August Recap
August 2-3, 2010
A bunch of coworkers and I went camping at Malaekahana to celebrate Michelle's birthday. This was quite the struggle for me, since I had never ever been camping before. After having my arm twisted, I agreed to a night in the wilderness. And by wilderness I mean a gorgeous beach on the North Shores of Oahu.
The tent where I cuddled with Stacey.
Michelle's Birthday cupcakes
Michelle's Rainbow Birthday cupcakes by Tracy
The view... This is my kind of camping...
Kim's Yurt - another plus to Malaekahana - the option of camping without the tent.
Our campsite...
The view behind our campsite
The campfire... hard to photograph
The girls... we had a hard time getting a good pic of us all... here are a few attempts.
We had a really great time hanging out around the campfire, barbecuing, and chasing sand crabs on the beach. In the middle of the night you can hear the wild chickens jumping on top of your coolers and the picnic tables. I think there was a family of chickens living behind our tent. Other than the chickens, it was extremely peaceful sleeping to the sounds of the ocean.
When I woke up in the morning, I couldn't believe what a sauna our tent had become in the bright sun. I, surprisingly, was the first one to wake up, the sauna was making me sick... so I got into my bathing suit, and took my chair to the beach. Surreal being on a beach pretty much all alone.
To prove I really was there...
And my artsy pics
And one more...
;
Pics of our Campsite... It really is on the beach...
August 11, 2010
I flew to South Beach, Miami, Florida for Cat's Bachelorette Party weekend. I left on Wednesday, to get there on Thursday morning. I flew into LAX - my first time on California soil - and found out that my next flight was delayed for an additional 4 hours (on top of my hour and a half layover)!! And being that my first flight landed at 9:30pm, the stores in the terminal were closing about an hour or so later! I went to Chili's to try to eat and waste some time... I ordered some food, and was falling asleep in the booth! After sitting there for an hour, I decided to walk around the terminal... only everything was already shut down!! I found myself a charging station, and plugged in my phone and my iPod and started catching up on episodes of Dexter. Five hours with nothing to do feels like 10 hours!!
When our plane finally arrived, I heard the outgoing and incoming pilots chatting, and heard them say that our flight was almost canceled, but they found another plane to use! Luckily, on all legs of my flight I had a window seat, so I could cuddle up against the wall of the plane and fall asleep. I fell asleep before the plane even took off from LAX!
August 12, 2010
I finally arrived on to Miami on Thursday morning - and was greeted at baggage by Cat and the rest of our party. We grabbed a cab over to our hotel, The Ganservoort, South Beach. The hotel was beautiful. Cat found a really great deal online, because normally the hotel costs about $350 a night! As soon as we checked in and got settled we changed to go to lunch. Miami is SO HOT & HUMID!! We all immediately began to sweat as soon as we stepped outside. We made the walk over to Lincoln St and found a cute little Italian place for lunch. After lunch, we relaxed for a bit in the room, and then headed up to Plunge, the 18th floor pool lounge. Check out the view...
Following those pictures, we all proceed to fall asleep on the pool deck until the sun set!! No one even noticed because we were all so tired!! We decided to take it easy that night, to prepare for the rest of our short trip - so after showering and resting for a bit we surprised Cat with a Naughty Bridal Shower!! I asked her to open the dresser to hand me my sweatshirt, and when she did she found gift boxes and bags galore!
Our Card to the Bride to Be
Pretty Silky Bride Robe
My Gift :)
Like I said, it was a Naughty Bridal Shower, so we will leave the rest to your imagination. For dinner we decided to veg out on nearly $80 worth of Chinese food delivery!
August 13, 2010
The next morning, the girls - minus me, all woke up early to catch some rays by the pool at Plunge. I was still recovering from the 6 hour time difference, and too many hours of travel. I did finally show my face in the early afternoon and joined them by the pool.
Our view from our lounge chairs.
The entire pool was 4 feet deep, and the perfect temperature to give you relief from the boiling hot Miami sun.
Amber & Kitty Cat
That night we got all dolled up to go out on the town....
