This is Gas Works Park, and I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it. Right on Lake Union, old coal gasification plants (which reminds me of Howl's Moving Castle, or some sort of foreign land found in Hayao Miyazaki's films), beautiful landscaping designed by architect Richard Haag, the view of downtown Seattle across the water is amazing. I love the zigzag pathways, green grass, and the benches. I could probably spend all day here, taking photos. So glad my mom and I decided to make a pit stop here. If I had a car, I'd be visiting here weekly (probably after the Fremont Flea Market). Just beware of the dog poop, it seemed to be everywhere! Seriously dog owners, don't be lazy.

On another note, only 11 days til Christmas! It's my favorite holiday, I wish I could last all year round. I just watched the Glee Christmas episode, and it hit me as I watched Rory and Sam talk about being away from their families, that this will be my first Christmas away from home. SURE I've pretty much worked EVERY Christmas since 2003 (thank you Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, Honolulu Advertiser and Billabong Waikiki), but I always came home to a hot meal and my family, and I'd at least used to be able to spend the morning opening presents with them. Except one year I remember working Christmas Eve night (probably at the newspaper) and then opening Christmas morning at the Bong, opening presents at the Citron house with Priya. Last year I came home to lobster and steak cooked by my sister, and was watching Return of the Jedi. What will I do this year with Wayne? We have been invited to spend it with my cousin Chiemi, Odessa, and Oveena and their families in Bremerton. But after watching glee, I thought it would be nice volunteering at a food bank or somewhere where they provide meals for the homeless or less fortunate. I've googled a few places, but I can't seem to find any open on Christmas. I'm gonna keep searching... wish me luck.

On Mom's last Sunday here, we visited the Fremont Sunday Market. It was filled with a ton of vintage finds, great street food, and locally made products. I found a great mirrored tray for my jewelry for only $5. There was a lot of old furniture there, real antiquey pieces that I wished I had found before I buying my entire room from iKea. If you do go, I highly recommend eating the naan bread. It is made fresh to order, and it is amazing. You can order it with Indian food, but since I don't Indian, I just wanted the naan.

When my mom came to visit last week, we road tripped it down to Portland. We had one goal... shop, SHOP our little wallets out. With no sales tax (seriously EVERY state should have no sales tax), we headed to the Woodburn Outlets because they had a The North Face store! When I was in Hawaii I'd see all the mainland kids with North Face backpacks, and think, North Face, never heard of it, is it big or something?!? Moving here, I learned just how essential AND expensive North Face is. Everyday at work, I'd pass our sportswear department and longingly gaze at the down and weather proof North Face jackets. I just started working, there is no way I could afford one, even with discount! Unfortunately tho I left both of my debit cards and ID at home, thank goodness I had my credit card. We were able to find a nice North Face down jacket, an amazing Nike 6.0 raincoat, and a few pairs of roxy jeans. I also scored some good accessories too. We got both jackets for under $200! Amazing right? I was in shopping heaven, until we headed back into Portland and hit up Lloyd Center. Now I haven't been to Lloyd Center in 6+ years, and it wasn't how I remember it. I remember this great big mall, hustling and bustling with great stores, the ice rink in the middle. But when we went, it was kind of... well how do I put this politely... ghetto. It was worse than Pearlridge, and it was empty, lots of stores had closed down. and it seemed smaller. I told my mom I think it's because Ala Moana expanded, my mall standards are too high. So far my favorite malls/shopping areas I adore are (in order): 1, South Coast Plaza. 2, Fashion Show Mall. 3, Ala Moana. 4, Walnut Creek. 5, Soho. 6, Irvine Spectrum.

Thank goodness for facebook status updates, because my friend Kaliko commented on my Portland update and reminded me to hit up Voodoo Donut. I had seen the donut joint many, many, many times on The Food Network and Travel Channel, and me being a donut lover I had to try it out. I had the Maple Bacon Bar, and yes it did live up to the hype. There were so many interesting flavors, I'll have to go back soon for a visit!

A few photos from Sunday's field trip to Fremont and Gasworks Park. More to come later, as my mom visited for over a week :) and I was able to get some good field trips in with her. The holidays are coming up fast, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, soon it will be 2012. Where did 2011 go. I noticed I didn't blog much, too busy trying make the most out of every minute of life.
Weather has been sucky lately, but I've noticed if it rains it's not as cold as when it isn't raining. I've been contemplating taking a photography class in the spring. I wonder if UW has an outreach college like at UH. haha. The best thing about the weather is wearing all the nice fall clothes - boots, sweaters, tights, knee socks. I love it.
Work is busy busy busy. Who knew department store/mall working is more tiring than supervising a buncha monkeys at billabong.

