I Love You, California!

Will had a busy day of meetings so I was mostly on my own for the day. I walked to Starbucks to get us some breakfast while Will had a phone call. We went to the gym before Will went on his way to meetings. I walked around Waikiki, did a little shopping, got lunch at a beachside cafe, and laid on the beach for the afternoon. Rough life, huh? : ) Superfruit Sangria. yummy! Beachin' I stopped for some iced coffee on the way back to the hotel. So much sun makes you sleepy! I showered up and Will took me out to Town, one of his new favorite restaurants in Kaimuki. He saw the owner/head chef speak at a conference he attended a while back, and loves his philosophy: local first, organic whenever possible, with Aloha always. Isn't that great?!

Today we took the beautiful weather and a day off to visit what is considered one of the best beaches in the world. Before heading to the beach we had an amazing breakfast at Moena Cafe in Hawaii Kai. Then we drove up the Windward Coast to Kailua, and found one of the small access points to Lanakai Beach. We didn't take our phones with us so we didn't get a picture, but here's one I found online that gives you a good idea. I can't wait to visit this beach again. We walked along the beach, snorkeled, and soaked up the sun. On our walk we saw a lady walking her dogs. There is a section of the beach where the water goes right up to the retaining wall so there's no sand. Her big dog swam, but she had two little pugs who rode on a boogie board she pulled behind her! It was the cutest and funniest thing I've seen in a long time! pic is from tripadvisor.com After a few hours at the beach we explored around Kailua, which wasn't much other than a couple strip...

Storms were expected on Saturday, and it ended up pouring like I haven't seen in a long time for a good part of the afternoon, so we took the day to drive around Honolulu to see the different neighborhoods. Getting ready to explore the city! To start our exploration, we stopped on the UH Manoa campus to check on the pongamia tree that's there. It's still doing well! I've said it before and I'll say it again, once a tree hugger, always a tree hugger! We drove around Manoa, Palolo, Hawaii Kai, and then back into the city to Kahala, Diamond Head, and Kaimuki. The Wisconsin Badgers were playing in the Elite Eight basketball game today so we went to Side Street Inn to have some beers and watch the game. We won! After the game we went back to the hotel to drop off the car and freshen up a bit. I will never get sick of the view from these hotel rooms! We had a lovely walk along the beach and ate dinner at Duke's Waikiki, followed by a delightful...

Will had to be in Hawaii for an extended period of time this time around, and it also happened to be my Spring Break from Girls Inc., so it was a great opportunity for me to join him again. Will had been in Hawaii for four days when I hopped on a plane on Friday and joined him in Honolulu. He picked me up from the airport in his sweet ride, a silver Ford Mustang convertible! He took me back to the Hawaii Prince Hotel, where he usually stays and I stayed at with him last year. I unpacked a little, then it was off to have a little lunch before heading to the beach. We ate lunch at Harbor Pub & Pizza down the street from the hotel. After lunch, we had a great couple of hours at the beach before we went home to clean up before dinner. Every Friday night, and now Tuesdays, too, the Hilton on Waikiki holds a fireworks show. Last time I was in Honolulu, I wasn't there on a Friday, so I wanted to take advantage of being there on Friday and see the show! Will planned us a very nice ro...

My favorite holiday is certainly St. Patrick's Day. Everybody is happy, wearing green, and drinking great beer. Will and I had so much fun in SF for St. Patrick's Day last year that we did a repeat of events this year. This year our friends were able to join us, too! Since St. Patrick's Day fell on a Monday, most of the city's events took place on the Saturday before. We started the day with Fish and Chips and Irish music at The Irish Bank. Then we walked over to O'Reily's in North Beach for their block party. Soakin' up the sun. After partying it up in the city we were ready to head back to Oakland. On Monday, St. Patrick's Day, we went to McNally's in Rockridge after work. There they had a party with bagpipers and a DJ in between. We had so much fun! Bagpipers came behind the bar to play!