deev's adventure: October 2009

well, happening if you like beaches and shopping and tourist. haha.

oh, first, the hike over the long weekend with grae me and liz (who i am going to start working for woot woot) and a few other people. some good conversations and a fun group of people to be away with. it was raining on the saturday night and we were leaving on the sunday, so i rang grae me to ask if we were still meeting at 6:59am at central the next day (hoping he would say, no, we're going to cancel... but he didn't, and we did meet at crack-o-dawn). so, of course because i was running late (as usual), i missed my bus, which actually came early and was going to miss the train. but some others slept in because of daylight savings... so i was saved. we then did the hike and it rained... but when we had to set up tents, it stopped... and it didn't start again until the next day when we had already packed up the campsite... we were looked after. oh, the hike was the south coast walk in the Royal National Park.

breakfast on the beach!!!! with the sun out. a nice start to the day

the campsite, right near the beach

the rains and beautiful scenery of the royal national park

on the way home, i stopped off at steve's new pad in mortdale. he's bought a slice of his own and he's done very well. it was nice to be able to see it. then home to see mum and dad, pick up a few things and get ready to go to america!!! wow, i was so excited. and i had a really relaxing and calming time. it was just what i needed.

had a 12hour stop over in honolulu where the weather was just AMAZING... bright sunny day, hot hot hot, and so i went shopping and slept on the beach. watched a gorgeous sunset over the beach outside ala moana shopping mall and then found my way back to the airport to fly to minneapolis.

andy met me at the airport and we looked at the 3M library of reflectors (all different road reflector colours and how they wear over time and shine in different lights.) and went home to meet mandy. they have bought a really cute cottage type house in Hastings and have redone it.

that night i was whisked away to catch up with andy's mum and dad, maggie and dave. i was lucky to ride on a 1928 firetruck that andy and his dad own AND i even got to drive it. i experienced a corn dish that contained corn kernels, creamed corn and cornmeal. they have a lot of corn in minnesota.

what else... i got to meet quite a few of andy and mandy's friends, had a houseparty, (although i didn't drink any of their homebrew but i'll go back and next time i will experience these delights!), went to a drive-thru ATM, the Mall of America, saw the mississippi river, shot some clay pigeons (cos everyone in america shoots things no? and i was suprisingly good at shooting moving targets), tasted great delights, and did heaps more. i also had some great conversations with andy and mandy about their life, their theatre and what they believe. i was going to have mandy do a hot-stone massage on me, but when we were getting ready andy rang to see if we wanted to go canoeing. i was sad to not have the massage (save that for next time too!!!) but i was excited to go canoeing.. i saw a few bald eagles, some deer, a woodpecker, and many other animals as well and really enjoyed being out in nature with no-one around except for us... so serene.

it was soooo sad to say good-bye to andy and mandy, but i will see them soon. i am so blessed to have such generous and honest people to spend time with.

then onto honolulu. kristy picked me up from the airport and then only a sleep until rach arrived. the next day kristy and rach and i had lunch at waikiki and reminisced on school memories whilst rach and i were amazed by kristy's belly. haha (she's due late december). the next few days were spent beaching, SHOPPING (with the good AU$ it was great), beaching, relaxing, catching up and just being. we also went to Pearl Harbour to explore the memorial there and hanauma bay.

then it was home and back to work for 2 days, experience a bit of the crave festival and just being glad to be back, but missing my holiday already!!!

i can't believe it's only 9 weeks left of school for the year. wow. and i've been home now for over a year. CRAZY.

anyways, here are a few photos for you to enjoy!