Camelopardalids meteor shower 2014

This was one of those last minute adventures that I love so much. I found out about the meteor shower at around 10 am, and by 11 am I was packing for the trek east. It was scheduled to be cloudy near home, but I wasn't going to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to see this meteor shower. So I found a spot near Cle Elum where we could park the truck and see the stars; they allowed over night camping and the forcast was moderately clear which allowed us the ability to sleep in the bed of the truck. We invited our friends up to Speelyi Beach with us (they couldn't camp but wanted to see the shower). We started a fire because the meteor shower wasn't supposed to start until about 11ish, so we enjoyed a few hours of campfire while I set up the camera, the telescope and the bed of the truck for sleeping. I wish I would have had a little more time to set up my telescope better as well as my camera however it was still amazing. The cloud cover was intermittent and you could see so many stars. The meteor shower was pretty intense, bright streaks and pretty frequent. I was too excited about seeing the stars I didn't get my photography equipment set up the best, so a majority of my photos turned out blurry. The experience was well worth it and I can't wait to go back to Speelyi beach to camp again! The next meteor shower is mid August so hopefully we can get out to see that one also!

A few double exposures of robs head :P 

The Milky Way was visible 

We arrived at night so we didn't know what we were waking up to in the morning. It was beautiful, the sun was out and it was warm.

Hawaii Part 3

This guy lost his contact the first day we were there, so in many of the photos he had one eye closed :D

This picture was taken at a taco truck we found, I had so many fish tacos while in Hawaii..

Roosters roosters everywhere!

 We met tons of people who had some sort of affiliation with Washington everywhere we went. It was quite nice actually, and always a good conversation starter.

Robert and his guns...he had to get a picture of these bullet holes in the restrooms sign.

So glad we rented a car it made things so much easier. I almost went through a website to book one but when I called the day of they gave me a really really good deal! Sometimes its best to wait last minute.

best way to save money is buy your own drinks :D This thing made going to the beach extra fun

 This was the beach that Rob almost drowned..lol..It was Roberts first snorkel experience and my first time snorkeling to see tropical fish. It was really amazing even though the current was a bit strong. Roberts mask filled with water frequently because his nose doesn't really fit the mask properly. So when we were out really far I yelled out to him to see if he was ok; he just shook his head in terror while frantically trying to paddle back to shore. I swam over to him real quick and noticed his whole mask was full of water; I was able to tread water and keep him up while emptying his mask so I could help him swim back. Many new swimmers or people who aren't familiar with ocean swimming don't really understand how the currents work, they try to fight it and tire out quickly. I attempted to explain this to Robert before hand, although he didn't really understand.  Later we practiced in our hotels pool so he could get a better understanding of how to stay on top of the water and slow his breathing.

Hawaii Adventure PART 2

So as previously mentioned Robert is terrified of heights, he is also very very afraid of water. Our trip to Kauai involved both of Roberts fears on a daily basis, which is quite difficult for anyone...however he was super positive the whole time! I say take your partner and have them face their worst fears with you so you know how you both will react...LOL. It gave me confidence that we can handle most anything :D

On the way to Waimea Canyon (I later found out you can float this river, if we go back that is definitely happening)

Waimea Canyon (dat wind blowin his hairrrr)

Waimea Canyon

Wailua Falls

I like to explore, hike, and see things; I like to find the hole in the wall restaurant where the locals drink, I am a traveler, a wanderlust and the more Rob and I travel the more I  have noticed Robert seems to be a home body, (especially when the entire trip involved his fears). To try and make things more comfortable while we were there, we set up a sort of routine (found things that were like home or comforting). For me the hardest part about traveling is the food. On my birthday (which was also Mother's Day this year) Robert found a restaurant that was conducive to my tummy needs for our breakfast/brunch, it was called Common Grounds. The food was amazing and their music was just as good, Robert kept saying things like "This is your kinda place;" or "I bet you are the only person who knows this kind of music here." I think its comforting for him knowing my tummy is good. :P

Taro pancakes with Macadamia nuts~ HEAVENLY 

Tropical Fruit Brulee~creamy fruity amazingness

Fresh Fish Locks and Goat Cheese bagel

savoring his last bite :P

When you entered "Common Grounds" this is what you first see

One of my favorite things is animals; some of you know when I was younger I raised two chickens. I was ecstatic to see all the chickens and roosters in Kauai. This was on the way to breakfast and I had to shoo a mama and her babies off the road so I wouldn't squish them.

