I Love You, California!

Will and I are doing our best to not only explore our own island of Oahu, but also get out and explore the outer islands as well! If you remember from back in February, we were visiting Maui and as we sat along the western shore, we gazed across the ocean to Moloka`i, dreaming of what amazingly beautiful adventures it must hold. So when we came back from that trip we started planning a weekend on Moloka`i. We figured, what better reason to go than for our wedding anniversary! Fast forward six months (gosh, time sure does fly!) and our weekend getaway was finally here! Will and I had a 12:55pm flight to Moloka`i, so we had a nice relaxing morning at home and headed on our way. The flight to Moloka`i is only about 20 minutes! On many occasions the island of Moloka`i can be seen from Eastern parts of Oahu such as the Diamond Head lookout and Lanikai Beach, among others. Needless to say, it's very close, so we just took a little propeller plane over. I think it's kinda fun to b...

Our new house is located on one of the many ridges in Honolulu. Many of these ridges have hiking trails, ours included! So we took the afternoon to hike and explore "our" ridge, along the Wa`ahila Ridge Trail. We also thought that this would be a good way to warm up for our upcoming hike in Moloka`i! (We'll be hiking the tallest sea cliffs in the world!) It was a beautiful, clear day. The trail was really dry as it hasn't rained much lately. Dry is a rare, but welcome condition for this trail as it would have been pretty muddy and hard to get through in some of the areas. The clear day made for spectacular views! It is a pretty amazing vantage point as you get to see down into the valleys on both the East side, Palolo Valley, and the West side, Manoa Valley, of the ridge. The hiking trail going up the ridge. Little bit of a view of Palolo Valley. This was a pretty rocky section. It got a little crazy on the other side! Great little view he...

Did I mention we have a lot of mangoes right now? Well one tree is just getting started and we still have three to go! I've been spending a lot of my time harvesting, chopping, and freezing mangoes in addition to baking with them too! I've invented a new combo: apple banana mango muffins. Because it happens that Will is continuing to bring home apple bananas, too, so I have fruit coming out of my ears! It's not really something I'm complaining about though! We're eating lots of smoothies and baked goods these days : ) Here's the door to our freezer: And this doesn't even show the bags of bananas or loafs of banana bread in the main compartment either. Get to Hawai`i and I'll make you something with bananas and mangoes!

Did I mention that our new place has four, yes FOUR mango trees out back? And that we happened to move in just before mango season began? Well, a quick harvest on Thursday left me with eleven mangoes! And this is just the tip of the mango tree : ) I'll be making a lot of smoothies with these! Maybe even mango pie?! It's been hot, hot, hot lately so Will and I wanted to get out to beat the heat. I was in the mood for trying out a new beach, but someplace close, so we stopped by Kahala Beach Park, which is just to the East from where our old house was located. We have no idea why we haven't been here before! It's simply gorgeous and we were one of only a few people there. The beach is overlooked by the Waialea Country Club, one of the most prestigious clubs on the island, as well as the Kahala Hotel and Resort which is also ritzy. Thank goodness that all the beaches in Hawai`i are public or these areas would be snapped up. One of the drawbacks to this beach is that...