Click. The Good News

MOVING

2010-08-09T16:12:00.001-05:00

Click. The Good News Blogger Format, 2009-2010

I am moving on up in the blogging world to CLICK. THE GOOD NEWS!

Please update your feed reader to http://www.clickthegoodnews.com/feed/

As of Saturday August 6, 2010, I've posted 1,144 posts on the old Blogger format & invested literally thousands of hours over the past 3 years. I stopped to think about how much I really enjoyed blogging, forcing myself to finish my photos & get them online, not getting too far behind in life (well, except the past 4 months!), capturing the day to day normalcy that is our life, reminiscing about each of our big trips overseas, documenting all the funny & adorable things the dogs do, and so much more. I decided to make the major investment that will allow me to grow & for all these memories to be properly backed up and accessible for the future.

Click. The Good News Original Blogger Format, 2007

I love that I have it all here in one place. I consider this a new hybrid between keeping a diary and making a scrapbook. Doing all the transfer & site maintenance to get to my new location, I spent quite a bit of time going through the blog & straightening things up. Seeing how my blogging has evolved over the last 3 year is both surprising and encouraging. I've learned so much about photography, picked up a few coding tips, immersed myself in so many other wonderful blogs that I read & have really begun to value how much this blog means to me.

With over 107,000+ views on the old Blogger web page, I hope that many of you follow me over to Wordpress. I've officially got a domain name & some fun new features.

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I've got a lot to learn about WordPress & how to use all the functionality that comes with a real fancy blog format. I can't wait to see how blogging changes over the next 3 years.

Things I'm looking forward to changing

-Neater layout & organization

-Important things just 1 click away at the drop down menu's up top

-Photo upgrades- border, watermark, galleries, easier uploading

-New banner (still to come) & background

-Easier & safer long-term back up options

-Optional privacy for future posts

CLICK. THE GOOD NEWS!

See ya on the flip side~

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Finally! Been working on this a few months & I'm excited to move ahead even if everything isn't finished yet.

D'Vine Wine

2010-08-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

A few weekends back, we found ourselves at D'Vine Wine Bar, a newer place just around the corner from us. I'm not sure why we've been driving all over town & hadn't tried this wine bar, but I'm glad we did! They have a smaller room that you can use for semi-private events.

They have a full meal menu as well as great accompaniments for sipping on wine. We enjoyed the cheese selection & thought they had a great range on the wine bottle prices.

We went pretty early in the afternoon & had the place to ourselves for quite a while. My other favorite thing is that they are open at noon most days & 2PM on Sundays.

I can only dream about the fall when the death heat is gone & we can sit outside again enjoying wine.

They don't have a full bar, but do serve beer for the non-wine drinkers and their selections of desserts was wonderful.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The high today is only going to be 91- woohoo! We might venture downtown for the Houston Press Music Awards or the Intentional Jazz Festival or White Linen Nights in the Heights.

Kidz at Barton Springs

2010-08-06T12:54:00.000-05:00

Our last stop in Austin with the kids was at Barton Springs- an amazing natural fed pool that has been an Austin favorite for decades. We tried to go on Saturday afternoon, but were discouraged by the crowds.

We showed up early on Sunday & it was pretty empty around lunch time, but quickly filled up in the afternoon. I'd been as a child & somehow missed hanging out here when I was in college.

Just below the dam is a cool dog park area where owners & furry friends hang out in the water too.

The water is a very chilly & it was quite a show to see who would take the plunge first. Hunter does it with style!

The diving board was quite popular & the kids had fun doing some stunts.

It was pretty entertaining to watch everybody, young & old, have fun getting some air.

Hunter can do front flips.

Haley does a wicked canon ball.

The rocks on the bottom make it irregular & very slippery.

The kids had a race where they both stumbled and slipped.

Haley goes down first...

They had to much fun together, just hanging out & being silly.

It's so great to catch real smiles out of these two.

They were laughing hysterically & we were quite entertained. We stayed until we got hungry & the park was getting crowded, then drove back to Houston.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Kidz made it home safely from their mission trip in Mexico & I'll be stealing Facebook photos over the next few weeks.

Kidz & College

2010-08-03T14:46:00.003-05:00

Our next major stop was the campus at the University of Texas. Hunter has some interest in going there & it's just a beautiful campus. I don't think either of them have really walked around a college campus before & it was a cool experience.

This is one of my favorite scenes around campus.

It's hard to believe Hunter will be a junior this year & starting to visit colleges. He's interested in engineering, thinks he wants to go to a college in Texas & outside of Houston. We'll see how those plans evolve over the next 2 years.

We missed the evening showing of the Congress Ave. bats, but there were still a few fluttering around when we walked into town.

No real trip to the University of Texas is complete without a stop at their satellite campus- aka 6th street. We caught a late movie & ended up having a late dinner. It was around 11:30 when we finally made the walk through the wild side. They were funny- I think my brother was a bit overwhelmed with all the partying & my sister was just ready to go.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My easy-going August just got a lot busier as I picked up some work trips & so did H.

Mt Bonnell & the Capitol

2010-08-02T16:43:00.001-05:00

The next stop on our Austin trip was Mt Bonnell Park, overlooking the Austin skyline and Town Lake.

Just a few steps off the main trail & you can get some great views of the lake & surrounding hillside.

::le sigh::
I miss Austin & would love to live in this urban wilderness.

Next stop was a quick walk around the Texas Capitol. I guess kids these days don't take field trips to see it anymore :(

I love that my sister is a little shutterbug & getting quite into taking photos, which I can later steal on Facebook.

She caught Hunter & I walking down the steps at Mt. Bonnell. When did my hair get that short?!?!!? And when did my brother get so tall??

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: August snuck up on me...I can't believe we are 7/12ths of the way through the year!

The Oasis Austin

2010-08-01T18:21:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we grabbed my brother & sister and headed to Austin to explore. Our first stop was at The Oasis on Lake Travis.

They are famous for their layers of decking that provides awesome views of the sunset and all the partiers out on the lake.

I loved my years living in Austin during college & couldn't believe the kids hadn't been up there to do any sightseeing.

The lake was pretty quiet for a sunny Saturday, but there was still a crowd at Windy Point Park.

I tried explaining to them how the Colorado River, through 3 dams, formed the 3 Austin area lakes.

I was just blown away by how much The Oasis is growing. Way back when, it was a little local restaurant that was pretty simple & basic.

They are expanding and getting into the events (weddings!) and hotel area of things.

We jealously checked out all the amazing houses on the lake & schemed about how we might get our own one day.

It's so big and fancy now- I hardly recognize it :(

Like all of Austin- rampant construction and expansion. I'm kinda sad to see the little dive restaurant gone, but such is progress.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Looks like we are going to Belize for our anniversary! Sooooo excited about that ;)

VBS

2010-07-30T06:15:00.000-05:00

My brother and sister volunteered last week at Vacation Bible school at our church. Thank to the abundance of cell phone cameras, I've got lots of cute pics.

They enjoyed hanging out with their friends as much as actually volunteering.

Apparently my brother showed off his acting skills in a skit & the little kids wanted his autograph afterward.

So cute to see my siblings working with the real little kids who are adorable.

Haley finally has a driving friend- Sam.

Not technically at VBS, but this is Haley's new friend (i.e. Hunter's old friend & possibly future girlfriend??). Anyways....can't wait to see how the young-love romance drama unfolds.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The kidz & Brenda are in Mexico for 6 days on a mission trip outside of Mexico City.

Wicked, We're Wicked

2010-07-29T06:11:00.000-05:00

A few weekends back we went to see the highly acclaimed Broadway show Wicked!

I'd been wanting to see it for a while & even had toyed with the idea of driving to New Orleans to catch the production. Luckily it came to Houston & I snapped up some tickets.

What can I say that hasn't already been said about Wicked? We LOVED it. It's funny and entertaining, the music is modern and enjoyable, the characters and costumes are amazing.

Now I want to go back and re-watch the Wizard of Oz with Glenda being the not-so-good witch.

We went to an early Sunday afternoon show with our friends & then out for dinner and drinks after the show- it was a perfect way to end the weekend.

One of the few shots I actually took with my camera- I didn't want to take any during the actual performance.

All in all, I highly recommend seeing this show if you get a chance, even if you aren't typically into musicals.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Doing my civic duty today and reporting downtown for jury duty this morning.

Good Thing

2010-07-28T12:11:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing these dogs are so darn cute....

...otherwise I might still be mad about things like this! I'm looking at you little dog (Mia~)!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The Major League Soccer All-Star game is tonight in Houston!

Ship Creek Walk

2010-07-27T12:04:00.001-05:00

Our last real stop on our journey up the west coast to Fox Glacier was at Ship Creek Tauparikaka Walks along the beach & on a boardwalk through some heavy vegetation.

The boardwalk was a great little path through the sand dunes.

I like that the official NZ description is swamp forest- it's a pretty fitting name. There was a small covered area with some educational diagram & an observation tower for great views.

We hiked along the boardwalk & were soon into the think (and very tall!) brush.

The trail led us out to the beach area, which was desolate and some pretty big waves breaking on the shore.

There was a second little lookout deck, barely visible in the photos, that you could hike up to in just a few minutes for a different elevated view.

It's interesting to see two different ecosystems- the beach & the swamp forest, so close together.

This is also the one and only place where we were attacked by the sand flies. I don't think I've ever been attacked by so many bugs at one time!

From the first observation tower, you could see a beautiful mist forming at the base of the mountain where waves were crashing down.

This quiet little tide pool had some birds and fishing just hanging out.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Done with all the photos in the Wanaka folder- just Fox Glacier & our return trip to Christchurch to blog.

Gates of Haast

2010-07-26T08:10:00.001-05:00

Our next point of interest on our journey up New Zealand's west coast was the Gates of Haast, which takes you through the Haast Pass in the Southern Alps.

Although a typical one-way bridge and on the main road, there was still so little traffic that you could walk out along the bridge and check out the raging Haast River below.

These boulders were huge & the water was creating quite the torrent around them.

The walls of the surrounding mountains are incredibly steep & some are practically vertical.

It's a neat little place for a driving break & to appreciate the power and enormity of mother nature.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:5 whole weeks ahead of me with no work travel scheduled (well, at least yet!).

Wanaka to Fox Glacier

2010-07-25T17:48:00.000-05:00

I'm posting all out of order, but it will just have to do for now! Departing Wanaka & heading up the west coast to our next destination, Fox Glacier, we enjoyed driving along two stunning lakes- Lake Hawea & Lake Wanaka.

The water in both was a brilliant blue & they were flanked by spectacular mountains for shorelines.

We pulled over at a few places & look-outs to learn about how the glaciers came to carve out this area & learn a little bit of history.

At the Lake Wanaka Lookout, I was reminded of some of the terrain up in Alaska on the Klondike Highway.

It was still pretty chilly in these parts, even in summer & the strong winds made a jacket a necessity.

