Bula Vinaka!

Four fabulous days in Fiji and the photos to prove it!

Here I am in a traditional sulu (it's just like a long sarong but they call it a sulu so that makes it very exotic - the men wear them too, but shorter) in a somewhat traditional rural market. We visited the village of Navala - the most traditional village in all of the main island of Fiji. The entire village looked just like this! I absolutely love Fiji and recommend everyone visit it at some point. But wait until the Marriott is complete. ;)

This afternoon we arrived in Sydney. I loved it immediately and it made me miss San Francisco. Turns out, I may truly be a city girl at heart. I can see the Opera House from my hotel window. So even if I don't get in good sightseeing, at least I've seen something.

Bula Vinaka!
Jenni

3 Wonderful Years

On Wednesday we celebrated our third anniversary - of dating, of course. Pretty crazy to think we've known each other for three years. And to look back on all that we have done and accomplished together. Full of good times, the three years are just a jumping off point for the future.

We didn't take any pictures on Wednesday, silly us! So the picture above is from a different, very special event.

Fiji, here I come!

It is definitely my lucky week! On Friday night my boss and I depart for a week-long trip to Fiji and Sydney. I am totally excited! Our client is developing a new resort at Momi Bay on the largest island on Fiji and we'll be spending most of our time there but may take a boat trip to the nothern Yasawa Islands. I think my time there will be very much work-focused but I hope to see some sights and enjoy it as much as possible.

After our four days in Fiji, we're heading to Sydney for two and a half days to meet with business contacts and more clients. People seem to think Sydney will be even more exciting than Fiji so I'm looking forward to that. I've never been west of Hawaii so this is definitely a cool adventure for me.

Bryan will be holding down the fort over here and I'm sure he'll be up to lots of good adventures too.

Aloha,
Jenni

Pretty!

Pool Party

Today we were invited to a "pool party" at the house of someone we barely know. It was very nice of her to think of us and we definitely didn't have any other plans. The house is in the absolute nicest area of the island. The neighbors include the owners of the Denver Broncos. The party house is worth about $5 million and is rented by 6 people. It's an unsual house probably built in the 60's. What's most amazing is that it literally backs up to the ocean - complete with stairs leading into the ocean for surfing or kayaking, and fishing poles that allow you to catch dinner from your own back yard! It was incredibly surreal. Felt like we should be in some TV show.

We had a pretty good time overall and did our best to soak up the experience. It's not very likely that we'll often get to chill in the hammock as the waves break at our feet.

Definitely a lifestyle to aspire to. How many paychecks do we need to save to buy a house like this?

Botany and Free Time

On Friday I had the day off but Bryan had to work. After enough time on the couch with indulgent cable programming (i.e. Real Housewives of Orange County) to make me feel very relaxed, I hauled myself out of the house and went to the Waioli Tea Room just up the street in Manoa Valley. It's a supercasual and not-swanky restaurant that serves tea. I like the quiet setting and the lush landscape reminds me of Hilo. It was like the first day in 8 weeks that my free time was spent apart from Bryan. I got a bit geeky and was tripping out on all the unusual Hawaii plants. This is some plant growing on a tree branch. I happened to see one of these for sale once so know that it's very rare and expensive. The Hawaii folks can fill me in on what it's called and how it grows. I just like that it's weird.

I took a bunch of pictures of more attractive plants that I'll try to share over the next few days.

Aloha,
Jenni

Icing on the Weekend Cake

Last weekend was perfect. Exactly what we wanted Hawaii living to be!

It started with new friends and great art at First Friday downtown. Saturday was beautiful and I felt completely "in it" to be paddling in the ocean first thing in the morning - followed by a trip to the farmer's market. A paddling BBQ and dinner at Ed and Kimberly's capped of the day. I'd have thought it couldn't get better.

But...

Then we went sailing. Ed and Kimberly were so awesome to invite us to join them and their friends for a mid-day sail. It felt perfect to be out in the beautiful blue ocean, in the wind and sun, and seeing the island from the sea. Absolutely a perfect day!

Ed, our captain, is pictured with his beer.

Aloha,
Jenni

Meeting Ed and Kimberly

Since the moment I told my roommate Carolyn that Bryan and I were moving to Hawaii, I've been hearing how wonderful Ed and Kimberly are, and how we have to meet them. Ed and Kimberly are part of a large group of wonderfully hospitable and friendly people mostly based in San Francisco. People in this group have become our friends, our dinner hosts, our camping buddies and much more. So it was a great pleasure to meet the Hawaii contingency of this group!

Ed and Kimberly had us over to dinner at their place with a few of their friends. We feasted on very good food, fine wine and a few shots of tequila. The evening flew by with great conversation, gun fire (see picture - it's a plastic gun with plastic pellets to frighten the birds away) and a dip in their hot tub. Before we knew it, it was after 1am and one of the best nights we've had here.

Art on the Street

On Friday night we took in what they call First Friday. The art galleries downtown stay open late and everyone takes to the streets to see art, to mingle and drink a bit. It was great. Hip and cultural. Welcoming and fun. Here's a top picture from the night. The signs the kids are holding say "you're great" and "you're fantastic". I don't really know the significance but I like that they pegged us so well.

We are great! And fantastic!

Sunny Sunday

On Sunday we had our first fully relaxing day. No trips to the mall or Comp USA, no garage sales, calls to utility companies or extensive research on window blinds. And for once, no rain! We decided to celebrate with a picnic on the beach. Here we are overlooking Diamond Head beach. It's this super charming, very manicured garden on the cliff above the beach. We eventually made it down to the sand and soaked up the sun until the dark rain clouds looked too threatening.

We finished out the day with kabobs on the roof deck with Brian and his initiation to Grey's Anatomy. If he hangs out with us enough, he will learn to love it!

A Night Out

On Saturday night we attended the Pele Awards. They're the local award show to celebrate advertising and design. We got all dressed up and ventured out to snack on pupu's (that's appetizers for you non-native speakers), meet new folks and hit the dance floor a bit. Turns out the ad and design community here is full of San Franciscans.

And here we are getting silly with the statues.

Missed Connection with Fiji

30 minutes ago there was a really good chance that I would be flying to Fiji on Saturday. Here's the story:

The account I work on is Marriott Hawaii. We do all their advertising and collateral for the hotels, resorts and vacation ownership properties here on the islands. Marriott Fiji called the agency a few weeks ago and asked us to send a proposal to do work for the hotel they're constructing at Momi Bay in Fiji. Crazy cool, huh? I kept pushing my way into the project and yesterday my boss comes by to ask if I have a passport because he thinks it "makes sense" for me to accompany him to Sydney and Fiji. Hooray, hooray, hooray!!! Alas, the client can't commit to working with us yet so a departure on Saturday isn't going to happen. There's still hope that it might work out in the future but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Hope your week has been filled with fun surprises too!

Aloha,
Jenni