The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin is a psychological nightmare.  Mara has moved to a new town, but is haunted by her past.  An incident occured in her group of friends and it's driving Mara crazy.  If you like psychological thrillers or need a book to read this Halloween, this is a great book.  There are two other books in the series.  

Mission Viejo

On Monday, we flew to Los Angeles.  We stayed at the Ayres hotel in Mission Viejo.   We got to hold my nephew Coen for the first time.   We ate dinner at El Torito.

On Tuesday, we took my niece to Downtown Disney.  She loved playing with the legos.  Mom bought her a Frozen shirt and bought my nephew a Mickey shirt.  We ate beignets and mint juleps as a snack at the Jazz Kitchen.  We went to Taco Bell for lunch.  We had dinner at Tender Greens at the Irvine Spectrum Center.  I had the Chipotle Barbecue Chicken Salad. My niece loves the park there.  She kept wanting to go up and down the slide.    

The Love That Split The World

The Love That Split The World by Emily Henry is a bout a girl who has an imaginary friend named Grandmother.  Grandmother tells Natalie she needs to save him, not knowing who that is.  She falls for Beau, but there's a problem.  He lives in a parallel version of Earth, where Natalie doesn't exist. 

United States Playlist

• All I Owe Ioway- State Fair
• All My Ex's Live in Texas- George Strait
• Blue Hawaii- Elvis Presley
• California - Phantom Planet
• California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas
• California Girls - The Beach Boys
• California Gurls - Katy Perry
• California Love - 2Pac
• California Sun - Annette Funicello
• California, Here I Come- Al Jonson
• Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Deep In The Heart Of Texas - Perry Como
• Englishman in New York- Sting
• The Eyes of A New York Woman- B.J. Thomas
• Florida Time- Bob Seger & Last Heard
• Floridays- Jimmy Buffett
• Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles
• Georgia Peaches - Lauren Alaina
• Goodbye California- Jana Kramer
• Hawaii- The Beach Boys
• Hawaii Five-O - The Ventures
• Hotel California - Eagles
• I Love New York- Madonna
• It Never Rains in Southern California- Albert Hammond
• King of New York- Newsies
• Leaving California- Maroon 5
• The Little Things in Texas- State Fair
• Massachusetts- Bee Gees
• Meet Virginia - Train
• Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips
• Mississippi Cha Cha Slide by D.J. Slide
• More Bounce in California- Soul Kid
• New York Groove- Kiss
• New York State of Mind- Billy Joel
• New York's Not My Home- Jim Croce
• The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
• Ohio- Wonderful Town
• Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• Oklahoma Sky - Miranda Lambert
• Oklahoma! - Cast of Oklahoma!
• Private Idaho - The B-52's
• Queen of California - John Mayer
• Snow In California - Ariana Grande
• Stars Fell on Alabama- Frank Sinatra
• Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Tennessee Line- Daughtry
• Welcome to New York by Taylor Swift
• Why Georgia - John Mayer

Island Park

On Monday, we drove up to Island Park, Idaho.  We stayed at the Valley View RV Park.  We ate dinner at The Gusher. We went and saw the musical, Singin' in the Rain at the Playmill theatre.

On Tuesday, we drove to West Yellowstone and walked through all the shops.  We enjoyed the sunset over Henry's Lake.

On Wednesday, we drove the lower loop of Yellowstone, stopping at Canyon Village, Yellowstone Lake, and Fishing Bridge.  We had lunch at the general store in Fishing Bridge.  We saw bison and elk.  We cooked dinner for my uncle Don and aunt Viv in our trailer.

On Thursday,  Dad went fishing with the guys.  We went and saw the musical spoof of the movie, Three Amigos at the Mack's Inn theatre.  For dinner, we had prime rib, baked potato, beans, corn, roll, salad, and a ice cream sandwich.

On Friday,  we drove to the Canyons in Yellowstone.  We saw elk, bison, and a coyote.  We stopped at Canyon Village and went through the museum and saw a nature film about Yellowstone.   We drove on the windy road to the Virginia Cascades. We stopped at Artist's Point and heard the ranger talk.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria at Canyon Village.  We stopped at Norris and walked through the museum and down to the geysers.  There were several hats that had blown off into the geysers.  We stopped in West Yellowstone and got ice cream at Two Scoops.  We ate dinner and played games at Don's cabin.

