One week in paradise: Oahu and Big Island 2017

Tuesday

When I arrived in Honolulu to meet my mom, I landed an hour late because they had to fix the cargo area’s vent system after we had boarded. Unfortunately, her flight had arrived EARLY so she was sitting around at the car rental office for over two hours. Yikes! Our first stop was the Honolulu Cookie company near the airport. We bought our coworker gifts right away, so we wouldn’t have a deal with it later (great decision). Next, we visited Lin’s Hawaiian Market near Ala Moana. The snack selection was ridiculous! Karen recommended their furikake mix, so I bought three bags!! I also got some lilikoi flower, garlic chip, and spicy olive snacks. All very interesting. We had some time to kill, so I ordered melon snow. We shopped at Ward Center before heading to Aunty’s house for a wonderful, welcoming, Hawaiian dinner. She served lau lau, poke, poi, kalbi, and sweet bread with lilikoi butter. I was shocked at how well poi tastes when paired with kalbi. I was stuffed!

Wednesday

We ate breakfast at home, and had a nice chat with Aunty and Uncle. I had a local granola for breakfast—something healthy! We picked grandma up at home and ran errands with her. At the grocery store, we found li hing pineapple. It was REALLY delicious. For lunch, we ate at Fresh Catch. We shared three types of poke, crab stuffed ahi roll, and garlic chicken. The best poke of the three was a wasabi flavor. I liked it so much that I think it’s one of my favorite pokes!

After dropping grandma off, we shopped at Windward Mall. My mom checked out the farmer’s market and bought me some fresh papaya!!! I bought a few tank tops from Cookies, Know1, and Local Motion. Love those stores! We headed back to Kailua, where Cindee had arrived with her family for dinner. Aunty served hibachi steak, spareribs, and veggies. For dessert, we had haupia cake. So much good food.

Thursday

We ate breakfast at home again, which was the fresh papaya from the farmer’s market and some apple banana! We went to visit grandma, before heading to Ward Center for more shopping. I bought a cute one-piece bathing suit for my water adventures over the weekend. I was so fat, I couldn’t fit into any of the bikinis that I had at home. L My mom wanted to go to Barnes & Noble, so we stopped by Ala Moana and ended up browsing. For lunch, I ate Poke & Box. Their two-poke lunch is such a deal! And they have tempura ball toppings, which I had never seen before. I wish all poke places offered that topping.

We went back to grandma’s house for dinner because she had prepared a wonderful roast stew. Uncle Douglas brought Sicilian pizza and cannoli, and Aunty Edith brought more poke from Fresh Catch. Grandma showed us an old photo album, which I had never seen. There were a lot of great photos of my mom and everyone else! It was truly a delight to spend so much time with grandma this trip, and really sit down and chat with her about the past. I can see that she gets tired faster now because her attention fades after a few hours. It makes me appreciative that we could make the trip, and I can’t wait to visit again soon.

Friday

I flew to Kona bright and early! Yep, this trip was from Kailua to Kailua-Kona. We had a delicious breakfast and Frenchman’s before picking up dessert at Holy Donuts. We ordered a dozen and they were all good, but the real gems were the crème brulee donuts! Andrey had to work, so we had lunch in Waimea at Luna. Best zucchini pizza I’ve ever had. The crust was buttery and light. I LOVED IT! Andy and I ventured down the coast to Hilo. We stopped at Waipio Lookout and Laupāhoehoe Point to check out the scenery and take photos. We found a market on the way to Akaka Falls, where we ate the most delicious cinnamon bun ever. It was made with Hawaiian sweet bread! At Akaka Falls, we decided to jog about halfway through the hike. The drop was really impressive, and there were so many different types of gorgeous trees!!

After the long day of sightseeing, we had dinner in Hilo at Hawaiian Style Café. The wait was over an hour, but it was worth every minute. We shared a surf and turf dish, poke nachos, and tripe stew. There was SO MUCH food that we were stuffed! The mauna kea coffee was really yummy. After dinner, we drove through torrential rain down dark and deserted freeway to get back to Waimea. We still had time to kill when we go to Waimea, so we wandered around the KTA store. I loved walking through each aisle, especially at a new store! There was McDonald’s nearby, so we tried the guava pie. After Andy ordered it, he went to the bathroom and I opened it to take a bite. After my first (delicious) bite, the pie dropped back into the pie box and came out through the bottom. MY PIE WAS ON THE FLOOR!!!! I was laughing so hard that I almost peed in my pants. I told Andy what happened on my way into the bathroom, and by the time I came back out he had already bought a second one. HAHA. He didn’t like it, so I got to eat the rest. We finally picked Andrey up and headed home. Exhausting day!

