The Best Around

This weekend was kind of the best (around!). Karate Kid style.

Grab some snacks because you're about to get a serious play by play. But there are pictures!

I knew there were good things to come when I left work (albeit slightly late for a Friday) and walked down to Pike Place Market in the Seattle sunshine. Just me, my thoughts, the sounds of the city, random tidbits of conversation around me and, did I mention the sunshine? [I'm going to let you all in on a little secret, Seattle in the summer is a little slice of heaven. It's not officially summer yet, but I definitely got a sneak peak of what's in store for me. And it's real good.]

Post meeting up with my people at the market (and after being asked by a dreamboat and his two friends to join them at their table) we made our way to Golden Gardens. There was ice cream and sunsets to be had! We all know I can't get enough of the soft serve, so it was perfect.

We thought we had hit the jackpot when we realized one among us had a key to get into the marina, but the boat didn't quite work out for us. Instead we just wandered the dock and I kept any eye out for Dawson and Pacey. No really, it made me want to go home and watch Dawson's Creek. So what if I own all the seasons on DVD?

I wasn't prepared for the result of ice cream+disappearing sun+wind off the water, but I survived. And I got to enjoy this along the way. Beautiful.

We lost some and gained some in the group and ended the night with a little Robin Hood. And maybe a teeny tiny nap for me. Just a little guy.

Saturday started off right with run at Green Lake. Again with the sunshine! Along the way I spotted a BYU t-shirt on someone I didn't immediately recognize (as if I'm supposed to know everyone in the area that went to BYU) but quickly realized that it was Ruth! A friend from my home stake who I have known lives on the East Side for a year, but still had not met up with. You'll always run into someone you know at Green Lake. Always.

Then came the U District street fair. Lots and lots of people watching (which I love) a bad hot dog, delicious strawberry lemonade, palm reading for one in the group, homemade ice cream and saving the unicorns.

This man made my day.


The street fair was followed by a walk through the UW campus and a stop at Hogwarts. I loved this library! No Harry Potter sightings, but maybe next time.

Then there was a failed attempt at canoeing on Lake Washington. BUT (!) it wasn't a total failure since I got to sit on the water and just love life for a while. Sidenote: I love bridges.

Having filled up on some vitamin d for the day, I squeezed in a nap before eating steak that was cooked on a grill in my backyard. Anything cooked on a grill in your backyard will be awesome, but this was especially good. Not to mention my odds at dinner were kind of amazing with me, five dreamboats and one other girl.

Today consisted of brunch with friend that has recently returned from falling off the face of the earth (yay!), church, reading in the semi-sunshine and braving the masses at game night.

And I have been reminded of why I've taken a hiatus from reading. Books take over my life. Apparently moderation is not something I do well.

Kind of sounds like the best around, right? I thought so too.

Maui: Five

Today we ate. All day.

We started out with breakfast at The Gazebo for their famous white chocolate macadamia nut pancakes. I don't typically enjoy nuts cooked in my food, but in the spirit of trying new things I went for it. And it was delicious. I was sad I could only finish one.

This afternoon, after The Professor, Patrick and Brooke finished their surfing lesson, we made our third attempt at getting acceptable shaved ice. JACKPOT. It was everything I never knew I always wanted in shaved ice. Banana, coconut & pineapple with ice cream on the bottom. We'll be back.

After a dinner of homemade pizza [Which, sadly, I have no photographic evidence of, but let's just say it was a little toasty.] we made our way to Yogurtland. We had gone there for dessert on my birthday and The Professor hasn't stopped talking about it since. Here he is with his 15oz.

And just for funsies, this was my view while I spent some quality time with my tan this afternoon. I can't be mad about that.

I had come in from the pool and was reading my book on the couch when I had the following conversation with P-Rizzle.

PB: Dude, Steph, you're SO tan.
Me: Really? You're not just saying that because that's what I want to hear?
[side note: He had previously been telling me that I was tan when I wasn't just to make me feel better.]
PB: For real. It's almost scary.

So in a nutshell, I ate a lot of good food and am getting scarily tan. Basically today is my best day.

Maui: Two & Three.

Day Two was a success.
I accomplished everything on my agenda, which is the brilliance of setting small, attainable goals. I felt like a champion.

