Once upon a December, your gal (that’s me) was ordering tickets for a show coming to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. That show was Anastasia, the new Broadway musical based off of the 1997 cartoon Anastasia. I love that movie by the way. I intended to order tickets for Sunday, August 18th (today) but somehow managed to mess up BAD and ordered tickets for last Sunday, the 11th. I didn’t realize that until my family and I were already driving down for the show today at 2 o’clock. I don’t think I’ve EVER messed up that bad in my entire life. My parents keep telling me not to worry but I feel HORRIBLE about the situation. I’m typically not the type of person to make that kind of mistake…
When we arrived at the DCPA, I was already in tears because there goes $400 and great seats to a great show, but fortunately, we were able to snag four tickets at half-price to sit in the balcony and still get to see the show. We ended up going to the 7:30 show instead of the 2 o’clock show and had to spend practically the entire day in Denver waiting, but that’s okay!
My family and I killed time by walking around the Denver Pavilions in addition to the 16th Street Mall, which has gotten SO WEIRD. There’s plenty of excitement along that strip, let me tell ya. One of my friends from school was actually at the 2 o’clock show that my family and I were supposed to be at and we had plans to get gelato after it finished so once her and her family got out, we went and got gelato with them. If you’re looking for good gelato in Denver, Amore Gelato is the place to go. Good flavors and it’s a very cute little shop!
By the time we had chatted and eaten gelato, it was time for my family and I to head back to the theater to actually get into see Anastasia. Our seats weren’t the greatest (in comparison to the seats in the mezzanine that I had originally selected), but we still had a good view of everything and my family and I really enjoyed each other’s company.
The costumes were absolutely gorgeous and the show was just phenomenal. If you have a chance to see it while its on its national tour or even on Broadway, please do. You will not be disappointed. Russian history and culture has always fascinated me and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I might be kind of biased in that my mom’s side of the family comes from that part of the world, haha. The fact that the last Russian grand duchess and I also share names is pretty cool too. 🙂
I hope you all have a fantastic week and remember to double and TRIPLE check the dates and times for tickets you decide to purchase. You do not want to make the same mistake I did. Tomorrow, I head back up to Fort Collins and my summer will officially be coming to an end. Before I know it, I’ll be sitting in my organic chemistry class wishing I was out on the tennis courts again!
This summer has been a great one, and I hope that you all have had great summers too. If you’re moving off to college or helping your kids or friends move off to school, best of luck to you. Have a great week everyone! 🙂 See you next Sunday.
This is meant to be upside down. Haha. My grandpa has some great brick walls at his house. 🙂
This past weekend was another visit to New Mexico. Road trips can be pretty fun! We celebrated my aunt and dad’s birthday on Saturday and then just spent quality time with family which is always good. 🙂
We left on Friday with my whole gang, dogs and all and enjoyed a nice and cool drive down to Farmington, New Mexico. We made our regular stops at Gunsmoke outside of Buena Vista, Colorado, South Fork, and the McDonald’s in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Marty and Boo, my doggies, always enjoy road trips, and Marty has always really enjoyed getting to stick his head out. Both Marty and Boo really enjoy getting to eat the occasional French fry too, after our McDonald’s stop. Haha.
Friday night we enjoyed a great dinner with lots of veggies from our garden and angel food cake for dessert. The angel food cake with fruit was a highlight for sure. 🙂
Saturday was my dad’s birthday as well as my aunt’s birthday. We spent the day relaxing, eating more good food, and playing Uno. There was just a lot of good time with family. We also went dorm room shopping at Target. Shockingly, the Target in Farmington had better options than the ones back in Broomfield! We also did some shopping for my aunt’s new kitten. She’s a cutie!
For the big birthday dinner that night, we had root beer floats and a delicious peach cream pie for dessert. Safeway makes some delicious and cute cakes nowadays, let me tell ya!
With the birthday festivities over, Sunday was spent getting ready to go back to Colorado and just like that, our fun, family weekend was over. We were welcomed back to Colorado with a lot of rain and cooler temperatures which is always refreshing. The road trip back to Colorado is always really long (it has always been 7-8 hours but the desire and anticipation to get home seems to make it longer). The views are always beautiful too. Some of the drive can be boring, but it has always been fun to see what’s out there.
I’ve really enjoyed the time my family has spent in New Mexico. I wish that the visits could be longer but the time my family and I spend together is always great and so worth it. Family is so important and will always be.