On Saturday, we drove home.  We watched the fireworks for Syracuse Heritage Days.

Soundtrack of My Life

I saw Entertainment Weekly had a quiz with Charlie Puth, on the songs he loved growing up.   I modified some of the questions and added new ones.

Soundtrack of My Life:

Favorite song from Birth Year: Arthur's Theme (The Best that You Can Do)

The first song that I loved: Do You Love Me? by the Contours

The first album I bought with my own money: Belinda Carlisle: Runaway Horses.

Favorite Soundtrack: Grease, The Phantom of the Opera, or Dirty Dancing

First Concert: John Mayer with Maroon 5.

The song that reminds me of my first crush: Crush by Jennifer Paige.

Artists I love that would surprise people: Eminem

Song I love that would surprise people: Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio

The song that makes me cry: In My Life by the Beatles.

My go-to karaoke jam: Don't You (Forget about Me) by Simple Minds.

The best song to dance to: (I've Had) The Time of My Life

The song I play too much: Dude Looks Like a Lady by Aerosmith

A Hundred Summers

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams is about love triangle.  A woman reflects on her time with her boyfriend and her best friend on two important summers in her life.  It's what happened between those two summers that make this story compelling.  Reminded me of two novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  A perfect beach read.

Travel Nightmares

Here are the stories that come to mind when ever I hear about someone having a bad time while traveling:

Airports can suck sometimes. I remember this one time, I was supposed to have a no stop flight from Phoenix to Oahu and the plane was having mechanical problems and they made us wait on the plane for 45 minutes without any air conditioning. We were using the barf bags as fans, because it was so hot. Then they flew us to Los Angeles and we had a wait for an hour to get on another plane.

I went on a cruise a couple of years ago and one of the stops was in Playa Del Carmen. I booked a bus tour to Cancun and the driver went to park the bus next to a sidewalk and a tree branch went through the windshield and broke it.

Usually when I go on on a cruise or to Florida, it's during hurricane season, so it's always raining or a hurricane is a couple of days away. I went to Cozumel on a cruise and a week later a hurricane hit it and destroyed the ship dock and the shops on the pier. I remember going to Disney's Hollywood Studios, having to get a yellow poncho because it was just pouring. It poured from the moment we got there till we left at the end of the day.

On a flight back from Hawaii to home, they gave my mom's personal wheelchair to another lady who didn't speak English and then when my mom got off the plane, they had to radio their employee to bring it back to the runway.

Las Vegas

 We drove to Vegas and stayed at the Oasis RV Park.  We ate dinner at Dickey's BBQ.

On Tuesday,  we went to the south premium outlets mall.  We went to Circus Circus to buy show tickets.  We went to Town square mall and ate dinner at Popeye's.

On Wednesday,  we parked at the Paris Hotel.  We walked around the Grand Bazaar shops at Bally's. We got some kettle corn at I Love Popcorn.  We walked over to Bellagio, but the gardens were closed.  We walked around the Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood and ate lunch at Pink's Hot Dogs.  I had the Brooklyn Pastrami with Swiss cheese.  We went and saw the musical, Jersey Boys, at the Paris Hotel.

On Thursday,  we went to the Fashion Show mall.  We parked at the Linq and walked over to the Venetian.  We ate lunch in their food court.  We had a fruit tart from the Paris Baguette.  We walked around the Palazzo.  We ate dinner at Project Pie in the MGM.  We walked around the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace.  

On Friday,  we went to the Silverton hotel to see the Sister Wive's jewelry line.  We went to Kohl's and Target.  We ate lunch at Firehouse Subs.  We went to the Boulevard mall.  We ate dinner at the Claim Jumper.  

On Saturday, we drove home.  

Big Little Lies

I have pretty much read every book by Liane Moriarty, starting with What Alice Forgot.  She is absolutely fantastic author and I highly recommend this book as well.  She has characters who are likeable but complicated.  She tells relateable and interesting tales, with lots of plot twists. 

Big Little Lies is about a group of mothers at the school.  It's about how they handle a bullying incident, what secrets they are keeping from each other, and how they are connected. 

