Peg’s Journal

A week after our return, I’m finally getting around to posting about our trip. I almost considered stealing text from BriYam (since he and Matthew went on the same cruise AND ship as we did the week prior…they were probably disembarking as we were getting on), but that would be lazy and weak. Besides, they did much more exciting stuff than we did. HAHA! The most time-consuming part was uploading ALL the pictures from our cameras (almost 1000) and selecting some to share with y’alls. Enjoy!

Saturday 9.02.06
LAX to Honolulu-
We got to port and checked in by noon. Met up with my parents, had lunch, explored the ship a bit, participated in the mandatory lifeboat drill, settled in, and tried putting the kids down for a nap (they were really tired from having to wake up so early for our 8am flight out of LAX). Unfortunately, they were too excited to sleep.
We ordered room service for the kiddies in preparation of dropping them off at the Kids Club (on-ship childcare program) so Aric and I could join my parents, Sis, and Joe for dinner. But…*brake sound*…they both fell asleep right after eating…at 8pm!!! Needless to say, we didn’t go out. Our first night onboard and we spent it ordering room service (again), watching TV, and going over shore excursions.
At least our request for a room upgrade came through. We moved from a tiny 10′ X 8′ stateroom cabin to a spacious two-room family suite! P.I.M.P!

Sunday 9.03.06
Hilo, Hawaii-
The kiddies were up bright and early. We had breakfast with my family before going ashore for our sightseeing tour.
We drove to Wailuku River State Park and Rainbow Falls. Stopped off at Nani Mau Botanical Gardens before having lunch at Volcano House (overlooking Kilauea Volcano) at Volcanoes National Park. Next, we drove along Crater Rim to Hawaii Volcano Observatory and the Jaggar Museum. My favorite was our hike through the Thurston Lava Tube. It was absolutely breathtaking! Lastly, we visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory for macadamia ice cream and souveniers for our friends. Which seems kinda funny now because it’s not like I can’t get them here at the local Marukai/Mitsuwa stores (for cheaper even). But when everyone’s grabbing, I have to get in on it too. HAHAHA!
Almost at every stop, we would see my parents, Sis, Joe, and their friends. Being veteran “cruisers”, my parents know not to buy into shore excursions. They saw everything we saw at a fraction of the price.
The kiddies managed to stay up for us to have dinner with my family. YAY!

Monday 9.04.06
Kahului, Maui-
One thing about being away from home, the news seems so surreal. Word of Steve Irwin’s death played on CNN the moment I woke up. I was shocked and saddend. I adored his show and will miss his zaniness. Ironically, we had planned to show the kiddies turtles, fishes, sharks, jellies, and stingrays at Maui Ocean Center. Though small, we thoroughly enjoyed the aquarium. We made it back to the ship for a late lunch and some swimming at the kiddie-pool.
We enjoyed our first dinner in the formal dining room - Skyline Restuarant. Summer had a lot more stamina than her big sister….Ashlyn fell asleep after two bites of her dinner.

Tuesday 9.05.06
Kahului, Maui-
We opted to stay onboard and spend the day at the pool. The kiddies swam with my dad while I worked on my tan. It was a really relaxing day. The kids had fun, took a long nap, ate an early dinner, and went to Kid’s Club while Aric and I joined my family for formal night dinner. It was awesome! Our first (and last) evening dining without the kiddies. Aric had to pick up the kiddies before we were served our dessert. They joined us at the restaurant. Unlike the previous night, Ashlyn indulged in sorbet while Summer fell fast asleep in my lap.

Wednesday 9.06.06
Kona, Hawaii-
We took a tenderboat to shore with my family. We didn’t venture very far….just walked along the beach, shared shave ice, took pictures, and shopped the local stores. The kiddies kept bugging to swim at the pool again so we returned to the ship, had lunch, and spent the afternoon poolside.
In the afternoon, I slipped away for a facial and spa treatment with Sis (compliments of Mom). It was heavenly!
We had dinner with my family in a different formal dining room - Liberty Restaurant. I enjoyed these dinners, because it was the only time I got to get all dressed up and look nice. It was Ashlyn’s turn to pass out at dinner. It really cracked me up that the girls “took turns” zonking out at dinner. HAHAHAHA!

