A few more pics...

So what do you do when you're driving down a road in Hawaii, and you see a picturesque waterfall on one side of the road?

Why, everyone stops their cars and runs to take pictures, of course!

And then some of us hop up on the stone wall on the other side of the road for another "check out my awesome tan" photo op...

Blue water, blue sky, blue shirt...

Hawaii pics...

Here's the first set of Hawaii pics... I'll just upload a few at a time, so I can say that I posted fifteen times over the weekend. :) (Just kidding... but maybe I can manage two or three...)

The understated sign at the entrance to our resort... it was so understated, in fact, that we really had to pay attention to not miss our turn. (But it was worth it once we got to the resort!)


The beach at the hotel -- it had a tendency to be clear and sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon... (but cloudy in Hawaii is still IN HAWAII... so, you know, not so bad... :))


Pensive Rick looking out over the ocean...


Our favorite restaurant at the hotel was called the Beach Tree -- which, coincidentally, was right next to this big tree on the beach...


The view from our room, which I gazed out at every morning... and then I would sigh with a mixture of temporary contentment and resignation that I'd soon have to leave...


I'm not sure what kind of bird this is, but I just decided to call it a Chicken Bird. It was hanging out at the little coffee shop at the hotel, no doubt waiting for pastry crumbs to fall onto the ground. All we had was coffee, but that didn't stop Chicken Bird from being very vocal and repeatedly asking if we had anything to share (at least I think that's what it was saying... I don't actually speak Chicken Birdish, so I'm just guessing...).

Rick at the coffee shop...


Me at the coffee shop -- note that awesome Hawaiian tan...

Chicken bird!

Running with the wild Shelties...

It's been a difficult few days, what with traveling, readjusting to our time zone, getting resettled at home, returning to work, and worrying about a very old puppy (and yes, I realize "puppy" is generally reserved for young dogs, but to us, Echo was always a puppy...). We waited one more day to take her in to the vet, since she ate a tiny little bit on Sunday night... I guess we were hopeful that she'd start to devour all the food we could fit into her bowl. Unfortunately, she wouldn't eat anything else. And by yesterday afternoon, she could hardly even stand to drink water. It was just too heartbreaking to watch that. So we finally made the decision to have her put to sleep. NOT an easy thing to do...

I was "okay" (more or less) at the vet until one of the vet techs came into the room crying, saying how much everyone there loved Echo and how they'd all miss her. Which made ME start crying, and then it was hard to stop. Echo had become quite the regular around the vet's office, as I suppose is wont to happen when an animal gets older. When we went on our cruise last year, we boarded her there at the vet, because we figured if anything bad happened, she'd be right where she needed to be. And the first few days we were gone, she nervously refused to eat much (she often stopped eating for a day or two when we boarded her -- or even when we left her with Rick's parents, which, when possible, was her home away from home). So everyone in the vet's office took turns hand-feeding her bites of food, and they brought her out of her little boarding cage and allowed her to hang out at the front desk. For two weeks, she was the office mascot. 

There's so much I could say about my Echo -- she was such a sweetheart, so smart, and so unbelievably well-behaved, that I wonder if it's even possible to ever find another dog that amazing...

She loved pizza -- it might've been her favorite food in the world -- and when we'd share a scrap of crust or a bite of cheese, she suddenly turned into an athletic soccer goalie, blocking anything we tossed in the air and making it vanish almost instantly. 

When she was younger and wanted to play, all you had to do was say "go find your ball!" and she would systematically search the house for her favorite tennis ball. She'd even jump up on chairs and couches and stick her nose behind pillows until she found it...

One time we accidentally left our back gate open, when Echo was in the backyard while we were at work. I got home from work that day, saw the gate swinging wide open, and panicked -- I jumped out of my car, ran into the backyard, and there was Echo, walking toward me (and quite startled by my crazy behavior). That was the day we learned that Shelties are very territorial, and love to be HOME. We never worried about her running off.

When she was a puppy, we thought it was adorable when she barked her cute little bark, so we foolishly encouraged it. The cute little bark, of course, turned into a very loud adult dog bark, which she would unleash at the slightest sign of anything amiss. And while I can't count the number of times I must've said, "Echo, quiet!" I greatly missed the cacophony when she went deaf and no longer heard all those noises that used to prompt her barks. And this last year, she stopped barking altogether, even when strangers came to the house or she saw another dog through a window...

She used to bury her head in the crook of my arm or leg or wherever she could find a place, when she wanted to be scratched behind the ears and petted... and if I stopped, she'd nudge me with her head to get me to start again. 

She used to jump on the side of her food bowl and send it skidding across the floor, which was her way of telling me she was hungry -- it would make me laugh so much to see her jump up and plant her feet just right, so that they didn't land IN the bowl, but rather just OUTSIDE it, so the bowl would fly off to the side. And then she would give me a gruff little "woof," just in case I hadn't gotten the point with the flying bowl...

When she could still hear, she HATED loud noises, which made her not unlike me. :) She would attack the vacuum cleaner with fervor, apparently convinced it was an evil presence in the house that needed to be eradicated. She barked at the blender, she hated thunder, and she was not exactly fond of crying, screaming children.

