Hawaii Cruise Part I: The Voyage Out

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I thought I would share our two week cruise to Hawaii with everyone. Jeez, was that over a year ago? Wow! Anyway, we decided on Hawaii for our babymoon for a couple of reasons. For one, Hyla was due in early August so we needed to go somewhere relatively warm, since we intended to do our trip in winter or at least early spring. For another, my request was that we go somewhere that has no roller coasters, as I knew the temptation would be too great, and I didn’t want to risk riding one while pregnant nor face the disappointment of missing out. Hawaii was perfect on both counts! Not a single stationary coaster graces any of the islands, and wintery weather would certainly spare us in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Upon looking into the details of our trip, we discovered that flights were extremely expensive, and once there we’d have to worry about lodging and food and all that good stuff. Plus, we wanted to see more than one island, so it would cost us even more to island hop. Nathan did some more research and discovered that Celebrity Cruises offered a 2 week cruise to and from the Islands that was pretty close in cost to the airfare alone…and, in this case, we wouldn’t have to worry about lodging or food! What a great deal! We were lucky to be able to take 2 weeks to do this, and it would prove more than worth it. We booked our trip and looked forward to our last big adventure, just the two of us.

Sun. March 3, 2013

I was up before 3am to tend to our animals, making sure they’d be set for the next few days until Angie arrived to check on them. We had to be out of the house by 4, so we hurried, packing last minute things, and hit the road. At the airport, I opted for my usual pat down, rather than subjecting the baby and myself to who knows what kinds of harmful rays. A quick stop at the bathroom just recemented my disgust with automatic flushers. One of the claims is that they save water, but how can that be when they flush multiple times before you’re ready? And then there's the nasty water they splash everywhere – awful!!! If you don’t want to touch the handle to flush, just use toilet paper to do it. I could go on and on, and probably will again, but I think this invention is one of the most wasteful and most disgusting.

Once at the gate, we checked our bags, making things much easier. Our flight to San Diego was smooth and uneventful. Nate slept, and I dozed slightly. We had a layover at LAX with bathrooms that were not self-flushing. Yay! I did have to put up with people cutting in line at the snack bar, but it wasn’t like we were in any hurry. Our flight from LAX to San Diego was a whole 27 minutes long, so of course there was no drink service. Once in San Diego, we got our bags without a hassle at the smallest gate that even had its own attached baggage carousel. Then we grabbed our shuttle which took us to the Days Inn Harbor View. We checked in and noticed that we could see our ship from our room! How exciting!

After getting our room, we headed over to the waterfront where we visited the Maritime Museum, which was really cool. We toured a number of ships and submarines that were actually partially submerged. It was fascinating! The Star of India ship was especially cool, though we had to dodge the often overzealous volunteers who wanted to stop and talk your ear off.

We ate dinner at the Fish Market. They seated us outside, where we dealt with harsh sun, cold breezes, and greedy pigeons and seagulls. The view of the Pacific was phenomenal, though. Nate had a crab sandwich, and I had rather mediocre clam chowder and a very tasty shrimp cocktail. From there, we walked along the boardwalk some more, exploring Embarcadero Park North, before veering into the city itself in search of one of the comedy clubs we’d seen advertised. We wound up finding The Mad House at Horton Plaza Mall, but decided that we were too tired to bother coming back for their show that evening. We wandered the outdoor mall a bit before heading back to our room. We were both super tired, so Nate took a nap while I took down my notes. I eventually took a nap myself and played on the internet a bit more until Nate woke up. His back wasn’t feeling so well, so that cemented our plans to take it easy that evening. We walked down about a block to Los Panchito’s, a fast food Mexican place, and brought it back to our room. I had a quesadilla, and Nate had rolled tacos, both of which were pretty gross. Then we watched tv and fell asleep early. We had an exciting day ahead of us tomorrow!

Mon. March 4, 2013

I woke up really early, about 5, and pretty much stayed awake after that. I had to run over to Rite Aid to pick up some antibacterial wipes (a must for any trip!) and Reese’s Sticks (another staple). On the 6 minute walk over, I admired our ship, the Celebrity Century, quietly awaiting its guests. X marks the spot! I grabbed breakfast downstairs at the motel and then played on the computer until Nate woke up. We watched some tv until it was time to head over to our shuttle around 11:30. While waiting, we met other people who were also on our cruise (but whom I don’t think we’d ever actually run into on the ship). We rode the shuttle over to the Port of San Diego, less than a mile away, found someone to take our bags, and went through security. We noticed many, many older people, and were convinced we may have been the youngest ones on board. We also noticed that many people looked really unhappy. Um, you’re about to take a cruise! To Hawaii! A fabulous vacation that many people only dream of! What on earth is there to be so unhappy about?! Sigh.

Security was pretty easy, and we didn’t even have to take out our bags. We got our boarding cards and walked up to deck 6 where we were offered lovely looking mimosas that I couldn’t enjoy. Then we explored the ship a bit while our room was being prepared. We viewed the upper decks, had some lunch at the buffet, and when the announcement was made that our rooms were ready, we went down to drop off the items we had with us. After a short rest, we explored the rest of the ship, noting a fair number of bars, none of which I could partake in. There was also a nice theater, a basketball court, a cinema, game room, computer room, art hall, fancy restaurants, arcade, and spa. At 4:15 we had our safety meeting in the theater, and then Nate and I went to an upper deck at the front of the ship to watch us shove off. It was cold and windy, and not much happened. Our ship eventually backed out quite a bit and sat there for an eternity. It was getting cold, so we decided to go to the indoor lounge one deck below to watch from the warmth. We sat there forever, and we did start our 180 degree turn, but we sat there for ages again. We did get some beautiful views of downtown San Diego, all lit up in the darkening dusk.

I decided to take a shower before dinner, while Nate stayed above. By dinnertime (8pm) we still hadn’t moved! At dinner, we were seated at a 10-person table, and it took a while for anyone to join us. We actually would have preferred a private table if given the choice, but it is probably good for us to break out of our shells and meet some new people. Eventually we were joined by only one couple: Linda (who is trained as a gardener and loves botanical gardens) and Ian (software engineer) from the UK. I couldn’t believe what a match they were for us! They were quite friendly and talkative, though, knowing me, I could easily run out of things to say after a while. Dinner was nice – always a reason to dress up and enjoy some interesting cuisine. I started the meal with a cold tangerine and granny smith apple soup, followed by a shrimp cocktail, spaghetti, and an ice cream pastry of some sort with chocolate sauce. Nate had mushroom soup, Thai spring rolls, vegetable korma, and crepes. The engines started up just as we began eating, and when we left, I was caught off guard by the movement of the ship. After dinner, we went back to our room and debated whether or not to attend the variety show that evening. I was dead tired, so after much thought, I opted to stay in. We tried to watch “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” but I fell asleep about 20 minutes in. Oh well. After today, I slept considerably well.

Tues. March 5, 2013

Woke up around 6:30, not sure what time it was. We had an inside room, so with the lights off, it’s nighttime all the time. The motion of the ship was pretty extreme this morning, maybe because we were at the front of the ship. In fact, we were front and center, deck 9! The creaking the room made reminded me of rain, which I actually enjoyed. I finally got up around 9:30 and attempted to shower, which was a challenge with the lurching of the boat. I started to feel a bit motion sick, but I think a lot of that was due to lack of food and drink. We ran up to the buffet to get some breakfast, and that helped tremendously. Then we headed over to the fancy Milagro restaurant for a cooking demo where we got to sample a very good chateaubriand. Then we attended a talk on Hawaiian volcanoes and finally saw “This Means War” at the cinema, which was pretty bad. The funniest part was when they made some joke about cataracts, and all the people in the room laughed. Is no one our age? Haha! They had a tanzanite unveiling down in the jewelry shop, and since that’s one of my favorite stones, we considered going, but ultimately I felt it was silly and somehow stereotypical to fawn over jewelry, so we returned to our room instead. We got our books and tried to read up in the Forward Bar, but they decided to do trivia there, so we moved to the middle of the ship and read there instead. I was determined to finish the book “Jaguar,” which had been loaned to me more than a year prior, so I could get it back to my friend. I was already making quite a dent. Unfortunately, before long a band started singing, so we retreated to our room until dinner.

