Cannonballs and more cannonballs

This blog is a tad long...but I'll blame it on the pictures! :) This blog is from July 3rd...but I was too tired to post it yesterday...so you get it this morning instead!

I didn't mention this in my introductory blog yesterday, but when I arrived last night, Keith's mom told me that the nieces were really excited about getting to meet me...so excited in fact, that they had insisted upon making me a cake. They made this cake all by themselves with minimal supervision from "Mimi" and what resulted was an amazingly delicious "death by chocolate cake." They had mixed up a chocolate cake mix and dumped chocolate pudding and chocolate chips in the batter! Yummy! They had also decorated it by themselves: lots of flowers and a message that read "Welcome to SC, Monkey" with a large picture of the state of South Carolina. ("Monkey" happens to be a nickname that Emily and I both share...to her delight.) The funny part was though that after they'd baked it, they decided it looked too good ("My mouth was watering!" said Emily) so they each cut a piece out of my cake to eat...before they gave it to me! Kids are so fun! :)

Here's the yummy cake with my two pieces missing!

Today was a fantastically fun, but thoroughly exhausting day. Keith and I both slept in and felt refreshed when we left the house about 10:30 am for a tour of downtown Columbia. Our first stop was the state capitol building, which was unfortunately closed for the "State holiday" of the 4th of July. We walked around the grounds and I got the Reader's Digest condensed version of a South Carolina history lesson. The statue of George Washington out front of the building is missing half of his walking cane...the statue was vandalized not by rowdy teens of Columbia but by Sherman's soldiers as they passed through the city during the Civil War. Soldiers also fired on the still-under-construction capitol building not to destroy it, but to see how far away the city was from their encampment. The capitol building was hit by cannonballs in 6 different places, and when the construction was completed, instead of repairing the granite, large brass stars were added to mark the places where the cannonballs had hit.

Me next to one of the cannonball hits at the capitol building!

Two old men in suits were loitering in front of the building with picket signs (although they had them laying on the pavement so we couldn't see what they said...not a very effective picket line)...Keith suspected that they were there to lobby for the resignation of the South Carolina governor. Anyway...we never did find out why they were there, but got quite a laugh when we heard one man sigh a deep, satisfied sigh and say to the other man, "it's a beautiful day for freedom, isn't it?"

After the capitol building we drove around the campus of USC (where Keith attended his freshman year of college) and then headed to the river walk which was beautiful, although a bit hot! We strolled along the sidewalk and ventured out into the low river to wade, climb a low-hanging tree and jump from boulder to boulder out into the river. From there we headed back to the house with a quick side trip to see the house that Keith grew up in.

Keith the raccoon hanging out at the river walk!


Climbing out on the river rocks!

When we arrived back at the house, Keith's brother Mark and his wife Angela and daughters Emily and Abigail (who I hadn't met) were there to eat lunch and go for a swim. Emily and Abigail are two of the sweetest girls I've ever met, but also two of the most energetic! They thought I was a great pool toy and we dove and jumped and swam and raced and splashed until I could barely stand up. Emily's favorite game was to convince Keith and Mark and I to all cannonball into the pool with her at the exact same time and see how big the waves were when we surfaced again. Abigail isn't a fan of the deep end at all but liked to jump off my legs in the shallow end and pretty much clung to me every second that I was in the pool.

Bombs away! Emily and I jumping into the pool!


Abigail and I hanging out in the pool!

Late afternoon Emily decided to give Keith and I a "tour we'd never forget" of "Mimi and Paw's" land and the adjacent land of various members of Rick's family so we loaded up the golf cart and off we went. Emily was not only our chauffeur, but our guide as she narrated the entire tour in this hilarious pseudo-British accent. She gave out both factual information ("and on the left you'll see the home of Paw's parents', the Browders") and a hilarious running commentary of big words and not entirely accurate information ("now we are entering the deep woods of the famous Egyptian princess Cleopatra where many mysterious creatures live like squirrels, stinky deer that poop everywhere, and dogs which are also called mammals.")

Emily gives us a narrated tour of the Browder woods.

After our tour, we enjoyed a little more pool time and then I showed the girls my violin and played for them because Emily is going to take violin at a week long music camp at a local church in a week or so. Rick cooked an amazing dinner of grilled beef and veggies picked from the Browder garden and the kids watched a movie outside while the adults sat out onthe patio for dinner and "chit chat" (Emily's words again.) After the kids went home Keith and I mangaed enough energy for a trip to Wal Mart to buy ammo and clay pigeons for skeet shooting on the 4th and then both collapsed about 10 pm, thoroughly exhausted.