Shave Ice. Too huge. No ice cream. I'll give it a 7.

The Professor bought a coconut from the side of the road. I drank what was inside. It was not good. [You should see the photo that came after this one.]

The clouds at Big Beach were testing my patience, but we were still able to make it work. I followed The Professor's strict tanning plan and got a decent amount of sun.

And as a bonus for the day, our car got nailed by a golf ball as we drove past Wailea golf course. We pulled over, Patrick got out and said words, I got nervous and also laughed, and then I took this picture in super stealth mode. At this moment the golf man is saying, "The last thing I expected was to hit a rock!".

Day Three. My birthday.
I spent the day at the beach and made some great progress on my tan. [I'm sure it's clear by now what my priority is for this trip. TAN. I should be on Jersey shore.] I hate to admit it, but I was a little weak. After 2.5 hours I was longing for some shade. However, without the clouds we had the day before those 2.5 hours were enough to do some good work.

That evening we met up with Chelsea for dinner. Lucky for me, Tuesday was her day to work on Maui this week.

We ate food, we sang-along to some Billy Joel, we ate frozen yogurt and laughed a lot. What more can a girl ask for on her birthday?

We got back to the condo and things felt crazy. It felt like it was 2am, but it was only 9:00. [Side note: This trip is like vacationing with with elderly. We get tired around 10pm and wake up at 7am. I was the last one awake last night at 11:30pm.] I was attacked by Brooke who would not stop singing a really creepy Happy Birthday song, made a wish and blew out some candles, had a run-in with a gecko in our living room and was asleep before midnight.

When I said Brooke attacked me, I meant it. Every time I tried to move she squeezed me tighter. Girl is strong.

Brooke: "Take my picture!"
Stephanie: "Who brought this girl?"
Eli: "I'm a Ken Doll."

I'm completely in love with this photo. Patrick was singing some sweet, sweet harmonies and I'm clearly impressed with his range.

All in all, Maui is good. Real good.

That Was Not a Waste of Time

• I got on a ship.
• I went to Belize.
• I went to Mexico.
• I heard A LOT of music. A lot.
• I drank an undisclosed amount of Diet Pepsi*.
• I ate a few** soft serve ice cream cones.
• I slept on a top bunk.
• I laughed with friends. The ones I came with and the ones I reunited with on the boat.
• I let go of some things weighing on my mind (and heart) into the ocean. I just had a little moment with nature.
• I didn't text, email, Twitter, Facebook, blog, or make a phone call. I felt free.
• I danced.  
• I saw Brandi Carlile. And Gregory Alan Isakov. Singing together. My heart rejoiced.
• I sunburned my eyelids. And my face, chest and shoulders. As it turns out you can sweat off sunscreen.
• I realized I like country music. But not, COUNTRY country music. We'll call it "hipster country" to make ourselves feel better.
• I read only four pages of my book. 
• I ate food at Midnight, every night.
• I sang.
• I developed a cankle. Just one. (The left one.) 
• And I loved every minute of it.

Like last year, I'm overwhelmed at the thought of recapping this vacation.
Unlike last year, I will actually recap properly at some point. Soon. But it's late and I'm tired and I have to wake up early for Disney World tomorrow.

So, I will leave you with a picture (or two) to sum it all up. It was a toss up between these two.

 Em, me, Linds, KJ in Belize.

Diet Coke Light + "The Point" in Costa Maya, Mexico. 

(Or what we lovingly refer to as "Mexi-faux".)

*There was no Diet Coke on board.
**Quite possibly three per day. Don't judge.

The Root Canal

I've had a toothache off and on since December. I visited the dentist before my cruise in February in an attempt to avoid some sort of emergency procedure in the Dominican Republic.

His advice: Brush with sensitive toothpaste.

So I did. Thankfully there were no emergency procedures necessary on the trip (except the one to loosen the death-grip on the ice cream cone in my hand) but when the mini-tube of toothpaste he gave me was gone and the pain was not, I began to question his judgment.

I ignored it until a few weeks ago when the pain hit an all time high. My upper and lower jaw were throbbing constantly and there were nights when I contemplated removing the tooth myself. Since the dentist hadn't seen anything wrong before, I thought maybe it was all in my head - because that's a normal assumption. I finally decided to have him check it out again. He still was unsure that something was wrong, but sent me to a specialist anyway.

