Episode 63: April - June 2013
Highlights of the quarter:
- Spring Break in Hawaii;
- Adventures in Iceland;
- Neal rides two 150-mile charity bike rides;
- Girls trip to Scottsdale, Arizona.
We kicked the quarter off with a week-long vacation in Hawaii, and a
welcome get away from the Michigan cold.
Our trip started on the beautiful island of Maui, which is everything
that one imagines Hawaii to be – lush green flora everywhere you look, gorgeous
beaches, plenty of sun, the smell of salt and, to my delight, eucalyptus (a
native tree of Australia that has also found a home in Maui). We set up shop at a resort in Lahaina,
located on the west coast of the island.
Having been there now, we highly recommend Lahaina and the resorts in
the area for the gorgeous coastline, with sandy beaches and crystal clear and
calm waters, with very few large waves and excellent whale-watching
opportunities. There were also some
great restaurants, our very favorite being Star Noodle – a restaurant we had wanted
to go to since watching its executive chef, Sheldon, compete on (and nearly
win) a recent season of the show, Top
Chef.
We had a rental car with us for the entire vacation, and we made plenty
of use of it, taking advantage of the freedom it gave us to explore the beaches
away from our resort and hit the road for a few off-the-beaten-track
adventures. One such adventure was
driving the Road to Hana, on the opposite side of the island. The Road was well worth doing, although not
for those who suffer from motion sickness.
The Hana highway is a road that connects Kahului with the town of Hana
in east Maui. Although the distance
between the two towns is only 52 miles (84 kms), it took us about 3 hours to
drive (including a few stops along the way) as the road is extremely narrow and
curvy (approximately 620 curves). Nonetheless,
the drive was beautiful, with most of it carving through lush, tropical
rainforest, and offered plenty of opportunities to see waterfalls and coastal
views. About 10 miles outside of Hana we
came across an open air road stop that had some quaint little shops and, to our
delight, a woman with a wok who whipped up some delicious Thai food for us. From there we hit the road again to get to
Hana, and then turned around for the long drive back to the resort, which was
not nearly as interesting given we had stopped at all the places we wanted to
see on the way there.
Another discovery we made as we started the Road to Hana was the town
of Paia. The town quickly became a favorite
of ours for its cute little shops, fantastic beaches (with loads of opportunities
to watch the surfers), and a fabulous, iconic restaurant called Mamma’s Fish
House.
One thing we noticed while in Hawaii was a fascination with the Ford Mustang
convertible. This was so noticeable, we
decided to count the number of them on our drive to Hana, which seemed like a
great idea until we hit 48 after only 2 hours in and then gave up counting.
On another day in Maui, we took another adventure, this time a tour to the
top of the dormant volcano and national park of Haleakala. After getting to the top of the volcano and
seeing the massive crater, we drove down the mountain a little bit, got onto
some bikes and coasted our way down the mountain, even making a rest stop along
the way for lunch at a local lavender farm.
After a lot of relaxing on Maui, we boarded a plane for our next stop on
the Big Island. This island was an
extreme contrast to Maui, as the landscape we saw when we landed at the airport
was mostly volcanic rock, making the island look more like the surface of the
moon than the tropical lush island that we had just come from. One highlight of our few days on the Big
Island was a helicopter tour of the island that took us over a dormant volcano
and into the area of a live volcano that is still pouring lava into the ocean,
over rainforests on the other side of the island, near beautiful coastline cliffs,
and even over an old fighter plane that had crashed into one of the mountains
back in the 1940s. This was an amazing
way to see the entire island.
The other big highlight of our stay on the island was a road trip to
Kohala (the northwestern tip of the island) where we hiked through the
beautiful Hapuna Beach and Keokea Beach State Parks to get to the most amazing
black sand beach.
After a few days on the Big Island, we flew back to Maui, spent one
more day on the island and then caught our long flight back to the
mainland. Hawaii had long been on our
list of states to visit (a revisit for Neal who had gone as a youngster), and
we were very glad we did it.
Later that month, Neal took a trip to Houston, Texas with our friends, Ed
and Michelle, where the three of them rented road bikes and participated in the
Bike MS event (a 150-mile bike ride to raise money for the fight against multiple
sclerosis). The Texas Bike MS event is
much bigger than the Michigan event – it draws over 10,000 riders and takes
them from Houston to Austin, making the event quite the spectacle of logistics. The overnight stop between the two days of
riding was close to Ed’s parents’ home, so the three riders took the
opportunity to stay with Penny and Walter and enjoy a good meal and clean bed
(a much better option than the tent accommodations offered by the ride
organizers). As if that was not enough,
six weeks later the three of them saddled up again for the Western Michigan Bike
MS event in Holland, Michigan. I tagged
along this time around to provide support and cook a big batch of gumbo for the
Dow team of riders as they crossed the finish line.
In early May, a group of girlfriends and I ventured away from Midland for
a great long weekend getaway in Scottsdale, Arizona. The trip was rather impromptu, organized by our
friend, Kristie, who has a second home there that she graciously offered up for
us all – and good times were had by all.
Later that month, we packed again, this time to head to Iceland where
we met my dad, stepmom, and sister, Carol, for a four-day adventure. We elected to pick a place that was “in the
middle” of where each of us is living and somewhere that none of us had visited
before. Iceland certainly hit the mark
on all fronts. Iceland is a very
interesting island – very geologically active, with many volcanoes, hot
springs, and geysers. Landing into
Reyjkavik airport, we thought we were landing on the surface of the moon, with
brown rock as far as the eye could see and very little greenery. Although the weather was rather cold and
rainy the whole weekend (pretty typical all year for Iceland), that did not deter
us from taking in all the major sites: the Hafn (old harbor); Tjornin (city’s
central pond); Austurvollur Square (home to Hotel Borg, which we got a great
kick out of and several pictures); and the famous geothermal pool, the Blue
Lagoon.
We also took in several sites along the Golden Circle Tour – a popular
tourist route in South Iceland that covers approx 300 kms, looping from
Reykjavik into central Iceland and back.
The main stops on the route were the national park, Pingvellir; the
stunning waterfall, Gullfoss; and the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur,
which is home to the geysers, Geysir and Strokkur (which still erupts and puts
on a great tourist show every 5-10 minutes).
While in Iceland, we took the opportunity to celebrate birthdays for
myself, Carol, and Neal with a special dinner toward the end of the trip, which
starred a very special bottle of wine – an aged Australian Penfolds Grange –
that Dad had brought with him from Australia to Switzerland over a decade ago
and had been anxiously awaiting the perfect opportunity to open. It was a fun weekend trip and no doubt the
memories will make for some great dinner stories for years to come.
Other adventures of note for us were a long, lazy weekend in Ann Arbor;
a five-course chef’s table dinner at a local restaurant in which each dish was
paired with a Michigan beer; a surprisingly fantastic concert by a Portland-based
band called Pink Martini at a local concert hall; an evening picnic in the
local gardens surrounded by gorgeous sculptures and live music; and a few
baseball games to cheer on our local team, the Loons.
Finally, we also took up a new hobby this quarter. One of our favorite things to do in whatever
town we are in is visit the local farmers market. There is nothing better than the farm-to-table
freshness and supporting the local growers.
This year, we decided to try our hand at farming and joined in on a
communal garden with a group of friends.
The four families took great pleasure in setting up the little garden
and planting our crops of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini,
and squash. We took even greater
pleasure once we were able to pick and eat the delicious produce. It has been very rewarding so far – though it
hasn’t stopped us from visiting the local farmers market each weekend – and we’re
looking forward to what the rest of the growing season holds.
That rounds out another busy quarter.
Until next time, take care!