Saturday

We began our day looking for food! After a few failed attempts and a trip to the chocolate store (where we had delicious chocolate turtle samples), we ate melona bars and butter mochi for breakfast in the car. We also stopped at Matsuyamas and picked up poke-stuffed inari. Legit hiking food! We drove to Rainbow Falls to check out the gorgeous views, and then we made our way to another scenic fall. I didn’t feel comfortable taking the local trail, but the guys convinced me to do it. The path was muddy and steep, the rocks were slippery, and by the time I got to the stream crossing I just decided that I wasn’t going to go any further. Andy and Andrey got to enjoy the rest of the waterfall hike while I sat in the stream. In retrospect, that probably wasn’t a great place to park my butt. Especially because that’s probably not a great place to be during a flash flood.  

We drove on to Hilo and picked up strawberry mochi from Two Ladies Kitchen. The strawberry mochi was even better than I expected, and I had some really high expectations due to the number of people who highly recommended it. For dinner, we ate at Café Pesto. The ginger calamari was very good, and the steak, fish, scallops, shrimp, and risotto were all delicious. After some wine, we stopped by Ross to pick up a blanket. Andy and Andrey ended up buying these matching shark shirts, but they didn’t have any in my size. DISAPPOINTING!

When we got to the Volcanoes National Park, we rented bicycles and poncho’ed up. Andrey shared a tandem with me, but the gears on the tandem bike didn’t work. So we had to pedal a whoooole lot. The ride up was not so bad, even though it was a bit windy. When we got to the top, we could see this beautiful, billowing blob of lava red. The shape was ever-changing and morphing as the lava was hitting the water. It was beautiful and almost emotional. Walking on the lava was also an interesting experience. To know that you’re walking on something that was LAVA is perplexing and makes you really think about how cool nature is. The ride back down actually had more uphill areas, and the rain really started pouring sideways. The wind picked up and it was so loud that I felt disoriented. I pedaled as hard as I could, and I was honestly miserable toward the end. I started thinking about Forrest, which I guess is my happy place? By the time we got to the bottom, I was totally beat. That was one of the most physically challenging things that I’ve experience in my adult life. We grabbed some food at Ken’s House of Pancakes, and the saimin made me feel a bit refreshed. We decided to head home and call it a night.

Sunday

We started the day with breakfast from Peaberry & Galette. The croissant sandwich was so freaking delicious. We drove to the Captain Cook area and rented our kayaks and snorkeling equipment. I was nervous to go out on the water because I can’t swim, I’ve never kayaked before, and I’ve never been out on open water without a boat before. The waves were crashing against the rocks, and it was really intimidating. Luckily, Andrey was in my kayak and he is basically a water angel. Once we got started, I realized that I LOVE the rowing part. I insisted on rowing all of the way, even when we didn’t need to row. When we turned the kayaks and started moving sideways with the waves, I felt seasick. I didn’t really have any options so we kept going to the snorkeling area by the Captain Cook monument. We stopped because we saw a group of dolphins! They were playing, spinning, and splashing around us. I got into the water to float with them, and we heard the high-pitched noises of the dolphins communicating. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I’ve never felt as close to nature as I did right then. Andrey really got close to them and started singing in the water. Dolphins are so cool! Andy and I both did not snorkel. I’m glad we went anyway because being with wild dolphins in sea water is probably not something I’ll get to experience again. For post-kayak food, we ate Da Poke Shack and it was glorious. By sunset, we were heading up to Mauna Kea observatory. Watching the sunset from mid-mountain was amazing and colorful. The higher we climbed, the colder it got. I was happy to buy a sweatshirt and t-shirt at the observatory store just to keep warm! The Asia tourists with their phone lights and cameras were annoyingly disruptive when we were trying to stargaze. If I could volunteer anywhere in Hawaii, I would work there to scold the tourists. Anyway, there were so many stars that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. The night was crystal clear and we even saw Venus in one of the fancy telescopes. After the stargazing tour, we drove back to Kona and ate tacos at Oceans. I had a li hing margarita, which was my first alcoholic beverage of the trip. That must be a record!

