Day 2: The Comstock Lode

We cannot believe it's only Monday! In fact, we had the best vacation experience today -- at a State Park, we couldn't come up with the date to write on our entrance fee slip, and had to really think to come up with the day of the week. If you don't write it on the board in the morning, the date just sort of slips away!  :)

We headed out of Tahoe today, north before we headed east on the Loneliest Road in America. No, that's not my snarky sense of humor -- that's what it's really called! Today was all about the Comstock Lode.  We hit Carson City first, just on a drive-through, and headed up in to the hills to Gold Canyon.  Here we were struck by the fact that mining isn't a history lesson, but something that is ongoing. We drove past a sign announcing upcoming mining blasts, and in several places were able to see 21st century equipment side by side with ruins.  The Comstock Lode may be part of history, but the Comstock Project is happening right now!

Virginia City was the destination this afternoon, and it didn't disappoint!  Back in the day, there were upwards of 15,000 residents working and living in the mining community.  The main drag had original storefronts and saloons, and was a fun walk through the past.  We opted not to eat at Bucket of Blood Saloon (shocker!), but had amazing waffle concoctions at the Roaster.  Virginia City, is unbelievably, the birth place of Mark Twain. I know, sounds wrong, but it was the first city where he used his pen name, writing for the Territorial Enterprise.

From Virginia City, we headed back down the hills, to Carson River, where we….took the road less traveled.  What's a road trip without a gravel road?  This road was part of the Pony Express Trail -- man, I love that we were driving on the same path that riders rode years before! The road wound through deserted and active ranches, hugging tight to the river.  At the time, I thought that the RBC I spotted (that's a really big cow) was the find of the day. Really -- it was huge!  But then…far off in the distance we saw some dust rising up indicating a vehicle was coming. And as it got closer (don't presume that we were actually cutting the distance) we both were stymied by what we are seeing. One thing that was true was that this thing was hauling -- moving upwards of 60 mph.  And the other thing that was true was that it was a tank!  We had stumbled upon an automative test area.  And that's all that we are cleared to say at this time.  Ha!

Then, all of a sudden, the road turned back to pavement, and up on the hill was Fort Churchill. Seeing it after this long road felt like a major discovery!  Fort Churchill was established in 1860 after an "incident" with the American Indians.  The buildings were all created using bricks and stand in various states of ruin. The awesome thing was that for the most part, we were the only ones there.  It was sunny and 70 degrees and we had fun just poking in and out of the buildings and taking amazing pictures.

We are now snuggled in to an amazing room for where we are -- Fallon.  Tomorrow we anticipate more sunshine and discovery!

Seattle to Reno to Tahoe!

Our adventure is barely 12 hours old, but already we have done so much! The real adventure came at around 7:30 (yes, AM) when we heard our names on the airport loudspeaker. Huh. How many planes are ready to leave early? You know, ready except for the two missing passengers. Yikes!  So after a quick morning jog, we boarded what is the smallest plane I have flown in outside of Alaska. I mean bigger than a Cessna or something, but seemed so small to be flying out of SeaTac. Needless to say, we were wedged in like sardines.  Thank you, thank you, thank you that our flight was short!

Arriving upon Reno is when our typical Spring Break adventure began.  We have flown in to Atlanta twice, and each time, we have gone through multiple cars before getting one that was just right.  I have many "selfies" waiting with our luggage in Atlanta while mom exchanged car after car. In Reno, we got to our car -- a giant Ford Explorer. Four wheel drive, roomy, clean…and then we started the car.  And the "check engine oil" light came on.  

ACM Break -- The Band Perry is singing….

Anyway, there was a lot of laughter as we began the process of exchanging cars in yet another airport. It's looking like a trend at this point!

From Reno, we drove up through the mountains and in to Tahoe where we are staying just across the state line in California.  Lake Tahoe is everything we had heard -- huge, clear and beautiful! We had amazing pizza for dinner -- yes pizza that rivaled Fultanos, Lahaina Pizza Co., and whatever that place in Bermuda was.  