This little rock beach made me wish we'd packed a picnic to sit on the shore and enjoy the waves.

I loved catching glimpses of far-off peaks piercing the sky through closer valleys.

We also started to see many smaller glaciers clinging to the mountain face in this area.

I love all the layers in this photo- flat valley floor, gentle river, rolling hills, towering mountains, a glacier, blue sky & puffy clouds.

We traveled along the lovely Makarora River for quite some time on the journey & H kept wanting to stop and fish (if we had any fishing gear!).

We kept driving further north & deeper into the mountains, but it was looking like rain ahead.

We couldn't resist pulling over for another picture beside the idyllic river.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Survived Austin with the kids & have no plans, other than relax, next weekend!

So Fast

2010-07-24T07:48:00.000-05:00

I was going through some of my old wedding photos & ran across some of the kidz. They are growing up so fast! Although only 3.5 years ago, there are so many changes in the teenage years and so much happening.

For that reason, we are taking my brother & sister to Austin today to explore and spend some time with them. Hunter is now 16 and been driving for 6 months, going to be a junior in high school this fall. He starts taking AP classes this year, stops doing wrestling and starts more serious dating!

Haley will be 15h this September and will start all of her practice driving. She's entering the big, bad world of high school and all the girl drama that entails.

I love these pictures so much- they are so priceless & capture so much of the personality of both of them. I can't wait to hang out with them as they get older, find their own path in life, start exploring the bigger world outside of northwest Houston and grow into amazing people.

Photos courtesy of the amazing Trista Lerit

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Austin! and my brother and sister! What more can I say?

Silly Squid

2010-07-22T05:44:00.001-05:00

Mia loves to pull Zoe around all the tile and wooden floors downstairs. She's still twisting and turning and pushing against Zoe in their epic battles.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: 3 months until we are headed back to Puerto Vallarta for an amazing wedding!

Blue Pools Hike

2010-07-21T04:34:00.000-05:00

After our heli-flight, we headed out on the next segment of our drive, over the Alps & up along the west coat to a tiny town called Fox Glacier.

One of the walks that we'd heard about repeatedly is the Blue Pool hike just north of Makarora, which is a very small portion of the Blue Valley Track.

The train was easily accessible to most people & it's so peaceful to walk through such ancient forests surrounded by giant trees.

Just a few minute hike from the car & we were crossing bridge and seeing spectacular water.

The pools weren't as blue as I've seen them in some photos, but they were gorgeous nonetheless.

We walked a bit further down the trail until we could walk along the river's edge.

Gotta love a well-placed rock & the self-timer on the camera.

There was this really interesting geologic area. It was a giant wall of very brittle, thin sheets of rock.

Up close, this rock wall was just crumbling and flaking apart.

See the fish? H wished we'd had a pole!

There were two narrow suspension bridges to cross the Makarora River. It's a easy, fun little hike & a nice break during a long day of riding in the car.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed to Miami today for work...hopefully it won't be death-heat down there.

Fundraiser

2010-07-20T05:55:00.001-05:00

Back in May, H's office held a fundraiser for one of their clients who is based in Nashville & who had many employees lose everything in the flooding. They decided to make it a crawfish picnic with a raffle to raise money.

It was great that his boss was cool with most of the company spending Friday preparing for the big shindig. They had a giant tent delivered, dozens of table & chairs, many BBQ pits & boil pots, a DJ, tons of yard games.

It was sort of like a company picnic for many of the employees & I got to see some of his coworkers that I hadn't seen in a while.

Many of the boss men from corporate headquarters even showed up on a Friday afternoon to support the party.

The owner of the company even showed up and made a generous contribution to the fundraiser.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!

His customer has an office located here & some of the employees came out to support their coworkers in Nashville. H's mom also works with the company & made it out for the fun.

In addition to the raffle, the other fundraiser was $5 Pie Throwing Contest, where hubby & the President of the company volunteered to take a pudding pie to the face to raise money.

Everybody in the office was excited for a chance to toss objects at these guys!

H got off easy at first, but ended up with a few direct hits.

This is where the trouble started...one of the employees wanted to skip the throwing part, so she did a drive-by pie in the face.

Boss man pays her back with a nice little hug to cover her in pudding too.

She retaliates by dumping a whole can of pudding on him! Unfortunately, he cut his hand pretty bad on the lid & most of the fun was over.

One of H's customer's got up-close dumping privileges and she was hysterical.

Soon after, a massive gigantic storm hit & we were all soaked. There were several inches of standing water in the yard, people were running around cleaning up & packing up. It was a giant, fun, wet mess.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Just found out that H won a mini-vacation from work. It's going to be in Houston, but we get to take a few days off & relax in August.

Smokin' At Home

2010-07-18T18:25:00.000-05:00

A few weekend back, H finally got around to putting together his birthday present- a smoker! He wanted one of the big fancy, wood or coal burning smokers, but we decided to start him off with an electric one while he learned the art of grilling & then he can move onto mastering the fire portion of it ;)

We marinated the meat on Saturday & he woke up extra early on Sunday morning to put it on the smoker with some wood chips.

Early afternoon, we pulled it off & it was delicious! Don't mind that little bite missing from the corner- somebody had to have a taste test! We learned a few lessons and are eager to smoke more things- like some salmon and ribs.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Took the pups to the beach yesterday & had a blast!

Toy Time

2010-07-16T05:42:00.000-05:00

New toys at our place entail that each dog gets 1 & then Zoe promptly tries to acquire both of them for herself. The quacking duck was quite a hit and quacked for almost 20 minutes before the girls killed it.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Fabulous Friday! Hubby and I are celebrating by staying home and cooking.

Cru Woodlands Wine Bar

2010-07-15T20:41:00.000-05:00

We've actually been to Cru in the Woodlands quite a few times & I just haven't had the opportunity to take pictures & gather old photos for the blog. They are located in a great area of the Woodlands- right on the Market Street town square. Perfect for shopping & to people watch at they cruise the strip.

The serve a full menu & have some smaller snacks that they offer. including some great cheese plates. The bar is a great place to sit & I like that you can see all the wines in the cooler on the back wall.

There are a variety of wine flights that they offer & several times a week they have specials/events that add a nice variety. Sign up for their email newsletters to find out about all the fun stuff or see their bars in other cities (Denver, Austin & Dallas).

The restaurant/bar is decorated nicely, with touches of a wine theme all around. The cellar is visible on the wall & they have enlarged wine labels to poster size for the walls. A great bar, usually very busy & very active. It's convenient to meet up here with our friends before or after dinner somewhere else in the Woodlands.

Our first trip was actually last Christmas when we met up with some friends at night & the Christmas decorations added to the ambiance nicely.

And just because the night included some funny stories & I'll always remember being there with these two, I had to put this photo in the post.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: John has had 2 surgeries in 2 days to remove blood clots in his leg and hopefully will come home tomorrow feeling much better.

Mia Mania

2010-07-14T11:15:00.000-05:00

These are some older Mia photos from April that I never got around to posting. I'll admit- I'm really burned out right now with my New Zealand posts. 47 trip posts so far & I've got several more days worth of trip and probably 2 dozen more blog posts. I'm just going to take a break for a few weeks & then I"ll be back to finish the NZ posts.

Apparently Zoe wasn't share the couch on this day. And the random piece of fluff on her nose cracks me up.

Perhaps this is why Zoe wasn't letting her on the couch that day...

She looked up all innocently when she heard my camera.

Any toy, any treat, any stuffie- on her back rolling around.

She play paws at it with her feet and generally growls at most things in her mouth.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: All my major work traveling and panics are finished.

Sights Above Wanaka

2010-07-11T13:53:00.000-05:00

Leaving our private lake, we flew a slightly different route back to Wanaka and were treated to even more stellar views.

Still no view of Mt. Aspiring, but it was impressive even surrounded by clouds.

Back down the flat valleys, away from the big peaks.

Times like this I wished I'd take geology and knew more about the how's and why's of mountains.

Lots of clouds made for a very speckled sunlight & a bumpy ride.

We pass by the city of Wanaka and get a great shot of the inlet where the town and surrounding areas sit.

And back by the airport, we fly over a commercial deer farm.

It's so strange to see deer grazing like cows or sheep.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Wicked this afternoon!

Private Alpine Lake

2010-07-09T14:43:00.001-05:00

The heli-flight continued past Mt. Aspiring and over some spectacular rock formations.

Being near the tops of so many peaks was an amazing experience.

You get a unique appreciation for all the patterns and formations of the mountains and can only imagine how mother nature formed such beauty.

We ended up near this amazing lake at the top of a mountain.

The pilot landed & we were able to stand on the shores & be surrounded by cliffs still towering above us.

As a snow and glacier fed lake, it was incredibly clear and a beautiful shade of blue.

It was so unreal (and cold!) to be standing there...where so few other people had ever been.

The rocks on the shoreline were these cool flat, round, thin guys.

We watched as wind lapped little waves along the shoreline.

One of the many gorgeous peaks towering over us.

Another one of my absolute favorite photos from our trip- top of the world, gorgeous and private.

On the way back to Wanaka, more striking mountains mixed with greenery and snow.

Bye-bye beautiful lake!

As we took off, we got some great views of the little beach area where we'd landed.

Getting ever further away, you get some perspective on how small this little lake is compared to the surroundings and how it's perfectly tucked into the mountain.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed back to San Diego today...hopefully to have some fun!

Mt. Aspiring from Above

2010-07-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

We finally approached Mount Aspiring only to be met with a wall of clouds.

Fresh snow in a few places on the peaks.

I loved all the really jagged peaks and spires.

We got close enough to catch a few of the glaciers coming down the face of the mountain.

They had amazing textures and patterns and just a hint of the beautiful blue hue.

The glaciers looked like they were suspended and clinging to the sheer cliffs.

Beautiful!

We even caught sight of a very faint rainbow.

Lots of twisting & turning, bumps and rolls with all the turbulence made it hard to get a level photo sometimes.

Not only is the snow fall cool, it makes the most fascinating patterns and designs on the peaks.

Although we didn't technically get to see the peak of Mt. Aspiring, the helicopter ride around it was amazing nonetheless. Plus we got to stop and walk around an amazing lake (coming tomorrow!).

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm so happy the people of New Zealand are so proactive and protective of their beautiful environment.

Wanaka Valley Heliflight

2010-07-07T17:15:00.005-05:00

The next day, we headed back to Wanaka Helicopters to see if we the weather would cooperate enough for us to take a heli-flight. It wasn't perfect weather, but we decided to go for it anyway. H had the back seat to himself...
....and this was my awesome view up next to the pilot for our Mt. Aspiring Circle Trip.
The airport is quite a few miles outside of town, so we got the scenic view of the valley back towards the lake.
Flying along the Cardrona River was quite beautiful.
As we approached Lake Wanaka, much of the land in this area was very dry & desert like.
I'd really like to live next to a beautiful blue and green river...
Lined with trees & a few little rolling hills.
I imagine there is some good fly fishing in this river among these rocks.
We caught site of the Rippon Vineyard again.

