Kona Town

This view is looking back up Hualalai Rd from Ali'i Drive. Further up this road is where my grandparants used to live.

This is looking north down Ali'i Drive. This road runs through Kailua-Kona along the waters edge, and is something like 6 or 7 miles long.

There are a ton of little shops and places to eat along this road. And the view is great from every one of them.

Towards the north end of Ali'i Drive the water comes all the way up to the road. The view is incredible, and you can see all different kinds of tropical fish swimming in the crystal clear water.

Through my polorized sunglasses you can see through some of the glare on the surface. There are a ton of little yellow fish, called "Yellow Tang" that are swimming around. We can't wait till our snorkeling stuff shows up.

Our vehicles will be here the first of next month, along with all of the things we shipped. Then we will be able to explore some of the more remote spots on the Big Island.

hammock troubles

Well I thought I would make a quick post regarding a little hammock mishap that Stacey experienced just moments ago. As I am finishing a previous post on the blog, Stacey quietly made her way out to the lanai to sit in the hammock.

For some background info, the hammock hangs on two hooks that where installed by a previous tenant. But, when we are not using the hammock, it is more convenient to un-hook one side. I usually take the un-hooked side and hang it on a small nail near the other end of the hammock (marked by orange arrow). The blue arrow marks the hook that is identical to the other.

Shortly after Stacey headed outside, I heard a loud "thud" on the porch, and Stacey laughing. I come out to find Stacey laying on the ground. As I look up, I notice that she has taken the hammock off of the hook marked in blue, and connecting it to the opposite hook. Now the hammock is secure on one end, and hanging on a very old, rusty nail on the other. Obviously the nail was unable to hold poor Stacey.

Stacey was un-injured, luckily, because the hammock only sits about 1 foot off the ground. Here she is laying peacefully after we corrected the problem. And yes, I have her permission to post this!

Day at the beach

Stacey and I decided to spend some time on the beach today because the sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day. This particular beach is located next to the marina right in Kona. It is where several tourists spend time snorkeling and renting paddle boards and outrigger canoes.



This beach is about a 15 minute walk from our house. If you look in the background, the mountain you see is the volcano "Hualalai" and is the volcano on which we live. This year marks the 208th year since it's last eruption.

In this picture you can see a guy on a paddle board heading out. Eventually we will get one of these so we can paddle around and stay in shape.



This was the most white guy on the beach, and it happened to be me!

We're Here!!!!

On Tuesday, February 17th, Carl and I landed in paradise. And the best part is: we don't have to leave!!! I can't begin to tell you how excited and overwhelmed we are. Everything about our journey so far has been unbelievably perfect. Our landlords currently live in Seattle, but they have a large group of friends that live in Kona. Most of them are between the ages of 28-35, they go to a different beach on the island to camp at least once a month, they skate, surf, play games, and all kinds of cool stuff. A week or so before we arrived Melissa asked us if we'd like for one of her friends to pick us up at the airport, and of course we said yes. So when we arrived, Mike was waiting for us. He brought us to our new home, we dropped off our stuff, and we headed to the Kona Brewing Co. The 2 guys that live in the house we share a property with are the brew masters there, so we got a free pint and felt like locals within an hour of landing in Kona. Everyone we've met so far has been super cool. Last night Ryan, one of the brew masters, invited us to a poker party. We started around 7 and didn't quit til around midnight, and believe it or not I only lost $3. I bought in for $20 and walked with $17. Yay!

This is my view as I write this blog. Its taken from our lanai (porch). Its zoomed in a little, but not much. Our house is about 1/2 mile from the ocean. We're on a hill, so we have a perfect view.
This is a picutre of us on our lanai. Yes, Carl is wearing a hoodie. Believe it or not its pretty chilly here. We're really glad we brought our winter gear. During the day you definitely should wear shorts and t-shirts, but in the mornings and evenings the temperature really drops. Actually, right now its 1 pm, and I'm wearing a hoodie. We went for a walk earlier and were sweating, but once you get under the shade and in the breeze you cool off really fast.

When we landed at the Kona airport, which is spectacular by the way, Carl bought me this beautiful lei.