At dinner, we were joined by an older couple and a single gentleman whose names escape me, as well as Linda and Ian. It was nice, and I felt less pressure to talk with a larger group. Dinner tonight was potato masala, tomato chickpea soup, shrimp cocktail, and chocolate ice cream (which I would have a lot of on this cruise). We then went up and had drinks at Michael’s Bar, a small whiskey bar where I had the daily non-alcoholic drink, a peach sangria, which was good. Then we called it a night.

Wed. March 6, 2013

Got up rather late, showered, and got ready for the day. I was fine until after my shower. By then, the pitching of the ship queased me out. Perhaps it was also from the lack of fresh air in the room, coupled with dehydration and hunger, but it was just awful. The entire room would rotate clockwise and forward, corkscrewing out of control. We carefully made our way up to the buffet and got some food and water in us. Relentlessly, the ship spiraled forward. It was so bad that they closed the pool up deck because it was splashing spectacularly all over the decks in great watery explosions. After eating, we rested briefly, reading a bit, before going down to the dining room for lunch. While there, the boat tipped so much that it knocked the wine list into my water which crashed, spilling it all into my lap and onto my book. It was embarrassing, and I was still thirsty, and I got the impression they didn't want to risk giving me more water. I sat in a puddle the entire meal. The food was ok – rigatoni, salad, and chocolate ice cream (which finally cured me of the motion sickness, for the most part). Overall, we weren’t very impressed with lunch at the dining room. Oh well.

After lunch, we went down to the art auction. The host was Welsh and quite the comedian. He especially enjoyed talking about the lovely country of “Canadia.” The art, on the other hand, was “meh.” It would have been way better if I could have enjoyed the free champagne going around. As it was, it was awfully crowded and hard to see much. We did discover everyone seemed to have an almost unhealthy love of artist Peter Max. Nate and I just couldn’t see the draw.

From there, we headed back up to the buffet for afternoon tea. I was certain I ate something with artificial sweeteners in it because it made me feel even more awful, and it just kept coming back up on me. Rather that than into the baby, in my opinion. We retreated to the room after that to watch tv and tried to ignore the constant heaving of the ship. At one point, still feeling ill, I decided to just lay on the bed with my eyes shut. I did that for a good hour and a half, and it felt marvelous! I really didn’t feel like getting up, much less going to formal night dinner, but I did anyway. I wore my purple dress, and I didn’t look nearly as pregnant as I did the night before in my maternity dress, thankfully. This evening, it was just the five of us – the elderly couple didn’t feel like dressing up. The dining room was only about half full, and it sounded like sea sickness was the culprit. Jim (the single guy at the table, who we suspected may work for the ship and be a plant to find out peoples’ thoughts about various things on the ship) said that he did the behind the scenes tour of the ship and found out that we were off course quite a bit because, had we stayed on course, everyone would be sick due to the 15 foot swells (which I wasn’t convinced we weren’t still experiencing anyway).

Dinner tonight wasn’t great, in my opinion. Not sure if it was because of my weird, artificially sweetened taste buds, being sick, or what, but I hardly ate a thing. I got the frog legs, which were bland, followed up by French onion soup, which tasted off. Then I had the shrimp scampi which was on pasta (too much food!) and rather bland, too. I had my ice cream for dessert, which really seems to help with the sea sickness. It was the best part of the meal, but I don’t know that it helped much. After dinner, we went down to see the showtunes show, which was actually pretty good! Lots of songs we enjoyed were featured from Abba and Queen and shows like Cabaret and Hairspray, among others. I’m glad we went, and having something to focus on helped my weakened constitution. Then we came back to the room and read until we fell asleep.

Thurs. March 7, 2013

I woke up feeling relaxed and well-rested, thankfully. The clocks had turned back an hour overnight, so it was 8 am. The ship didn’t seem to be moving as much, though still enough to be noticeable. I felt good, so I hesitated to take a shower, which I suspect adds to my seasickness. I took a quick one anyway, and got ready for a busy day ahead. We headed up for breakfast at the buffet – a maritime tradition for us on this trip, so it seemed. It was good, as always, and I was glad that I felt well enough to not have to eat much to make it through the morning. I think this was also the day that Nate and I played a game of horse at the basketball court just as the winds picked up and the clouds got ominous. At 10:45 we met down in the main restaurant for a tour of the galley. It started with a Q and A session with the head chef who apparently owns restaurants and spas in his spare time. On top of that, he was extremely young. Amazing. It was interesting to see where all the food was prepared and the organization thereof. The tour ran late, so we missed most of the whale talk (we always tried to see the environmental presentations), but luckily we caught the end of it and were later able to see it in its entirety on tv.

From the talk, we went to get lunch at the poolside café where a very rude lady cut in front of me. I had a mediocre tuna sandwich, and Nate had a burger. Then we headed to the cinema where we saw “Snow White and the Huntsman,“ which was decent. We went back to the room and saw the rest of the whale talk and killed some time watching tv and reading.

After resting, we decided to head up to try the sushi bar, which was free and served daily in the main buffet. I wanted to avoid too much sushi, being pregnant and all, but I thought I’d choose my items carefully. Well, we discovered one of the best things on the ship! The sushi was good, but the miso was some of the best I’ve ever had! They had the broth, seaweed, green onion, and tofu separate so you could have it made to order. Amazingly, the miso experts were all Ukrainian, so I guess you have to go to Ukraine to get the best miso, or at least be afloat in the Pacific. Who knew?

From there, we saw the puppeteer and comedian Michael Ziegfeld, which was meh. We got ready for dinner and headed down immediately thereafter. The conversation was decent again, and everyone got a kick out of the fact that our room is right above the stage, so we can hear everything, from rehearsals to entire shows, all the time. My meal consisted of shrimp cocktail, apple salad of some sort, and turkey parmesan with tiramisu for dessert. Nate had cape hake, which was weird. From there we called it a night.

Fri. March 8, 2013

Woo hoo! Feeling well yet again! Showered and had breakfast before heading over to see oceanographer Chelsea Behymer’s presentation on coral reefs. We really, really enjoyed all her science talks, and I kind of wish I’d thought about doing the same on a cruise ship somewhere. What a neat job just out of college. And we learned a whole bunch about what we may see on our trip. From there, we headed downstairs to partake in the ship’s Effy ring treasure hunt. Our geocaching skills worked well for us, and we found them both and entered our answers into the contest. Next up we went to see the navigational officer’s talk, which was informative. There was a crazy woman who was obsessed about female captains and their salaries. Apparently she’d harassed nearly every authority on the ship about this. The officer handled it diplomatically, while not really answering her question. Then we went to lunch before heading back to the art auction. Champagne, while served, was a lot sparser than at our previous cruise’s art auctions, not that it mattered to me. I ran off mid-auction to see if we’d won the Effy prize, but it turned out that our tablemate Linda did! Good for her! Then I ran back to the auction. This one was a bit better with some interesting African animal paintings, though I’m not sure whose home those would fit in. Sadly we didn’t have any success in the art raffle, our main reason for attending. From there, we noshed some more (we seriously ate about 5 meals a day) and ran up to see if we’d won the “which amber isn’t real?” contest. Our guess was right, but we weren’t picked…but Linda was! Talk about a lucky day for her! We ran off to read some more before heading up for sushi. Next we saw Sean O’Shea, the musical impersonator, who was high energy and pretty good. He did Shaggy, Elvis, Neil Diamond, Dean Martin, and Kermit the Frog. It was a trip! Then we went down for dinner, though I was anything but hungry. We debated seeing “Anna Karenina,” but opted to read some more instead. Phew!

