i'm sorry i've been so out-of-touch. i went to seattle for a week for work, and then we went to hawaii for two weeks. it pretty much ruled.
those of you that know me well know that i'm not good at chilling out. it's very hard for me not to be futzing around, and it's hard for me to disconnect from my office when i'm out.
i decided not to take my blackberry with me while we were out, and it was wonderful. there were business centers at a couple of the hotels that we were at, but i didn't check email AT ALL (soooo amazing for me!)
we were on the big island for about a week, then oahu for the weekend (in waikiki) and then on kauai for a week. we'd heard a ton about the "garden island" of kauai (apparently everyone in california loves kauai, and we heard from some folks on the island that what really keeps kauai green is californian's cash), so we knew to expect amazing scenery and lots to do. what we didn't expect was the lovely, uncrowded laid-back-ness of the big island. if you want to see our photos (which are not entirely organized at this point, but *close*), you can check them out here.

what we loved about the big island:
- we went snorkeling and to the top of a huge mountain (where it was under 40 degrees!) in the same day
- it's so clear on top of mauna kea that they have awesome observatories up there, and although we didn't get to visit any of them, we did get to look through a really fancy portable telescope and we saw all kinds of cool stuff, including an amazing view of saturn's rings
- we stayed in this amazing 'rainforest retreat' in the town of volcano, where we had our own little private pagoda-style house and a japanese soaking tub. ahhh...
- hawaii tropical botanical garden. i think we took about 100 photos here


what we loved about kauai:
- so much greenery!
- the canyons and mountains of the interior are so amazingly pristine! we helicoptered over them and saw waterfalls everywhere
- we hiked waimea canyon, which was crazy beautiful

there was so much that we wanted to do and didn't get to. there were about a dozen hikes that we didn't have time for, and many little reefs that we need to go back to snorkel around. i am already dreaming of my next vacation...