by Kristin Echols | Feb 11, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
Today our plan was to relax and take it easy, so Shawn went out for a coffee and came back telling stories of his parasailing adventure. I slept in in our most comfortable bed yet. Then it was off to see Deadpool at the movies because it is opening day here and we get...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 7, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
If only every morning could start with a walk on the beach. And I must admit it was a well-deserved walk on the beach because the night before we had the great cicada battle. We managed to let a couple dozen into our quaint beach house and spent an hour hunting them...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 6, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
Shawn went scuba diving today, so I’ll leave the fish tales to him. I walked about town and enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the wharf at 36 degrees. (I’m guessing that’s our latitude. If I remember my 6th grade teacher correctly, longitude is the long...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 5, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
As predicted, we woke up to a rainy morning, but with our handy list of wet weather activities we ventured out into the rain decked out in our quick-dry clothing, hats, an umbrella for Shawn and raincoat for me. Because the north island just isn’t enough island...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 4, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
We left Auckland today and headed for Paihia. I wanted to stop at a quilt shop, known as patchwork shops here. The shop is All Things Patchwork and it is a cute store with an abundance of Kaffe Fassett and Tula Pink fabric (this is an important fact for my fellow...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 3, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
For a moment, we were wondering if we were going to make it out of LAX. We asked for directions and ended up outside the terminal and on a shuttle bus to the international terminal. I’m not sure if we could have gotten there without going outside, but it was a...
by Kristin Echols | Jan 31, 2016 | Technology, Travel
I’ve learned about a few websites and apps that make travel planning easier. We used Expedia and Bookings.com to make all our hotel reservations. Strangely, they did not always have the same accommodations available, and if they did they were not always the same...
by Kristin Echols | Jan 30, 2016 | Travel
So I’m getting ready to embark on the longest vacation of my life. One month in New Zealand. My plan is to pack for about a week and do laundry a few times while on the road (many of the places we booked indicated they had laundry facilities). We did some...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 20, 2012 | Quilting
I was in a meeting the other day at work, and the subject was QR codes. I was asked to write technical guidelines on how to use them in business. As the meeting began, I pulled out my quilted covered notebook to take notes and one of my coworkers said: “you...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 10, 2012 | Quilting
For the past 10 or so years, I’ve done my quilting in my kitchen/dining room. It was great while the kids were growing up because I could be cooking dinner, helping with homework and getting in a bit of sewing. There is a great view of the swimming pool and the...