Sat. March 9, 2013

We turned the clocks back overnight again, and we found out we were to lose 3 hours on the return sail due to daylight savings time. Oh well. I showered again and had to contend with brown water coming out of all our faucets. We’d routinely have to run the water about a minute to clear out the nastiness. Then it was off to breakfast. After that, we entered the “guess the real diamond” contest, which seemed easy. Then it was off to play some shuffleboard. After several days of chilly weather, today was perfect! The air was warm, the breeze was gentle, and we were treated to sun and only slight choppiness. Unlike our last cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, we were not shooed off the shuffleboard court. In fact, we were smiled at by the crew as we played. How nice!

After taking a break to read in the room, we headed up for lunch at the dining room. You’d have thought we learned our lesson the first time, but we thought we’d give it a second chance. They should warn you it’s going to take over an hour to complete a meal, because we had a talk we wanted to see in the next 45 minutes. Well, we got through the meal, surrounded by crabby-looking diners, and I was getting really anxious about having to wait 15 to 20 minutes between courses. Because we chose to eat here, we only caught the last 2 minutes of the sea birds presentation and caught the Q and A session. From there, we went to the cafeteria for some ice cream (dessert only – I was trying to not have 5 meals EVERY day) before heading up to the diamond drawing. Again, we guessed right but lost (I knew the others were obviously an emerald and a ruby – the true diamond was blue). Fun times, anyway!

We headed back up to the room to read some more. Nate went to work out while I finally finished “Jaguar!” Yay! It was a quiet day, overall, with not much of interest to do on the activities sheet. I decided to start reading “Odd Thomas” at last now, though. Nothing like a light activity cruise to finally catch up on one’s reading. When Nate came back, we headed down to sushi. Then we checked the dinner menu and didn’t find it all that riveting. I also really didn’t feel like being social, so I suggested we stay in for the night. Nate was amenable to that. Instead of dinner, we got a drink at the Rendezvous Bar in the ship’s center, where the waiter was excited to finally see people his age, but we snuck out before we could say goodbye to him because we were late for the magic show featuring Jay Matiolli. It was pretty good and very high energy.

After the show, we went for a walk up deck, trying not to slide on the wet surfaces. It must have recently rained, but only one side of the ship was wet. We walked to the front and were blasted with wind, watching lightning in the distance and seeing what few stars we could. We’d hoped to see the lights of Hawaii, but not quite yet. The cool blast was exhilarating! We went to the back of the ship, where the stars were slightly more visible and the wind was slightly blocked. It was a beautiful, romantic location that reminded me of the private deck Nate and I found on the Oasis, above the dance party, where we danced unabashedly on our own exclusive dance floor. I wouldn’t have minded staying the night if it were slightly warmer.

We retreated to the shelter of our room and decided to try out the room service. We opted for tomato and avocado quesadillas and a four seasons pizza. It was nice. Then we went up to the buffet for dessert and water. We attempted to go on deck again to see the lights after that, but it was raining and the decks had a half inch of water on them. Treacherous! We took the high deck, which was slightly less wet, and enjoyed the evening before retreating inside to hit they hay early for our big day in Honolulu tomorrow.

Thoughts for Hyla

Since having Hyla, a lot of deep-seated emotions have risen to the surface, many which I had all but forgotten, hidden in the darkest depths of my memories. I look at my beautiful daughter, so full of joy and happiness, unmarred by the harsh cruelties of the world, and I wonder what sorts of experiences she will have in her young life. I often cry when I think about what she may face from her peers, knowing first-hand just how awful children can be to one another, and how scarring being the recipient of such actions can be to one’s psyche. How could anyone take such a beautiful soul and torture it, making it question its own value and worth, attempting to destroy a being so full of joy and love? It scares me to think of what may befall my daughter, having dealt first-hand with the wrath of bullies during my own childhood. And now, with cyberbullying, it’s even harder to escape. It wrenches my heart when I hear about these cases, including the most recently televised case of a girl who killed herself to escape these horrible torturers.

For years, I had no means of escape from the wrath of cruel children. Having attended a small school, I couldn’t exactly make “new friends,” because what you saw is what you got. Admittedly, I was different. I had quirky interests and didn’t care about fashion or music trends, and I refused to change who I was to fit in. I was always kind to everyone, but that wasn’t enough. Toward the end of my time at that school, I was essentially friendless, as no one would stand by me for fear of marring their own reputations, meager as they might have been. I became used to having to fight to defend myself on the bus and the schoolyard where I still remember having about 20 girls surround and threaten me. The school system failed me. Even though they knew what was going on, any time I’d defend myself, they’d reprimand me and not say a word to the offending parties. What can you do when even the “authorities” fail you?

Harassment was a daily occurrence, and my very soul was so beat down that I could hardly function. Though those people tried to break me, I still had my spark burning deep inside. While I had a low self-image, my self-esteem has always been strong. I think I can attribute much of that to a strong home life with a family who truly cared about me. There was much love, and it was that which kept me strong. They kept my fire kindled, and I honestly don’t know what I would have done without them.

High school came and I began to break out of my shell. I made strong friendships with wonderful people who liked me for who I was. College, again, allowed me the chance to grow and be who I was without compromising myself. I started to grow back into the person I was before the horrible times, letting the joy out once again, and embracing happiness. I won’t lie and say that the scars have all gone away. Through much of college, I still fought with a low self-image despite knowing in my heart that I was worthy and exceptional and awesome. My self-esteem was there, even if I didn’t always acknowledge it. In the words of Stuart Smalley, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” And it’s true.

Today I consider myself an introvert. I’m certain that had my life gone differently, I would have been more outgoing, as I find myself quite adept at engaging others in conversation at times. It feels good to do so. Still, I have moments where I revert to my shy side and sometimes do find it hard to communicate with people. I may be at a loss for what to say to people on occasion and find the written word much more agreeable than the spoken. I tend to overthink what I have said, worrying that, in some frantic vomiting of words to prevent an awkward silence, I may have said something offensive though I never meant for that to be the case. These problems are residual from years of attacks and harassment. Eventually it’s safer to just stop talking when it comes to certain people. But I am braver now, and have peers who are worthy of my time. I surround myself with kind, positive people and don’t bother with the negatives. I think that my personality pitches to the positive, and that’s who I was, down to my very soul, before it was ever beaten down. I believe that I’m a good 95% back to the person I was on that first day of kindergarten, before real life marred me. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I think that the experiences I’ve had have ultimately enriched who I have become – I know how to be truly kind and have empathy and compassion for all living things. I have no tolerance for the cruel, and I am meant to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. I will be their voice. It just saddens me that there are many who weren’t as strong, who didn’t fight, and ended things before discovering that life does truly get better.

My message to Hyla, and to all the children out there, is to never, ever compromise who you are for popularity or acceptance. You are incredible and unique and oh so special, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. You’re worthy of love and happiness and all that life has to offer. Don’t ever let anyone break your spirit. Those who try are just insecure with themselves, and while it may be hard to believe at the time, it is true. You are better than them. Embrace kindness. Sometimes it’s all you have. And remember, even when things are at their darkest, they will turn around. The people who truly matter will love you for who you are, and you will always be loved by me.

Welcoming Hyla Eleanor to the World!

