Mahalo

Ahhhh, Hawaii! What a magical place! We are so thankful to have gotten to go back this year after visiting Maui for the first time last year.

This year, I had a conference to attend on the Big Island. The sad thing for me was that we didn't have ANY extra time in Hawaii this year, so I didn't get to see very much of the island. (although I saw a whole lot of the inside of the window-less hotel conference room along with 250 other people) But Michael had a great time seeing the sights and on the last day we had a few hours between the end of my conference and the time our plane left so I got to see a few of the highlights.

When we flew in it was dark and we had a two hour drive to our hotel. It was raining and we couldn't see a thing! There are very few lights on the roads there. When you do see lights, they look very strange. They're long rectangular lights that point straight down and are a yellowish/amber color light. This is a terrible picture but you get the idea.

The reason they have so few lights along the roads is because of the observatories located at the top of one of the volcanoes on the island. To keep light pollution down, there are very few lights, and the ones that you see help to keep the star viewing as perfect as possible.

We checked into our hotel the first night and because everything was so dark, we could have been in the middle of a corn field somewhere and not have known the difference! But when we woke up to see this view...we knew we were far from corn fields (and snow)!

While I was busy working, Michael got to drive. A lot. The Big Island is just that...big. It takes several hours to get from one end to the other. There were a few places where he could hike, but most of the time he was in the car...which I'm thankful for because if he had taken his time and gotten out of the car more, I would have been sitting by myself every evening waiting for him to come back! :) Michael saw lots of this:

And occasionally a silly sign like this:

The first night we went into a town called Kona for dinner at Sam Choy's. Beautiful views of the sunset and yummy food. Sam Choy has been on a couple Food Network shows (Chopped and Emeril). Since we love being 'virtual foodies' watching Food Network - we like to try food from chefs to see what the fuss is about.

We, of course, had fresh Hawaiian fish. The fish was great...but then we had dessert. It was not.great.at.all. YUCKY! We tried something new to us which turned out to be a total mistake. It was fried mochi ice cream and I can't even describe how greasy and nasty it was. Michael couldn't even eat it...and he can usually eat anything.

Thankfully they didn't charge us for the nasty dessert and we tried something else. Dessert is not this place's claim to fame, and with good reason.

We did have good dessert one night after a meal at our hotel. And another beautiful sunset.

After a yummy meal (of fish again) we ordered the 'dessert for 4.' Yep - this was meant for four people! (and no, we couldn't finish it all by ourselves) It was quite the opposite of the dessert at Sam Choy's. Delicious! The three things in the middle are different creme brulees. (Kona coffee, coconut, and vanilla) Then it was POG sorbet (passion fruit, orange, guava) and other delectable chocolate things. Mmmm

Michael got to burn off the dessert calories by hiking around Volcano National Park one day. It's the home of Kilauea, an extremely active volcano. This was the crater of a different volcano, smoking from the hot lava inside it.

The volcanic rock is everywhere on this island. Some of it is rough and some looks like oozing mud but is hard like rock. Most of the green areas have been created for tourists, which makes it even eerier to leave the tourist areas. You kind of feel like you've landed on the moon. It's just black rock everywhere. And there are very few beaches on this island compared to Maui. Much of the shoreline is rocky like the picture below. And, I can't believe this...but we never even went in the water! The whole time we were there we were doing other things and the beaches just didn't seem that nice (really coarse, painful sand to walk on in most places) so we never went in! Although we did sit on the beach for an hour one night and got to hang out with a sea turtle sunning itself on the sand. So cute!

Michael found some gorgeous places!

This was a lookout area that he visited and then took me to later in the week. After you climb down a long path you see this gorgeous black beach. And if you look carefully, you can see the zig zagging path back up the hill. He didn't have time to go on that path but I bet it would have been beautiful at the top.

As soon as my conference ended we started driving to hit a few highlights before our flight left (at 10pm). We first went to a gorgeous waterfall. It's called Akaka Falls and is 442 feet!

You walk on this long, winding concrete path and after 15 minutes of walking you see the waterfall.

 Up close it is really beautiful!

We saw this funny sign on our drive. Have you ever seen one that says 'U turns' are OK?

When we got to Hilo we found a great little hidden Hawaiian Shave Ice place. I had never had shaved ice before and it was ssssoooo good! They put ice cream at the bottom and then take a huge chunk of ice and grind it down with a cheese grater-looking contraption to get it really fluffy. Then they pour flavored syrup over it. I tried a combination of coconut, lilkoi (passion fruit), and li hing mui (a salty/sweet red berry looking thing).

Then we tried to drive to the top of Mauna Kea, where the star observatories are. We drove from sea level to 9,000 feet and then saw signs that said you needed four wheel drive to get all the way up to the top (over 13,000 feet). Since the road turned to gravel, we decided not to chance it so we never made it to the top. Maybe next time.