I loved this cool little peninsula in the middle of the lake. I'd put my house there if I could!

On the far side of the lake, we started flying over the Matukituki River and though a broad valley.
The mountains rising straight up near the water's edge made for stunning scenery.

Supposedly Mt. Aspiring is up there in those clouds....
Such unique and striking landscape formations everywhere we turned.
It's an amazing vertical drop from the river bed to the nearby mountain peeks.
We finally are getting closer, but still seeing lots of clouds.
A few of the mountains had received a recent dusting of snow mid-summer.

Certain slopes and side of mountains were greener from the way the weather would drop rain and moisture on them. GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Well, now officially 3 trips behind on blogging- another 5 days in New Zealand, Washington State & Pennsylvania.

Hang Time

2010-07-03T16:37:00.002-05:00

She's so serious when it comes to pool time...jumping is no joke!

In an instant- she's airborne a few feet over my head.

That's a puppy smile if I've ever seen one!

She's got a totally different jump form than Zoe, she rounds her back & start trying to eat the water below as she goes into the pool.

The only real problem is that she has zero sense of where she's actually jumping or if she's about to hit a wall/steps in front of her.

Last weekend was the highest I've ever seen her jump...

We need at least a few hours of swimming week to wear Mia out. It's too hot for the park in the afternoon right now, so I'm loving the pool.

Excellent form!

And of course, no action post is complete without an animated GIF.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: H's mom is kind enough to watch Mia this weekend while we are out of town...hopefully she'll be on her best behavior.

Wine in Wanaka

2010-07-03T08:15:00.000-05:00

After coming down off the moutnain, our tour continued with a visit to the Rippon Vineyards on Lake Wanaka.

This has to be one of the MOST scenic vineyards I've ever been to- I can't recall another one on a lake like this, much less surrounded by moutanins on all sides.

It was approaching harvest time & the grapes were on the vines. In many of the places we visited, they were covered with nets to protect them from the birds.

I'm beginning to understand that the wine tourism is a very American thing & many vineyards around the country are just catching onto the trend to have lovely tasting rooms & a tourist attraction at their vineyard. Rippon hosts many weddings & special functions, so they are building a bigger tasting room.

And here's why they really needed something larger- the blue building on the left is their current tasting room & there is at least a nice tent outside to relax & enjoy a larger taste.

This was seriously awesome- bright sun, gentle breeze, stunning views, sipping on some Souvignon Blanc & hanging out with my hubby.

Us + winery = awesome

The inside of the 1 room building was tiny, but they managed to pack lots of wonderful wines & even a few snack plates in there.

Here's another really cool thing about the vineyard- it regularly gets covered in snow! I don't think I know of any other wine growing places where they get snow. They have some pictures on the walls of the place covered in snow & it unbelievable gorgeous.

Hubby likes to get all artistic with his shots....

Luckily, it was just the other couple on the tour with us & another couple in there tasting wine at the same time.

If we hadn't been there with a tour, I'd have bought a bottle and made myself a picnic outside to enjoy the view for the afternoon.

All of Wanaka is surrounded by these gorgeous mountains that make doing anything in town a great experience with stunning views.

This little tasting room is adorable, but they need something bigger so that more people can enjoy the great wines & beautiful vineyards.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Made it to Pittsburgh after a few hour delay in Houston last night & I'm so excited to explore the city and see a baseball game tonight.

Wanaka Homestead

2010-07-02T05:44:00.001-05:00

For our 2 nights in Wanaka, we stayed at the Wanaka Homestead, which is a nice B&B about 1 mile outside of downtown. It could be walking distance if you really wanted, but we usually drove to dinner or activities.

A nice large living area for relaxing and hanging out with other guests.

They have a lovely outdoor area with a picnic table & it also include a great hot tub, which we took advantage of one night.

The breakfast area- I remember breakfast being quite yummy here.

We booked the master bedroom, which was lovely. The whole facility is fairly new & the room was bright and big.

We enjoyed windows on 2 sides, plenty of space for our bags and free Internet.

The bathroom was pretty fun too- a big shower with two shower heads.

...and two basins provided plenty of space for us.

I did love the views out the window- the grounds were very lush & green, full of beautiful trees.

There was a great view of the mountains in the distance & we were treated to this wonderful sunset one night.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: We're headed to Pennsylvania today for a long, patriotic weekend!

Circus Dog

2010-07-01T20:41:00.000-05:00

This is how we spent some of our past weekend! More photos & video to come, but we are working on new tricks.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Good thing she's so darn cute, cause we won't even talk about things like this....

Wild Hills in Wanaka

2010-07-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

For our afternoon in Wanaka, we booked the Wild Hills & Wine tour with Mark at Ridgeline Tours. He has special permission to drive to the top of a nearby mountain for spectacular views of the entire area. We start out the trip going through a ranch area full of cows.

Soon, we climb up into the sheep range area.

Climbing & climbing, we the scenery is just beautiful- bright yellow fields, brilliant green forests, clear blue skies.

We get out & take a little nature hike, where we learn a little about the history of the area & many of the plants that grow there.

We really enjoyed learning about all the unique plants & how they can be used.

Continuing deeper into the ranch & higher up the mountain, we run into the quintessential sheep blocking the roadway.

There are two main type of sheep in New Zealand & Mark told us all about the Merino and Romney.

Every single person we met in New Zealand would comment on how stupid the sheep were...

At the top of the mountain, we rounded a corner & were greeted with spectacular views of Wanaka below us.

Surrounded by lakes & mountains, it's well worth the drive to the top for the views.

We could even see a few other lakes far off in the distance.

We were on the tour with 1 other couple & while we enjoyed the views, the guide set up a mini picnic for us- drinks & snacks, tables & chairs.

This was the road through the valley that we drove in on from Queenstown.

I love little itty bitty islands & the place in the middle is a gorgeous winery that we were headed to next.

The best place around for panoramas!

We got to walk a little bit while Mark cleaned up- it was great to be out in the beautiful weather, taking a leisurely stroll.

You really feel like you are on top of the world up here.

See the little winding road down there? I also loved these silver-green trees for some reason to0- they were so pretty blowing in the wind.

Finally, Mark came to pick us up & take us the rest of the way down and onto some wine tastings.

Back down the mountain we go & Mark does a great job of telling us more about the area & the ecology of central New Zealand.

All in all, a really wonderful experience- beautiful & peaceful. We enjoying the exclusive access & being in such a small group with a great guide while learning about the natural surroundings.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: No hurricane in Houston, but plenty of rain & cooler weather is a nice break from the summer heat.

Around Wanaka

2010-06-30T06:39:00.000-05:00

Wanaka was a nice, quiet stopover for us after the bustle of Queenstown & the busy days at Doubtful & Milford Sounds. The town is set on the edge of a beautiful lake & surrounded by gorgeous mountains.

While QT was a tourist town, Wanaka seemed to have a much more lived in feel & we got a taste of normal New Zealand life. I have a soft spot for beach with trees- it's the perfect combination.

There were signs of snow on some of the far peaks. It was warm during the day & cool at night. I used the opportunity to sleep with the windows open & go for some awesome morning jogs.

There's a great park that extends a long way along the shoreline. I think you can camp or picnic here. They offered some expeditions like kayaking or fishing down near the marina area.

It was really gorgeous- great lake, beautiful skyline, pleasant breeze.

There are quite a few shops & restaurants in the downtown area, including many with outdoor seating to enjoy the views and the weather.

And that is exactly what we did! There are several areas of New Zealand where they make the majority of the wine, and Wanaka is part of the Central Otago Region.

For almost half a mile, there is a very cool time along the main sidewalk to mark the millennium. Each tile represents a year & the important events for each of the past 2000 years make an entertaining walk.

We enjoyed many things about Wanaka- the slow pace, the great wine, the fun shops, good good, gorgeous scenery & just a few days to lay low before setting off for the West Coast & the glaciers.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The work in my office is finished & I will hopefully have it all unpacked (finally) this week.

Puzzling World

2010-06-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

On our first day in Wanaka, I'd planned to do a helicopter tour around Mt. Aspiring, but the weather wasn't cooperative. On the way back from the airport, we stopped into Puzzling World.

The place has all sorts of games, tricks & optical illusions. Hubby's been pumping iron!

Honestly, I wouldn't go out of my way to stop here, but it was fun to kill time since we didn't have any other plans. It's great for kids & perfect for inclement weather.

They have a giant maze outside with 4 corner towers that can take quite a long time to find. We walked around for about 15 minutes and found 3 of them, and then moved on to the indoor puzzles.

One of the neater optical illusions was the leaning room, where everything was angled.

Einstein is holding the level & it appears that the pool ball will roll uphill into the pocket.

Out in the atrium area, they have lots of table set up with dozens of challenging little games to amuse yourself with.

The Hall of Following Faces is quite the optical illusion- all the eyes move to watch as you walk around the room

The also have quite a large shop where they sell many of the smaller puzzles & games.

The bathrooms totally cracked us up. They have a men's & women's side, where we both walked in- only to come back face to face with each other. They have a mock up of a Roman bathroom which blends in with the vanishing painting. It looks real life like when you are already startled walking into the restrooms.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed to Dallas for work....more travel!

Driving to Wanaka

2010-06-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

After our heli-flight back from Milford, we picked up our car & headed up to Wanaka for 2 nights of resting & relaxing. There are two routes to Wanaka & we drove the Crown Range.

Again, I really wished for better weather, but oh well! We ascended into the cloudy mountaintops.

The top of the hill rewarded us with some great views across the valley.

It's always so cool being up above the clouds!

I really want a little place- side of the mountain, river running down below, surrounded by trees.

It's quite a windy, twisty road up to the top, but fun to drive.

I think this is the little town of Arrow Junction, situated just outside of Queenstown.

Looking back, I really wished we'd made time to stop by the bungee jumping & do the proper New Zealand tourist thing.

Once you get past the first 1/3 of the drive, the rest is pretty normal countryside. Still beautiful & it's a very easy/simple drive through the valley up to Wanaka.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A month late, my office floor is finally getting installed today.

Heliflight from Milford

2010-06-26T07:57:00.000-05:00

We had originally paid extra to take a scenic and breathtaking flight from Milford back to Queenstown. We'd planned on driving up to Wanaka & wanted to get there at a reasonable hour. Due to the usual weather, the plane flight was canceled, but we were able to "upgrade" (i.e. pay more!) and catch a helicopter ride back to town instead of spending 4 hours in the bus.

It was the two of us & two other women wanting to get back to town sooner. We quickly lifted off the ground & flew into the clouds.

This is where the river runs into Milford Sound- sorry for all the window reflections & the blade motion.

The valley itself & the river are quite impressive, and the hovering clouds add a aura of mystique to the landscape.

Many more trees and waterfalls as we left the sound and headed back across to Southern Alps to Queenstown.

It was cool to be at the top of the very steep mountain faces & look down below (instead of looking up from a boat).

