The Big Island

What two reasons do you visit The Big Island of Hawaii for? Well, the answer should be easy.... 1)Fishing and 2)Volcano. Well on our first trip to Hawaii our finishing trip turned into an 8 hour guided boat ride and we didn't see the Volcano because it's recent large eruption was spewing too much sulfur, gas and ash. Are we disappointed though...absolutely not!!! We spend 7 days in the sun with not a single thought of work or studying, with the best company we could ask for and 2 great reason to go back!!

FISHING:
Chelsea had never seen Loren Olson as pumped as he was to go fishing. He practically stocked the captain in the days leading up to our fishing trip...He just wanted to make sure this captain knew he was serious about it! The fishing trip didn't turn out to be at all what we had expected. Kim and Loren's experience fishing in Maui was much different than it was this time. We happened to pick one the worst days to be out on the water...The forecast called for high winds, a small craft advisory and 10+ foot swells (on the water that is normally smooth as glass) on the day we went out. It turned out to be a loooong day.

We didn't catch a huge birthday Marlin for Loren but he did reel in a good looking Mahi Mahi (the one bite of the day). Everyone was excited until the deckhand knocked it off when he went to gaff it...






SNORKELING: We enjoyed several days of snorkeling at different beaches during our stay. Some of the best snorkeling was at Captain Cook Monument. We kayaked over to the monument, spent the afternoon snorkeling, and then enjoyed a picnic lunch.

We saw a couple sea turtles in Hawaii but we got a great close up view of one that was resting on the beach at Mahaiula Bay.



SOUTH POINT: The sign say's it all...


It was super windy but worth the stop.




HILO: We spent one day on the Hilo side of the island (the rainy, tropical side) where we visited a couple waterfalls, a cave, the Botantical Garden.





BEACH TIME: Some of our most relaxing days were simply beach days! Cody did a great job finding some amazing beaches. Since a lot of the island is volcantic rock, sandy beaches can be hard to come by.


PLACE OF REFUGE: This national park is one of Hawaii's most sacred historic places. We went on a self guided tour and explored the grounds.





KONA COFFEE: We learned a lot about Kona Coffee when we visited the Greenwell Coffee Farm. No pictures but we will remember the buzz!

OTHER: We stopped by the South Kona Fruit Stand where we ate lots of tropical fruits. We mostly cooked meals at our condo but got out a few times to try the local food, beer and ice cream. We enjoyed beautiful sunsets from the condo each night and celebrated Kim and Loren's birthdays.

We feel like we did a lot in the 7 days that we were there, but we still didn't see the whole island. We explored the west, east and south portions of the island but never made it up to the north point or to the Volcano. So, yes...we will be back someday!

A no books, baby filled weekend at the coast!

We recently spent a weekend at the BEAUTIFUL Oregon Coast! Beautiful, you ask yourself...? YES, it was a gorgeous weekend. The sun was out, no rain, and most surprisingly no wind!!!!!!!

Tyler reserved one of the Winco houses in Lincoln City. This house was amazing. It was fully equipped with a theater/game room, surround sound throughout the house, Chelsea's dream kitchen and a great view.

Since Tyler currently lives in Idaho and we don't get to see him as often as we would like, it was nice to spend some time with him. Adam, Robin and their twin babies joined us for the weekend, and Kim and Loren arrived Saturday afternoon. Chelsea was more than exited to finally meet baby Brynn and baby Tyler. Cody and Chelsea have always had different opinions about having twins. Cody, well he thinks twins are "efficient" and a "two for the price of one" kind of deal. Chelsea has always thought they would just be too much work at one time! Chelsea's opinion changed over the weekend with the Nicholson twins. Adam and Robin we so great with the twins, they actually made it look easy! Maybe they are just naturals?! However they do it....it was impressive!

The weekend was full of great food (including Tyler's surf and turf Saturday night dinner), great company (most of the attention centered around the twins!), a couple rounds of air hockey (which Chelsea rocked at!), two of the best old school Feature Films for Families VCR movies (which brought back a lot of childhood memories for everyone), and a small emergency that lead Adam to the hospital (no worries though, he was quite the trooper after a benedry IV, pain meds and some sleep).

Thank you Tyler for a great weekend. Cody really enjoyed a little break from the books!

A Much Needed Update!

Wow! Our blog has been completely neglected! Sorry for the lack of updates. A lot has happened since our last post!!

