Category Archives: my life

dinner at duke’s.

Last night we had a deeelicciousss dinner at Duke’s in Waikiki.  My parents LOVE this place and we go every time they visit (+ I also make a trip whenever I have visitors in town). Even the hostesses and servers have actually started to recognize me and my boyfriend since I guess we are “regulars” among the mobs of tourists. Embarassing?  Kind of.  The wait is never less than an hour on any night of the week but it is so worth it in my opinion.

We started with some tropical drinks (don’t make fun of my Malibu Pine..the sweeter, the better :)).  Next up was the salad bar which is my favorite part about this restaurant because of the never-ending carbs offered: taro rolls, plain rolls, banana macadamia nut muffins, carrot cake muffins, and white rice.  Mmmmm mmmm.  We finished our dinners of salads and steak off with their famous Hula Pie.  So. dang. good.

I swear all I have done the past two weeks is eat; I don’t think I need to eat for a week.  But I should go do some running.

Palos Verdes Half Marathon

This past weekend was jam-packed and I enjoyed every second of it!  I am living up my time in California since I go back home to Hawaii tomorrow.

On Saturday morning, my cousin Scottee and I ran the Palos Verdes Half Marathon.  We spent Friday night at her sister’s/my cousin’s apartment and fueled for the race with some late night snacks:

I love running with my cuz.  She kinda rocks.

My parents couldn’t make it, but we still had my Mimi and Daddad, my Aunt Pam, Uncle Dennis, and cousin Shannon to cheer us on!  Actually, they kinda sorta missed our crossing the finish line on accident, so they re-enacted how they would have cheered for us.  My aunt is awesome…she brings a cowbell to our races.The weather was AMAZING and perfect for running a race at around 60* and overcast.  The course was a beautiful out-and-back and we got to run through ridiculously nice neighborhoods with insanely huge houses overlooking the ocean.  Considering we both didn’t really train for this race, we were not ready for the never-seeming-to-end-rolling hills.  Scottee killed the hills and soared up them but they made my legs way more tired than I was expecting.  (I’m also just being a baby and still bitter I was far, far from a PR :)…but I guess you should probably train to get one of those).  We finished around 1:57 but still had SO MUCH FUN!  We chatted the majority of the time…or more like she talked and I would answer when I wasn’t dying from a hill.  Since I don’t get to see my fam that much, Scottee and I always try to schedule a race together when I come to CA!  It’s quite a party when our whole family gets together – I love it!  We saw the super speedy Pam around mile 10 when she was flying past us during her mile 12!  Overall, I had an awesome time with Scottee and it was a great race (with tons of FREE swag at the finish line!).  LOVE YA SCOOT!

After waiting in an hour long shuttle line to get back to the parking lot, we went to Tammie’s Corner House Cafe in Hermosa Beach for some lunch.  It was the cutest little place and had really good food (and ginormous Blueberry Oatmeal muffins which I literally inhaled).

I love my family so much and I am so glad I got to see them so much when I was here on the mainland!

i love pizza.

I’m all packed and about to head down south to my cousin’s house for the night (she lives about 15 minutes from Palos Verdes where the half marathon is tomorrow).  I’m super excited to run tomorrow even though I think I’ve only run like 2x a week for the past 2 months.  Oh well…I obviously use this girl’s training style.  Gotta jet and eat my Target pizza!  Those things are seriously bomb.com.  And only $4.50 too!

because i like to pretend i’m a photographer…

here are some more pictures of my time in that little town i adore called Santa Barbara!  (I promise this is the last time I talk about that place.)  Forget the fact that I desperately need to clean my lens and there are lots of spots on some of the pictures.  Just go visit and think of me, will ya?

Our grandparents came up to have lunch with us on Tuesday at Los Arroyos, a delicious Mexican restaurant in Montecito.  They are the cutest things ever and our Mimi is always dressed to impress.  Check out her snazzy hat and her zebra jacket!  Although they were excited to hang out with their granddaughters, they mainly drove up to SB to be my personal chauffeurs and take me back home to my parent’s house since I no longer have a car in California (I caught a ride up there with my little brother on his way back to San Luis Obispo where he goes to school).  Aren’t they the sweetest!?



fun in SB.

I am having so much fun in Santa Barbara!  Scottee and I are running the Palos Verdes Half Marathon this Saturday so yesterday afternoon we went for a gorgeous 8-miler by the beach.  I really miss SoCal running weather since Hawaii is hot and humid and great for laying out at the beach, but not so much for running.  I am taking full advantage of the cool breezes and midday runs that I can go on while I’m here and its really nice finishing a run not looking like I just went for a swim.

I went to school at UCSB and Scottee went to school at Westmont and since we are only one year apart, we got to see each other a lot during our college years!  I miss that so much!  We both worked at the same restaurant, Paradise Cafe, which is the cutest little restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara with really good food and drinks.  It was funny; when we both worked there, our regular customers always got us confused.  I liked to tell people we were twins and they totally believed me.  If you are ever in town, you HAVE to go there.   And you need to get the Paradise Burger with avocado and french fries.

After dinner, we went to Mcconnell’s, a well-known ice cream shop and also one of my favorite places here.  I’m not even kidding – in college, my roommates and I would come here 4x a week for frozen yogurt.  We were seriously obsessed.  And broke.

Today is my last day here and we are off on a mission to find some race outfits for Saturday :)

Date Night at Serg’s.

Last night Reis took me out for dinner at our favorite Mexican food joint in Manoa.  Being from Southern California, I am OBSESSED with Mexican food and living in Hawaii, a good burrito is hard to come by.  Serg’s, however, is pretty dang good.  The only bad thing I have to say about this place is that they don’t sell tortilla chips or diet coke. What?!  In my opinion, mexican food + chips & salsa + diet coke is the ultimate combo (aka I could eat it every single night of the week and never get sick of it).  Besides that minor detail, I have no complaints.  After dinner, we went to my other favorite place – Yogurtland! – for dessert.  I have another obsession with frozen yogurt and I swear no matter how full I am, I can always make room for it.