We have mapped out tomorrow and are ready to forget what a normal Monday would hold and explore some ghost towns!!

Countdown Begins

"We live on electronic media and often spend days seeing nothing but pixels. The [National] parks remind us life should be better than that. We can be strong and independent, self-reliant and brave. They remind us that Earth was not meant to be paved, and we were not meant to be the sole inhabitants of it, that true beauty does not hang on walls, but is ever-changing, unpredictable, dangerous, and awesome."
~Nevada Barr

20 years of Spring Breaks!!!  Seriously, I think my math is correct: 4 years of college + 16 years of teaching.  O.  M.  G.  To celebrate this auspicious occasion, we are (drumroll please….) driving across Nevada! Ha, not your first guess, right? :) It's a road trip, and National Park trip -- our favorites.  We are anticipating temperatures that range across 40 degrees, ghost towns, weird stuff I can't now anticipate, food I won't eat, no real coffee to speak of and questionable hotel (hmmm….read:motel) beds.  So why did we pick this trip? Despite our suburban exteriors, we have an overwhelming sense of adventure and a love of the wild west.  And even though Charles Rawlinson didn't go to every single park in the United States, we always feel that he has walked the "long long trail" before us.  I'm pretty sure he didn't end up at the slot machines at the MGM afterward, but, you know, be your own person. Ha!!

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!!!  See you on the road on the April 6th!

Aloha!

When I was in high school my church youth group was invited to a Native American island in Alaska. After spending a week there, they sent us off without goodbyes, insisting that it was "see you later", leaving the door open to see one another again. I think that is the spirit of "aloha" since it expresses both hello and goodbye.  Today was our last day in Maui, and though we had a great time at the pool this morning, we had a bit of sadness towards the afternoon.  We love it here.   

So, in the spirit of a last day, here are our favorites. And don't worry, we didn't stay sad very long. We had some fruity beverages and went shopping -- that will cure any ailment! :)

Favorite Food

Ann: The mahi with the citrus rub and passionfruit sauce.

Erica: Also mahi! Mine had a yummy Thai coconut sauce. 

Favorite Beverage

Ann:  Passionfruit Smoothie

Erica: Ack! I forgot about the smoothie. I loved that. But I also loved the green flash colada.  (I drank more this week than I have in years!).

Favorite Experience

Ann:  The jeep trip on Lanai. The unknown of it made it so fun!

Erica:  Turtles at Turtle Town. Have I mentioned I love those guys?

Favorite Purchase

Ann: Croc Sandals - oceanspray in color. 

Erica: Is it cheating to say a purchase made before the trip? My grown up sunglasses were awesome.  They aren't red, retro or with flowers, but they worked great (and looked divine if I do say so myself).

Favorite Photograph

Ann:  The series of remote pictures at Shipwreck Beach. And again, I didn't bring the tripod. I mean, I brought it on the trip, but not on the mini-trip. Sigh.

Erica:  I really like the remote picture from the mile 17 stop on Haleakala.

Favorite Cookie Flavor

Ann: Pineapple Mac Nut

Erica: Lilikoi Mango

Favorite Uncontrollable Laughter

Ann: Gotta be in the jeep. Half of what happened didn't make the blog... Although the first time in the water at Kaanapali trying to put flippers on was pretty awesome. 

Erica:  Hmmm.  We laughed so much! I would agree with the jeep though.  The laughter was coupled with anxiety about not having a bathroom. That made me a little more hysterical.

It's time to pack up the computer! Thanks for traveling with us. Aloha!

Down that Red Dirt Road

We didn't pick blackberries, have a beer or wreck a car, but I was still humming that Brooks and Dunn song the whole day because we were driving down a red dirt road. Thursday was our adventure day. We took a ferry to Lanai where we rented a jeep for the day.