Monday

Andy made eggs for breakfast, and we ate them with taro sweet bread. We headed to the pier, where we boarded our Big Island Duck Adventures tour! I love duck tours because they’re fun, comfortable, exciting, and you learn so much. This tour was sooo windy that I could barely keep my eyes open at time. Even with sunglasses on! We played trivia and our team, the geminis, certainly did not come close to winning. HAHA. The tour was fun anyway, and my favorite part was seeing the partially restored pond wall. The guides told us about how there was only one person who still had the skill of placing stones. I think that is something I would enjoy, like stuffing envelopes and grouting bathroom tile. After the tour, we headed to Waikoloa Beach to look for sea turtles. We eventually saw one!!! He was playing in the water by the shore. We went shopped the King and Queen shops, but Andrey was the only one who bought something. HAHA. Well, I did buy a melon icee. After checking out the beaches nearby, we had dinner at Holukoa Café. The dinner was bittersweet, because I knew I would be leaving shortly after. I had a spectacular time on the Big Island because Andrey was a fantastic host and Andy was obviously the best travel buddy. I usually feel stressed, rushed, and overwhelmed on vacations with big groups. Our trio was the perfect arrangement to enjoy everything at our own pace. This is THE MOST wholesome and active friends vacation I’ve ever taken. I can’t believe we experienced so much in so little time. I love how much they pushed me outside of my comfort zone. We made so many memories! I lava it. J

The T-Wick Wedding

The long-awaited and much-anticipated wedding of C+T finally arrived! And if there ever was a whirlwind of a wedding... THIS WAS IT!

The Holly Farm in Carmel was ab-so-lute-ly gorgeous. I was thinking it would be a rustic, drought-stricken farm (LOL), but it was actually much more like a lush jungle. Very Jurassic Park-esque.

The Seattle people arrived late to the celebrations, and missed the Thursday BBQ (as well as the bubble soccer early Friday). WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. We flew into SJC on Friday at noon, happened to lunch at Chez Sovan becuase of a last minute rec from Alan. HOLY moly, the amok (fish wrapped in leaves) was so tasty! We actually showed up after they had closed for the day, which was my bad because I didn't check the hours, but the owner was SO nice he seated and served us anyway. We ended up getting to chat with him and he was super friendly with tons of jokes. Such a treat.

The drive to Monterey wasn't bad, but the traffic after we had settled in to our hotel was. So we stayed at our hotels until dinner, and met up to dine Nan for her belated. The food at Jeninni Kitchen & Wine Bar was hit or miss. I did love the eggplant fries, a whole lot. I didn't love the steak. And their customized cocktails made with wine (but tastes like classic liquor mixes) were really good. The Mule. MHM! After dinner, we headed to the farm where I was so happy to see everyone!

I spent more time catching up with people than getting trashed -- thank goodness I stayed sober enough to drive back to the hotel! Running around on the farm, at night, in the darkness, and getting lost between sections, was pretty exciting. The farm is a crazy cool wedding venue. And EVERYONE was there! The first night was my favorite night, even though it was probably the shortest night.

On Saturday morning, Matt was hungober, and I got up late... as usual. We got dressed and headed into town to get some coffee. I wanted a quick manicure, but I was out of luck - no last min walk-ins! When we got to the farm, we had some beers and hung out while Nan curled my hair. We eventually got seated for the ceremony, where C+T married under a gigantic mystical tree. It was so Fern Gully! Gary was a great officiator, and T looked so freaking happy. I cried, of course -- I couldn't not.

We gathered for photos with groups, with friends, and even had an aeriel drone shot. Go technology!

Cocktail hour was AMAZING with a wide variety of hors deourves. Lots more photos and chatting, and so much merrymaking.

At dinner, our table was the last to be called. And by the time we were called, I wasn't even hungry anymore. I ate some mac 'n cheese and a few roasted veggies. but that was about it.

And then after dinner and the heartfelt speeches, came the dancing!

And after the dancing, and before more dancing, came the DESSERT!!!! Ice cream and waffles and topping and OMG. That was my favorite food of the wedding.. HAHAHA. Saturday was a long day, but it was so much fun. A gazillion awesome pictures were taken and happy moments were made. C+T looked ecstatic. And relieved actually, as the night wound down.

On Sunday, we checked out of our hotel and went to Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Santa Cruz. Freaking Charles asked Nan to get Thai food, which took like 40 mins (instead of just agreeing with sandwiches which take ten minutes tops LOL). The beer that I sampled from people, was ok. I didn't drink because of the long drive ahead. I didn't want to stop every 30 minutes.

When we got back to the city, we ended up just getting ready at Nan's because we had our luggage anyway. Nan did mah hair again! Off to SSF we went, to Grand Palace which was not grand at all. Not one bit. The dishes were so dirty. The employees weren't nice. BUT THE LION DANCERS WERE SO COOL!! And they played the 'who is more _____' game where the couple sat back to back, which is always interesting. They did really well, which isn't surprising! I also got to see Andy's sister's baby. Such a cutie. And Andy's mom, who I haven't seen in at least four years! And then, after the dinners many courses, there were sesame balls for dessert. YES!!!!!! Way better than red bean soup!

