Last Days in Hawaii and North Shore Oahu Favorites

Every move has its twists and turns. For the end of our stint in Hawaii, we had the following timeline:

Finishing work in early June
Vacating our apartment in early June
Leaving the state in mid-June

We would have loved to stay in our apartment a little longer, but our landlords wanted to have the apartment rented before they left the island for the summer. Totally understandable. It did mean that we were:

Selling items that were not coming with us (which means the apartment was messy a lot)

In and out of the apartment as it was being shown (which meant we had to keep it extra clean)

Finishing the school year

Getting docs read to apply for visas to our new post.

Getting the timing right to sell our car.

Needless to say, it was a very busy time. Shoutout to Cam for holding the fort together when I couldn’t.

We made a point of spending as much time outside as we could while the weather was nice and still not terribly hot. Which gave us views like these (from the Tantalus lookout in Honolulu):

Our apartment didn’t take long to rent out – two showings, and someone agreed to move in the day after we moved out. Oof.

Which left us with about a week in Hawaii.

We decided to spend our last week at a rental in the North Shore – our first time staying there was over spring break, and let me tell you: there is something magical about falling asleep to the sound of real ocean waves.

Pat’s at Punalu’u has a variety of condos and cottages, some of which are for rent. Make sure you check the rental minimums, as some places are different depending on the permits they have. In the first half of 2021, we stayed at three different places in the same building: over spring break, Memorial Day weekend, and our last week on the island. Cannot recommend them enough and the hosts are a dream to communicate with – especially LaRona, who manages several properties on the building. If the one you’re looking at isn’t available on the dates you want, ask her about others.

Here is the place we stayed in during Memorial Day weekend (an apartment with a balcony).

And the cottage we stayed in for our last week in Hawaii.

Now, if you do go to the Hau’ula, La’ie, Punalu’u area on the north coast of Oahu, here are some of our favorites:

Aloha Shrimp Food Truck

We started referring to this one as simply “shrimp shop”. Within walking distance of the Pat’s condos, this food truck – with seating area – serves multiple variations of the famous garlic shrimp that you can find all over the North Shore. Our favorite was the spicy garlic lemon shrimp, which comes with rice and salad. The sauce is so good, that honestly we would order just the rice with sauce and no shrimp. If you love garlicky spicy acidic foods, this is your dish. They do have two non-shrimp options on the menu, both cutlets: chicken and pork. We both tried the pork in separate occasions, and both agreed it was missing a sauce: something like a hoisin or maybe some oyster sauce thinned down with lime and soy sauce. You can see some pictures and other details in this review.

Plates average between $11 and $15. Cash only!

2. Penny’s Malasadas

Schedule is very limited on this one, but they do carry many different flavors of the island favorite malasadas – essentially, a fried donut without a hole with a very airy inside. You can get filled ones, but our favorites are the cinnamon sugar ones. It’s parked at the Longs Drugs parking lot in La’ie.

3. Tamura’s Market Hau’ula

Now why would we include a supermarket in this list of favorites?

Because it sells adult beverages.

We’re just throwing this one out there because not every grocery store in the vicinity does.

So if cocktails or cold ones are part of your chillin-by-the-beach plans, you should know that not all grocery stores in the La’ie area sell booze.

But Tamura’s does. Selection and prices definitely get the job done. And it’s a Hawaii based business (these all are, obviously) which is great to support.

We’ll be honest. We didn’t really swim on the beach that much. It was cold and stormy a fair bit. We did snorkel once and that was enjoyable.

This is one of the last sunsets we saw in Hawaii. I took these pictures through a window (I was making dinner):

We’re both working hard at taking more – and better – pictures. If you follow us on Instagram (@nomadicgregors, @analinmcgregor, and @nomadicgregorsphotos) you may have seen some of them. But here are some more.

And with that, Hawaii is now where we used to live.

August 27, 2021 1

Tourists at Home: We Finally Went Up Diamond Head

You know when you live somewhere and there are landmarks that everyone wants to see when they visit, and you live there, and you never go? Or you don’t go unless someone comes to visit, and you say you were saving it to visit with them, but really, you just never wanted to deal with the crowds and the parking?