I know that this is supposed to be my travel blog, but I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life and thought it would be great to share it here with all of you. Last Friday, August 9th, my husband and I welcomed our daughter into the world. The following is her birth story:

August 7-8, 2013

A very uncomfortable night had ensued. Before Nate even got home from work, I was contracting and tried to keep track of the time between each one. Eventually, I went to bed. Every so often, up to about 10 minutes or so, I would awake to bad cramps, and laying on my side was not helping. I just couldn’t get comfortable, and the weight of the baby in my belly wasn’t helping, either. I tossed and turned all night and barely slept at all. I had an appointment with the perinatal associates in the morning for some fetal monitoring. I was having some rather strong cramps on occasion, and they could see them on the screen as I was experiencing them. I was just a week overdue, but one of the matter-of-fact technicians came in and practically demanded to know why I hadn’t been induced yet. I told her I’d done research on the topic, and that the risks outweighed the benefits at this moment in time, and that I’d talk to my midwife about it as we got closer to the two week overdue point. She made sure to tell me that she was surprised about this attitude (which is actually quite prevalent nowadays) and that the placenta was probably not functioning well anymore, etc., etc. Honestly, based on my knowledge, waiting a little over a week isn’t uncommon or all that dangerous. Why deal with the dangers of induction? Plus, since so many contractions were being recorded, some of which were pretty strong, what’s the rush? Obviously my body was working on it.

I spent much of the day at home, uncomfortable. That night, Nathan and I tried to watch “The Usual Suspects,” during which he’d record my contractions. We had to pause the movie so frequently, and I can’t say I really paid close attention, I was just so uncomfortable. The best way I can describe it is similar to intermittent intestinal cramping like you’d get from food poisoning. I’d have to moan through them, and I’m sure it was awful to watch. A call to the midwife assured us that it was too soon to worry about anything. The contractions would have to be regular and 5-10 minutes apart. I guess the occasional two minute intervals didn’t matter much in their mind. Plus, people were telling me that I would know when I had to go in. Would I? I had nothing to compare this to! We stopped the movie about 20 minutes from the end because I just couldn’t bear it anymore. I took a shower in an attempt to lessen the discomfort and maybe the frequency of contractions. It felt great while I was showering, but once out, things were still pretty bad. We tried to go to sleep, but I just couldn’t lay there. I sat on the computer a while and started to nod off. Sitting cross-legged in the computer chair was about the most comfort I could find, but without head support, each time I’d start to doze, I’d nearly fall over. I decided to move into the baby’s room where I could sit in the rocking chair. I wedged myself in, again cross-legged, and managed to fall asleep. I didn’t have a watch on, so I couldn’t really tell what my contraction intervals were, but it seemed to me like I was waking up every five minutes or so to extreme discomfort. I’d wake up just before the contraction would really hit, but my body knew it was coming. At some point, it was so uncomfortable, I’d have to stretch my legs out during each one, disturbing my rest even more, and on top of that, my legs would start shaking uncontrollably during the contractions, a reaction I would have intermittently throughout labor due to high adrenaline. I’m not sure how I managed to nod off for five minutes or so at a time, but I must have been exhausted. I decided that we should probably consider going to the hospital, especially since I felt a vague desire to push, which shouldn’t happen until late in labor, though as usual I thought this could always be attributed to digestive issues.

August 9, 2013

We drove down to Presbyterian Hospital and made our way up to triage. En route, there was one point where I did have to stop and wait out a contraction – a clue that labor was getting serious. They say you may not be able to walk or talk during the bad ones. I hadn’t really reached that point prior to this, but this one was particularly rough. I must have stood there for several minutes holding onto Nate before I could continue on. Once up at triage, they took my vitals and monitored the contractions. Eventually the midwife came in to assess me, and told us, to our shock, that we were at NINE centimeters dilation (out of ten!). We’d half expected to be told we were at three or four and that we weren’t nearly ready to be in. See, perinatal technician, way to jump the gun on that induction. Anyway, they told us (obviously) we weren’t going anywhere, and wheeled my cot down to a room in labor and delivery (which happened to be the same room we’d seen on our tour a few weeks prior).

It was a nice, private setting, though obviously still part of the hospital with the adjustable bed and all sorts of equipment everywhere. They were kind enough to keep the lights low and the atmosphere as comfortable as could be expected. I was attended to by the midwife, a nurse or tech, and Sarah, a doula that we’d hired through the hospital. Every single one of them couldn’t believe I was so far into labor because I was smiling and chatty and really didn’t come across as someone at that point. They’d asked me if I wanted drugs such as an epidural, and I said that ideally I would like to avoid it, but if it got really bad I may change my mind. Essentially, despite their offer, I was so far through the worst of the transitional (most uncomfortable) stage that it probably wouldn’t even be worth it. Just the fact that I was coping as well as I was at this point made the use of meds seem unlikely. In fact, I never used them, nor did I feel the need to during this process. I do wonder if I had gone in sooner if I’d have taken something, if for no other reason than to cope with the exhaustion moreso than the pain.

We’d arrived at triage sometime between 6 and 7 (our recollections are different in that regard). We were up in the room about 8. I spent much of the time talking to the staff, particularly our doula Sarah, who happened to be the one who signed us up when we decided to hire one. You never know which doula you’re going to get, but we were happy to have her. She was just so helpful and sweet and knowledgeable. I would recommend a doula to anyone, although I have to say that the midwife and tech were both very present and helpful, too. I had to spend the next few hours getting my cervix up to the full 10 centimeters. There was a little lip that just didn’t want to go away, so they gave me techniques like ways to sit during contractions and such that would fix the problem. I would engage everyone in conversation, only occasionally having to stop due to the discomfort. A chart on the wall had a pain scale of zero to ten with ten being the ultimate worst pain ever, and I completely expected to get to that point somewhere, but still, things weren’t unbearable and I trekked on.

Once we’d determined that we were close enough to 10 centimeters, they told me to push if I needed to. I think this final stage lasted about three hours or so. During this time, I’d gotten my second dosage of penicillin to combat a possible group b strep infection. My arm burned from that, but I was assured that was normal. The feel of the contractions during this stage were different. They would come on in a similar manner as the transitional ones, but weren’t quite as uncomfortable. They did make you want to push at times. I think part of the reason this stage lasted so long was because I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect from the birth, and I held back. It really did help to push when I did, though. The pain felt productive and subsided somewhat. I was glad to not have an epidural because I was able to move around the room and try various positions for pushing. As unpleasant as it sounds, the toilet was a great place and felt natural. It turns out a lot of women actually do have their baby in that position. Due to the length of time this was taking, they suggested three means to speed up delivery: nipple stimulation (which was a no for me), Pitocin (which I’d heard bad things about taking), and breaking the bag of waters. We did the latter, and it was so weird to feel myself draining like that. I guess it sped things up some, though I really didn’t notice much of a difference. Eventually, the midwife suggested I get back on the bed and push in the traditional manner, which is apparently with one person behind your head keeping your chin down, one person on each leg, pulling them back toward your torso, and one in the catcher’s position. It was so uncomfortable, and they kept yelling at me to stop trying to extend my legs, but it was easier said than done. I made a lot of headway with the pushing here, and we could get up to five good pushes per contraction. It wasn’t painful, but it was absolutely exhausting. I wanted to rest through a contraction or two, but due to the fact that I was hooked on a monitor, they could tell when I was having them, so there was no resting. One interesting thing that would happen only during some of my contractions was, when pushing, my body would go into auto push mode. It was a similar sensation to a gag reflex. I’d start to push, and though I was running low on energy and didn’t think I could keep up a push, my body would kick in and do a long gaglike push. That’s actually what would eventually allow me to push her out. Those were easily the best pushes, and I got the impression the midwife thought it was all me. I wish!! This part of labor was just so darned exhausting. Toward the end, they decided to give me a tiny bit of Pitocin, and, though I’d heard it makes contractions more painful, I suspect it helped me with the gag reflex pushes. At the end, I was making the most demonic sounds, trying to get her out of me. It wasn’t due to pain, it was due to strain. Eventually they told me that they could see her head, which blew my mind. In some ways, it felt like she had been that far ages ago, but that was good to know there was a light at the end of the tunnel. They asked if I wanted to touch her head, but I declined. I was a bit preoccupied, and I don’t think I would have enjoyed that. They kept saying “She’ll be out on your next push!” but it wasn’t the case. It almost felt like she was retreating back in, but they assured me each push was progress…two steps forward, one step back, if anything. After about five of those “next push” assurances, I was fed up and just wanted her out of me. I pushed with all my might, and with a sensation of stretching and resistance, out came her head. I pushed again for her shoulders, which was easier, and once more for her whole body. They pulled her out of me with that last one, and it was so weird to feel a whole other human come out of me. There was no pain, just a lot of slimy sliding and the feel of appendages. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I’d feared at all. They held her up, got her to cry, and gave her to me for some skin-to-skin belly time. She was beautiful!! Completely alert, not at all misshapen despite all her time in the birth canal, beautiful eyes, and all her fingers and toes and body parts accounted for. She arrived at 2:51pm and was 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and 20 inches long.

