I Love You, California!

Happy New Year from Hawai'i! We spent the evening cooking dinner at home: Wild caught Mahi Mahi, oven roasted potatoes, asparagus, and a pesto topping for the fish, and of course bubbly since we were celebrating! We had a nice evening at home listening to music and revisiting events from 2014. At about 11:30pm we walked up to a hill in our neighborhood. This park overlooks most of Honolulu, providing a nearly 360 degree view. It proved to be a very popular spot in our neighborhood on New Year's Eve. At midnight we watched fireworks displays from a couple places along the waterfront, and many private fireworks from people's homes. Some people even launched some from the park we were in! Fireworks have been a big part of New Year's celebrations in Hawai'i. A recent ban has made it difficult to get large fireworks, but it appeared as though many people had some left from previous years. That's someone's private fireworks display behind us! After th...

Merry Christmas! It's our first one in Hawai'i! We slept in this morning and I made taro pancakes with coconut syrup for breakfast. We opened a couple gifts, then we were off to the beach! We thought it would be a relatively quiet day at the beach; were we ever wrong. Apparently the thing to do in Hawai'i on Christmas is go to the beach - who would have though?! We went to our local beach and it was the busiest we had ever seen. Once we got our spot set up we went right in the ocean for snorkeling. This time we had the most picturesque sighting of a sea turtle yet! It was a beautifully patterned turtled, nestled right into a grouping of rock and coral. It was a very sunny day and the rays shined into the water, highlighting it perfectly. I obviously didn't get to take a picture, and can't find one that even comes close to what we saw. It was simply amazing. After our snorkel we sipped some mimosas and soaked up some sun. We had a lot of cooking to do for dinne...

On the Christmas Eve dinner menu was enchiladas and margaritas. I made my own green tomatillo sauce from scratch and it was delicious.  I can't wait to make it again! Cooking While the enchiladas baked I did a little cleaning up. Work around the house is never done! Thanks to my mom for this handy vacuum! We enjoyed our enchiladas accompanied by Will's famous guacamole and margaritas. We make a great team!

I can honestly say that if I thought we'd ever even be able to attend a college bowl game it certainly wouldn't be the Hawai'i Bowl! Now, I know that neither of the teams were all that interesting; Fresno vs. Rice? But, with free tickets in hand from our landlady and nothing much else to do on Christmas Eve, we thought we'd go check it out for a little while. When we got close to Aloha Stadium it was so quiet, and it appeared that the stadium was empty, that Will actually thought the game may have been postponed. But, no such thing. It was actually just that empty at the game. This bowl game was certainly lacking any kind of energy I ever expected to see out of a bowl game. But really, how many people are going to travel from the mainland to Hawai'i to see Fresno and Rice play? Not many. The crowd consisted primarily of some families sporting gear from either team (presumably alumni or parents of kids who go there at the moment), and a few other groups of people l...

Not bad, huh? This is not an uncommon sight for me to see at the beginning or end of the day around campus. I love it!

The girls have become full Hawaiian cats at this point. They love watching the birds and soaking up the sun. Here are their usual morning activities. Ava being teased by the birds outside. Rory taking a morning nap where the morning sun shines in.

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL! Yes, I know what you're thinking, isn't it always beautiful? Yes, it is, but it's been very windy, overcast, and a bit chilly. So today when there was little wind and a lot of sun, we had to get down to the beach. The water was a little chilly, but Will had fun swimming around for a while. Here he is as the sun is beginning to set.

Sunday was our one open day to get to see our friends in the area so we packed the day full of visits. Unfortunately we didn't get to see everyone we wished we could have, but we did get to see some. Our first stop was Joe, Paola, baby Hugo and Bomber! We got to see their new house, too. They cooked us a delicious brunch and we relaxed on their deck, enjoying the warm sunshine and crisp, cool air. Our next stop that afternoon was Alameda to see the boat that one of Will's co-workers recently purchased. While we waited for some other colleagues to get settled into their hotel before going to Alameda Will and I stopped by the Tribune Tavern for a drink and catch some sporting events. Then it was time to go have some refreshments on the boat! Here is the view from the boat in Alameda, looking toward Oakland. After seeing the boat we made our way to Rockridge to meet some of our friends for dinner. It was so wonderful to see our old neighborhood friends! When we go...