That’s Diamond Head if you live in Honolulu.

Diamond Head is a mountain and a crater, I guess? There is a crater you can see when you go up. You’ll see it in pictures in a sec.

It’s also in the middle of Honolulu. It’s walking distance from Waikiki, and gives you great views of the southeast of Oahu. As you’ll see in my mediocre pictures, the views are quite beautiful.

Now, Diamond Head is a VERY popular hike. So you have to time it right to avoid crowds and find parking. In fact, most people just park at the bottom, walk, or take a bus/Uber. It’s also paved, so it’s very, very accessible, which makes it even more crowded. There is also no shade, so it’s not a hike everyone (ahem, Cam) can do at just any hour because it would be way too much sun exposure. Our firefighter friend told us it’s common to have to airlift people out of Diamond Head – people underestimate the risk of heat exhaustion often.

In between all that caution and hoping we could just do it when one of the throngs of visitors we would have living in Hawaii came, we had lived here for two years and still hadn’t gone up Diamond Head.

And then COVID happened.

As a result, parks, beaches, and trails in Oahu were closed on and off for the better part of 2020. This put a major damper on our hiking and general outdoor time. Not all of these outdoor spaces are managed the same way though – so even when the state reopened parks, trails, and beaches, Diamond Head stayed closed, because it’s a federally managed monument.

By the time Diamond Head opened again last month, it had been closed for almost nine months.

One Saturday, we decided we were just going to suck it up, and do it.

The first fun part: it was free because we’re Hawaii residents. Everyone else has to pay for entrance AND parking. So saving on that was fun.

Second fun part: already mentioned, but Diamond Head is all paved. Okay, not all paved. There are some sections of the trail that have rocks and gave us major Hallasan deja vu, but not terrible. So it’s a trail that is doable even if your gear isn’t great. We wore very worn down, old training shoes and it was fine.

Third fun part: there is a truck at the bottom that will sell Dole Whip, like what you get at Disneyland. Is it sad that the best part of the hike was finishing it and getting Dole Whip?

Fourth fun part: We actually finished it in about the time prescribed – approximately two hours round trip.

Is it a must if you come to Oahu? No. We think the Makapu’u viewpoint is MUCH better, and a less crowded hike, even for sunrise, which is it’s most popular time. If you go back on the blog, you’ll find our thoughts on it.

Is it worth the money? Also probably no, but we didn’t pay, so I can’t really judge that.

Are there worse things you could be doing on a weekend afternoon? Absolutely.

The views are nice, but again, not views you can’t see from other points in Oahu. Nevertheless, good views.

These were tricky to take without having a bunch of people in them. NOBODY WAS SOCIALLY DISTANCING IN THAT SUMMIT!

I was trying to get a closeup of a super fancy house down there…but I’ll settle for the blue green waters.

Coming up: We are finally going to spend a few days up north for spring break. I might bring the big guns and use our DSLR while we are there. I’m looking forward to pictures of turtles, sunrises, and sunsets. I’m an old geezer now that wakes up before the sun most days of her life, so the least I can do is picture the sunrise, right?

We’ll also be talking about some of our favorite places to eat in upcoming posts. Love to all,

Ana

March 7, 2021 0

Outside of School, Ana Writes

I’ve spent the last year and a half or so developing a writing practice/business outside of school. Recently, an opportunity came up to share stories about how the pandemic had affected the lives of those who are or have been expatriates at different points in time.

So I figured it would be a good opportunity to try to explain why in the world were we thinking about stepping back into the international school circuit in the middle of the pandemic. Because at times, the idea of trying to get a job abroad in the middle of a pandemic, when many countries were in an out of lockdowns, really did seem crazy. Needless to say, the fall and winter have been a roller coaster of stress levels.

I tried to write this from a place of humility and from the understanding that everyone has their own priorities and everyone’s happy life looks different. Just different, not better or worse, right or wrong.

You can read Why we’re Returning Abroad Despite the Pandemic on Tales from a Small Planet.

If you’re curious about what life is like in other countries, I encourage you to peek around. You’ll be surprised!

