Maui in November

I love hawaii.  Maybe its the 'island time', or maybe its the warm weather, but every time I go, I get a sense of peace and relaxation.  This was true for our recent trip to Maui for our friend Adam's wedding to his bride, Kris.  Adam and Travers were fraternity brothers in college. And Adam was one of our groomsmen in our wedding.  And Travers was now a groomsman in Adam's wedding.

Manmade waterfall at Hotel Wailea

I was a little hesitant about the trip only because I didn't really know anyone that was going to be there. We had met some of Adam and Kris' friends a few times, but hadn't seen any of them in a year or more.  But immediately upon getting off the plane, we ran into a couple of Adam's friends at the airport and immediately felt welcome.  The entire wedding party and their significant others were extremely friendly and inviting, and included us from the beginning in everything they did. I knew right away that it was going to be a good trip.

View from our Hotel Room

We got to Maui Wednesday afternoon and settled into the Hotel Wailea. This is one of the only hotels up on the hill above Wailea, and we had spectacular views of the ocean from the balcony off our room.  Our room, by the way, was more of a suite, with a separate living room and kitchen included.  We were nervous that it wasn't at the wedding site, the Grand Wailea, but the hotel was fabulous and the hotel staff drove a shuttle that took us back and forth from the Grand whenever we wanted.

At Capiche? Bar watching the sunset

After getting settled in, we stopped in at Capiche?, the restaurant on site at the hotel, for some happy hour drinks and appetizers.  We watched our first hawaiian sunset and fully took in the surrounding atmosphere.  We knew this was going to be one of the last times we would get warm weather for a long time (as we speak, it is mid 40's outside today in Geneva. Yikes).

That night we met up with one of Travers' other fraternity brothers, as well as some others from the wedding party. We had dinner at Longhi's, a restaurant at the Shops at Wailea, and followed up with drinks at the Grand Wailea.  It was fun to get to know the rest of the wedding party better, as we were going to be with them most of the time for the next few days.

Beautiful view at the luau

Thursday we had an early start with the wedding rehearsal at 8:30am.  I dropped Travers at the church at the Grand Wailea, and met up with one of the other wives of the wedding party and we walked the beach and checked out the neighboring hotels.  After an hour or so, they finished the rehearsal and we all proceeded to a rehearsal brunch at The Five Palms Restaurant in Kihei. After a delicious meal and a few speeches, the group headed back to the Grand Wailea to get a little sun and sand at the beach.

Some of the guys at the luau

It didn't last long though, because that afternoon, we went to a luau at The Marriott. It was so much fun to meet even more guests of the wedding and to see Travers re-connect with more of his fraternity brothers from college. The luau was one of the better ones I've been to, with delicious food (I couldn't get close enough to get a picture of them taking the pig out of the pit), and fun entertainment (the fire spinner at the end was amazing. I don't know how they don't burn themselves).

Another beautiful Sunset at the luau!

T & me beneath the Banyan Trees

Friday we were able to sleep in and relax by the pool at our hotel. We made our way to the Shops at Wailea and had lunch at Cheeseburger Island Style (delicious burgers!), then hopped in a taxi to Kihei, to join in some beach 'olympics' games that friends of the bride and groom had set up for everyone.  We were split up into teams, and played about 5 or 6 games, which lasted the entire afternoon.  These were not your average beach games either. Some required putting on snorkle fins and a mask, then racing across the beach with a beach ball between your knees (not easy to do).  Another included a giant slingshot where team members launched sponges across the beach for their teammates to catch in buckets. And another had some eating whipcream pies, hula hooping (after getting dressed up in a grass skirt and coconut bra), shooting a sponge off a can with a water gun, solving a word puzzle, and then burying a team member in the sand.  It was so much fun, and the two friends who organized it all, did a fantastic job. I've never been to a wedding before with such organized activities.  The day ended with dinner on the beach, made by one of the bridesmaids fathers, who owns and runs his own restaurant. Delish! (Sorry I have no pictures...too busy playing games).

T & Me with the happy couple!

Finally the day of the wedding arrived!  We spent Saturday morning laying by the pool at our hotel again, relaxing, resting, and saving our energy for that night.  The ceremony was at the church at the Grand Wailea, a beautiful church surrounded by a koi pond.  The ceremony was beautiful. Travers did a great job standing behind Adam.  And the bride looked amazing in her dress.  We then walked to a ballroom on the property for the reception.  The speeches were great, the food was delicious, and we danced and danced to most anything the band was playing.

All the Gators at the wedding!