During my visit to the specialist, he did a cold test. He put something that he claimed was "super cold" against a normal tooth - I felt the pain immediately and it went away as soon as he removed it. He then touched the tooth in question. And held it there. And I felt nothing. They took another x-ray and when he came back into the room he said, “Yeah….Stephanie, your tooth is dead. And that extreme pain you were experiencing was its death.” Awesome.

So the date was set and today I went in for my first (and hopefully last) root canal. And I survived.

This is the face of a girl with a pain-free tooth.
I was a little nervous going into it, but I felt NOTHING. Not even the shot when he was numbing my mouth. It was actually more comfortable than most fillings I've had. My mouth was no longer numb after just a couple hours, there was no drooling involved and I'm as good as new!

The strangest part was the "rubber dam" they used. Essentially they poke the tooth they are working on through the rubber so all of the dust and whatnot stays on the outside and they don't have to keep suctioning out your mouth, etc.
Strange, but kind of brilliant.

The best part was hearing the Dr. use the words "homies" and "peeps" in a sentence to his assistant. Nothing like a little awkward white man to top off a root canal.

I've Returned From Paradise

I'm back in my own bed and about to turn out the light earlier than I have for the last eight days. I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of documenting this trip. And I have a bad habit of not blogging about big events because deciding what pictures to use, what events to write about and how to write about them stresses me out just thinking about it. But I want to have it all wrapped up in a nice post (or two or three) for my own enjoyment, if not the enjoyment of my faithful readers (or my mom, either way).

So in short, it was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I tried to find a picture that summed up the whole trip and this was as close as I could get.
If only you could see the ice cream cone in my hand. Oh, and the band I was watching from my lounge chair.

{Sigh.}

Look Who Showed Up

Summer. Summer showed up.
And Summer brought a few things into my life:

Monday: Poetry reading/writing in a backyard with cupcakes. Sounds awkward. It wasn't. (But was).

Tuesday: Backyard movie night. A personal favorite, Dumb & Dumber. I'm not ashamed.

Wednesday: Butterfield is back! And along with her return came some time spent at the water.

Thursday: Ice cream and conversation at Green Lake. At midnight.

Friday: Dinner outside and a bonfire. Nevermind that it was a million degrees and too hot for a fire.

Saturday: Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake + more celebrations for Susan.

Dear Summer,
I think I'm in love. I never want to be apart from you again.
xo!
S

cayamo 2011.

Did you hear? I went on vacation.
To the Caribbean.

Sidenote: I said "cuh-ribbean" and the IT lady at work corrected me and said it's "care-ibee-an". 

And then she tried to give me a history lesson about it, but I tuned out.

Am I right? Or is she?

Because she wears purple velour pants.

This recap is only going to happen if it can come in the form of a list with no rhyme or reason.

Get some snacks because it's a long one.

• Possibly my favorite photo of the week happened right after stepping on the ship.

• John Prine. He's an adorable, adorable man. And he plays with an Apolo Ohno look-alike. Hey, remember when I loved Apolo Ohno during the 2002 Olympics? Yeah, me too.

• Brandi Carlile. We got in to all three of her shows. I never get tired of it. AND she played two new songs. If I start telling you that "you rattle my bones", it's because of her new song.

• Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We took a water taxi to Virgin Gorda and then a "bus" to The Baths, which we walked/climbed/ducked through and ended on a beautiful beach. It ranks high up there for my favorite activity of the trip.

• I also danced a jig in The Baths  (not unlike this one). When that penny whistle starts, I have to dance. 

• Another favorite moment of the trip was when we found Mike & Dwayne on the beach in Virgin Gorda. They were walking with great purpose (they were late), I called out to them, Mike looked up and saw us, pointed and just said, "AWESOME", and kept walking. Writing it doesn't do it justice, but it was often quoted throughout the rest of the week.

• "Did you know that Dwayne hates big sunglasses? He thinks we all look stupid right now. Except for Em." -Unck

 The bigger, the better, I say.