It’s scary to put your thoughts out there in a space that doesn’t belong to us…but stepping out of the comfort zone is part of the writing craft, so there it is. I don’t know how many submissions they received, but I was proud to be chosen!

Enjoy!

Now that Hawaii is reopening more, we’re trying to do some things that were put on a very long pause due to lockdowns, so stay tuned!

Ana

March 5, 2021 0

#favoritethings: Coffee by the Water

I think we can all agree that in the times we’re living in, we are all trying to build practices that help us maintain our sanity and build joy through simple things.

Our Saturday mornings involve drinking coffee for…well, a few hours.

On Sunday mornings, we drink coffee for, again, a few hours.

I posted about this new ritual of ours on my Instagram a few weeks ago, and so many people loved this idea that I feel it’s worth sharing through a longer blog post.

A former colleague of ours told us about her version of Coffee By the Water years ago when we lived in Jeju, a 10 minute drive from the water: she would make coffee, put it in a tumbler, and then drive by the ocean to have her coffee with a view. In a time when we all need to find nourishing activities that help us preserve our sanity, this has turned out to be a great consistent activity to look forward to. Saturday mornings we get up, drink water, throw some clothes on, get coffee, and go. We would normally make coffee at home, but we’re still burning through a bunch of coffee gift certificates we got at Christmas, so we may not be making our own coffee…maybe up until Spring Break.

If you don’t have water nearby, then just find your favorite spot and go there for a little bit at the end of the week. These are two of our spots:

We stay in the car or just get out to the viewpoint at this spot. It’s a cliff in the fancy part of East Honolulu.

This spot is kind of a park and it has picnic tables and benches, which allows for sitting while socially distancing. Locals come to this spot to fish and Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP).

We love this new tradition and hope to find different spots as time goes by. What other spots do you think are good for having coffee and reflect/watch life pass you by?

January 19, 2021 1

Life Updates: Ana Started a Business

In my original plan when I went to Law school, I was going to practice law and have a column in a newspaper where I discussed regulation.

While I was studying law, I always thought that maybe lawyers weren’t doing enough to help people understand the law as it is relevant to their lives. As my career took another turn, that kind of fell through, but my idea of writing about law never really left my mind.

I’ve dabbled on and off on blogs since I moved to Seattle. Talking about law was never part of it. This is a travel/living abroad blog, which I love, and I hope we can pick it back up soon. Hawaii and Corona have seriously messed our travel lives. However, the idea of having more to say in more subjects has also been on my mind, even if I spent more time and energy in establishing my teaching career.

Now that I feel like I’m a bit more established as a teacher, my mind has more free space to think about how I can use writing to communicate, educate, and help others.

Also, Hawaii is expensive and I wanted to make more money, because life is too short to pay bills and student loans forever.

I knew that people could make money writing online – blogs can be monetized, and some sites pay for posts. I wasn’t sure, however, if it could amount to anything for me.

Enter copywriting.

There is a fine line between writing content and writing copy, but the jist of it is – copy involves a call to action, which can be as simple as subscribing to an email list, or commenting on a post, or can be more involved, like buying a product.

In my attempt to learn more about writing online for money, I came across Sarah Turner, a medical copywriter who’s put her knowledge onto a course. She has a free condensed course on Youtube, (this link takes you to her channel) which is, in a lot of ways, a preview to her full course. At the same time, I also came across a content mill, where I started writing and actually selling articles. Not for a lot, but it gave me the proof I needed to believe that someone would find my writing valuable enough to pay for it (even if it was just $10-15).

After a few months, I decided to take the leap and buy the course. It’s an investment, and at first I wasn’t sure if it would be worth the investment, but I decided to take the risk and Cameron supported me.

When I was trying to figure out what to focus on (niching down is better from a business standpoint than writing about anything and everything and running around like a crazy person), my brilliant husband was essential. I had some ideas about travel and maybe small hospitality businesses and whatnot. At some point our conversations led to immigration as my niche. According to Cam, I’m “good at it”, and “understand the rules very well”, which goes into what you should write about if you want to write online: things you like to learn about and things people ask you about.

And then it dawned on me that if I wrote about immigration and global mobility, I could do what I originally wanted to do with my law degree.

