Christmas Vacation
Christmas Vacation. When I hear that lovely phrase I always get excited either from: 1) watching the epic Chevy Chase flick, or 2) spending time with family far away from home 2) This year the latter came true!
I flew out to Hawaii to see my brother and his wife for Christmas this year and stayed in a town called Kaneohe on Oahu. They are both second-year residents at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, so when they are not working dangerously long hours, we spent quality time together laughing and chilling out. I’m all about quality over quantity.
Looking back we realized how much fun we during our time together. Here are a few highlights I am excited to share (in chronological order):
Paddleboarding tested our balance and sense of humor…. a great way to shake off the jet lag (literally 90 minutes prior to this I sat on a plane from Denver).
Sampled and savored fresh food at the Kailua Farmer’s Market. Nomnomnomnom.
Indulged in a family tradition of concocting all the healthy food in the house into cookies we could justify eating until we gained back about 5 lbs.
Got our groove on at the Kern’s second-annual Christmas party bash in which 23 friends brought on the holiday cheer! Practicing Vogue-posing (I’m in back in black):
Christmas morning opening up presents. My folks went super thoughtful this year… and even wrapped our gifts (Target shopping bags is the norm). One of the coolest surprises came from my father who gifted me VW valve stem caps for my new Jettasportwagon TDI wheels. Now I’ll be cruising around town in style (love those little details) with my snowtires.
First attempt on hiking the Stairway to Heaven route (failed due to flash flood warnings and bad directions).
Hiked to the Pillboxes in Kailua instead and shot a few portraits of Sean and Molly. 
Successfully perpetrated to the summit of somewhere I am really not supposed to say. Taking this photo of sunrise over Oahu couldn’t capture the whole experience, but my super wide angle lens did a decent job of trying (the rest is in my memory):
Shot a few bogies and birdies on the Marine Crops golf course with these three characters overlooking the Pacific Ocean (I usually play Maverick, while Sean plays Goose):
You haven’t experience a REAL neighborhood fireworks celebration until you come to the Hawaii. These people love their fireworks. Seriously our next door neighbor strung a rope across the street with a pair of ladders. The BOOMING started 4:30pm and lasted until 2:30am.
Sunrise on Kauilua Bay, discovering awesome sand castles that made it through the night (awesome to see kids these days still have great imaginations).
Seriously, I found Paradise. Located on the North Shore of Oahu, Paradise Found Cafe left me stuffed and happy with their local, organic vegetarian cuisine.
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