Italian Chicken Soup

Here's a fast & nutritious recipe for you. It came from my mom and we think it's very good. It's supper tonight and probably tomorrow since Dan is in San Francisco tonight-Sat morning. I think soup is always better the next day anyway.

Chicken Soup (Serves 2-3)
1 chicken breast cubed or sliced
2-3 carrots sliced
2-3 potatoes chopped
1/3 cup of chopped onion
1 can of Italian style chopped tomatoes
2 cups of chicken broth (I use water and bouillon)
1 can of canneloni beans (black beans would be good too!)
The tomatoes are seasoned but I like to add extra pepper, basil & thyme.
Stir fry the chicken for a couple of minutes, add the veggies.
Add tomatoes and broth. Bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are tender.

Interior Cabin Shots

I am starting to have some fun! Dan keeps reminding me that it will look bigger if I don't fill up every little space and I know he's right. Kris is finishing up a vintage quilt for the open wall behind the dining room. She has a large collection of unfinished quilts and was very kind to let me pick one out. I picked a throw sized top with lots of greens. Thank you Kris!!

The first cabin party was held today!! Annette, Becky & Shirley came after school for coffee & a light supper. We had such a good time! The first of many happy gatherings I hope.

Memorial Day photos from 2007

The guys at the grill.

Cute cousins!

Mir gets her crispy dog! Just the way she
doesn't like it. :)

Memorial Day

We spent Sunday & Memorial Day in Jackson again this year. These pictures are actually from last year when Jim gave the Memorial Day Address. The whole family was extremely proud of him. Jim had a great speech and received many nice comments. We had a fun weekend, all of Dan's siblings were there with spouses and the younger nieces and nephews. The parade and ceremony were this morning and then many set off for the cemetery. The weather was great, the gnats were the only annoyance. We had a picnic with brats and other good things. We left around 2 and were back home by 6.
As soon as we got home, we decided to haul a full sized bed down to the cabin. That sucker was heavy! We used my truck for the mattress and frame but used a dolly for the box. Dan just rolled it down the hill. Luckily, the other room already had a full bed so that will be easier. We just want to paint in there first. So, with the bed(and it's a comfy one!) now set up, someone could actually spend the night if they wanted to. The kitchen is still a mess but it's getting closer to completion. Let us know when you'd like to visit!!

Re-Construction!!

Bruce and Lyle are retired West Central HS teachers who do carpentry in the spring/summer. They also fixed up our porch a couple of years ago. They do excellent work! They are in charge of replacing all the exterior rotted wood, shingles, new front door, gutters and the pergola. They are great guys and it's nice to hire people that you know & trust.

According to Bruce & Lyle, the front of the bunk house was a mess.

The north side wasn't pretty either. I wish that neat old fieldstone fireplace wasn't hidden away. I have always loved fieldstone. I'll try to post some interior pictures on Saturday. We let the floor dry for 72 hours and now we have rugs, the table is back, and we brought down a loveseat that we had. Oh, and most important (according to Dan) we got the TV DVD/VCR hooked up with minimal wires showing thanks to Al!! Dan was in charge of hooking everything up.

Progress at the cabin

This $29 light from Home Depot works perfectly in the kitchen.

This is what the floor looked like after Arlin was done sanding.

Arlin let me help him stain the floors. Seriously, I did a whole bedroom and half the living space.

The end of another day.

There's a new princess in town...

And it's Little Miss Sisseton! Jen sent this photo and I think it was Courtney's first official parade. It was probably a little chilly, but she'll have plenty of sweltering ones later. Miranda was the last official princess in the Smith family as Little Miss Shakopee. It looks like Courtney had a lot of fun. It would be fun to see her in a parade this summer.

Snorkeling, Down by the Bay....

After we made it to Sunset Beach, we cut down through Oahu past the Dole Pineapple Farm and made it back to the bay for snorkeling. The pictures that I took were on an underwater camera so I found some on the web for this blog. The bay is an old volcanic crater that broke away and allowed the ocean water to enter. You can easily see that in this photo. Look at all that coral! Before we could go down to the beach, we had to watch an educational video and then rent our snorkeling gear. We jumped right in, just to the left of Sandman's Patch and worked our way all the way towards Back Door Lagoon on the left. We saw fish right away and it was the highlight of our trip. If we ever come back here or to another area that has similar snorkeling we would plan a whole day around it. The water was kind of chilly at first but we got used to it. After about 90 mn we both were quite tired and cold and called it quits. We saw a huge variety of fish, but luckily no large squids or eel like fish. That would have freaked me out a little. A sea turtle would have been cool. Some people reported seeing them.

These beautiful fish were everywhere, often in schools. We were amazed by all the fish and how they basically just ignored us and went about their business.

