San Diego/Southern California

Click here for our Southern California picture album, and here for Central CA/San Fran.

Nathan Paulick (Lisa’s brother) and his girlfriend Alex greeted us in San Diego before our trip to Hawaii. Nathan and Alex moved to area in May after Nathan got a job with an engineering firm. They are adjusting to life in sunny San Diego; they traded in their skis and snowshoes for a kayak and surfboard. Our cousin Kristie (Paulick)  and her husband Matt LaFon just brought a darling little boy into the world. We got to snuggle with Matthew Gibbs LaFon when we was five days old! It was a very special time for all of us. 

We had lots of great family time - we even Skyped with our sister Amanda who is studying in London. Nathan showed us around the Pacific beach area. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day walking the beach and devouring delicious fish tacos. From there we spent our two weeks in Hawaii and then flew back to San Diego to crash again with our brother. We spent an enjoyable afternoon at the San Diego Zoo and the Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma. Nathan is working at a job site on Point Loma, and he has stunning views of the ocean on his daily drive to work. 

We left San Diego and headed north to Irvine California to spend time with family. We had a delightful time with Uncle Bob, Aunt Terri, and Lindsey Paulick.  We hiked, watched football and movies, enjoyed delicious food and wine, and just hung out catching up. After leaving Irvine we had a list of places to see on our drive north on the California coast. Our first stop was Pismo Beach State Park where we camped for one night. We spent time walking around San Luis Obispo downtown and enjoyed lunch at the Big Sky Café. The sunset at Pismo beach was perfect and the weather was warm. During the night Lisa awoke to helicopters buzzing overhead. At some point in the night Lisa awoke again to sounds of gun shots and a police megaphone telling a suspect to “come out with your hand where we can see them.” In this amazing age of technology Lisa found Ryan’s iPhone (he was still sleeping soundly), found a local paper with the story, and Google mapped the address. The excitement was about a mile away! After a sleepless night Lisa had the tent packed and ready to go before Ryan knew it. 

That day we found out Ryan had been accepted to the Pulmonary and Critical Care program at the University of Utah (starting in July 2013)! We drove north along the foggy coast to Cayucos and had a late lunch and wine paring at a fabulous place that Aunt Terri recommended called Hoppe’s. Waiting an extra day, before we drove north along the coast to Big Sur, for the rain and fog to clear was the way to go. 

Big Sur and San Francisco

Our first stop along the Big Sur coast was an elephant seal viewing area. Elephant seals can be found on the beaches from December thru March for birthing and mating. We saw these massive animals come to shore and move along the beach. They move faster than you would think. It was an amazing sight! 

As we drove north we lost our sun to low lying clouds. We stopped at Sand Dollar beach State Park and Jade Cove. The Kirk creek campground where we stayed that night offered sweeping views of the ocean and rocky coastline. The decreasing hours of daylight challenged our camping the most - cooking and doing dishes in the dark isn't as much fun! 

When we awoke the next morning everything was soaked, not by rain, but by the humid sea air. Camping on Big Sur would be our last night in the tent. We have spent a total of 59 nights sleeping outside since July! The clouds burned off, and we had a beautiful blue sky day on our drive to San Francisco. 

In San Francisco we stayed with Bibler family friends, Doug and Theresa Mehl and their daughter Kate. We started the weekend off right with dinner at Eric’s, a Mission neighborhood Chinese restaurant, that is legendary. The next day we decided to ride our bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, where we had a great diner style brunch at the Lighthouse Café. We rode back over the bridge and along the pier to Ghirardelli square. We celebrated the fellowship match again with an amazing dinner in SF and found ourselves on top of Twin Peaks looking out on the city lights. It was a special night. A return visit to Sonoma and wine country was calling our name (and Lisa had placed an order for pick up with our favorite vineyard). We had a great day walking around Sonoma town, lunch at the Fig Café (we had to have a white peach Bellini), and a tasting at VJB. We were sad to leave the Mehl’s and San Francisco.  

We’ll be back - we have so much more to eat and explore. From San Francisco our next destination was Redwoods National Park. More to come! 

Maui

Click here for our Maui photo album!

After a wonderful week on the Big Island we flew in a 10 seat Cessna to Maui. We spent the week in the town of Kihei. Our first day there we enjoyed an afternoon at Kamaole Beach I.
The next day we drove the road to Hana. The weather was a little drizzly but it didn’t stop us from hiking to waterfalls along the road. Ryan tried to lead us to a rumored and hidden waterfall off a small trail, but we ended up spending an hour trying to get through thick, muddy bamboo forests – with no waterfall to be found!

Once in Hana we hiked to a red sand beach. During our Hawaii vacation we saw white, black, green and red sand beaches - pretty cool! After reaching Hana we continued our drive around the southern part of the island. We visited Haleakala National Park and the Seven Sacred Pools. Also in the national park we hiked to the stunning Waimoku falls through a dense bamboo forest.