It's that time of year - for the Terviva holiday party! We were really excited to go back to Oakland to celebrate the great accomplishments by Will and the rest of the Tervivites over the past year. They have come a long way! Our flight wasn't until a little later in the morning so we got to hang out at home a little in the morning. This has been Ava's favorite activity over the last two months. She loves watching the birds out the side window. They rest on the wires and railing just outside the door. She gets teased by the birds and sometimes feels defeated. Then it was off to the airport for us. I started the trip with a guava juice mimosa - yum! We flew through Maui on our way to California so we stopped for a quick bite to eat at the airport restaurant and enjoyed a view of Haleakalā. We made it to Oakland around 7pm, an hour earlier than we were scheduled! We checked in to the Waterfront Hotel and enjoyed our balcony with a view of the Oakland Harb...

If you come visit us you can be sure that one of the activities we will be doing is hiking Diamond Head at sunrise. It is so spectacular to see the sun coming up over the ocean. One of Will's co-workers was in town over the weekend, so we took him up to see the view. For a little while it was so clear we could see Moloka'i across the ocean. This was far more beautiful in person, but you can see the full moon just over the ridge. Will on the very tippy top of Diamond Head! Then following a great hike, it was time for breakfast at Koko Head Cafe. This is one of my favorite ways to spend a morning!

Since all of our Christmas decorations are still back in storage on the mainland we decided not to do too much in the way of decorating this year. We did however get a beautiful wreath given to us by the owners of the nursery that Will works with on the North Shore. The lady, Susan, makes them all herself using native and local foliage.   My parents sent us a Christmas present to open on Christmas day, so it's on display on chest in our living room. It's pretty simple and it doesn't really feel like the Christmas season, but we're doing our best to be festive!

Today we went down to our neighborhood beach for a little Pau Hana. Then we decided to go check out the Sharaton Hotel's pool area and have a little snack at one of their oceanside restaurants. Cheers! Enjoying the sunshine

This was the first year Will and I have ever been away from family for Thanksgiving. I also had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so overall it just felt very different. However, we always make the best of what life gives us, so I worked to put together some tried and true recipes along with a few newbies to make a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. We started the day with breakfast, coffee, and the newspaper. I baked a pie and we talked on Facetime and Skype with our families. Mixed-berry pie! A little later in the day cooking began in full swing. Here's Will at the stove: Many hours later, we ate! After a big dinner we needed to get out and move a little. We went on a walk to a park near our house. It was a very quiet Thanksgiving this year. Hopefully next year we'll have some visitors to celebrate with!

Remember back when I was moonlighting as a businessman's wife? Well this time Will was acting as a farmer, hence moonlighting as a farmer's wife. One of the aspects Will loves about his job, and why I know it's the job for him, is that he gets to do part business development, part accountant, part researcher, and part farmer which entails digging in the ground, using a machete, and driving a big huge pick up truck. Kind of sounds like every little boy's dream, right? Well, Will's dream, too. So this weekend the North Shore Chamber of Commerce hosted a pau hana (happy hour) up in Waialoa on the Pioneer Sunflower Farm. Will and I were invited by a pepper and tomato grower who also uses the nursery Terviva uses, which is where Will met the guy, Jeff. During our time there we got to meet one of the state senators, the executive director of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, a community outreach representative for the wind farm on the North Shore, the owner of the ...

It's getting in to the winter months and in Hawai'i that means big waves, particularly on the North Shore. And with big waves come surf competitions and some of the world's best surfers. This week was the start of the Triple Crown surf competition and the final rounds were being held on Saturday. Surf competitions typically have a two week time frame in which they are held and it is determined day by day whether competition will occur depending on the surf conditions. We were really excited that they would be holding the finals on a Saturday so that we could get to the North Shore to see it live. We left after the semi-finals to go get dinner but we got to see some world class surfers in action and watched the rest of it at Luibueno's in Haleiwa. Best of all was that a local guy from Maui won the competition! Reef Hawaiian Pro at Sunset Beach There's a rainbow to the left if you look closely. Keiki surfing near the shore while the competition ...