacity of 1800 passengers and there is currently only 1200 on board.  The power went out on the ship about 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave Vancouver so that delayed our departure by about 90 minutes.  As we sat to our first meal in the main dining room at 5:30pm we watched the ship pull away from the dock.  The timing was perfect.  How we had missed being served by such delightful Holland America staff.  Our servers are Krishna and Oka and our smiling room stewards are Rosi and Doti.  On the World Cruise you will hear me mention the dedicated people that touch our lives every day.  They are the unsung heros that help make this trip as memorable as it is.  The girls, in true cruiseing tradition, have run off to spend time with the other teens on the ship.  There are currently 53 children between the ages of 3-17 on the ship. Quite a bit more then the 5 that were on the ship last time we were sailing.  We are also blessed to be traveling with Alan and Sharon Johnson.  Two world cruiseer from  2020 who just happen to be sailing with us.  The familiar faces were such a pleasant addition to our amazing day.  We attended two welcome receptions as well.  I am now sitting looking out my cabin window as we sail north to Alaska.  The mountain tops are covered with snow.  The sea air has welcomed me home.  I know I will sleep amazingly tonight as there is no better rest for me then when on a ship rolling along the seas.  What a day of healing, celebrating, and feeling like a small part of normalcy has returned to our crazy lives.  Tomorrow is a sea day.  Till then sweet dreams my friends!!

A blessing that has come out of this last year is the availability to do things virtually and socially via zoom. When I was getting prepared to go on the cruise we struggled to find online resources for the girls for educational purposes. Now, they are abundant. For the second year in a row the girls are attending Camp Kesem virtually. Camp Kesem is an amazing nationally run program by college students to benefit children who have been affected by a parent’s cancer. It is bittersweet to see Valerie and Megan doing camp activities, songs and camp chat via zoom. I long for the time when they can actually have an opportunity to be live and in person at camp again. Prayerfully that will happen next summer. Also bittersweet is that camp starts at 9:00am Pacific Time and we are in Hawaii. So we were up with the sun at 5:30am this morning getting dressed and logging in for camp. We will get to do this for five days. The girls got to spend the day logging in and out for various activities throughout the day. Valerie is in her first year of TLP, Teen Leadership Program and Megan is grouped with other campers her age. By about noon our time they both had a break so we all got a chance to go down to the pool for a couple of hours and enjoy the sun and swim. They logged back in around 4pm our time for the night time activity and when they were done it was dinner time for us. With the immense number of people visiting the Hawaiian islands right now, reservations to go out to eat, for activities and especially car rentals had to be done in advance of our arrival. We enjoyed a delicious meal at Duke’s. It turned out to be crab night so it was a nice surprise and bonus to our evening out. They were most sadly out of Hula Pie though. It is a family favorite. Oreo cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream, covered in hot fudge. There is supposedly an ice cream shortage on the island right now, among other things. So we googled our closest Lappert’s ice cream shop and stopped for our own yummy dessert on our way back to the resort. Enjoy the picture of my La Pina cocktail. Tomorrow is camp again. I will probably go out and do some exploring, and hopefully get some of that yummy meat while the girls are doing camp. We will sleep fast as it will be another early morning. Virtual yoga starts at 6:00am here.

