My Hood...

The other day, a serial murderer and rapist who has eluded law enforcement for forty years was caught. Guess where? Citrus Heights! My friend Wendi, babysat for him and cleaned his house after the guy's wife left him! He lived so close to us, and thinking of all of the "what-if's" is so creepy. What if he had hurt one of Paul's friends when they were sneaking to the creek to party? What if they had taken one of us when we were out late at night toilet papering a friend? I was on my phone messaging friends as we tried to process the horror of a killer in our neighborhood! One friend said all of this taints our peaceful happy childhood! And as I walked down to the park at the end of my street later that night, I felt great feelings of nostalgia for my current neighborhood of the last 11 years, and I hope that my children will feel that someday too!

We have been walking down our street to the "yellow park" since Jackson was 2, and Paul was 9 months old! I used to get so worried about not being able to watch both of them at the same time, worried that one of them would step backwards and fall off of the play structure. Or afraid that Jackson would hit another kid! I looked at other moms who were there with older kids, and they'd be sitting on a bench reading a book. At that time, I longed to sit on a bench and read a book, to just have a break from my two toddlers! As I looked around the park, I had flashbacks of Jackson's 4th birthday party which was on the second day after we brought Alanna baby home from the hospital! All of our family was there, and it was a pirate party, complete with a pirate ship cake made by Grandma Ce Ce and Luke! I had flashbacks of the boys taking their Easter kites to that park for the first time and flying them in the fierce Herriman wind and constantly getting them tangled up!

When Alanna was about 2-3 years old, she thought she owned the baby swing at the park. If we arrived and someone else was in it, she would walk over and stare them down and I couldn't get her to move away! She could have sat in that swing for hours if I had let her, and had the energy to push her! She quickly learned to do the monkey bars and hang on to the zip line all by herself, and I can still hear her saying "watch me, watch me!" Speaking of monkey bars, there was the evening that we were babysitting the Johnson kids and decided to take everyone to the park. I was still getting Braxton and Blaze out of the car when Masey ran over to do the monkey bars and feel to the ground screaming. She had fractured her arm, and I felt so horrible that it had happened on my watch! 

Once when I was pregnant with Blaze and pushing Alanna in the stroller, the boys ran ahead of me to the "yellow park". I ran into a friend going down the hill and stopped for a few minutes to chat. When I made it to the park, I bumped into Brita who was hanging out there with a lady I didn't know. This other lady said "I don't know where the mother of these boys is, but they are eating out of the garbage can!" I had to sheepishly claim Jackson and Paul, and then go scold them for eating Cheetos and M&M's out of the park's garbage can! How embarrassing!

My sweet baby Blaze loved to swing just like Alanna did! Even more, he loves to sled with Peter and Max and his siblings at the park during the winter. The kids always talk about the time that Luke was sledding down the hill and went over a rock that cracked his sled and left a rather painful area on his derriere! I remember sitting at that park watching Blaze's very first soccer practice when he was 5 years old and enjoying how aggressive he was! He wanted so badly to be like his older brothers and have us watch his games! 

I drive by our "yellow park" several times a day, but I don't always have flashbacks of my kids growing up playing there. But once in a while they come, and they are very cherished memories that I don't ever want to forget. And someday, James might have his way, and we will move. But I hope that my kids will keep their memories of that "yellow park" in the magical childhood bank of experiences that they are building up! 

Kauai Day #6: Lyndgate Beach Park walk, Horseback Riding, South Shore Beaches, Sprouting Horn

After our 8 mile hike through the mud of the Napali Coast, we ate at the Olympic Cafe, and our guidebook said we should get their ice cream pie! Good Choice! And then I guess James still didn't get enough because he had ice cream for breakfast too!

We took a really nice work between the Kauai Beach Resort where we stayed, and Lyndgate Beach Park. We actually ran barefoot in the sand, and I really wish that I could start out every day doing that! A crazy homeless beach man approached us and instead of smiling and walking away, James entertained his ideas about exercise for about 10 minutes! I couldn't even stand there because he smelled so badly, so I stepped way back and I could see other people on the beach looking over to listen to the conversation. At the end, James said "every one needs a friend!" Ha...true!

Horseback riding on the beach has always been something I've wanted to do, and this was the perfect opportunity! It was SO much fun riding through the sugar fields and along the beach trails on the south coast.

We got to cross the water on our horses, and the water was up to the bottoms of my feet!

They took us to Secret Beach, where movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, and Castaway have been filmed. The beach is public, but the land getting there is private The ranch owners said we could hike back through the property to get to the beach...too bad it was hours before I had to fly home!

Half way through our ride, we were served POG juice. That's Passion, orange, guava juice. James got a whole carton of it for himself after I left!

We explored some beaches and fancy resorts on the south coast and found some tide pools with sea cucumbers!

We got take out dinner from "Da Crack", a famous Mexican place, and found a path to sit at the beach on lava rock right off the road. This was the only sunset we saw, but it was pretty much covered by the clouds. We also drove over to Sprouting Horn. My pictures didn't turn out because it was so dark, but you can hear that it sounds like a monster in our video.

