¡Global Nada!

Since we were familyless for Christmas we decided to go rock climbing. We used our new rope and gear from my mom (thanks mom). Here we are opening our presents.

Ethan apparently thought the bag was a bed for him.

We headed up to the North Shore area of Mokuleia. There is a sport climbing area up there that is bolted and perfect for top roping which is what we like to do. It was super fun and we basically had the whole place to ourselves. Our friends Greg and Stephanie met us up there and we had a fun Christmas climbing on rocks and wearing ourselves out. I was exhausted by the time we got home. Thank goodness Greg took some photos because I pretty much forgot.

For New Year's Eve we decided to go climbing again but this time go camping afterward. Our friend Kepa, who lives on the north shore near the climbing spot, lead the way to a very remote area to camp. It required a lot of hiking, scrambling up rocks, and carrying heavy backpacks for about 2 hours to get there. It was well worth it. We cooked out, played games, and Quinn and I were asleep before midnight! We also got to check out some Albatross nests. If you haven't seen one, it is like a giant seagull. Kind of creepy to see them around dusk in their nests and snapping their beaks at you. Yikes. The way down was not quiet as treacherous but it was a quad workout. I spent the rest of Sunday relaxing!

The camping spot

Kepa, trying to sleep in.

Relaxing in the hammock

the new year's crew (minus Zach because he had to head back early)

Hiking down

We came straight down the mountain in the gully

We haven't been camping since we moved to Hawaii and this was an excellent start and a cool way to start the New Year.

We obviously haven't been doing enough camping and hiking since moving here. We will be trying to fit that into the schedule for 2012.

First birthdays are a big deal in Hawaii and people go all out. Just about every Saturday you will see signs posted on light posts directing guests to a beach or park or community center where a baby luau will be held. These are large affairs frequently with upwards of 300 people. Quinn and I have thought many a times of crashing one just to see what they are about but my friend (and coworker) Jamie saved me from having to do this. Her son, Connor, turned one this year and Quinn and I were lucky enough to be invited. In her words, "it is a small one." There were about 80 people at this party! It was at a restaurant named "Sam Choy." It is an asian fusion Hawaii type place. There was food, cake, and best of all Balloon Twisters. I think I had the best balloon hat of all. Here are the pics.

Birthday boy Connor and his parents, Jamie and Ryan

Quinn got a bike.

Birthday boy's dad (Ryan), documenting the event and Quinn documenting the documenting.

The whole party was robot themed and Jamie made all of the favors and decorations which included a bot pop. This is a cake pop that tastes amazing. We got to taste test a few at work. Quinn is obsessed.

It was a fun party and we got to eat a lot of food. Happy Birthday Connor. What will the second birthday party be like?

At work we have to share computers and sometimes there isn't a computer for everyone. If someone doesn't have a computer, then I take a picture of them. Here are the girls from work. We all have a really great time together. It is so fun to have awesome coworkers!

I cannot remember if I posted a picture of my new bike that I got a few months ago....but here I am taking a ride on it.

This sequence of pictures cracks me up. Here is some sushi that Quinn made for me.....and then there is a picture of Ethan looking at said sushi.

The inside of the sushi roll has Poke. In case you are wondering, Poke is a local raw fish delight. It is usually raw tuna but also octopus or other fish. They season it with onion, sesame oil and other spices and eat it with rice. It is really good. I put it in sushi rolls and bring it to parties as a pupu (local word for appetizer). People here are amazed at my sushi making skills. Little do the know I am just using their local ingredients.

Also, here are a couple of shots of our new house. It is open and airy. It is 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. We love the area and it is working out great! Yay....come and visit us! The weather here is great and there are TONS of activities.

Speaking of visitors.....now onto the title of the blog post. Mitzie and Polly came to visit us. They coincided this trip with Quinn's 30th birthday and the Honolulu marathon. This was Polly's 10th Marathon! She is AMAZING! Unfortunately, we had to work during most of their stay here so I don't have many pictures of their adventure, but they set off everyday and scouted around the island. Despite some rain, we all had a great time together.

Everyone must have a lei upon arrival!

Out to dinner at a Japanese udon place. While I have had all of this food before, it is funny to go to a Japanese place and have all of the information in English. I finally know exactly what I was eating for the past couple of years.

Checking out the fancy hotel lobbies in Downtown Waikiki. Thanks Bill for playing tour guide from afar. Your suggestions were great.

We had a beach BBQ for Quinn's birthday. It's days like this that make Hawaii seem like life is a vacation.

Quinn made out like a bandit for his birthday. He is now going to be a brewmaster! He got a sweet beer brewing kit with a nice new pot. Can't wait to taste the first batch.....well maybe I will wait for the second batch. We'll see if he is a natural. Thanks Mitzie and Polly.

Quinn also got a new outfit for riding his bike. Thanks mom.

Sadly, Quinn's bike was stolen from a bike rack about 2 weeks ago. Not going to dwell on it in this blog. It is a bummer.

Here is Polly kicking butt at the marathon.

Thank you for coming to visit us. Wish we could have had more time off of work. Stupid jobs. Jk....we love our new jobs.