Waterfalls and rivers meandered in and out of sight as they cascaded down the mountain.

It was a beautiful ride, but I can only imagine how stunning it is when the weather is clear & the waterfalls are still running strong.

We flew inland along the valley floor & followed the river.

There's actually a really large high-country farm station in the middle of nowhere.

Sometimes the river displayed some very impressive rapids.

Away from the water & over top of the mountains, the ride got pretty bumpy & we started climbing.

There were several terrifying minutes that we were flying into the clouds & I kept trying to remember that the pilot knew all these peaks like the back of his hand.

Again, this is all part of the area where Lord of the Rings was filmed & the landscape all looked so foreign and other worldly.

I looked at these remote valleys and wondered if anybody had ever set foot in there.

For all the money we paid, we did get a very cool stop on top of a bluff back at Lake Wakatipu. This is one of my favorite shots from our whole trip- on a mountain, overlooking a lake, in the clouds.

We fit 5 people & all our luggage in that tiny helicopter.

Although not as clear as our earlier days in Queenstown, the clouds added a very moody feel to the scene.

We were right around the lake from where the Dart River Jet boats came out of the river and into the lake.

This one is already hanging on the wall at my office :)

The whole crazy flight was worth it to stop at this area & enjoy the amazing view.

Lots of wind!

I took a picture with the pilot just because he was that much of a character- such a cowboy & rebel, braving the treacherous weather & taking such risks.

Loved the blue-green water in Lake Wakatipu.

I sat in the middle with 2 men on either side...it was a tight fit & hard to take photos out the windows.

This was generally my view, but it was nice to be surrounded by windows on our first of three helicopter flights in New Zealand.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Hubby is going to cook his first brisket today.

Waterfalls of Milford Sound

2010-06-25T09:40:00.001-05:00

There's generally a lot of debate visiting Doubtful Sound or Milford Sound. Luckily, we had enough time to see both on our trip. The over-night in Doubtful so relaxing, so calming, so peaceful & restful. I do think that the drive to Milford is much more dramatic & even more beautiful than the adventure across Lake Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. However, I preferred the towering, sheer cliffs of Milford to Doubtful. They are both beautiful & different, and my husband preferred our time at Doubtful better because there wasn't a crowd or mob of tourists.

We arrived in the rain, sailed in the rain & departed in the rain. It's still (also) one of the rainiest places on Earth & it's that rain that makes all the spectacular waterfalls.

Again, I'll go big on these pictures because it's what you need to appreciate the size and magnitude of the sound. Most of them were taken with my little P&S due to the rain & it's difficult to get a crisp, sharp shot with all the mist in the air.

It was neat to see a waterfall twist and turn, break left and right as it crashed down into the sound with a fury.

Sometimes the waterfalls weren't even big enough to channel all the runoff rain down & temporary waterfalls formed like streaks running the mountain face.

Looking at falls like these, I can understand why so many are named after bridal veils.

The rain was tough- it made standing outside to get a good view difficult & drenching, but without all the rain there wouldn't have been nearly as many waterfalls.

Sick of waterfalls, yet?

Hubby was bored with them quickly, but I was fascinated & insisted on standing outside to watch every single magnificent one of them glide past us.

Um, yea. Make sure your camera isn't zoomed in when you hand it to somebody!

The water appeared to be coming out with such force that it was shooting 20' out from the edge of this cliff.

And that's right where the captain was headed- he put the front end of the boat into the waterfall spray.

There was mist every where & everything got a really good drenching- we went inside for a few minutes.

Here's a quick video right before we lost most visibility- the camera quickly gets tons of mist on the lens and all shots are worthless. I suggest taking plenty of extra rags to all photographers.

Some many little ins & outs, crevasse around the sound. It was neat to see all this water disappearing into oblivion behind the mini-mountain of trees.

Obviously not visible in the photos, but the clouds were pretty fast moving through the valleys & mountain tops.

This short video gives a look around the sound as we are passing by one of the more spectacular walls & really gives a better sense of the enormous amounts of water flowing and just how steep the walls really are.

The rain clouds got really intense and pretty low for a while & we couldn't see the tops of any of the mountains.

An actual shot of the sound & not just a waterfall/mountain.

There are permanent waterfalls that are there almost all the time & temporary waterfalls that only flow when it's raining. I can't imagine how these waterfalls haven't wiped of all the algae and fern growing on those rocks.

Out near the Tasman Sea, we saw a few sea lions.

All in all, the tour was great if you are prepared to get wet & appreciate the fact that the sound is more beautiful in the rain. A clear day, with blue skies would have been nice, but I realize that's not really how the Sound is everyday & not how the famous waterfalls are created. It's the more accessible sound & the crowds/boats are much bigger here than Doubtful. Real Journey did a good job with the boat & tour- it was very similar in format to the Doubtful Sound boat.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Fabulous, fabulous Friday! No major plans for the weekend- lots of catching up and relaxing.

Great American Ballpark

2010-06-24T20:21:00.000-05:00

A few weekends back, hubby was headed to Ohio for another work trip & decided to swing through Cincinnati and check out the Great American Ballpark for a Reds Game.

Summer time- blue skies, freshly mowed fields, and lots of fans.

The stadium is pretty new & had some super-sizes graphics on the outside.

Somebody got some good seats along the first base line.

I think the all digital boards are cool- the ads, batter info, league games and everything are all electronic.

A red, red stadium- all the fans are decked out in red.

Guess they walked around to the other side. Snow cones on a hot day at the ballpark are a brilliant idea.

What's up with the baggy pants in baseball? When are the nice tight ones coming back?

The ballpark is right on the Ohio River and that is Kentucky right over there. Apparently there isn't much going on in downtown Cincinnati, so they went across the river to hang out in Kentucky for the evening.

The Roebling Suspension Bridge was under renovation & (hopefully) they are doing something to spruce up the walkway by the river.

H said it was HOT! At least in Houston, they with close the retractable roof when it's too hot. This misters were genius.

Looks like there is some new construction going on in downtown Cincinnati.

I love ball parks that are downtown and have a beautiful skyline in the background.

I'm sure this is somebody famous in Red's history, but I haven't a clue. It's a pretty neat sculpture none the less.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Got a spiffy new briefcase as my other one has seen too many airplanes & depositions in the last 8 years.

Road to Milford

2010-06-24T09:41:00.001-05:00

The next morning, Real Journey's picked us up at the lodge & we boarded a bus at their offices in downtown Te Anau for our road trip to Milford Sound. It didn't take long for the rain to start pouring down & we began to pass over numerous rushing rivers.

I wasn't too happy sitting in the back of the bus. The windows were fogged up & rainy, so the picture taking wasn't too ideal.

We made it to Homer Tunnel - the entrance into Milford Sound & got out for a quick peak while we were waiting on traffic.

There is so much rain here & the water just pours off the mountain like streams with no place to go.

I'd highly recommend investing in a good jacket- it must be waterproof for a trip to New Zealand.

We were happy to get off the bus & enjoyed getting a little rained on.

It is a nearly mile long, one-way tunnel & traffic waits on either end to receive the signal to proceed through to the other side.

On the other side, you enter a spectacular valley, where you are surrounded on all sides by impossibly steep cliffs and hundreds of waterfalls.

The bus makes a quick stop at The Chasm, which is about a 5 minute hike from the parking lot.

The Cleddau River appears to be in a free fall once it goes over the edge & it's nearly impossible to catch a glimpse of the bottom of the falls due to all the mist created from the water hitting the rocks below at such great forces..

There are a few little bridges & an easily accessible path (as long as you don't mind getting a bit more wet.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A rainy, stormy day in Houston makes a nice break from the extreme heat.

Around the Adirondacks

2010-06-23T20:25:00.000-05:00

Continuing my drive through New York, we headed into the Adirondack mountains.

It was so pleasant to be driving on windy country roads surrounded by the forests.

We spent quite a few miles driving along the Ausable River which made for an entertaining drive.

Photography at its finest- hanging my fancy camera out the window & snapping like crazy- hoping I get a few keepers.

We pulled over a few times & I tried to get close to the river, but the cliffs were pretty steep.

Gotta love rock walls. You really don't see these anywhere outside of New England & I think they are so quaint.

Although there were no Rocky Mountain size mountains, there were still some pretty impressive sheer cliffs around the river.

And the moon was just rising over the mountain ridge for a beautiful drive.

Even early afternoon, mid-week, we saw tons of fly fisherman out in the river looking for the big one.

Our destination was Lake Placid & we drove past many of the winter Olympic facilities in town.

Not too much speed skating going on right now, but there were some people using it as a running track.

Lots of cute, historical buildings around town.

Driving through the main road, it seemed like many other typical tourist towns with lots of shops & restaurants (and of course, tourists everywhere).

Funny enough, most of the town of Lake Placid is actually on Mirror Lake.

And these ski jumps where nowhere near a mountain- I had no idea they were free-standing structures.

I was kind of disappointed that there weren't even mountains big enough for the jump & they had to build a fake mountain.

Headed back towards Burlington, we passed this area where there were tons of dead looking trees.

Anybody know why some many of these trees have no leaves?

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: So nice & quiet at work- getting lots of projects finished.

Te Anau Lodge

2010-06-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

We spent our night in Te Anau between the Doubtful Sound & Milford Sound at the Te Anau Lodge . Since there are no taxis & we'd left our car in Queenstown for the Real Journey's bus rides, we had to walk to this B&B- which is a pretty good hike out of town with luggage. The RJ bus would have dropped us off, but we wanted to grab lunch & didn't realize it was so far.

The really cool thing about this place is that it's a converted convent that sits on beautiful grounds, surrounded by the mountains.

I'm sure on warm, sunny days- it's great to lay in the grass, stare at the lake, dream about the mountains in the distance. We had to settle for rainy & moody for weather conditions.

We opted for the deluxe room & it was called the Cathedral Room after the mountains that could be viewed out the giant windows.

We sat in bed for a few hours catching up on photos & news, taking a relaxing nap and just listening to the rain as we enjoyed this view of Fiordland.

The furniture is older, but I think it fit right in with the decor of the entire place & the room was nice and spacious.

The bathroom had been fully renovated & was big and bright.

I loved that this place had such a history- the owner told us some great stories, but it was newly remodeled to have all the latest amenities.

Just a peek at one of the other rooms. The owners were SO incredibly nice & friendly. They answered all of our questions, helped us out with stuff in town & even offered to let us borrow their car since it was raining when we headed into town for our Glow Worm Cave Tour.

The dining room was a beautiful room with gorgeous stained glass & breakfast was a huge feast.

The reading room was a nice gathering area with great views & a place for guests to mingle with each other. I think they provided a computer and/or Internet access, light snacks, drinks & free wine! That's a recipe for success :)

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: USA advances in the World Cup...hip hip hooray!

Te Anau

2010-06-22T20:59:00.001-05:00

After our overnight stay in Doutbful Sound, the Real Journey bus dropped us off in downtown Te Anau at the RJ center. This is the entirety of town that sits on the lake front.

