Red Shirt Lake

Bryan and I went on a hiking/camping trip last weekend, out to Red Shirt Lake. The trail is about 3.5 miles long and is very well maintained. The bugs are horrible, though – I really do not like mosquitoes! Our packs were full, but not too heavy. Mine sat very well on my hips, but Bryan’s gave him fuss pretty much the whole way in.

The canoe we rented was waiting for us at trail’s end. We figured it was better to rent a used one than to try and carry our own the whole way. The key they gave us did not work at first, until we realized we were trying to unlock the wrong canoe. Once we got that all straightened out, we were good to go.

The cabin we rented is a Public Use Cabin (or PUC) of which there are at least 4 on the lake. We weren’t sure exactly where it was, so had to paddle around and search for it a bit – but we eventually found it and were quite pleased with the site.

It was old and very hard used, though, but still quite functional. The previous users had left it in a filthy mess, however, so I had to sweep it out before we could put our stuff in there. Really not cool, guys!

Bryan spent most of his time out in the lake fishing for pike. Apparently, there are some big ones in the lake, but he only caught the smaller ones. He had fun regardless!

There are lots of critters in and around the lake: we saw a moose, two swans, some grebes, and a huge loon.

I stayed at the cabin and read my book, wrote my letters, and just generally enjoyed my relaxing weekend. Bryan was very happy to discover the previous users had left behind a 6-pack of beer (which sort of made up for them leaving it in such a horrible mess) while I was overjoyed to discover they’d left two partially used citronella candles. We burned those the whole time we were there, which helped to keep the cabin livable without mosquitoes.

We gathered up deadfall and twigs so that we could have a fire each morning inside, to help take the edge off the chill when we got up. We had enough left over for a bonfire one evening, which is always nice. We did not have any marshmallows, though.

The paddle back to trail’s end was considerably shorter since we didn’t have to search for it. Such a beautiful lake – I really enjoyed it.

And as is usually the case, the hike back to the truck was a lot quicker as well. I’m not sure how that works since the mileage is the same. But soon enough we were back at the truck and headed home again.

One thing bad part of this trip was the fact that I did the whole thing with a broken toe! I really do not recommend this, by the way. It hurt! Like, a lot.

Hawaii 2022

This was our big trip for the year, so there are lots of pictures. I’ll post a few for each day, but if you want to see all of them – feel free to come over for a visit to look at the book I’ll be making!

Our first day was mostly just arriving in Maui and getting situated in our room at the resort. Bryan owns a time-share at the Ka'anapali Beach Resort, so we had a suite: a kitchen, a dining area, a living room w/ balcony, and a nice big bedroom with a huge bathroom. It was on the 11^th floor so it had a nice view of the ocean!

The official First Day of Vacation we got to go to the Feast of Lele, one of the finer luaus in Maui. They offer a sit-down meal (as opposed to the more usual buffet style dinner) with 5 courses of food from the Pacific Island Nations (Aotearoa, Tahiti, Samoa, and Hawai’i). Each course featured three different dishes to sample while enjoying the dancers on stage. It was quite the experience!

Day two was my birthday so I got to choose the entertainment for the day: so of course, we went to the Maui Ocean Center! What a fantastic place: we got to see all kinds of fish, turtles, history, and artwork. Their finest exhibit, however, is an astonishing, virtually immersive experience that brings you eye-to-eye with Hawai'i's humpback whales! It’s a dome-shaped theatre showing a 3-D film that literally feels like you’re right there with the whales. At one point during the movie, I looked over at Bryan. He was sitting there looking up at the whale, and the whale was looking right back at him, not two feet away! It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen! I could have SWORN it was real. It completely took my breath away.

The next day was our Road Trip to Hana. We had our own personal guide, downloaded onto our phone – SHAKA GUIDE - that took us step by step all the way there and back again. Honestly, if you’re ever in Maui – I can highly recommend these guys. We bought their bundle offering 6 different tours, so we were able to use it multiple times. The road to Hana is quite the experience even without the guide: it’s a one-lane, two-way highway that has over 600 twists and turns to it! It takes you from one end of the island all the way to the other, giving you some really spectacular views along the way!  

We didn’t want to be rushed during our Road to Hana trip, so we rented an AirB&B in Hana for the night, making it a two-day trip instead of trying to do it all in one day. The place we stayed at was okay – not the best place ever (no air conditioning) but not the worst either (no cockroaches). But I’m glad we stayed the night – we had lots to see!

One of the negative aspects of owning a timeshare is that you are required to attend meetings with them each time you use the timeshare. This gives them an opportunity to get you to spend even more money with them and are truly an awful experience. But we had to go because they had gotten us in to the Feast of Lele for free, and that would have cost us roughly $200.00 per person if we’d gone ourselves. And the meeting was just as awful as I expected it to be – but we did it, and then got to spend the rest of the day just relaxing and recovering from our roadtrip. These are some more photos from the day before.

Thursday was exciting – we rented “glass bottomed” kayaks and got to paddle around for two hours looking at the fishes! Unfortunately, Bryan could not see anything (he did not have his prescription glasses on) through the bottom of the boat – so he mostly paddled while I looked. Most of you know this, but I do not know how to swim – so I was a tad bit nervous. But I had a life preserver on, so really wasn’t that worried. However, the wind picked up while we were out there, so getting back into the little cove we set out from was tricky!

