We (me, Steve, Karen, and Hunt) woke up before 6:00 this
morning and went out to sit on the sea wall and enjoy the view – with coffee
and cameras. It was wonderful!

We left Lahaina at 7:30 to drive to Haiku for our bicycle
trip down Haleakala. We did not do the sunrise tour because 1) we didn’t want
to get up at 2:30 AM and 2) Steve and I have done that before and were not
exactly impressed. Later was better.

 Haleakala is the tall, extinct volcano on Maui. The summit
is 10,023 feet above sea level. Our tour took us to the summit for a walk
around at the summit.

Steve and I have done the 12 mile hike across the crater 4
times. It is an amazing site. Like a brown moonscape. The views of the crater
from the top are very nice. I can tell you that the views from the crater are
better but it is a hard hike to see them. We took lots of pictures…

We went back down to 6500 feet to get on the bikes. Bike
companies used to put people out at the summit but after 3 people died in 2007,
the national park service put a stop to that. Probably for good reason. It's scary enough from here.

We were decked out in helmets that resembled those worn by the storm troopers in Star Wars. Found out later that the brakes on the bikes are replaced every two weeks. They should be.

 It's downhill 98% of the way. Very little pedaling. I kept my eyes on the road and only looked around when we stopped. That's when we took pictures. It was a lovely ride and one that I have no desire to do again.

 Hunt and I are the drivers on the rental car. We need two drivers and normally it would be Steve and not mre for one of them. But he is in full vacation mode and I have also driven these roads before (successfully). It's sort of weird because when it is me and Steve in the car, he is the default driver. Not unusual for a married couple. The only down side is that now I am one of the two possible designated drivers – and that's OK. I didn't need more rum drinks this evening anyway :-).

We stopped on the way back to Lahaina at a scenic overlook. Here's the guys, looking manly.

And, because my mom is reading the blog to keep up with our
trip:

Hi, Mom! We’re all fine. Off on another adventure tomorrow. I'll post more tomorrow if I can. Love you, Becky

I had hoped to post this from the plane on the way to Maui, but the plane did not have wifi. Sigh. So I am sending this from my hotel in Lahaina. I've been up a very long time but am not ready to sleep…

Chris, Steve, and I worked on the bathroom yesterday. I think you can tell from Chris' face that he is really ready to be done with this project. Luckily, we made great progress!

The toilet works! The sink works! 

The tub and shower work. Jack has already deposited what I hope are all of his bath toys into the tub. 

The trim is in, caulked and primed. We got the new door hung – that took a while. And the new linen closet that opens into the hall (rather than the bathroom) has shelves. The door isn't in yet but the closet works.

When we get home, we'll finish the rest. I believe I'll be painting.

This morning, at DFW airport we walked through this glass maze…

It was pretty on the inside.

We got on the plane and were only 45 minutes late taking off – at about 1:00 in the afternoon. After 8 hours in the air and a 5 hour time difference (earlier) we arrived on Maui at 3:30 in the afternoon. It's just odd. We met our friends, Karen and Hunt, drove to Lahaina and checked in to the Makai Inn.

It is quaint and fun and only the bedrooms are air conditioned. We are all very happy to be sleeping in cooler air. The living area is too hot to be in for very long. However, the patio and seawall are beautiful – and we shouldn't be inside that much anyway! Tomorrow we are doing the bike ride down Haleakala. I'll have photos – not taken while I am actually riding the bike!

When we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin we spotted planters made from terra cotta pipes…

At least, they looked like pipes. I can remember seeing big terra cotta pipes (especially round ones) when I was much younger but it's been a long time since I've seen any. I suppose these could have been made specifically to be planters.

In my yard an open-ended pipe like this would make a perfect planter. Have any of you found/used them?

Here's another fun bit from Lindsay's wedding. There were all sorts of great decorations but I wanted to share the idea for chimes made from mason jar lids. It would be a good project to do with kids. You could paint the lids, use colored twine or pipe cleaners, add more bits of stuff – there are lots of possibilities.

Digital photography is really amazing. It has made it possible for all of us to take amazing pictures. I appreciate the technology.

Of course, the trick is to process the photos you take rather than letting them accumulate in the phone or camera. I find that easier to do now than I did back in the day. I usually download photos the day I take them, throw the bad ones in the trash, crop, rename and save the good ones. I still have boxes of photos from years ago that need to be dealt with and I'm about to get more – mom is going through her photos :-).

I sort my photos into all sorts of folders on my computer. I categorize some by color. These are new additions to 'yellow'…

I love this photo, taken with my iPhone. The flowers were in different vases on the table at the reception after Dory's daughter, Lindsay's, wedding. The light was dim and I was surprised that the photo came out so well. 

The sunflower, below, grew near our pool until I had to cut it down. It was BIG and it was funny – it never looked at the sun! Instead, it kept its face to the fence. 

I should find out… why 'steamboat'? There's a river but it doesn't really look like one a steamboat would fit on. The town, however, is lovely!

Maria took me out for a morning walk today and I snapped lots of pictures. Here are a few:

That's Maria, taking photos of some spectacular delphiniums…

We were at the botanical gardens. The landscaping was perfect – lots of rocks. Flat rock paths, bigger river rock borders, big rounded boulders in some retaining walls. I love rocks. This pile, at the edge of a wide path was interesting. The rocks were thoughtfully out of place…

There was one stand of what we think is a thistle. There was one purple flower on the plant and several of these nearly white seed pods. So pretty! Although, if it is a thistle and it was in my yard I'd be pulling it up and hoping that none of the seeds shook loose.

We went to a coffe shop in town and the bathroom door was open. I spied this collage decoupaged on the wall. The words are from a poem by Robert Frost…

The design flowed around the room, above the tile, with colors blending into each other. Inexpensive and lovely. 

You know me and my feet photos. I just love manhole covers that say sewer, pronounced sew-er! I like this composition, in shades of gray with that tiny bit of blue on my shoes. 

Tomorrow is a class day and then the drive back to a hotel near the Denver airport. I take I70 for part of the drive and one section is going to be closed for bridge construction. I am trying to be mentally prepared for delays. I think I have a good detour planned but I'll bet I'm not the only one that will go that way. I'm glad it's on a Saturday evening, not Monday morning.

I am on my way to teach in Steamboat Springs. It's going to be a treat to be in the mountains! I hope to post some nice pictures – both quilt-y and outdoors-y.

I left with the house mostly finished. The floor is all the way down. The baseboard trim still needs to be painted and there are some other small things. When I get home it should all be over. That's good because 2 days after I get back we head to Hawaii! I'm sure I'll be posting. I'm lucky to be able to leave the business part of pieceocake.com in Lorna's hands.

Earlier this week I received a box of the most wonderful linen/cotton blend solids! They are from the Essex Collection by Robert Kaufman Fabrics. I didn't even know that these fabrics existed until I saw them at market! Here's the stack, right out of the box:

They are intense and clear and pretty in the stack. That said, they are prettier when the stack is more thoughtfully arranged…

When I gather fabric for a quilt, I make stacks: foreground and background. Inside those stacks I arrange by color and value. Often I let one color blend into another. I find it so much easier to color a quilt from an organized stack. There is never just one way to arrange the fabrics and, as I work on a quilt, the colors move around. 

This fabric is heavier than regular cotton but not so much that you couldn't combine the two weights. That's what I plan to do. After washing and drying, the hand of the fabric is nice. They have that subtle, linen wrinkle that I really like.