Frozen Kona

Aloha!

Mark and I took a very, very quick trip home last month for a wedding. One of Mark's childhood friends was getting married and Mark was a groomsman so we made it happen and flew home for a long weekend. We left on Thursday evening and arrived Friday morning at 6am in Chicago (1am Hawaii time). After a quick nap we spent the afternoon seeing family! We even had a nice fire outside at night. Saturday was a busy wedding day but it was so fun because so many of our friends and even Mark's parents were all there so we had all night to catch up with a bunch of our loved ones. I spent almost the entire night talking to my best friend- lots of laughs for sure. Even though we flew across the world (basically) in record time it's always worth it when you can see so

many family and friends in just a few days.

We left Milwaukee Sunday morning around noon and had a quick (planned) trip in Vegas just the two of us. We took on Vegas for around 8 hours. We just stuck to our few favorite hotels and had dinner in our favorite restaurant in Bellagio. We of course we're able to see one of our favorite Vegas displays, the gardens in Bellagio. They were simply beautiful with a theme of Japanese cherry blossoms. So elegant and beautiful. Even though it was crazy short it was so fun being about to have a mini vacation together. Before moving to Hawaii Mark and I had a Vegas vacation almost twice a year since I was 21, so being a year a half since our last trip it felt really good to be back!

A few weeks ago one of my work besties had her going away party as she's moving back to Maui. It was super sad coming back from a great trip home to learn this but we had a fun week hanging out. Hopefully we can see her next month when we're on Maui. When I was really sad thinking about her leaving, Mark put it in perspective for me. He said what are the chances I ever met her, us being from across the word in Wisconsin and her being on Oahu for a couple years being from Maui. He's so right, it just reminds me how special this journey is that we're on and all the lifelong friends we are making while we're here.

One of latest weekend getaways we went on an adventure driving as far as the road would take us on the west side of Oahu. It took us to Kaena point state park. It reminded me so much of the beauty on Kauai with the crystal clear blue waters and breathtaking mountain views. The waters were a little to intense for me to feel comfortable swimming in but I had a good day of shelling on the beach. Oahu is an amazing and incredibly diverse island. We love living in Hawaii because literally we can always find something new an beautiful to see or do.

When we first arrived on Oahu two years ago one of our first major events we attended was the annual Waikiki spam jam festival celebrating all things spam! We went again this year as well. There were lots of interesting eats we haven't seen before... Spam fried rice, spam fries, even spam

Ice cream?! I'm not nearly as adventurous as Mark but I tried small

bites of his teriyaki spam musubi and spam sliders with guava BBQ. Not too bad, but still not my cup of tea, haha.

Our next trip is scheduled for next month when Mark's mom and brother (his first visit!!) come for two weeks! Whohoo! We can't wait for our next visitor!

Looking back over our second year in Hawaii, the entire journey seems so surreal. The ability to constantly see

something completely new, be continually pushed outside your comfort zone all while being surrounded my beauty is incredible. When Mark and I first started talking seriously about moving here it seemed impossible. There were all these tiny details that made the entire thing seem impossible. But we did it. Looking back to the beginning of our journey, and even now, we made so many sacrifices and still do to this day; the family birthday parties and celebrations we miss, to the numerous friends / family weddings we weren't able to attend. But as we go into our third year living our dream, I'm so happy we were able to silence our inner doubts and jump into this adventure with both feet. It's been an amazing ride and I can't wait to see where the next year takes us. In honor of our third year, we changed our honu signature. A hui ho....

Love, Jen&Mark

Aloha!

Wow what a whirlwind 2016 so far! It's amazing to think that we've had visitors most of the year already- which is awesome!

February 8th was the celebration of the Chinese New Year. At work one of my coworkers brought in nian gao. This is a cake most popular in China around the New year. It's a rice based food- and while it looked intimidating it was pretty delicious. The cake we had was very much like a thick jello texture but pretty bland in taste. Nian gao is eaten during this time because it's supposed to bring good luck to the coming year. Nian gao is translated simply meaning "higher year". A student at my work was interning from Shanghai, China and she was so sweet to explain to me the tradition. It was a special day for me learning more about other customs and cultures. Hopefully my piece of gao brings lots of luck to 2016!