In September, we jet set for sunny San Diego with 2 of our favorite people!! Tyler set us up in a beautiful house and a nice ride-thanks to all his connections and Courtney set us up with Sea World tickets, lunch at McCormick and Schmick's, and a Padre's game-thanks to her connections! It was a great weekend getaway.

Great seats, great game:

Taking the ferry from Coronado to San Diego-The house we stayed in was actually on Corodado Island:

Sea World:


Once we got back from San Diego, Chelsea was in full blown Wedding mode getting ready for her best friends Wedding. After 8 years of dating, everyone was happy to see those two finally tie the knot! Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Pardovich!





The Holidays came and went faster than ever this year. We made trips down to Eugene and over to Tillamook for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then celebrated New Year's in Lacey, Washington with some great friends. The following week we celebrated Cody's 27th birthday with dinner and bowling.

This year we hiked into the woods and cut down our own tree for the first time:

Roxy helped Courntey pick out a perfect tree for her apartment:

Cody had to cut our tree down more than Chelsea hoped he would in order to fit it into the house:

New Year's at The Youngs:



After the excitement of all the Holiday's, reality of Courtney's big move to Houston hit us hard. Despite the many nights of tears, we were all super proud of her and excited for her new adventure in life. Her and Loren made the 3 day trip across the county in her 4-runner and got her settled in to her new apartment. She signed a 2 year commitment with her new job. We secretly hope that she enjoys her time in the South but is ready to come home in exactly 2 years and 1 day! Good luck Courtney. We love you and miss you.

Cody has been busy studying for his professional exam. He studies in the morning, studies in the evenings, and studies on the weekends. April 13th just can't come fast enough for both of us. Chelsea is ready to have her husband back, and Cody is ready to have his life back!

How most evenings our spend at our house:


Well, that pretty much wraps up the last several months of our lives!

Cabo Getaway

We have been so blessed to have been able to take so many wonderful vacations this year. Our trips to Japan, Alaska and San Diego were all full of fun, adventure, great friends and family, and we wouldn't have had it any other way! However, for our trip to Cabo we decided we wanted to keep it low key and thats exactly what we did.

Our flight over on Thursday was actually one of the most fun flights we have ever been on. EVERYONE was on vacation and ready to have a good time. You would have even thought the flight attendants were on vacation too! Luckily, we got the GREEN light going through customs so we were able to avoid Mexican authorities from rummaging through our perfectly packed luggage.

We checked into the resort, ate some lunch, changed into our swim suites and headed straight for the pool. Our 5 days were spent lounging by the pool and hanging out at the swim up bar. We left the resort only once our entire trip. We hopped onto the local bus and spent the afternoon in downtown Cabo San Lucas on a mission to accomplish two things: 1) Eat tacos and drink Margarita's at Cabo Wabo and 2) Buy a souvenir for the house. Once both missions were accomplished, we made it back to our poolside chairs.

View of the resort from our room:


Enjoying lunch at Cabo Wabo:


Checking out the Marina:



Chelsea made it the whole vacation without getting sun burnt! Cody on the other hand, left looking like a lobster. In fact, he got burnt on the very first day. He fell asleep lounging by the pool (with no sun screen on) and 3 hours later woke up with a red front side and a white backside!

After a relaxing vacation, what better way to travel home than in first class?! Our unexpected upgrade left us looking completely out of place. When everyone else was wearing business suits and ties, we were wearing shorts and flip flops. Not to mention we were the youngest in first class by 10+ years. When the flight attended came around to take our food and drink orders (which we took full advantage of) she asked if we were Mr. and Mrs. Olson or brother and sister...? Once we assured her we were indeed a married couple and figured out how to get out the hidden beverage trays, we enjoyed the flight home in comfort.

"Rope is for Cowboys, This Here is a Line...."

Last year, our good friends Holly and Sever got married, moved to Sever's hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska and built a house. Home construction was complete in early August and they were more than excited to move in. Three weeks later, we arrived as their first visitors in their new home. This was Cody's second trip to Alaska (He went fishing in Ketchikan for Sever's Bachelor party in June of last year) and it was Chelsea's first. It was clear to everyone that we were not locals when we landed in Ketchikan...For starters, Chelsea was carrying her safari print luggage (which didn't exactly fit in with the statewide Camo theme) and Cody failed to wear xtratuf boots. So yeah, it was pretty obvious we were outsiders!

