Aloha!

Hey All! It's been a busy week. During our last several days in Santa Fe Brenda was running from one thing to the next, usually singing along the way. She had her last two performances for the summer and also sang at a small wedding. The person who officiated the wedding is a huge opera fan and saw both of Brenda's operas last week. She also happens to be on the Supreme Court.

Justice Ginsburg was kind enough to pose for a picture with us.

 We wanted to go on a hike before we left town, so on Thursday Drew, Brenda, and I hiked up to Nambe Lake. We had a great time, although we got a little wet on the hike back to the car.

 Even though we left Santa Fe just a few days ago, we miss it already, although we're comforted by the fact that we have plans to return in the not-too-distant future.

We remembered from last year that leaving Santa Fe isn't easy, so we decided to lessen the blow by taking a trip to Hawaii. Brenda has been wanting a beach vacation for quite a while now, so I suggested Hawaii based on a wonderful trip my family took almost half my life ago. We arrived in Kauai Saturday night, and we've had a great time so far. We spent Sunday and Monday lying on the beach, playing in the ocean, and relaxing in the hotel pools. Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this. You may start to hate us. But keep in mind that Brenda hasn't had a break from singing and/or learning music for about a year and a half, and she's still learning music while we're in Hawaii. The beach may not be the best place to learn music, but it's certainly one of the most beautiful.

We loved the view from our room.

The view from the beach wasn't too bad either.

Today we checked out of the hotel we were staying in on the south side of the island and checked into a bed and breakfast on the north side. Before making the trek around the island we stopped off at Waimea Canyon to take in some of the island's beautiful landscape.

The rental car company offered us an inexpensive upgrade to a convertible, which I quickly agreed to because I'd never driven one before. We've since discovered that half the rental cars on the island are the exact same car. I guess I'm not the only tourist who wanted the upgrade.

Brenda enjoying the view of Waimea Canyon.

Another lookout point gave us a view of the ocean on the western side of the island.

So that's what we're up to. A week from today we should be back in the midwest enjoying some time with our family. We'll fill you in on the rest of our trip then. Until next time, have a great week!