Eddie would go...

The day we left for our Kauai vacation the Eddie big wave surf contest was held! The competition was held just weeks after a false alarm. The entire island chain seemed to be glued to the tv watching the surfing if they were weren't at Waimea Bay on Oahu's north shore watching in person. This event is so special because it's held in memory of Eddie Aikau. The competition has only been held nine times since its formation in 1984 because the minimum wave length must be 30 feet for eight consecutive hours during the months of December-February in order to be given a green light. The last one was held in 2009 so we felt so special to be apart of this historic event! Eddie's brother Clyde Aikau won the second Eddie in 1987- and even participated this year at an amazing 66 years old. He makes you think that you're never to old to do what you put your mind to.

This was Mark and my third time visiting Kauai in 9 months- this time with my mom... its safe to say we enjoy it ;). We have stayed at the Kauai Marriott each time and every time we leave feeling more in love with the resort. It's such an awesome place to get away from it all. One of our favorite little shops we found was in Kapaa, a coffee house called Java Kai. They had the best espresso and healthy breakfast options. As well a really fun drink; the sharkbite. A little whipped cream and raspberry syrup on top to make it look realistic, Haha. Kapaa is one of my favorite small towns in all of Hawaii. It has a really big art influence and every store lining the block is locally owned and different. It has a small quiet beach town charm to it, but with plenty to do and see.

One of the most awesome things we did on Kauai was take a catamaran to the Na Pali coast. To even begin to describe its beauty isn't possible. The only way to access the coastline is from the air or by boat (unless you're an experienced hiker and want to hike for days straight). The cliffs are so steep and absolutely beautiful as they tower into the sky. We stopped at a sea cave along the coast which was remarkable and also saw a waterfall making its way down into the ocean waters. I have never been one to get seasick but on the way back (about 4 hours into the tour I was pretty close, along with Mark and my mom. The days leading up to our boat tour the waves were insanely high- nearing 40 feet so we were very blessed the day we went out they calmed down massively. Last February when my mom visited we went to Maui for our island getaway where we had the most amazing encounter with a giant humback whale who hung out by our boat for 30+ minutes. I thought there was no way to top that this year but I was wrong. The entire boat trip we saw probably 10 different pods of Hawaiian spinner Dolphins (my favorite). One pod even swam by the bow of our boat for a few minutes. I nearly started crying when I first saw them because they are the sweetest most majestic animals. It's also pretty adorable when they jump out of the water and spin midway in the air. We stopped for about an hour prior to seeing the Dolphins to deep sea snorkel. I'd lie if I said we weren't terrified when we jumped off the boat and looked down into the black ocean. Hahha. It was worth the little fear however, because we saw honu (Hawaiian sea turtles) as well the state fish, and many beautiful, colorful fish, and even many humpback whales in the distance. Even when the whales are far away you can still hear their songs underwater which is pretty amazing.

We stopped at Kauai coffee where we were able to try all sorts of declicous coffees. On our honeymoon Mark and I toured Greenwell farms in Kona on the Big Island. Kauai coffee seemed to rival Kona coffee but I have no favorite. Any and all (especially Hawaiian) coffee is amazing in my book. Waimea Canynon was another favorite spot we had to stop to show my mom. I was also lucky enough to ride a horse on Kauai which was beautiful, even on a gloomy day.

Another interesting Kauai adventure was our stop at the Koloa rum plantation. We were able to stop for a rum tasting which included: spiced rum, white rum, and even a coffee flavored rum. Delicious!

My mom and I took a chocolate making class on Oahu in Kailua. Most of the the chocolate (cacao) is grown on Oahu which is awesome to try locally grown chocolate. There was also a tasting of six different kinds of chocolate which was my favorite part of the tour, hehe. We each left with our own chocolate bar that we had made- it was a very fun/different experience.

On Oahu we took a train ride that taught about history and provided amazing views of the land. It also stopped half way for ice cream, so it was pretty awesome. This was something we went out on a limb doing and it ended up being one of our highlights.