Ah, nature

Although it requires me to look like a stay-puff marshmallow, I ventured outside with Chris and Jessica to enjoy a nice sunny Sunday.

We went to the Naturdenkmal Mammutbaume where a small stand of giant sequoias where planted in 1868.

The needles on the sequoias are quite prickly......


Hermesberg, Germany

Jessica braves the cold like a real trooper!

Frohe Weihnacht!

Christmas morning is so much fun! We had a few reindeer who got left behind after Santa visited our house........

Chris and Jessica look smashing in their Christmas outfits!!



As a family, we love to give each other lots of gifts- Cromwell is exhausted from opening all of them......

But seems to really like his Santa tennis ball!

Rich was a little disappointed when he found out that this was a "tree skirt".

Jessica was very proactive in opening her Christmas gift from her Grandpa Dick and Grandma Liz! She held on to the little piece of paper up until she feel asleep for a nap!

I am always spoiled with gifts from my family.......

And I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to have a wonderful family and such special friends in my life! I am so lucky to be able to spend this holiday season in Germany with my sister, Rich and Jessica! I'm having such a fun time and I look forward to all of the great memories and new traditions that we are making!

I hope everyone has been able to enjoy the holidays with their family and friends!

Frohe Weihnacht!

Christmas Eve

As a family, we have started our own little traditions. Most importantly, on Christmas Eve, we eat a big meal, play games, eat pupus, and then wait up until midnight to open one gift!

Jessica patiently waits for the festivities by playing with her hands!

During the day, I went with Rich to run a few errands- we went to Hornbach, the German equivalency of Home Depot, picked up some tasty beverages, checked out the post office and then braved the crowded commissary for flour, eggs, and milk. Once we got home, Chris and I made some cookies and other treats for our midnight snacks before Rich took control of the kitchen and prepared crab cakes, steak, sauteed scallops, and lobster trubador (otherwise known as Thermador). It was fantastic (Paula, I know you are drooling!)!

The girls chill out in pink!

The first Christmas Eve family photo- from left to right: Cromwell, Chris, Jessica, Rich, and Claude!
I gave Jessica a little alligator that makes music and has a little mirror, teething rings and other cool "baby" stuff attached. She's drooling with anticipation of the hours of fun she'll have with it !

A Pirate's Birthday For Me!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

My sister's birthday falls a few days before Christmas, so we celebrated in style for her 34th birthday (I have to rub that in since she keeps pretending to be younger than me!).

After opening gifts, Jessica and I had a dance party!

We went out to dinner at Schlemmerscheune (translates as "The Feast Barn"). We met Ben, Dawn, Declan, and Dawn's dad, Richard there. I used to go and scrapbook at their house when they lived in Hawaii. Christina was there as well to help celebrate!

The bread with goose liver spread was excellent and I ordered the meat skewers as my entree. Not really knowing what to expect, this is what came!

It was excellent-there were three meats, beef with mushroom gravy, chicken with cherry sauce and pork with a cream sauce. The potato croquettes were awesome (OK, Paula, you can laugh that I had to describe the food!). Probably the best meal I've had in Germany so far!

How's this for German hospitality? While we were eating, Jessica got a little fussy and a very sweet woman from the table next to us came over and offered to hold her so that Chris and Rich could finish eating!


After, dinner, we all met back at home for some games and a pirate themed party! Christina brought lots of decorations including a parrot that mimics what you say! We played Pictionary and Settlers (the game supposedly originated in Germany) and then had chocolate cake and apple cake!

Here we are singing a Pirate's version of Happy Birthday!

Random acts of fun!

Mom and Jessica pose by the tree while..............

Cromwell takes a long winter's nap next to the fire!


Jessica and her dad get ready to enjoy some pizza while wearing the latest Christmas fashions!

Christina, Rich, Chris and Jessica (yep, she's snuggly warm under my sister's coat) get ready for our Rothenburg adventure.

My luck with viewing beautiful cathedrals has not improved. Here's another one undergoing renovation while I'm visiting..........

Hey, there's a band!

A popular treat are Schneeballs, or snow balls- they are balls of fried dough then covered in nuts, or chocolate. Really yummy!

But, I really do love Santa- is he going to bring me a pony this year?

Aloha Hawaii, Guten Tag Germany!

After a very long trip, I made it to Germany to visit my sister, brother-in-law and 3 month old niece. I left Hawaii Monday night and arrived in Germany Wednesday morning (actual travel time was almost 25 hours). While this is not a travel itinerary that I would recommend for a leisurely weekend getaway, the rewards were worth it because I get to spend the holidays with my family and I finally got to meet my niece, Jessica!

It's cold and rainy right now, but there is a little snow still on the ground from a couple of weeks ago. I'm not a big fan of being cold, so I tried to bring some stuff to keep me warm!

On Saturday, we took a road trip to the medieval walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber (it overlooks the Tauber River) with my sister's friend, Christina. In the middle ages, Rothenburg was Germany's second largest town (with a population of 6,000) and today it's a major tourist destination as one of three remaining intact walled cities.

