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
