Wednesday, Jan 30th, 2008 - Getting ready to come home!

Hiya Bloggy,

Ok, I was going to say this is going to have to be a quick blog entry because I am really tired and have to get to bed. It's 11:15PM and it seems I've been getting up early just to get going in the morning. But, I have a bunch of pictures to add to the blog so maybe this entry I'll not talk as much and just put up the pictures :D Hahaha... this is going to have to be the last blog entry until I get home. I have one more full day at the beach (tomorrow - Thursday), then Friday is going to be a long day. I will be heading to the airport about 10:30am for my flight that leaves at 1:40pm. I'll get home about 9:15pm Vancouver time, but will be going out to Tsawwassen to pick up Bridget and my car. I can't wait to see that little schnauzer again!!! :)

Anywho... I digress! The pictures!! Let's see... where are we? Oh yes, it is Wednesday today. Gee, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Ok, on Sunday, I remember we were at the beach all day... and then we ended up staying a lot later than we normally do because it was Lumpy's birthday. Lumpy is one of the beach boys on Waikiki. Lumpy and Tommy are wonderful and they take good care of us. We have known them for years... and they are the ones who keep our chairs/umbrellas so that we don't have to be lugging them around every day, let alone every year. So, being that it was Lumpy's birthday, they had a BBQ birthday party for him and we all were invited to help celebrate with him. Here are some pictures from the birthday party on the beach...

This is Lumpy and part of our gang -- behind Lumpy from the left is Evan and Colleen, Chris, Doug, and Buddha (little Colleen).

Here's Lumpy and John Lovitz. Notice how Jon now has a good tan too? He gets here about the same time I do, give or take a few days... so we all show up here white...but end up leaving tanned. Lumpy, on the other hand, is tanned all year round since he lives here :)

Peggy is learning how to make leis out of ribbon and can tabs. Go figure, eh?? And they look gorgeous!

Hehehe... here's Tommy! The brat is sticking his tongue out at me!! I didn't realize that when I took this picture. But he and Lumpy are good guys and take good care of our group... I think we have grown on them :)

Here's Tommy playing with Prudence. Prudence is Miko Brando's daughter and Tommy has known her since she was just a wee toddler.

Here's a picture of Jon and Prudence. I just realize, I don't have any pictures of Miko Brando, although he was here at the party too.

I thought this was kind of a neat picture in sillouette. What it is is tandem surfers practising on the sand. This is where two people (usually a guy and a gal) are on the same surfboard and they do all these lifts, etc... almost like gymnatics, but all done on a surfboard. Kind of neat... although, I think when they do this on the sands of Waikiki, they tend to be showing off more than practising ;)

Ok... I think I may be out of sequence here... either that or I've lost track of the days, which is not unlikely . We are now going to jump to another party... this time it was at the condo that Doug and Marilyn were renting this vacation. It was one of the penthouse suites at the 4 Paddles Condo building. Nice condo ... but expensive to buy in Waikiki.

Here's a picture of Marilyn, Margie and Peggy. Aren't they cute?

And here is Marilyn, Buddha (Little Colleen) and Doug. Doug and Marilyn have adopted Buddha as their daughter and can be her Canadian parents. Colleen lives here in Hawaii and is going to school here (as well as working).

Hehehe... Peggy, Buddha and the "tongues" :)

Ok... last night some of us got together again at Doug and Marilyn's. We were going to order pizza and have an evening of playing our favourite card game, Quiddler, but we ended up eating appies and never did get around to ordering a pizza. I would show pictures of last night, but realized the are pretty much the same people as above so it wouldn't look any different than the last time (which I think was last Saturday).

Meanwhile, on Monday night, I met my old childhood friend, Julia and her husband Ken. We went to the Yard House for dinner and a few hours of chatting and catching up. I have only recently caught up with Julia again, but it had been like 40 years since we last saw each other! Here is a picture of her and I outside of the Yard House restaurant...

Aren't we just too cute???

Actually, Julia, Ken and I went out for dinner again tonight since I'll be heading home on Friday and they will be heading home on Saturday. Here's a picture of Julia and Ken at the restaurant tonight...

We went to Chili's Restaurant, which was very good and we had a good time yakking again. After having walked to the beach and back today... and then I walked to Chili's and back (Julia and Ken walked me back to my hotel after dinner), I was pretty tired and sore by the time I got back. But, we had done a bit of shopping at the International Market Place. I had found a dress this morning that I really like.. but do you think I could find the store again tonight??? Hahaha... so the three of us were on a mission to find the store... and we ended up finding it!! :)

Ok... so I'll end this blog entry with a head and shoulders shot of me to show those of you who I won't be seeing in person, that I really am coming home with a tan :)

Ya, ya, ya... I know some of you are going to say I look RED!! Well, I guess I sort of do but that is because we had major monsoon rains the last couple of mornings and then trade winds in the afternoon... so a lot of this "red" colour is actually wind burn ;) I am past the "sun burn" stage... but wind burn can happen whenever there is a wind around here :)

Oh wait... somewhere around here I have a picture I took outside my lanai door yesterday morning. This is a picture of the monsoons that I was talking about... unbelievable rain...



Ok... that is it for now! Next time you hear from me, I will be back in Vancouver. Not only am I looking forward to getting back to see my darling little Bridget and the diva-monster bird, C.B., but I have to admit, I will feel a whole lot more comfortable once I've seen my docs and gotten these various aches/pains taken care of. I had really thought that coming here and having the warmer climate hit these aching joint/muscles, I'd be back to my old self... so you can imagine my surprise to find out I'm no where near like my old self! Well, not yet. Maybe it's a little early yet.. but hopefully we can get that all straightened out when I get home :)

Sooooo... alooooha, my friends!! I'll see a whole bunch of you when I get home ... and catch up with the rest of you in email :)

Aloooooha!

Cheryl