Here's some volcanic rock on the shore north of Hanamau Bay. It's a spot called the Blowhole. I took this photo off the internet.
After we were done snorkeling, we had the formal dinner. I preferred the outdoor dining but we had a great meal. After the dinner we went back to the room to rest for about 30 mn and then went back for the Chris Isaac concert. He was very entertaining. Last year, they had Sheryl Crow, darn it. They had other entertainment going on for those who didn't want to attend the concert, karaoke, and a casino. We checked them out after the concert. The casino was winding down but the karaoke bar was still going strong. We didn't stick around there long as the singing was not very impressive and everyone seemed pretty sauced! We were so tired that we had to call it a day. The final day, our bus left the hotel at 2:45, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast, some souvenir shopping and then hung out by the pool area with our carry ons until it was time to go. We used our bracelets one last time for lunch, barbecues by the pool/ocean. I hated to take those bracelets off! :) We had an amazing ocean view for our last breakfast. It was a nice way to wrap up our trip.

Day 4 Island Drive

After brunch and the morning's speaker, (who was not nearly as good as yesterday's) we rented and car and took an island tour of Oahu. When we first started out, it was rainy & quite cool. Our first stop was Hanamau Bay which is supposed to have the best snorkeling in all of Hawaii. It was just too cold to jump in the water so we continued our drive hoping that we'd have time to stop back later.
We were told that stopping at a shrimp bus was a MUST. Giovanni's is the oldest, so we stopped there. It was north on the island just before Turtle Bay. Dan had the buttery shrimp and I had the garlic. It was very delicious! The garlic is pictured below and you can see the big chunks of garlic. Yummy.

We usually had the ocean to our right and landscape like this on our left, unless we were driving through towns which was quite often. Our drive was not quite what we expected. The scenery was beautiful but it wasn't as uninhabited and the traffic was fairly busy too.
A surfer on Sunset Beach. We were told that Lost is filmed on the north side of Oahu and also Jurassic Park. The beaches were beautiful here and the waves were bigger than anywhere else.

Happy Birthday, Warren!

Hope you are having a nice, relaxing evening. As relaxed as you were in this photo from Carlos Creek Winery. That was a fun night. There were just too many people there and remember how hot it was? Now, I'm thirsty for a glass of wine and we don't have a drop in the house. That is a sad thing. Looking forward to seeing you guys soon!

Day 3 Continued...

Here's the big tree! Look at that canopy. It took up half the park. It was called an elephant ear tree, according to the sign on it's trunk.
We thought this guide looked a little like Royce, but he looks a little funny in this photo. Do you see a resemblance?
This was the waterfall we hiked to see. I was expecting something grander, you know like Gooseberry Falls or something! It was very steep, the picture doesn't really capture it.
If you look at the big screen you can see Dan on stage getting congratulated by the number two, soon to be number one guy at Wells Fargo. All 1,100 award winners went on stage. Yes, it took awhile. We had 45 mn before dinner so we ran back to the room to relax for a little bit. The time change and busy days were starting to catch up with us.

Free drinks, what more can you ask for?!

The theme tonight was "Beach Party!" They had carnival games set up for everyone to play. We won some junk and two cool island hats that I insisted on bringing home. At the airport, I noticed that I wasn't the only one!

Bike & Hike Adventure Day 3

We started our day with a wonderful buffet, like every other day. There were 4 different buffets and the food was great at all of them but 2/4 had beautiful views. You never know until they seat you exactly what you'll get. After breakfast, we had a required speaker to attend for about an hour. It was DeWitt Jones, who was a freelance photographer with National Geographic. I thought his message was very inspiring no matter what your occupation. He had some great stories and photo's to share too so the hour went by quickly. They had Hawaiian hula dancers and music for entertainment too. It was very neat. Then off to our activity of choice....
The Hike & Bike Adventure!! A tour bus took us up a VERY windy area and then gave us our bikes at the top. Our thumbs on the brake got the biggest work-out. We also had to concentrate on not wiping out around the tight curves. It took about 30 mn to get down.
We stopped our bikes for some photo op's. The eucalyptus trees smelled so fresh, the ride went by too quickly. We had lunch at an empty park near one of the hugest trees I've ever seen. I think I have a picture of it.
After the easy bike ride we were a little surprised by the hike. It was a rain forest hike, not a stroll up to a crater like we anticipated. Luckily, they had boots for those who requested them. Look at that mud! Most of the hike was like that. In most spots you had to grab trees or bamboo to pull yourself along or up steep inclines. Some people needed a little extra push to get them up certain areas and there were a couple of wipe-outs. Nobody was hurt though and Dan and I managed to keep our balance. It was pretty hot but luckily the mosquitos weren't biting. They gave us repellant.
Lots of pretty foliage. I tried to take pictures and not get behind. At one point our end of the group became separated from the rest and the trail was hard to see so we had to yell ahead and then just took our best guess and after about 5-10 mn of walking we finally caught up as they stopped when they finally realized some of us were missing. That was a little annoying. They should have had a guide at the end too.
This is the bamboo area, close to where we were separated from the rest of the group. We had a good time though, as it was a very unique experience . We joked that we can always take a cruise around the island when we're 80. An island cruise was another activity choice. They had you sign up for 3 and then they picked one for you, plus some cash for other activities. We used ours for Pearl Harbor and then some souvenirs. We reached a 75 foot trickling waterfall and then turned and took a different route back. The route back was much easier. We got home just in time to shower and get ready for the award/induction ceremony at 4:30. Just barely!!

