Hawaiian Vacation

A long time dream of mine was to visit Hawaii, but more specifically Kauai. I had seen pictures of Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali coast and I was hooked. If it looked good in photos, it must be amazing in person. I wanted to experience that. So when David and I started talking about going to Hawaii for our honeymoon, naturally that was where I proposed.

So I booked the airline and the hotel, taking a gamble of what I read of the places to stay were true. We had a non-stop flight from Seattle to Lihue, but it flew there and back once a day so you couldn't pick the time. We were landing just as dusk was taking hold, and had a short drive to the hotel in the dark. We stayed at the Kauai Marriott Resort. By far the most swank place I have stayed. Lovely view of the beach and the pool. (BTW, the hotel has the state's largest single level pool. Quite impressive.)

We spent the vast majority of the time just hanging out on the beach, either reading, chillin', or listening to the iPod. It gave me the chance to read a couple of books. The most exciting thing we did was take a helicopter trip around the island and it landed at a waterfall about halfway though the trip for lunch and a dip in the waterfall. The helicopter was tiny! Just a five seater with the doors taken off for a better view. I sat in front between the pilot, "Captain", and David. In the back was a couple from Oregon. Seriously more room in the front seat of my '89 Corolla. Scary as all get out but I kept reminding myself that if the pilot was calm, I'm okay.

The other main thing we did was drive up Waimea Canyon to the Kalalau Valley overlook. What a spectacular sight. Just amazing! At the end of the road is an overlook into the valley, but if you walk down a trail you get an unobstructive view. What that means is there is no railing whatsoever! And might I mention that those cliffs are several 1000 feet tall. Definitely some rear puckering going on. I could only get a couple of feet from the edge.

David had his 40th birthday while we were there, so I got him a massage. Had to make our relaxing vacation, just a little more so. (I also got one myself, but not as deluxe as his.)

Bottom line: Best vacation I have ever had!!!!

New batch of Veils

For the upcoming Souk I tie-dyed 12 new veils! And I must say this is my favorite batch so far. I am so excited, I feel the need to blog about them. Great patterns and colors. Pix coming soon. And all are available for sale before the Souk. I'm thinking about getting more anyway.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

On my recent business trip to San Diego, I had time to visit the Wild Animal Park. It is really amazing. It's park of the San Diego Zoo but not set up like a zoo at all. The emphasis at this facility is the breeding of animals. Lots of great info and photos. Totally work the money.

I went to Zoo and I saw...

Four-fifths of the Fuzzy Monkeys spent the last weekend down in Sacramento for Unmata's Blood Moon. First off, a ginormous thank you to Amy and Unmata for inviting us to participate in the Afterparty. We had so much fun and would totally love to do it again! And it's always great to have a girls weekend.

Friday afternoon, Epona and I flew down, followed by Sanafi and Aviva a few hours later. Several years ago I lived up in the Sierras a couple of hours away from Sacramento so I drove up with Epona to have dinner and see friends. The drive up there she kept saying to me, "I can't picture you living here. I can picture me living here." True statement. I don't know how I did it. Spent not nearly enough time with my friends before having to head back to Sacramento.

We arrived at the hotel around 12:30. (HUGE thank you to Devin for donating Marriott hotel points for the Monkeys to stay two nights for free. AND he donated frequent flyer miles for his wife and the littlest Monkey to make the trip.) We got a message from Sanafi that we were checked in and just had to pick up keys at the front desk. We walk in and there is no one there, just three security guards. They go to get the desk clerk and just as he's walking up, the phone starts ringing. I'm thinking, "Great, now we have to wait for him to deal with that first." Turns out he's talking to Aviva to see if we've arrived.

Saturday during the day was filled with errands. Monkeys tend to use a lot of props in their performances. And a pedestal doesn't fit in the overhead compartment on the plane, so we needed to find one. So it's off to Home Depot. Then we need some flowers and it's over to JoAnn's. Someone forgot socks, so off to Nordstrom Rack and back to the hotel. Met up with the other Monkeys for lunch and more errands. Back to Nordstrom Rack, over to Ulta, then back to the hotel to get ready.