And thank you for the edible arrangement....it was delicious.

Also, our blog updating will now be mobile! Thanks to my dad we can update from the road with our new iPad. Now to plan a trip! Not sure where we will go yet. Suggestions?

I got a little behind on this blog so now I have a lot of catching up to do. So here we go....

Thanks to Groupon.com we rented a motorcycle and drove around the island. I haven't been on a motorcycle in quite some time so this was a pretty fun adventure. We headed over to the Ewa (west) side the island to take the road until it ended. Oahu does not have a circle island road. There is a state park named Kaena point that blocks making it all the way around. We have now seen that park from both sides. A 4 wheel drive dirt road goes through part of the park and the rest can be cycled on with a mountain bike but we have done neither of those activities so far.

We went by an area named Koolina. It is basically a man made resort/timeshare area. I found it rather creepy because it seemed deserted. They put big rock piles in the ocean to create lagoons and there are huge golf courses. There is also a Disney resort out there called Aulani resort. That is the crowning jewel of the area and in typical Disney style, everything is perfectly modeled to create a picture perfect vacation. They even have a "grounds keeper" that is stationed in the driveway to wave to you and welcome you in. I didn't see him actually sweeping the whole time I watched. He just smiles and waves. It was kind of like being in the that Jim Carey movie "The Truman Show." Here is a pic of the lobby and the breezeway through the lobby that goes out to the water park area and beach. It was incredible. They handed me a cup of fruit flavored water on my way out. Maybe they will have a groupon one day so Quinn and I can stay there!

Here is the delicious dinner we had that night.

You may be wondering how my garden is doing. Well, so far I have only had luck with lettuce, tomatoes, parsley, and basil. The birds ate all of my strawberries and my squash plant is on the verge of death. Everything I planted from a seed was a no go. Not sure if the birds at the seeds or if they just didn't come up. Here are some updated pics

Quinn and I hosted Thanksgiving this year. Anyone who was a Hawaii orphan was welcome to attend. I think we had about 16 guests. I moved the furniture in the living room and ran that table right through the living room. We all made it on one long table.

Before

During

Tada!

I set up a little seating area in the dining room around the Sangria with a just a few pillows on the floor to sit on. Much to my surprise, everyone decided to cram into that area, sit on the floor, and hang around until dinner. Better than everyone cramming into the kitchen! Also, the Sangria was made from all of the fruit from our yard. We had oranges, lemons, and grapefruit. I did buy some apples from the store to add in. It was really fun to just pick all the stuff you need for your party. I am going to market my sangria as "local organic Manoa Sangria." Now I can charge about 5x as much for it! Yes!!!

One more thing about Thanksgiving. Everyone loved the cornbread casserole. Thanks Andrea for the recipe (tell your mama thanks too)!

The turkey!

The Turkeys!

Relaxing Hawaii style after Thanksgiving.

We have had quite a few couchsurfers recently. We had one couple from Canada that were adventure tour guides. They were really fun and we wished they lived here in Hawaii so we could hang out more. This is our second group from Montreal. People from Montreal really love it there and make it sound pretty enticing. We might have to go for a visit. Plus now we have a couple of places to stay. Here we are "tailgating" at our favorite restaurant.

Not sure if I have talked about this restaurant before but it is called Sweet Home Cafe and it is Taiwanese Hot Pot. We love it and so do a lot of other people so the wait is usually at least 1 hour. This restaurant is BYOB. So we BYOB and BYOC (Bring your own chairs) and we hang out in the parking lot enjoying our beverages until it is time for us to go in. The owner gets a real kick out of this and she always gives us special treatment. It is the kind of place where you really do feel at home. All the waiters are friendly and the food is amazing. Just like mama would make....well, if you are Taiwanese. I couldn't imagine my mom making hot pot. Here is a picture of our couchsurfers enjoying the complementary dessert.

We had another couchsurfer from Germany/Australia. We took him to a local secret place called Ward's Rafters. Okay, it isn't totally secret but it is kept a little hush hush. Basically, this 92 year old woman turned her attic into a music venue. Every weekend she hosts local artists (mostly jazz and blues) in her attic and they play for 15-100 of her "friends." You become her friend by signing up for her email list and then every week you get an email of who is playing. You can bring your own food and drinks and enjoy live music in an extremely intimate setting! It is incredible. We saw a group called the Intire Project. They were really awesome. You can google/youtube/spotify them and listen to their music. We loved them. The craziest part was, the police were called and we all got hassled on our way out but it was fine. No issues, especially since we had a designated driver (me). Pic of the "venue." We will be going back soon.

That's all for now folks. Hope all is well. Happy New Year!

Since I last wrote, we moved from the countryside to Honolulu! Yay. We are so happy to be closer to work. Here is my new method of commuting. I am decked out for rain in this picture because it rains quite a bit in the valley that we live in but it is usually sunny by the time I get to work. It is about a 2.5 mile bike ride into work. I love it.

We are still getting settled into our new house so I don't have pictures yet, but we still have a yard for Ethan and extra rooms for guests. Our yard has a grapefruit, orange, lemon, and avocado tree. We are lucky. It is beautiful. I started a small garden and planted eggplant, strawberries, kabocha squash, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, basil, and oregano. We will see if they grow. I hope so. I will take some pictures if we actually get any fruits or vegetables.