South Carolina, C'mon and raise up....

Whew! It's been a few months since I've blogged....and since I'm back on the go this summer, I figured I'd pick it back up to keep everyone from getting confused as to where precisely I am. Today's adventure destination: Columbia, South Carolina.


map of South Carolina. We're in Columbia...which you can see is pretty much in the dead center of the state.

So today I got to check another state off my list as Keith and I made the trek from Nashville to Columbia, South Carolina to visit his Mom and stepdad Rick (who you might remember from our Hawaii Adventures blogs from January of this year) and his brother Mark and his family for the 4th of July. We had a beautiful (and long) drive down. The highlight of the roadtrip was stopping at Moe's in Asheville, NC for burritos. Moe's was a favorite eatery of mine in Jackson, MS, and I haven't been to one in the almost 3 years I've been in Nashville. I miss it. It was wonderful to sink my teeth once again into a "Joey Bag of Doughnuts" and some yummy queso.
We rolled up to the beautiful Browder estate about 9 pm and sat out by the pool and caught up on news of various goings on and then moved the party inside (dern mosquitos) where Ms. Pat and Rick looked through my Hawaii scrapbook. We were all pretty tired so we headed to bed soon thereafter.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a fantastic day....we're heading to downtown Columbia in the morning to tour the capital building (I'm a nerd) and then Mark and his wife and two girls are coming over to swim in the pool. Ms. Pat has warned me repeatedly about the "swealtering heat" of the afternoons....but I've assured her that I'm a Mississippi girl who can handle heat and humidity and anything else. We'll see. Oh, skeet shooting is also on the docket for tomorrow. Pray I kill only skeet and not any of Keith's family members on accident. Just kidding.

OK...I'm off to sleep now. Tomorrow's blog will be far more exciting for sure!


flag of South Carolina

p.s. for those of you thoroughly confused on the blog title....it's a reference to a Petey Pablo rap song that was popular around the year 2001-2002.

Signs of the road...

I drove alot this weekend.  Let me emphasize ALOT.  I drove from Nashville, TN to Jackson, MS, then to Indianapolis, IN and then back to Nashville. In four days, by myself I might add.  Music gigs often do not orient themselves in geographically proximal places.  But I digress.  While on the road I saw the following fabulous signs.  

*  The first was actually a bumper sticker stuck on a large new model SUV while driving through Memphis, Tennessee.  It read  "My child has more chromosomes than yours" in large letters and underneath proclaimed "downs syndrome association." 

*The next was spotted somewhere between Grenada and Greenwood, Mississippi and was a "public service announcement" billboard that proclaimed "Hey, Mississippi!  If our children can't read, we're all losers."   Classy, eh?

*My favorite by far however was spotted outside of Louisville, Kentucky.  It was a 4'x4' or so white, square, homemade plywood sign tacked to the gate of a rounded arch entryway to the "Summer-(wood, dale, somthingorother) Farm" and its neatly stenciled painted letters advertised "USED COWS FOR SALE!!"  Really?  I've heard of used furniture or used cars but never used livestock.  I can't even imagine what that could possibly mean (and believe me...I had several hours on the road to try to figure it out!) and I'm not certain I really want to know.

Hey, ain't that America?

One more day in paradise.......

Aloha!  How sad that this amazing trip is drawing to a close!  This will be your final blog from sunny Kauai, although you are invited to visit again any time you need a quick fix of sunshine from our pictures!  :)  We kicked off today laying on Hanalei beach which has become a favorite of ours.  The surf was bigger than we wanted to tangle with but we succeeded in catching some rays if not waves, and enjoyed a nice walk on the beach to watch the surfers.

Keith's mom and Rick and I camped out on the Hanalei Bay Beach.

I love writing in the sand!  :)

and I LOVE the ocean!  Yay!

After our beach stint we headed to the Hanalei Dolphin for an amazing lunch!  Keith and I munched on "Fin Burgers" of grilled Ahi tuna while his mom had a grilled Ahi tuna salad and Rick went with the traditional fish and chips.  Mai Tais were had almost all around except I opted for a "Lava flow" which involved much coconutty goodness.  

al fresco at the Dolphin!

This big one didn't get away!! 