Shortly thereafter, once I was given a few minutes to rest and meet my sweet girl, I had to push out the placenta. I’d about had it with pushing, but luckily we were able to get it out on just a few tries. I wanted to see the organ that nourished my daughter, so they held it up and showed me. I asked Nate to take a picture, because I’m weird like that. He really didn’t want to, so the doula did it instead. It looks horrific on film, but it was so important these past nine months. Thanks to that, my dear Hyla was sustained in the womb.

I had about an hour to recover in this room before they’d tote me down to recovery. During this time, there was a lot of blood, especially because they would massage my uterus to get it to go down. They also determined I had a small tear and were going to repair it with a stitch or two. I asked if it was really bad enough, or if I could just let it heal on its own. They agreed that I could just let it heal, so that’s what I decided to do. Sarah was telling me she was amazed at how well I handled it all despite no pain meds, which surprised me because I’d have assumed that most people who hire a doula would do so with the intention of not using drugs. It heartened me to hear how well everyone thought this went. Childbirth was nowhere near as painful as I’d heard, and there was no reason to have handled it any differently.

I had some time to bond with Hyla, and I attempted to nurse her. The pain was shocking! Much worse than childbirth, to be honest. I felt awful not being able to feed her just yet, but I tried as best I could. Sarah brought me a nipple guard to use, too, but with the colostrum, it was too thick to really feed the baby. We would have some serious troubleshooting to do. Worried about the ability to nourish my child, we were wheeled up to recovery.

We spent much of the rest of the day getting to know our baby before she was toted away for tests and measurements. Once in recovery, it was a near constant flow of nurses and attendants coming in and out, and we found it really difficult to get much rest. We’d wind up staying two nights instead of one because of breastfeeding troubleshooting. I was lucky to talk to a very knowledgeable lactation consultant who thought my pain could be due to Raynaud’s Syndrome, which is a circulation issue. We came up with a plan of pumping as possible and supplementing the diet with formula (not ideal, but at least she wouldn’t starve before my milk really came in). It was such a relief to have an alternative measure for her.

Our two nights lasted a long time, although all the visitors helped. On the second day, Karla, Varissa, and Sumarin came by with a tequila cake and some lemonade to celebrate Hyla’s 0th birthday. It was really great, and we loved showing off our newest addition. The only bad part was that Nathan had a huge migraine and was actually sick most of this time. He was a real trouper, though, and after getting a few hours of good sleep, he was his old self again. As for me, I was recovering really well and didn’t really feel like I had just gone through all I had. It was great, and I’m so thankful that my body recovered so easily. Now we’re home, learning from each other and getting to know our wonderful baby girl. We couldn’t ask for a more agreeable baby – so patient with our inexperience. She hardly ever cries, and when she does, we usually have a pretty good idea of what she wants. And if we don’t, it only takes a few soothing words to calm her down. She’s bright eyed, healthy, strong, and cute as can be. I never cared much for babies, but she has stolen my heart unlike any other. I look so forward to our lives together!

6th Anniversary Trip (CO, WY, NE); May 2013

6th Anniversary Trip (CO, WY, NE)

Thurs. May 16, 2013

Nate and I always enjoy doing a short anniversary trip whenever possible, and seeing as this may be our last opportunity to take an “easy” one, we figured we should go for it while we had the chance. I’d been wanting to feed giraffes up at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for a while now, so we thought we could build our trip around that. Luckily, I was able to get Friday off, so we decided to leave on Thursday night and spend three full days enjoying the open road.

I was able to get out of work a bit early on Thursday, thanks to coming in about an hour early. This gave me the chance to get home, finish packing, and shower. We hit the road shortly after 4pm en route to Trinidad, CO, home to one of my favorite restaurants in the Rockies: Rino’s Italian Restaurant and Steakhouse. Its rather limited hours of 5pm to 9pm, Wed. through Sun. make it a bit difficult to visit at times, but we planned it just right. We arrived in Trinidad around 8pm, after an uneventful car ride. I couldn’t get over how empty I-25 is, for such a major expressway. We entertained ourselves by singing to the likes of Coolio and whatever else popped up on the radio. Once in Trinidad, we made a bee line straight for the restaurant.

What can I say about Rino’s? I absolutely love the place! It is unique and charming and the food is excellent…and the singing! Did I mention the singing? Everyone employed there sings. In the four times I’ve visited, I’ve even seen the busboys and cooks sing. And they really sing well, too! The amount of singing has varied each time I’ve visited, but the quality never wavers. This evening, we only had two songs, but considering our waiter belted out Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” one of the songs from “my era,” as I like to say, that more than made up for it. Couple this with the setting in an historic church dating from 1887 and a lovely dinner of lobster ravioli and chicken parmigiana, it was a perfect night. I beam from the moment I walk in the door until I leave. This is a must-visit restaurant for anyone traveling through the area. It’s just so special, and I know that it will not be around forever.

That night we had a reservation at the Trinidad Super 8. I knew we could have continued up the road even further, but it was kind of nice to just call it a night when we did. We had a big day ahead of us in the morning, after all!

Fri. May 17, 2013

I really didn’t sleep all that well this night, and I wound up getting up early, probably around 5:30. When I went to the washroom, I discovered that my hands were super puffy (I couldn’t get my ring off!), and I was experiencing a few sparks of light in my vision. I felt pregnant and miserable, and I wondered if these things could be attributed to the elevation gain. I showered and got ready for the day, and as the day wore on, I started to feel more normal again.

Once Nate was done, we stopped in the lobby for a quick breakfast before heading north on I-25. Having been raring to go in the morning, I started driving so Nate could sleep in a bit more. It didn’t take long before my fitful night’s sleep crept up on me, and I started to get really tired. I pulled over at a gas station and we thankfully switched. On the way up, the radio indicated there was a major rollover accident somewhere in Colorado Springs, so we agreed to get off the expressway a bit early to avoid it. In doing so, we encountered another accident and determined Colorado drivers are crazy. After a few detours, we made it to the gates of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo about a half hour after opening. Hooray!!

Despite its name, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is not located in Cheyenne, but rather at the base of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs. It claims to be the United States’ only “mountain zoo,” as it is situated on a somewhat steep slope, requiring guests to climb up and down the mountainside to view its many exhibits. We parked in the overflow parking, which flanks the road to the park, before ever even bothering to see if any space was available in the lot. It really wasn’t that far of a walk, either way. Once at the gate, we were met with crowds and crowds of school groups, which was a bit daunting, but luckily the line for tickets was quite short. Once bought, the salesperson gave us two tokens with which to vote for our favorite conservation project at the zoo. There were a lot of worthy ones including the Mexican wolf and orangutans, but we both voted for tropical frog conservation. Then we unleashed ourselves upon the zoo.