During the week of our move, our friend Wade from Japan came to visit and to attend a work conference. We all had such a great time, that I forgot to take pictures so there are only a few. Wade taking a nap after his long flight. Ethan taking a nap after Wade's long flight.

For Halloween we all formed a costume think tank. Luckily our crafty friend Dominic was over to help us with the creative portion.

Here he is assisting in the research and development.

Quinn and I were both bats.

The next day we all went surfing! This was a first for all of us. I got up on 4 waves. On one occasion, Quinn, Jamie, Dominic, and I all caught one wave and rode it in together. That was really cool!

Quinn taking a picture of Wade surfing with Diamond Head in the background.

We also went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It was very beautiful and I was lucky enough to swim with a turtle. Quinn was super jealous because he loves turtles.

There were so many cool fish, I felt like I was in the Finding Nemo tank.

We met a new friend, Mike, and he is into rock climbing. Now we started ROCK CLIMBING again! He is teaching us all the safety information and technical know how to climb outdoors on our own. It is so great. I missed it so much while we were in Japan. It is just such a fun way to spend a day. Thank you Mike!!! This is the scenic look out that you start the hike at to get to the climbing site.

Ethan contemplating the view.

Quinn was super into taking pictures that day. He took a portrait of almost everyone.

On rock...Rock on!

Cool shot from above....look closely to see Zach and Mike.

Relaxing by the car at the end of the long day.

Last weekend we had a beach BBQ at the north shore. We were supposed to be surfing but it was too rough for us newbies....there is always next weekend. Another friend from Japan, Travis, was here to visit his buddy. We ended up having a friend in common from Hawaii and met up on the north shore! It is an amazingly small world sometimes. Travis is the one in the middle.

Here are some older pics that I forgot to post. This is a beach that is on the marine corps base near our old house.

I am "relaxing."

Now I am relaxing in an upright position

This is a scenic look out from a hike that Quinn and I did. We thought Ethan almost died on this hike because he jumped over the guardrail and thank goodness, there was a small ledge on the other side that he landed on. I couldn't believe that he leaped over the side because he has never done anything like that before. Can you see the small ledge that he landed on? It is on the left hand side of the picture.

Enjoying one last beverage on the old lanai. You have to say lanai here if you mean patio or porch. Just trying to be local

Last month we went to visit our friends Kyle and Julie and baby Connor in San Francisco. I am just now getting around to this blog so sorry for the delay. I have not been in much of a blogging mood recently. We had a really great time touring northern California and eating delicious food. I wish we were still just across the lawn from Kyle and Julie. Now we are across the pacific ocean.

Beautiful view on our flight in.

We started out the trip straight away with early morning adventures. Julie and Connor were ready in record time and we got out of the door so early in the morning that there was still mist and clouds over the mountains.

Here are some very touristy San Francisco photos

We had a quick snack at In and Out Burger (we don't have that in Hawaii). Here is what Connor thought of that.

Alcatraz in the mist

Touristy Seals

Hanging around the docks

We ate at Boudin Bakery which seems to churn out bread bowls at a rate of 3 per second. Here the bakers got creative...probably sick of making bowls

Kyle came and met up with us later in the day and we checked out the other iconic sites such as Lombard street.

Tourists taking pictures of tourists

I love this gate...it is really unique

This row of houses is called the painted ladies

Another cool house

Then we went to the botanical gardens. It was really beautiful and they had a special exhibit on killer plants. It was a very cool thematic exhibit. Kind of felt like you were in a witch's garden.

That night, the Diamondbacks were playing the Giants! Lucky us to see an AZ team. Kyle and I had some good old rivalry going....just like the old days

Here I am being silly on the walk home

That was quiet a big first day in San Fran. Kyle and Julie really know how to show around guests....and Connor was quite the trooper. He has traveling in his blood.

The next day we went touring and wine tasting in Sonoma Valley. LOVE IT. Wish we lived closer.

Okay, we drank beer too.

This was very strange. These people came up with the concept of a savory waffle cone with pulled pork or curry inside. Didn't try one because we were stuffed but the idea is very interesting and a little disturbing.

The next morning we had a mini Yokota reunion. We met up with Heidi and Felix for breakfast as they were also in California for a bit. Heidi and Felix now live in Tucson and are expecting their first child in a few months. It was so great to be all together again.

Afterward, we went to the Petaluma. I think that this town should win small town of the century award. It is soooooo cool. I love the way they have revitalized the area and made it such a quaint, hipster, funky, foodie, fun kind of place. It would be awesome to have a little cottage house here as an escape!

Afterward, we checked out Napa Valley. It was more grandiose than it's neighbor Sonoma valley.

Kyle grilled up an delicious dinner and wowed us with his culinary skills.

Then he unwowed us with his engineering skills. This is a lampshade he "created" for his lantern.

Love you Julie, Kyle, Connor, and Zeke. Thanks for an awesome trip. Cheers.

One last snuggle with Zeke.