After lunch we headed around the corner to "Kayak Kauai Outbound: Kauai's Adventure Company" to rent kayaks to paddle up the Hanalei River.  I had been wanting to try paddling a longboard, a traditional polynesian sport, all week long so Keith was a good sport and offered to give it a try with me.  We LOVED it!  If you head to Hawaii, it's a must for sure!  The two mile route up river was a great way to get some sun and exercise and we agreed it was one of the cooler adventures of the trip.

Keith and I pose on our longboards.

Keith: Hawaiian Warrior

 

Paddling past some palms.

Keith's mom and Rick opted to stick with the original kayak plan. 

One of my favorite pics of the day.  It just looks like a postcard!  

Keith and I enjoy one last shaved ice before we leave the island....rainbow ice on top of homemade macadamia nut ice cream!  Mmmm!  And...the guy who worked the stand is about to take a trip to the Philippines through Compassion International with his fiancee to meet his fiancee's Compassion sponsor child!  It's a small world!  (For those of you who don't know Keith, he works for Compassion International and he and I both have sponsor children!)

What an awesome ending to an awesome trip.  We're back at the condo right now packing up our suitcases and then we're going to a tapas place called "Bar Acuda" (Baracuda?  Get it?) for our final dinner before heading to the Lihue airport to catch our 11:30 pm (Hawaii time...you do the math!) flight to the mainland.  We'll fly Kauai to Seattle, Seattle to Cincinnati and then Cinci to Nashville just in time for me to make a Thursday night rehearsal and then leave for Green Bay, WI Friday morning.  Hope you've enjoyed our Hawaiian adventure!  Mahalo for reading!

Coffee, clouds, roosters and whales.

May I begin by saying that I'm thrilled to be in my bed at the condo right now blogging and not on a flight back to the mainland like I was supposed to be.  :)  This extra day in Kauai is positively glorious!  Today was action packed from beginning to end.  I got up early this morning, swiped the rental car, and headed off on my own to Hanalei to mail some postcards to the fam (and ended up purchasing a great pair of Billabong surf shorts from the Hanalei surf shop along the way.)  By the time I got back to the condo, everyone else was ready to roll so we packed up the mountaineer and headed southward.  Our first stop was the Kauai coffee company where we taste-tested MANY flavors of coffee (between all of us, I'm pretty certain we tasted every flavor they had!) and loaded up on gifts for ourselves and those back home.  It was neat also to drive past the rows and rows of coffee plants....and I really enjoyed the amazing smell of the car the rest of the day as the bags of beans we purchased smell fantastic!

The Kauai Coffee Company Cafe and giftshop.

Rick samples some coffee while I munch on a coffee-flavored ice cream cone on the back deck of the Kauai Coffee Co. where the samplin' is set up!

Keith's mom and I on the front porch of the Kauai Coffee Co.

After we were sufficiently caffeinated, we headed up the long and windy road to Waimea canyon.  It was a beautiful drive up the mountain, but hard to keep our heads out of the clouds....literally!  It was amazing to stand in the clouds and look over the railing into what should have been a massive "Grand canyon" but looked to us like a bowl of cotton.  We literally couldn't see anything!  We ate lunch at a nearby picnic stop on the mountain and encountered some foul play......lots of chickens being rowdy that is!  This is a good time to mention the fact that Kauai is overrun with wild chickens.  Because they have no natural predators on Kauai (the other Hawaiian islands controlled their chicken population by introducing the mongoose...but Kauai has not followed suit for fear of endangering their vast population of desirable birds) the chickens run rampant, crowing at all hours of the night and lurking anywhere and everywhere they please.  This particular chickens even had the gall to get up on our lunch table while we were eating to try to steal food!  Keith tried unsuccessfully after lunch to catch one and it was hilarious to watch him run around after them.  We were able to have an amazing view of the Kalalau valley from another overlook point however, thus making the trek up the mountain worthwhile.

At the bottom of the Waimea Canyon lookout....we didn't know yet that there was nothing to see at the top!

Keith and I "on cloud nine." literally!  haha.

Chickens on our picnic table!  (Today's headline reads, "Potato chips stolen from lunching tourists...forest rangers suspect "foul-play." haha.  haha.)

Little did they know one of their cousins had been "oven roasted" and added to my Subway sandwich. 

This isn't even all of them!  It was insane!

View of the Kalalau Valley.

Me at the Kalalau Valley overlook sporting my new Kauai coffee company shirt....it was a bit chilly at that altitude!