Not even a 1-stoplight town- just a round-about! There are a few shops & restaurants to serve the hotels. It's mainly a stop off point between Milford & Doubtful Sounds.

We were starving by lunchtime, so we dropped into the first place we saw- Miles Better Pies, just on the main street. In addition to the adorable statue out front, they place had some terrific pies! The pies in NZ reminded me of a cross between a hot pocket & a stuffed pastry. We have them several times in various flavors on our trip- they are hot, tasty & usually finger foods.

On our way to the evening Glow Worm Cave Tour, we went to the Redcliff Cafe because it was highly recommended.

The inside is cozy & the waitstaff was excellent.

We sat outside on their porch & enjoyed listening to the rain on the roof. I don't have any pictures of the Glow Worm Caves, as cameras aren't allowed as the flash supposedly harmed the glow worms. They were pretty cool & very interesting to learn about. It's neat being inside a cave so deep & on a little boat ride. However, I'm not sure it's really all THAT exciting.

For dinner, I finally decided to try some venison steaks & they were quite yummy! I hadn't read about it, but heard great things about the Ata Whenau at the Fiordland Cinema in Te Anau. We didn't get a chance to see, but I really really wished we had done so. People said the short story & cinematography were spectacular & it was a great overview of the region.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: 3 week late, but my flooring for my office is finally being delivered today.

Onsen Hot Pools

2010-06-22T10:05:00.001-05:00

This is slightly out of order & back in Queenstown. One thing I was looking forward to was a nice romantic evening & then a visit to Onsen Hot Pools. We were picked up in town after a nice dinner & drinks, then taken to their facility up the valley.

The pools are fairly new & family run. We had a great time visiting with them & hearing their story about how they decided to open their business in New Zealand. We were checked in & upgraded to the pamper pack & candle lights to make the evening extra special.

WONDERFUL! No other words to describe it.

We were lucky enough to catch an amazing sunset while we relaxed in our hot tub, breathed the fresh mountain air and enjoyed a romantic evening.

The pools sit in a quiet valley with a river running down the middle. I'm sure it's also beautiful to look at during the day, but the sunset hour is perfect to see the valley early & then the stars at night.

I'd highly recommend this to any couple visiting Queenstown. The pools were clean & well run, the staff were extremely friendly and the experience was so unique.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Going out to dinner to celebrate a late Father's day with John.

Mia's Birthday Swim

2010-06-22T05:34:00.000-05:00

I decided Mia needed a mid-week swim just for her birthday a few weeks back. I handed my big camera to John & he captured a bit of the madness.

If I had to guess, I'd say she jumps in the pool several hundred times on any given swim day.

Not to good on the landings all the time....

Zoe still jumps occasionally too.

Trying to get a family photo...Zoe isn't too keen on Mia getting near her in the pool as Mia is still lacking the best swimming manners.

The two dogs looking & I'm not looking! Plus Mia sticking out her tongue.

I have to watch out when they both get to jumping so I'm not in the flight path.

Zoe runs around the outside of the pool & lures Mia to swim to the deep end.

Mia tries to get Zoe & nips at her ankles!

Lots of splashing!

Zoe has one of these elevated sling mats that she loves to lay on! It gets a cooler breeze underneath and is softer than the ground.

Mia can swim for at least 1.5 hour straight before even looking a little bit tired.

Such a pretty 1 year old girl! She weighs about 45 lbs and is a bit smaller than Zoe. I'm pretty sure she's done growing & hopefully she'll grow out of her crazy puppy stage soon.

Just a quick video of the dogs putting around the pool- waiting for something more exciting to happen.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Getting our (brand new) cook top fixed today (finally).

Outside Burlington

2010-06-21T06:53:00.000-05:00

While up in the Northeast a few weeks back, we were based out of Burlington, VT. It's quite a quaint little town & we really enjoyed hanging out in the college town. My downtown photos came out pretty bleh, but I took some good ones across the river in New York.

We had to wait for the ferry (such a strange concept to me!) & so we grabbed dinner at the above restaurant and were treated to a very cool early evening rainbow.

The ferry wasn't too busy- we just parked our car in line, walked over & enjoyed a nice dinner on Lake Champlain.

Although it was mid-May, the summer ferry in the center of the lake wasn't running yet.

These are the infamous Adirondacks! They'd been on my list of places to check out & I finally was able to see them. We spent a few hours driving around & I'll have those photos posted probably sometime this year.

Flying out of Burlington, I got some great shots of Lake Champlain- there are all sorts of coves and inlets along the shoreline.

These tiny islands were so cute...I wonder if anybody owns them. I wonder if they ever get flooded. I wonder if the lake freezes over in the winter. So many questions & no answers!

The Adirondacks looked so pretty with all its green trees and foothills.

We even flew over the tiny little ferry port & dock house restaurant where we had dinner.

This is the gorgeous sunset from my hotel room in Burlington. It's a hippie college town & they have a very nice pedestrian walkway with shops, restaurants, bars and art galleries for browsing.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: No more work travel for 2 weeks!

Fiordland Navigator

2010-06-19T09:04:00.001-05:00

Wanted to do a quick review of the ship we sailed overnight on- the Fiordland Navigator, owned by Real Journeys. We rode their buses to Manapouri & then across the lake and down to the ship at Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound.

The boat has some sails & a very nice deck out front that has plenty of room for those willing to brave the wind and rain that pretty prevalent in the sound. The naturalist sat up on the deck & talked so much about the falls, the geology, the history, the animals, the flora and fauna of the area.

The crew was friendly & helpful- they welcomed us on board & always had hot tea to warm you up after being outside in the chilly, wet air. The boat took off at a good pace and we went through the sound the first few hours seeing some great sites without getting too wet.

Just about the time the activity boats went out, the rain started falling.

Hubby was much more interested in his new book on his Kindle. I still regret not going out on one of the boats, but I was already pretty tired & wet from being out on deck so much.

They kayakers looked like they had a great time & got an up-close encounter with the shoreline.

This group went out on the smaller boats & I imagine they got a little bit better tour as they had a guided explaining things to them.

We scored a room right next to the captains area on the lower deck.

The room was tiny, as usual on a ship, but very clean & really all we needed for just one night. The windows were great, the towel warmer was an added luxury. The bathroom was big enough & the shower was nice and hot, in case you decided to go swimming in the sound!

The dining area was large & there were booths around the outside where you could enjoy the view passing by. There were a few large, long tables in the center. We usually ate here & sat with whoever happened to plop down next to us. The food was excellent & we always had plenty to eat and plenty of variety. There was a mini-bar type of area where you could buy alcohol or little snacks (candy bar or chips), which we frequented.

The captain was very cool & his bridge was open to visitors at all times. It was neat to watch the maps and check out all his gauges.

There was also a large parlor room in front of the dining area and below the bridge where people could hang out and watch the fjords from a warm, dry area. We typically hung out on the back decks- we didn't get nearly as wet & the wind was a little better back there. Going out overnight on the ship isn't cheap, but it's an amazing way to see Doubtful Sound & I highly recommend it to anybody that has the time and money to do the excursion.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Taking a mini-vacation in Washington State. Went to Mt Rainer National Park yesterday & going home today.

Waterfalls of Doutbtful Sound

2010-06-16T11:51:00.000-05:00

Finally- to the highlight of fiordland, the waterfalls!

Being one of the rainiest places on earth, you better expect rain when you are there & realize it's the only way you get all the amazing waterfalls.

The water pours down over the rocks & cliffs like somebody left the faucet running too long.

I don't normally do full size photos in portrait orientation, but these majestic waterfalls begged to be shown in all their gigantic glory. See how tiny the falls make that boat look?

We hung out on the back deck of the boat & were somewhat protected from the driving rain.

The water was coming out with such force that it was projected out away from the wall instead of simply just falling down.

The plants and trees were so bright green- they clearly loved all the rain & the ferns made me feel like I'd stepped back tens of thousands of years into prehistoric times.

These rock wall hovered straight above our heads- the boat could get really close to the shoreline since it was really deep even right close to land.

The water looks for the easiest way to the ocean & finds it on an old avalanche area.

Here a much larger avalanche had taken out a huge swath of trees. What's more amazing to me is that all those other trees are holding onto nothing more than a few cracks in solid rock. Our guide told us that all their roots intertwine to form a network for stability. It works well until a few get too loose & fall- then they call go down together.

Some waterfalls had cascading pools down the mountainside.

It had rained most of the evening & continued raining all morning, so the waterfalls were putting on quite the show.

The power and force of the water pounding on the rocks is impressive.

We even saw a few penguins out swimming & playing in the water.

Truly amazing- no other place like it on earth & one of the highlights of our New Zealand trip.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Photographed some more waterfalls this morning on my jog in downtown Spokane.

Camo Tug of War

2010-06-15T16:33:00.001-05:00

Judging by the mess in my office, I imagine this was back in early February as we were packing the house & packing to leave for NZ. The girls fight over toys all the time....lots of growling and pushing and shoving and spinning. I just wish they would do it somewhere else besides right next to me! Other dog owners- is this pretty normal behavior?

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I've taken the plunge and joined the National Associate of Photoshop Professionals to get back into photography and improve my photoshop/lightroom skills.

Cruising Doubtful Sound

2010-06-15T07:11:00.001-05:00

We sailed out of Deep Cove towards the Tasman Sea & through Doubtful Sound. The trip was nothing short of spectacular and amazing and stunning.

There were so many little twists and turns where the water seemed to end at the mountains, but yet it still keep going back around another bend. The frequently clouds cloaked the tops of the mountains & only added to the surreal aura of the sound.

It was neat to watch a waterfall weave in and out of the forest canopy.

Glaciers often form these hanging valleys when they move through the rocks.

We spent the first few hours out on the front deck- it was cold & windy, and occasionally rainy.

The naturalist on the boat was wonderful to listen to- we learned so much about the ecosystem & the amazing feats these plants and trees display hanging to sheer rock walls.

The fiordland is really all about waterfalls and rain. If I had to guess- I'd say we saw well over 1,000 waterfalls in Doubtful and Milford Sounds.

Something about being on a boat is so calming & relaxing- watching the scenery putt by & seeing what new stellar sight will be around the next corner. We'd hang out on the deck for a while, then go inside to warm up and dry off for a few minutes.

I was in awe of these trees that managed to climb just a bit higher than all the rest & stand out along the ridge line.

Real Journey's also runs a shorter day trip & that boat passed us up early in the afternoon.

Clouds came & went throughout the afternoon adding an eerie atmosphere to the area.

We cruised out to the Tasman Sea & into the open waters where the tide was out & we could see lots of dangerous rocks.

Nice seaweed, eh?

There's actually a rare penguin in the photo if you look closely for a black blob.

Out on the edge of The Tasman Sea, the waves crashing in the rocks added a melodic rhythm to air.

There were a few other boats out there looking for wildlife and checking out the coastline.