And the dancing. Oh the dancing. People got a little wild, Chad's dad was tearing up the dance floor. So were many others. It was exciting! I wish more people had stayed to dance, but I suppose it was a Sunday night.

People cleared out early, and we went to In 'n Out to get some more food. It felt like old times!! I used to go to In 'n Our and Carl's JR. in Daly City all the time... when I had better metabolism. HAHA. We went back to Nan's place and hung out for a while longer.

Monday flew by so quickly. Matt and I got ready, picked up lunch at Cafe Darwin (per Nan's rec, and what a great rec), and then picked up my mom from work. She and I ate at home while Matt went shopping with Charles and Alom. I was worried about  my mom, that she's getting older and her health is deterioriating; however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she's doing just fine. We gossiped about my friends and her current language student. It was not as long of a lunch as I wanted, but she had to go back to work for a meeting. It was so nice though!

When we were taking hte AirTrain to the terminal at SFO, after dropping off the rental car, the train door closed on me. I was like in the door, and it closed. DO THEY NOT HAVE SENSORS. And Charles laughed at me. BOO!!!!!! If he had walked FASTER then I wouldn't been in the door on time. Luckily I jumped into the next door that was just closing. So stressful.

What a great trip, and to see everyone together and have a nice long weekend with them... I couldn't ask for me. I thought Kay was the happiest bride I've ever seen, but I think T rivaled her.

See? 

SF + Seattle + NY + Vancouver = MDW

Last weekend, for Memorial Day Weekend I was lucky enough to see my friends from SF! For all of the May babies, we had a huge group head up to Vancouver to party. The i5 bridge in Mount Vernon collapsed on Thursday night, but luckily everyone else seemed to have canceled their travel plans. We actually got to/from Vancouver from Seattle faster than we would on any normal weekend!

We went to Celebrities nightclub for Laidback Luke on Friday night. On Saturday, the Seattle people went to Ramen Santouka and Bubble World. We also walked around a lot after lunch to explore! After heading back to the hotel to get sleepy Charles, we decided to venture out and find a liquor store. We ended up walking really far and visiting two liquor stores where we discovered something amazing called Spicebox! Like Fireball.. but better. With 3 bottles of Canadian whiskey, we headed back to our hotel to get wasted. Charles and I went to get dinner before we headed with Sean to Empire (which used to be Fabric, I totally recognized it!). I got to party with all of my beautiful SF friends in a club that was essentially ours! Love love love my Al Pals. The drink of the weekend was Red Dragon, something else and 151 mixed shots. I also got to see Zach, who I haven't seen since I worked in San Mateo.



Sunday we walked around a bit more downtown and then headed back to Seattle. The traveling and partying was definitely exhausting, but we made it out to see Starkillers at Foundation Sunday night. I'm really glad we went, because I seriously had a blast. I'm so lucky to have friends in two cities, and I love that they love each other. THE BEST!

Memorial Day Weekend - Portlandia & More

While I appreciate that Memorial Day is in honor of the veterans who have served and/or died for our country, the only way I know how to spend it is 1) shopping and 2) taking advantage of having Monday off.
And this year, I did great on both counts!
Friday night was kind of a blur... attempted to go to the Mariner's game but arrived to the stadium so late that we decided to enjoy the game at Sluggers instead.
Saturday I done got my hair did, and then I found myself an adventure! I took the wrong turn after heading home from my hair appointment, and ended up at Juanita Beach Park! I saw the sign and pulled into the parking lot - got a nice serving of Vitamin D while I walked along the dock and stared out at the water. Later at night, Matt and I went to Eric's house where people were watching movies and eating. We chowed down on the leftover bbq and watched The Devil's Double. Some people were very disturbed by the movie, but I was absolutely intrigued. Very, very interesting.
Sunday morning, Matt and I picked up Charles in Long View. The weather was amazing, and the drive down to Portland actually seemed a lot quicker than it usually does. Along the way, Charles informed us that he booked a hotel room and that we were staying night. FANTASTIC! Luckily, Matt and I didn't have work the next day, so we didn't mind too much. Once we checked-in at The Nines, we got some shopping done at Pioneer Square. After a snack at Buffalo Wild Wings, we went to Sinju Sushi and stuffed ourselves with delicious Japanese food! We got a huge boat platter and weren't even able to finish everything - such a shame that we couldn't take leftovers.
After dinner, we cabbed over to the the Aladdin theatre to catch our burlesque show. Now, I've never been to a burlesque show, but I think this was a GREAT one to experience. Dita Von Teese was extraordinary. Her body is a temple and her charisma as a performer is sure to demand a religious following. Although, there was one act in particular that bothered me - there was a midget burlesque act, and even though I fully respect little people I still did not feel comfortable watching her seduce the audience. It was like watching a child take her top off. Anyway, one of my favorite moments of the show was when they picked three members of the audience for a dance-off. Leave it Portland to offer up one gay film student, one aspiring female burlesque dancer, and one butch dike painter. Ironically, the least talented dancer of the three was the aspiring dancer. The gay film student blew our minds, and then the butch dike showed us her cleavage and blew everyone out of the water. The show was fabulous and highly enjoyable, so glad we went!
By the time we got back to the hotel we were beat, and decided to stay in. We watched Safe House, which was a great movie, and Ryan Reynolds was hot as always. The next morning, we were all relieved that we decided against going out because otherwise we would have been miserable.
Monday morning felt like borrowed time. We shopped at Lloyd Center, then had lunch at Mellow Mushroom. Great pizza! On the way back to Long View, we were talking about how relaxing the weekend was. It really was nice to get back from a trip and not feel like I need a vacation to recover. More shopping at the outlets in Washington before heading home!
I'm staring at the friendship bracelet that Matt and Charles gave me this weekend, and am so grateful for my awesome new friends.