I had been warned by people to start at the top and work down because of the zoo’s steepness and large elevation changes. It’s not a bad idea, but I was really surprised at the end of the day how easy the climb was despite carrying this extra weight around. If anything, the altitude worried me, but I seemed unaffected and just as energetic as usual. That’s always a plus!

Our first stop was near the bottom: giraffes!! I really wanted to experience feeding giraffes, and this place offers the opportunity all day long! For an extra $2, you can get a handful of romaine lettuce (or other goodies, depending on time of day), and the giraffes will come right up to you on the deck for a treat. You can also just pet them, if so inclined. I was surprised at how informal it all was. I bought my romaine and went over to the eager giraffe nearby. She extended her tongue as though my hands were a branch on a tree, and happily munched on the lettuce while I scratched her nose. These enormous creatures are so gentle, with the sweetest eyes, and the experience was quite amazing. We hung out with the giraffes a bit longer, watching them lick the heck out of the deck posts (they must have been salty) before moving on. Feeding the giraffes absolutely made my day!

We spent the rest of our time visiting lots of other exhibits including elephants, red river hogs, hippos, a walk through Australia area, grizzlies, moose, and many other areas that you’d find in zoos across the country. They would often adorn enclosures with statues of animals you may see in association with them in the wild. The most unusual was a statue of a half-eaten zebra carcass right outside the giraffe area. Very bizarre. One of my favorite areas was The Loft, which featured a wide variety of creepy crawly critters including invertebrates and herpetiles. I could have stayed in there all day, were it not for the hordes of screaming school kids.

My only issue with the park was that it seemed like the enclosures were rather small, which, I’m sure, was a direct result of having limited space on a mountainside. Still, they did a good job with what they had, and the entire zoo maintained a feel of being much closer to the animals, with no boundaries, than was actually the case. It was definitely unique and well worth the visit.

Once we had seen all the exhibits, we went for a spin on the ski lift. This was an extra charge, but we figured we were here, we may as well see it all. It turns out there isn’t much to see at the top of the lift, save for a snack bar and some yurts with information inside, but it was still fun. After that, we exited the park to get the car and drove in through the gate to reach the very top of the property where Will Rogers’ Shrine of the Sun is located. Both attractions are included in admission to the zoo, so we definitely had to see it. We turned our hazard lights on and made our way up the mountainside at 5 miles per hour, navigating switchbacks and avoiding the occasional visitor who would amble out into the road obliviously. After a good deal of climbing, we made it to the top where we ascended the shrine. There was a chapel and about three rooms of pictures featuring the life and times of Will Rogers. The view of the surrounding country from up there was incredible, though much of it was really just urban sprawl while looking east. Being so high up, though, it felt like we were worlds away.

Noticing the time, we made our way down. We still had things to do today, and we weren’t going to miss them! We snaked our way back down the mountain and exited the park en route to Golden for a tour of the Coors Brewery.

Years ago, we’d tried to visit the Brewery, but we’d either arrived after hours or on a day that they were closed altogether. Today, they were scheduled to close at 4pm, and we’d arrived a little after 3:30. We noticed there was a line for the bus outside the parking lot, so it was apparent people were still waiting to go in. We were ushered into the lot by an employee, so that, too, was a good sign. We wandered over to the bus line and waited, chatting a bit with a retired couple who were RVing from California to Pennsylvania. We also did our best to avoid the copious amounts of smoke from fellow queuers. That’s another thing I noticed about Colorado on this trip – there was a nearly constant odor of cigarette smoke in the air. I couldn’t get over all the people who still do that! Being allergic to smoke and pregnant, that’s the last thing I needed. And I would notice, once out of the smoke, that the odor would still be in my clothes and hair, it was just that bad. What gives, Colorado?

After about 20 minutes, we finally boarded the bus that took us to the gate of the brewery. We showed our IDs and made our way inside. Unlike other brewery tours, this one was self-guided. They gave us handheld speakers, and we wandered around at our own pace, learning about the brewery and processes. We got to see the largest collection of mash tuns out of any brewery, and learned the history of the location and how it was chosen for the pure mountain waters that run through the area. At the end of it all, we went to the tasting room where Nate got to partake in the brews. He thought they all tasted kind of weird, as is typical (in his opinion) of Coors. I had a non-alcoholic beer which tasted like carbonated water, but oh well. I also had a Sierra Mist. It was a good time, and I’m glad we were finally able to take the tour.

From here, I realized I’d downloaded a geocache really close, so we crossed the street and found that really quickly. Then we headed into touristy downtown Golden where we treated ourselves to some tasty ice cream. Our server seemed awfully perplexed about what change to give us, but eventually he figured it out. Ah, Golden education! Hopefully it’s better than it seems. Once we’d had our fill of Golden, we hit the road again for places north. We decided to drive through Boulder to see the University of Colorado campus, which would also allow us to avoid the insanity of downtown Denver. Well, we were still met with a lot of traffic because it seemed to be graduation weekend. Needless to say, we didn’t see much of campus, but it was still a nice diversion.

We eventually reconnected with I-25 and headed north to Fort Collins. We checked into another Super 8, which seemed incredibly overpriced, but we suspected it was due to graduation season. From there, we headed into downtown Fort Collins to seek out Coopersmith’s Brew Pub. We parked in the garage and made our way over, admiring the amazing campustown. Champaign could take a hint from this place! It was hip and clean and really inviting with lots to do. When we finally arrived at our destination, it turned out that it was so huge that it was split in two! You could go to the games-themed area, or the restaurant area (both of which seemed to serve food). The restaurant area had a shorter line, so that’s where we went. We were seated before too long in a remote corner. I was able to face out and observe the college crowd, which was immensely fascinating. I was particularly fascinated by the table immediately behind Nate. It seemed to consist of a large group of college friends. The ones on the right side of the table were laughing and having a great conversation, but the two people on the left side, a guy and a girl, looked so awkward and quiet. I would occasionally see the guy try to painfully make conversation with the girl, and to me it seemed like they had been asked along as a set-up. The girl would give a short answer and go back to looking uncomfortable. I couldn’t look away. Well, right before we left, I realized they had a baby between them, and it actually looked like it was both of theirs. In fact, I’m sure it was. How sad that this couple was so distant from one another despite that. It goes to show you never know with people.

As for the food, Nate and I shared a Mediterranean pizza and a wild game sausage plate (elk and wild boar). It was pretty good, and Nate said the beer was, too. Maybe someday I’ll get to try it…and we’ll come back with the baby and not be that awkward couple.

Nate had developed a migraine, so we had to seek out a grocery store or pharmacy next. Our Garmin took us about 8 miles away! I couldn’t believe there wasn’t anything closer! We got some Tylenol and headed back to our room. We’d considered playing mini golf at the place near our motel, but neither of us was really up for that. It had been a long day, and we were just glad to call it a night.

Sat. May 18, 2013

Once again, I got up early, as we had lots to do today! (Mostly driving.) I no longer had puffy hands or weird eye flashes, so that was a plus. We quickly got up, ran down to breakfast, and hit the road. Again, I started driving, but I’d slept really well and had no problem staying awake. North we continued, crossing the border into Wyoming, and then heading east on I-80 toward Nebraska. Our mission: conquer the highest point in Nebraska! After exiting the expressway and heading south out of Pine Bluffs, WY, we eventually made it to a series of dirt roads leading to the site. Situated on someone’s property, they ask for $3 a person to access the high point. They also warn of bison in the area (which I believe are raised by the property owners). We paid our fee and were able to see the bison on our bouncy ride out to the site. Of course, the high point of Nebraska isn’t exactly exceptional (despite being called Panorama Point), it was still exciting to get to see the monument and add our names to the list of intrepid high point explorers. On top of it, this was Baby Crane’s first high point. Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska were also her 14th, 15th, and 16th states, respectively. This girl gets around, and she hasn’t even been born yet! On our way out, we attempted to do the three corners geocache, but it would have involved a mile-long hike one-way or a drive on a questionable road, so we skipped it. We got a virtual cache out of the high point anyway, so that was good enough. We did stop in the town of Pine Bluffs to get two Wyoming geocaches, and we stopped at the local rest area to do some hiking as well. Then we high tailed it back south toward Colorado.