I also managed to catch a lizard (something that I also love to do). These lizards blend in with their surroundings and change colors! This one was brown until I was holding him then he turned bright green!

If you can see the tiny sand crab Robert caught, it blends in very well with the sand!

More about our snorkeling adventures to come! 

Hawaiian Adventures PART 1

Our trip was FANTASTIC! There were some bumps along the way (some of which are a little icky to post about ---and a few people have heard about one of them....---), all of which we have been laughing about since. We kept finding ourselves saying things like "I have never heard of this happening to anyone before..." or "Why is this happening now?". However nothing got us down and we had tons and tons of fun! 

Our first bump was our overweight bag....we were already late to the airport because our ride fell through (it's ok Bec I still love you :P ) and with our extremely organized bag (seriously it was so freaking organized...) we arrived at the ticket counter to check our bag and it was 12 lbs over weight. They wanted to charge us $125 to check it, which wasn't happening... This was entirely frustrating to me (because the night before I had asked Robert if we should weigh the bag and assured me it was perfectly fine) and extremely frazzling for Rob because he didn't know what to do except to pay it. I wanted to just move the 12 lbs to our carry-ons and chuck what we didn't absolutely need (which was what we did and it was a huge pain in the butt but it worked and on the way back we were way more prepared). That aside we finally made it to our gate with my trusty wheel chair service! They zipped us through security, making our journey to the gate pretty quick and simple. We made the 8 hour flight to Hawaii and checked in to our hotel. Which was beautiful by the way! 

Our room looked out onto the ocean, had vaulted ceilings, and had a nice balcony! 

The hotel after a big rain and wind storm

The hotel on the rainy day

hammocks at the hotel

View from our room

 We arrived really late at night, about 9pm Hawaii time (midnight our time) after which we ate and fell asleep. With my crappy sleep habits I woke up at about 3am (a usual occurrence for me) and I decided to go peek outside on the balcony to see how the stars were (this ended up waking Robert).  I am a junky for good stars; and they were amazing! Robert has never seen a super starry sky before, so when I heard him in the room asking what I was doing, I told him to come out and look. His face... I will never forget it.

I love showing him new things or bringing his attention to things he never really thought to look at.

The next day was spent on our zip-line adventure! This was a present from 4 of my amazing friends for our wedding! (Thanks again to Sammie, Calvin, Michael, and Joe!)

This was quite the adventure because if you know Robert, he is terrified of heights...and water...He physically shakes and gets goose bumps; but he was a trooper! After his first zip-line he had it down and was having a blast!

After we got all geared up

After he finished his first zip-line!

one of the zip-lines

They were pulling me in while he had to wait

There was a few couples zip-lines and this one took them a while for them to pull him in. He quietly hung over a giant drop taking selfies :P

Upside down while zip-lining down---yes we were moving and it was fast and scary but so much fun! Rob also went upside down!

That smile gets me everytime!

He was making some of the most hilarious poses and moves

<3

He seriously had the funniest poses while we would zip-line. The way the excursion worked is, you do a small hike to one zip-line, then zip to another and another, and hike to another and so on. There were about 7 lines, and the last one was the longest and the highest and we were the first to go! One of the assistance asked if we wanted to do it trust fall style (where you just go back backwards and drop off the edge), we looked at each other, and Rob said yeah we got this...and we just dropped off the edge. It was super fun and I am soooo glad we got to do it!

(more posts on hawaii to come!)