Late afternoon we boarded a Holo Holo Charters Catamaran for a 4 or so hour "Sunset Cruise."  The weather (which had promised to be "sunny all day") made a slight shift so our tour was a little grayer than we'd hoped for, but were thrilled to have an amazing whale watching experience!  We saw tons of humpback whales swimming in the waters around our boat.  Everywhere you turned it seemed you either saw a whale or evidence of one as when they come up for air they send out a puff of water and air that looks like a puff of smoke.  They were so graceful as the lazily came to the surface to breathe and slapped their tails on the water.  We saw so many I honestly quit counting.  At one point we could see three whales on the surface at once!  We also cruised down far enough to see the magestic Na'Pali coastline and our captain gave us a brief history of the Hawaiians who lived there as recently as the 1940's.

Me onboard the boat...a tad wet....but loving every moment of it!

We took this picture of the back of a random man so you could get a perspective of how close the whales were coming to the boat!  Within 20 or 30 feet easily!  The captain said it was the best whale watching day he'd had in a long time.

the dorsal fin of a humpback whale coming to the surface.

A whale of a tale! Make that tail! 

Two whales come up at once!  Awesome!

Whew.  I'm exhausted so I'll wrap it up here and head to bed!  I'm so sad that we have to go home tomorrow....but no worries, you'll get one more blog before we depart.  :)  Aloha!

We ♥ Kauaii!

In fact, we ♥ Kauaii so much that we've decided we're not ready to leave tomorrow and we called Delta today to postpone our flight reservations and get one more glorious day in paradise!  We are beyond excited to be able to extend our vacation by a whole day!!!

Today was a great mix of relaxation and excitement.  We took our time getting ready this morning and then headed to Hanalei.  Keith and I hit the beach while his mom and Rick did some shopping in Hanalei and then joined us on the beach about noon.  They brought with them yummy lunch from Bubbas' Burgers which we scarfed down and then the four of us went for about a mile and a half walk down the Hanalei Bay Beach...to the pier and back.  Keith and I had originally planned on snorkeling at Tunnels Beach today but when we stopped to rent snorkel gear the shop owner said, "I'd love to rent you my gear, but I'd also love for you to not die."  The rip currents were pretty severe today and the waves, as we found out when we got to Hanalei Bay were HUGE!

Hanalei Bay Beach.....the waves washed my artwork out to sea seconds after this picture was taken. 

I LOVE the ocean!

Keith and I next to the HBB pier.

On the HBB pier.

Keith's mom and I "surfing."

Mid afternoon we headed back to the condo to get dressed for "Smith's Tropical Paradise Luau."  The evening was way better than we could have even imagined.  We were each presented with a shell lei necklace as we entered.  The luau itself began with an Imu ceremony where the kalua pig is taken out of the ground and the conch shell is blown calling everyone to dinner.  Next was cocktail hour (watch out for the mai tais...they're yummy....TOO yummy!) followed by a fantastic buffet (where I liked almost everything served!  A small miracle!) accompanied by dinner music.  A hula dancer also performed the hula and then called for volunteers.  Since Keith thought volunteering me was a fun idea, I made him come with me and we both joined the group onstage for a hula lesson.  It was hilarious!  After dinner ended we all traipsed over to an amphitheater for an incredible stage show that explained the diverse Hawaiian culture through dance and costumes of the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Samoan, Tahitian and Hawaiians.  The show featured lots of hip shaking girls, some awesome drumming, and even a chinese dragon!  We went home enchanted and exhausted.

Keith and I at the front entrance to the luau.

Mr. Smith gives the history of the Smith family, welcomes all the guests, and explains the Imu oven cooking process in front of the Imu oven.

Mr. Smith's grandson blows the conch to signal the beginning of the luau.

The yummy Kalua piggy!  Mmm mmm  good!

Keith's mom and I with the two guys who dug up the pig. 

Keith and I demonstrate hula dancing at the dinner table for the enjoyment of his mom and Rick.

Keith and I demonstrate hula dancing onstage for all the guests to see.  :)

Real hula dancers kick off the stage show.

Hula dancers spice things up a bit by swinging around flaming coconuts on ropes.

The entire cast of the Smith's show take their bows.

P.S.  I realize that I have been posting insane amounts of pictures on my blog these past few days and hope that no one finds this annoying.  However, let's be honest....you'd much rather see pictures than hear me babble about stuff, correct?  Hope the picture overload is acceptable!  Mahalo (thank you in Hawaiian) for taking the time to read!