Lunchtime found us back in Fort Collins, so we decided to try another brew pub for the heck of it. This time we went to the Fort Collins Brewery. We were seated outside at the adjacent and associated Gravity 1020 restaurant. We had an enjoyable lunch – Nate enjoyed his beers and had some weird beer-based soup that was served with popcorn floating in it to go along with his grilled cheese and avocado sandwich. I had a lamb burger. From there, we headed south yet again, our mission was to reach Monte Vista, Colorado by at least 7pm. Our route took us through some incredibly scenic areas, including right through the region known as South Park, home to Fairplay, CO, the town on which the show "South Park" was based. We didn’t stop to look around, but I’m sure it’s much smaller than what is depicted on TV. We did stop briefly along our drive for some ice cream, which really hit the spot, as usual. We also were treated to some shows of lightning and a few rain showers. Finally, around 6pm, we arrived in Monte Vista, home of the Best Western Movie Manor, where we would be spending the night.

Our first experience at this unique hotel happened on our anniversary trip 4 years ago. Nate decided to surprise me on our destination, and we hopped in the car, heading north, as I made guesses about our trip. I did get it before too long, but that didn’t hinder the excitement in the least. Now, drive-in theaters are getting to be a rarity, but not only does this place have a drive-in theater, it one-ups it by having a motel associated with said theater. In fact, you have the option of watching movies from the picture window in your room or sitting in your car! How cool is that?! I am pretty sure this is a one of a kind establishment, and really worth the trip to southern Colorado. On our first trip, we watched “Star Trek” and drank way too much wine (which would prove a problem when we took the bumpy Cumbres Toltec train ride the next day), but it was so much fun! I made sure to get us reservations on the drive down, and we were assured a room with a good view to watch “Oz the Great and Powerful” (or we had the option of watching “Scary Movie 5” from our car if we so desired).

Since we were early and hadn’t yet eaten dinner, once we’d checked into the Movie Manor, we headed to the associated restaurant next door to get some eats. Included in the price of our stay (which was actually less than the Super 8s we stayed at the previous nights) was a discounted meal at this restaurant, and, of course, the movies. We settled into our seats at the restaurant and ordered unexceptional meals of a sandwich and soup. I did get to talking with the waitress while Nate was in the bathroom, and it turns out that the motel (I think – it may be the drive-in itself which is a separate entity) was bought by a new family, so hopefully they’ll keep things running like they have been. It would be such a shame to lose such a neat place.

After dinner, we moved into our room: 205, the Jerry Lewis room, and got settled. It was starting to get dusky out, so we headed down to the concession stand to get some snacks before the movie started. One of the ladies running the stand asked me if I bought a horse. I had no idea what she was talking about, so I said, “I wish!” I’m pretty sure she got me confused with someone else she saw at some livestock auction. That would be a dangerous event for me to attend. Anyway, Nate got some popcorn, and I got a giant pickle and the 3rd caffeinated drink I’ve had since being pregnant: a Pepsi. I really needed something to drink, and there weren’t many options. We settled back into our room and enjoyed a great view and movie. What a neat place, and I can’t wait to bring our little one here someday (when she can really experience it).

Sun. May 19, 2013

I had a wonderful night’s sleep, which is getting to be more and more rare. We actually slept in quite a bit, which was a treat, too. We took our time getting ready and hit the road a little before 11. On a whim, I suggested we try to eat dinner at the fabulous Rancho de Chimayo, a nice New Mexican restaurant that we hadn’t visited in over 10 years! The only time I’d been was on our first drive down to New Mexico together, on our ten day road trip when Nate was moving out. This restaurant was one at which his family would dine for special occasions, and he wanted me to experience it, too. Sadly, much of it burned in recent years, and they only just reopened not too long ago. Even still, its distance and location made it a place we rarely thought of visiting. This time, however, it was almost on our way back, so I thought, why not? So we called Nate’s mom Karla and invited her to join us, which we were glad she was able to do.

The drive down was thankfully uneventful. Just lots of beautiful scenery for many, many miles. We hit some traffic but still got there with a few minutes to spare. Once we all had arrived, it wasn’t long before they found us a table outside on the back patio. It may have even been the same place we’d sat on our first visit together all those years ago. I honestly couldn’t tell what had changed after the fire, because it all looked so historic. It was a bit chilly out there, as the clouds kept rolling in, and we even had a few sprinkles that were luckily caught by the large umbrellas overhead. The food was even more incredible than I remembered, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. After eating, we wandered the grounds a bit, admiring the décor and rustic setting. We will definitely have to come back, hopefully sooner than 10 years.

After lunch, we said goodbye to Karla and headed back down to Albuquerque. On the way, we made sure to stop for some Dairy Queen (I got seconds, I’m terrible!). We finally arrived at home around 5 or so. It was an incredibly enjoyable, though a bit whirlwind, trip, and I cherished every moment. I know our next one probably won’t be as simple, so I made sure to mentally capture each moment as best I could. The next one will definitely be a brand new adventure!

Australia: Day 22 - Back to Melbourne and Home

Oct. 7th

I woke up super early, well before our wakeup call, which actually turned out to be a wakeup knock. We were ready nearly immediately and ran down to check out of the hotel. They called us a cab, and we were whisked off to the airport. We were so early that we had the option of taking an earlier flight, but we opted not to for some reason I don’t really recall. The Canberra Airport is very nice – airy, clean, and comfortable. While waiting, we proceeded to get rid of a lot of our Aussie change in the vending machine, enjoying chicken-flavored crisps and other delights. The actual flight on Qantas was lovely, too, with an extremely friendly crew and treats in the form of apples, cookies, and juice. Once we landed in Melbourne, we collected our luggage and went over to Thrifty to get things settled as best we could. I felt a bit like they blamed us for the accident, but we eventually straightened things out somewhat. Then we headed across the street and checked into the last hotel of our stay. It was a luxury business hotel, and honestly, after what we’d been through, we more than deserved it.

It was only mid-day, and we didn’t want to waste our last moments in Australia just sitting around re-living what had happened the day before. There were still a few more things we wanted to see in the Melbourne area, and frankly we didn’t like the city enough to want to come back, so it was now or never. On a whim, I decided to check the Luna Park website to see if there was any chance at all that the Scenic Railway roller coaster might be running. It sounded pretty grim when I’d talked to the staff several weeks ago, considering they were remodeling the entire façade. Well, it turns out that we happened to be back during spring break, and as such, they decided to run the coaster after all! I could not believe our luck! We caught a bus to a depot downtown where we caught a tram that took us directly to Luna Park. We bought our ticket and headed right over to the Scenic Railway queue. It was a bit overcast, and somewhat drizzly, and we were informed of the danger that they may shut the ride down due to rain. We waited 45 minutes to ride, nervously watching the skies, talking to the extremely excited little boy and his sister in front of us in line (his excitement almost rivaled mine!) and reading all the warning signs about people with neck injuries not riding. I was sore. Unbelievably so. But I wasn’t going to miss out on the chance to ride the oldest continuously-running roller coaster in the world, and the last remaining coaster with a brakeman. This thing was happening, whiplash or not. When it was finally our turn, we were ushered into the third seat back and began our ride.