It’s crazy to think that summer’s almost over now! I’ve got one more week of freedom, ahhhhhh. I hope you all have a great week!
Allyson and I have been going to the pool a decent amount this summer but since that’s really all I had going on this past week, I figured I would share our pool adventures. 🙂
My family and I are members at a country club in our area and that’s where we play tennis, eat sometimes, work out, and also take advantage of their wonderful new pool and poolside grill! The weather was finally perfect this past week and neither Allyson nor I had work or class on Wednesday, so it was a perfect pool day.
Of course swimming happens while you’re at the pool but it’s also fun to just chill in a chair in the shade while letting your feet tan in the tiny bit of sun in your area. Allyson and I will typically be in the pool for about 30 minutes to an hour and just mess around, splashing each other, and also just relaxing. I can’t ever convince Allyson to go into the deep end with me, but I think I’ll get her one of these days.
Allyson and I have also really enjoyed the food served by the poolside grill whenever we go. This past time, we ordered smoothies when we first got there and then later ordered buffalo chicken tenders and what our country club calls the Cali Chicken pizza which has chicken, avocado, lettuce, bacon, cheese, golden cherry tomatoes, and ranch on it. It’s a really good pizza. After eating all of that and swimming for a bit, we also ordered a skillet cookie with ice cream. Yummy!
I’ve really enjoyed being able to just relax and spend more chill time with Allyson this past summer. I wish we were able to go to the pool more often than we have, but the times we have been were totally worth it. We’re trying to squeeze in a few more trips to the pool before we both go off to school. It’s coming up so soon! AHHH!
I hope you all have a great week! Don’t forget to wear sunscreen and take a hat. 🙂
I would also like to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the shootings in Ohio, California, and Texas. Let’s be good to each other and take care of one another. ❤️
I’m sitting on a plane writing this and it most definitely won’t be uploaded until late tonight. Oopsies! I just had a wonderful weekend in California. I went to visit one of my really good friends from school. Her and her family live in Sacramento and were wonderful in letting me stay at their house for the time I was there. Just a heads up, this is going to be a long post, so get comfortable!
I arrived late Thursday night and was welcomed by cooler temperatures (in comparison to the oven that Colorado has been lately). On Friday, my friend showed me around Sacramento and we went to Old Town as well as Downtown Sacramento. Old Town was super cute and there was this fun candy store we went into. They had the most taffy I’ve EVER seen in my life. As a recommendation, I ask you all to never never never try chicken and waffles taffy. It’s gross. That’s all I have to say about that.
When we went to Downtown Sacramento, my friend and I stopped at this really pretty place for lunch called The Bank after walking around for a bit. We went to Pressed Juicery prior to lunch and both got rose lemonade and a watermelon pomegranate juice. Healthy and yummy juice options there for sure! I just wish we had one in Colorado. 🙁 I’m pretty sure they’re expanding out of California, but not quite yet…
The best way I can describe The Bank: its an old bank turned into an upscale cafeteria with really good food options. They had burgers, Mexican food, pizza, poke bowls, a bakery, and a bar. The burgers at Station 8 (that was the name of the little restaurant) were what my friend and I got. So yummy too by the way! I got the Bank burger and it came with mushroom gravy and sour cream on it in addition to many of the tradition things you find on a burger. The fries were good too, but too much for one person. If you stop by The Bank, I would recommend splitting the fries with another person.
After lunch, we walked around Downtown a bit more and then my friend took me to the Starbucks Reserve, which is basically a fancy Starbucks. There are only a couple of them in the country, I think. That was pretty cool and then I got a very yummy drink from them and a couple cup to keep (I’m a dork). I got the nitro dirty chai. 10/10 would recommend!
We finished out Friday watching movies: Primal Fear and A Few Good Men and then went to bed because the next day was going to be a long day. We were going to San Francisco!
The next day started around 6:15 in the morning and we went to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast on the way. At this moment, I remember thinking, “Thank goodness Colorado time isn’t too different from California time!” Waking up that early wasn’t too bad. I think the drive was around two hours. After finding parking, we went to Union Square and went to this one mall that had a Nordstrom with like eight different floors. There was practically an entire floor dedicated to shoes! It was crazy. At that mall, we walked around Nordstrom for a while and then stopped by American Eagle and Lululemon. I was very excited to go to the Lululemon. 🙂
After some shopping, our next stop was the Museum of Ice Cream. Wow was that a fun place to go. If you’re ever in San Francisco, PLEASE go. The amount of ice cream you receive and the fun you have is worth the price. You do need to get tickets in advance though, just a heads up.