We had a great time and survived another long day in the car. The next day was Thanksgiving and we were off on a snorkeling trip to Molokini crater courtesy of the crew at Trilogy. The water at Molokini crater was so clear and true blue. The reef and fish were colorful and abundant. Ryan saw an octopus scooting along on the sandy bottom. From Molokini we went to an area off shore and snorkeled with a few huge green sea turtles. For Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed a sushi, pumpkin cobbler and another beautiful sunset.

We spent the day at two beaches near Lahaina relaxing and snorkeling. That evening we went to Warren and Annabelle’s, a magic show that came highly rated from our Maui Revealed book. The theater was small and the performances were really cool with Annabelle the local ghost playing the piano, sleight of hand tricks and comedy.

We got up super early the next morning, 2 am, and took a shuttle up Haleakala volcano to watch the sunset and ride bikes down the mountain. It was cold compared to what we were used to, but the sunrise was spectacular. On our bike ride down we stopped for breakfast and shopping. We alternated our adventurous days with relaxing beach days.

Big beach was next and lived up to its name. On a Sunday it didn’t feel crowded at all. On our last day we had some beach time, enjoyed the Maui Ocean Center, and went to the new James Bond movie before we boarded our redeye flight back to the main land. Even after two weeks in Hawaii we could have stayed longer; it was a perfect beach vacation.

Hawaii - Big Island

Click here for our Big Island photo album!

From Las Vegas we headed to San Diego for the weekend to spend some time with Lisa’s brother Nathan and visit California Paulicks. We’ll post on San Diego separately as we are headed back after Hawaii for more adventures. 

It had been four years since we had been on the Big Island, where Ryan proposed on the top of Mauna Kea in the snow. This Hawaii trip was dubbed as a “girls trip” as Lisa was going to meet up with Brenda and Amy, two friends from college. The girls agreed Ryan could come along as chef, bartender and DD. He did a fantastic job filling all those roles. 

We started our tour of the Big Island on the eastern side near Hilo where Amy lives. We were greeted with a delicious home cooked meal of baked salmon, couscous and veggies that Amy so elegantly prepared for us! Hilo is typically rainy but the next day we had some awesome sunny skies. We drove south to the Puna area and started off the day with soaking in a volcanically heated pool which felt like a hot springs. We timed the tides right and were able to snorkel in some tide pools, the water was a little chilly but the fish and coral were amazing. On our way back to Amy’s house we detoured to enjoy the sights of Hilo town from Coconut island and the Japanese gardens. 

From there we readied ourselves for a killer happy hour at Karma with Amy’s dear friend Auntie Randi. Let’s just say it was an epic night. Lisa and Amy partied like college girls but realized in the morning that they were not in their 20s anymore. Brenda arrived the next day and we did some damage at the Hilo farmers market buying fresh produce and local crafts. 

Later that day we headed toward Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We visited a black sand beach and were greeted by the local sea turtles sunning on the beach. 

On our last visit to the Big Island the volcano was very active and we were not able to visit the National Park. We hiked to a lava tube and around one of the craters.  We drove down the Chain of Craters road during sunset which was of course spectacular. As it grew darker we drove to the Jaggar Museum to get a better look at the Kilauea crater. You can see a bright orange glow from the lava lake that is bubbling inside the crater. The air temperature was freezing (relative to Hawaii standards) and it was windy but it was an amazing view! 

The next morning we were headed to Kona. Hilo treated us to some rainy weather in the morning which made the rivers gush and the waterfalls were awesome! We stopped for delicious local food at the Hawaiian Style Café in Waimea before headed to the beach. We rented a condo with amazing views at the Sea Village resort and toasted good friends with Pink Elephants (a drink from college days). 

It was Lisa’s birthday and Ryan found the perfect spot for dinner out. We dined at the Lemongrass Bistro and were awed by the owner’s love for food, family and stories about his food. It was a great find! Lisa remembers Amy’s first postcard from the Big Island was the green sand beach. We found out that Amy had not been there yet so we knew it was a must. This time we hiked (no Jeep) 5 miles round trip. 

The next day was the Brawl of the Wild in Montana where Montana State Bobcats play the University of Montana Grizzlies. It is a heated day in our world and it was 3 Grizzly girls vs one Bobcat boy. We started the day with an amazing breakfast of French toast made with Hawaiian sweet bread, SPAM, Dragon fruit, Apple Bananas, Strawberry Papaya, mango, and of course Pineapple. Humpy’s of Kona tuned in the game for us and we started the game day at 10:30 am with Bloody Marys. The Cats won this year so Ryan was happy. 