Brrrr it's cold. I have been complaining for the last hour or so that it's cold, as I sit wearing a tank top and some gilly hicks shorts. Idiot I am, but I refuse to spend days in sweat pants. I refuse. We have heaters here in the apartment, but I'm scared to use them, I never used one ever, what if it gets too hot. Seriously I get how awesome Snuggies could be because I totally want one right now, my arms are getting cold while I type this blog.
This week has been interview week, so far 3 interviews, 1 job fair, 2 more interviews planned for Thursday and Friday. I did accept a part time position somewhere, which I start on Tuesday. Or Monday? Eek better double check that one. I still want something full time with better pay, so I'm gonna keep applying, and keep interviewing. But at least its a start.
The photos above are from our field trip to Port Angeles for their Dungeness Crab Fest. We had some amazing food: Scallops and rice pilaf, seafood pizza, roasted corn on the cob, crab cakes, crab bisque, crab quiche, and the most amazing pumpkin pie. So much good food!! On the way back I was able to get a shot of the Seattle skyline at night from the ferry.
Oh and can you smell it... it's one of my favorite times of the year.... it's post season baseball time! :) Unfortunately none of my teams has moved on to the division championships... Mariners (not even close),  Red Sox (robbed at the end of the season), and the Phillies (lost in the NLDS to King Al and his damn Cardinals). So I am currently routing for the Tigers, because 1) they defeated the Yankees in the ALDS and 2) I think they have the hottest pitching rotation in the league.... Seriously look at this:

On the left is Doug Fister, to the right Rick Porcello, and then add Justin Verlander... DAMN Tigers. Fister was actually just traded to Tigers in August, prior to that he was with the Mariners. How I missed him on the Mariners roster is beyond me? Probably too busy stalking Ichiro, that's why. And whats worse, he pitched for Fresno State, meaning, I've seen him pitch during college too. I was probably too busy checking out our own baseball team. hehe. 

Ahhh good ol California, probably one of my favorite state to visit. Last week roomie Anna headed to the so called sunshine state (really it was overcast and COLD most of the time) for our dear friend Kristin's wedding, which I'll blog about later. We stayed at the Renaissance in Long Beach with some of our old high school crew, Kay and Gloria. The four of us together was just like old times. We're still silly, happy-go-lucky, dorky, it's good to have friends that just get you.
I haven't explored Long Beach much before, I've heard mixed reviews ghetto in certain areas, not much to do, home to Snoop Dogg and Warren G. So when I was researching what fun things we could do together, we stuck to the touristy stuff. Our first night was spent dining on the historic RMS Queen Mary. It wasn't hoppin as I expected, the ship was pretty eerie in fact, not many people walking around, the restaurants wasn't bustling. Anna said she heard that the ship was haunted, I wouldn't be surprised, it's old, and they do offer ghost tours. The food was pretty good, but unfortunately Anna and I had an In-n-Out burger right when we got off the plane, so I was pretty full. We wanted to go back and explore the ship in the daytime, but we didn't have enough time.
The next day Gloria, Anna, and I decided to explore the Aquarium of the Pacific! When I was reading reviews, the thing that I was most excited about was they had an area where you could touch sharks. I'm not sure if you know this but I LOVE sharks, ever since I was kid. Favorite animal: sharks. The aquarium was really good, definitely a great place to take the kids. I still think Maui Ocean Center or the Vancouver Aquarium are my favorites tho.