Christmas is a big thing in Germany, so many of the towns have Christmas marts set up in the middle of town with craft stalls, food, decorations, and other fun stuff. It was cold and rainy, so we warmed up with some hot spiced wine called gluwein!

The architecture is beautiful to look at during the day, but I'm still a sucker for Christmas lights at night!
As a side note, I visited my first German rest area along the Autobahn.....the toilets flush when you lock the stall door. It's the small cultural differences that fascinate me!

Ummm...

So, after being sick for a week (my friend Paula thinks it's from me trying to eat snow from the top of Mauna Kea) and not having much to report, I realize how exciting my life has been over the past couple of months and how my "normal" life is usually a little less newsworthy! This week, I played catch up at work and even attempted to do some field work. Unfortunately, the Hawaiian winter has started and we had some wind and so much rain! It's a wet 73 degrees right now!

Thanksgiving on the Big Island

Wow- it's amazing how a short vacation on the Big Island and not having a computer leaves so much to catch up on!

My friend, Paula, and I took a trip to Hawai'i for a long Thanksgiving weekend. I had never been to the island before and when I saw it from the ship during the MHI cruise, I knew I wanted to go back and see it from the land side!

We flew in to Kona Thursday morning and had lunch.

Then we made our way around the north side of the island towards Hilo. We stopped to see the view of Waipio Valley. Picture perfect Hawai'i- black sand beach, lush green cliffs, beautiful blue water.

We were invited to T-Day dinner at Molly's house in Hilo. She's got a great house with a beautiful view down the valley (and a great lanai with a hammock chair!). Thanks for the awesome place to stay, Molly!

She had quite the crowd with lots of good food, wine and conversation.

Paula went to school at the University of Hawai'i Hilo, so she was able to show me the cool sites around town. We stopped at Coconut Island and Luliuokalani Park.

We had lunch on a rocky cove in Onomea Bay. I remember diving here during the cruise- it was a really cool spot!

I couldn't help but thinking how much my mom would have loved it here because of all of the interesting rocks everywhere! It's hard to not pick them up and want to keep them!

Friday night, we drove up to Mauna Kea to watch the sunset and see the stars come out- what an amazing place!

We took our PT Cruiser offroading past the Visitor's Center to the top where the observatories are!

We were above the clouds when the sun was setting and you could see Mauna Loa in the distance.

For the grand finale, we hiked up to the highest point on the mountain- 13,796 ft. Funny how only two hours ago we were at sea level wearing shorts!

Molly packed us some wine and T-Day leftovers to enjoy while the stars came out- it was crystal clear and we could see the Milky Way, Jupiter and so many constellations!

We went to the Hawai'i Volcanos National Park on Saturday. Mauna Loa started steaming gas earlier this year so we got a chance to see it up close. It's been so active that they have had to close down some of the roads and trails due to the sulfide gasses.

We hiked the Kilauea Iki trail that takes you down into the caldera- it's awesome to see the landscape change from rain forest to hot, dry and rocky!

We've landed on the moon!

Hey Paula- do you see lava?

There is so much interesting vegetation- some native, but mostly exotics.

wild ginger

fern fronds unfurling (try saying that three times fast!)

Orchids

Purple mushrooms

We had a little snack of brie and bread by a steam vent!

Which way?

We took flashlights and checked out the Thurston lava tube- found out I get a little nervous in caves! I got a little braver once Paula stopped talking about bugs and I found out there was a four year old doing it!

The lava flows into the ocean around the east rift zone, so we packed up some more Thanksgiving leftovers, and walked over the lava to watch the show at sunset!

You couldn't see the lava at the point of entry, but the steam had a red glow and every once in awhile you could see some spatter crash up on the rocks!

Sunday, we drove around the south point- stopped at Punalu'u Beach to see the black sand beaches.

Green sea turtles come up on this beach to bask and graze on limu (algae) in the shallows!

I have now been to the southern most point in the United States of America (not to be confused with the southernmost point in the continental US in Key West)!

We weren't brave enough to jump off the cliffs, but we did attempt to make the trek to see the green sand beach. We wouldn't have made it before dark if we hadn't gotten a ride from some new friends a 4 wheel drive Jeep! Thanks Paul and Sean!

You can't tell from the photo, but the sand is an olive green color. It comes from all of the olivine mineral in the cinder cone.

We stayed at the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook- it's a Hawaiian tradition. The rooms are really basic, but have a great view of the Kahala coast!

Monday was a day to recooperate and just hang out around Kona. We had lunch on a lanai overlooking Kealakekua Bay, had some sunset beers at Poncho and Lefty's, and then dinner at the Kona Brewing Company (gotta love the spinach, strawberrry and mac nut salad!).

Paula is the best and was an awesome travel companion- she had some great ideas of places to go and then humored me in doing practically everything that I wanted to do! Keep the laughs coming!