Our last meal on the island was another Food Network place. Sad, I know. Earlier in the week Michael had stopped at Ippy's Hawaiian BBQ in Waikoloa and found out that Ippy (from Food Network Star) was working at his mom's italian restaurant in a different city. We stopped there for lunch (no fish this time) but didn't get to see Ippy. But we recommend Solimene's italian restaurant. It was good and really laid back.

Overall, the Big Island is quite different from Maui. And since those are currently our only two experiences in Hawaii (other than Honolulu and Pearl Harbor), it's hard not to compare them. There were some amazing features on the Big Island but Maui is hands down our favorite. I hope someday we get the chance to see Kauai and also see the non-Honolulu parts of Oahu so we get a better picture of the whole state. If you've never been to any of the Hawaiian islands...GO!

I left my heart in...

San Francisco!


Last week Michael and I got away for a while (no kids!) and our first stop was the fun city of San Francisco.

It was a quick trip there but fun...and freezing. It was only 38 degrees in San Francisco when we left there for a warmer destination (more on that tomorrow). Michael had never been to San Fran before and I hadn't been there in many, many years. Of course, our trip involved a couple baseball stadiums. It's become quite a tradition for us in January. (here are details about our trip in Seattle last year, and LA/San Diego/Phoenix before that)

We stayed at a hotel smack dab in the middle of downtown (gotta love Name Your Own Price on Priceline where we got this hotel room for $70!!). This was the view from the 12th floor where, shockingly, our balcony doors opened and seriously made me afraid Michael would fall out of the building since there wasn't much of anything to keep us in!! Do they not have building codes in San Fran?? Scary! Although it really was a gorgeous view!
View ahead and to the right of our room:

View to the left of our room:

View inside our room when I was having a mini heart attack that he was going to fall out the door!

Standing at one end of our hotel building you could see these views:
Outside:

Inside: This picture seriously doesn't do the hotel justice. The lights looked like they were raining down from the upper floors. It was stunning! And the glass elevators that you can barely see in the upper left were the main feature in the movie Towering Inferno.

We had one full day in the city to see as much as we could. The first item on the agenda was a baseball stadium tour but we had some time to leisurely walk through the city a couple miles on our way to the stadium. We found this adorable little spot with the yummiest food and coffee ever!!! A serious MUST see if you're downtown SF. La Boulange.

Once we got to the stadium we walked around for a while and found funny signs to take pictures of:

And even funnier outfits!

Here's the stadium:

We had tried to do a tour of the Oakland stadium too...but they don't do tours. We drove by it (it wasn't much to look at) and also drove by the new football stadium location for the 49ers. The stadium is half-built so far and is more by San Jose than San Francisco.

Near AT&T Park is a fantastic restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese! My kind of place! (I'm a huge fan of grilled cheese sandwiches!!) Delish! It's another spot I'd put on the 'must see' list.

We were blown away by the people in San Francisco! I have never met nicer people just walking down the street...seriously. The people were amazing and helpful to us, the crazy tourists who must have looked completely lost and in need of help. :)

Although...we did have one scary situation. We left the grilled cheese yumminess and got on a cable car to try to see Candlestick Park where the 49ers currently play. It was SCARY! We got into a really bad area of town and there were some 'interesting' people on the ride with us. One man (probably in his 70s) stood next to me and pulled out a switch blade as he and some of his 'friends' talked about strange things. YIKES! We decided to forget about the stadium and head back toward downtown. Wise decision!

On our way to the big feature of the day (the Golden Gate) we drove on Lombard Street. When we started out at the top of the hill I asked Michael to take a picture. He was not excited about that and wanted to experience it without being behind a camera. So, no great pics. The experience will live in our memories...too bad you can't look into our brains to see it in picture form! 

Here's a real picture of Lombard Street via:

Then it was on to the Golden Gate. It's a pretty fantastic bridge...especially if you're married to someone who designs bridges for a living! You get a new perspective on it when you hear about the 'technical' parts of the massive structure. Michael said that if this bridge was built using today's technology, it wouldn't last nearly as long because they're not allowed to 'over-design' and make bridges as beefy as this one is. Interesting, huh?

The view from the bridge: You can see downtown on the right and Alcatraz is the little island near the middle.

As it was getting dark, we made one last stop at a park to see the 'Painted Ladies'. 

Then we were off to a hotel close to the airport. We had an early flight out to Hawaii the next morning! More details on that tomorrow...

The ATL

Last week I got to spend some time in one of my favorite cities...Atlanta! I hadn't been there in a while but it seemed so 'normal' to be driving from the airport up through the city...just like I did when I lived there. I felt like I was 22 again (ha!).

It was fun catching up with a great friend and getting to hang out with my aunt and my sister-in-law for a day before I had to start working (the reason for the trip was work-related). Why, oh why, didn't I take any pictures of these fun ladies?

