One Year Ago: Hana, Maui

One year ago today Rose and I were in Hana, a small city on the edge of a rain forest on Maui. It is the craziest 25 mile, 2.5 hour drive I have ever been on, but very worth it. We spent two of our honeymoon days there. It is a totally different place than the rest of Maui because there is nothing to do tourist wise. The only decent hotel there costs over $450 a night (obviously we didn't stay there). It was a nice relaxing escape from the rest of the island. I went body surfing here because the waves were much bigger than where we had stayed before. If you ever go to Maui and really want to escape from it all, look online for condos in Hana. I found our place using this site. Enjoy the pictures.

The Anniversary Trip

Thanks to both my parents and Rose's parents, Rose and I were able to go on a two day adventure up to the mountains for our anniversary. I spent hours looking for the perfect place to stay that would also allow us to get up into the snow. I found an awesome BnB in Parkdale and thought we could just go tubing after our night stay there.

Parkdale is about 20 minutes south of Hood River, towards Mt. Hood. At about 2100 feet, Mary (our host) said they have snow almost throughout all of December through spring break. Old Parkdale Inn was a great place. We went on a walk in the snow, walked to dinner across the street, and watched 2 movies. We had made plans to go to Skibowl and go tubing on their "upper and extreme hills." Snowboarding was too expensive since we didn't have any gear and tubing is always fun. About 20 minutes from Government Camp we hit the "chains required" sign and pulled off to put them on. I had borrowed some from my dad. Well dumb me thought they would work just fine...my dad did too. But..........they didn't. They were too small. I even took two links off and they were still too small. On to plan B. I knew that Cooper Spur wasn't too far from where we were chaining up. So we turned around and went up there. I knew they had tubing there, but little did I know how lame it would be. Sure if you have five year olds that you want to take skiiing or tubing, Cooper Spur is a great place. But for Rose and I it was a waste of $20 to go on probably 10 tube runs on their "extreme" hill that was basically a joke. At least it was snowing the whole time.
From there we trekked back down to Hood River and got coffee and candy for the ride home. As you can see I was dressed for the occasion and quite happy about our awesome tubing time.
We came home and went to Red Lobster for dinner. Thanks to my Minnesota grandparents for that one :).
And then we shared in one of the weirdest traditions I had never heard of until I got married. Eating one year old cake. It had been frozen for a year and thawing in the fridge for a week....and it actually tasted pretty good. Good job April. All in all, a great weekend. First time away from home we had, outside of holidays, since August. Rose really needed the RnR at the BnB and of course the snow was AMAZING.



How was your weekend?

Ode to One

Today is a special day. Rose and I have been married for one year. It has been a pretty standard year I guess. Full of change, financial struggles, and uncertainty.

Some memories of our first year:

-The wedding. Everything went perfectly.

-10 days in Maui. My first tropical vacation, perfect weather, two days in a rain forest.-3 weeks in Alaska. After I quit my business job and Rose graduated, we took off to her parents' place for 3 weeks. Looking back I can't believe we stayed for that long, but I sure fished a lot.
-Deciding to serve at Sunset.
-Rose graduating from college.
-Spending Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's with my family. -Me getting through my first semester of seminary without any C's.
-Anonymous gifts during times of need.
-3 days in Canada with my mom's side of the family.
-Growing up together.

The Day in Pictures

I got the World Series I wanted. Colorado v. Boston. It will be great.
Rose and I spent some of the day at Multnomah Falls. It was a pretty decent day. It even got sunny....I know amazing isn't it? Anyways, it was good to get out of town (45 minute drive at least) and spend the day together. Hope you all had a good weekend. Time for bed.