Book Review: Apartment Therapy

When I first got this book I was expecting a book on how to decorate an apartment. This seemed reasonable based on the title and cover. However I was missing a bit of information, that Apartment Therapy is a large blog that has put out at least two books. 

This book is much more about decorating a house than an apartment. The beginning actually goes over what types of houses there are and what to look for. If you are considering moving and want to design every part of your home this book has some useful information. It focuses less on working with the space you have in a creative and useful way, and more shows you lots of pictures of beautiful homes with lots of space to do whatever they wanted. 

If you were living in an apartment about half of this book wouldn't actually apply to you. It focuses a lot on how paint colors, and floor types really make a space come together. The second half of the book which is more about decorating, doesn't offer much advice. It has beautiful pictures of various spaces, but not much advice.

However, I did enjoy the book. It has examples of different decorating styles, and sample color palettes. I think it could be helpful to figure out what style you actually like style wise. Maybe put a name to that style to better be able to express it. 

Book Review - Which in no way indicates I am unhappy in my marriage.

I saw this book on the review list. I am currently quite happy with my coupling fully intend to stay that way (happy and coupled). I thought this book might be interesting. All I have been looking at lately is cookbooks. And as awesome as those cookbooks are, cooking is not my biggest interest.

I was hoping for this book to have some good advice on how to end or change a relationship without ending up not wanting to be on the same planet as the other person. Even if I personally have no intention of being uncoupled, friends might or maybe it could apply to non married people.

Overall I think this book was ok. It is divided into two sections. The first: A Better way to break up was completely boring. It seemed more to praise the book for being awesome that give any helpful advice. The second: The 5 steps of conscious uncoupling was a lot better.

A lot of the things the book said were common sense stuff, but I liked that it had questions for each section to help you start thinking through things. If I were to summarize the method it would be take time to think about things, responsibility for you parts (i.e. don't blame only the other person), and don't be intentionally mean. The book did this explaining a lot better, but that's why it's a book.

Two things I didn't like about the book.

1. It seemed to be written directly to women. While the advice isn't gender specific there were little comments along the way would make it less approachable to a man. One bit of advice was to be kind to yourself, and call yourself sweetheart and honey. I can't see myself doing this let alone some guy in the middle of a breakup...

2. There were quite a few unnecessary Christian references. I was raised Christian, but I don't practice it anymore. I consider myself more neutral on the topic. But there are people who are very much not Christian and people who are other religions. This book isn't religious. It doesn't belong in the Christian self help or anything. I think the author is Christian and she is writing from that perspective. I think it would have been better to use different examples or be more inclusive of other belief systems.

Hawaii Day 11 - Kona and Mauna Kea

I searched for a good breakfast on yelp. I found a highly rated one just down the street from our hotel. I don't remember the name of it, but it was tasty enough that we went there twice. I ordered the luau omelet. I love omelets made with random leftovers, so this was perfect. 

The main goal of the day was coffee. Kona has a bunch of coffee farms open for tours and tasting. We went to 3 farms over our trip. Two this day, and another a different day. Each one is very particular about the way things should be done. They were very inconsistent in things you would think would be fairly standard. Such as what temperature makes a dark roast. I may not have any accurate idea on how this is done, but I got some pictures of it growing.

Coffee field

Coffee cherries

The inside of a coffee cherry

We had been considering going to the top of Mauna Kea, but hadn't made any firm plans. We didn't have anything scheduled for the evening so we signed up for a trip. The one we picked met at the base of the mountain. There was some lava rocks with some interesting plants growing in them. Steven amused himself by lifting large rocks. He claims the rock was only about 10 pounds. I tried carrying it, but it hurt my back, so that only lasted half a second.

The tour has you stop for an hour at 9000 something feet, to adjust to the elevation. I think I would have been fine, but there was a shop, and some rare plant. So not a total waste of time.

First is this lovely bathroom sign. Someone took a photocopy of the actual bathroom sign, printed it, and laminated it. They left the braille there. Not very useful in it's flat form. 

This plant is called the Silversword. Apparently is is very rare. There are reasons for this. Goats find it tasty. It only grows at very high elevations. And it takes 50 years to bloom, then dies. So not the most likely conditions for survival. They have a small garden of them with a gate. We saw them just after they had bloomed. Personally I think the flower stem detracts from the plants awesomeness. 

Our trip up the mountain started with perfect weather. Bright blue skies filled with puffy clouds and rainbows. It was beautiful driving up the mountain. We could both stare out the window, since someone else was driving. 

When we got to the top there was a huge rainbow right next to the very top of the mountain. There was a little path to get up there, but it was so cold up there even with the borrowed jackets. With that and my back hurting still I was content to just look at it. 

The observatories are closed to the public, but you can still walk right up to them and take pictures.

