Waikiki—about to get on the catamaran—like how I made Rajiv hold my purse?
Molten lava!!
Black sand beach
Hiking the Kileua Iki trail (I probably butchered the spelling)
Inside Thurston lava tube
Hi everyone, Deepta here! It’s been a while since our last update but we’ve been up to a lot! First and foremost, we had a fantastic vacation in Hawaii, first stop being the Big Island and second stop Oahu with Daisy and Justin. Believe it or not it was my FIRST time in Hawaii ever (practically a crime living here in California), but it was beautiful. The two islands were very different; on the Big Island we were on the Hilo and Volcano side and all our activities centered around Volcanos, lava and volcano formed nature. In our short time, we hit up the 5 mile Kileau Iki (sp?), black sand beach, lava tube exploration, a helicopter tour and watched a live molten lava flowing into the ocean once it was dark. Pretty awesome. Another highlight was where we stayed. It was a really cute bed and breakfast in the town of Keauu between Hilo and Volcano, and we couldn’t have had a better experience. Best of all, the couple who owned it were fabulous and gave us lots of reccos, not one of which failed us. Oahu was great, but the highlight had to be visiting my best friend Dax and her boyfriend. We really miss her here so it was awesome for her to take us to all the great places and meet all her buddies she’s been talking about since she’s moved there. We went on a mai tai caterman sail at sunset, hung out at the north shore (biggest waves EVER), ate shaved ice and had an unfortunate incident with a malasada (portuguese doughnut). We fit in some snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and hiked Diamond Head and of course ate and walked around all in between.
Onee big glaring thing—our flight back was ATA and it went out of business two days before—AUGHHH! It was a pain and expensive sorting it all out but luckily we are back safe and sound. Overall though, our first bigg-ish vacation since the Honeymoon as a married couple was a success! We’re already planning the next (and sticking to big name airlines!)
This past week was busy at work for us catching up from vacation. We had a rare exceptionally warm spring weekend in SF and we took advantage of it every moment. Friday we had a happy hour—in our balcony (or lunaii as Daisy and the Hawaiians say). This was inspired by our Hawaii trip where everyone always hangs out on the lunaii. Saturday we saw our friends Rene and Martha and went to dinner. We tried to go to Schnitzelhaus in Soma, a fun German restaurant that comes with beer in a boot, but they stopped serving food by the time we got there. Instead we went to Basil Thai down that street, which was excellent. That neighborhood can be considered a bit sketchy, but after living in Berkeley for four years, I am not only not afraid, but a little endearing of homeless people! So I don’t mind. We definitely are going to hit that area up again, we passed a lot of good stuff.
Yesterday, we did our east bay rounds—Didun, my parents and on the way back stopped at Jupiter—one of my favorite bar/restaurants from the Berkeley days that has an outdoor patio. It made me miss those college days….until I saw people with their backpacks, studying ;) Don’t miss that.
Anyway, we have an exciting week ahead of us—this weekend we celebrate Victor’s birthday and are going to not one, but TWO hip hop concerts (we didnt plan it that way but they were on the same weekend)—Kanye West on Saturday and Jay Z on Sunday! I’ve seen Jay Z (or HOV, Jigga Man, Sean Carter if you plase), but I am def most excited about Kanye.
Have a great week and enjoy the nice weather while it lasts! (Unfortunately, it has already dropped 30 degrees today. Boo).
Rajiv here while Deepta is watching American Idol and blowing her nose. This weekend, we both were still recovering from being sick though we already had plans for Saturday so we pushed ourselves.
During the day on Saturday we met Martha and Renee at their apartment first to see pictures and hear about their trip to Cancun. We then all went to lunch at Sushi House in Alameda, right on the water looking at the peninsula and san francisco. Everyone shared Sushi except me because you know I don’t eat fish. I still had yummy veg bento box!
After lunch, Victor came over first and we watched Enchanted on dvd which we all liked a lot! After the movie, Mandy came over and all of us went to dinner at Azie. It was fun seeing Victor and Mandy and catching up with them! Both of them had exciting new jobs to talk about.
Sunday we ended up just resting at home all day and on Monday Deepta found out that she had bronchitis, strep throat and an ear infection. So she taking a lot of medicine right now and resting in bed.
Both of us really looking forward to going to Hawaii next week and also seeing Daisy and Justin! Hopefully both of us will be fully recovered. We excited to see the black sand beaches and volcanoes in the Big Island and then all the exciting things Daisy has planned for us in Oahu.
Stay healthy and be careful of whatever is going around the bay area.