You enter the museum by going through the “pink portal” which is just a pink tube slide. After that, my friend and I were greeted by a person in a jumpsuit with otter pops. We created ice cream names for ourselves (I was Ana Banana haha) and then moved onto the next room. The next room was a cute little diner where we got s’mores ice cream. The cone was dipped in chocolate and the ice cream was dusted with graham crackers. It fully tasted like a s’more! Room after room, we got more ice cream and got to take so many cute pictures. There was a lot of fun stuff to do in each room too!
Like in one, we got to make bracelets, there was one where we got to play with fun mirrors, there was one with those giant frosted animal cookies you could sit on, there was another with cute unicorns you could take pictures with, and there was another room where you could write words on a wall with magnetic letters. There was also a room with a pool filled with sprinkles that had a slide and diving board. That room was pretty cute too. We got ice cream sandwiches made of chocolate chip cookies and pink vanilla ice cream at the sprinkles pool.
Overall, the Museum of Ice Cream was a super fun, super interactive, and super cute place to visit. If you ever plan to make a trip to California, take your family to San Francisco and this place in particular and be prepared for A LOT of ice cream.
After our ice cream adventure, my friend and I walked around Union Square a bit more and spent an hour inside Tiffany’s. No, we didn’t buy anything, but the gentleman assisting us allowed us both to try on a few pieces which was really fun. 🙂 Maybe someday I’ll be able to afford some of that jewelry.
Our day in San Francisco was still not over! We went to Pier 39, where I got to see Alcatraz from a distance, ate a bunch of mini doughnuts covered in cinnamon and sugar, went on a carousel, and navigated my way through a mirror maze. After our fun at Pier 39, we headed to a small beach where my friend and I took some more pictures and I truly got to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
By now, dinner was rolling around and so we hopped back in the car and took a short drive over to Ghirardelli Square. There, we had dinner at the San Francisco Brewing Company (great pizza and virgin drinks there by the way!), and then went to get some chocolate. I would have ordered a milkshake or some ice cream but I was all ice-creamed-out from my adventures earlier in the day.
After dinner and some more shopping, we began the journey back to Sacramento which began with a stop at a viewpoint of the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh my goodness was it cold and windy, but the view of the bridge and San Francisco as the sun set was spectacular. Lots of good pictures from there! Then it was another two hour drive back to my friend’s house. I crashed that night, that’s for sure. The next day was going to be much more relaxed, THANK GOODNESS.
On Sunday, my friend and I went to see the new Lion King movie which I am proud to say that I really enjoyed. Disney did a fabulous job sticking to the plot of the original movie (which they’ve struggled with in their remakes, in my opinion). That made the movie a lot more enjoyable to me. After the movie, my friend and I stopped for lunch at In-N-Out because what trip to California would be complete without it?
This was my first time ever going to In-N-Out and I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the menu and of course, the tastiness of the food. That was a good burger. Does it beat BurgerFi? In my opinion, no. But it was still a very yummy meal. After lunch, we went back to her house and just relaxed until it was time for me to head to the airport for my trip back to Denver and here we are in the present time. 🙂
To my friend, if you ever read this, thank you so much for showing me Sacramento, San Francisco, and just California in general! I had a blast with you and your family. And thank you to your family for allowing me to stay at your home and have fun with you all for a weekend! California is a fun state to visit and explore and I look forward to visiting it many more times to come. Have a good week everyone!
As of yesterday, my microeconomics class and my technical writing class are COMPLETE! Woohoo! Online classes are DONE! I still have my physics class to finish at my local community college, but I feels nice to know that my load just got a lot lighter.
Eleven credits this summer may have been to big of a task to handle. I’m a bit worried that I’ll burn myself out for this upcoming fall semester. Considering that I will be taking seventeen credits this fall, I feel nervous about what my work ethic is going to look like. I’m a pretty hard-working person so I think I’ll be able to stay strong but we shall see. Haha, I bet you guys will hear about how all of that goes.
Online classes are extremely helpful for people who can only make those work. Or for me, they’re helpful when you add a business minor to your load and still want to graduate early. Online classes are also cheaper than most classes you can take at a community college or university. Super convenient, let me tell you.