Oahu

On Wednesday, we flew to Oahu, with a layover in San Diego.  We stayed at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki in room 1213.  We had an ocean front view.  We went to Koko's at Kalia for dinner and had duck, fish, pork, short ribs, salad, and clam chowder.  We walked around the gardens at the hotel to where they meet Waikiki Beach.  We went to the ABC Store and got some groceries.  I bought some chocolate covered pineapple while we there.  

  

On Thursday,  we went to Jack in The Box for breakfast.  We stopped at Chinaman's hat.  We went to Kualoa Ranch and went in their gift shop.  We walked around the stores in Hukalao marketplace by the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We walked around the Laie LDS Temple grounds.  For lunch, we went to Giovanni's shrimp truck, and had shrimp scampi.  The wind kept blowing our plate of shrimp peels away and I had to keep chasing it.  We went to Sunset Beach and watched the surfers.  We went to Walmart and got groceries for the weeks.   We walked around the shops in Waikiki.  Since this was the day the musician Prince died, there was a street performance tribute in his honor at King's Village and Hard Rock Cafe was also playing his music.  

On Friday, we went to Ala Moana Center.  We ate lunch at McDonald's and got one of their haupia pies.  We ate dinner at Eggs N' Things,  I got strawberry waffles.  We walked around the Royal Hawaiian center and watched their Ukelele show.  We walked around the Sheraton and sat on their lanai in rocking chairs, watching the sunset and their koi pond.  We got to see fireworks on the beach when it got dark. 

On Saturday,  we went to the swap meet at the Aloha Bowl stadium.  I bought mom a wooden turtle wood sign, some bracelets, a dress for my niece Neve.  Mom and Dad bought Neve a dress and an ABC Quilt for my nephew who is due to be born in May.  We went to Wendy's for lunch.  We went to Pearl Harbor and went to the US Arizona memorial.  We ate dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in the Ward Warehouse.  

On Sunday.  I took a walk around the gardens and took pictures of all the flowers.  We went to Happy's snack bar and had malasadas and smoothies for breakfast.  We walked around the gift shop at the hotel and I bought a box of Coconut Caramacs, which taste like Samoa cookies.  We went and ate the seafood buffet at Koko's.  I had chicken picatta, lamb kebobs, prime rib.  We went and saw the Aloha tower, which used to be a mall, but is now classrooms for a university.  

On Monday, we went to Target.  We went to Disney's 
Aulani resort and went into their gift shops, and walked around their pool and beach area.  We watched the waves at Kea'au Beach park.  We ate lunch at Kua 'Aina, a sandwich shop.  We went to the Luau at the Hale Koa.  They gave us a fruit punch with a Maraschino cherry in it and a seashell lei when we walked in.  We got to see a ukelele show and them take the pig out of the firepit.  For appetizers, we had pineapple, seaweed, salsa, and picked papaya and cucumbers,  For the entree, we had fish, beef, chicken, kailua pork, rice, and a fried banana.  For dessert, we had coconut cake and haupia pudding.  They then had a show with fire dancers.  

On Tuesday, we drove past Diamond Head.  We drove past Hanuama Bay which is closed on Tuesdays.  We went and saw the blow hole.  We saw a lighthouse at Makapu'u lookout.  We went to Bellows beach and Lanikai beach.  We ate lunch at Bob's pizzeria in Kailua.  We drove up to Pali Lookout.  It was so windy, I had to hold my camera tightly.  There was some guy who had climbed up to the top of the cliff and was taking pictures.  There were a lot of chickens roaming free.  We went to the gift shop at the hotel and bought some souvenirs for others.  We ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory, where I had some fresh pineapple cheesecake.  We went to the Waikik shopping plaza and into Ross dress for less.  

On Wednesday, when we boarded the plane back, there was an hour delay on the runway, because the plane needed a new spark plug.  We had a layover in Los Angeles and ate lunch at the Habit.  We got to see the sunset in L.A. as we took off.  When we landed in SLC, a woman who didn't speak English, got off the plane and sat down in Mom's wheelchair and had the agents push her up the ramp.  Then they put her in another chair and returned the chair to my mom.