Aloha…..

Well there were no Mai Tai’s in Maui, but there were Lava Flow’s in Kona……

Due to tropical storm/Hurricane Ana, my plans to meet my friends in Maui were changed. I ended up flying directly to Kona for a work conference. There is something psychological about flying for work, it’s just not fun. My flight had WIFI, which was a good and bad thing. Good because I was able to get some work done, bad because I was emailing and texting my friends constantly for 9 hours.

With the 5 hour time change, I was not happy when I arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii. I tried to stay up as late as possible, 9pm, but I still woke up with the birds at 3.30 am.  I figured the best way to beat the jet lag? Go to the gym. Except the Hilton is huge, 62 acres to be precise. And it was pitch black. And did I mention it was insanely humid due to that crazy weather system that was blowing past? So I called the operator and she told where to find the gym and it would be a little warm up of a walk……. WHATEVER. I walked for 45 minutes before I found that gym.  Well I got my workout in.

I had no conference stuff scheduled for Wednesday morning, so I spent the morning being lazy by the pool. I am glad I did, I met some amazing people from Kentucky! Hi friends from Kentucky!!! And then it was work, work, a little pool, more work.

When I was in Dubrovnik, last year, I met Bill and Matt, from Seattle. We’ve kept in touch and they were actually in Hawaii for work as well!  So fun to get to hang out with them.  We had a pre-pre-pre-pre party for my birthday party in 2016.  I believe the next pre-pre-pre party will be in Vegas in December.

I did make it out of Waikoloa to do a little sightseeing, I headed up to Volcano Natural Park. It was cold….

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Aloha…

On the road again……

I really enjoy enjoy traveling, internationally, but man do I ever have issues when I fly domestically. But I gladly suffered thru because I was going to visit friends. And because I was so excited, I had delays upon delays.

My flight was delayed about an hour.  Had to wait, for what seem like forever, for the rental car shuttle bus. And then it took me no less then 20 minutes to get out of the airport because some engineer did a horrific job designing the maintenance of traffic.

I finally arrived at Carrie’s house and was properly greeted by Lucy. I got a hug from Carrie, but Lucy, well, she was running around yapping about how excited she was to see me!

Carrie showed her enthusiasm in other ways, she cooked! Wait, not only did she cook, she had a menu, yes a MENU!  *** Note to anyone that actually knows me, your lucky if you get water when you come to my house………

She also made me candied bacon. Did I happened to mention she’s my best friend in the entire world? ( Disclaimer: I love all m BFF’s equally, make me bacon and you can have the #1 spot,too).

It was quite the enjoyable evening. I was actually quite sad to have to leave the next day. But I had brunch plans in Raleigh so off I went.

Michelle and her family moved to Chapel Hill a few years back, and I am  sad to say this is only the 2nd time I’ve visited. I am great about keeping in touch, just not about actually visiting. She’s the one the encouraged me to blog about my adventures, in part because I think she was getting annoyed with just getting links to pictures with no explanations. Thanks to her son, Logan, who built this blog, I know have a platform to actually share my crazy adventures.

I had originally hoped to pop out for a day, quick in and out, but United was not cooperating. When I realized I had to overnight, I figured I would fly into Charlotte and out of Raleigh, it’s what an easy drive, like an hour and 1/2? Yeah, no. It was more like 2 1/2 hours and I must have blocked that out from the last time. When Michelle said 2 and 1/2 hours and I was like no….. That’s can’t be right. Oh it was right…..

A visit to Michelle’s is not complete without some Garrett’s Popcorn. I love to see the excited look on Logan and Izzi’s faces when they see they bag. I think next time I will have to make the sweat it out.

We had brunch at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill. It’s a great spot for people watching.

The afternoon flew by, way to quickly. But those planes don’t wait, even for me. Here is a travel tip for those of you returning rental cars in Raleigh, get gas when you find it. I took a nice scenic route trying to find a gas station.  Luckily, it’s a small enough airport, that there was no gate running involved. And of course, my flight was delayed…….

I really enjoyed visiting with my friends and I hope to do it more often. I wish I could have stayed but I had to get home to cheer my friend Mandy on as she ran her first Bank of America Chicago Marathon. She’s rocked it of course!

Stayed tuned for more adventures, next up Mai Tai’s in Maui………

So yes I flew to Scotland for boots and to visit with friends. But I manage to do some actual sightseeing. My friends were kind enough to drive me throughout the countryside where I got to see some castles, waterfall, bagpipes and more. While I did not eat some haggis, I did get a taste of Scotland and I will definitely be back again, one day.  Here are some random pictures

Of course there a pictures that I wish I could post, but it being a public blog and all, it’s better that I don’t. But on a fun note, I just happened to be at the same hotel as the Scotch Guards.  You know the ones that guard Buckingham Palace? Turns out they can smile!