Now that I've been on the roads of Lanai, I'm not sure what the hoopla is for the Road to Hana.  If you've been to DisneyLand, the best way I can describe the ride was a cross between Star Tours and Indiana Jones. The road was mostly dirt, in some places was washed out, others had large boulders in the road, and a lot of it was washboard quality.  Inside the jeep we were bobbing all over the place. Mom was driving, and I was holding fiercely to the handle on the dashboard just to keep from flying around the jeep. Good thing we had a hardtop or we might have bounced right out of the car!

For the first part of our day we headed to the Garden of the Gods.  This is a strange place with rocks scattered willy nilly. They are volcanic for sure, but like nothing we have seen before on the islands.  Seen Galaxy Quest? It looks like the "Gorignak" portion was filmed here.  There were also some little plants that were trying to survive the harsh conditions, and even I was impressed with them.

From the Garden of the Gods we continued our drive to Polihua Beach. This is where the road took a turn for the worse. On the map from the jeep people, they wrote "bumpy". But on other places they had written, "caution", "closed" and "4wd" so this seemed somewhat benign.  It was a 4wd road if there ever was one!  I think the fastest we drove was about 7mph -- and that seemed fast!! I had an anti-nausea patch on, and actually had a ball! There was lots of laughter and screaming. Since I'm not really a swearer, I was making up Hawaiian words to yell, which just added to the chaos.

Polihua Beach is beautiful. We were the only ones there, so it seemed even more tropical and remote. Okay, to be honest, we were the only ones anywhere we went outside of Lanai City.  We had swimsuits in the car, but even from the shore we could tell the current was extremely strong, so we passed on swimming (safety first!).

After Polihua Beach we had a little time to venture down to Shipwreck Beach. Luckily the road was paved most of the way which was a real treat! As you might have imagined, Shipwreck Beach has been the site of many a shipwrecks. Most notably is an oil tanker from the 40s that was grounded on the reef. It's also the spot where trade winds blow through -- there is a lot of debris washed up on the beach.

This was also a site of a fun remote picture. Even though you can turn your iPhone camera around and take a picture, we love the setting up of a remote picture, the running, and general hilarity.  Mom always sets the pictures up and then dashes over to where I'm waiting. This time there was lots of rocks in the way, and 10 seconds wasn't long enough!

Also at Shipwreck beach we saw some turtles having some lunch. They were right close to the shore, munching on -- you know, whatever turtles eat.  It seemed like hard work because they would get tossed around in the surf and nearly come ashore and then be dragged out a little further and paddle back.

Lanai certainly felt like a remote destination. We both commented on what it might look like 20 years from now.  Dole (Pineapple) no longer owns it and the new owner has already lengthened the runway to allow for jets. It seems like development might be just around the corner.

We left Lanai at sunset, exhausted from the ride, and SO dirty!

Friday is definitely a pool day.

Molokini

It seems whenever we go on vacation there are a few days that require me to get up earlier than usual. I know I push the envelope on a school day and magically get ready in 15 minutes, but still! Today was one of the early days, but man was it worth it!

Last time we were here we went on a whale watching trip on a recommendation of an Opstad parent that we ran in to at the hotel (I know, really?). But it was a great trip, and a great crew, so we booked with them again (Trilogy, if you're planning on coming over here). Unbelievably we had the same skipper as before -- a guy from Seattle that said if he was anywhere else in the world, he would be sailing in the San Juans.

Our trip was to Molokini for a snorkel.  Molokini is a crescent shaped volcano crater between Maui and Kahoolawe that has great visibility for snorkeling and diving.  We headed there first and had great fun looking at the fishes and the coral.  The visibility in Kaanapali has been limited, but it was so clear here! There weren't a ton of fishes, but the coral was fascinating -- bright colors and interesting shapes.  Plus, using good snorkel gear was amazing!  The masks that we own have been somewhat problematic. The one mom has been using has basically taken off the skin on part of her forehead. It's not as horrifying as it sounds, but it's not good. And I'm on my second pair of contacts because the salt water was just pouring in my mask. So using functional gear was blissful!