Immigration law is stressful, complicated, and deeply personal. People need to understand it on their own, and lawyers shouldn’t be boggled down with writing for a blog when they need the time to help their clients.

That’s where I come in. My job is to write about new or updated regulation for immigration firms in a way that non-lawyers (so everyone) can understand. You can see some of the published work I’ve written here.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

I paid off the course with one job. It was a research job and I got it on Upwork. Took a few months, but it was a great experience.

In her course, Sarah first focuses in working on mindset and then doing the business building thing. That is absolutely the right approach. Don’t skim on your mindset work. You are your most powerful asset.

You can sign up for the course using my affiliate link. I’m not going to lie here and say you’ll be flush with cash without doing any work. It’s work. But it is a route that can be very rewarding and a type of work with a lot of potential considering that now everyone realizes they need a website.

I only have one retainer client. I’m working towards more. I have no intention of leaving teaching. But I do love working on this.

You can read a review about the course from another student here.

We’ve always kept this blog about our experiences living and working abroad and it’s always been about sharing our lives with people we may not be in touch with often. We’ve never really had a monetization goal with it (as you’ve probably guessed given how little it’s been updated). But I do think that copywriting can be a viable option for people to build something that works for them in terms of work, with very little investment. That’s the only reason why this article has an affiliate link on it – because I think we’ve all seen through the pandemic that we can’t take anything for granted. Having options plural is always going to be better than having no options, or only one option that may or may not make you miserable. So if you do buy the course through the link included, I’ll get a small kicker. It doesn’t make the course any more or less expensive.

So in addition to everything else, I’m now a copywriter in the global mobility space. In fact, the #1 global mobility copywriter on Google. Ya girl is important on the Interwebs lol.

This is a total brag. I don’t care. It’s cool.

In travel news, well, Hawaii still has an inter-island quarantine in place, so we can’t visit other islands for the moment. Starting in 9 days, you can bypass the travel quarantine if you’re coming from out of state if you have a negative COVID test from the previous 72 hours. Some airlines, like United, are offering tests with some of their routes to Hawaii (Specifically the SFO-HNL route). We’re hoping that’ll mean maybe some visitors.

But we are stuck here for the foreseeable future.

If you want to chat about copywriting and starting a business feel free to drop me a line at hello@saturriamcgregorcopy.com

Until next time,

Ana

October 6, 2020 0

Pandemic Update Pt. 2 – Take 2 on Pandemic Learning, What we Did this Summer, and Other Life Updates

Well hello there!

Last time we updated you folks, it was spring, Hawaii was under a stay-at-home order, and there were a lot of things up in the air, including what work would look like for us.

We both started the year remotely, however, Cam has been back in-person since mid-September (although with some students in remote learning). Very few breaks. Little to no prep time. Very busy days because he has students in his classroom all.the.time. I hope things get better for him soon because I can definitely see the exhaustion not being great, especially when flu season starts. On that note, we both got our shots a few weeks ago. It was free and very easy. Go get your flu shot. Please and thank you.

I am still teaching from home, and will likely be mostly at home until the end of the first semester in December. My school is inviting struggling students to return in person for this second quarter which would mean being on campus once a week with a handful of kids. All social distancing and containment rules would apply. So I’d have to teach all my distance learning students while supervising a handful of kids in person once a week. Could be a lot worse.

We did end up going to the Oregon Coast in the summer. Hawaii has done a fair amount of flip flopping in its travel reopening plans, and we wanted to have enough time to complete the quarantine when we came back. The summer was the only time we could do that without having to take time off work because we were both supposed to return in person. Anyway…

The Honolulu airport was eerily empty. We flew out early and completed our check in and security in minutes. Our flight was empty enough. We flew Southwest to Portland via Oakland (after cancelling and rebooking our old spring break flights maybe 3-4 times). Middle seats were open and the flight wasn’t all booked up so we sat across the aisle from each other but without anyone else around us, really. Masks all the way and we brought plenty of sanitizer and antibacterial wipes with us. We got some travel sized ones that smell like lavender so you can smell something relaxing as opposed to something surgical that may trigger the germophobe in you.

