Aloha

Alright friends and family, here (finally) is a quick recap of my Hawaii trip so far!

Best hike: Kileau Iki (in volcanoes national park). You start out in rainforest and find yourself walking across an expansive, barren lava lake past steam vents and lava rock.

Weirdest sighting: I would have said the zebra, until I saw a rhinoceros. Yep, that's what I saw. Apparently there used to be a zoo and some of the animals are still around. Love it :)

Best impromptu adventure: Letterboxing in kona. Look it up if you don't know what it is - makes for a fun afternoon!

Best of all: Scuba diving! I went on my first two dives yesterday and as of about 1 pm today I am a certified open water diver!!

I can breathe underwater. We saw a hornbill turtle swimming around (they're huge!), a spotted eagle ray, a green sea turtle, an eel AND, the best thing ever...we could hear whales singing underwater :) Whales. Singing. Underwater. So happy!

Anyway, I'm off to nap and then check out lahaina's art scene tonight. I'm adding some phone pics, but better pics will be up sometime after I'm home :)

One of my Favorite Players

I'm not sure if you know this, but I LOVE the NY Mets. I started watching them play in 2006, because all my friends in the city were huge fans, and I felt left out and pretty lonely when they were all watching games. So I cheered the Mets into the end of the season (and even went to Game 6 at Shea - http://bubu37.blogspot.com/2006/10/lets-go-mets.html) and drank my sorrows when they lost the NL Championship to the Cardinals.

Then in 2007 Sara took me, Kat & Christine to Meet the Mets!! I was still a Mets newbie, but it was pretty exciting. We met most of the players, but my favorite was Delgado. He was very nice, smiling at everyone, making sure every single person got an autograph and a picture.

And now he's retiring from baseball :( He's had a lot of surgeries in the last couple of years, and hasn't played a full season as a Met since 2008. But I've missed seeing him at first and now that he's retiring entirely I'll miss tracking what he's doing.

Here's an article about his retirement - http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110413&content_id=17721774&vkey=news_nym&c_id=nym&partnerId=rss_nym.

Quote? Story? Advice?

I'm not sure what to call it, but I stumbled across this piece on The Monica Bird, and found I really enjoy the entire blog! Here's the link: http://themonicabird.com/post/3273155431/date-a-girl-who-reads-date-a-girl-who-spends-her

Downtown LA Artwalk

I felt like I was back in NYC last night! I was meeting up with a meetup.com group to visit the Downtown LA Artwalk, and decided I had done enough driving for the day. So I took the bus instead. And can you believe it - public transportation in LA really does work! The bus stop was less than a mile from my apt, and took me straight into the heart of the artwalk - all in under an hour.

My dad happened to call just after I stepped onto the bus, and asked me what I was doing. Here's how the conversation went:

Dad: What are you up to right now?
Me: I'm on the bus - going to the artwalk downtown.
Dad: You're on the bus?
Me: Yeah.
Dad: It goes downtown from your apt?
Me: Yep.
Dad: {completely garbled thanks to AT&T in LA}
Me: WHAT??
Dad: Will it bring you home too?
Me: Uh, yeah, I'm kinda hoping it does. It's supposed to.
Dad: Oh, ok. {kind of chuckling to himself}

And it did, indeed, bring me home. So much easier than driving the hour, battling one-way streets in downtown, parking, fighting the crowds when I left and driving home. I'm going to look into public transportation way more often.

A Rainbow in Venice (CA)

Yesterday I pulled up to my sisters house and looked up to see this gorgeous rainbow right in front of me.

Fix-it Pics

On http://www.iheartfaces.com/ they have a "Fix-it Friday" every week. They give you a pic and then ask you to edit away, playing around with settings and options, just to get a feel for your editing program. I am using Picasa (fancy, I know) because I don't have anything else on my work computer! But here goes.

Original:

Fix #1:

Fix #2:

A Giveaway

My friend Shannon is having a giveaway on her blog today - visit her at ** Happiness Is...** to see some gorgeous jewelry, and maybe even win a necklace!

Some of the pieces I love in the store...

Back in LA!

Well I've been back in LA since mid-March, and it's been a fun few months hanging out with friends & family. Here's a quick recap of some of what I've been up to...

At Lee's birthday party :)

Catherine's baby shower. She's now got a gorgeous little girl - Jenna.

On the town for Cyndi's birthday - Happy Birthday Cyn!

Bowling with Little Heidi.

Mexican Wrestling in downtown LA.

Hollywood Bowl with Dad & Janne.

Out for Mexican food & flaming margaritas with Heather.

Reggae Night at the Hollywood Bowl with Cyndi.

It's been months!

I can't believe I haven't posted since October. Bad me! Well, here are some holiday pics from LA to warm you up.

Malike gave my mom a homemade window herb garden kit.

Malike & Jackson sharing some tunes at dinner.

Megan being silly after unwrapping gifts :)

Big smile when we went up to Byron to plant the Goss' Christmas tree.

Hauling said tree.

And the family effort to plant it.

Union Square

On Saturday I went to Union Square for the first Street Photography Meetup. It was fantastic! Steve & Rob are the organizers, and they have so much knowledge! It's great to walk around with them and see what they're seeing. Here are some of my shots :)

Long Ago

Recently, my dad sent some pictures to me that his friend, my "Uncle" Ike, took when I was much younger. I love them, so here they are! Check out the 'stache on my pops ;)

Before LA

The pics from Kat's bday dinner at Blockhead's. Shira, Christine, Kat & I went out there and then headed next door for (more) drinks. Happy bday Kat!

LA Freeway

Driving the 101 from dad's to mom's. Sunny and warm!

You know you're at the airport too early when...

you can take a picture of an entire terminal with not one single person in it.