Hawaii - Day 1

While we technically aren't in Hawaii yet, not even on the plane yet! - it's still day one of our vacation. We came up to Portland last night, getting to Larry and Dorothy's house around 10 pm. In an effort to cut down on the amount of school work Jay will have on our trip he then stayed up until about 3 am (not a typo!) working on class discussions. We arranged for a cab ahead of time to pick us up at 6:20 for a ride to the nearest Max station. I let Jay "sleep in" until 5:50. Our cab driver, while very punctual, was also a very slow driver and didn't actually know where our destination was, leaving Jay to play navigator. At one point our driver stated that the station was through a Fred Meyer parking lot....and so that's where we went - a detour through a strip mall. $17 later we made it to the station and caught an earlier Max then we anticipated.

Check in was a breeze since we managed most of the process online. Jay is bringing his Bike Friday - it folds into a handy carrier - so that was checked. Security went pretty well except for a search of Jay's bag because his bike pedals and bike light came up suspicious! Still 2 hours early we enjoyed some breakfast at Rose's Bakery and soon we are headed to the gate!

We landed in Honolulu about 30 minutes early. Unsuccessful at changing to an earlier flight we are now hanging out in a courtyard, with sandals on, short sleeves...I forgot what this feels like! Next flight is in about 90 minutes.

We arrived at the Kona airport right about 5 pm and hopped on our rental car shuttle.  With a full shuttle we devised a plan for Jay to get our bags off the bus while I zipped inside and ahead of everyone else.  Plan: successful!  By 5:30 we were driving away from the airport in our little economy car.  We headed straight to our sleeping quarters- a yurt-like abode with a bed, closet, desk, tv, and one chair.  Detached bathroom included, as is breakfast.  After check-in and a few tips from one of the owners on local dining, we went back down to the shopping area and decided, since we were super hungry, on Ultimate Burger.  Not quite fast food, all of the beef is locally grown and organic.  The burgers and fries weren't cheap but were mighty tasty!
  We didn't linger very long as were were both pretty tuckered out from our very long day.

Hawaii Bound!

In less than 24 hours Jay and I will be en route to The Big Island!  This is the biggest adventure we have taken together since our Mexico trip in 2008.  We've had a flurry of packing and laundry but are almost set to go.  Shep has been delivered to a kennel outside Corvallis to play with other doggies for the next week.  Jay and I are both feverishly wrapping up things at our jobs to be gone for so long.  Flights have been checked into! 
  Stay tuned for stories and pictures!