I was blessed with another WHOLE weekend off. Sometimes I think it's work it to be scheduled 12 days straight to get 2 days in a row off.... sometimes. And it was another weekend spent in a bikini. I enjoyed another Triple B Saturday with the bong crew (Triple B=Beach x Basketball x Beer Pong). After a full day of sun at Sandys, Courtney and I tracked down the Melt truck for another taste. We both had the Magical Mushroom Melt, messy but oh so awesome. Basketball was great, we tried to play at Kanewai Park (my old stomping grounds in college) but they took out the lights and the people didn't want to play with us. So we headed back to Makiki Park for some full-court ball. After two quick games and a shower, we ended the night with beer pong and king's cup at Tony and Christina's. The SOD's (Supervisors on Duty me and Chaz) defeated Stock-Peter and Tony AND Sales-Matt and Christina, what can say that's how we roll!
Sunday was spent at Lanikai with Malia and Kat. I haven't been to Lanikai since the break up, it was our favorite beach and we loved going into Kailua to eat. Slowly I've been returning to the places and things that we both called our favorite, and reclaiming them as just my favorite. Making new memories, sharing my favorite eating places, shops, etc. with other people I love. It was good to be back. Before we hit Lanikai we stopped in at Kalapawai Market, I had my usual Feta-Veggie on Foccacia with an Italian soda, oh how I've missed Kalapawai. Hands down the best sandwiches on the island.
It was a great weekend, sad to see it go so fast... no onto 10 days of straight work, then I'm off to Cali. It's a good thing I got some sun while I could I probably won't be back at the beach till April sometime!

I'm becoming quite the east-side adventurer, if I say so myself. Ok well maybe not so adventurous because I keep revisiting the same beaches, the same hikes. But I pretty much go every weekend. I had so much fun going sunrise hiking with my coworker Matt, I made Wayne come with me on a hike the week after. I thought it would be a great photog adventure, and that we'd get some great photos of the sunrise and hopefully some whales. Unfortunately everytime I busted out the camera, the whales decided to go back into the ocean. Bastards.  But at least I got some good photos of our hike and of Wayne.
After we headed to Cafe Kaila for some breakfast, but had some awful service... well not service as a whole, awful seating service, read my Yelp review.

Sunrise at Maks.

Sunset Beach

Malia, Tammy, Me, and Wen having a lazy Sunday on the N. Shore.

February has come and gone, 2011 has been flying by. And I'm glad, it seems like just what I need; keeping myself busy, doing things I love with the people I love. 

Last weekend I worked on both Saturday and Sunday, and even though I had Monday off I had to do the Great Aloha Run (running = work). Which by the way I complete in 1.5 hours, cheehooo. And in between all that working and running, I managed to get in dinner with Wendy, Villa, Waikiki Bar night (we hit 5 bars in one night!), and taco night at my house. It was a busy busy weekend. So this weekend I had the entire weekend off, and there wasn't anything else I wanted to do but be at a beach with good company. So my goal for this weekend was to spend 80% of it in a bikini, and that I did. Now I don't get many 2-day weekends, so I felt as if I had all the time in the world to do whatever the hell I wanted, I took advantage of every minute. Here's what the weekend consisted of:

Friday evening

• Eat The Street in Kakaako with mom. Just like last time lines were ridiculous! But I did get to try my first Let Them Eat Cupcakes cupcake (li hing mui mango). LTEC is my old TGIF coworkers Nick and Kawehi's cupcake company, I'm incredibly proud of them! The cupcake was amazing, moist and tasted so delicious, I can't wait to see what's next for them! Also I was able run into a handful of old friends and coworkers.
• Not wanthing to wait in line, Wayne picked me up and we went to eat at Camilias with Anna and Wendy. ALL YOU CAN EAT YAKINIKU! I had the meanest yakiniku cravings all week, totally satisfied it.
• After yakiniku Wayne and I had a Glee Karaoke sesh at my house! "Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putta..." ahhh favoritest Glee Karaoke song right now.

Saturday... longest day EVER

• Sunrise hiking with Matt at Makapuu!! Something I've never done before and it was AMAZING!! We also got to see a whale (I effing love whales).
• After hiking and a beer run at Foodland (that's right an 8 am beer run), we headed to Sandy's and got prime parking spots close to gas chambers. The Bong kids came (Kat, Mark, Chaz, Christina, Rachel, Sean, and Tony) and we spent the whole day posted at the beach. I still couldn't find the guts to get in the water but, we did get to bury Chaz in the sand and he couldn't get up, it was pretty entertaining. Hopefully Matt posts the video of that.
• After 8 hours at the beach, I headed back into town and got ready for an evening with Courtney, whom I haven't seen in forever. We hit up the Melt food truck for dinner, and I got my first taste of the greatest grilled cheese sandwich EVER. You people need to follow @meltHNL on twitter.
• We then headed to Makiki Park to meet up with Matt, Tony, and Christina to play some basketball. Here I thought we were going to just shoot some hoops, it turned into a full court game. I haven't played basketball like that since the college days, so I was pretty rusty. Hopefully we will turn this into a regular thing because I forgot how much I love the game.
• You'd think my night would've ended there. No it kept going with beer pong at Tony and Christina's place. By the end of the night, I renamed the day "The return to college" because cruising Sandy's, basketball, beer pong, reminds me off the carefree college days.