There is an awesome Farmer's Market by the water that we've been walking to every day to get our lunch. Before we moved here we had 1 of 2 reactions from most everyone we told we were moving to Hawaii: (1) that's so awesome! i wish i would have done something like that too. (2) its too expensive there. Well, our experience has been quite the opposite of the second statement thus far. Our rent is $300 cheaper than in New Braunfels- its a little smaller, but still cheaper. And the food at the market is CHEAP!!! A head of butter lettuce is $1, a box of cherry tomatoes is $2, humongous butter avocados are $1, yellow and orange bell peppers are less than $1, and the list goes on. All of you who buy those sorts of vegetables at the super market can understand my astonishment when I saw the prices. And to top it off, the produce is of such an amazing quality that you don't even need to use salad dressing. This is a picture of the salads we've been having every day for lunch. We bought some chopped macadamia nuts at the market to put on top as well.

We can't wait for all of you to be here in August!!!!

San Diego

My mom, Susan, Kennedy, and Oliver met us in San Diego for an exciting, action-packed 3 days. We went to SeaWorld, the world-famous San Diego Zoo, and a really awesome Mexican restaurant in Old Town twice. We really enjoyed hanging out with them, although it seemed super short.
Here we are playing on the bed.
This is on the train ride at the zoo. The San Diego zoo is way too huge to be able to tackle all in one day, especially with a 4 year old, so we opted to take a bus tour in order to see the whole park. Its definitely the way to go if you're ever there. We were able to walk around quite a bit too, but the ride was awesome. I took this photo of a laughing hyena because it is sleeping just like Dan and Becky's dog Jackson, and I wanted them to see it.

Road Trip

Stacey and I left for San Diego, California, at about 10am on Tuesday morning. We weren't sure where we would end up at the end of the first day, and the trip was quite entertaining. We headed west on I-10, and it wasn't long before we found ourselves driving into an incredible wind storm in Fort Stockton. The wind was a constant 50mph, with gusts into the 70's. It was hard to see at times because of all the dust in the air. After sitting it out in a convenient store parking lot for awhile, we finally decided to keep driving. It wasn't long before we were out of the storm, and the weather turned for the better.




Sheryl and Susan made reservations at the Hyatt on Mission Bay for all of us, including baby Oliver and Kennedy. The view from this 17th floor hotel room was amazing! Stacey and I are so lucky to have been treated so well by them.








This is the spectacular sunset that we experienced on the first night in San Diego.

Steak & Lobster

Two nights before we left we were treated to an amazing evening of steak, lobster, cuban cigars, and good ole family time. The food was incredible!! For those of you who don't know, we've been living with Dan and Becky since January, and we've loved every minute of it. We've been away for 3 days now, and we miss them terribly. They made us the most wonderful dinners every night, and we played many games of spades. We always beat them of course (sorry Dan, I had to do it).

This is a photo of Carl, Dan, Carl's brother Brian, and Becky by the bbq pit.
about to dig in....

Dan and Jackson

and the feast....

saying good-bye

Yesterday was a rather difficult day for me. I went to Hallettsville to say my final good-byes to my Dad and family and to my dear sweet Mema. It was really great seeing everyone, but it was pretty difficult saying farewell. August really isn't that far away, but right now it feels like it will be forever before I see them again.

Gettin close!

Well, its to the point that we're saying our final good-byes. We went and had dinner with our good friends Brandi and Bill last night. It was really sad to say good-bye, but they are thinking about coming to visit in a few months. Brandi was supposed to be one of my bridesmaids, but a few weeks ago she found out that she's pregnant. That means she'll be 8 months pregnant during the wedding, and she won't be able to fly. I'm really sad about it, but I'm super happy for them. Since they can't come in August they're thinking about making a quick trip before she's too pregnant to fly. We already have one visitor scheduled- Carl's mom is coming out for a week in March. We're thrilled. We want all the visitors we can have.

These pictures are of me and Robin in DC.

Moving and Carl's Graduation

I can't believe we're leaving Texas in 1 week!! We are excited beyond words. Carl found a place for us to rent when we get there. We'll be able to fly in and drive straight to our new home, and the key will be waiting for us under the mat. Its a studio/loft apartment in Kona, and its about a 5 minute walk from the water and the downtown area. I think its going to be perfect. By the time everyone arrives for our wedding we'll be in a new location because we're renting it on a month-to-month basis. Its pretty small, but it will most definitely hold us over until we find the perfect place to live in long-term.