One of the biggest things I struggled with in my online classes was actual dedication to the class. Of course I got all of my work done in a timely manner and to the best of my ability but it was hard to find the motivation. I never met either of my teachers (with the exception of a Skype call to my Econ professor) and I never met any of my peers. I personally really appreciate the personal connection that comes with physically being present in a classroom or lecture hall listening to a professor. I feel that I am more involved and present to learn the material.
Another thing that I hated about my particular online classes were the mandatory, weekly discussions. Every week, there was some topic we were required to discuss with discussion group members. In order to receive credit for our discussions, we had to make a post that fully answered the question or questions, respond to AT LEAST two other classmates posts, and then interact with our peers based on responses we got. I was always really good about posting early in the week but oh my goodness, my peers were not. I would answer everything by Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday and wouldn’t hear back from ANYONE until Saturday. Discussions closed on Sundays and I honestly didn’t want to deal with all of that so late in the week, but I eventually just had to because some people are stupid and some are just big procrastinators. Thanks…
Online proctoring for exams creeps me out too. WOW. The process is overkill. I had to be proctored twice for my Econ exams and both experiences with that were just horrendous. It’s creepy that another person can just hack into your laptop like that. I also didn’t appreciate that I practically had to be glued to my seat the entire two hours I took my Econ midterm and final. What if I was uncomfortable how I was sitting, huh? I also found it unnecessary that the proctor had to see my entire room to understand that I wasn’t cheating. I was even asked to take down a tennis tournament draw I have up on my wall from when I won regionals my junior year of high school. How in the world would they expect me to cheat off of that?!
I understand the point of online proctoring, but as I mentioned earlier, the process and extremes to which these services have gone is a bit extreme. Sometimes I just wish people were honest and trustworthy and then we wouldn’t need these creepy, strange proctoring services. Oh well.
Other than these couple of things I mentioned, I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to take a couple of online classes. It has been helpful to my college plans and allowed me to see another side of the academic world.
More importantly though, here’s to a more true start to summer for me! Well, minus physics. But still! Have a good week everyone. 🙂
Just a quick note before I get started here. I decided to combine Memorial Day and the day after into this blog post because they go very well together. So bring out that cup of coffee and kick your feet back, because this is gonna be a long one!
So on Memorial Day, we were supposed to go see Iolani Palace, keyword here “supposed”. 15 minutes before our tour, we arrived and the place was empty. My aunt, uncle, and I found out that they were closed for the day in honor of Memorial Day so that scheduled tour we planned probably wasn’t going to happen. Oh well! That gave us an even better idea and so we spent our Memorial Day at Waimea Falls. Before we left though, we got some pictures of the palace and the statue of Kamehameha the Great which was across the street. Waimea Falls is a small waterfall that has a beautiful and easy hike up to it. Along the way, we saw some beautiful flowers and lush green vegetation. There were trees whose arms intertwined with one another and reached out as if they had all the room in the world. The views were breathtaking and all of the plants and trees were just amazing. When we made it to the actual falls we took some pictures (of course, haha) and sat and watched the running water as well as all the people swimming around below the falls. If you ever decide to go up to Waimea Falls, bring your swimsuit! You can swim in the falls, but before you do that, you have to check in with the lifeguard and get a life jacket, regardless of how good a swimmer you are. I would suggest going in the mid-morning, so that the crowd will hopefully be smaller and it won’t be as hot. We ran into a little bit of rain while we were up there but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. It actually felt very nice. The rain in Hawaii is more of a mist and it’s very gentle even when it rains more. We spent quite a bit of time hiking around and being at Waimea Falls so if you plan to go there, be prepared for a longer stay. 🙂