Another day, another drama

And then there was the story about our vehicles. Jay and I have both been pretty lucky with our cars over time. This is saying a lot when you consider that Jay went through a phase of wanting to have a bio-diesel-consuming rig and set himself up with a 1978 VW Rabbit Pickup - top speed: 55 mph...downhill...in good weather. But for the last 5 years or so Jay has had his blue Subaru wagon, which has travelled the I-5 corridor a few times, braving snow and rain, high waters and a shredded undercarriage thanks to someone's wheel-containing tire falling into the road during a dark and rainy night.  
As for me, I still drive my trusty Sentra, the wonderful 16th birthday gift that has kept on giving, faithfully transporting me from point A to point Z.  Two trips from Corvallis to Salt Lake City.  A trip from Corvallis to San Francisco.  Drives from Davis to Hells Canyon Dam, numerous holiday treks between Oregon and California, and even a trip to British Columbia.  Not to mention my daily commute, which adds 150 miles a week.  
The day after Christmas, as we made our way back to Corvallis from a fun-and family-filled few days in Portland, the Subaru stalled on I-5 about 30 minutes from home.  Thankfully traffic was at a painful crawl due to an earlier accident and we (and by "we" I mean Jay) were easily able to get to the left shoulder and out of traffic.  About 30 minutes into our wait for the tow truck we had a visit from an Incident Response truck wanting to move us across all three lanes of traffic and up the nearest off-ramp.  We proceeded to be bumped and pushed up the next exit with sirens and lights blaring behind us.  We were perched atop the off-ramp in a nice gravel bed to wait out the next 15 minutes.  We had some very nice passersby stop and offer the use of their cell phone, though fortunately we did not need their services.  
We made it home after the Subaru was loaded onto the flat bed truck (All Wheel Drive has some disadvantages if you ever need to be towed) and the next morning made arrangements for a re-tow to the mechanic shop of our choosing.  As I said my goodbyes to Jay and my Mom, who came down to visit for a few days during school break, I hopped in the Sentra to drive to work and was met with a car that wouldn't start.  Seriously?  Is it really possible to have 2 cars that aren't working at the exact same time?  What are the odds!??!  A quick call to AAA and a tow truck was on its way for the Sentra.  My awesome Mom agreed to drive me to work (oh High School days, how I love to relive thee) while my awesome Jay saw to the Sentra's delivery to another mechanic shop in Corvallis.  
By Tuesday we had the Subaru back, a minor issue that was easily repaired at a friendly price...something about a spark plug?  By Wednesday we learned that the Sentra being due for a major service was no joke, so 4 times the sticker price of the Subaru's repairs later and my up-til-now trusty steed was back in business.
  Fast forward to a week and a half later.  On my way to work, NPR filling the Sentra's cabin, my car starts bucking like a pony at the Hermiston Rodeo.  Engine light flashes...more bucking...not sure what to do my only solution is to forge ahead, slowing down, crossing my fingers, and turning off the radio and heater (because of course that will be the difference between continuing and stalling....) Envisioning a frightening scenario of being stuck on the side of highway 34 (I realize this isn't the worst thing to happen, but I have a vivid imagination) I immediately call AAA when I get to work, asking for a tow back to Corvallis because I fear not being able to make it home that night.  
2 days later we learn that all of this drama was caused by a simple issue of an injector connector cap not being seated properly...right.  So again life continues.  UNTIL....dun dun DUNNNNNN:  Last Tuesday, driving home from work, Jay is busy putting in his 10th of 12 hours worked that day (that's a whole other post) and it happens...maybe 7 miles from work all of a sudden the Check Engine light flashes and the tachometer lets go.  From my (unnecessarily high but going with the flow) speed of 65 mph I ride out the momentum until I come to a stop about 100 feet from a meat market.  This time I call the mechanic shop and manage to reach the owner right before closing time.  He sends out a tow truck, which arrives in about 20 minutes.  Now I have to admit that having my car die on the highway was not nearly as theatrical as I had imagined - no dark figures lurking alongside the road or jumping out from behind the meat market sign.   And while I hope it never happens again I now know that I can be a big girl about it.  We get to the mechanic shop in enough time for my stewing to lessen a bit, though I now have exhausted all 4 of my annual allotment of car tows from AAA- all in less than one month's time between both cars.  I greet the shop owner with some sarcasm about how awesome my night is going, thinking to myself, and to borrow a line from the great phrase ruiner G.W. Bush, "Fool me once - shame on me...Fool me twice?  You can't fool me twice!"  This time I better have a good reason for all of this car not working nonsense.  
  Two more days pass and the Sentra has been running fine for the mechanics, of course.  They really earn my admiration for not charging us for the two days of trying to get the car to fail again with no luck.  All they can tell me is that the car will fail again...it's just a matter of when.  Could it really be over?  Have my "Crystal Cruiser" days really come to an end?  If this was a movie we would now cut to a montage of the my life with the Sentra, "Memories" playing as you see me test driving the car two months before my birthday, then the day it shows up in the driveway and we are destined to be together forever, my first drive to college as I cry about leaving the comfort of my hometown, my first major road trip to Canada with friends when I got rear-ended in bumper-to-bumper holiday traffic, then longer journeys to visit Jay in Utah and CA, the Sentra happily packed to the gills for my move to Davis and subsequent move back to Corvallis...then me watching the Sentra sit alone in a dark driveway, cold from not being driven, both of us with a tear in our eye/headlight...oh how I love to anthropomorphize everything.  
My little Sentra buddy sits, for now, in front of the house, relegated to back up vehicle around town until we decide what to do.  Should I become brave enough to drive it and be met with a stalled car the mechanics have given me contact numbers so they can come diagnose the problem as soon as possible.  But compared to the value we can get from the Sentra, any major repairs may just never happen.  Time will tell what happens!  For now I am thankful that we at least have the Subaru, in working condition - knock on wood, for me to get to and from work while Jay happily rides his bike around town, rain or shine.  