Thursday 9.07.06
Nawiliwili, Kauai-
My family decided to rent two cars and drive up to Waimea Canyon. I’ve never been to Kauai before, and I found it to be the most beautiful island of all the islands. The view from the Canyon offered such vivid colors…the reds and browns of volcanic rock mingled with the blue and green hues of the ocean and lush tropical vegetation. It was really spectacular and I don’t know if our photos even do it justice. I also loved the quaint villages and beautiful beaches. I tripped out on all the chickens running loose everywhere…and I mean EVERYWHERE!
We had lunch at the kiddies’ fave - McDonalds. It was a pleasant change from all the big buffets and fancy dinners we were having. I was fighting a bit of carsickness (from the bumpy drive back down from the Canyon), and opted for a Subway sandwich instead. Afterwards, we drove down to Poipu Beach and frolicked in the water. The girls swam with their grandpa while I collected a handful of small seashells to add to Ashlyn’s collection.
We got back to the ship in time to get ready for another formal night dinner. This time, surprisingly, no one fell asleep at dinner. YAY! HAHAHA!

Friday 9.08.06
Nawiliwili, Kauai-
On our last day of cruise, we decided to stay onboard. Spent the day relaxing, hanging out by the pool, drinking beers, soaking up the sun, swimming, taking in a show, and begin packing up our stuff.
We dropped the kiddies off at Kid’s Club for the evening…only to get paged 5 minutes later because Summer cried so hard that she puked. Poor Baby! Aric, Summer, and I decided to eat dinner at The Diner. I don’t know why we didn’t eat there sooner…it was so yum! We had garlic fries, spinach-artichoke dip, buffalo wings, potato leek soup, fried chicken, chili dog, hot fudge sundae, and blueberry cheesecake. YUM! We ordered fried chicken to go for Ashlyn. We all turned in early that night.

Saturday 9.09.06
Honolulu, Oahu-
After disembarking, we waited by the Aloha Tower for a tour bus to pick us up. Did I mention that we were on this trip with my parents, Sis & Joe, and 40+ of my parents’ friends?! Yeah, we roll deep! hehehe Did I also mention that originally this was supposed to be an Alaskan Cruise?! Yeah, the travel agency had overbooking complications and offered Hawaii at the very last minute. Because of all the last minute travel arrangements, we had nearly 12 hours to kill before our flight out, so the agency generously arranged a day-tour for us.
We had lunch in Chinatown (wow, I missed chinese food), Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery, up in the mountains somewhere, Diamondhead Crater, Hanauma Bay, Oahu Kamehameha, back to Chinatown for dinner, then to the airport. I was really tired and didn’t really feel like getting off the bus at each stop. And as you already know, our flight home was no fun…no fun at all.

Of course, it’s never a “vacation” (in my definition) with little ones. It was an adventure from the moment we left our front door till we returned home. On this entire cruise, Aric and I never got to leave the cabin after dinner. No nightlife for us. No sleeping in. No lounging and reading and sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them.
But on the plus side, it was a nice change of scenery for this desperate housewife. I love spending time with Aric and our kids….8 whole days was a real treat! I got to watch a lot of movies on this trip (”Just My Luck”, “Guess Who”, “Ocean’s 12″, “The Fantastic Four”, “Love Actually”, “Under the Tuscan Sun”, “Walk the Line”, “RV”, “Dodgeball”, “The Incredibles”, and some that I can’t remember at the moment). I got to spend time with my parents, as well as my sister and her new husband. So many great and memorable moments to cherish. All in all, we had a really GREAT time!

My only regret was not having Wil with us. And not having enough time to look up May, Lyle & D-Nice, and Gracie! Next time, eh?

*sigh* Never fails… misspellings or poor grammar on public signs, menus, and in this case…karaoke songlist book.