The next day, we were fortunate enough to get our tour for Iolani Palace rescheduled and we got in! What a stunning building the palace is and inside is even more beautiful. Iolani Palace is the only official royal building in the United States, fun fact. It was built by King Kalakaua during his reign from 1874 to 1891. From what I remember, he was the last king of Hawaii. His sister, Liliuokalani would be the last ruler of Hawaii before the monarchy was overthrown and Hawaii annexed. They make you wear covers over your shoes to protect and preserve the floor which is kinda fun. Wow I’m a dork, haha. At Iolani Palace we learned more about the Hawaiian royal line and specifically Hawaii’s last rulers. The story of the monarchy’s overthrow was quite sad honestly, but it was very interesting to learn more about. The palace was GIANT and it was cool to learn how innovative and tech-savvy, for lack of better words, King Kalakaua was. He had electricity and running water in Iolani Palace before most buildings on the US mainland! The music room, which is on the second floor of the palace was my favorite room. It contained King Kalakaua’s music box and the room itself was just beautifully decorated. I also really enjoyed the Blue Room, simply because the furniture’s cushioning was all a deep, royal blue that was just stunning. And the throne room. Oh. My. Goodness. It was gorgeous! The red throughout the room was stunning and the thrones themselves were stunning. I can only imagine what Iolani Palace would’ve been like at the time of King Kalakaua. The throne room was really cool to in that there were recreations of several of Queen Liliokalani’s gowns. She had one with ostrich feathers in there and one embellished with peacock feathers. They were beautiful. I highly recommend visiting Iolani Palace. We had a wonderful tour guide who told us so much about the royal family and the palace itself. Feeling like royalty for a few hours was pretty cool. 🙂 And just when you thought this day couldn’t get more exciting, we had parasailing shortly after! Woohoo! My aunt and uncle used this company, Hawaiian Parasail. They have a very good record and are well-known for their safety, which I’d say is pretty important if you’re going to be 1000 feet in the air! While my stomach did not appreciate the choppy waves and how they rocked our small boat around, it did just great as my uncle and I soared above Oahu. I hope I never forget the feeling of parasailing. You can hear the wind rushing and it moves you around a little and the view is just something else. I could almost describe parasailing as being on a swing in the sky but I still feel like that doesn’t quite describe it. It was so fun though! I wanna say that my uncle and I were in the air for about 7 minutes and then on the way back to the boat, the guys dunked us in the ocean. Yay saltwater! I’m sooooo glad I wore my swimsuit for that. And after parasailing, it was time for our luau. We went to Paradise Cove which is on the west side of the island. I’ve never been to a luau, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but let me just say I was not let down. We were greeted with orchid and kuikui nut leis and then ushered in to our tables. There were several activities before the actual show began which including watching coconuts be husked, cooking the pig, watching people climb palm trees, and a shower of plumeria flowers. Finally it was time to eat and we were treated to a three course meal. There was a delicious salad plate followed by the main meal which had several different types of meat and then finally dessert! Dessert was a delicious chocolate and pineapple cake with coconut icing. There was also this interesting gelatiny dessert that tasted like coconut. When the main dish came around was when the show started. And oh what a show it was! The singers were extremely talented and so were the dancers. The girls were all beautiful and the guys were all pretty good-looking too. Especially the fire dancer, oh my goodness his eyes were pretty! Anyway, the show was wonderful and I absolutely love the sound of the music there. It’s totally unique and different from anything I’ve ever heard and I love it! Paradise Cove was a great luau with great service and an even greater view. The sunset that night was gorgeous to and it was a great way to end that day. I think that my aunt and uncle ordered one of the more expensive packages and that’s what allowed us to have the lei greeting and stageside seats. As mentioned it’s more expensive, but I’d say it’s worth it. What a fun couple of days that was.
Next week I’m talking about my ziplining experience so I hope you’ll be around to hear about that. Have a good week everyone! 🙂
Day three of my Hawaiian trip turned out to be one of the most helpful, interesting, and insightful days of my trip to Oahu. On Sunday’s agenda, we had Bishop Museum, Queen Emma’s, and also Pali Point. Here’s how my history-filled May 27th in Hawaii was!