And what a ride it was! I really wish I remembered more of it, but I spent most of the time struggling to keep my head upright. I just didn’t have the strength to do so, and my head was knocked around like mad, which is weird because it wasn’t a particularly complicated layout. At the bottom of each hill, it was excessively rattly, and I braced myself each time as best I could. I spent most of my time concerned with that, and not really paying attention to the ride itself, sadly. Still, the ride was basically gentle, circling the perimeter of the park twice, clockwise, as we flew through tunnels. We'd listen to the brake lady as she'd tell us when to brace for rough spots and when to put our hands up. As for her, she stood the entire ride! What an experience!

After riding, we took some more pictures of the park and headed down to Craik’s, an Irish pub, to get a bite to eat in the form of fish and chips and beer. Then we wandered down to the pier with the intent of waiting for nightfall to get some nice pictures of a lit-up Luna Park. What better way to spend our time than a leisure stroll along the water? Weren’t we surprised to discover signs indicating that this very pier, so unassuming and regular, was a reserve not only for the fairy penguins we missed out on seeing at Kangaroo Island, but also for a native water rat known as the rakali! The signs indicated that these animals would be more active toward dusk, so as evening set in, we swept back and forth along the pier, peeking in every rock crevice we could find. Then we heard a slight commotion from some other people. We hurried over to their spot to discover a little fairy penguin, hiding amongst the boulders, just awaiting nightfall. The more we looked, the more penguins we spotted!! We also saw a few rakali, both foraging on shore and swimming expertly in the sea, searching out shellfish for dinner. What an awesome treat, and a great end to an overall amazing trip. After seeing lots and lots of awesome wildlife, we took a brief stroll in a nearby park, returned to the pier a second time to look for more critters, and took a final stroll past Luna Park to enjoy the brilliance of all its lights before catching our rides back to the hotel. It was an amazingly perfect end to our trip.

Our long flight home the next day was uneventful. Lots of movies to watch, and we also discovered that adult beverages were available at no extra charge, so we made sure to enjoy ourselves. We got home in one piece, a bit sore, but full of memories to last a lifetime. We both eagerly look forward to our next big adventure.

Australia 2011 Day 21: Canberra and Car Crash

Oct. 6th

We woke up at a reasonable hour and decided to spend our morning exploring the National Museum of Australia, only a short walk from our hotel. We really didn’t know what to expect here, but were pleasantly surprised, and I honestly think I could have spent several more hours exploring. There were exhibits of all sorts, ranging from history to wildlife to movies to culture to you name it. If it had anything at all to do with Australia, you would find it discussed here. Some of my favorite exhibits included a reconstructed skeleton of a Diprotodon, the largest known marsupial to have existed in Australia. Resembling a giant wombat, this creature stood about 6.6 feet high and was about 10 feet long. They also had a skin from a Thylacine, which was of interest to me after having possibly seen one on the road a few days prior. Since the last known one died in 1936, it was about as close to seeing a real one as I could hope for. They also had exhibits discussing the problems associated with invasive species, with which Australia has had many a battle. One of the neatest exhibits was an insect collection collected by Charles Darwin himself, complete with labels he wrote! That about made my day.

After having spent at least four hours at this fascinating museum, we knew we had a long way to drive this day, so we hit the road by early afternoon. Once we got out of the confines of Canberra proper, we started noticing signs for wineries, and we decided to try to find one that was open after our lack of luck the day before. We decided to skip the first, and the second was closed. We came upon the third, and were in the right turn lane (equivalent to a left turn lane in the States) to access its road when we heard horrible squealing tires…I turned, horrified, to look at Nate, and an instant later we were hit at high speed from behind, whirling into oncoming traffic. As I watched this play out in slow motion, I calmly and somewhat fearlessly wondered what was going to happen…would we be hit? Would we be injured? I didn’t let myself get any further than that thought when we were hit again by an oncoming pickup truck. All the cars came to a stop as quickly as they could, and I remember stating the obvious to Nate, that we had to get out of the car, fast, not knowing if the thing would catch fire or who knows what. Our car had been accordioned, so much that we couldn’t open the doors. Nate had to kick out his door, and I exited on his side. Nate’s glasses had flown off, and our trunk was smashed in, leaving stuff all over the street and a trunk in our backseat. Holy crap, anyone back there would have died. We’re lucky we didn’t.

Once out of the car, we were both in a rather stunned state. We made our way to the side of the road as other cars just stopped, unsure of what to do. I luckily noticed my computer case had landed in the middle of the road, and cars were gingerly driving around it. I ran to grab it, and by some miracle the computer was unscathed. Some drivers asked if they could do anything, and I just asked them to call for help, which it turns out many had already done. Then Nate and I stood, dazed, at the side of the road and waited for help to arrive. We had some witnesses offer to let us sit in their car, out of the drizzly rain. In talking to them, we were able to find out a bit more about what happened at the scene. From their account, we had been sitting in the right turn lane on a straight stretch of road with no obstacles to block the view of people coming up from behind. I guess the car behind us (quite a ways back, considering we were stopped for over a half minute before impact) wasn’t paying attention and was speeding, and the people behind him were riding his tail closely. The squealing we heard was him swerving around us at the last second, and the guy behind him didn’t have time to react and smashed into us at, by estimation, about 55 mph. From what we understand, the swerver was the son of the guy who impacted us. Neither of them spoke much English, so we couldn’t get any information from them at the scene. The guy who hit us was injured along with his wife and possibly a grandchild, and while their car was likely totaled, it was nowhere near as bad as ours.

An ambulance eventually arrived, and I let them look me over, but declined a trip to the hospital, as did Nate. Of course the people that hit us were all about hospitals and injuries. Well, if you’d drive safely, maybe you wouldn’t be in this predicament, hmmm? After we were checked out, Nate went off to give the police his statement, while I just stood out in the rain, still stunned. I was given a blanket and just watched as the cars went by, not quite letting the gravity of what just happened sink in. Eventually, our tow truck driver showed up and got the car hooked up to the truck. We had a few last words with the police who gave us their contact info, and climbed into the truck.

Sandwiched between Nate and a jovial but foul-mouthed, rather racist Aussie, we had an awkward drive back to his scrap yard, listening to his rants about Julia Gillard (the current prime minister) and various other things I’d rather not get into here, as we laughed nervously and hoped his reckless driving wouldn’t result in the second accident of the day. Once at the yard, we got our bearings and bade farewell to our loyal and now unrecognizable Tiida. Our driver drove us back to the central business district of Canberra where he dropped us off at the bus depot. There, we were assured that all buses were gone for the day, and that the station would be closing, so we’d have to make arrangements for accommodations. I sat in the station with the luggage while Nate ventured out, desperate to find us a place. He wound up settling for a rather pricy establishment next door, but it afforded us comfort and internet service, so it was likely worth it. That left us with the problem of how to get back to Melbourne in time for our flight in two days. I was lucky to get that night’s original hotel reservation cancelled, and Nate took on the task of finding us transportation. We were fortunate to find two seats on a flight down the next morning, so thank goodness! The last thing we wanted to do at this point was drive anymore, and it wasn’t like our rental company was around to help us much anyway.

I ultimately wound up with left-sided whiplash, and my pain increased as the day went on, being downright awful this evening. Beyond this, I really wasn’t phased about the whole thing until I started thinking about that backseat. What if someone had been there? I can’t think about what ifs, but still. It ate at me all night long. Our Tiida served us well, though. Oh, Nate lost his shoes, and we lost an Aussie Smurf Happy Meal toy, but I think that’s really it. At least no one lost their lives. Still, we were dazed, angry, and in shock…and did I say angry? I had some serious anger issues once I really thought about what their carelessness could have resulted in. I still do at times.

Anyway, we hadn’t eaten at all that day, so we decided to venture out, aches and pains and all, to find some sort of food. We limped down to the nearby McDonalds, and while they managed to screw up my order consistently, it really did hit the spot. Then we came back and got some drinks at the hotel bar before retiring to our room for a rather fitful night.