Maui!

We still celebrate Spring Break. One of the perks of having a husband who is a professional student ;) We decided to check out Maui since so many people we know in California have been and loved it and it was only a four hour direct flight. We left rainy and cold Mountain View for the sun and sand!

We loved the place we stayed in-- condos on Kanapalli Beach. Our suite had a full kitchen and a "lanai" that opened right out onto the lawn. The beach was perfect and we scored a pair of chairs with a cover for the week. The weather was perfect beach weather with highs in the low 80's and windy and cooler at night.

Our beach

We took a snorkeling/diving day trip one day to Molikini, a partially submerged volcanic crater which forms a small island off Maui. I was stuck with a large group of snorkelers and Karl went diving. The snorkeling was pretty decent and Karl said the diving was pretty good with really good visibility. We then went to Turtle Town, a popular sight for snorkeling and diving with big turtles. They were fun to watch and were all over the place. I was happy to have been able to squeeze into a wetsuit as the water was about 74 degrees. The most fun we had was swimming under water and hearing the songs of the humpback whales! It is migrating season for them as they migrate from Alaska to Hawaii for warmer waters to breed and give birth to their calves. It was the coolest thing to dive underwater and hear, clear as day, their loud songs echoing in the distance. On the way back, we spotted several whales from the boat and even a mom and baby that were very close to our boat. The captain put the boat in neutral and we watched a Mom whale teach her baby how to splash his tail fin over and over. It was so cool.

Molokini: Karl about to go under...

Mama whale slapping her tail with baby by her side

The rest of our time was spent reading on the beach, swimming, and walking on the boardwalk along the beach that connect all of the resorts and hotels on Kanapalli beach. We went into Lahaina one day for a paddleboarding lesson. With its recent popularity and seeing so many people doing it in Maui and back home on Lake Tahoe, we wanted to check it out. If you haven't seen it, It's basically a very wide, sturdy board that looks like a big surf board and you get one big paddle to push yourself around with as you stand on it. After a few minutes of instructions on how to start out and get up on the board, our tour guide took us all over from the shores of Lahaina. It was calm in this area as there was a large reef protecting the area from large waves. It was a perfect spot as we were learning. The entire bottom of the area we were in was covered in coral so we had to maneuver our boards around the reef which made it more fun. As we paddled it was almost like snorkeling from above as we could see fish, starfish and even a reef shark as he swam around and hunted. We watched the shark mozy around the reef and then expose his top fin as he came almost out of water in the shallow areas on top of the reef. Neither one of us fell off and we are officially certified paddle boarders!

Two paddle boarders

We decided to take a half day to do some exploring/hiking on the island given how many awesome hikes and drives there are on the island. We drove north and hiked to two blow holes. These were formed by lava shelves forming over the water and after many years of the waves crashing on the lava, a hole is formed in the lava and the waves crashing under the shelf, cause a blow hole to form. It was cool to watch and water shot up probably a good 30 feet. Our second hike was down to Olivine Pools. There are seven calm pools along the edge of these cliffs where waves are pounding the outside of these pools and water is collected in the pools which are perfectly calm. Karl was the only brave one to get in ;)

Olivine Pools

Hiking along the coast

Blow Hole

We had some of the freshest, yummiest seafood at some of the most amazing restaurants with sunset views overlooking the ocean. Even the luau we went to had an awesome sunset view. Everything was made with fresh coconut, pineapple and macadamia nuts-- I could eat it all, every day and never get tired of it!

Sunset view from one of our favorite restaurants

21 1/2 weeks

It was the perfect, relaxing beach vaca....and probably the last one just the two of us for a while ;)

8.03 is Baby Day!

Yow! It's been a while! To catch up quickly since my last post: we traveled to Whistler, Aruba, Scotland and China. Now we're on to a new kind of adventure...parenthood! Scary, right? We're due 8.03. So...if you're interested in listening to the rants and raves of a crazy pregnant lady and following our new adventures in pregnancy, stay tuned!