Settling into Seattle

The drive up was rough, but I was expecting it to be. The first six hours were the worst, mostly because I was so excited I didn't really sleep the night before. The traffic in Portland was horrendous, and I will do everything in my power to NOT have to take that drive ever again. My mom wasn't bad, she didn't irritate me that much. It was kind of distracting when she kept telling me to "look" at things though, because I actually look when someone points. I am guilty of doing the same in Alex's car, LOL.

Aside from being endless, the route was very scenic and the weather was quite nice. I only got hit by a rock in the windshield once, and it hasn't spiderwebbed yet *fingers crossed* -- overall I'm glad to be here. I had dinner at Aunty's house as soon as we got to Seattle. It was nice to see Seattle family after what must have been ten years? The house looks a lot different from what I remember seeing as a child. Smaller, and prettier. Driving around Seattle with Klaus was weird, because I felt like I never left SF.

I got to Victor's after 10, unpacked, and showered. I charged my Kindle while I was getting ready for bed and got to fire that bad boy up. SO COOL! I went to sleep, but was awoken by Matt and JR, who wanted to say hello. Those two are so silly. I slept soundly that night(after they left me alone), and woke up refreshed.

Saturday morning I had an appointment to view Clocktower Apartments, which I didn't like too much. I'm sad that there aren't any vacancies for the complexes that I wanted to live in, but still looking around to gauge my options. I went to buy some stuff during the day, and read some Kindle. On Saturday evening, I went with Matt to Eric's goodbye party. I got to see Menie! And I met a bunch of people, also caught up with people that I had met before. It was Hawaiian themed food and fun times, YUM! Saturday night Victor came back from Cancun, and there was crabbery at the house. My first day in Seattle was a SCORCHER.

On Sunday, we went to Walmart to get a fan because the house is SO HOT!! We had lunch at 5 guys burgers and fries and it was deeeelicoius. The portions there are CRAZY, but I like it! Came back to the house and watched Shark Week, until we went to an early dinner with Charles in Kirkland. I had some really good dungeness corn clam chowder!! This is why I LOVE Seattle! Sunday was an early night, because I had a big day to get ready for. And of course, I was restless and couldn't sleep. Story of my life!

Monday was my first day at the new job, it was pretty easy and straightforward. First days usually are though. I wouldn't say I LOVE it there, but it's not horrible. I have to admit though, I missed BMW and DA because the people I work with now aren't sassy enough. I know I won't get any hilarious, NSFW jokes, or shameful Youtube links anymore. Sigh. I guess we can't have it all. After work, I met with my Aunty, my Uncle and my mom for a bite to eat at Panera. We caught up and I said my goodbyes to my mom - I'll see her in a month though. After dinner, we had Tetris Battle and watched Limitless. LIMITLESS WAS SO GOOD! Way better than I was expecting. I need me some clear pills!

I really like Seattle so far, but I'm getting restless without having found an apartment yet. Matt is moving out too, so we're looking at 2bdrms and I think it'll be easier, as well as more affordable. Hoping to find something this weekend, otherwise I'll just take what I can get so I can finally unpack and stop living out of boxes! The weather is absolutely gorgeous here, and I haven't had any griefs yet. Hopefully things will stay this way <3.