• I think I'm allergic to Caribbean sand. The CANKLES! tried to overtake me, but I was ready for them this year. Well, once I turned over my life savings to the ship store for Benadryl I was ready. Two little pink pills were my nightly cocktail.
• Ice cream cones. Self-serve was back!

• I learned that I laugh out loud in my sleep nearly every night. One night I woke myself up with my giggling, immediately rolled over and looked at Lindsay (who was still awake reading) and without me even asking if I had just been laughing in my sleep she looked up and me and said, "Yup". 

• Speaking of sleeping, I didn't have the top bunk this year. Stacey rocked that.

• We were lucky enough to have Valentine's Day dinner with Mike & Dwayne. Apparently they had questioned "who's going to get who?" without coming to any conclusion. When Mike, Em and I got up to go to the bathroom all at the same time, the decision was made. I guess our bladders were made for each other.

•  Let's talk about Shawn Mullins for a bullet (or three). His voice pierces my musical soul. Make fun of me all you want, but every time I see him live my mind is blown by how much I love him.
• My #1 musical moment of the week was when the Indigo Girls were singing "Kid Fears" and he came out in the middle and started singing Are you on fire? I can't even describe it. Shawn sang the part that Brandi sings in the video below (around 2:20).

• It's possible that I have a soft spot in my heart for Shawn because he was the soundtrack to some teenage drama. Shawn has a little song called "Lullaby", maybe you've heard of it? The song's not great. However, when I was 16 I found myself with a broken heart. And for a week or two the last song I heard on the radio every night and the first song that came on the radio every morning was that one. Everything's gonna be alright.
• St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. We thought we were walking 1/4 mile to the beach, but we ended up walking 1 mile through the ghetto to the beach.

•  That island provided a very hot sun and cell phone service. Perhaps you saw my tweet?

•  Patty Griffin. She won a Grammy on Sunday for her Downtown Church album and then joined us on the boat on Thursday. She's adorable. And she makes what comes out of her mouth seem effortless.

•  I can't tell you how much I love Mike & Dwayne. They are weird and normal at the same time. So kind. So, so funny. It was basically like we were on a six-person vacation. Cayamo's best decision was seating us next to them in 2009.

 

• Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. This was the day I entrusted my life with Captain Meeko and Big Daddy Tunes. After years and years of trying to convince someone to parasail with me, I finally did it. It was super peaceful (minus the part where I started to freak out a little about getting dipped in the water).

•  This is also the place where I fake snorkeled. The water was shallow for a long way so I just walked out and stuck my face in the water. Not satisfying, for the record.

•  I spent some time alone on the deck at night, watching the waves and the moon. It's hard to put into words the way it makes me feel. So I wont even try.

•  There was a bowling alley on the ship. Finally, on the last night, we bowled some balls. And by "we" I mean "everyone but me". I just wasn't feeling it, but Mike wins the award for most creative bowling. Loved it.

•  Virgin Gorda (Tortola) had chickens. And they kept coming after me. As it turns out, I'm not a fan.

•  Lindsay put a spin move on a hammer head shark. Yes, you read that correctly. Every time we got off the boat there was someone dressed in costume waiting to pose with you for a picture. The shark really wanted Lindsay to pose. Lindsay really did not want to.
• Dar Williams sang "The Babysitter's Here" during one of her sets and her friend's daughter danced on stage. That little girl just meant it. And it made me cry.

• I read 1 1/3 books on this trip. That's 1 1/3 more than last year.
• I got a little worried when it was cold in Miami. But I was pleased to find that the weather every other day couldn't have been better.

•  There was still no Diet Coke, just Diet Pepsi. We made the most of it.

• Stacey rocked an open mic. I wish I would have been brave enough to sing one of her songs with her. One day.

• Speaking of Stacey, she kept falling up the stairs. And I kept missing it. But the third time's the charm and I finally witnessed it. Man, I love people falling down.
• Colin Hay. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed him. His wife was...interesting. I wish I had captured Em's reenactment of her interpretive dancing. Priceless.

•  Dan Wilson. Remember the band, Semisonic? Yeah, him. Another top musical moment was Dan Wilson singing his song "All Kinds" and the audience joining in. I'm a sucker for that crap.

• All in all, it was not a waste of time.