Projects Galore

During that first week we had so many project going on. The Ace Hardware store now knows Donna on a first name basis. This would have been tedious work for some, but I loved it. I sanded, primed and striped a small dresser that went upstairs in my room. This was also an old piece of mine that Donna bought. It fit perfectly in one of the many nooks in The Tower.

More House

I'm not going to go on and on about the house, but it is so cute I just have to show you the rest

of it. This is Donna's office, it has a french door that leads to the back deck. Lots of sunshine.

Next is Donna's bedroom. It is painted a pale peach and has such a feminine, peaceful feel. I'm

sure only sweet dreams will come from this room.

Now for my room, I called it "The Tower". It was the entire upstairs. Like so many rooms that were built on the second floor as an afterthought, the staircase is built very steeply because of space planning, or lack there of. I was very careful to use the hand rail at all times and to never accend or descend in stocking feet. Harper decided to sleep next to Donna, rather than attempt the climb. Who say's dogs aren't smart?

It had a twin bed because the double that Donna bought would not fit up the stairwell. Actually it wasn't the stairwell, but the turn from living room to said stairwell....anyway, a single was just fine for my stay. I also had my own bathroom, Donna bought the polka dotted bath rug just for me. Love me some polka dots.

All Work and No Play... Yeah, Right.

The first week in Apalachicola was very busy. Boxes, boxes and more boxes, luckily Donna is very organized and her packed boxes made the unpacking very easy. Donna has a great sense of

style which made putting the house together all the more fun.

The living room is right inside the front porch. One of my favorite thing about this house is the 16' ceilings. When the owner added onto the early 1900 style house he stayed true to the existing style, unfortunately these photos don't do the house justice.

We did a little shopping at the local consignment and antique dealers, buying rugs and some odds and ends, and voila, living room fini.

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The next room was the dining room, or library/den/spare bedroom. Donna is going to have plenty of visitors coming and going, because lets face it, you can never have enough friends in Florida, especially during northern winters. She decided to turn what would normally act as the dining room into another sitting area, using a pull out sleeper sofa as the seat. The sofa was purchased at the local garden center and was the perfect addition, and just in time, company's

on the way.

The kitchen is so cute.Dona bought the bistro set I had in my kitchen, and it could not have worked out better.

A Pink Treehouse

The house Donna is renting is just darling. It has been raised to protect it from flooding and because of that, it sits high up in the trees. This is the view from the front of the house, but the back porch is the real gem.

This is where Donna and I spent every morning drinking coffee, talking about the task du jour and solving all the worlds problems. It is such a comfortable setting. It has a ceiling fan that keeps a breeze going at all times, and you are surrounded by palms. It's hard not to fall completely into the island groove. It truly became my favorite place to be during my stay. Before leaving Donna bought a wrought iron table and 4 chairs, which we sanded, primed and painted, it now acts as the dining room table on the far side of the porch. Aaahh, dining alfresco, is there anything better?

No Excuses

I am always amazed how Sara and Rachel keep their blogs updated. I have been back from Florida now for 3 weeks and have just finished my Hawaii blog. So without further ado I will just give the "Cliff Notes" of my 4 weeks in Apalachicola.

Donna and I headed south around noon on September 5th. I packed Harper,and all the things I didn't want to be without for a month in the Element, and off we went.

We stayed on 95 the entire way, because with Donna driving a 26' Penske we decided the scenic route might be an extravagance we could do without. Penske also put a cruise control on the van that did not allow Donna to go over 70mph. We made it through Virginia, North Carolina and all the "Pedro Sez" billboards, ending up in Florence, SC. Donna checked us all in with her service dog card and the 3 of us called it a day. We got an early start and made it to Apalachicola at 8:00pm the following evening. Donna's friend, Roma, was there waiting with Winslow. We carried in any boxes that were blocking the mattress, then the mattress and called it a night.

The next day Roma, and another friend that Donna had met came over to help with the rest of the van. Donna also had 2 guys that had just landscaped her yard help out. Now we all know how much fun unloading a moving van is, and believe me when I tell you there was not an open space in this van. I am just very grateful that Donna is the kind of person that meets people, becomes friends with them, and they offer to help with a mission like that.

Reaching the Summit.

This was just one portion of the fabulous view from the summit. The day was picture perfect. The air was clean and the sky was blue. We made it to the top, but we had to climb 8 more steps to be at the highest point. I didn't come this far not to make it to the tippy-top. Now we are at the highest point. Life is Good.

Kris and I also did the climb in under an hour and I am convinced if we didn't stop for our Asian photo shoot, and all the other photo ops we could have done it under 30 minutes.

Baby Steps

From the trail head to the summit of Diamond Head Crater it is only 0.8 miles one way, and the climb is 560 feet. The switchback portion was easy and then come the steps. There are 3 separate sets of steps. When we get to the first set I just sorta groan then head up, but not

before I ask everyone to turn around and smile. This climb was 74 concrete steps.

The next set of steps came very soon after the first set. This set was 99 steep steps. My groan was much louder than the first time, but up we go. Now comes the spiral staircase, 52 metal steps. Spiral Stairs are fine when people are just going one way, but when they are coming down while you are going up it gets a little tricky. Oh! did I mention, we are up really high at this point. Getting a shot of this stairwell while it was empty was no easy feat. I am still trying to imagine all this with Riley and Hadley.

Speaking of Diamonds

It is our last day in Oahu, and since Trey is walking wounded, Rachel has offered to take us to Diamond Head for our trek to the top. On Kris's last visit she tackled Koko, and after seeing that climb I was glad that we were doing Diamond Head. Once we got to the parking lot it was full, so Rachel decided to drop us off and take the girls for a ride. I told her to give us about 2 hours. Walking through the parking lot there were 5 empty handicapped spaces. Now I am all for the Disabilities Act, but come on this is Diamond Head, 5 spaces seemed a little excessive.

Kris and I start the climb and passed a couple, I asked how long it took them, and the guy said, " We did it in an hour, but we were really moving". Kris and I just smiled and continued on.

Now I have been on some climbs before where I have to grab my knees every few minutes to catch my breath. This was not one of those climbs. The switchbacks made the trek fairly level with a slight incline.

This photo is taken at the 1/2 way point. We found some Asian girls to take our photo.

This was the first of about 20. This with Kris and I. Then with Kris and I and 1 of the girls, then with Kris and I and the 2nd girl, Kris and I with the 3rd girl, Kris and I with all 3. Dear Baby Jesus, you would have thought we were world renowned climbers and having a photo taken with us would cement their popularity back home. I am not counting this as my 15 minutes of fame.

Pearl Girl

They say diamonds are a girls best friend, but give me pearls any day. I am a firm believer that pearls work with anything, from the little black dress to jeans and a tee shirt.

After finishing up the funniest day, Rachel promised me we would stop at "Pearl Paradise". Needless to say I was in heaven. I opted for a simple single pearl on a gold chain.

After purchasing the one pearl, the clerk makes you go through a ritual for good luck. You hit a gong 3 times, and then shout Aloha. I gave Riley the mallet to hit the gong. 1, 2, 3, Aloha, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... Riley was having a ball, and I can only assume I am going to have the best luck ever with this pearl. Oh.... and the laughter continued with Riley joining in.

Then you choose an oyster and get another pearl. What a sales gimmick. Now I've got this pearl with no setting. You know I'll lose it if I don't get a setting, I choose a crisscross gold band. Kris paid for it and gave it to me as my birthday gift. She already took me to see James Taylor and Carole King. Could there be any better sister in the universe?