We spent the afternoon trying stand up paddle boarding with lessons from Amy. It was a lot of fun especially when we were paddling with dolphins! We topped off an amazing day with tropical drinks and music with hula at Huggos on the water. The next day Brenda headed back to Oahu to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family and Amy had to go back to real life. Ryan and I had all the intentions to drive up to the northern most part of the island to hike however we decided to spend the day at the beach…lucky us! 

From the Big Island we headed to Maui. More to come! 

Las Vegas

Click here for our Vegas picture album.

After two nights at our quiet Forest Service cabin in SW Utah, Vegas felt like sensory overload.  What can we say, except… wow.  We stayed at the Flamingo for four nights (two nights would have been plenty).  We saw two great shows – Cirque du Soleil’s Ka and the Blue Man Group – and we ate some great food too.  Ryan lost some money on the Eagles but made it back (and more!) on the Colts.  But overall it was far more city, noise and spectacle than we were used to.  We made it out of Vegas with our wallets (somewhat) intact.

We stayed at the Flamingo

We loved the fountains at the Bellagio!

Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill

Zion National Park

First of all, here are our photo albums for Zion National Park and the Pine Valley Guard Station.

Thankfully we arrived to much warmer weather in Zion. Staying true to our tradition, the day we arrive at a new national park we make sure to get at least one hike in. Our first trek was to Emerald Pools: lower, middle and upper pools. We encountered fall colors and some nice but small sized pools. Our campsite in Watchman campground had great views of the surrounding towering sandstone walls.

The highlight of the trip was hiking the Narrows. The Narrows is a 16 mile long slot canyon carved by the Virgin River. A shuttle took us up a long, winding, bumpy road to the start. Our fishing waders would keep us warm as we hiked our trail, which was almost entirely through the Virgin River. We took two days to do the hike, although some people burn through it in as little as 12 hours.  It was an amazing place! Hiking through the river was not easy. The water level was nice and low and created some side trails along the bank. The deepest sections were waist high but typically the water was mid shin to knee high. We must have crossed that river hundreds of times trying to find the best route.

Huge walls!

Narrows fun together!

Massive walls and our trail - the Virgin River

Our campsite along the river

At times if felt surreal being surrounded by 2,000 foot high walls only 30-40 feet apart.

at the end!

The water and air temps were cool and there was no need for sunscreen. The Narrows is notorious for crowds of people in the summer. We found out the time to do it is late October and midweek. The only people was saw the first day were two guys who rode the shuttle with us. On the second day we started to run into day hikers and photographers over the last 4-5 miles of the hike. It was pretty cool that we went so long without seeing anyone else. It was an exhausting but epic adventure. We celebrated with burgers at the lodge and cheered Happy Halloween with pumpkin beers.

We spent the next day recovering and took a short bike ride from our campground along the Virgin River. On our last full day we woke up early to hike Angels Landing. The trail consisted of two sets of switchbacks to get to Scout’s Overlook. Then we hiked and stair stepped up and along a narrow spine of the mountain with chains to hold on to. It is quite the quad and butt burning trail! A shout out to Lisa’s Uncle Dave from NJ who told us it was a must do when visiting Zion, and we agree! We were amazed at the spectacular 360 degree views of the Zion Valley from the very top.

Our goal - Angels Landing

The trail was a thigh and butt burner

Lisa: "we're not going up THAT are we?!" Ryan: "yep"

Amazing views of Zion and the Narrows from above

We spent five wonderful warm-ish (but really windy) nights in Zion but we were ready to move on to the next adventure. From Zion we would head back to St. George to resupply. From there we headed north to the Dixie National Forest for a rest weekend at the Pine Valley Guard Station before Vegas!

Pine Valley

If you haven’t looked for forest service cabins in your area you must (check out recreation.gov). We found this great one bedroom cabin with electricity and a wood burning stone near the Pine Valley Recreation area about one hour north of St. George, UT. The recreation area and surrounding wilderness is big with hiking trails, lots of camping spots and a small reservoir to fish in. We were pleasantly surprised to find the campgrounds closed and the place practically deserted. Our joints and heels were still sore from hiking in Zion so the first day we took it easy and biked around the area. We cooked, baked, read and relaxed in the rocking chairs on the porch. We went on an 8 mile Sunday day hike to the top of ridge with views of the Pine Valley, reservoir, the small town of Pine Valley and the surrounding area. It felt like we were living in the lap of luxury with four walls, a roof and a lighted warm place to spend our evenings.

Pine Valley Guard Station

Making coffee - for Ron Bibler, who is complaining that all our pictures look the same 

We hiked to the top of those rocks

Our wood burning stove kept us nice and toasty 

The next three weeks are going to be filled with lots of fun…Vegas, San Diego and then two weeks in Hawaii! We’ll keep you posted!