Travers with groomsmen John &Aaron

We ended the night with an impromptu after-party in one of the groomsmen's hotel rooms, where we danced as long as we could until hotel security came to break it up. I was actually surprised it took them so long :-)

Jon, Travers, and John - Shirtless

The after-party group

Sunday was spent with a group brunch, then lots of rest and relaxation at the hotel and on the beach.  Travers and I had dinner that night at Duo, a restaurant at The Four Season's Hotel.  We called it an early night though as we were exhausted from the past few days festivities.  By Monday, we were ready to head back to the Bay Area. We spent the morning on the beach, grabbed a sandwich at Whaler's General Store, and said our goodbyes to Adam and Kris and all our new found friends.

We were sad to leave Maui, but excited to head back to California, where we would unpack, and re-pack before driving back down to San Luis Obispo to visit our new niece again and celebrate Thanksgiving early.

Aloha!

3 Cities, 2 Timezones, and a Cold

After a long and wonderful vacation back to the states, I sit here with a cold and sore throat.  Apparently too much travelling and good times will lead to getting sick.  But, it was well worth it.  We spent the past few weeks of November in the states visiting family and attending a friend's wedding in Maui.  We had to pack for 3 different climates, and took several plane and car trips, but we had a great time.

Our trip started with a few days in Los Altos, visiting my parents. We got to eat delicious Chinese food at Chef Chu's, one of our family's favorite places to go. Then I got to spend all day Thursday with my mom, running errands and catching up with each other, while Travers went to a conference in Santa Clara. Friday was spent shopping and having lunch with my bf Katy at the Stanford Shopping Center. We celebrated her birthday (two weeks early) and caught up on things as this was going to be one of our only times to see each other during this trip.

By Friday afternoon, Travers and I were already leaving Los Altos, and heading for San Luis Obispo to see our brand new baby niece, Kelsea.  This is my sister-in-law, Suzy's, and her husband, Tim's, first baby, and she is the cutest baby I have ever seen.

We got down to SLO Friday night (thanks Bryn for loaning us your car!). We went straight over to Suzy and Tim's as we couldn't wait to meet our niece.  Immediately, Suzy put Travers to work, by teaching him how to change a diaper. And we spent the next few hours passing her around so each of us could have a turn at holding her. She is so tiny, and so cute. Of course, Suzy has her in the most adorable outfits.

Saturday was spent at their house just playing with the baby and catching up with Suzy and Tim. We had a delicious brunch, then headed out downtown to take a stroll with the baby.  We then got some ingredients from the grocery store, and made our yummy chili at the house for dinner.  It was such a relaxing weekend and so good to spend some quality time with them.

Sunday, we spent watching fooball and saying our goodbyes, but thankfully we were going to see them again a week later so we weren't too sad just yet.

We drove back up to Los Altos and cooked dinner for my parents, spaghetti and homemade meatballs. Yumm! Apparently I made enough meatballs for my parents to have leftovers for lunch and dinner again!

Monday, Travers had to go into work in SF, so I went to work at Bryna's.  It was great to spend some one on one time with my sister and to catch up on what was going on with her business.  We then had a delicious lunch with our mom at Pacific Catch, then that afternoon, met my friend's Jen and Katy for a few glasses of wine at Pe Yale, a wine bar in cow hollow.  It was great to see them, but also sad to say goodbye because I'm not sure when the next time I'll see them is. But you can always tell when someone is a good friend when no matter after how much time has passed, you can pick up right where you left off. I know that Jen and Katy are great friends and time and distance won't affect our friendships.

Tuesday was our last day in SF, and I spent it at Bryna's again, to get in our quality sister time. Then Travers and I returned back to my parents house that evening for dinner, and to re-pack our bags for our trip to Maui the next day!

Aloha!

Halloween!!

Just a quick post about Halloween in Geneva.

Usually I don't like Halloween because most parties are too crowded, most people are obnoxious, and most costumes aren't that creative. But in Geneva, it was all different. We had heard of a Glocals party that is held every year. Its one of the best Glocals parties to go to, and our friend Michelle insisted we go with her, so we decided to wear the costumes we got for Oktoberfest and invited everyone over for a pre-party at our place!

All our friends dressed up too! We had Elle Woods from Legally Blond, a Celebrity in hiding at a Dodger game, Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, a Gorilla, and Cat Woman!

I think we had the best group of costumes ever but when we got to the Glocals party, I realized we had stiff competition.  There were about 1500 other people at the party which was held at a club called Palladium!  Here are some of the best costumes I saw, but I'm sure there were hundreds of other really creative ones.

Needless to say, it was a fun night and one of the best Halloween's I've had in a long time. We leave for a trip back to the states tomorrow so to quote my husband:
"Ghool-Bye"
hahahaha.