The Sunshine State!

Living in a place as beautiful as Hawaii has really made Joe and I slow down and appreciate what is around us. In a lot of ways Hawaii has been frustrating, but it has also been so good for us in a number of ways as well. One thing is that when we went home for a week, I realized just how lovely our area of Florida really is. Here are some of my favorite shots from my trip home:

Hello, Florida sky!

Crossing the Howard Franklin bridge

Lovely St. Pete Beach. I grew up here!

Hello, palm trees. I've missed you. You are different from Hawaii palms

The contrast here is beautiful. Storms don't roll in like this in HI.

A view of the water going over the bridge HOME!

I've always loved this view going to and from St. Pete Beach

It was good to be home

Mango Pear Salad

This salad was absolutely delicious, super simple, and perfect for a hot summer evening. I was able to make it with what I had laying around (mangoes are in season and falling off the tree in our yard. Yes, it's ok to be jealous.

I wish I could take credit for this salad's creation, but alas, I cannot. I'm just going to post the link to the recipe. My only modifications were that I left out the grapes because it was so delicious without them, and I used salt even though my pears weren't super sweet. I also added a little extra mango juice and pulp left over from the slicing.

Recipe: Mango Pear Salad

And for those who don't normally work with mangoes, a tip.

None of the pictures came out very well, but the salad did

Round Top Loop Drive

On Saturday, Joe and I took a scenic drive on the Tantalus Drive/Round Top Loop. This route goes around the Round Top Forest Reserve and includes the Puu Ualakaa State Park.

The route

And now for the views:

I just loved how the clouds looked floating over Honolulu

This is our required happy/sad picture

We do this on all our vacations

From the side of the road

Another angle

Manoa Valley- over that ridge lies Palolo Valley, where we live

You can see the UH campus in this shot

Diamond Head in the distance

This series was shot from the lookout point at Puu Ualakaa State Park

Park entry

My favorite picture from this drive. Also from the lookout point at the park

We live here!

Shot with Joe's phone