That is a very good question! Seems I’ve been in a different zip code every couple days for the last 3 weeks. I flew back from Maui to Oakland on Dec 17th and hit the ground running with everything from holiday card sending to swapping out my Hawaii clothes for ones more appropriate for the 30+ degree drop in temperature. El Nino is bringing it real to this drought stricken state which barring floods and landslides, is a very good thing. It’s also a big shock to my system as I’d grown to enjoy the 80 day / 70 night temps of Maui. Socks, what are those?
After Oakland it was Monterrey for a few days then onto to Ventura/Ojai for the holidays with family. I have scads of relatives in Southern California so I’ve been making the rounds of guest rooms. When you work for yourself, taking time off can be tricky even around the holidays but I managed to do very little work over New Years weekend and planted myself on the couch reading Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) SO GOOD! and catching up on the latest season of Dr. Who.
Being back in Cali I can’t help but compare life here to the islands. It really is vastly different and the weather is the least of it. Driving here again was a shock. Not only are highway speed limits 20 mph slower on Maui but people are WAY more chill on the road. If an ambulance is on the road in Hawaii everyone pulls over and stops, EVERYONE. If there is a merge coming up, there are rarely people speeding into the merge lane trying to get ahead. That shocked me the first time I saw it – people were not being jerky drivers! I guess they know it’s an island and you can only cover so much ground. There are loads of reasons for the giant differences in culture, not the least of which is that when you are living in paradise why would you rush anything?
Everyone has been asking me if I want to go back to Hawaii to which I of course answered a resounding YES! More on that later. 🙂
I’m in LA for the next week and will head back to SF on the 16th. After that, I fly to Washington DC to stay with my Mom and Brother for a while before heading west again.
I have posts drafted for my Maui travel guide as well as about my week on the Big Island so those will be out soon(ish).
Here are some photos from my recent travels, my holiday card and a fun map outlining trips taken since October.
Aloha!
julienne givot 