2006 Oct Magical Maui (/ Dad)

Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 2006:

Another wonderful father/daughter trip.   He had just been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer, but was feeling pretty good at this time---so he wanted to get as much traveling in as he still could.  It was a bitter sweet trip---knowing there wouldn't be many more father/daughter trips.  He was a great travel companion! 


Oct. 30:  travel day:

Oct. 31---Haleakala:

Nov. 1---a ride to the West side:

Nov. 2---RTH (Road to Hana):

Nov. 3---the South side lava beds, Iao Valley, Kepaniwai Heritage Gardens, and the NE side of Maui:

Nov. 4---Haleakala, again:

Nov. 5---Maui Ocean Center:

Nov. 6---Ahihi snorkeling:


Our week was over way too quickly!   I'm sure Dad was in pain a good part of the time---thus his hanging back on some of the walks.  He was always such an adventurer.  But he would never complain!  I just hope he enjoyed the trip as much as I did. This was both of our's first trip to Maui.    I really didn't expect to like Maui as much as I did. I'm always reading that people who love Kauai as much as i do are disappointed with Maui. But I loved it. Maybe not as much as Kauai, but there was certainly enough here to keep me interested. I'd love to go back and do more snorkeling. If I can ever get myself to give up one of my yearly 2 weeks on Kauai, I will be back!

2006 July trip to Oregon and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington

This was a somewhat difficult trip.  In June, my Dad had gone to the Dr. because of extreme fatigue after returning from a trip to the Holyland.  After a series of tests, he found out he had stage 4 prostate cancer.  He was still waiting for any treatments when we were there, so it was really hard seeing him in pain, even though he did a good job of trying to hide how he was feeling.  It probably didn't help that I had scheduled a few nights at Depoe Bay Worldmark and then a 3 or 4 night trip to the Olympic Peninsula.   I knew he had always wanted to go to the Olympic Peninsula, so he insisted that we still go. 
From our 3 bedroom condo at Worldmark Depoe Bay looking towards the heated pool and big jacuzzi.

 Looking towards the little bay on the other side of our unit.

 My sister and sister-in-law even came out for a day and the 3 of us went shopping and sightseeing.

 Nice to see Dad smiling and enjoying a beautiful sunset by our condo.

2006 Jan 30-Feb 12 - Our 5th Kauai vacation, Tim and Faith's 2nd, Dad's 3rd: Kauai Museum; Queen's Bath; Limahuli Garden; Sleeping Giant hike; Smith's luau; Kukuiolono Golf Course; Napali cruise;

We usually go to Kauai the end of Feb./beginning of March, but this time, we went the end of Jan. 29-Feb. 12.   As I recall, this was the year they had really devastating rains in March. But while we were there the weather was really beautiful for our 2 weeks.

We had visitors most of these 2 weeks. Part of the time they were even overlapping. Since we had the 2 bedroom unit at our Kauai Beach Villas resort that my dad went in on with us, he stayed with us and Tim and Faith stayed at the Kauai Coast Resort at the Beachboy in Kapaa for the first 5 nights until Dad left, then they joined us for a couple more days.


Jan. 30---sticking around the East side waiting for Dad's arrival:

Jan. 31---Queen's Bath, Limahuli Garden, and tunnels:

Feb. 1---Kauai Museum:

Feb. 2---East side, Lydgate, Tim and Faith arrive:

Feb. 3---Smith's luau:

Feb. 4---Sleeping Giant hike, Lydgate snorkel:

Feb. 5---Dad to the airport; then off to the South side:

Feb. 6---kayak tour and snorkeling Lawai: 

Feb. 7---Kilauea and north shore:

Feb. 8---Kukuiolono golf course:

Feb. 9---time for the kids to leave :(

Feb. 10---Snorkeling Poipu:

Feb. 11---sunset cruise:

Feb. 12---snorkel, snorkel, snorkel:

Thus ended another great vacation in Kauai. Instead of getting tired of vacations here, I'm looking more and more foreward to them.  It's feeling more like a home then just a vacation spot!

2006-Jan. Cruisin' to Baja California-4 nt Carnival Paradise: Catalina Island, Ensenada

Carnival Paradise 4 night cruise:

After the winter meetings for the company I work for (Prestige Portraits), my sister joined me and we headed off on a 4 night Carnival cruise. She had never cruised before, so we did a short one to see if she could handle life on a boat.

Our journey actually started the day before our cruise. We had to make our way from San Diego to Los Angeles. That didn't turn out to be much of a problem, though. My sister flew into San Diego and I rented a car from the hotel I was staying in in San Diego and we drove on up to Los Angeles the day before our cruise. We tried to pull off at some of the beaches along the way, but were surprised to see most of them charged a day use fee, so we continued on to LA. We did take the slower Hwy 101 instead of Hwy 5 and enjoyed going through the little towns and catching glimpses of the ocean. We ended up actually in Anaheim and spent the night in the Worldmark resort, Dolphins Cove, there. It was a really nice condo---too bad we were just there for 1 night.

The next morning we headed to the car return place in Long Beach, returned the car, and were quickly on our way to the port by taxi. 

1-9-2006-Embarkation day


1-10-2006 - Catalina Island


1-11-2006 - Encinada


1-12-2006 Sea day

Our first sisters' cruise left us wanting to go on more. So we have made it on another one (Holland America 7 night Mexican Riviera in 2008) and plan to do many more.