Fall

I love fall. In Texas we would get all of three days of fall like weather and here it's fall weather 9 months of the year. But with the two gloomy, rainy days we had this week- I got in the fall mood! I uncovered all my fall home deco items, lit a few fall spiced candles, and dusted off my 'ol crockpot in preparation to try some new yummy stew recipes I found. And, of course as with every new season that rolls around I went on my quarterly Michael's extravaganza! I sort of lose it in that place. I mean like, stay for hours on a Sunday, slowly walking up and down every aisle staring, making friends along the way, lose it. I arrive armed with a Starbucks, grab a basket and case the place. This year I had a pretty specific agenda. I wanted to make a couple fall wreaths. If you know Michael's you know that the place is always busting at the seams with stuff for holidays coming up in the next 3-4 months. Fall & halloween stuff? forgettaboutit. So old news. Even though neither has really occurred. Anything fall themed, Halloween themed and evenly remotely non-Christmas is currently 50% off. Score! I'm pretty sure the place is getting ready for Easter right now.

So, in the end (read: as the lights were going out, the check out ladies were watching me, Karl calls and reminds me that he does indeed need to eat dinner and I had to finally check out) I got exactly what I wanted and was able to whip up these two puppies for...wait for it. A total of.......$20! Inspired by a few fall wreaths I had seen on various websites, catalogs, etc., I think they turned out pretty well. Our home sure is fall cozy now!


The cute wreath my Mom got me a few years ago for our hallway mirror. Love it!

And the vase my Dad got me for my birthday full of fall flowers :)

Lobster Fest

The feast we look forward to all year. Lobster, butter, corn, potatoes, artichokes, and bottomless wine at Pine Ridge Winery in Napa. Amen.

IPad

I'm addicted. This is just one of the many ways I love to use it. Recipes at my stove, while I cook, with no printing involved. Sa-weeet! (Top fav: lying in bed, surfing the web, under a pile of Bit 'O Honey wrappers ;)


And a bonus shot of me channeling my inner June Cleaver in my new apron Riane & David gave me for my bday. Love it! (Karl says, Thanks Riane for encouraging my wife to spend more time in the kitchen ;) Ha!

AND, in case you were wondering what we whipped up this lovely evening, the best pork chops Karl has ever grilled with Pineapple Green Onion Salsa and a Vietnamese Noodle Salad on the side....yum- O!


Why the charcoal grill and not the gas onel? It was getting lonely. We thought we'd switch it up and it's right outside the kitchen so we fired it up while we chopped away inside. Best pork chops ever...still thinking about them. Good work babe!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

We're not going to talk about how it's been over a year since my last blog post..haha. Let's just say the last year has been a busy one. I was thrilled to finally decorate for Xmas this year in our new home for the first time! We we're officially in our new pad last Christmas but we left for Austria mid December so we didn't bother with a tree, deco, etc. So, this year- it was on!

Now that I have ALL of our stuff out here from our Austin home, I was able to unpack all my Xmas deco from over 4 years ago! It was like opening new presents all over again! So fun. I collect ornaments as we travel and unwrapping all of them and hanging them and finally hanging them was so fun! We tried to remember each place and where I picked them up along the way. I don't even know which one is my favorite--there are so many cool ones! My mom and I trade ornaments each year and Riane gave me some super cool ones all the way from London. This was the first time we've had them all on the tree!

I also started collecting village pieces to start a Xmas village and this was the first year I actually was able to set them up. I love my Irish pub and Gluhwein hut so far!

Happy holidays!



Double decker bus all the way from London from Riane- love it!

One of my all time favs from Tay in 2001 ;)

Making Zin in Sonoma!

