Aloha to Blogging!

I saw on facebook about a month ago that Charlie's younger sister Sarah blogs, and I have been following it, which inspired me to start blogging again. I think the fact that we are young and in love, traveling, working, learning, etc, is going to be something that in the future I will be glad I kept track of.

We just got back from our first vacation together - Hawaii. We went to the Big Island for 2 days because neither of us had been. I have wanted to swim with dolphins for forever and we both did that, and my parents suggested that we go see the volcano. Unfortunately, we drove for several hours to the freezing mountain in Hilo (where there was a forecast of snow) with no sweatshirt or anything (I was wearing a bikini under my clothes!),

 and we didn't even see anything spectacular. Apparently there is still a lot of glowing lava etc, but we missed it.

The next day we swam with dolphins, and it was SO worth it! My friend from high school Rachel Martin told me that it can seem inhumane but I actually disagree. It seems just like how we keep dogs as pets. The dolphins are well taken care of, loved, fed, etc. They live much healthier lives with longer live spans than wild dolphins. The one in the pictures to the right was 26! The average lifespan of a wild dolphin is 12.


We ate at a restaurant my parents recommended called "Monstera" on the Big Island. I ordered a seafood papaya dish. It is scallops, shrimps, and mushroom cooked in half a papaya, and topped off with a miso aioli sauce. I was so proud of myself because Charlie and I were trying to figure out the flavor and I guessed miso! I told the waiter how much we loved it, and the owner came out at the end of the meal and gave us the recipe! Charlie put it in his laptop case I believe and I will post it.

After the two days on the Big Island we went to Maui. We stayed in Ka'anapali at the Marriott. Our room was ridiculous, we had a huge suite with a wrap around balcony. I definitely had some jumping on the bed moments. We had a direct view of the pool and the ocean, and it extended out that one day we didn't even leave the room to sunbathe, just did so on the balcony. It's crazy how even at a nice resort in Maui you can see how the economy has affected life - for example the limits on room service times, and the absence of many fancy resort restaurants on property.

In Maui we mostly lay around but we also did a snorkeling trip (where I swallowed a lot of seawater) and a waterfall hike on the road to Hana in which we literally had to swim, climb, "cliff jump", etc. Very fun! We bought sandwiches before and of course they got soaked in Charlie's camelback because we swam about 100-200 yards before the end.

Lots more pictures to post, but lots to go do! I need to drop off a Bar Mitzvah present - his favorite teams is the Angels so I got him a kippa with their logo on it and I think he may want to wear it tonight and tomorrow.

Aloha!