There was a very large colony of seals that were living on the rock outcroppings.

The government is trying really hard to reclaim as much native land area as possible and rid it all of pests to protect the natural environment. Rats are the biggest pest, but some of these islands in the fiordland are large, safe pest-free spaces.

The fur seals were to cool to watch waddling around & climbing out of the water on the rocks.

There were many areas of vegetation avalanches. Where some of the trees & moss would get too saturated to cling to the steep hillside & would come crashing down- taking out all the plants below it.

I've got a whole post coming up about waterfalls, but I thought I'd share this video. It's really hard to explain the awesomeness of being surrounded by waterfalls- everywhere you look, big & small, tall & short, wide, steep. Just like rivers- they are so memorizing to watch.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed up to Washington State today for 4 nights- can't wait to get out of this heat.

Bacchus Wine Bar

2010-06-14T16:10:00.001-05:00

While we were in Galveston, we got hot & thirsty, so we decided to stop into a new wine bar for us- Bacchus Wine Bar on the Strand.

There's a nice lounge area up front where you can watch people wandering up and down the Strand.

We were the only people there on an early Saturday afternoon, but the bar area was fairly large. I really wish it had been a cool oasis on a hot day, but it was fairly warm. We drank a few mimosas from their daily special.

They had a fairly nice wine selection & we picked out a bottle to give as a gift. The bartender was friendly and knowledgeable. Any wine bar named after the Roman wine god is off to a pretty good start & they are open on Sundays- another plus!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Hubby comes home tonight from his last work trip for several weeks.

Getting to Doubtful Sound

2010-06-14T05:39:00.001-05:00

Day 7 was the halfway point of our trip & when we finally headed down to the crown jewel of New Zealand- the Fiordlands. We'd booked most of this part of the tour with Real Journeys & we left our car in a parking lot in QT & took a coach bus the other way around Lake Wakatipu, around the mountains and across the plains to Te Anau.

We passed through some lovely scenery & there was some decent commentary on the bus.

Many more beautiful mountains rolled by & we stopped for a quick breakfast snack along the way.

The bus itself was pretty cool- it was comfy & had these giant panorama windows over head to offer a great view & the seats in the rear of the bus were elevated quite a bit to see forward. It wasn't all that awesome until we were on the buses heading towards Milford Sound that I really appreciated all the extra windows.

More golden tussocks- I know they aren't really all that impressive at 60mph, but they were really beautiful to see in person, waving in the wind.

I'd been waiting to see the classic line-o-sheep all walking along a mountain side.

Loved having my 18-200mm lens with me!

We caught some really beautiful cloud formations over the peaks.

Finally passed our first deer farm- it was so strange to see all these animals grazing around like cows.

As we moved westward, we started seeing some bigger and more beautiful peaks in the distance.

The bus took us as far as the RJ office in Lake Manapouri where we boarded a ferry to ride across the lake to West Arm.

H was just happy to have cell service in the area & made a quick call back to the office.

All aboard the boat! We'd left our big bags in our car in QT & backed overnight bags for 2 nights (1 on the boat in Doubtful Sound & 1 night in Te Anau).

Although it was bright and sunny in Manapouri, it quickly got very cloudy and windy once we were out on the lake. Many of the people upstairs came down quickly and/or got soaked during the ride.

It always looked like we were sailing towards a coastline, but we'd turn and thread our way back into the mountain valleys.

We started seeing clouds on top of many of the peaks & occasionally got a few drops of rain on us.

It's hard to tell, but that's another boat in front of us- it's so tiny compared to the huge, towering mountains.

On the west shore of the lake is the Manapouri Power Station. It is the largest hydroelectric dam in New Zealand. Real Journeys also offers a tour if you have time- the bus actually drives over a mile underground into the tunnels.

Another short bus ride across across the strip of land between West Arm in Lake Manapouri & Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound. It was an unpaved road & it only for use with the very few cars that take the ferry over.

The mountain and cliffs covered in clouds were now a common site once we crossed the divide.

Everybody on the bus was so excited to finally get to the fiords and be in Doubtful Sound, but we stopped and took a quick picture overlooking the water.

From the view at the top of the mountain, I knew it was going to be a spectacular and surreal type of place. We started seeing dozens of waterfalls- some already huge & the rain began to fall almost nonstop.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Got out of a last minute trip to Dallas- I'm glad to be staying home instead.

No Room at the Inn

2010-06-13T17:49:00.001-05:00

Another one of the throwback videos from a while back. We have the biggest, most expensive dog bed (i.e. a piece of furniture- my couch!) is generally where the dogs can be found. Between the pillows and the blankets, I guess there was no lounging room for Mia.

She's just a silly puppy- no two ways about it! She cracks me up and makes me smile on a daily basis for antics just like these.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm fired up about photography again & I'm ready to get serious about spending more time and energy learning.

Fun in Queenstown

2010-06-13T09:49:00.001-05:00

H has been wanting to do an ice bar for a while & we just stumbled upon Minus 5 Ice Lounge in downtown Queenstown. They provided the booties, jacket & gloves. We had to leave our cameras & bought a few drinks before heading inside to cool off from the summer heat.

It was early afternoon & we were the only people there with the bartender. Even the glasses are made out of ice! It wasn't too cold (I had bare legs), but my hands were cold holding the glass even though the gloves.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures inside other than the ones we purchased. It's very cool, literally, to be surrounded by nice on the floor, ceilings and walls. There were a few cool sculptures & some furniture made of ice.

Next, we headed up the hill to catch the catch the skyline Gondola up the mountain. It's about a 10 minute walk (uphill) from the downtown area to reach the base of the lift.

It's not until you get up above Queenstown that you can really appreciate how spectacular the entire surrounding area is surrounded by the Remarkable Peaks.

You have a great view down Lake Wakatipu towards the bend that goes back to Glenorchy. That little flat of land between the valleys is Walter Peak high-country farm & you can take a steamship ride over there to get a little historical tour.

The steamship is at the dock in this photo & you can see all the restaurants and shops lining the water front and people enjoying a day at the beach.

The bungee people are set up on top of the mountain too if you'd rather jump from here than over a gorge.

There is also quite a bit of paragliding and hang gliding from the top of Pete's Peak.

The mountainside just above the city is green and colorful.

Here you can see the entire downtown area, the peninsula park/gardens & the the steamship just taking off from the dock.

We were eying this little valley for the evening- it's where we headed to do our moonlight hot tub adventure.

We decided to do the luge rides- it looked like a lot of fun & we were in a silly mood, so we took a chair lift even further up the mountain than where the gondola leaves you at the restaurant & observation deck.

H hates chair lifts & I love messing with him as we go up!

They have a camera perfectly positioned to snap a photo of you going up the chair lift. The background is so unbelievably gorgeous, we were suckered into buying it.

'Cause nothing looks better than a big round helmet than wearing it with a pink camo hat!

There was a beginner and an expert course on the luge tracks that generally ran side by side down the hill.

It was very crowded on the Observation deck & it was much easier to get a better picture of us on the top of the luge track.

We were also suckered into buying photos of us on the luge. It was really fun- we laughed and howled like little kids.

I think it's because you feel so goofy with the helmet & the fact that you are surrounded by something to beautiful that it doesn't even seem real.

I did mange to do a few panoramas while we were up there & used Photoshop to stitch them all together. See the full size image here

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Hanging out with the girls at a wine bar today.

Downtown Queenstown

2010-06-12T07:48:00.001-05:00

Downtown Queenstown is a great place. There's no doubt about that. There are many reasons why it's considered the Adventure Capital of the World & it lives up to them. From it's stellar location on Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by the Southern Alps to the spirit and friendliness of the people, there's no other city like it in the world.

From our hotel, we took a short walk to town & cut through the park instead of walking along the street. We met so many locals out walking dogs or going for a leisurely afternoon stroll. A little peninsula juts out into the lake that contains Queenstown Gardens & makes a great little protected Harbor area right on the edge of downtown.

The Silver Fern is quite the national symbol. Not only does it represent their national rugby team the All Blacks, it resembles so much of the flora and fauna that covers the islands with hundreds of types of ancient ferns and tree reminiscent of the Jurassic periods.

We lucked out & had amazing weather on our days in QT, and many people were enjoying the day laying out on the lake's edge catching some sun while taking in an amazing view.

In addition to all the usual tourist shops & restaurants, there is quite a bit of green park space along the waterfront for just relaxing.

There's a certain quaintness about the streets & shops that reminds me of some of the sky villages we've visited in Colorado.

It was a very interesting mix of people- obviously tons of tourists, but lots of younger, hippier people working in the town at the restaurants or attractions. It made for some great people watching :)

There were quite a few boats down at the Marina & the water is stunningly clear and clean looking.

We walked into town for dinner & the sun was setting behind the mountains making for some beautiful colors-capes on the horizon.

Queenstown has a very interesting past & I wished we'd have spent at least 1 or 2 more days in the area, possibly taking a Segway Tour and learning some of the historical info.

There was a very neat war memorial down on the quay & they were doing some renovations in that area. You can see Bob's Peak and the gondola soaring above downtown.

We caught some type of memorial bagpipe ceremony on the boardwalk as we headed to dinner.

I took a video- there's just something to haunting and beautiful about bagpipes. I did a little look-around to show the beautiful surrounding mountains.

I had to giggle at the sculpture of a William Rees with a sheep. I know they are very important to the region, but I'd rather settle for having things names after me than a sculpture with an animal that every single Kiwi described as "stupid, just bloody stupid".

The main boardwalk area had a very cool wall with something (a poem? a tribute?) etched into stones for the length of the wall.

There's a small indoor mall area with lots of restaurants and shops.

We really enjoyed the view of the sun setting & painting the mountains with the day's last rays of sunshine.

Now normally, I'm not too big into taking food pictures but this was a giant crayfish. They don't technically have lobster in NZ, but they have GIANT crawfish that are just like lobster without the claws. We finally found a nice restaurant (The Boardwalk) and ordered some that were delicious.

I was also adventurous for this meal and decided to try some lamb. In so many American restaurants they serve New Zealand rack of lamb. I figured I'd traveled halfway around the globe- I should try the real thing straight from the source. They were very yummy, although not something I'd order all the time.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Going back to H's alma mater tonight to catch a the Texas Music Festival.

Turner Field in Atlanta

2010-06-12T06:09:00.000-05:00

Hubby has been traveling more than usual for work & he was in Atlanta a few weeks back to meet with a client. They were able to go in the night before & catch a Braves game & he visited a new baseball field for him- Turner Field.

I was a bad wife and forgot to leave our newer P&S camera with him, so he dug our old one out of my desk & it had very little charge on it.

The stadium was originally built and used for the 1996 Summer Olympics before being converted to the Braves' home.

H had great seats & enjoyed a lovely game. One more stadium checked off the list!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Same scenario tomorrow- he's getting to see Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.

