A Weekend in SF with the toughest mudder I know

Thanks to my sister in law, Tere, my parents, and Ross's parents... our kids had a fabulous weekend while weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..... wandered San Francisco with nothing more than my purse in tow.

- Ross did the Tough Mudder with a bunch of guy friends... He swam in mud and bashed up his shins and grunted and yelled a lot (I have video to prove it) .... while I shopped.  Next time I'm in Ross. For real this time.
- We got to stay with GREAT old friends Tyler and Ambyr for a night and enjoy their most darling home/neighborhood/family.
- We visited the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts where Ross took me back when we were dating and I waited for him to drop the LOVE bomb.  He didn't that night... so he told me lots this time.
- We ate and ate and ate.  But I wish we could have fit many more a meal in.
- And slept in 'till a ridiculous hour each morning thanks to hotel black out shades (or I did while Ross read or ran in crazy mad-man races.)
- We walked and talked and dreamt of what it would have been like to live the city life before we started our family.  But then that got us thinking of our family and all we wanted to do was look at pictures of our kids and kiss the screen and forget about the city and get home.

The perfect ending.

The Rest of Maui... finally.

(Lizzie's photo)

Part two of Maui got good.

We left our lovely Marriott timeshare and our poolside restaurant for a YMCA in Kenae, on the way to Hana. It all started back at that Marriott pool, where we met this cute young local family staying there for the weekend. They were giving us ideas of what to see and where to eat and they suggested taking TWO days to do the road to Hana. Well where do we stay?

"Uh-- in one of our cottages that sleeps four, that overlooks the water-- for $125 a night." They say.

I have to admit it felt a little crazy, to leave the comforts of our resort for this cottage in the middle of nowhere. Until we got there, and although there was no food for miles each way, and our dinner consisted of protein bars and fruit that Shad had picked along the way, it was amazing. An adventure within our trip.

I think the morning we woke up there was my favorite morning, even though it was on the heels of like 4 hours of sketchy sleep vs. the luscious air conditioned, black-out-curtained hotel room back in Kaanapali. There was just something magical about waking up in this quiet paradise, and exploring what was around us (we'd driven in when it was dark and couldn't see a thing the night before)... and (literally) eating coconut for breakfast that the guys knocked off of a tree.

I mean we wouldn't have starved or anything. I may have had plenty of chocolate covered mac nuts. But it's still true. So a little closer, here's our darling little cabin. And some other sights that morning...

Oh... so when that little YMCA family first started giving us ideas of where we should go, they recommended a 'hip' little pizza restaurant in Paia... since we were "young and hip". Lizzie was so gracious and thankful for the compliment, and said so a few times--- so late that night when we arrived and grabbed our key out of the box, this is what we found:

And clearly, that was Lizzie looking hi- to the -ip.

lizzie's photo

This was our third trip to Hawaii with Shad and Lizzie, and every time I'm reminded of Shad's obsession with free fruit. He talks about moving there and growing a bunch of banana trees for work. Lizzie reminds him that bananas cost like a quarter and that it'd probably be really hard to make money.

But it's really fun to have him collect tons of fruit from trees and the road for us to enjoy in our jeep. It made it all feel that much more... authentic. :)

We decided to take a quick hike to this waterfall below. Shad and Lizzie beat us to it and were all swimming like crazy people. (it was COLD). So we succumbed to peer pressure and jumped in. Definitely one of the best moments of the trip.

The black sand beach. Turns out it's really the black-pebbled beach.... but still beautiful.

A little fake-tilt shift for fun----- of the seven sacred pools.

I wish we'd swam in those pools... but we were racing the clock by this point, and we decided instead to hike through the bamboo forest, to the waterfall below.

Lizzie took these gorgeous bamboo ones... and lots of others... any I'm in of course.

Then back to civilization and showers and just enjoying the beach at the Marriott...

The end. It's about time.