Instead to doing dinner, we decided just to cruise through the local supermarket and pick up some snacks, magazines, beverages, and sit in line at the theater to wait for Blood Moon. The show was great! Lots of talent and many styles of dance and music. My favorites were the elephants, the lemurs, the meerkats, the giraffe, the zoo keeper, the family, and THE RACCOONS!!!!

Now it's time to venture over to the next venue for the Afterparty. We get there and the doors aren't open yet and Aviva has to use the restroom. Nowhere was open and the gas station's was out of order. After pleading with some poor woman at Popeye's she finally gets some relief. And good thing. We get back to the second venue and have to wait at least 15 minutes before the doors open. Lots of great talent at UN-Tagged too! So many good memories and great times! Got back to the hotel at 2:30 in the morning very tired but very awake, so rather than wake up early to pack, packed then. After little sleep it was time to go.

The other three were on the 12:22 flight and I was on the 3:14. They left about an hour before me and I took my time to get to the airport but was still there by noon. I got to my gate and noticed that their flight was delayed until 2:25. I looked all over the terminal for them but they weren't there. They decided to eat lunch in another terminal first. Finally saw them come through security around 1:00. My flight was on time, meanwhile their flight kept getting delayed. By the time I left, they were scheduled to depart at 4:25. Since Epona and I flew down together, her car was at my house. By the time she got here, I had unpacked, put my suitcase away, and my laundry was already in the dryer.

So drowsy at work today that I left at 12:30.

GOOD TIMES!

Muscles I didn't know I had

Had a fantastic time this weekend at the Sharon Kihara workshops! I totally felt like a fish out of water since I don't have a tribal background. (Just a few workshops here and there.) She is really fun and talks too much, just like me, when she teaches but she has great stories. Learned so much that I can't remember a lot of it but I did get some great new combos to try out next time I'm choreographing. Sweet!

More about veils

Thanks to Indigo for challenging me to makeover her "tired" yellow silk veil. This poor veil had seen the use of a professional dancer, but she loves the veil and keeps dancing with it making the veil sadder. But alas tie-dye is a fantastic way to give something you love a new look.

So before I gave it back to her I decided to take a picture of it. (See close-up of center above.) This also gave me the opportunity to take pictures of all my existing veils for sale.

Summer storm

During our vacation in the Adirondacks, we were in this fantastic thunder and lightning storm. It knocked out the power and the phone for several hours. I love storms! And this was one of the best. Thunder and lightning were almost simultaneous.

David captured a bit on video. Here's a link to it:

www.youtube.com/watch

Saqra's Showcase

The Fuzzy Monkeys weren't available to perform down at Saqra's as usual, but not wanting to miss an opportunity to perform and try something new, Sisters From Different Misters stepped up. For quite some time now the Monkeys have been wanting to incorporate some of our vast other skills into our performance. Our latest obsession is hula hoop. And it's something we can all do at some level. Three out of five Monkeys donned clown make-up and gave it a whirl.

Aviva came up with the hoop choreography with one week left before Saqra's. Funny thing is we started rehearsing way early and still couldn't manage to be over prepared. Results were well received and we can hardly wait until MedFest when we can perform as the Fuzzy Monkeys with they rest.

Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch

We've done it

Yup, paperwork was signed today at 3:00 and then sandwiches were consumed. Officially David and I belong together now. :)

BDSS again!

Just got home from Bellydance Superstars and it was fantastic! My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. It's the fourth time I've seen them, and this time I sat in the exact same seat as last time - front and center. It's so great being in the front row. No one is blocking your view, you have all the leg room you can desire, and best of all, eye contact. New costumes, new numbers, new dancers. But they could show me the same thing they did before and I would still love it. There is so much going on it's hard to see it all. Admittedly I tend to watch my favorites, but they are all so good it's tough to know where to look.

Snapped a few pictures, although they aren't really doing the meet and greet anymore. The only one I didn't post is of me and Rachel Brice. When I asked her if I could take a dorky picture, she asked if it was the kind I take (you know, at arm's length). When I said yes, she said "Can I do it?" And she was serious and excited about it, so of course I let her. She made us make faces too, but she didn't like her neck. She said "That's not a MySpace picture, that's just for you." So I said okay. I can relate.

Might go to Portland tomorrow just to see them again. :)