8th Grade Recital

2010-06-11T08:43:00.001-05:00

A few weeks back, Mother's Day weekend to be exact, my sister had her yearly dance recital. Since it was Mother's Day, I went to the rehearsal on Thursday & caught these stinking cute little bumble bee girls.

Haley's first dance was party of a large group number.

It's so hard to take pictures with all the movement in near dark conditions!

High school is next year & she wants to try out for the drill team in the fall.

2nd costume change- they reminded me of Irish River dancers during their tap routine.

Sadly, my sister was generally in the back or flying across the stage- too fast for me to catch.

There was one little boy there who was so cute!

I went backstage in between shows & didn't stay for the jazz routine, but caught them practicing their moves.

Then it was back to homework!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Friday finally :) Yet another busy weekend though- got my 9 mile run in this morning & ready for a Bellini tonight to cool off.

Happy 1st Birthday Mia!

2010-06-10T20:14:00.003-05:00

Mia turned 1 year old today! For her birthday, I took her for a mid-week swim at the pool. It was too hot to go to the park, so we played in the water

. She LOVES to jump & this is my view quite often as she leaps with great gusto into the water.

This- this is what we aim for! Synchronized dog jumping :)

Her mom Potter is back in the field & hunting again. You can find some of her siblings blogging too!

Mia didn't come to Houston until August, but this is the first meet & greet with Zoe. That's not a smile on Zoe's face- it's a snarl!

They were soon best of buds & a quick stroll down memory lane reminds me of some of my favorite teeny tiny puppy pictures.

Swimming with a young pup last summer was an adventure- she did awesome & this year, more importantly, she's learned not to swim *ON* us!

More from today- she's a beautiful and fun dog to watch, so entertaining!

She stalks the birds and insects and grass and toys in the yard with an incredible focus.

Mia is a very happy puppy- I've never see more wiggling and tail waging and puppy smiles. She is content to play with her toys for hours & loves to snuggle.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm going to be making some changes to the blog & I'm very excited about it :)

Dart River Jet Boat

2010-06-10T08:55:00.000-05:00

If I had to pick my favorite thing on our whole entire New Zealand trip, there'd be many things at the top of the list, but our jet boat ride on the Dart River would probably win.
(Dart River Jet Safaris)

While we did see many, many beautiful places & stunning scenery all over New Zealand, this was the only time we did it cruising on a river with the wind in your face & the sun shining down on you.

I'll say it again- there is something about being on & near the water that is relaxing & peaceful. On a jet boat- we moved so effortlessly up and down the river. The mountains and valley and forests and streams and glaciers went by slow enough that we had time to awe at then, but fast enough that there was always something new and more striking coming into view.

From what I can recall, this is some of the most sacred land to the Maori people & it's easy to see why- it's one of the most beautiful stretches we visited on our trip.

We popped into this little alcove where a deep stream was running out between the rock crevasse with a gorgeous shade of turquoise water.

As I mentioned, this river is shallow & full of rocks. It really sounds like you are hitting all these rocks, but our guide assured us it was just the water.

This place really looked like something out of my imagination and not of this world.

Some of the most popular hiking trails & tramping is through the mountains and valleys in this area.

In late February, the early morning ride was a bit cool. They provide life jackets & rain slicks- which come in handy (the block a lot of the wind).

We zoomed up and down the river, and the guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining during our trip.

Watching the driver navigate the river is very cool. Just sitting there looking at it, there seems to be places the river just ends or gets too shallow, but he would find the perfect line & fly through some tiny areas without batting an eye.

We passed by a few waterfalls in the valley & we were told that a great deal of

Another reason this area is favored by tribal legend is the discovery of New Zealand's famous precious gem- the Greenstone. The Maori name is Pounamu (just like our hotel).

Due to the glacial periods in the past, the river suddenly dumps into the north end of Lake Wakatipu. The water goes from a light milky color in the shallow water to a rich, dark blue in the depths of the lake almost instantly. You can see the line in the above photo as we approach the mouth of the river.

The water mixing together as we enter the Lake.

The waters in the lake are so clear & you can see many feet down.

The entire shoreline of Lake Wakatipu is surrounded by dramatic mountains & beautiful ridge-lines.

The jet boats are specifically designed for use on this river & they have a VERY flat bottom. The motor is loud, but the sound of the water smacking the bottom of the boat is even louder.

Sporting the life jacket & slicker on the end of our trip. We got to sit up front- we were told it was better for the younger/healthier/stronger people to sit up front because, when the boat spins, it pivots around the rear & the forces up front are the largest. We also stayed the driest :)

We took a little bus ride back to the main shop in Glenarchy to meet with the other groups & leave our equipment.

Overall, the tour is very well organized and well planned.

They took a photo right before we boarded the boat, but I wasn't paying the outrageous fee for it, so I just snapped a picture of it.

There is enough time before the buses leave back for Queenstown to grab lunch at one of the handful of restaurants right next to the shop.

It's a small little town- not much going on, just a few tourist shop selling lots of wool & souvenirs.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: It's Mia's first birthday! I'm going to take them out to the park this afternoon if it isn't raining & hopefully have some pics posted tonight.

Dart Track

2010-06-09T17:28:00.000-05:00

Our excursion up from Glenorchy ended at the Rees-Dart Track, where we did about a 30 minute hike through the woods.

We hiked along the Dart River through some of the most pristine and untouched forests in the world.

Both the forest and the mountains made the hike very scenic.

We caught a few glimpses of the jet boats coming and going up the river.

In this area, the Dar River is very shallow and there are many sandbars.

There were some incredibly steep cliffs that hung above our head.

Leaving the woods, we hiked into an open valley with breath taking view 360 degrees.

Through the valley there were mountains in the distance.

Quite a few of them still had snow or glaciers on them.

The sun was out, the sky was blue, the weather was perfect & the hike was memorable.

We arrived down by the water's edge & traded off with the group who did the tour boat->hike->4WD ride. I was glad we had our order & it was a wee bit warmer once we got on the boat & the sun was up higher.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Summer school has stared & I am back to volunteering.

8th Grade Dance

2010-06-09T07:01:00.000-05:00

About two weeks ago my sister had her end-of-the year, 8th grade formal dance. The pictures were slow to trickle in on Facebook, but I kept waiting and getting more great shots.

No formal dates yet- just a group of girlfriends.

This is totally how I see Haley in my mind- the energy, the personality, the mischievous look, the beauty.

She went with a group of girlfriends.

Hmmm...why is my sister surrounded by boys!!??!?

These are some of her friends- they look so much older than 14 and 15!

The evening concluded with a big group late-night snack .

Fashion comes full-circle. She loves to pose for the cameras :)

School has been out almost a week & Haley's friends made her a sign welcoming her into high school next year.

I think this might be her Girl Scout troop- I can't believe somebody got them all the be calm and quiet long enough to take this shot.

And in other news & photos I stole from Facebook- my brother is officially dating! I think it's his first real girlfriend & now that he can drive, they go to the movies and dinner. My parents had to talk him out of taking her to Kemah & they settled on a game night at Itz instead.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The kids are off the church camp in Oklahoma for the rest of the week.

Driving Lake Wakatipu

2010-06-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

Day 6 of our trip, on Friday Februrary 26th, we set out to have some fun in Queenstown. We decided to do the Dart River Jet Safari. They picked us up at our hotel & then we re-arranged buses at their main shot downtown, before heading out for our drive. Heading from QT to the base shop at Glenorchy, the road hugs the coastline of Lake Wakatipu and is a spectacular drive, even if you decide against doing the jet boat ride.

When you make that final turn around the bend in the lake, you are greeted with some spectacular views towards Mt. Aspiring National Park.

We turned the corner & were treated to this majestic view of the Rees and Routeburn Valley!

The sun was rising and the early morning light was just beautiful on the mountainside.

The bright pair of peaks on the right is Mt Earnslaw- East and West Peak. To their left, is the Dart Valley (with the Dart River) and Margaret Glacier.

You've gotta love a peak with a name called Big Geordie! And you have to love maps that tell you what the heck you are looking at :)

Mount Earnslaw is a popular peak for climbers to attempt & was featured in several Lord of the Rings scenes.

Seriously- a stunning view & I could have stayed there all day, but we were going to the north end of the lake, where the shallow, wide Dart River dumps into the deep lake.

There were these large golden tussock in many parts of New Zealand and they added to the beauty was they waved in the wind (although this photo illustrates driving at 40mph, not wind!).

We'd been warned about about sheep crossings in our driving preparations for New Zealand, but these guys were the only ones we ever encountered.

These horses were magnificent creatures & they looked all the more beautiful surrounded by the spectacular scenery.

Then there were cattle in the road!

This whole area, and a very large section of the South Island, called
Te Wāhipounamu were made into a UNESCO world heritage site for their pristine condition & almost zero impact from man on the ecosystem.

Various film crews rent out this valley and hire anybody & everybody in town to work movies for months at a time.

"Station" is the name for a very large farm/ranch from the turn of the century. Some of the largest ones in the country are in the Rees Valley.

This was probably one of the most scenic places we traveled on our entire trip- the drive & the jet boat ride were unreal.

There are several other activities you can do in the Glenorchy area, like horseback riding & I'd have love to done those too and spent more time there.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Lightroom 3.0 has been released & I am ready to commit the time to learning about all the updates!

Mia & the Chuckit

2010-06-08T08:14:00.000-05:00

I had taken a few video with my camera when I first got it last summer & didn't realize that Panasonic had set the default file format to some random ADCHD format, which is compatible with EXACTLY NOTHING!! I've put off messing with the files for months because it's so upsetting that I can't use their crappy included software and can't find any better freeware than what I used that left a watermark in the middle.

Anyway- rant over. We had a Chuckit Flying Squirrel when Mia was a puppy. This video is typical Mia madness, flailing around, being a spaz jumping around and spinning.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I managed to save a few funny older videos I hope to share in the next few weeks.

Pounamu Apartments

2010-06-07T20:44:00.001-05:00

I usually end my posts about an area with the hotel review, but I'm starting off Queenstown with my review of Pounamu Apartments because it was our absolute favorite place we stayed the entire trip. Forgot to get some outside pictures, but it was the inside that was just lovely. Hardwood floors, a full sleek kitchen, a table, full desk & computer set up.

But this- this view! This is what made it amazing. We'd open up all the doors (windows?) and crank on the fire while sipping on wine and listening to the radio.

The bedroom was a bit elevated and opened up to the same spectacular view over the living room. Lots of room to unpack our clothes for 3 nights & there was a washer and dryer just outside our front door that we shared with the economy unit.

The bathroom had the same modern & sleek feel to it.

We loved our place so much we didn't want to wander down to QT and explore downtown. The place also included Internet access for 1 computer at a time.

My only slight little complaint is that it was on a busy road. During *rush* hour, this road could be very busy with locals and tourist buses, but it wasn't unbearable. By the way- those are The Remarkables in the background. What a great name for a mountain range!

Looking to the right, we had a wonderful view of Lake Wakatipu towards downtown Queenstown.

