Friday letters

Believe me when I say I have so much more to show you from the trip. I’ve only touched the surface. Okay, maybe I’m wrist deep, but more is to come because I have so much more to say!

Its been so long since I’ve done Friday letters so I think I’ll take a ‘trip’ break and jump back in next week!

Dear fireplace,
I’m so glad I have you. You’re the most coziest thing and I never ever want to give you up. But I do…for the right price, I’d totally drop you like its hot…
Dear fog, go away. No one likes driving in you…no! no one knows how to drive in you and it drives me crazy. I just want to drive to work without being stuck behind someone who’s scared to go over 45.
Dear all my buddies,
thanks for missing me while I was gone and loving me since I’ve been back. I missed hearing from you guys and I especially loved being told to keep blogging. Warmed my heart big time!
Dear really huge piece of metal, how how HOW did you get all the way inside my tire? I mean, HOW??? Were you placed perfectly in the road to have you go straight into my tire? Were you planted by someone in hopes I’d pull over right then and there to see what happened, in hopes they’d rob me? Or were you a complete fluke? You will forever boggle my mind. Oh and don’t think I can’t tell you’re in the shape of California… #conspiracy
Dear mechanic,
thank you for going into the trashcan to retrieve the piece of metal for me after I declared I wanted it 30 minutes after you showed me. …and thank you for not making me explain WHY I wanted to keep it after you threw it away. {because I hadn’t taken a picture of it yet…} You’re the best!
Dear Hawaii,
I miss you…and by you I mean G-man..quite a bit.
Dear Instagram lovers,
I watched the funniest parody video that I think you’d find hee-larious! I’m linking it instead of posting it because it has…well, 2 “words”…one rhymes with “duck”, so I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to watch it, but I was near tears I was laughing so hard.
Click Here
Dear wittle bitty twee,

I’m glad I decided to put you up…I almost didn’t but I like that you’re my go to for when I need to ponder something, I can just stare at you and get lost in my thoughts.

Until Monday, my friends. If its your birthday this weekend, Happy Birthday!…if it was your birthday this week…or say yesterday… *cough* Mitchee…HAPPY Thirty-niiiinnnnfirst BIRTHDAY!!!

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A rose by any other name

would smell as sweet. And a sunset by any other name would be just as beautiful.

It was on that third night, we experienced a truly magical sunset. One for the record books for us. I think its very important to witness one truly spectacular sunset on each island. It’s a must! An absolute must.

I’m so thankful my Kauai sunset did not disappoint.

I think G-man has finally accepted my need to capture the sunsets. Before, I think it bothered him I always wanted to take photos of yet another sunset, leaving me gushing about something that he saw growing up living near the water… a sun setting into the ocean. No big deal really for the man. But I think he finally sees my desire to truly capture spectacular sunsets. He’s less likely to make comments, but instead encourages me to get out.

To understand when I say, “I have to go riiight now” when it means leaving the food on the stove and him finishing the dinner.

I’m thankful he gets it now. Because as odd as it may sound, its becoming quite the passion for me. The best part…is when he’s eager to see the images on the computer and ooh and aaw when I pull them up. Picking which one his favorite is. Makes my heart happy.

This night was no different. I admit, I didn’t think it would be a magical sunset but I was so wrong. Once the sun was completely behind Niihau, the show began.
Once it started to fade a little, I took a seat on the deck to soak in the last bit of colors. Resting in God’s beautiful masterpiece.

Its hard passing up one of these nights. As the moon shone, we went back inside, ate our dinner and watched what we thought was the newest Spiderman, but really was the first one and rested and talked and enjoyed each other’s company as the waves crashed on the shore behind us. I couldn’t have asked for a better end to our nights in the beach cottage.

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Take me to Kauai

…and he did just that.

Its been a little known fact (that’s had to be repeated…and then repeated again) that I’ve always always wanted to go to Kauai.

We’ve been to Maui, Lanai, Kona, and Hilo. Why we put Kauai off for so long is beyond me…I blame the man.
-Kidding.

But it was high time we made our way over there. He suggested going back to Maui since we loved the Four Seasons there, but he did his research (the man’s a researching maniac), and found the military base on Kauai has beach cottages..like right on the beach! (hence the name..yes yes, I know).

We weren’t able to nab a cottage right on the sand, but we did manage to get one across the street that’s on stilts that looks over the one level cottages. I personally loved this. I loved being up high. We had an obstructed view, but to come out in the morning on the deck and drink my coffee listening to the waves crashing and only the waves crashing was a glorious and relaxing sound.

We made all our meals: big breakfasts in the morning and grilling at night. He watched his football while I watched the waves. 4 unwinding days in the cottages. We only left the base to drive into town to get food, we had little desire to do anything else.

One night as the sun set, we walked along the water’s edge. If you knew us you’d know we aren’t exactly “water” people. Its borderline cold for us…yes, even in Hawaii, so for us to wade our legs in and let the waves crash against us was a big step. But we ended up loving it. The tide would come in a little more and a little more as the minutes passed. The little crabs would pop their bodies out of their hiding places in the sand, and let the water sweep them in only to have the next gentle wave push them back to shore.