The tour guide took our picture at the top of the mountain with the rainbow in the background. Doesn't it look like the perfect hawaii photo? It was about 4 c on the top. It's a sciency place so that's what their website said it was. My phone didn't get service to double check.

Sadly this picture is the closest we got to the sunset. The weather went from picture perfect to in the middle of a raincloud in about 30 seconds. So no sunset, so stargazing on the way down. 

However at the base of the mountain, and down the road a bit was still basically a dark area. We pulled over to the side of the road and watched the sky until I started to freeze. This was a long exposure with our camera. It simply did not do the sky justice. You could see the milky way all the way across the sky. So beautiful. Makes me wonder why we invented electricity. Maybe someday we will get a fancy camera that can actually capture what we see.

Hawaii Days 9 and 10 - Volcanos!

The next day my back was still hurting so Steven found a chiropractor nearby for me. So nice of him. :) It helped some but not all the way. Our main goal for the was to see the Volcano National Park. There were some long hikes that we skipped, because I couldn't walk that far. Also the air is very smelly with all the stuff coming up from the Volcano. We did do some short walks, and looked over the edge of the creator. 

We were hoping to see some flowing lava, or at least the red glow from it. The lava had stopped flowing a few months ago, so no luck. The only way to see it was to go in a helicopter over the crater, but with all the vog we didn't think it would be worth it. We saw the park's videos of the lava flowing. The really old one was so boring I actually fell asleep during it, but the more recent one was better. 

On day two of the Volcano Steven wanted to see the lava tube. It was a bit of a walk to get to it, then walking through the tube, then back the whole distance you walked during both. My back still hurt, and it wasn't worth it for me to walk that far to be in a cave. So I read my book peacefully sitting down. It was nice sitting and not being in a cave. Steven took a lovely picture of the cave. 

We had been amazing seeing so many sunsets over the ocean, we decided to go see a sunset while we were on the Hilo side of the Big Island. The spot we picked is apparently a big surfing spot. Some surfers walked by and commented that we forgot our boards.

My guidebook said I should go to this mochi place. Since mochi is a delicious thing I did. I called in an order as suggested and arrived right when they opened. There was already a line forming outside. This place is famous for mochi covered strawberries. We decided to get a box of 6. Once we were on our way and opened it we saw there were 9. So we ate 9. :) I hope someone didn't order 9 and get 6. Strangely the week we got back we found a place that makes strawberry mochi here. 

Here is a picture of Steven "scuba diving" in our hotel. Apparently with a pony tail.

After the morning at the Volcano, we took a slow trip to Kona. We stopped at few scenic places. This was another Black Sand Beach. This one we were allowed to go on to the actual beach. Steven wandered around taking pictures. The one with the trees has me reading on the beach, if you zoom in.

Hawaii Day 8 - Maui -> Hilo

Our last morning on Maui we went to a little breakfast place called Cafe Cafe. They had a sign that said, "So good we name it twice." My coffee was beautiful and delicious. 

The Big Island is appropriately named. It is big. It seems a large portion of it looks like this. Definitely different than the constant ocean views in Maui. 

Since we planned this trip by first buying our plane tickets, then planning it (It never would have gotten planned any other way, we had flown into Kona. Then proceed to drive to Hilo, which has it's own airport. We tried to get all the out of the way sites in on the way there. 

This is Waipi'o Valley. Our original plan was to go horseback riding around the rim of the valley. However it was so hot and humid the thought of being on a horse outside was so much less appealing than being in the air conditioned car we drove to this look out. It was beautiful. 

Another scenic place on the way around the Big Island.

So for the first week of this trip we were crazy levels of active. Lifting heavy bags, walking around with heavy things strapped to our back, and throw in surfing which is using muscles I didn't know I had. For all of this I was perfectly fine. At the airport Steven dropped me off with the bags while he returned the rental car. I managed to carry two dive bags, a huge suitcase, two carry on suitcases, and my backpack. (This was even commented on by some ladies watching me trying to figure out how to do this, they were surprised I succeeded.) Even doing this I was fine. 

We stopped at Akaka Falls. It has a flat paved parking lot, with a view of the waterfall, and a mostly flat paved path to walk to the falls. Somehow walking across a flat even surface I managed to completely mess up my back. The walk to the falls was only about a quarter of a mile, but it took me over an hour. I probably should have just gone and rested, but I was too stubborn. 

After the falls we went straight to the hotel room. I iced my back and laid there being a grump until we were both hungry. We were very nearby a quick food place called Cafe 100. The guidebook and yelp both highly recommended it. I got a fascinating thing called a Loco Moco. Normally it consists of rice, gravy, a hamburger pattie, and an egg. All things I normally find to be delicious. This place had a special of rice, curry, salmon tempura, and an egg. We saw somewhere later that Cafe 100 was the inventor of the Loco Moco, so making weird ones fits right it. 