It was a very manageable 5-10 minute walk downtown along sidewalks. We walked it a few times, but usually took a cab home at the end of the evening rather than walk the slight uphill return.

Seriously awesome & I'd highly recommend this hotel/apartments. It was nice to have space & an amazing view while relaxing. We paid $290NZ a night for the room, which was priced fairly well compared to some of the other places we stayed, especially considering all it included.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: We've re-grouped our travel wall photos, ordered 2 new cool frames, ordered new prints & I can't wait to hang out collage.

Pretty in Pink

2010-06-07T11:14:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, I also got started on working on my office. This is what it looked like before I moved in all my junk & the dogs.

I still have a little futon daybed, aka the dog sleeper, and was really tired of the bleh brown walls.

Adding the shutters was a great first step & I love looking out the window all all the trees & birds & storms every day while I sit at my desk.

I am fully a 2 computer kinda gal now. I love my iMac dearly, but I still use my laptop for so many tasks- including sitting downstairs with hubby while watching TV.

I really, really struggled with what I wanted to do with my room- what colors and what type of feel. I loved my old office, but we've already got tons of blue in our bedroom. We've got green in our kitchen & yellow in our living room. Deep down, I still really loved pink!

I brought up a dozen color swatches from Home Depot with 50 colors & finally selected a pink that I thought was happy, soothing & not too loud.

I was up bright & early Saturday to start my big project.

I shoved all the furniture in the middle of the room & started painting. I quickly realized it was much louder than I'd anticipated & got a much lighter shade of pink for the 3 remaining walls.

H was outside working on the yard & cleaning the driveway.

I really like how the colors turned out & the pink makes me smile every time I walk in the room.

I really liked the couch diagonal, but it just took up to much room & the dogs were forever losing the pillows off the back of it.

I ordered new flooring & bought some smaller shelf racks from the Container Store. I'm going to add crown molding & a chair rail to add some spice to the room, then start hanging up all my stuff on the walls again.

This is from this past weekend and is my new favorite picture of my gang. The girls love it when H lays on the couch & they can snuggle with him.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: In town all this week & getting to much closer to getting caught up.

Gone to Galveston

2010-06-06T17:15:00.001-05:00

After lunch, we headed out to the west end of Galveston Island. The only way to get there is along the Seawall. It's the main drag & were quite a bit of the easy-access beach is located. If you are a history buff, I'd recommend Galveston- there are some fabulous Victorian type homes & you can learn about how they raised the parts of the island up to 17' after the 1900 Hurricane and built the Seawall.

The remaining damage from Hurricane Ike is still very visible along the coastal areas. The Flagship Hotel, once a local icon on the Seawall, was looking very decrepit and quite the eye-sore. Rumor has it that the Landry's Group bought it & is starting renovations anyway.

The San Luis Resort is *the* place to stay on Galveston & the most resort like and luxurious. The hotel is built on an old arm WWII bunker & is the evaluation place for hurricanes.

Adjacent to the hotel, the Landry group has a town square area with several restaurants & amusements.

The seawall and beach were crowded with people taking any available space they could find. These people had the right idea ;)

We stayed at the Hilton & it was *eh*. Nothing exciting or special, just nice to be on the water & within walking distance of restaurants.

Further down the Seawall, most of the larger piers & a few of the shops that extended into the Gulf were gone.

We ended up at the house of H's boss & headed down to get some beach time with him. Everybody there usually rides their golf carts down & parks them.

It was a really nice day out & we enjoyed the surf and sun. The beach is much smaller (narrower) here than it used to be & several of the 1st row of homes are actually ON the beach now. Some weren't fixed & are being torn down, and some are still occupied.

The beach was full of people & shade tents to keep the ice chests cool. I really, really want to get back down there with the dogs some time. I'm sure they would LOVE it.

We hung out with them for a few hours & watched all the excitement of menagerie of people who traipsed by us.

All in all, the water looked good & the waves weren't too big. Most people on this side of the island had made a full recovery from Hurricane Ike. I hear that Boliver Peninsula is still decimated, but I won't wait 2.5 hours in a ferry line to go check it out.

We ended up having a yummy dinner at Landry's & then walking around the arcade area just people watching. It was great to get away for the weekend & mostly sleep in the next morning.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: More sad that we finally finished The Wire this weekend, but glad that we found such an awesome series to watch the last 6 months.

The Strand

2010-06-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

Last weekend (wee! I'm only about a week behind on blogging finally!), we headed down to Galveston for a little overnight get away. We first headed downtown to the Strand, which backs up to a rather industrial area in Galveston. Honestly, besides tourism, the entire island is mostly shipping and oil/gas related industrial type of stuff related to the ocean.

The Oceanstar Off-Shore Drilling Rig & Museum probably hasn't been booming since the big oil spill in the Gulf.

I hope these people weren't planning on going out too far into the bay in this itty-bitty boat.

We were there on a Sunday, so the big Carnival cruise ship was in port exchanging passengers.

The Strand is the historic, downtown part of Galveston with some great old buildings and tons of personality. Before the great hurricane of 1900, Galveston was one of the biggest ports in the country & largest city in Texas due to all the maritime and shipping business.

We had a delicious lunch at Willie G's and enjoyed watching the boats cruise past us.

H & I actually went on our second date to Mardi Gras Galveston in 2004. It's a more family-friendly version of the NOLA party. They also have a big Dickens on the Strand celebration every Christmas. It looks really neat & we'd like to go every year, but December is such a busy month.

We walked past D'Vine Wine on the Strand, but decided to keep exploring since we'd had drinks with lunch. They have a nice little courtyard area that would be lovely when the weather is cooperative.

The area if full of bars & restaurants, arts galleries, nick knack & tourist shops, all housed in historical buildings with some really fun architecture.

Many of the older buildings were warehouse in the late part of the 19th century, but many are now unfortunately abandoned.

Some of the colors and designs are just so much fun.

I loved all the ornate details and colors of this brick building.

The heat and humidity are in a cosmic battle with my hair :(

Old Galveston Square has a giant coronet that I always remember. BTW- I don't recommend the segway tours for this area- too many stairs and elevated sidewalks!

I really wished I'd had my wider (than 18mm) angle lens to capture some of these buildings. Luckily, The Strand didn't suffer too much damage or flooding during Hurricane Ike.

This military surplus center has been around as long as I can remember & I have always had to go in and check out the cool stuff.

It was otherwise a hot and crowded day down on the Strand- lots of tourists shopping, eating and drinking. We decided to head towards the beaches.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: An awesome Saturday of chilling out and catching up- I haven't had to leave the house yet (well except for my 10 mile run).

Driving to Queenstown

2010-06-04T06:06:00.001-05:00

After our ride to check out the glaciers on Lake Tasman, we set off for the Adventure Capital of the World- Queenstown. We stopped for lunch at Wrinkly Rams in Omarama & to check out the sheep.

Really life gets no better- warm sun, blue skies, cool glass of wine, surrounded by mountains with my hubby.

So we went to check out the sheep they had in pens, but didn't get to stay for the sheering show. We'd already seen tens of thousands on our few days of travels, but none up close.

They are very interesting animals- their wool is very thick and dirty while they are still wearing it :)

Some of them had some really cool horns.

They had a few in pens and several different types of sheep.

There was about a 2 mile stretch of roadway near the Lindiss Pass area that had thousands of these tiny rock art sculptures littering the side of the road.

Next, we passed through the quaint town of Cromwell, in Central Otagao, and we were in the heart of one of the great wine regions of New Zealand.

We started seeing our first big vineyards and were dying to stop, but were also so excited to get to Queenstown. On our way out of QT, we'd head up this road to the right on to Wanaka and along the west coast.

There were some beautiful vineyards in this area surrounded by mountains and on the back of the river & I really wished we'd had more time to stop and taste.

Just outside of town, we ran into the Kawarau Gorge & river.

The water in the river was an extraordinary shade of blue.

These were some mighty rivers- lots of deep, fast running water surrounded by some steep rock walls.

This is also the area where all the bungee jumping occurs just outside of Queenstown at AJ Hackett.

We debated and teased each other back and forth about going bungee jumping. We'd tentatively decided to do it since we were there & was the *thing* to do. However, we drove by the shop too quickly too stop and were too lazy to turn around. We kept thinking we'd come back by it, but we never did.

There is something so soothing and peaceful about watching a roaring river- I could have stayed here all day.

The final part of our trip was through the Gibbston Valley- a placed called the Valley of Wines. This is probably the only place in New Zealand that had vineyard and wineries that were as beautiful as those I've seen in California & South Africa. This little valley, surrounded by the mountians and with a stunning river running through it, provided a beautiful backdrop. Unfortunately, it was late in the afternoon & we were anxious to get to Queenstown and didn't stop, but a day here would be on my list of places to stop if I re-wrote our itinerary.

I wanted to include a route map- mostly for just just to remember where we went & what we did.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: San Diego is a really cool little town- might have to put it on my list of places to come back and visit.

30th Bash

2010-06-03T05:49:00.001-05:00

My 30th birthday came and went with a bang- unfortunately, it's just now making it to the blog. I took the day off work, and I spent a few frantic hours working on the house after my morning run. Hubby took me to The Oceanaire for a delicious meal before heading to the airport....

...to pick up Stephanie! She flew all the way in from Philly to celebrate with me!

H was kind enough to take us out dancing on Washington Ave. and we ended up at Pearl Bar.

It was an interesting night to say the least - I even got my name in lights!

Nothing like dancing with your best friend & the love of my life to make for a wonderful evening.

I've officially known Stephanie for 12 years & we've been friends for over a decade. We've danced in many club across the country through the years ;)

Saturday night we had a small get together at a wine bar for all our friends & family to celebrate both of our birthdays- H was turning 33 on Monday.

Luckily for the gentlemen, they served beer too.

His stories crack everybody up and bring lots of laughter all around.

My husband tells good stories & talks a lot with his hands.

My dad's birthday present was finishing up our kitchen remodeling- it was SOOO good to have it done!

It was great to have all the same friends & family with us from the wedding and everybody enjoying seeing one another.

Lots of smiles all around...

H picked up some scrumptious cakes from Dessert Gallery.

Friday was also Liz & Laura's birthday (plus Liz's daughter Allison & their cousin), so we celebrated all the April birthdays.

It was the perfect evening- a few light snacks, some wonderful bottles of wine and a lot of love in the room.

So this is probably the best part of the night- Mark decided to give us a palm tree for our new house & we were stuck taking it home that evening.

It just really didn't fit too well in H's car with Stephanie in the backseat. We were laughing so hard about the whole situation that there were tears rolling down my eyes.

In addition to the new palm tree, H finally found himself some real boots that he liked. All in all, 30 is wonderful. I've got an amazing husband, wonderful family, great friends, a fabulous job, and a lots of other things in my life that make me happier than I've ever been before. I can't wait to see where the next few years lead my life.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: It's 58 degrees in Santa Barbara this morning & I can't wait to go out for a run.