Being in the Oakland airport was not relaxing. It was super full. It was hard to find seats by our gate and properly distance from people. Flights to Las Vegas were PACKED. We decided to avoid that airport on the way back.

Portland airport was emptier than I’ve ever seen it. But getting around wasn’t difficult and we were on our way out in no time.

We spent our time mostly at home, helping around with housework that is not easy for my father in law anymore. I also had a weeklong training at the very start of our time, and several faculty meetings during the summer. So it wasn’t a usual summer where there is no work involved. Well, we’ve worked both our summers in Hawaii so far so I guess while we are here working is what’s normal. Cameron has meetings on meetings on meetings, so that made the summer not as restful.

On top of that, state parks were closed for a good portion of our time in Oregon. Many places like Depoe Bay were way too crowded for our taste, so we went on some drives but not much else. National forests were open for some of the time we were there, so we went on a few hikes and walks here and there. The nature in the Oregon Coast continues to be breathtaking and very soothing for both of us. It doesn’t get old.

Public libraries also opened for library take out so we have been on a steady diet of library books, which is a good things. Some of our current reads include “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins (me) and “I will Teach you to be Rich” by Ramit Sethi (Cam).

We are also on what’s possibly our longest workout streak on record, with a Perfect Month (May) on our Apple Watches (all activity goals every day completed) and a number of consecutive weeks of consistent physical activity. Some of the tools/programs we’ve used:

Centr – Well worth the money. Meals that are easy to make and pretty delicious (not the cheapest – I do wish they had a “budget” meal plan, but skilled cooks should be able to do some workarounds), workouts that don’t really get old – or easier! – meditations, etc. We’ve been doing the workouts for the better part of the last year and a half and started following the meal plan maybe two months ago. I’ve had people ask if it’s worth the yearly subscription. My answer: yes. During the lockdown/gym closures I’ve completed their 6-week Centr 6 program (only equipment needed is dumbbells) and Centr Unleashed at intermediate level (no equipment).
Nike Training Club – Cam has workouts from this app once a week in his rotation. Free to download and the workouts will give you a run for your money. Very little, if any, equipment required.
Heather Robertson’s 12 week program – I found this Canadian trainer on IG and did a HIIT workout she posted there once, decided to find out more. Excellent program considering it’s free on Youtube. I would say it’s not for beginners because there are no explanations of the exercises, and there is plenty of plyo (I have knee issues so I modify often but I know how). But every single workout will kick your butt. When you’re happy about the fact that abs are next…well, yeah. I have three weeks left on the program and expect to do it again in about 6 months to see where my level of fitness is then. I need a lot of breaks right now.

Other sources I recommend:

Darebee – a whole bunch of different workouts for different goals, for free. We used to do some of these workouts when we lived in China.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit‘s Instagram page – I’ve done some of the workouts with Katrina Scott (from Tone It Up – I think her workouts are on Saturdays) and they are 1) super fun, 2) will give you a serious workout in a short time, and 3) great music-wise because her husband puts together awesome playlists. You can search for her playlists on Spotify under “Katrina Scott”. There are other trainers that post workouts – they will all be under IGTV – of different kinds: yoga, kickboxing, Pilates, barre, cardio, strength training, you name it. Pretty great considering it’s free if you have Instagram. Handle is @si_swimsuit.
Tara Stiles’s Instagram page – also a lot of yoga routines under her IGTV, tutorials to make hard poses easy, but most importantly, a focus on doing yoga not for the poses but to feel better. Her handle is @tarastiles.
The 7-minute workout – there are a bunch of apps that also have this one with built in timers and customizable intervals. I’ve done this workout on and off while traveling, or while in the DR visiting family. This article link includes an advanced version and links to some of the apps. This is as good as it gets to get a workout that does the job in a short amount of time.

We canceled our gym membership and are quite content working out at home. It’s become part of our days and there’s a lot less “ugh I hate this” and more “let’s get it done”. We both have a more positive mindset towards working out right now, I think in part because it’s provided some consistency during the quarantines and helped us stay focused towards specific goals. For me, the time during which I’m working out is a time when I’m rarely thinking about something else – cause you know, gotta make it to the next rep before collapsing on the floor – so it’s a bit of a break from everything else that sucks.