We found so much enjoyment watching those little crabs run in the water.

On day three, I finally made my way out to the beach for some true relaxation. While he watched his football, I set up camp enjoying the virtually empty beach. A private beach is really hard to pass up.

I was inspired by this pin and went to work.

Again, I’m thankful for a virtually empty beach as that took me 4 different times in 4 different locations to write. I’m sure I looked a little crazy writing, running to my camera, snapping away, erasing it and moving on 4 times over. But I love how it came out.

I’ve done a bit of sand writing on other beaches on other islands, and I think this might be my tradition. To write ‘love’ or a love message in each beach’s sand that I’m on.

There’s nothing like this little gem. This secret spot that only few get to visit. I’m honored that I had the opportunity to stay there.  To feel the waves and watch the crabs.

But it wouldn’t be a true visit by us without a jaw dropping sunset and an extension in our stay… until tomorrow! Pin It Now!

To be a tourist

Hi, its me.

Its been a couple weeks, I know. I just wasn’t quite in the spirit of blogging all last week after getting back home. A few of you emailed asking if I was ok, so I have to say, thanks for checking up on me. I really thought I’d take a break until January, but then Friday happened, and I just couldn’t stay away any longer.

It was all sorts of insano!

And besides, I’m feeling a lot more like “me” now. Any way, surprisingly most of the time I was in Hawaii, I didn’t take too many pictures. I kept my phone and camera away for a lot of the time, and it was nice. When I brought it out, I made the most of it, and really enjoyed playing with Montague (aka my new camera).

We thought it would be fun to go to the Dole Plantation since we’d never been, and made our trek to the North Shore. G-man informed me that I wasn’t able to walk through the maze since it was for kids only.. {but now looking at the website, I feel a little cheated… I think I’m going to have a talk with the man. I could have been entered into the history of Dole plantation with the fastest recorded time!! I feel gipped!}

Instead we ate pineapple ice cream, which was delicious and meandered our way through their little gardens of pineapples as we waited for our train ride.

Before we rode the train, they had us pose w/the pineapple. At first we just held onto it and smiled, but the photographer felt we needed a second picture with the shaka, and we’re glad we did, because at the end of the ride we ended up really liking the picture of us. $25 and 4 copies (plus the digital) later, we now have a fun little capture.

For all those who are ‘newer’ to my blog, he’s requested to not have his picture shown. So I’ve taken great lengths to not show his face. I think this is the most I’ve ever shown of him. To all you faithful buddies, I know you all are probably thinking ‘just show his face already!!’, so thank you for your patience! Just know there’s a great smile underneath that blur.

Dole Plantation, isn’t all that much to look at, I admit. It is a nice place to get away and be a little touristy, if you’re wanting it, but a person can easily swing in and 15 minutes later swing out with a mental ‘check in the box’ for having gone.

I’m glad we both got that ‘check in the box’.

Tell me, if you’ve been to Hawaii, have you ever been to the Dole plantation?

What were your thoughts there?

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Why you should memorize your license plate

Because if you don’t, while driving through a very bad part of town at 11pm on a Friday night, looking for a gas station {as you’re about to be out of gas}, you’ll hear a “pop” and notice you have a warning light on on your dash.

Which will cause you to drive even deeper into the very bad part of town praying to find a gas station soon, though you notice its only serving to keep you in the housing development.

You’ll be forced to pull over in front of dimly lit apartments and houses because your car is wobbling too much from the blown tire and you’re unwilling to risk driving anymore on it. And while you’re on the phone with AAA, they’ll ask you what your license plate number is and no matter how many times you’ve attempted to learn it, its never stuck and you’re forced to get out of your car to walk to the back to read it to them.

Which will lead to the questionable seedy black man, who’s walking down the other side of the 4 lane road {at 11pm} to see you on your phone, at the back of your car, to cross the 4 lane street in order to “get a better look”. This will prompt you to get back in your car, locking the doors {but darn if the dome light still stays on}, while explaining to AAA that you are in fact in a very bad part of town and that the man is now hovering by your passenger door “waiting” for you to get off the phone.

As you continue to talk to AAA, he’ll back up to watch you through your windshield as he leans against the wall, lighting his cigarette, showing he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. The AAA agent will then ask you to give your exact location, which you can’t give because you don’t know where you are, and you don’t want to turn your GPS on as it will illuminate the inside of your car, making everything that’s in it, visible to the guy smoking his cigarette, watching you. This will naturally prompt you to declare to the AAA agent that you don’t care what it will do to your car, you’ll be driving down the road in order to get away from him.

Once your car is started, the guy will start waving for you to stop, which will make you give a “do I have stupid written on my forehead??” wave right back as you slowly drive away. A measly 2 1/2 blocks later, you pull over near a stop light, in a mildly more visible area, and give your exact location.

5 minutes later, they’ll ask if you want them to call the police to come sit with you since it’ll be up to a 45 minutes wait and you causally mention that you ‘wouldn’t mind that one bit.’ And you will sit there…and sit there..for 15 minutes before the cop arrives. He’ll confirm that you are indeed in a very bad part of town and points out that 2 blocks straight is a prostitution house. And he’ll also point out that there’s not a gas station that he would advise you to go to anywhere near your current location.