And then, very sadly, it was time for James to drop me off at the airport. I held back the tears as I hugged him goodbye. The tears were partly because our perfect stress free, hassle free, vacation was over, and partly because I felt like I was saying goodbye to a part of James that I rarely get to have! 

Life is full of responsibility and obligations that are rarely for ourselves at this point in our life. And that's how it's supposed to be, that's what we signed up for, but we also need to take more time to have fun and enjoy each other! I got through security and then went in a bathroom stall and had an emotional break down! I was also concerned for James because he decided not to rent a hotel room for the extra night he was there....he was going to sleep in the crappy rental car! He parked in a grocery store parking lot and didn't sleep well, and he decided that it wasn't worth the money to part each other like that or spend the night in a car!

Day # 5: Kalalau Hike

We were so excited for this day since this is the most talked about sight on Kauai...The NaPali Coast! It did not disappoint! The mountainous cliffs and crystal blue ocean crashing up against them were unlike anything we had ever seen! 

We hiked 2 miles in the mud to get to the beach, and then another 2 miles to get to the spectacular waterfall. There were several places we had to cross streams, and i finally decided to just walk across in my shoes so I'd have better footing, and it helped wash the mud off! We were also devoured by mosquitos, despite wearing repellant. Those suckers got me through my clothes, and I even had a huge one on the bottom of my foot!

We had been planning on taking a boat trip around the NaPali Coast line, but every day we were there it was cancelled. People there had mentioned that even for Kauai, they were receiving tons of rain. Looking back, a storm was brewing!

Look at those waves! After seeing them with our own eyes, we thought "no wonder they won't take out their small boats in this surf!" And only days after we left Kauai, this beautiful beach was washed away. The huge lifeguard tower was dragged out to sea, and the trails were completely washed away. I feel so badly for several friends who were visiting right after us! I guess it's just a great excuse to come back again!

Day #4: Shoreline Trail on South Side...

This is the lobby at Kauai Beach Resort. The morning treated us to some nice dry and sunny weather, so we decided to take advantage of some pool time. It didn't last for long though! We decided to try a hike on the south shore since often times it's more dry over there. 

Po 'ipu Shorline Sandstone Hike was beautiful and sandy instead of muddy! It poured on us the whole time, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the beautiful coastline and golf course! We also took our own little tour of the Grand Hyatt, which is said to be the nicest on the island! It is grand, and the pools are the nicest I've ever seen! 

There is a sea cave here that has been in "Pirates of the Caribbean"! A tour guide unlocked the door to go in, but we couldn't go since we were not part of the tour, which was disappointing! James didn't want to walk back along the coast, so he found a trail (on my phone) that was walking on a red dirt road back to our car. Every time he does that I swear it will be the last time, but I was just too hungry to argue and needed to get back to the car for a snack! It ended up getting us back to the car, but I don't think it was any faster!

Kauai Day #3:

One of our favorite things was to borrow bikes from the Marriot where we were staying, and we took the bike trail up the east coast and rode by several amazing beaches! I wish that my spin class was so enjoyable...I told James that I will now have to imagine my leisurely ride in Kauai during spin class to help get me through the pain and misery!

It lightly sprinkled off and on, but that kept us cool!

We haven't had much practice using a selfie stick, so we were laughing at all of the pictures, like this one, where you can tell I'm holding up the stick!

Next stop was the Kilauea Lighthouse, and Moku'ae'ae Island, a bird sanctuary. This was our first trip up to Northern coast. The birds were beautiful, and all of those white specks on the hill are different types of native birds. We wouldn't recommend the lighthouse tour. It was long and a bit boring, and having grown up in Northern California and touring some massive light houses, I was underwhelmed! We really enjoyed the grounds and watching the ocean where whales can be spotted!

Also, one of my favorite things, was shave ice from Hee Fat! Our guidebook said it's the best, and I'll be dreaming about this stuff all summer! They made real fruit syrup with fruit puree, just like Ululani's on Maui! And their snow cap is melted vanilla ice cream. Believe me, it is just heavenly and it's a good thing we don't have one here because I can't resist it!

Time to check out of the Marriot and Head to Kauai Beach Resort (gotta use the hotel points!). Vacation was flying by too quickly!

Queen's Bath! We had been told not to try to swim in Queen's Bath during the winter months, but I wouldn't have even imagined the ferocity of the waves until seeing them with my own eyes! It was hard to believe that the ocean ever calmed down enough to create the beautiful swimming pools we had seen pictures of! Also, the hike was made of brownie batter mud and tree roots sticking up everywhere! Luckily, someone gave me their walking stick at the beginning of the hike and told me I'd need it for sure! Without it, I would have fallen on my butt over and over again! The muddy hike was well worth the destination though!

We took several videos of these crashing waves! I can see how someone might get close to edge of the rock and think they were ok, but 5 minutes later waves would come and devour that rock!