• Travel

    Pearl Harbor and Rainbows

    A little more from our trip to Hawai’i, even though we are back in Pittsburgh. Getting to Pearl Harbor early was a key to having a good time there.  It rains often, in Hawai’i, if only for a minute, but the weather moves quickly… First up, a rainbow.  We saw so many rainbows here! Taking the ferry to the USS Arizona memorial. The memorial. The battleship is still below the monument. And still leaks 1-2 quarts of oil per day into the harbor. A crew member from the USS Arizona had recently passed.  On this day, he was going to be interred among his shipmates.  His name is under the…

  • Travel

    Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

    Continuing with our theme of getting up early and not going to the beach, on Thursday we took a 6am flight to The Big Island of Hawai’i.  From the small airport in Hilo, we got into our rental car and drove immediately to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (in by 7am, ha!). Our first stop was the Thurston Lava Tube.  Being so early, we were the only ones there (yay).  So here are some photos….since everyone brings off-camera lighting on vacation with them, right? Aloha!  Me, waving to YOU. Ryan in the tube Here the flash is pointed directly into the camera.  You can see Ryan’s legs. While we kept to…

  • Travel

    Aiea Loop Trail Rainforest Hike – Oahu, Hawai’i

    Aloha! Ryan and I are in Hawaii for Laura and Donnie’s wedding on Saturday, May 8th. Even though I love photographing weddings in Pittsburgh, I am totally excited to be working this weekend in Hawai’i– What a great job I have!! Ryan and I arrived a few days earlier than our soon-to-be-wed friends, and decided to explore Hawaii before we spend time on the beach with them. We arrived here on Tuesday at about 3pm and could barely stay awake (due to the time change and our long flight) enough for dinner. On Wednesday, we were awake and ready to roll at about 6am (noon by our Pittsburgh body clocks).…

  • Randi

    Seed Saver Exchange

    Last fall I read Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as one of the books in my monthly Book Club.  The book is a true story about Kingsolver and her family, who only ate local food for one year.  If something was in season, they simply didn’t eat it. It was amazing to read about their daily life, all of which was food related.  While I try to eat local food as much as possible, I decided to go super-local and expand my garden this year. I ordered seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange.  Their mission:  “Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of…