We also take walks almost daily. We aim for at least a mile. Some days we scrap workouts or make it an active rest day and just go for a long walk around our neighborhood, with a detour on the very empty Waikiki.

There’s more to chat about, but that’ll have to wait until next time. This got kind of long with the workout tangent.

Stay safe. Wear your mask. Stay away from crowds. Show love and light to everyone.

Until next time,

Ana

September 27, 2020 1

The Mandatory Quarantine Update

Hi friends!

What a time it is!

Well, let’s see. Here are some life updates that have happened or started to happen when this whole thing started:

We are still in Hawaii. When things started taking a turn for the worse in the West Coast, we decided to cancel our spring break trip to Oregon. Between that, and now working from home, we are starting our 5th week at home today. I’m on my second week of distance learning, Cam is on his third.

Everybody in our family circle – and ourselves – is healthy and in their own homes.

Right now we are playing it day by day regarding summer plans. We would love to go to Oregon but have to assess whether we can go and abide by quarantines and everything else, depending on how long the pandemic goes on. We are hoping we can leave the islands soon and spend some time in the mainland closer to family and friends.

I applied for US citizenship back in February. Luckily, I managed to get my biometrics taken in early March, just before USCIS shut down in-person services. As part of this process, I’m doing exactly what I should be doing in the time between fingerprints and interview date: waiting. Originally, I had hoped to take the Oath of Allegiance by the end of the summer. Now, I’m not sure when that will happen.

Fortunately, Hawaii is a small field office, so my hope is that once things begin to open up, interviews and oaths start to become scheduled. My geeky history self wanted to naturalize before the general election in November – voting in the US for the first time on the year of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment is a dream when you love history and Girl Power. Hawaii is also moving towards all mail-in votes this year, so no risk in voting like in other places where mail-in ballots are not quite a given. I do hope to be naturalized by the end of the calendar year. We’ll see. I do have a lovely white blazer I got at Christmas I plan on wearing for the occasion.

We spent Christmas in the Dominican this past December. The goal: be with family. I read three books in less than a week to my mom and held her hand for some long stretches. I got destroyed at chess in less than 3 minutes in the only game I accepted to play with my nephew Christopher. We visited my oldest niece Lyan in her new place. We spent some time in our old favorites in the North. I drank multiple cups of coffee a day with my big sister. I joked around with my niece Paola and was pleasantly surprised to discover she loves Brooklyn Nine-Nine – which is hilarious in the best kind of way. I felt tiny but proud when my very tall nephew Luis Andres hugged me. We didn’t do anything fancy or special, but it was one of my favorite Christmases in a while.

As far as quarantine projects go, we’ve started watching all 92 winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture. We’ve watched many of them over the years, but as part of this project, we’ve watched (not in order):

- Parasite (2019 winner) – the latest winner. Weird but good-weird. We rented it on XBox Live. I think Amazon might have it for rental now too.
- The King’s Speech (2011 winner) – superb acting. And I always enjoy movies about real characters. Not sure where we watched it.
- Gladiator (2001 winner) – a great movie overall with an incredible main character and great music. Also those expansive, classic Ridley Scott shots. This one I think we had an old copy.
- A Beautiful Mind (2002 winner) – more great characters in the two protagonists, lots of good acting overall. Ron Howard is very skilled at making movies that move people. Not sure where we watched it. Maybe also an old copy.
- Driving Miss Daisy (1990 winner). Acting is good but the story wasn’t our favorite. Could be a Lifetime movie if I didn’t know any better. This one I think is on Netflix.
- Moonlight (2017 winner) – sad but gets better; like Parasite, it’s different. Took two viewings – it’s a sad movie! Available on Prime video I think.
- Wings (1927 winner) – the very first winner. Gets better by the end but as you can imagine from a 1927 silent movie, very, very slow. Took 2 viewings to finish. Or three? I dozed off for some stretches of it. If you’re curious, we rented it on Amazon.
- The Sound of Music (1966 winner) – Cam had never seen it, but knew some of the songs. The songs, and specifically, the songs in the voice of Julie Andrews, are what makes the movie what it is. This one you can see on Disney+ if you have it.