As you joke around with the cop, AAA will finally show up to fix your tire, and you thank God that your boyfriend bought a 5th tire as a spare 2 years ago instead of an actual spare.


The cop will escort you to a safe gas station, wait while you pump, point you in the direction to get back home, shake your hand and drive away..

And you drive home.. but not without thinking that all the extra drama could have been avoided had you just memorized your license plate!

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When the North Shore and a sunset meet

Its been too long since me and a Hawaiian sunset have been together. Far too long. If you’ve been around here long enough, you know I have a down right obsession with them. I would sit and watch them every single night never able to get enough. I probably have over 500 pictures of Hawaiian sunsets on my computer and plan on adding to that number exponentially.

Problem is, G-man’s new place doesn’t face the west where the sun sets. So my view went from this

…to this

Being a sunset lover, it’s a bit of an adjustment but the benefit to the new view is I get to see the sunrises now, and I’ve been able to see just about every sunrise since I’m waking up pretty early every morning here.

Yesterday however, I got my sunset fix and in an incredibly big way. On the North Shore. This is the first time I’ve witnessed the sunset over on the North Shore and it was nothing short of amazing. We weren’t planning on going there, so I didn’t have my new zoom lens but my nifty fifty certainly stepped up to the challenge and didn’t disappoint by any means.

**sigh** oh how I love my Hawaiian sunsets…especially when spent with my love.

Happy Friday, my sweet friends!

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When “warm” doesn’t mean brown

When you hear someone say they want a “warm hair color” what color do you think of? Do you immediately think “red”? If you do, you’re in the 99 percentile. That remaining 1%?…. would be me.

I got my hair done yesterday. This would be the cut and color I went on and on about that would cost $300 that I deemed justifiable a month ago. The same cut and color I knew would be amazing and perfect and completely worth the money. I have good news for you… it only cost $200. Amazing, right?? Is that a better amount to swallow? It was for me when he told me the amount was under $200 before tip!

I’ll be honest though, the appointment wasn’t the smoothest of appointments. We each had pictures of the color I wanted. We discussed for 20 minutes the coloring, what I wanted, how I wanted to look and what the end result would be. I said “warm” a lot. She said “red” a lot and we agreed I wanted “warmth” that would have some “red” tones in it…

I was incredibly excited as she mixed it all together while I waited.

She began slathering it on and I began taking note of the color drying on my scalp. Red.

I told myself I wouldn’t freak out. Its only the “dried” color, it won’t actually look like that, but couldn’t hold in me commenting on the “red” I was seeing. She assured me not to worry and said to wait until it was all washed out. So I calmed down and sent a sneak peak to Instagram thinking I’d trick everyone into believing I was going red!

Little did I know, I was actually going red!

After it got washed out, I went into their dark restroom and noticed parts of hair poking out of the towel and forced myself to wait until I returned to the brightly lit chair to see if what I was seeing was real, before truly freaking out. I sat down, the towel gets removed and I begin to freak out.

Its Irish copper orange!

I wait as she starts blow drying on the chance it magically darkens when I couldn’t take it anymore and blurt out, “It’s ORANGE!! It’s Irish copper orange! Like I’m from Ireland!”

She immediately shut off the blow dryer and asked if its “too warm”. I’m staring at her with my eyes bugging out, wondering how we went so wrong and what the heck does “too warm” mean! She has me jump up to take me back to the sink where she put a toner on to darken it up. I’m not laughing anymore. I’m tense. She keeps reassuring me it’ll work out and soften the warmth considerably so I’d be happy with it.

I’m back in the seat and staring hard at my hair in the mirror. Its darker but still quite red. I never wanted red! I wanted a dark brown. A warm brown! A brown that I thought meant having red undertones but an ultimate brown! She dried the roots and asked how I was feeling, and I didn’t need to respond, my eyes did all the talking. They showed panic! At that point, we talked about what I was truly wanting. How warm to me meant a rich dark brown and warm to her meant red.

We thought we were on the same page the entire time. It wasn’t until we were 2 hours into the appointment that we were truly on the same page, and that meant the third coloring of the day…dark brown. I still couldn’t relax and it was obvious she was freaking out too with how much I was freaking out.

After the last rinse, I stare in the mirror and see just small traces of red. She dried it and I began to relax. Its just what I wanted. The “rich dark warm brown” I envisioned in my head. We’re able to laugh and joke about it as she began cutting my hair to perfection. Fixing all the mistakes made by past stylists, giving me exactly the cut I’ve wanted for months.

The formula for the 3rd color was written down and saved. We now both know what I want and how I want it without even needing to discuss it any further. I’ll be able to walk in, say I want it just like the last time (minus the freak outs) and sit back since I know it will be done right.

My favorite stylist didn’t disappoint. She did what she thought I wanted, fixed it twice when it wasn’t, until it was right and gave me the best haircut I’ve had all year. I walked away a very happy customer.

And as I got into G-man’s truck (did you know I’m with G-man??) the first thing he says is, “its BROWN!”. Clearly he expected red after I told him it would be “warmer”.

What do I know!?

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