Hawaii Day 7 - Maui

When we decided to go to Hawaii I got it into my head that I wanted to learn to surf. It was hard to find a time to actually try it, since diving took up most of time. Given the success I had paddle boarding in Australia I expected to fail epically. Luckily I found a place that guarantees you stand on the board or your lesson is free. I scheduled this fully expecting it to be free. 

Our first photo is us posing by a surfboard. I think this picture makes me look really short. 

Next come the funny ones of us looking completely incompetent.  When you fall off a surfboard you are apparently supposed to land like a starfish. This helps minimize how far you go under the water. It wasn't very deep where we were, walking level not swimming. The ground was covered in dead coral and rocks, so not hitting that with your face is a plus. Belly flopping at high speed isn't much fun either, but it does make for a ridiculous picture. 

Despite the above pictures we were both very successful at this. We both stood up on our first try. It is surprisingly easy when you have momentum from the wave. The lesson included about 4 waves per person, we both managed to stand up on each wave. The pictures above are our failed attempts at ending gracefully. 

It was a lot of fun. If the water here wasn't 55F on a good day, I might want to try it again. 

Near the condo we were staying at was a restaurant called Slappy Cakes. I originally wanted to go there because the name was ridiculous. It also came recommended by our less busy travelling companions. We didn't have a chance to go until our last day. (Silly dive boats leaving before breakfast.) The idea of this place is you make your own pancakes at a griddle at your table. We chose the whole wheat mix, and added pineapple, banana, and macadamia nuts. It is probably for the best that we only had a chance to go here once...

Our afternoon was busy despite having no plans. We spent it running around the Front Street area doing all the things we kept saying we would come back to. As well as some dive shop errands. It was hot, so I got a delicious Hawaiian shaved ice. Mine was green tea, almond, and lychee flavored, all over a scoop of macadamia nut ice cream. Also probably for the best that this waited until the last day...

Hawaii Day 6 - Maui

This was our busiest day, 4 dives and a Luau. We opted for Nitrox today. In theory it is supposed to make you less tired, but we definitely needed the extra no decompression time. The first two dives of the day where the Cathedrals. The first one just had a small swim though. The second was Second Cathedrals. 

I find caves terrifying. They are dark and confining, and while they are cool looking they are not usually worth being in for me. I also find diving to be a little claustrophobia inducing. I mostly got over that, because diving is worth it. This dive had a swim through. Which is basically a small cave with openings on both sides. However, from my perspective this was an never ending tunnel. This is a picture of me coming out of it looking absolutely terrified. I'm very glad I had my fancy new light. It was very dark in there. 

Frog fish

Parrot fish eating coral

This is as close as I will likely ever get to cave diving. The Cathedrals are amazing underwater caves. They happen to have lots of openings to let in light and multiple escape routes. They are still dark and scary. This was a great dive, but I think that the boats need to be more careful of who they take in there. There are some fragile things in there. This was not listed as an advanced dive, so that means any certified diver can go in. Our dive had some very inexperienced divers, who clearly didn't listen to the briefing. There is a piece of rare Black Albino Coral hanging from the ceiling. It is know as the Chandelier. We were told very specifically not to swim directly under it, because our bubbles can damage it. Some really annoying lady not only swam under it but stayed there looking at it. The dive leaders did nothing about this. It really lowered my previously good opinion of them.

Fish in the cave

Me in the very very dark cave. It's completely black!

Black Albino Coral

Our third dive was the wreck dive, the Carthaginian. This dive was nice because unlike the other dives we didn't have to follow a guide. If we had a dive computer and a dive buddy we could go in whenever we wanted. I translated this as finally not having to wait. Normally we got a 10 min warning. Which we ignored, because everyone is so incredibly slow. It takes us about a minute to put on our gear. We can't figure out why but everyone else seems to take about 20 minutes. It's fin, fin, strap, strap, mask. Not that hard... The boat crew would nag us to hurry up, and then we'd end up waiting for a long time in the sun.  Or they would tell us to head down and then we'd waste 10 min of air. For this dive the boat stopped and 2 min later we were on our way down. 

Steven with the submarine tour in the background.

Shark under the boat. 

Starfish Cookie!

Boat with coral on it.

Rays swimming by the boat

Our 4th dive was annoying. I did not overly enjoy it, for various reasons that aren't worth remembering. Here is one picture from it. It is some type of nudibranch. 

When we booked the dives this day we specifically asked how often they arrived late. They answered almost never, usually they are 15 min early. So since Monday was the only day we could do the Luau, we figured it would work. However the boat didn't back until 5:25. Almost a half hour late. We managed to change on the boat, and grabbed our gear and ran as much as one could loaded down with scuba gear to the car. We got to the Luau, just as they were letting people in. 

We went to the Old Lahaina Luau. The food was delicious, we ate far too much of it. The show was themed on the history of the Luau. I didn't take many picture of it, because I was busy watching it. But I highly recommend it.