2010 Recap

2010 has been quite a rollercoaster year for us.  We've had highs with our engagement and wedding and lows with the passing of two family members.  We have managed to make a few home improvements, with more to come in 2011, and to refinance our little house, better enabling us to make said improvements.  We have had blows to our ego with a job cut and then a much deserved ego boost from a second job.  We've been accepted to grad school and have become a certified Assisted Living Administrator (only in title, not in position....yet!).  We biked many miles and weaved yards of yarn into various accessories.  We became the big reason for our families to get together this year and hope that 2011 will bring about more family gatherings.
We know that we are very fortunate to be employed, healthy and sheltered in our home and look forward to whatever 2011 has in store for us, which will of course only be positive and fun.  Like the Hawaii trip we are taking in February!  Get jealous!
  Happy New Year!
Love,
Crystal and Jay

The holiday

Jay and I were lucky enough to get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice - on the actual holiday evening with Brynn and Robert, and then on the following Saturday with my family in Newberg.  On the drive to Newberg we stopped in McMinnville at the Evergreen Aviation Museum and met up with my family for a tour.  Larry was a volunteer at this museum for a few years, though Jay didn't have the chance to visit until now.  We had a great time reading the signs and walking through a history of air travel.  
When we came to the Spruce Goose Jay and I went into the belly of the wooden beast and found that the cockpit has been blocked off, only to be accessed by those who made an additional purchase.  As luck would have it, a gentleman was heading into the restricted area with a museum volunteer when he announced that 5 are allowed into the cockpit though he was a party of 1.  We jumped on the chance and headed up the little spiral staircase.  What a great experience!  We spent about 15 minutes in the large cockpit and got to sit in the pilot and co-pilot seats!  The photo where I am looking out the windows shows a section of the plane where the wood paneling was removed and the windows added later.  We were told that the cockpit used to be open to the public for viewing at all times until enough items were stolen and graffiti added to the walls that the Goose's access had to be restricted.  We felt very special to get to see this space. 
  We finished up with the Spruce Goose and took in as much as we could of the other planes in the building, though we could have easily spent another 2 hours learning from the amazing volunteer docents.  We then walked over to the Space section of the museum, housed in an identical building.  Jay and I will need to take another trip up to the museum and dedicate more time as we eventually had to tear ourselves away.  The museum is working on securing a space shuttle to add to their collection - we will definitely have to see that!!

Saturday Jay and I visited Larry for most of the morning and stopped to see Grandma Liz before heading back to Newberg for turkey dinner #2.  

Before and during dinner Karsyn entertained us all with her black olive finger tricks!  Then we finished the night with pie and a viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  Which then sparked a whole conversation and research project on the many variations of Lime Jell-o (people actually put tuna in their jello dishes...yipes!).  The rest of the weekend we kept pretty entertained by Karsyn (except for Shep...Shep was not amused) and a stroll around my sister's neighborhood before heading home.  Enjoy some photos!

In the News!

I wanted to share an article from my hometown newspaper about a health study that my mom is working on.  My mom, Ramona, is the School Resource Nurse for the Hermiston School District in Eastern Oregon.  This isn't the first time she's been featured in the paper for her hard work.  Pretty cool to know someone famous!

Earlier this year Jay and I visited my mom in Hermiston. It happened to have recently been School Nurse Day.  As we were driving to breakfast we happened upon a Thank You sign to my mom at my old grade school!

Make like a leaf..

..and fall all over our yard!  Our beautiful and full trees are in the process of shedding their leaves all over the yard.  While this has posed as a huge burden to us in the prior two years of homeownership, this year the leaves are quite welcome!  Since the yard project is on hold for the winter we are counting on the leaves to create a nice barrier between us and the mud pit that otherwise would be our yard. In an effort to help the leaves break down over time to provide more of a mulch, we picked up a lead shredder/blower/vacuum and Jay excitedly got to work.  Turns out the little machine can't really handle the massive amount of leaves we produce and wet leaves are a definite no go!  So back to the store went the little machine (minus the stylish canvas bag Jay is modeling...that didn't make it back in the box. Whoopsy!)

Thanks to Craigslist we picked up a gently used chopper that can macerate branches up to 2" in diameter.  We look forward to trying that bad boy out when the conditions are a little dryer in about, oh, 5 months or so.  

So now we have a few bare trees and those dang Sweet Gums that just won't stop torturing us - please drop your leaves!!  Enjoy the gallery below.