She had a stuffed animal that I dubbed "Workout Bear," because every time I would work out -- whether it was walking on the treadmill or following an aerobics DVD or just jumping rope -- she would grab Workout Bear and toss it around while I worked out. (That dog would actually work out while I was working out!!)

And she never once complained -- we're sure she must've been in pain the last few months of her life. But sweet little Echo was stoic and brave as ever, never once complaining about what we're sure she must've been feeling. Which is probably why it was so hard to finally make our decision...

What's funny is that this morning I just happened to glance at some of the mail that Rick's parents collected for us while we were in Hawaii, and one of the things that came was a new Guideposts magazine. On the cover, where it lists a few teasers for the stories inside, my eyes went straight to a line that said, "Yes! Your Pets DO Go to Heaven." This is something I've always believed... I know some people believe that when animals die they just die and vanish into nothingness -- but I could never believe that. There's no way I could look into Echo's intelligent eyes and NOT believe there was a soul behind them. In the Guideposts story, the author wrote about how his old dog used to have dreams where his paws moved back and forth like he was running... it was, the author believed, a way for his dog to have a preview of that place where he'd once again be able to run and play, just as he had as a young dog.

Echo had those same kinds of dreams -- even when she was old, and could no longer jump up the step on the back porch and had to be carried, she would have dreams where she appeared to be running... maybe she was searching for her favorite tennis ball, or playing with Workout Bear, or perhaps even vanquishing the Evil Vacuum. But Rick and I have a different vision of where she is today: the sun is shining on a huge, grassy, green field that goes on for miles... and Echo, young and agile and barking her loudest bark, is running... running to meet up with the herd of wild Shelties. They bark joyfully and loudly... and Echo, with silky, fluffy fur, stretches her legs, free from arthritis and pain, and joins them, running her fastest run...   

 

 

More to come...

I know I've been taking forever to get some pictures up -- I've been sidetracked by the fact that our sweet 16-year-old Echo has been going downhill since we got home. Apparently vacations are not good for our pets -- we had to say goodbye to Allegro the day we left for Vegas, and now it looks like we'll be saying goodbye to Echo very soon. She stopped eating while we were away, and she's barely eaten anything since we got back. I was able to hand-feed her a few bites of bread and a couple tiny pieces of steak last night, but that's about it. She's been having a lot of trouble walking very far the last few months, and now she can hardly even STAND anymore, let alone walk anywhere. So we've been trying to make some really difficult decisions today. The vet won't be in until tomorrow, so we'll probably take her in some time tomorrow... I'm hoping to take "pet leave" from work (I think it's cool that my job actually offers that!), because I don't think I'll be able to function too well tomorrow.

So for now, here are a few random pictures I took the day we arrived in Hawaii, as I wandered around the (amazing-beautiful-didn't-want-to-leave) resort:

Aloooooha!

Aloha can mean "hello," "goodbye" OR "I love you"... so depending on who you are, you can make a judgment call on what I'm trying to say to you... :)

We made it safe and sound to the Big Island of Hawaii, and have lounged on the beach, done some shopping and eating plenty of really good food. Today's plan is to either drive to the other side of the island and check out Hilo, or drive to the other side of the island and check out Kilauea volcano. Either way, we'll be seeing plenty of scenery today, so the camera will be getting some good use...

I've taken lots of pictures already, but haven't uploaded any of them yet -- hopefully within the next few days. But right now, I have about fifteen minutes until we're meeting everyone for breakfast, and I still have a head of rather damp hair, so I'd better go get ready to leave.

Hope everyone has a great Monday on the mainland! :)

Am I weird...

...because I don't like hamburgers or any other sort of "ground up" meat, and honestly think veggie burgers taste about 100 times better than the "real" thing?

...because I took a purple marker out of a box of purple markers on the office supply shelf at work, just because "I want a purple marker!" but not because I'll ever actually use it?

...because I've never embraced the use of "y'all" as an acceptable way to refer to people, yet I wholeheartedly believe that "you guys" is fine, even in a room full of women?

...because I keep about fifteen various tubes of lip balm in random places around my house (and that's not an exaggeration)?

...because I hate talking to strangers on the phone, even more than talking to them in person?

...because I think it's absolute lunacy that it's become "offensive" to be a proud American... IN AMERICA?

...because I think my brother is just the coolest guy ever, and I don't even know the meaning of the words "sibling rivalry"? (Except when it comes to who's the favorite... but we all know it's me...)

...because I hate carrots but love carrot cake?

...because nine times out of ten, I'd rather watch an action flick than a chick flick?

...because I find myself worrying about not blogging enough, therefore I must resort to the randomness that has appeared here lately???

Well, stay tuned, because this weekend I'm heading to the Big Island of Hawaii, where I'm hoping to have many lazy, free hours to blog to my heart's content. There will be exciting stories of intrigue, hilarious anecdotes, and beautiful pictures... Okay, maybe just the pictures. I will definitely have pictures.

Traveling usually affords a decent story or two, though, so I'll see what I can come up with. In the meantime, if I happen to stumble upon inspiration and discover a few minutes to post again this week, I shall... Oh, yes... I shall... (forgive me, I'm tired... :)) 

Determined...

... to post something, she turns to her trusty "photos" folder on the desktop, even as she acknowledges such a move is about as "random" as it gets..

 

:)