The second stop on our trip was at "Turtle Town" which is really just a snorkel spot off Makena Beach. The lava tubes extend far in to the ocean and the turtles love to swim in the tubes. We saw so many -- it was amazing. When they appear out of nowhere and swim next to you for a few minutes, it feels so magical. I have had a few moments like that when it feels like it's me and him alone in the ocean. Sigh. We were there for about 45 minutes just watching them swim in and out of the tubes and basically be amazing. By far my favorite part of today.

The rest of the day was spent motoring or sailing back from Turtle Town.  The boat was great, the rest of the tour participants were decent, and it made for a great day!

We spent the remaining hours of the day napping, lathered up with lotion. My spf 100 did little to battle the sun today. Yes, you heard it -- 100!  I was pretty vigilant, but I am a little pink. I'm sure by the time you see me I will have returned to my natural Alaskan ivory color. Mom's a little pink too, but her skin has some olive tones, and she might actually tan. :) We had great fish tacos for dinner and are now happily ensconced in our air conditioned room. I was joking with mom tonight that I have eaten more fish in the few days we have been here than I have in the two years since we were here last -- great mahi last night too!

Tomorrow we are off to explore Lanai.

Monday (Volcano) and Tuesday (Beachy)

Yesterday I was SO sick! As mom says, turns out you will not be a mountain climber after all. Ha! Like that was in the cards.

We set out yesterday to Haleakala (National Park!). Last time when we went there we  went for the sole purpose of riding down on bikes, and really didn't see anything. Mom was in search of the elusive Silversword (yeah, a plant), and I was along for the ride.  Actually because it was twisty and turny, I was the driver for a bit. For a very short bit.  I was starting to feel sick so mom pulled over and I got in the driver seat.  Bicyclists, low visibility and no guard rails had me driving at around 20 mph and yelling "Wish we had a volvo" you know for the steel frame when we rolled off the road down the volcano.  Needless to say, we switched back and I was, again, a passenger.

On the way up we stopped in the town of Makawao. We had stopped here on our bikes two years ago and went to a delicious bakery/store. It was one of those real Hawaiian places where they looked like they had a slight rat problem and all the cardboard packaging was wet from shipping. But the malasadas were delicious. Anyway, they were closed (which was sort of good, because it was even more ewwy than I remembered) so we walked further down the shopping street.  On the right side (directionally impaired, so I can't tell you north or south etc.), there was a hypnotist, a cowboy outfitter and Mrs. Roper.  On the other side was Nordstroms, Coach and Vitton. Okay, not really, but you get the idea - the two sides were completely different (I do think that was Mrs. Roper though....).

Further up the volcano our adventure started. The summit is over 10,000 feet, so you go through some weather. It was very cool how the clouds poured over the side of the volcano, and the temperature dropped (really! like in to the 50s!).  And then we poked out on the other side.

The other side was sunny and warm. The first place we stopped was at about 8,000 ft -- Louie Louie. That is in no way the name of the spot, but I can't remember and am too lazy right now to look through the brochure. After a short walk we got our first view of the crater. It was beautiful. This is also where I relinquished the driver position in the car.

After Louie Louie it started to go a little downhill for me personally.  By the time we got out of the car at the summit I was dizzy, out of breath...the whole nine yards. Not an altitude person! There are lots of observatory "things" up there, but as I was focused on not passing out, I missed all the important details. Mom saw the famed Silverwood (though not in bloom) and then we drove back down the volcano. She drove, I weaved in and out of consciousness.

That brings us to today -- Tuesday! First of all, I can't believe it's only Tuesday. We feel like we've been here forever (in a good way). Today we sat by the pool, and then went snorkeling. Visibility was pretty low, so we didn't see anything. Actually, I'm not sure if it was the visibility in the ocean, or in my mask. I seem to have soaked up all the salt through my contacts and lips (my lips feel like a Goldie-Hawn-botox job).

 Now we're going for a massage. What's not to like?