My friend invited us up to make wine with her and her family. Her dad and his friend make wine together. They live in Sonoma county, in Healdsburg. My friend grew up there her whole life and I think they are so lucky to live in the heart of the beautiful wine country! It is especially gorgeous up there this time of the year...when the trees and vineyards are all the color of fire. Tons of reds, oranges and yellows. Super cool. They sell most of their grapes to Napa wineries, Clos du Bois is the main buyer, but some of the grapes they save for themselves to make their own wine and bottle for themselves. Seriously, is that the best way to retire or what?

We, of course, couldn't turn down a trip to the wine country and a chance to see the magic! After testing the sugar content of the grapes, her dad confirmed Saturday was a go. They had a crew out to pick all the grapes off the vines and then they stuck them all through a de-stemer. It's this machine that takes the first pass at sifting through the grapes and removing the debris and stems. Then, they had put the grapes in this huge plastic container (like almost as tall as me and big) and added an enzyme to the tub to make the skins super soft and it also started to start the fermentation process. At the point we arrived the grapes were mush, with most of the skins dissolved. Alcohol was already present as the fermentation process had begun.


the men learning how the operate the press...it wasn't a "stomp" like I love Lucy =)

Our job was as follows: take buckets full of the grape mush to the wine press, fill to the top, crank the press down and out flows the juice! Fast! We were running all over the place. At that point, two of us manned the bottom of the press and using strainers, strained the juice as it flowed into the ice chest. The ice chest was hooked up to a pump that pumped the juice right into these huge stainless steel tanks. Here the juice will go through malactic acid fermenting and turn into yummy Zin! The bottling process happens next, after they have tasted and tested the wine over several months to get it just right. (That's the next project we'll get to help out on.)


Julie & me managing the straining process

We got our system down and were all running around making sure we captured every last drop of juice that was flowing out of the press. It comes out pretty fast as they really cranked the press down tight. We had to be quick on our toes and organized to make sure we strained everything going in the chest. The mush was a little extra "mushier" than they had planned and as we cranked down the press, sometimes, random chunks of grapes would come flying out of the top or side of the press.


all the debris leftover in the press...grape skins, stems, clumps of seeds, etc.

It ended up getting Julie & me pretty good one time. It got me right in the face and was all in my hair and eyes. I quickly ran off to rinse my face because even though purple stained hands might be ok for work on Monday, a purple streaked face wouldn't be so cool. I found chunks inside my ears! We were completely covered with purple chunks by the time we were done. Luckily, Julie told us to wear all black or something that could get stained. We sported our "bank robber" outfits and were fine.


Julie & me getting every last drip of wine pumped out of the ice chest into the tanks

Brian & Karl were working hard, lifting empty barrels and moving big things around. It was really fun seeing the magical process of turning grapes into wine. Definitely made me appreciate all the work and time that goes into it. Of course, the big vineyards have major equipment for this process and probably aren't using Bed, Bath and Beyond strainers to strain the juice, but our homeade version worked out well!


The Sinclair's beautiful ranch and vineyard. Just some of their vines pictured here.

Her parents and their friends rewarded us at the end of the 4 hour session with a bbq in the middle of the vineyard. We were surrounded by huge, full vines, mountains and Mike's garden of all kinds of crops, on an absolutely perfect fall day. We drank their award winning Sauvagnion Blanc that recently won a Gold medal for best of class, as chowed down on BBQ. It was a great day! Later, he let me pick golden delicious apples from his apple tree since they had so many they wouldn't even get to them all. He had all kinds of crops- cabbage, pears, beans, tomatoes, artichokes, squash and even pumpkins. I chose two to take home for the front porch.


Now, for the fun part--all the cleaning after we were done!


did you know this is what artichokes looked like after they pass the point of picking? So cool!

At the end of the day, after cleaning every piece of equipment, bucket and tool, Julie's dad was very generous and gave us a case of their Zin we had sampled at lunch. Heck yeah! We'll work for wine anytime! Ah, the wine country. A perfect place to retire some day I think. And visit often in the meantime ;)