Back from Kauai

Kauai is beautiful. There are beaches, waterfalls, canyons, coastlines, and wild chickens... yes, wild chickens! The Kauai Marriott was amazing, everything you could ever want in a beach resort. The pool area is ridiculously huge and beautifully laid out, with 5 separate jacuzzis. The weather bordered between sunny and slightly overcast to drizzly up in the canyons, and It rained in very short bursts just a few times we were there, mostly at night. Loved the shaved ice with the macadamia nut ice cream at the bottom, and cannot wait to make myself another waffle w/macadamia nuts and coconut shreds, a drizzle of strawberry syrup and some whipped cream. Need to buy some furikake asap. Everyone we encountered out there was very nice and friendly, both the locals and the fellow tourists. We also really loved the little town of Hanalei where we stopped for lunch. Kauai really is a beautiful place, and I hope one day to return (maybe w/future kids!).

some scenic shots.



the amazing kauai marriott. check out the pool - those are separate jacuzzis under gazebos, and that's the beach that fronts the resort and the view from our balcony.



local wildlife - totally loved taking pictures of them. roosters/chickens really were everywhere - parking lots, sandy beaches, wilderness, etc!



yummy food. some of our favorite places were hamura saimin, shrimp station, jo-jo's shaved ice. i need to make a waffle w/coconut shavings and macadamia nuts pronto.



we had a great time.



Next stop: Yosemite

Tahoe Snowboarding

i love tahoe and i love snowboarding. this season has been pretty great to me. i hit up the mountains 10 times on 8 separate trips. i'm actually starting to carve and i don't fall off chairlifts as much. being up on the mountains in the snow and boarding down the mountain is just exhilarating. i seriously feel like i can't get enough. thank goodness there's always next season!

andy's a great skiier. too bad he has to wait for me a lot.

we hit up 6 different resorts this season: kirkwood (5), heavenly, sierra, boreal, northstar, and squaw valley. it's hard to say which is my favorite, it really all depends on the weather and what kind of day i'm having on the slopes. i really love the backside at kirkwood though, it's just so wide and open ... anything seems possible! it didn't hurt that it was a beautiful day too.

just gorgeous. great groomed packed powder.

of course, not all days had just fantastic weather. a few times the weather was pretty snow stormy / blizzardy. one time we even got stuck up in tahoe due to a big snow storm and closed roads. another day it was really warm and people were out there in just t-shirts. every day on the slopes is fantastic though - regardless of the weather!

a really cold and stormy day up on the mountains

a few shots from a few beautiful days

the day we were at squaw valley, american eagle outfitters presented a concert of the gym class heroes. i love them, and i love american eagle. since i was the only one who wanted to watch them, we didn't make it back for the show. luckily, i did catch their last song! also an interesting experience was night boarding. i got to do that twice - once at boreal and again at northstar. the best part of night boarding is that you don't have to go home at 4 PM, but it sure gets incredibly cold out there at night!

travis from gym class heroes.
i'm sure you've heard cupid's chokehold on the radio - that's them!

night boarding changes things up a bit, but it's still better in the day time

one of the best parts of going to tahoe is boarding with your buddies. we have a good amount of friends who board or ski and it was always a fun time when we were joined by a few of them. thanks everyone who was so patient with me. i'm just not a fast snowboarder ... i like to take my time and cruise down the mountain. i hope to be a lot faster when i really get the hang of carving though - next season!

and andy totally loves skiing. he is seriously always thrilled to be up there on the mountain. i hope that i can one day be good enough to keep up with him! unfortunately, since i'm the (un)official photog on these tahoe trips, there's rarely any pictures of me! it's okay though, as long as I get my shot with andy i'm happy.

i'm hopeful that we'll hit the slopes just one more time this season, although it's quite unlikely given our upcoming travel/vacation schedule. we'll see though! we're off to Kauai this weekend to celebrate our 8 year anniversary. next post: beaches, snorkeling, waterfalls, etc!