The Past Year: A recap

The last time I wrote a blog post, I was counting down the days to my wedding. Sorry to leave you all in suspense. I am now a Mrs.

What a blast. We had approximately 40 guests from the mainland. In the days leading up to the wedding, I rented a 15 passenger van and toured our guests around the island. We visited waterfalls, beaches, lava tubes, farmers markets, thrift stores, the Hamakua Coast, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

I rented the back half of Cronie's bar, and we made lei po'o for my bachelorette party. Lei po'o is a traditional flower crown made from weaving flowers into a crown that is worn around the head. We wore our flower crowns to the local speakeasy, the Hidden Nene.

A few days before the wedding, I hatched a scheme to surprise Dave with a flash mob during our wedding. My vision was to cue the flash mob during my vows. When I vowed to let Dave buy as many bicycles as possible, my friends would initiate a Bicycle Race by Queen flash mob. It was raining so hard during the wedding that we could barely hear the cues, but Dave was sufficiently surprised by people randomly standing up during our wedding ceremony and singing and dancing.

Our ceremony at Wailoa River Park was beautiful. The party was relaxed. We had plenty of drinks. We had Philly Cheesesteaks minus the cheese, because our caterer's grandson forgot to buy the cheese.

Dave and I went on a mini-moon at Kings' Land in Waikaloa. We took our officiant out to for dinner at the Mauna Kea Resort and saw manta rays in the water at from the comfort of land. Usually, you have to go on a night snorkel cruise to see manta rays.

For Christmas, I bought myself a $100 cabinet off Amazon. I assembled my beautiful cabinet and then cried when it didn't fit in the hallway of our old house. Dave decided we needed a new house. We started house shopping. A few days later we were under contract on a house in Wainaku formerly owned by a Go-Go.

We took a Christmas trip to Oahu. I took Dave to lunch at Honolulu's famous "Pig and the Lady" fusion restaurant, so we could try the Pho French Dip. It was delicious. The China Town restaurant had excellent Kurt Russell art.

We discovered problems with the Wainaku house. The seller said the house was connected to the city sewer, but it was connected to a cesspool. The seller had a fence at the back of the property, but the fence was 15 feet onto the county property. Unfortunately you cannot adversely possess county property. We offered a lower price, which the seller rejected. We continued our house search.

Dave found a house for-sale-by-owner on Zillow with no pictures. It was in one of the best locations in Hilo. I drove by. The view was banging. The house was shabby. After going back and forth with Dave, he eventually won me over by promising an extensive remodel on the shabby beach house.

We moved into our shabby beach house on February 18. We hired an amazing interior designer and started dreaming and planning. Having seen many HGTV remodel shows over the years, I braced myself to open up the floors and find termite damage and worse.

In March my mom's sisters visited from the mainland. We got to do a mini tour with them. All of us ended up being under the weather.

In April, Dave and I went on our actual honeymoon. We flew to Sydney and boarded a Celebrity Edge cruise back to Hawaii. I loved Sydney. What a beautiful place. Upon the advice of a local, I rode the ferry to Manly. We stayed at a hotel in the zoo. There was a koala outside our room.

Our cruise had two stops in New Zealand, three stops in Tahiti, and 13 sea days. We decided an 18 day cruise is too long for us. My favorite stop was Aukland. The city felt vibrant and European. My favorite excursion was a "safari" in Tahiti in "le truck." The guides chummed a river for eels and giant eels swam upstream.

Dave's beloved Uncle Frank passed away in June. Dave flew home to New Jersey to spend time with his Dad and Grandma. I had to stay and run the library, as my boss was on a much needed vacation in Korea.

Over the 4th of July, we watched fireworks from our house's lanai (porch) and congratulated ourselves on our home purchase. Christine and family went on a trip to Washington State and an Alaska cruise. I had trip-envy, and I began to envision my life with no job.

In August, I gave notice and on September 19, I resigned from the library. I wanted more flexibility in my schedule. I wanted to travel on a whim. I wanted to go to the thrift store on Tuesday and on Wednesday. This was not possible with my current work schedule.

On September 20, Dave and I flew to Sioux Falls, SD. We toured southeast SD and northeast NE visiting friends, family, and sites. Dave took pictures. We ate cheap Midwestern cuisine. We had a blast.