Friday we went inland and did a few tours on our way to the volcano, where we got to use the Shaka Guide ap once again! Our first tour was of the Surfing Goat CheeseFarm: we got to feed the goats AND do a cheese tasting! From there we went to the Ocean Vodka Distillery where we got to tour their grounds and taste their vodka (surprisingly good). We ended the day at the Haleakala National Park up at elevation 10,000.

Since Friday was such a hot day (temps were in the upper 90s pretty much our entire time in Hawaii) I needed to spend Saturday just relaxing and recovering in our rooms. Bryan went out and got some fresh fruit, so we munched on Mangos and Papayas! We played cards, watched movies, read books, and basically just enjoyed each other’s company.

For our last day in Hawaii, we went on another brewery tour at the Maui Brewing Co. and got to taste five or six of their best beers. Afterwards, Bryan really wanted to go to a place called Moose McGillicudy’s for a late dinner: apparently it was a favorite of his from past visits to the island, and his favorite t-shirt from there had just recently disintegrated to the point where it had to be thrown out – so he needed a replacement.

Another MRI

Yup, I had to have another one recently. I really do not enjoy them. But at least this time it was on my liver and not my brain. Slightly better, in that I could at least move my head around.

I am a tad bit claustrophobic – not like full-on panic mode, but enough that I have to psych myself up each time. This time, the techs working with me were kind enough to demonstrate that my head would be quite close to the opening in back, and that if I turned my head rather sharply to the side and looked up, I could see the opening the entire time. That helped immensely.

I was also able to listen to the music again, and this time I chose to listen to OLD country rather than NEW country so at least I knew the songs playing and could follow along with them, even though I could barely hear them. MRIs are incredibly loud, plus this time – since the liver is located just under the lungs – they kept breaking into the music to tell me to hold my breath please… okay, breath now… hold your breath again please… okay resume breathing… etc…etc.

And of course, they had difficulties finding a vein for the IV again. They tried the right arm first then the left arm, going back and forth until they finally got one. I now have a tiny little bruise on my arm (but hey, it matches my toe at least!).

The truly amazing part of all these MRIs and Ultrasounds and blood work being done is that all the results are online. I can actually see the pictures of my brain if I want to – which, of course, I do. Next on my list of things to do today is to log on and take a look at my liver.

The other amazing thing is that the results are available within 24 hours. My doctor knows the very next day and calls me to discuss things as soon as she can. Which means that I already know this particular MRI was negative. They did not find what they thought they would find. Which means that they STILL don’t know what’s wrong with me.

But at least they know what’s not wrong with me – right?

Memorable Moments on an Airplane

I’ve traveled a fair bit in my time and have had more than a few moments worth remembering. Feel free to share your moments in the comment section below!

Once, when I was in high school, I went to Ketchikan to visit a friend of mine for a long weekend. The airport in Ketchikan is on an island across the bay from the main town and flying into that airport is always tricky. This particular time, it was probably the closest to crashing as I’ve ever been; the plane bucking all over the place and was nearly tossed upside down a few times, even. The poor lady sitting next to me had a death grip on the arm rests and was shouting over and over, “OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!”

Another time I was traveling to Valdez for work when a guy tried to open the door mid-flight. He was in full-on panic mode, and it took four grown men to subdue him. The plane had to turn around and land back at the Anchorage Airport, where the guy (who, coincidently, happened to be my boss) was escorted off and we resumed our flight. He ended up driving to work that week!

When my brother was going to school down in Seattle, I decided to spend a 4-day weekend to visit him. Normal flight times from Anchorage to Seattle are roughly 5 hours – this particular flight lasted over 17 hours! As you know, Seattle has horrible weather at times, so my plane had to circle Seattle for a while in hopes that a break in the weather would allow it to land. We ran out of gas, so had to be re-routed to Vancouver to fill up. Vancouver is a foreign country, so we were not allowed off the plan at that time because no one had their passports with them. We went back to Seattle and continued to circle until we ran out of gas a second time. This time, they sent us to Denver to refuel – where they made us all get off the plane to go through Customs, because we’d been in a foreign country (even though we never got off the plane there). Then we boarded our plane again and went back to Seattle to circle some more. Sure enough, we ran out of gas a third time! They sent us to Portland this time, to refuel and restock the drinks, which by this time had bee freely flowing - before once again heading back to Seattle to circle some more. FINALLY, we got to land and get off that damned airplane. Sadly, that turned my 4-day visit in to a 2-day visit, but it was still cool to visit my brother a while.

On a flight to London one time, the guy who was seated next to me was suffering from food poisoning. Man, he looked terrible: pasty white with tinges of green around the edges. Thankfully, the flight was barely half-full so the stewardess managed to give him the back row of seats so he could lay down, and he had one of the bathrooms dedicated solely to him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more miserable person.

Coming home from Hawaii back in ’82 the airplane took off like normal, then within two or three minutes made a very sharp turn and landed again back on the runway. The pilot came on the intercom to inform us that they literally just dropped an engine. Like, it fell OFF THE PLANE! Maintenance crew transferred us to a different plan so they could reattach the engine. Thankfully our new plan made it home safely.

The best one, however, was coming home from Seattle once – I don’t remember the trip, but I certainly remember that flight. Mid-way home, some high school kid thought it would be a good idea to strip down and streak naked from the back of the plane all the way to the front and back again, all the while shrieking in a loud voice “Yeeeaaaahhhh!!!” The stewardesses grabbed him, with the help of a few passengers, and locked him up in one of the bathrooms until we landed. We were not allowed to disembark until the police came and hauled him away in handcuffs. I heard later that he actually went to jail for that little escapade.