Next, I think we’ll try to watch West Side Story because neither of us has seen it but we don’t care much for musicals. We like the songs in musicals though.

Initially, I wanted to make a different dessert each week but have realized how dangerous that is. On that note, let me go eat the last two chocolate chip cookies we have left.

What have you been up to during this time at home? How are things where you’re reading from?

I’ll come back when we’ve watched more movies! There are definitely some movies on that list we are NOT looking forward to watching, but are hoping for the best. If you want to see the complete list, you can find it here.

Stay healthy and safe,

Ana

April 14, 2020 0

Best of Oahu: July-Dec. 2018

Sunrise from Makapu’u Point – a popular sunrise hike.

From our lanai (balcony)

From our dining room window.

The start of that Makapu’u sunrise. Around 6:15am – fall

From our lanai – sometime between 6:00 and 6:30am.

Sunrises tend to have strong yellows, oranges and some soft pinks here.

I try to snap sunrise pics sometimes. Since it’s winter now, and sunrise is later, it often catches us already in the car on our way to work.

Actually the first from that Makapu’u sunrise.

Hi friends!

Despite the fact that the island of Oahu holds 2/3 of the population on these islands, it still has a lot of incredibly beautiful nature, and it’s not hard to become better connected to it with a little intention. Striking sunshine with astonishing color. Green, steep cliffsides and mountains. The vast Pacific surrounding us. And seriously, a rainbow almost every.single.day.

Nature, and how accessible it is, has definitely been the most enjoyable part of living in Oahu. It doesn’t take a long drive to be at the beach, a trail, or by the mountains. It’s very refreshing.

Inside Kualoa Ranch. They have all sorts of tours – we did the one where they take you around all their movie locations/sets. The views are simply stunning.

Kualoa Beach Park – on the way to the North Shore

The view from the Makapu’u viewpoint.

Also at Kualoa – this is a good idea of what the drive to the North Shore is like.

The Valley of Bones at Kualoa. What you see are props from “Kong: Skull Island”.

These waterfalls are the end of a hike we expected would be sooner. We were done in about 10 minutes.

As promised, a little taste of rainbows. We usually see one a day on our way home from work.

Coming back to the US has meant indulging access to hard copy books. We go to the used bookstores, and the Public Library (one single statewide system, and very well resourced!) often. Cameron also goes to New Comic Book day most Wednesdays.

It’s been a good six months and we are looking forward to new adventures this upcoming year. From our family to yours, cheers to 2019! Be happy, safe and blessed.

January 1, 2019 1

And just like that…

…2018 is (almost) gone.

The past 6 months have been largely focused on transitioning to living in the US again: teaching in the US for the first time, understanding the differences in mentalities, dealing with reverse culture shock (that’ll probably not go away), paying taxes again (YUCK) and not needing to hoard or stock up on anything because Amazon is readily available and Costco is a 10 minute drive from home. We are once again in a place where a car is a must (sigh). And with moving back to the US, the nature of the things we would be able to share in this blog has changed. Nomadicgregors has always been intended as a travel chronicle of the adventures we’ve had abroad, and some of the wonderful things we get to see. As we moved back to the US, our income changed (less disposable income for travel) and we are in a more isolated place (getting to and from Hawaii is far from everywhere). Hawaii is also ridiculously expensive, and so as we’ve settled in we’ve realized opportunities to travel will be far and few in between during our stint here. There are still strikingly beautiful places to be seen in the island of O’ahu, but the reality is, it’s a little over 400 feet, so not exactly vast like, say, the Asian continent.

For a long time, the belief that we have “nothing to share anymore” was part of the reason why this blog was silent. That, combined with the demands of teaching a content area I’m not trained for (again), took its toll. For a little while, I thought about closing the blog altogether, which would probably not be that big of a deal (I can literally name two people that read this, and that’s about it – lol).