These are some photos of Carl's graduation. I know its been a while, but I realized I hadn't put any up yet. We had a gathering out at his parents' house afterward, and it was a lot of fun. There was a time when Carl, and many others, never thought he would graduate, so this day was extra special. Yay Carl!! My Dad and family gave him a card, and on the front Dad wrote "Congraduations!" I thought it was really funny. Carl didn't even catch it- at first glance he thought that was how you spelled congratulations.

Text Books

For any of you that are still in school or know someone who is, I highly recommend using www.sellbackyourbook.com instead of going to your school bookstore. Carl and I have a stack of books that we never sold back because we knew we'd only get a few bucks anyways, but we kept them during our move because I found this site. We recently went to the site and typed in the ISBNs, and we're getting $237!!!! And they even pay for the shipping!! That is absolutely unheard of in the selling back of textbooks world. So keep it in mind the next time you or someone you know has a textbook to get rid of. Its definitely worth the few minutes it takes to type in the ISBN.

One of my favorite experiences of our trip was the "We Are One" Inauguration Concert on Sunday. There were tons of performers including James Taylor, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi, Shakira, Beyonce, and many more. The best by far was Garth Brooks, which really caught me by surprise. He is most definitely my least favorite country singer, but he put on an incredible show. He was quite the entertainer, singing "bye bye Mrs. American pie" and "shout", invoking the entire crowd (500,000 people) to throw their hands in the air and sing along. The most moving part of the experience for me was that the entertainers didn't sing their own songs, they sang songs that every single person in attendance, from children to the elderly, Asians to African Americans, knew the words to. It was really awesome to look around and see such a diverse group of people all singing together and having an amazing time. Everything about the concert from the singing crowd, the diverse group of people, and the group of entertainers that spanned genres really reflected the overlying theme "We Are One", and I thought it was beautiful.

Inauguration

Yesterday was by far the most memorable day of my life, and for many, many reasons. I'm in DC with my cousin Robin, and when I say that we're exhausted I mean it. As an example, we're still lying in our hotel bed, and its 4:15 pm.

Our day yesterday began at 3:15 am, kind of. Really it began at 9 am on Monday morning because we went to the Black Tie and Boots Texas Ball Monday night, got in at 2, lied down at 2:15, and set the alarm for 3. I really don't think I ever fell asleep in those short 45 minutes because I was so worried about missing the alarm. We left for the subway station at 4 am, and made it downtown around 5, at which time the metro station was already unbelievably packed. We got to the Mall (the strip of land between the capital and the Lincoln Memorial) at about 530 and remained in 1 spot until 1. The temp was in the low 20s, it was still dark for about 2 hours, and there were an estimated 1.8 million people in the Mall alone. When I say we were crowded it is an understatement. We were packed in so tight you were constantly squished between people and being pushed around from side to side. It was definitely a test of our balancing skills, and today we feel like 85 year old ladies. We were chaparoning a group of 17 high school seniors, and at one point while it was still dark, 2 of the girls needed to go to the bathroom. A short while later Robin gets a call that they were stuck and people would not let them back to our spot. So Robin, being the kind-hearted soul that she is, decided to go find them and escort them back. Well that, my friends, was no small task. She literally had to push, shove, bribe, and crawl over people to get to them. And then do the same to get back. I felt so horrible for her. But she finally made it.

Eventually the clock struck noon and the ceremonies began. Some time around 630 that morning I was quite certain I would never see 12 noon, but by the grace of God we made it. Once the inauguration began our lives got much better. It was very exciting, and most memorable. We have a great video of the crowd after Obama took his oath. Almost everyone on the mall had flags, and after his oath we were in a sea of waving flags and cheers. It was really incredible.

But needless to say, Robin and I both agreed that we would never do anything like that again. We are so excited to have been there, but next time will be perfectly happy to watch everything from the sidelines. I have great pics from the ball and other places that I will post later.

I cannot believe we're leaving for Hawaii in 3 weeks!!!! Carl and I were talking yesterday about how that's a super hard thing to grasp. It really has not sunk in for us yet, but every once in a while we get unbelievably excited. Our plan is to rent an ohana house for a month so we can have a place to go when we get there. Then we'll have plenty of time to look around and find the perfect place. An ohana house is very common in Hawaii. Ohana means family, and most people have a 1 bed/1 bath detached apartment on their property. Some choose to rent it out. The only thing is that most of them don't have a kitchen. But we'll be fine without a kitchen for a few weeks.
Actually, I've already found the perfect place, but I doubt it will be available when we get there. Check it out:
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/apa/994266640.html
And here's where Carl wants to live. And I'm not kidding.
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/apa/990453581.html

