It really is champagne dreams and caviar wishes. I recently had a chance to check out the Ocean Alexander, an $11 million yacht on display at the Seattle Boat Show. Just let me say you can buy standup paddle boards and $900 fishing boats, but it’s really fun to check out the dreamy eye candy. The boat show will be in town for the next week or so, and this year there are three locations — South Lake Union, Century Link and Bell Harbor Marina. BHM is the new location and offers visitors a floating lounge near the yacht and other eye catching vessels. Definitely worth checking out since water is the star of our area.
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Have you ever wanted to revisit something you did as a young(er) person? For me, that is dance. And thanks to my friend and colleague, Mimi Jung, I found the courage to do it. Here she is is at a recent performance by the Westlake Dance Center: My husband Jim and I went with our other friend and colleague Alex Rozier to see the performances and were absolutely blown away by the talent on stage! We all agreed we were not living our best lives... we need to get out and dance more.
Aside from that, my dance recital will be in June. There might be a picture afterwards but don’t count your breath.
One year ago today, we were in Hawaii, glamping our asses off. And since this year I'm sick as a dog with bronchitis, I thought I'd retouch on what we did.
I always meant to write down what we did and then basically kept forgetting to do it. Good thing my resolution for 2018 is to write stuff down!
We went to Camp Olowalu in Maui. If you don't know where that is, it's basically between Lahaina and Kihei. If you don't know where that is, then it's on the western side of Maui. If you don't know where that is, let me Google that for you.
Camp Olowalu is a beachfront campground with tentalows and cabins. We stayed in a tentalow for $80 a night. It has an attached shower and a front porch... and is perfect for people wanting a chillaxing vacation. I should add -- at the time, I looked at vrbo and airbnb and all of them were close to $200. If you're lucky, you might be able to find better deals!
Who stays there? Lots of locals, families and hipsters. It felt like it was our little secret because there were so many people from Maui who were just spending some down time on the island. Occasionally we'd see campers and hikers passing through. There was also some sort of youth group staying in one of the main cabins. That looked cool for a family reunion, actually.
Because we stayed there so inexpensively, we were able to spend money on things we wanted to do and not worry about it. We went biking down a volcano, went whale watching, and ate out with little care.
Two local places that kicked ass were Leoda's Kitchen and Pie Shop, which is right by the camp. Another was the little grocery mart it's attached to -- they have THE BEST SHAVE ICE on the island. Seriously, some little Asian lady makes this ginormous shave ice for like $5. I would buy shave ice all across the island and would always want to come back home to see our lady.
In the end, here's what worked for us -- our first day we spent getting gear at Goodwill and Walmart. (Walmart was just what was close.) We bought two mugs, cups, soup plates, utensils, food stuffs and a camping stove. When we left Maui, we dropped it off at Goodwill!
The last day we checked out of Camp Olowalu and bought a spa package at the Willow Stream Spa at the Fairmont Kea Lani Maui. Um, thank you Groupon. This was the best way to end our vacation -- totally pampered in the spa and showers plus you can have access to the hotel and beachfront. We got a couple's massage and then hung out until about 5 or 6 and grabbed an awesome dinner at The Mill House right before we took off for the airport. So my lasting thoughts on glamping: Do it. Hands down, do it. It's great for families and it saves so much money (and now they're building family tentalows.) We loved making lunches and heading to the beach or cooking by the campfire. Going to bed under the stars with the ocean waves in the background was dreamy. We still had our laptops and phones, but we limited ourselves to technology. Ending the trip super glam was a very nice treat and one that we could afford with all the money we saved in the earlier part of our trip. In all, there's nothing quite like nature to bring you back to a peaceful state of mind.
Since I moved to Seattle in mid-2016, I've kind of become disconnected. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it probably has something to do with my sleep schedule (lack of sleep on the am show) and stress.
2017 was not a banner year. It was more like a pain in the ass.
Between deaths, divorces, miscarriages, natural disasters, and cantankerous political postings...I've felt little joy that makes me want to share what's going on in my world. It seems like there was an unusual amount of loss close to us this year.
But, of course, there were great things that happened, too. New babies, new opportunities and new outlooks took place in 2018, making it not all look so gloomy. I became a godmother for the first time. My dog Piper seemed to escape death. I started anchoring at KING. My sister Hyun Jung moved to Seattle. We all traveled back to Missouri to see family. I went to DC twice, NYC, Houston... and Jim and I went glamping in Hawaii and trekked through the Olympic Peninsula. So now that I'm writing this, maybe I should shut up. We had some awesome moments. But in 2018, I promise to find more joy, choose happiness more often, and consider working out a little harder. Who am I kidding. Scratch the last one. Here's hoping for a happy and healthy year ahead! It's going to take me a couple of weeks to shake off the last few crappy weeks of 2017, but that's just residual poop. Bring on the good times! |
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