Sunday (lazy day with the girls)

• ROAD TRIP! Time for my monthly trip up country and thankfully it was a wonderful sunny day. I was joined by Wendy and Malia.
• We started with li hing margaritas at Cholo's (it's almost like tradish already).
• After meeting up with Tammy we decided on spending the day at Sunset tanning and girl talking. It was a beautiful day, clear skies and the sun was blazing. I unfortunately was fried from 8 hours at Sandys the day before so I reapplied sunscreen EVERY hour. And Anthony stopped by to visit!
• Someone at Superbowl watching told me that Banzai Sushi at the North Shore Marketplace had the "best sushi" on the island. That being said I of course had to try it out, so before we headed back into town stopped in for a bottle of Sapporo and couple of sushi rolls. Read my review on Yelp.
• Our day ended back in town at a bbq at Magic Island with Ala and Joey. Tired and sunned-out I only stayed for a hour (sorry Ala I'm pooped!).
• Now to ended this wonderful weekend I'm watching the Oscars and typing this.

I'm exhausted, thank you to all my friends (and the weather gods) for making this weekend AMAZING.

Two weekends ago me and Wayne went to the Newtown driving range. It was a nice sunny Sunday, and Wayne and I tried to put our one semester of golf to good use. It was nice to be hitting balls, I forgot how much I enjoyed going to the driving range. Also it was awesome that beers were $3 and you could take them to your hitting stall. I wanna go to batting cages next, I doubt they let you drink beer there though.
My posts have been pretty sporadic, sometimes I think it's because I don't really like turning on my computer these days. Too many old photos and memories. You know I always though how wonderful digital media was you could save it forever. Now as I am finding it hard and a long process to get rid of the files I want. Damn you technology, damn you for making this harder than it should be.

Here are some of my favorite photos from me and Wayne's first photo sesh field trip. Over the past year we both got DSLR cameras and we're still learning to use it. We picked Aloha Tower Marketplace for our first photo sesh, because the weather was great, there was lots of people, places, and things around us, and I wanted to eat some wings at Hooters after. haha. Wayne invited 2 of his teacher friends who also are into photography. My favorite part was actually going up the tower. I've never actually been up there, amazing because I have taken many trips to Aloha Tower. We are planning to do more of these maybe once a month. I really want to take a photography class, I was thinking the Outreach College at UH. I've taken photojournalism when I was in school, but that was like over 5 years ago (geeeez that sounds like a long time). 

Places I'd like to go on Photog field trips to:

The Contemporary Museum

A contest from the upcoming Vans Triple Crown

Kailua Town

D-town

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Picnic at Kakaako Park

Kam Drive Inn Swap Meet

...hmmm Japan, Europe, back to NYC?

Anybody else have any suggestions?

Belated post.... before I left for Lanai (like 3 weeks ago, I know I know SLACKING). Cory organized a booze cruise for us bongers!!!! $30 for 90 min, OPEN BAR. The alcohol was cheap but after 2 drinks you couldn't really tell. hahaha. It was nice to be out on the water, and I didn't get seasick. I told Cory we should do this EVERY month! The only crappy thing was with all that drinking I was forced to hold my pee. They had a bathroom, down below deck, but come on... would YOU use a bathroom that drunk people use while out at sea, can you imagine how gross it is or how many people have missed the toilet bowl. Gross.

That's my cousin Dylan! Can you tell that we are related? He's a quarter Japanese if you couldn't tell from his blonde hair. He's the first great grandchild on the Kawachi side, so move over Kelly, Dylan is the "baby" of the family now! (my sister is the youngest grandchild, five years younger than me and Greg and EVERYONE just adored her when she was little). Anyway back to Dylan... Jami and Dylan were in town to help my Auntie Dee-Dee and Uncle Dick pack for the move to California. They took a break so we could all take a field trip to the zoo (one of my favorite places). Dylan is the coolest kid around, everytime we would see an animal's butt he would just bust out laughing like it was funniest thing in the world. Kid's are a trip! We got to see the tigers, giraffes, and a rhinoceros take a crap. Sad story though, the keiki zoo was closed. That's one of my favorite parts of the zoo!! I love it when Jami visits, hopefully we will be able to visit her in Cali in October... DISNEYLAND here we commmmme!