Happy Friday! Pictures of food and other random things on our trip.

Have a good weekend!

Early on, I told myself to be carefree and have great time no matter what may happen….because a couple years back (when I vacationed with my family sans Aric), I was a bit of a basketcase. Being a first-time parent, I stressed over the baby’s eating and sleeping schedules, constantly cleaning, folding, refolding, and organizing my diaper bag and luggage tediously EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! I was on edge and snappy…annoying everyone, including myself. HAHA! This time I was going to loosen up, be flexible, go with the flow, and roll with the punches.

But nothing quite prepared me for the disasterous start of our trip. I like to call it my Amazing Race vacation. Without getting into it too much (I’m saving it for another post), the kids and I missed our flight to SFO (where we were going to meet and fly with Wil and my parents). I had to purchase a one-way ticket on the next flight out to San Jose (we had just missed the cutoff for the SF flight by 10 minutes) on Southwest. My parents made arrangements to pick us up in SJ and shuttle us to SFO (all of this had set all of us behind schedule by an hour). We arrived in SJ, but our luggage DID NOT. To avoid delaying us further , we took off to catch our flight in SFO without luggage. We nearly missed our flight to Taiwan. *exhale* I swear, it was such a Murphy’s Law kinda morning. Going to another country with only a diaper bag felt really weird.

I’m not good at travelogues like dear Winnie. So to spare you any boredom, I’ll just highlight the days. Links to photo albums in the dates…happy clicking!

11.16.05
- flew San Francisco to Nagoya to Taipei
- watched “Batman Begins”, “A Perfect Man”, and “Bruce Almighty”

11.17.05
- explore Panchiao on foot with Wil and kiddies
- finding out that Wil had stolen wireless internet connection at my grandma’s house!
- meet parents and parents’ friends for coffee at Mitsukoshi Center
- dinner with my paternal grandmother and relatives in Yan Ming San

11.18.05
- morning stroll through the street market
- shabu shabu lunch with my maternal grandmother and uncles
- visit Taipei 101
- bought a warm sweater
- shop Nightmarkets with Wil, Mom, and kiddies
- bought 3 pairs of fun shoes and tons o’ stuff for the kids

11.19.05
- shopped at the street market…bought cool jeans
- huge luncheon with family, long lost relatives, and friends in Yan Ming San
- visit with paternal grandmother
- amazing dinner at DOZO with Wil and friends (sans kiddies)

11.20.05
- morning stroll along the market with Dad
- got a massage, hairwash, and fobby haircut. dun like it.
- lunch with aunt and uncle at maternal grandmother’s house
- luggage finally arrived via FedEX!!!!! YAY for Southwest Airlines!
- Tom’s World (like Chuck E Cheese) with Wil and kiddies
- yummy foodcourt food at FarEast Mall for dinner
- shop Shi-Lin Nightmarket (the largest in Taipei) with Wil and kiddies

11.21.05
- visit maternal grandmother’s side of the family in Keelung (fishing town)
- awesome homecooked lunch!
- karaoke
- dinner in Taipei with family and parents’ friend
- shop Nightmarkets in the rain
- scored crazy loot and bought a 22″ roller (to fit all the stuff we accumulated) HAHAHA!

11.22.05
- lunch with my great uncle and aunt at Ding Taifung
- kicked it at their luxury highrise
- visited with more relatives
- Summer rushed to the emergency (slipped, fell, and bit down on her lip) Thankfully no stitches required.
- took the kiddies to Tom’s World with Mom and Dad
- yummy foodcourt dinner at FarEast Mall

11.23.05
- morning visits from more relatives
- visit Long San (Dragon Mountain) Temple
- visit and shabu shabu lunch with paternal grandmother and relatives
- shop fashion district with Mom, Wil, kiddies, aunt, and cousin
- Tom’s World for kiddies (yes, again)
- foodcourt dinner at FarEast Mall (yes, again…but they have such yummy selections!)
- pack

11.24.05
- breakfast with grandma
- shuttle pick up at 7:30am
- flew Taipei to Narita to San Francisco to LA

I’ve said this a dozen times already, and I’ll say it again…we had such a great time on our trip. We accomplished what we set out to do: relax, visit with as many relatives and friends as possible, and shop and eat to our hearts content. It was awesome! I kinda wished we had stayed a little longer…8 days was just too short. The kids had so much fun and were very well behaved. I just loved seeing how attached they have grown to my parents, Wil, uncle, and my grandmothers. For me, that in itself, was the best part!