Rally Night

After our morning at Pearl Harbor we had lunch on the beach. Our nifty little wristbands let us order whatever our hearts desired, with the exception of alcohol at breakfast and lunch. This was not a problem. :) After lunch we found a spot on the beach to soak up the sun for a couple of hours and then walked down Waikiki, looked for shells, there were none. I did find some coral, nothing to write home about. We took a dip in the ocean and it wasn't too cold. Then it was time to get ready for "Rally Night!"

"I can't believe you're taking my picture!"

Each group had their special colored shirts to wear and hats. Most people skipped the hats. We also had bangers so that our group could make a lot of noise. There were noisemakers and flashing necklaces on the tables for us to wear. After dinner, each group put on all their stuff and paraded down to the stage for some cheering and finally some singing entertainment. Each group was introduced and then you yelled and banged with whatever you had to show your spirit. It was an interesting night. Here is Dan making some noise with the consumer deposits group. One group got flamingo glasses and funky headbands. Many left them so being the frugal teacher that I am, I scooped up as many as I could carry back with me for my class or nieces and nephews to have fun with. I couldn't just leave them laying there, could I?!!
Here's the stage and Waikiki Beach is just behind it. Monday -Wednesday dinner/entertainment events were held here at Fort DeRussy. It was a great spot and the weather was nice all three evenings.
There were interesting birds all over our hotel, including penguins, yes non-native penguins. Sometimes it was hard to tell which birds belonged and which decided to just hang out there. At all the restaurants we dined at little birds would fly right in sometimes hop up on a nearby chair or stroll along the ground looking for crumbs. It seemed weird at first but you got used to it. They seemed to be house-trained as I never saw one have an accident.

Day 2 Pearl Harbor

On Tuesday morning, we toured Pearl Harbor Memorial. On December 7th, 1941 1,177 sailors and marines were killed on the USS Arizona alone. The Japanese attack was the beginning of World War 2 for the US. The Arizona lies just under the white structure you see in the middle of the photo. The Missouri Battleship is to the left where the war ended with the signing of the peace treaty. The Missouri was recently retired and this is her final docking spot.
Here is a model of the USS Arizona lying below the viewing structure and memorial. The final resting place of 1,177 sailors/soldiers.
You can't see it, but in the lower left, in front of the ropes, are the names of men who survived but later had their ashes interred with their comrades. I thought that was very touching. I'm sure more names will be added. This memorial is located in the viewing structure above the battleship.
Dan posing from the viewing structure with the Missouri behind him. We didn't tour that ship.
In the middle of the viewing structure there is a hole cut out where you can look down into the Arizona. It is a very haunting and sober image. Close to 70 years later, oil still trickles to the surface of the water. You can see the shadow of the ship from the sides when the sun shines just right.

Day One Hawaii

Pacific- North California Coast

Welcome to Hawaii!

What a view!

Palms on Waikiki Beach

Monday
Got up at 5:00, hit the road by 6, in the air by 11:15. We were in Hawaii by 3pm. The first photo shows the Pacific Ocean-Northern California border. I thought that turned out pretty cool. I like how the wing frames the photo. On the way home, we were right on top of the wing so we had limited viewing. Wells Fargo had a charter bus to meet everyone, all 2,2oo at the sales and service conference. When we got off the bus at the hotel we were greeted by WF managers (who played the part of hosts at the conf.) They had a double line for us to walk through and they were cheering, waving noise-makers, congratulating the winners, leis for everyone and it was quite a surprise, made me wonder what was in store for us this week.

So they escorted our bus to the reception area where you see Dan in the second photo. They had punch, and all the information we needed for the week including our rooms. First off they suggested getting our gifts so we did that. They had a Hilo Hattie store set up where we were given a backpack & bag with little goodies like sunscreen, raingear, etc.. Then we could pick out a Hawaiian shirt or pareo (wrap). I went for the wrap, Dan obviously got a shirt. :) Next, we took off to see our room. We didn't have our hopes up for a view but boy did we get one! We were very pleased. We heard that room assignments were just the luck of the draw, not everyone had a great view. We started our day and ended it on our lanai. (deck) Dinner was at 6 at nearby Fort DeRussy on the beach. Our room actually looked out over it and we could hear the music as well. So, dinner the first night was themed "Hawaii Under the Stars." There was a wonderful buffet, bar, music and Hawaiian entertainment. The girl with the flowers coming out of her head was from the first evening. Here's one with a lampshade. There were quite a few with elaborate contraptions on their heads. Not quite sure what that was all about! It was a long first day but we were so excited to be there that we weren't tired. When we finally hit the sack it was 9:45 Hawaii time but 2:45 Central time, yikes...it did hit us later! Dan's new Hawaiian shirt