After a tour of the new home (which is absolutely beautiful!), we settled in at the Paulson's Wednesday night. Thursday morning we got up early to go explore Ketchikan. Holly and Sever both had to work but they gave us a truck and a map so we were set! First we went searching for bears and we spotted three of them! Then we headed to downtown, along with 8,000+ other tourists (4 cruise ships docked Thursday morning). We grabbed breakfast and did a little trinket shopping (Cody's least favorite thing to do but he hung in there until Chelsea pick out a painting for the house). Later we hiked Married Man's Trail, drove up to Ward Lake, and checked out the totem poles.



We got back to the house at just about the time Sever called it a day at work. So, we grabbed pizza and beer, and went out on the boat! The guys had a great time fishing...







The next day, we tried our hand at shrimping for the first time. Cody, Sever and Adam dropped 9 pots ranging in depth between 350ft and 500ft deep.



Saturday morning the four of us (and Moser) got up early, grabbed our backpacking gear, loaded up the boat, and headed to Pleanty Cuttroat Cabin on Orchard Lake. Before we buoyed up the boat in Shrimp Bay, surely we had to throw out some more shimp pots ("you know, there's a reason they call it Shrimp Bay!"). Then we started the hike from hell. The cabin website mislead us by stating it was a 1 mile hike from the Shrimp Bay Trailhead to the cabin. Terrain was listed as: old-growth cedar, Sitka spruce, and western hemlock rain forest trail. Sounds nice and easy, right? We are all in good shape and an easy 1 mile hike is nothing...so we packed WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!!!! This "trail" was hardly a trail! Holly and Chelsea took a wrong turn because it was so hard to tell what was the path and what was forest. We can't count how many times our boots got stuck in mud throughout the journey. Not to mention, the trail was steep and ALL UPHILL, and clearly more than 1 mile in distance!!! So, yeah, it took us 3 hours to pack in 4 backpacks, 2 fishing poles, a cooler, a tub of food and cookware, white gas, diesel, a motor, a lantern and a jug of water. Yes, you can call us amateurs!!!





When we finally got to the cabin, we were soaking wet...not from rain, but from sweat!! EWW...Gross, I know! So, we hung our stinky clothes up to dry.





The girls were so happy to be dry and warm in the cabin, that they decided to stay in and drink a few cocktails, while the guys went fishing. The cabin had a 14 inch skiff which was perfect to take out on the lake. A couple hours later Cody and Sever came back with plenty of fish for dinner.



The next morning, we all got up and did some more fishing. The bite was on and it was a beautiful morning.





Once we got back to the cabin, we made the hike back to the boat in Shrimp Bay to pull up our shrimp pots. (We hiked out with some of our "extra" gear to leave back at the boat in order to make the final hike back a little easier).







After much success with the shrimp pots, we hiked back to the cabin and the guys went out fishing again. They caught more trout but came back wasted..apparently they drank a little too much whisky out on the boat. We are not sure if Sever can handle his alcohol better than Cody or if Cody just maybe drank more than Sever...either way...Cody was a mess :o) Holly, Sever and Chelsea made a great shrimp ramen and lemon pepper trout dinner before calling it a night. Cody...well he skipped out on dinner and was up all night sick.





Cody had a rough night and the morning didn't get any easier for him. In fact, it got worse...we had to pack up and make our final hike back to the boat to head home. Lets just say, that Cody didn't really pull his weight on the hike back. He was too busy getting sick along the trail and wishing a bear would come take him out of his misery. Chelsea calmly reminded him he had a wife to live for :o) Not only did we have a flight to catch, but a storm was suppose to blow in so we needed to make sure we got out of there before we got stranded there! Cody managed to get it together enough to make it back to the boat.

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean during the 2 hour boat ride back to Ketchikan, the boat motor died!!!! Yes, with no warning it completely died. Sever managed to get the back up motor running and had Holly driving the boat at about 4 kph...which would have taken us forever to get home, thats is if we ever got home..considering the storm that was coming in! So, while Holly was Captain, Sever started working on the motor, and Cody and Chelsea sat back thinking...oh no, this has got to be our fault, we are such bad luck! Just about the time another boat started to come in our direction to check on us, the motor started back up. Before we made it safely to shore we watched a half dozen whales bubble netting! It was pretty amazing... but don't worry, we didn't get the boat too close to them...we were done with unexpected adventures!



We can't thank Holly and Sever enough for giving us a true Alaskan adventure! Cody will finally admit now that there is indeed wildlife in Alaska. We saw bears, a beaver, whales, and even a swimming deer (sorry, we were unable to post the video), eagles, etc.

