{courtesy of hilton hotels} travel should take you places. travel is more than just a to b. travel should inspire big ideas.

aloha. photos from hawaii.

not photo'd: me presenting my paper. whew, it's over with! learned so much. and hopefully now i can only improve.

i'm pretty much a huge fan of any place where 80 degree weather is the norm, really good fruit is readily available and flowers burst from every crack and crevice.

but big thanks to patty and anthony (meg's andrew's family) (hi patty if you're reading this!) for showing us how the locals do it:

insider tour of every kid's dreamland and barack's alma mater: punahou school.

the best vietnamese food.

hawaiian shaved ice.

auntie susu and paige. signing the door.

paths leading to kailua beach.

japanese pear.

home tour.

breathtaking views.

and:

the architecture.

pineapple pizza.

pillows you melt into.

lost set.

tan.

ramshackle.

morning waikiki walks.

lounge.

pina colada.

finished reading: Wait Until Next Year, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and In the Woods. scary good.

balmy.

that pervasive honeysuckle smell.

imagine my mom and i boarding a seven hour flight straight from an afternoon at the beach: hair tangled, semi-wet bathing suits we're still wearing underneath our clothes, sand spilling out of our shoes and sunscreen smelling skin. yeah.

Travel Writing.

Oh my God, the place we were at today was UNBELIEVABLE. Look up Cabo Polonio to see if you can find anything. Our bus dropped us off basically by the side of the road at a place that looked like a salvage yard. We found a little stand and bought entry to the national park and got driven to the beach in safari cars.

At the beach was the teeniest, most quaint little beach town I´ve ever seen. It looks like a Hollywood set. I don´t think there´s any electricity, and the town´s just basically a collection of little shacks and lean-tos, although there is a pretty big lighthouse. We got to get really close to sea lions and Miley and I summited a really big sand dune. It´s hard to put into words how awesome it was, so I´ll just do so by comparison...

Our bus was thirty minutes late picking us up from the side of the road. When we got on, all the seats were taken except two in the back. When I walked to those seats, a guy informed me someone had puked in them. So, while Miley and Salvie stood in the aisle of the bus, I sat between the bus restroom and the vomit seats. Now, how awesome was Cabo Polonio? It was as awesome as that sucked.

(Walker Robins).

Aloha.

Growing up in a family of "snow" people, I've never been anywhere tropical/islandy before.

But tomorrow I leave for Hawaii to present my senior thesis paper. Wish me luck, it feels like I wrote the thing five years ago.

Even though it's not technically a vacation, I've been daydreaming about the beach and warm weather for weeks now and while trolling the web for anything reminiscent, I fell in love with this dress, only to quickly realize it's actually a jumpsuit.

Which changed my entire opinion of the look. Can't decide what I think about the whole jumpsuit/romper trend.

to moonbombs and moonbeams.

Image via etsy found on okc local i am a greedy girl.

What a good 23rd birthday.

I know people pretty universally dislike the month of January - especially with it being so brrrrrrrrrrr. Some might even call it dreary, blah.

And I think that's why I've always felt this unspoken kinship with others born in January.

There's something that binds us together, the common experience of growing up knowing you'll never get to have your birthday at an outdoor swimming pool or frontier city or that when Christmas and New Years pass you still have an upcoming reason to celebrate. My January people. (This includes Nigella Lawson, Kahlil Gibran and Joan of Arc - all born on January 6th).

2010.

Necklace completely designed and made by Meg.

Pretty much the neatest thing ever. I'm in awe of my sister. And miss her already.

Okay, so I finished the true story Where Men Win Glory: the Odyssey of Pat Tillman (wish it had a better title) and came to the conclusion that it should be required reading for every, single American.

Never have I been so heartbroken, angry, aghast, disturbed, helpless, scared, humbled and deeply depressed in the throes of reading something - and never have I closed the back cover of a book feeling so passionate about politics and about humanity. A lot of emotion that I'm not quite sure how to channel into something positive and productive yet.

But seriously, Pat Tilman is one of those classic, deeply complex Krakauer characters that make you reexamine your own life. What happened to him, and arguably Afghanistan at the expense of Iraq, in the hands of U.S. military and political leaders will make you, should make you, scream.

One of my best friends in the entire world, since the 6th grade - Michelle Renee Worden - is engaged!

I remember a wise man, Wil Norton, once said whoever married Michelle would be the luckiest guy, because he'd get to have so much fun for-ev-er. So true.

My favorite couple - Skylar Anderson and Meredith Roskamp - also got engaged!

Pretty much, I'm so happy for everyone.

New Year's Resolution: the Perfect Week.

Photos via super fun site The Selby - with the feature on Dan Martensen and Shannan Click being exactly what I envision "The Perfect Week" to look like.

Wake up early three weekday mornings and run four to five miles. Run six to seven miles on a weekend. Please remember to stretch.

Unwind by drinking wine at night with my roommates while watching bad television.

Cook more than I eat out. But still eat out of course, because it's one of my favorite things.

Bike as much as possible: to Walker's house, to try a yoga class (ha.), etc.

Breakfast with Beth.

Receive/send a letter in the mail or a great email from/to a friend that's too far away.

Make mandatory time to write and really write.

Don't forget the reusable bags when grocery shopping.

Don't have a freak out about the future - be at peace and be committed to the decisions I make.

Use the internet constructively, to be a more informed and interesting person - not endlessly clicking through photo albums only to come to the realization that all the people featured are complete strangers.

Reading chapters of a really good book before bed. Or on a blanket in a park on a warm day.

Hang out with my mom, dad and Casey. Have a great phone conversation with Meg.

Have a killer night out that somehow involves dancing in great shoes.

Spend a really early Saturday morning being forced by Walker to volunteer. Followed by a trip to the Farmer's Market, followed by a thrift store and a nap.

Go to church on Sunday.

Igloo.

oh. my. gosh. is this not the coolest thing you've ever seen!?

i'd love to say i had a hand in this feat of engineering genius, but all the credit goes to Meg, Andrew and Casey (the dynamic team featured in the top photo).

Walker and i left them with a base yesterday only to return that night to a fully realized igloo with smoke issuing from the opening in the top - inside they were roasting marshmallows and hens leftover from a failed Christmas dinner experiment.

my dad claims he saw it featured on news channel 4 (the big time). see it for yourself in front of our house, it will probably be around for awhile judging from the weather report.

...it's an especially unforgettable igloo. wink wink.

i also tried a pomelo today. if you know how much i love grapefruit and citrus in general, you'll know i was in seventh heaven - pomelos are like a grapefruit, except for bigger and better.