I did, however, get pictures of the food we ate for lunch one day. :) Ruth (my aunt), Christen (my brand new sis-in-law), and I happened upon a super fun restaurant that we had to try! It was a pop-up restaurant...meaning that it wasn't there permanently. A few people just got together and set up a little restaurant concept to try out a menu and see how it went for a few months. SO fun!

Their decor inside was unfussy and cool. The walls had these rough wood planks on them full of names of people who had been there. WE DRANK. WE ATE. WE SOCIALIZED.

Trying to be a little adventurous, we all shared this uber-yummy dish of figs in a beer and bacon sauce, with spicy chiles and nuts. Delish!

We ate, and shopped...and then I got sick! :( I started feeling a migraine coming on and it quickly got worse. And I got sick. All over the rental car. Ewww!

But after a couple hours I was feeling back to normal and it was off to a different part of Georgia to get some work done. I spent a few days with many ultra-creative and fun people. We are working on a mobile app that's very exciting! I'll share more details about that in January.

We were working in a secluded little area...and the view from my room was this:

Ahhhh. We worked non-stop, but it was such a gorgeous place and was a much appreciated break from the 'dailiness' of home and kids.
Christen and I got to work together which was really fun! (especially since it was the most time I'd ever spent with the newest member of our family) Here's the view from her room:

Gorgeous!
Overall it was a phenomenal trip. Thanks Mom and Michael for watching the kids once again.

I'm really looking forward to more Georgia trips in the future. It is a perfect place for us to travel with the kids (in a year or two). We can stay with family, there's lots to do, and it's drive-able in a day (a looooong day...but still drive-able).
I would love to live in Atlanta again, but the traffic is SO bad that I think Michael would have a nervous breakdown...or become a shut-in and never leave the house. Either option is a bad one so I guess we'll stay put.

Beachy keen

We just returned from a little mini trip to sunny Florida! I had a conference there which was fantastic and then we spent a couple days seeing the sights. Normally this is the kind of trip we don't bring kids along on...like our recent Hawaii fun...but this time we decided it would be fun to have a mini tag-along. Elliott is 5 and will be starting school in the Fall so we thought it would be fun to let him have some uninterrupted Mom and Dad time and get to do something special.
The hope is that we'll be able to do this with each child when they're about to start school. So fingers crossed we can make that work.
Another big thanks to my mom for playing with the other 3 munchkins while we were away!

Here is our trip in pictures:

Elliott getting off the plane from his first flight. (that he remembers)

 Not a real shark...but it was a fun little area in our hotel near St Pete that was shark and pirate themed.

We took a paddle boat ride around our resort. The views were gorgeous with the ocean on one side, the hotel on the other and swans swimming next to us as we peddled.

Elliott seeing the ocean for the first time. I think he's a little addicted. This was St Pete Beach on the Gulf side.

On our way out of the St Pete/Tampa area we went over this cool bridge...which of course is something fun to see and learn about when you're married to a bridge designer. :)

The guys visited all of the Spring Training baseball stadiums in the area as well as the Major League one in Tampa. We all went to a Phillies/Orioles game and the guys got to see the Twins (of course)! Detroit was Elliott's favorite, though, because of these foam claws.

We spent a couple days in the Orlando area and the big decision was whether or not to go to DisneyWorld. We opted to spend extra time at the beach (on the Atlantic side) and take Elliott mini-golfing a couple times. He was more impressed with this Pirate-themed mini-golf course than he was with the idea of seeing Mickey. And hey, for the price of the three of us to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom...we could buy season passes for all 6 of us to our nearby amusement park and water park. Sorry, Mickey. Practicality won out on this one...but maybe we'll come visit you in a few years.

At Cocoa Beach Elliott built his first sand castle. And then chopped it down. He could have stayed in the ocean FOREVER. (Although mama couldn't because I got a crazy-terrible sunburn. Ouch! Elliott definitely got his dad's skin and this kid came back nice and brown.

We wanted to do something "we could only do in Florida." So we took a swamp tour on a fan-powered boat. It was incredible...and scary...to see how many alligators are all over the swampy areas and how close you can get to them. Here's one right next to our boat.

 And if you look closely in the water you'll see 3 alligators crossing right in front of us.

We got the closest to this one. It actually arched its back like a cat and started making weird sounds. We were definitely within striking distance and decided to move the boat before making it jump at us. Eeeeek.

Then we visited one more stadium. I sat in the car and watched some of the Nationals players leave after their game while the boys went in to see the field and found these fun statues.

Ready to go back home. Elliott loved the plane ride...especially the safety card. For some reason he was fascinated by the pictures!

 What did kids do on long plane rides before iPads? :)

Overall we had a great time...although we missed a few days of my favorite weather at home. I'll take a 70-75 degree day over 80 degrees every time! If only we had the ocean...