We were up bright and early to be the first people at Bishop Museum. We just wanted to avoid a crowd, plus with so many more things to do during the day, we wanted to ensure we had plenty of time to do everything! At Bishop Museum, we learned about the first Hawaiians, their royal family and Hawaiian culture. I loved reading more about the royal family and all of their crazy connections and contributions to the islands. One of the more interesting things they had on display were these giant hair necklaces. Members of the royal family typically possessed these thick necklaces of finely braided hair that belonged to their ancestors. Honestly, kind of gross but still very interesting! Bishop Museum was pretty cool, but honestly it’s not a place I would recommend. I just found myself bored there pretty quick. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, it just wasn’t my favorite. There was a lot of stuff to read and I’m more of an interactive person so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re looking into museums on Oahu. Bishop Museum did help make being at Queen Emma’s much easier though, because I knew the backstory of Queen Emma and her husband, King Kamehameha IV and just a little bit more about Hawaiian history. In Honolulu, Queen Emma had a small summer home, and we had the chance to tour it. Queen Emma was raised by a doctor and his wife and grew up wanting to take care of people. She eventually married her husband, making her the queen of Hawaii. They had a son together, Prince Albert, and he unfortunately died when he was about four years old. 🙁 During her reign, Queen Emma and her husband created the Queen’s Hospital, which I believe offered free healthcare to native Hawaiians and made good connections with Queen Victoria back in England. Queen Emma was an extremely talented, inspiring, hard-working, and genuine soul and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to learn more about her life story. And to wrap up our day of history, we visited Pali Point. Pali Point is this point on of the mountains on Oahu where the first king of Hawaii, King Kamehameha the Great and his troops forced opposing forces to either jump off or be forced off. At the time of his rule, King Kamehameha was working to unite the eight islands of Hawaii and this was the final push for that. He was successful and there is a beautiful statue of him across the street from Iolani Palace if you want to go check it out! After a rainy and windy visit up to Pali’s Point it was time for lunch so we headed back to the hotel and grabbed some food. One thing I’m finally starting to pick up on is how many ABC Stores there are here! Holy cow! ABC Stores are basically like 7/11’s and other little convenience stores and they’re actually on every block. ABC Stores are extremely convenient though, as they have just about anything a tourist could need ranging from food to beach towels and even coffee mugs.
It’s really weird still writing about Hawaii even though I’ve been back for a week now. Wow do I miss island life! I hope you all are enjoying the summer heat! Have a beautiful week you beautiful people and stay tuned for next week’s post about Memorial Day!
You’ve all waited a week for this and here’s day two of my Hawaiian adventure! We started Saturday morning off bright and early, since we were still on our clocks back home to hike Diamond Head. For those of you who don’t know, Diamond Head is the crater of a former volcano. The hike was kind of challenging, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Except for the stairs. Oof, there’s one way you can hike which consists mostly of stairs, and that just seemed awful, so I recommend taking the other path if you ever decide to visit Oahu. The view from the top and also on the way up was stunning and quite peaceful, considering the masses of people that had also joined us to hike that morning. Next on our agenda was Hanama Bay and the blowhole. We drove up to a scenic stop to see Hanama Bay from above and I’ve never seen bluer water in all my life. Wow was it beautiful. If you’re looking for a good, safe place to snorkel, I heard that Hanama Bay is the place to be. The Halona Blowhole, which isn’t too far down from Hanama Bay, is a spot where water sprays from this hole in the rocks and the views there are stunning as well. Watching the waves crash on the rocks and just looking out at the gorgeous, blue water made me so happy. Traveling out to these spots is definitely a longer drive from Honolulu so if you plan to visit, be prepared for a long car trip. To add on to this already amazing day, we saw even more beautiful sights at the Byodo-In Temple. This place was my favorite by far. The Byodo-In Temple is a replica of a temple built in Japan and the atmosphere and beauty of this place was just surreal. The overall vibe there was peaceful and serene and it was so wonderful. We had a chance to walk around the gardens and ponds there and also head into the temple. There we lit some incense and viewed the massive Buddha statue. Being in the temple was so calming and it’s a feeling I never want to forget. Unfortunately, we had to leave the Byodo-In Temple at some point, and we did. Now it was time for some Dole Whip. Yay! There was another somewhat long drive ahead of us and then we arrived at Dole Plantation. We were on a mission and our mission was accomplished when we sat down at our table and snacked on Dole Whip. There really is no way to describe how delicious or refreshing Dole Whip is. If you haven’t ever had it, please do at some point. I had an idea of what it would taste like, since I had some at Disneyland when I was there two years ago, but Hawaii didn’t fail to disappoint. There were little chunks of pineapple in the Dole Whip which made it even better. I also got to see how pineapples grow, which is not at all what I expected. They grow from the ground and when farmers want to plant pineapple, they cut it in half horizontally and stick one of the halves back in the ground and voila, more pineapple! Dole Plantation offers tours of the fields and has a train ride around the whole place, which we didn’t do, but if you’ve got kids and are looking for something fun to do, this might just be it!
See you all next week where I talk about my history day in Hawaii. Have a beautiful week you beautiful people! 🙂 Aloha!
