New Year’s Night!

New Year’s Eve was fabulous! We headed into San Francisco at 11pm to see the fireworks on the waterfront. I guess we should have expected there to be a lot of traffic. My friends and I got out of the cars to get a closer look of the bridge and fireworks. It was an amazing show! Happy New Year everyone!

After the crowds left, my friends took us to Treasure for the great view of the Bay bridge. We got some incredible shots in the super cold weather! It was such a great night and a wonderful way to kick off the new year!

Next stop.. Tahoe for snow!

New Year’s Eve

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! What are you doing the last night of 2010?

I’m on a little roadtrip with my college friends! We’re all heading up to Northern Cali to spend the holidays together. We’ll be at the big countdown event at the SF Waterfront. Anyone wanna join us? :) See you in 2010! Happy New Year!

Aloha Hawaii!

I’m flying home right now so I have some time to reflect on the amazing time I had in Hawaii this year. This is the first time I went island hopping on a trip. It’s a little more moving around, but definitely quite exciting! It’s been a long and wonderful vacation filled with lots of learning, eating, adventures, and quality time with friends!

Here were some of my trip’s highlights:

• Spending a lot of time with my cousin Ed when Albert & I first arrived on the island.
• Eating at all of Ed’s favorite places on Oahu — Zenchu, Zippy’s, Sanoya Rahmen, and more..
• Meeting my Twitter friends face-to-face at the Hulaween Tweetup!
• Social Media – Having my Twitter / Facebook / BrightKite / DailyBooth / Foursquare / Gowalla / Posterous friends follow me on my vacation! Sorry about the excessive posts, but it means a lot to me that you all came along virtually! I loved all the suggestions and advice you’ve given me on this trip. You’re welcomed to virtually come along anytime! :)
• Rethink Tweetup – This was just geektastic! Christine Lu and the [Re]Think Hawaii crew could put together quite a gathering! I met so many geeks on the island that night. Loved it!
• Flight over Kauai – This was the best adventure on this vacation. The Garden Island is so amazing from up above – away from all the cars and buildings and just being a bird flying over nature. The view was quite magnificent.
• Hiking in Waimea Canyon in Kauai – It was like seeing a mini Grand Canyon with rainbows!
• Hiking up Kalalau Trail – The view is amazing! Look down and you see the beach and ocean waves. Look up and you see green trees, waterfalls, mountains, and more!
• Amazing hotel view in Oahu – the sunset from the room was amazing. Sunrise is just as beautiful.
• Dinner with Nathan at Street Side Inn
• Dinner with Gypsy at Akasaka Sushi
• Learning how to make mochi with Renee from Happy Hearts Mochi!
• Taking amazing photos of sunsets.
• Visiting a cute scrapbook store called Pineapple Cove!
• Kayaking in Kailua Beach Park – We started late, so we only got to Flat Island, but it was so much fun kayaking in the ocean!
• Eating Shave Ice everyday!
• and so much more..

This has been a great experience and memorable trip! I can’t wait to browse though all the 60 gigs of photos and scrapbook them all (well.. most!) Pineapple Cove, I might need your help! :)

Hawaii, Aloha for now.. but I’ll be back!

Oahu 2009: Day 9 – Apple Store

Geeky as it is, Albert and I did stop by the Apple Store to ouuu and ahhh a the new magic mouse, ipods, and macbooks. I just really loved the window display too, and the Apple tech guys there knew that. Maybe my dancing in the window gave it away! They were all super friendly, and even took this photo for us with my iPhone.

When I handed him my iPhone, I jokingly asked if he used one of these before. :) Thank you for the photo Apple Genius from the Royal Hawaiian Apple Store! It’s nicely located in Waikiki between all the ritzy shops.

ps. Happy 1 Year old Apple Store! I was actually here last year to see your Grand Opening. :)

Also, this is our second stop at an Apple Store today.. I wandered into another one while heading to Pineapple Cove!

Oahu 2009: Day 9 – Pineapple Cove

Daynah & ManLe at Pineapple Cove – Photo Taken by Albertech on iPhone

Everytime I go traveling, I try to stop by local scrapbook stores to pick up a few special things I can’t find at home. Of course, this trip to Hawaii is no exception!

I was unsure about where to start, so I asked on Twitter where the best scrapbook store in Oahu was. @TweetPea sent me a link to Joscie’s “Scrapbooking in Hawaii list” and I couldn’t be more happy! Going down the list, I fell in love with the store named “Pineapple Cove.”

At the Rethink Hawaii Tweetup, I was asking people about local scrapbook stores, and I someone sent a tweet out about my question, and again, I was pointed to Pineapple Cove! Wow, now I really HAVE to visit this place!

Well, I’m finally at the store, and I have to say, it’s a pretty big place full of scrapbook and crafting goodies! There are tons of paper, stickers, wooden cutouts, albums, diecuts, and much, much more! I picked up a few Hello Kitty Sizzix Diecuts, wooden flowers, and a few other things. I was quite happy! :)

Although the shopping part was fun, the best part was probably meeting ManLe, the store owner of Pineapple Cove. She’s the sweetest and nicest person ever. She was teaching me all kinds of scrapbook techniques and giving me ideas for projects… that believe it or not, I can’t wait to go home to start working on.

I spent hours in the store, just learning about techniques, chatting about scrapbooking, Twitter, and other social media topics. I know staying in a store for a few hours is not something people do on their vacation, but this was a slice of heaven for me. If you love crafting and you’re in Oahu, be sure to check out Pineapple Cove! I’ll definitely be back on my next trip!