In the end, I’ve decided Nomadicgregors will mostly focus on finding ways to feed our wanderlust by exploring Oahu, writing about our favorite places, and how we stay happy in a season of our lives where there will be a significant travel “lull”. In 2019, we will attempt to complete as many hikes in Oahu as possible, starting with this list: To-Hike List 2019 Part 1

Other than a solo trip to the Dominican Republic to take care of some business, read to and hug my mother, we haven’t traveled since we moved to Hawaii. We are tentatively going to Northern California during spring break, but in the meantime, we will direct the energy of this blog to reviewing the places in Honolulu that are keeping us happy, and our favorite nature in Oahu.

To keep up with the more frequent shenanigans, you can follow me on Twitter: @cookingforcalm, and on Instagram: @anamcgregor

Up next: a photo gallery of our favorite Oahu experiences in these 6 months.

Have the best 2019, full of realized dreams, unending kindness, love and light.

Ana

December 31, 2018 0

Great Experiences: Wayfarer Studio Photography

This review is coming long after we actually did this, but I didn’t want to pass the opportunity to go into some detail about our great experience getting some pictures with our friends at Wayfarer Studio Photography. Jen and Isaac Marshall, original Pacific Northwesterners, have taken their passion for telling stories in beautiful detail through pictures and turned it into their way of living. As “not Jen or Isaac”, I think what happened to them can be explained as “Through traveling the world, we’ve seen amazing places and met incredible people with powerful stories to tell and feelings to express. Our work is to shoot so others can see it more than once”. This is what I think might go through their heads when they take pictures.

I had been talking to Jen about having our pictures taken on our 5 year anniversary for a number of years by the time we actually did it. Nothing went according to plan, but as good teachers that understand flexibility, they made us feel incredibly comfortable, and somehow, I think captured perfectly what this team is about, and how we feel about each other.

The Marshalls don’t really do “posey” pictures, thank goodness. Your job during one of their shoots is just to have fun and enjoy yourselves. Sure, there might be some light direction because as experts they understand angles and work with the outside elements to get wonderful shots, but mostly, you’re just hanging out and they experiment a little. I can say their experiments, while a bit funny at the moment, are absolutely trustworthy. Jen and Isaac are experts at capturing nature and making it the star of your pictures, while still showing what you and your family are about at that time.

The most important, and touching, aspect of these pictures to me was how happy they managed to portray us in pictures. Sometimes, we know we are happy, and we feel happy, but we might not be sure how it might look to others (not that it matters exactly), but somehow I was very surprised to see how much I was laughing, how at ease I looked, and how comfortable we are with each other. One of the things the Marshalls highly encourage their clients to do is to print their pictures so they can look at them often (we really don’t do that as much in a time and age when we have the capacity to take so many pictures and have each of them turn out pretty great). I love looking at these pictures. These are pictures I am looking forward to revisiting for years to come – that time when two kids had their friends take their pictures in a place that makes them incredibly happy.

You can read the photographers’ chronicle of this session here.

What you need to know:

Jen and Isaac travel anywhere in the world – kids and everything (their kids are hilarious and super cool anyway – it’s a treat to have them around!). So if you live in Asia, or the Middle East, or Europe, or Latin America, or Australia, or anywhere, it doesn’t matter. They’ll go and take your pictures. Jen was seven (almost 8) months pregnant when they did our shoot. That kind of thing doesn’t stop them!
Super easygoing – again, if you want a photographer that will make you feel comfortable and not do the posey awkward family photos, these are your peeps. My husband and I are super introverts who don’t really like to have their picture taken, and we LOVE our pictures.
Easy, very high-quality print options – including possible decoration options and placement for your prints at your home the way it is now. Their frames are also very lightweight and easy to pack.
You’re not just an account number to the Marshalls. Again, this is quite literally a family business. Jen and Isaac are their own staff – the same people that take your pictures will do the editing and the design consulting and prepare the print delivery.

I’m not writing this for any type of gain. Sure, if our friends got a wedding or a family shoot out of this, that would be incredible. This is mainly out of a motivation to tell people about others who do great work and care about what they do. In a world of impersonal, obscenely large corporations, we should spread the love of wonderful small businesses when we find them.

You can see more of the Marshalls’ beautiful photography/storytelling at their Instagram @wayfarerstudio

July 1, 2018 0