Papaw

Carl's papaw is in the ICU right now, and I want to encourage all of you to keep him in your hearts and prayers. He's an amazing man, and we can't wait to see him feeling better. He's been in Intensive Care for 15 days now, and Carl has had quite a few opportunities to visit him there. Today was my first, and to say it was emotionally overwhelming would be an understatement. In the few short years I've known Papaw I haven't had as many visits with him as I'd have liked, but none the less, each one has been nothing short of entertaining. His use of sarcasm will keep you laughing for weeks. Every time we leave him Carl and I remind each other for days of all the funny things Papaw said.
It was terribly sad to see him in the condition he's in today, but even with all he's experiencing he was able to give us the same smile you see below when he saw us this morning.
Carl has really been a pillar of strength for me over the last year since my Papa died, and he was for me again today after our visit with Papaw. He has an amazing ability to keep me centered and focused on faith rather than reeling with thoughts and negative emotions. I thank God every day for putting us together, and I feel so blessed to share my life with him.

Where's River?

This picture is the afternoon after our garage sale. We threw some things into my truck to take to Salvation Army. See if you can find the stow-away that wanted to go for a ride!

Give up?

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River loves to go for a ride any chance she gets. I think she is hoping that we are either headed to the beach or to the river.

"Waffle" Fest

As much as Carl and I are ready for a new and exciting adventure, we're definitely going to miss living in New Braunfels. We were only able to spend 1 year here, but we've had a really great time. The things I'll miss the most are the really fun festivals New Braunfels has. My favorite two are Wurstfest and Wassailfest. Wurstfest is always the first week in November, and its a blast. I went this year with my friends Brandi and Bill, and we had a great time. We got to do a ton of really great people watching and polka dancing. At the end of the night we were walking by a stein booth, and Bill decided he wanted to pick one up. After about 15 minutes of going looking at each one he finally decided on the perfect one and the attendant went to the back to get it out of the box. While she was gone we picked up the mug to see the price, and it was a whopping $92!!! We were all shocked. Bill and I tried to bail, but Brandi wouldn't let us. So Brandi and Bill are now the proud owners of the beautiful $92 stein on the left.

Wassailfest was last Thursday. It was almost unbearably cold, but we went anyway. A few days before the event I called my friend Leila to see if she and her husband would like to go with us. She replied, having never been before, "oh, yeah, we'd love to, Ty loves waffles. Ty do you wanna go to Waffle Fest?" Carl and I got a pretty good kick out of it.

This image was actually taken at last year's Wassailfest, where Carl and I both discovered that Wassail is pretty much disgusting. But we still love the fest. It makes you really get into the

Christmas spirit.

surfing gustav

It seems like every other post I'm saying this, but sorry for the huge time delay in posting. Carl and I decided a few days ago that as soon as we get to Hawaii we will begin posting every single day, so please don't give up on us. We know it will be a great way for our friends and families to keep up with our lives since we'll be so far. More and more of my family members have started blogs recently, and it makes it so much easier to stay informed.
While most people would get as far away from the water as possible during a hurricane, Carl heads straight for it. Well, not straight for it, but straight to a beach that's far enough away to be safe yet close enough to get huge swells. In early September Gustav headed our way, and we packed up our dog and our boards and headed to Corpus. (Mom and Shelly- Carl is a seasoned surfer and is always very, very safe.) Carl does all the surfing while River and I sit on the pier and watch. Some day I too will be out there, but not until after I've graduated from Titus Kinimaka's Hawaiian School of Surfing some time next year.
When it gets really hot River likes to bury herself in the dirt under the truck. She's such a good beach dog. I think she's going to hate Hawaii (ha, ha).
At one point River and I had to take the truck and go to a gas station to get some water. Luckily when I came back I parked at the very edge of the beach because while we were out at the end of the pier a HUGE swell came and washed away the beach. All of the sudden I turned around and saw people running and driving off. This poor guy wasn't fortunate enough to have moved his car in time, and his whole front end was submersed. It was terrible. I felt so bad for him.

This is a photo of us after Carl's surfing session. I love it when he gets to surf. It always makes him so peaceful. When we move to Hawaii he'll get to surf his little heart out. Hopefully I turn out to be pretty good myself, and if I like it even half as much as he does I think I'll have the time of my life.