I don’t want to think I am overly sentimental, but I guess we really like to “redo” things we really enjoyed. When the girls found out we were coming back to Kauai, they requested we booked another excursion with Outfitters Kauai. We were on Kauai in 2018 with my sons and my daughters when we were on our first family cruise on the Pride of America around the Hawaiian islands. I’ll attach a photo below. So this morning we packed up and heading off for our adventure for today. This time we remembered the mosquito repellant because we got eaten alive last time we did this trip. We got to kayak down the river, then we had an adventure hike through a beautiful and muddy landscape of natural habitat on a piece of property that has been owned by the same family for generations. We got to swim in a lagoon where scenes from the Pirate’s of Caribbean, part four, was filmed. I believe it was the fountain of youth in the movie. I feel younger already. There was also a rope swing here that girls got to try their hand at again. All in all a fun and active excursion filled with beauty and memory making. All this exercise made us hungry so we sought out a close and high end restaurant, Costco!! hey since we were there we popped in to do a little shopping too. Ahi jerky, furikake shrimp chips and a couple of Hurley tank tops was the score of the day. We love finding new and exciting local products when we visit other Costcos. Next, we continued our quest to find a popsicle place. We are zero for three right now. Ono Popscicles have great reviews, but we can’t seem to find anywhere to buy them. Lastly, we decided to trek to the meat market and stock up…but no luck here either. We arrived at 3:07pm and the closed at 3:00pm. Some things are just not meant to be. We headed home and I cooked a great dinner of garlic pasta, Shrimp Scampi and a Ceasar Salad. At least I knew that my kitchen was still open. It’s nice to be able to blog/log/ journal my adventures once again. We have every intention of taking another world cruise as soon as traveling permits us too. And as the girls get older there are many places on my bucket list. I am leaving my memories here for you all to read. May my family and friends enjoying Living Vicariously Through Me..

lI haven’t posted anything to my blog in almost a year and half. We have survived Covid and are slowly getting back to our lives as “normal”. My daughters and I are on a vacation, long over do and deserved. With our abundance of timeshare points to use from last year and this year we decided to take a four week vacation to Hawaii. So we are spending a week in Poipu, Kauai; then a week at Kaanapali Beach Club in Maui, next we travel to Waikiki, Oahu for a week there, and lastly to the Aulani, also on Oahu. For those of you who followed my World Cruise trip, we were scheduled to go to the Aulani on our way home from Australia, but it closed the day before we were to arrive. So this stop is most excitedly the culmination of a very long and patient wait by all of us. So let me tell you about our first day in Kauai:

The stars aligned and we were happily flying out on the first day that the state of Hawaii no longer required Covid tests. But to make sure nothing went wrong, we went ahead and had the tests done just in case. We uploaded our vaccine cards, our negative Covid test results and completed our questionnaires. Arrival day (July 8th) was about getting luggage, picking up rental car and driving to the resort. Megan has been “looking” at what kind of car she wants when she grows up. She’s a big fan of the muscle cars, Alamo was kind enough to give us a Challenger for the week and she is in heaven. We had “dinner” at the pool around 4:30pm (7:30pm to us) took a quick swim and then cuddled in for the night.

.July 9th, 2021. The best of Kauai tour from our 2018 cruise with the boys revisited. It wasn’t what we set out to do today, it just kinda happened. We started our morning with breakfast at the Kahaheo Cafe, Portuguese Sausage and eggs and a shared cinnamon roll. Then we went to Big Save grocery store to stock up on some supplies to get us through the week. We took the groceries home and off we went on our adventures. Our first stop was in Hanapepe. This town inspired the background for the movie Lilo and Stitch. Stitch is Megan’s absolutely favorite Disney character so homage had to be given. There is an extraordinary swinging bridge here as well. The girls had fun running across and making it bounce so they could scare mommy. Next, we took a beautiful ride north to Waimea Canyon and hiked up to the vista point for some photos. We drove through some crazy rain clouds on the way up and down. We can’t get over how green and lush everything is here. It never surprises us no matter how many times we are blessed to be in Hawaii how tropical this paradise is. Our next stop was Glass Beach. I was here several years ago with my late husband Don and the beach was covered with glass. Now there was almost none at all. But the sand is black here and it was a beautiful place to stop and dip our toes in. Next we stopped at Kauai Island Brewery, right near glass beach for “Linner.” The beer was good, the service was wonderful, but the beef was AMAZING! We asked our server where they sourced their meat from to find out there is a place here on Kauai called Medeiros Farms. We tried to go there and buy some but they closed at 5:00pm and we arrived at 5:10pm. So that will have to be for later this week. Our last stop on our drive home was to Spouting Horn blowhole. I have lots of wonderful pictures to attach and share. Thank you for following us along on our newest travels. For some of you, you haven’t seen us in a while and the girls have grown up quite a bit. Enjoy!