Hood to Coast 2011

Team Wood Rather be Drinking and Sawing Logs, Van 1:

Courtney somehow talked me into running Hood to Coast with her this year. She ran 2 years ago and loved it. She told me it is an experience she feels everyone should experience..and now I am a complete believer! Her co-worker Nicole who is a member of the Timber's Army put together a team this year and was nice enough to let me join them! I loved running in college, but since moving up to Portland 4 years ago, I lost that love and only did it (which was not very often) for the exercise. So, I thought this would be a good way to get back into shape and find that love for running again. With the poor weather we had this spring and early summer, I found it hard to train. As HTC got closer, I started to panic, thinking I am not in good enough shape for this I need to get my butt into gear. So, thats exactly what I started to do and at some point, I started to love to run again.

Courtney and I were both in van 1. Courtney started out the race and the top of Timberline at 4:30 am on Friday morning! On our way up to Timberline, we heard a radio emergency announcement informing us of a major storm heading north in our direction. When we made it to the top, we saw some wild lightening and wondered what the day was going to bring us!

First Leg:
Length: 5.67 miles
Difficulty level: Hard
Description: Severe downhill through Government Camp and HWY 26 on paved street and shoulder.
My Experience: 5:15am, thunder, lightening, pouring down rain, pitch dark, cold, wet, pissed off at the semi trucks driving by at 60 miles per hour getting me more wet. The first 3 miles, I was thinking, what the heck did I sign myself up for?! Then the rain turned from a torrential down pour to more of a comfortable sprinkle, the sky lightened up so I was able to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery, I kept a good pace and made it to my first exchange feeling great about the condition I was in!

Running in the dark:


The hand off to Hoss at my first exchange:


1st legs down and soaking wet:



After my run, I was so cold and wet, I failed to stretch out and re-hydrate myself and instead changed my clothes and curled up in the back seat to warm up and rest. Biggest mistake ever!

After the rest of my van finished their first legs and we met up with van 2, we grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe and headed to of our teammates house for showers, rest, and to re-decorate our van (the rain washed off all the writing on our windows). We had about a 6 hours before we had to meet up with van 2 again. Thank you Cord to opening your house up to our team during this break. It really worked out perfect.

Nicole, Courtney and I waiting to meet up with Van 2:


Van 2:


Courtney starting out leg 2 in Portland:



Second Leg:
Length: 6.08 miles
Difficulty level: Moderate
Description: Basically flat terrain along Front Ave / St. Helen Road / Highway 30 on paved shoulder and sidewalks.
My Experience: My second leg was the easiest leg but the one I struggled with the most. My muscles were sore but most of all the afternoon heat just did me in! It was about 87 degree's outside at 5:30 pm, along a busy highway. This time I was thankful when the semi trucks drove by me at 60 miles per hour so I could catch a nice breeze. During this leg I thought, no way am I ever going to be able to finish my 3rd leg! I had to walk a couple times during this leg, give myself a few pep talks before making my next exchange, and was a little disappointed with my speed and performance.

During our second van exchange, we tried to find somewhere to eat in St. Helen's, only problem was that it was 11:45 pm and everything was closed in the small town! Desperate for food, we stopped at an open Muchas Gracias for dinner. I decided to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of consuming Muchas Gracias but the rest of the team ate there. Then we headed to an open field to catch a little sleep. We got a about 2 hours of sleep before we had to get up and meet at the next van exchange. Due to traffic our runner from van 2 was waiting for 30 minutes before we got there.

After 2 hours of sleep in a field, coffee was a must!


Third Leg:
Length: 5.77 miles
Difficulty level: Hard
Description: Beginning with gently rolling hills, long uphill toward the end, finishing downhill for half mile on paved roads.
My Experience: It was 6:15 am, the air was fresh, and I was feeling great! This was by far my favorite run. I saw a deer cross the road, it was light enough to take in the scenery, and the temperature was perfect. I was a little worried about the hills in this leg, but thanks to my training in OC, I did just fine! I finished strong and felt great!

Cord kickin' butt at leg 3:



We met up with Van 2 for our last exchange, ate lunch and headed to the finish line in Seaside! Cody, Kim and Loren met us there to watch our team cross the finish line, we had a few celebratory beers, said our good bye's to the team and hobbled home.

It truely was a great experience! Our team finished the 200 mile race in 36 hours and 11 minutes. Thanks Team Wood Rather Be Drinking and Sawing Logs for letting me join you in this amazing experience. I feel so lucky to have been a part of this team!

Crossing the finish line as a team:



Looking forward to running Hood to Coast again!

-Chelsea