After a year of talking about it, my dad and younger sister finally set forth on their trip to Peru last weekend. So cool! This morning I got Wil’s email, and thought I’d share it:

Hello friends and family,

Sorry for the mass email, I hope this email finds you all well. Ít´s day six into my Peruvian adventure and it´s hard to believe that I still have 8 days left. Ít´s already been such an amazing experience and I´ve yet to hit the highlight of my trip which is the trek to Machu Picchu.

I can only speak for myself, but I think it´s fair to say that Dad and I are having a great time. We arrived on early Sunday morning, having taken the redeye to Lima, Peru from LAX. It´s only an 8.5 hour flight and Peru is only two hours ahead of Pacific time, so not much adjustment was needed. We spent our free day in Lima taking a private city tour, visiting the city center, a few landmarks and a monastery - including the monastery´s catacombs and enjoyed some self-guided exploring around the Miraflores district. We met the rest of our small group that evening for dinner. We´re the only two Americans. There are 4 Canadians (eh..), 2 Australians, 2 Irish and our tour coordinator hails from South Africa. It´s a nice group. Dad´s the oldest and I´m second to the youngest.

The next day (Monday) was a bit of a planes-trains-automobile kind of day, but more accurately, commercial flight-private charter plane-minibus-canoe. We were traveling from the capital city into Puerto Maldonado, a small town in the Amazon Rainforest. After a few hiccups, we made it there. I didn´t complain though. Since our commercial flight was sold out, me and dad got to take a 9 seater Piper Cheyenne III private charter flight, where I got a birds-eye view of the Andes mountain range and then eventually, the dense rainforest jungle and the Amazon River which literally snakes through the area. But the plane was tiny and the turbulence was nerve-wrecking so I can see why people were a bit apprehensive.

We got to our place via a motorized canoe that glides very low along the river and since it was dark by the time we got to our Lodge (since we were behind schedule), we hiked the 15-minute trail to our ¨home” by flashlight. Enough to see the path, some hairy huge tarantulas the size of my palm and some rodents scrurrying in the bushes. We´re talking rodents the size of a 40-pound dog. Nasty. Our lodge was literally in the middle of the rainforest - no electricity, no hot water. The plus was that due to the pitch darkness, you can see the Milky Way and all the constellations (well, at least, those visible from the Southern Hemisphere). We had only kerosene lamps, candles to light our way and I had to use my bottled water to wash my face and brush my teeth. Our beds had mosquito nets thankfully, but our room was open to the rainforest. The side that faces the jungle had no wall so that we can hear the monkeys, birds, insects, get the fresh air and of course, share our room with possums and other critters at night. They were looking in my backpack, I think, for my Balance Bars. Anyhow, I can go on and on, but I´ll try to provide a snapshot for the rest…. we awoke at 4am for the next couple of mornings. During my stay there, we hiked A LOT, rode on a catamaran, and thanks to my binoculars, saw some amazing birds - macaws, hawks, kingfishers, hoatzins, cardinals and monkeys swinging through the trees. Also saw lots of butterflies. The highlight was seeing a jaguar with my bare eyes. It was beautiful and according to the books, there is only a 1% chance of seeing a jaguar. So I guess I should go out and buy a lottery ticket. The last morning there, I climbed an 8-story tower to situate myself above the rainforest canopy to watch the sunrise. It was fantastic and well worth the early morning rise, the flashlight hike and the climb.