Grace even let Cat put make up on her (she NEVER wears make up)!
Look how Purrrty!
Grace & Kitty
We took a cab from our hotel over to Wet Willie's... Unfortunately there was no AC (open air bar) so we ate shared some pupus and moved on... but not before taking some pictures...
Amber & Grace
The Bride-To-Be
August 14, 2010
We were told to try Joe's Snow Crabs, but when we called to make a reservation we found out that they were closed for the season :(. We tried to find a replacement and made a reservation at another Snow Crab place on Ocean Drive. When we walked in they didn't have our reservation, and were not very helpful, so we decided to leave and go down to a restaurant that smelled delicious the night before. Fox Cafe was located a few blocks away and we got a nice air conditioned table inside. We all were very excited for some oysters - but unfortunately this place served us warm raw oysters - which we promptly sent back. After this, everything else was wonderful. We shared Calamari and Mussels, and we all got delicious entrees.
We all had a wonderful trip to Miami - but I should have tried to stay an additional day or two - 5 days of travel for 3 nights of fun is very tiring!
August 20, 2010
Later that week, our friend Joe came to visit! On his first night, we took Joe to dinner at Doraku for some delicious sushi. We went to sleep early, so everyone could get some rest and woke up early to go explore Manoa Valley. We can see Manoa Valley from the windows of our apartment, but hadn't yet visited.
August 21, 2010
We started our drive up the mountains and stopped for a photo op. Check out this view!
I have been working on this post all week long, but have been so busy - I will continue the end of August through now on the next post, hopefully later today!!!
xoxo & aloha
Me & Linh
The girls
After leaving Wet Willie's we walked down the street looking for some place that peeked our interest, but everything was either too busy or too hot... So we headed back to our hotel and went to club Louis...
August 14, 2010
The next day we only lasted at the pool for a few short hours - our skin couldn't take much more of the Miami heat. We headed to Lincoln Street for some lunch and shopping... Linh wanted to try a Cuban sandwich, so I asked around and found us a cute little Cuban restaurant. After shopping til we dropped we headed back for some showers and some rest. We surprised Cat with some Bachelorette Party T-shirts...
We all had a wonderful trip to Miami - but I should have tried to stay an additional day or two - 5 days of travel for 3 nights of fun is very tiring!
August 20, 2010
Later that week, our friend Joe came to visit! On his first night, we took Joe to dinner at Doraku for some delicious sushi. We went to sleep early, so everyone could get some rest and woke up early to go explore Manoa Valley. We can see Manoa Valley from the windows of our apartment, but hadn't yet visited.
August 21, 2010
We started our drive up the mountains and stopped for a photo op. Check out this view!
The Valley
The Boys
We could even see our building!!
We kept driving up the mountain to another lookout point... and an even better view!
View to the Left
View to the Right
Tony & Jimmy
Joe taking in the view
Jimmy is a very knowledgable tour guide... He taught us so much on this trip, but he made the mistake of showing Tony & Joe an avocado tree... which quickly prompted Joe to try and get an avocado... which in turn got Tony to climb the tree for a tiny unripened avocado.... Poor Avocado.
We continued further up the mountain to Kalawahine Trail.
Look how GREEN!!
Coffee Beans
Me, Tony & Joe
Jimmy, Tony & Joe
Strawberry Guavas
Tony trying to hide and scare me... He forgot his camo...
Where's Waldo?
Ti Leaves
Me, Jimmy & Tony
After our hike, we took Joe to Zippy's for delicious loco moco. I had to work over the next few days, but Tony & Joe went to Pearl Harbor and saw the Arizona Memorial and did lots of surfing.
August 25, 2010
On Thursday, we went to take a drive over to the North Shore, unfortunately the traffic was HORRIBLE headed over to our normal beaches, plus it was raining, so we headed to the other side of the North Shore. We went to Ka'ena Point, which is the westernmost point of Oahu. Ancient Hawaiians believe this was the "jumping-off" point for souls leaving this world.
xoxo & aloha
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