As of today, I have been in Hawaii for three magical days and before I get going on what I’ve been up to, let me clarify a few things. No, I am not seeing lava anywhere, that’s on the Big Island. I am on Oahu. Also, continuing on the topic of the volcano, the entire island of Hawaii is NOT covered in lava. It’s just a small portion of the Big Island that is directly affected by the lava. My prayers and thoughts go out to those affected by Kilauea’s eruption and the lava flow. Vog can be seen from Oahu and it’s somewhat hazy here, but other than that it’s perfectly fine here.
I left for the Hawaiian islands on May 25th, which was this past Friday. Before leaving for Hawaii we stayed in Arizona for the night. As far as I know there aren’t any direct flights from Denver to Honolulu so yeah… When we left on the 26th, we were welcomed to Honolulu with a traditional lei greeting and then left to get our rental car. Following that, we went to the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which is where we are staying for the next week in the Grand Waikikian and grabbed some lunch. Funny story with that actually. My aunt, uncle, and I ordered our meals and the waitress just kept coming back and saying, “Your meal will be out shortly. I promise.” Yeah, shortly, as in 40 minutes later. She felt really bad and we ended up eating for free there. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but they had really good chicken tacos which was great. After getting settled into our room, it was time to do some grocery shopping. This was where my aunt and uncle introduced me to my new addiction: Maui Sweet Onion chips. Oh, they’re so good! We bought some stuff for sandwiches and a wide variety of fruits and headed back to the hotel. By this time, it was around 6 o’clock Hawaiian time and we were all exhausted because that’s 10 o’clock MST.
We ate a quick dinner, took our first walk along Waikiki Beach and then waited for the firework show to begin. Every Friday night, Hilton does an AMAZING 4-minute firework show on the beach, which is pretty cool. We caught the firework show and once that was done, we crashed. Adjusting to the time difference has been one of the toughest things, but we’re all managing, and I seem to be adjusting quickly.
I’m currently three days into this trip and I know I’m gonna have A LOT to say about it, so I will be posting each day as a blog post, so if you’re all up for it, get ready for a bunch of travel blog posts. Good night from Honolulu!
Being a teenager, acne and breakouts are common. I deal with a lot of stress and being in sports, I sweat a lot. As a teenager, and I hope that many of you teens out there can relate, but our bodies undergo some pretty big changes in the teen years and our hormones are up and down and all over the place. This puts our bodies out of whack and we’re left with a struggle. Being the active person I am, it’s also very important that I wear sunscreen to protect my skin from the sun’s harsh UV rays. Here’s how I take care of the skin I’m in and control my acne.
It took me forever to find something that actually helped shrink my pores and keep the acne on a down-low. I first sought out a dermatologist who recommended Cera-Ve products and a prescription lotion called Clindamycin, which would supposedly attack the acne and help dry it out and then vanish eventually. While that did work for a little while, I found my skin becoming easily irritated and more dry than ever. I floated around with a bunch of different prescription lotions and products that were less sensitive and more effective than what I was previously using, but the acne just wasn’t controllable.
Finally, one day, I found my fit with a toner and exfoliant by Paula’s Choice. (Sidenote: The toner is specifically for dry skin.) My mom and I were strolling the makeup aisles of Nordstrom and there it was. I really like Paula’s Choice because it doesn’t irritate my skin, helps clean out my pores, and get rid of acne and flare-ups. Another product I found to be extremely helpful is a lotion you can get at Walgreen’s called Differin gel. Differin gel is pretty awesome in that it helps dry out whatever yuck is on your face and it’s gone the next day. I was really surprised with this product actually.
So to take care of my acne, after I wash my face, I apply a thin layer of Differin gel with a q-tip in the morning and then apply moisturizer. In the evening, before bed, I wash my face (typically without a cleanser) and then apply the toner with a cotton ball and then the exfoliant with a cotton ball. After those have dried, I moisturize with a Cera-Ve moisturizer and it’s off to bed.
As you probably know by now, I play tennis, and most of the time,I’m outside, and that means I’m exposed more to the sun. SUNSCREEN! I always apply sunscreen before getting on the court and even most of the time when I know I’m going to be outside for a while.
Also, living in the desert that is Colorado, I drink A LOT of water to stay hydrated, hydrate my skin, and flush out any toxins. Drinking water is like a detox for your skin to keep your skin clear and happy.
It’s always good to have some fun in the sun but you don’t want to get sunburnt let alone increase your risk of skin cancer. Make sure to apply sunscreen multiple times when outside regardless of what you’re doing. You want to keep your skin healthy and happy.
Have a good week and enjoy the great summer weather, everyone!