Now I´m in Cusco, which is the old Inca capital of the world. We´re roughly two miles above sea level, high up in the Andes mountains. Some folks are suffering altitude sickness. Luckily, I feel okay. Just a bit short of breath due to the very thin air and a bit slower moving. (Ivy, remember Haleakala? It´s higher than that.) The city is more, much much more, than I expected. It´s very hard to describe and I fear my pictures won´t do it justice. Some people say it´s like being in some fairyland, but I like the ancient (almost medieval) look and feel with the cobblestone streets, architecture and the surrounding mountain homes. We went to visit a few Inca ruins yesterday already — Saqsaywaman, Qénqo and Pukapukara. It´s hard to believe how those ancient civilizations built these fortresses and cities out of stone all by hand. Some of these boulders weigh 100 tons. I´ve had a chance, both yesterday and today, to eat some really good local Peruvian and Cusquenan food (and beer and spirits). Today, I got to sleep in (meaning I didn´t have to wake up at 4am) and I walked the city with dad. The city is bustling since it´s Fiestas Patrias today - Peru´s Indepedence Day. So there´s lots of celebrating. The city doesn´t get started with their partying until close to 11pm, so I imagine tonight, it will be sheer craziness. As it is, last night, the central plaza (where I´m at) was filled with about 1,000 people partying at a live concert. I keep forgetting it´s dead of winter, so it´s really really cold at night. But it doesn´t seem to stop people from coming out.

Tomorrow and the next day we depart for the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo and then onto Agua Calientes (some hot springs). These are all along the Inca Trail which will culiminate to our trip to Machu Picchu on Sunday. Although, I´m considering heading in myself first on Saturday after a soak in the hot springs, to explore at my leisure. Don´t think Dad is up to it, but I may go on ahead. I´d like to take in as much of Machu Picchu as possible.

Well, that´s the update thus far. I wish I could have everyone here to see what I´m seeing. It´s been physically strenous (and we didn´t shower for a few days while in the jungle), but all very worthwhile.

Okay, I´m done downloading my pictures onto a CD here to free up my memory card, so I´m heading back out to get accosted by the locals and their llamas :-). Dad and I had a nice lunch overlooking the square, but he headed back to our hotel for his own little ´´siesta.´´ As for me, I´m going to continue my solo exploration of the city.

Take care. See you soon,
Wil

*sigh* I’m so jealous!…at the same time, I know that I couldn’t hang with hiking Machu Picchu or brave monster tarantulas/rodents. Dad and Wil both share the same zest for traveling and adventure. Wishing them a fun rest-of-the-trip and a safe return.

JOURNAL for 11.21.04 thru 11.29.04

Honestly, do you really want to read about my cruise?…or would seeing pictures be enough?

Out of 1,737 pictures my family and I took, I put together an album I’m comfortable sharing with everyone.

Highlights of our cruise/trip:
- The Norwegian Star’s upscale cruise liner
- “Freestyle” dining
- seeing cliffdivers in Acapulco
- swimming in the gorgeous lagoons of Zihuatanejo
- banana boating with my nieces
- parasailing in Puerto Vallarta! unbelievably adventurous of me!
- seeing familiar sights of Cabo San Lucas and being able to share them with Aric
- having unlimited bacon and cream of wheat for breakfast everyday! YUM!
- tons of great food, great fun, great laughs with great company!

Lowlights of our cruise/trip:
- Ashlyn, Summer, and I caught a cold on the second day
- Ashlyn projectile-vomitted 5 minutes into our bus tour in Acapulco. I’m sure the whole bus hated us because the bus reeked!!! HAHAHA!
- not really being able to enjoy the nightlife on the cruise ship. Oh well….next time.

This cruise was an amazing treat that I will cherish for years to come. Reason being, this was the first vacation my parents took with all three daughters, son-in-laws, and granddaughters. With everyone’s busy/conflicting schedules, an opportunity like this may never come again.
I had the best time and a very memorable Thanksgiving. MY FAMILY ROCKS!!!