I Love You, California!

There are many activities Will and I have been able to do during our visits in Hawai'i, hiking has not been one of them since it requires a good part of the day and gear that we didn't usually haul along with us. Now that we live here we are excited to get out on the many beautiful hiking trails that Hawai'i has to offer. To start things off, we chose a hiking trail only about ten minutes from our cottage on Mt. Tantalus, in the Makiki area of Honolulu. The trail was a couple of miles and took us about an hour and a half, including a stop for a picnic. We saw a taro field, small waterfall, stream, beautiful eucalyptus trees, and some peek-a-boo city views. At the very beginning of the trail, it was part of the arboretum, so the landscaping was pristine and featured a few plants native to Hawai'i. Here is the taro field. We love taro! Especially taro pancakes : ) If you come visit us I will make them for you! Taro Stream Trail map Crazy tree. I tho...

Yes, that's right, we got our girls to Hawai'i! I did a lot of paperwork complete with a notary public. The girls went through blood work, shots, goop, and examinations they would have rather gone without. We got them special airline reservations, though no "cat sized boarding passes" as Will hoped they may receive. When the day came, they were nervous; they're apartment was empty after all, and very unsure about what was going on. We loaded them into their airline approved carriers and whisked them off to the airport. We checked our bags and headed for security. We got a wide range of looks and comments from other travelers and TSA agents in response to the cats. We had to take them out of the carriers when we passed through security and proceeded to walk through the metal detector. A lovely TSA agent who told us about when she traveled to the US from Italy with a cat was kind to get us through quickly and made sure the carriers did as well. We got the girls, who...

When I got home from doing some errands today I noticed our street was filled with moving vans and tents. There had been "No Parking" signs posted yesterday along the street as well, so I knew something was going on. The landlady said she thought it was filming, maybe for "Five-O" as they say here. So I walked around a couple of blocks (since some parts of the block were blocked off) and sure enough, on my street, down one block from our house, they were using one of the houses for a scene in Hawai'i Five-O. I guess I'm going to have to watch it now so that I can see our neighborhood in the show!

Will has always been into the World Cup, and this year was no exception. We went down to Yard House on Waikiki Saturday and Sunday this weekend for the final matchups. Today was also our last day together for a little over a week. Will was to go back to Florida to oversee the planting there, and is then staying on the Mainland to be able to go to Nate's bachelor party over the weekend. We had a fun little morning before saying "See you soon."

I just can't believe we get to see this from our home! Again, the pictures don't do it justice so you'll just have to come see for yourself! View out of our living room window - Diamond Head View out of our living room window looking Southwest - Waikiki