Happy Late Birthday Panda!

Yesterday was Panda's birthday. She is now the ripe old age of 22. She was my roommate and is still the love of my life. I would do anything for her (and she knows it :P ).

I don't know if you are going to get the chance to read this before you come home but I want you to know that ever since you left you have always been on my mind. You know I love you Panda, and I miss you even more. I would give anything to be with a girl like you. I know your having a blast on your trip, and I am too. There really is nothing like the beauty the Pacific has to offer.

Until we meet again, one of your boys,
Blake

Hawai'i 2006: The Big Island Recap

To be honest our first week was simply a blur. A blur because having never been to the big island, we spent our four days there doing everything we could possibly do. But if there is one thing that I will never forget, and that is the time we spent at Hawai'i Volcano National Park. At first it is like every other National Park you enter, with the generic visitor center and a toll booth and the entrance collecting $10 per car. Yet you drive a little over the hill, and you are blown away by what can best be described as the beautiful sight of ongoing destruction. As you can see in the picture above and below an entire highway was wiped out in a lava flow in 2003 (plus 40% of a coastal town and several million dollar homes)

Now lava in its self is unlike anything I have ever seen. Its entire structure is mostly air, while the rest looks like a very dark glass. Walking on it is very interesting because it crunches and gives slightly, kind of like you are walking on bugs.

Now if you are wondering why they call it the big island, the answer is pretty simple; its over 4,000 square miles in size (roughly the same size of the state of Connecticut). For shits and giggles we decided to drive around the entire island in one day, well that took us 8 hours not counting stops. If you ask me it was a good first week. We went to see the worlds most active volcano, the church where my great-grandparents were married in 1916, I got a chance to tour the Kona Brewing Company's home location, plus I got to add to my pilsner glass collection. All and all I had a blast.

Ok, So Where Are The Bags?

I'm Leaving, On A Jet Plane. . .No Wait. . . Not Yet!

Family Time At The Luau

All You Need Is Beer

Wow, what a day. You have five sales floor closers (3 hard and 2 soft), 2 of which are cashier trained. Calling for back ups every five minutes, no one operator trained, all but one person under 90 days, and you are 15 minutes away from a five hour violation.

So what do you do, you head to Applebee's after to work to have a couple of beers with some coworkers. Nothing like shooting the shit with a couple of people who had it just as bad as you did.

From left to right: Allyn, Me, Brittan

Happy (Late) Birthday Topher

Being how I missed Toph's 22nd birthday and how I leave to Hawai'i on Tuesday, I thought it would be nice to take him out to lunch. So we waited for David to come home from work, and then we were off. Our destination: Casa Ramos

We started off with some beers (cerveza Sol, a throw back to our Mexico trip) and ordered our food. When the waitress came by and asked us if we wanted another round, I answered with and enthusiastic yes. Toph, of course said he was fine, but this being his birthday lunch I insisted. Little did I know that the waitress heard me when I sad it was Toph's birthday.

After our meal, and a couple of beers later they came out, singing. With the infectious singing they brought him a rubber chicken, a sombrero, and a camera.

This my friends is how our lunch ended. And what a lunch is was.