Last weekend, Lindsay and I and a number of friends headed to Pennsylvania to go camping.  We spent the weekend hiking, rafting and sleeping in tents.  All went very well, though it did rain the second night – pouring nearly all night, which kept most of us up but was still fun.  We ended the weekend with a birthday dinner celebration back at home for Lindsay’s birthday.

So this post also serves as Lindsay’s Happy Birthday post!

It also serves as a way to say that the photo gallery has been updated with pictures from the trip.  You will get a little taste of them below, but if you would like to see the whole album, click here (and, as usual, the entire photo gallery may be accessed by the links on the left and right sidebars).

Last month, me, Lindsay, mom, Pam, Katherine, Ami and friends Donna, Paula and Elaine got together for our semi-annual Ladies’ Tea.  The theme this time around was Alice in Wonderland, so we all attended the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, in costume.  Katherine portrayed Alice, Pam the Mad Hatter, I the White Queen, Lindsay the Queen of Hearts, Mom the March Hare, Ami the White Rabbit, Paula the Cheshire Cat, Donna the Caterpillar, and Elaine the Dormouse.   Pam and Katherine did an excellent job of creating a Alice atmosphere, complete with ‘Eat Me’ and ‘Drink Me’ signs, a string of flamingo lights, and little placecards with quotes from appropriate characters.

As is the custom, we all prepared a gift basket to share in our gift basket lottery.  The theme was to comprise a basket full of items from your favorite fantasy story (or, at the very least, the fantasy story you could think of the most items for!).  I did the Twilight saga (which Pam received), Katherine did Roald Dahl’s Matilda (which I received), Mom did Where the Wild Things Are (Donna received), Pam did Mary Poppins (Elaine got it), Elaine did Wicked (Ami received it), Paula did The Princess Bride (Katherine got it), Ami did Practical Magic (which went home with Lindsay), Donna did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which Mom received), and Lindsay did the Once and Future King (Paula got it).  (I’m fairly certain that’s the correct order!)

Enjoy some pictures from the day.

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  (More in an upcoming post!)

Yesterday, much of the family headed down to Red Hook to see Lindsay in her first art show.  She was participating in BWAC’s Nailed Exhibit, where she had five paintings on display (and for sale, I might add)!  After spending some time at the gallery, we braved the insane wind and all went out for a lobster feast!

Check back soon for an update to the photo gallery!

Remembering when the weather was nice enough for these outfits… and looking forward to a potential new visit to Florida to visit Harry Potter World this August!

It’s been nice cold and snowy here for quite some time, and it got me remembering our summer fun!  I’m also headed with a bunch of friends to Medieval Times tomorrow, which brought the Disney World road trip back into the front of my mind!

I know we’ve had posts about this when it was happening, but just for fun, reminiscing purposes, here are some of my favorites from the Disney World road trip!

We’re all very excited around here because the new Harry Potter World will soon be opening up at Universal Studios!  That might just mean another summer road trip this August!  We shall see…

First picture of the week of the year stems from New Year’s Eve, when Katherine was trying to get a goof picture of me, mom and Lin and I was, apparantely, growing frustrated with the process!

Our adventures in Hawaii began bright and early on the morning of April 4, when we headed out on the “Circle Island Tour.” As mentioned in a previous, “quote-of-the-day” post, our tour guide’s name was Kona, like the coffee. He picked us up at the hotel and we began our very full day of sightseeing.

Our first stop was the Dole Pineapple Pavilion, where we enjoyed “pineapple whip,” a frozen dessert. Kara and I thought it tasted kind of like cheesecake. The pavilion also had a maze of hedges we could walk through, but we didn’t pay the extra money to do it (plus, it looked really easy – you could see the middle from the starting point!). Instead, we walked around the plantation and discovered just how many miles from home we were (4,972).

From the pineapple paviliion we saw more of the island, including a stop at a Macadamia Nut Fam, where we were able to sample the many different varieties. Kara was particularly fascinated, however, by the automatic paper towel dispenser in the bathroom!

We ended up having lunch at a golf club/course (the Ko’olau Golf Club). During the meal, two wayward birds managed to get into the restaurant. They didn’t cause any trouble though – they simply walked around as though they had every right to be inside the building (which I suppose they did!). The golf club provided it’s own bathroom fascination as well – the bathroom was the size of an apartment, with a large seating area that looked as though you could hold an entire business conference!

Also around the golf club were some of the scenes used in “Jurassic Park,” which you can see by helicopter (we didn’t have time for that!).

Other sights seen on the tour were the Diamond Head Crater, Chinaman’s Hat (an island in that shape; we saw it from the bus), the “From Here to Eternity” beach and Hanauma Bay (which we only saw briefly on this day, but went to a few days later).

After the tour, dinner was at Outback (the first in a series of chain restaurants we went to), and we headed back to the hotel, but not after a stop at one of the ABC (All Blocks Covered) stores that grace EVERY SINGLE street!

Coming Soon: Day Three!

This entry is the first of our tales from our trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, as well as the first of the “Travel Tales” series of the blog. Periodically I will post stories about our roving adventures through the world, in bits and pieces, since some will be very lengthy.