Flag Football

The NFL season is drawing to a close with the Superbowl being played next weekend. This year the season has been fun and we've spent quite a few Sundays with friends watching the game, even I've enjoyed it and I don't like football!

To help fill the void left by the end of the season, Chris has decided to set up a flag football team. It started off with 6 friends having a Sunday morning throw around at the park but news is spreading everyone we know wants to be involved. I've made myself head cheerleader but of course all the boys want to be quarterback!

National Geographic Museum

With only a year to go left in Washington, we've realised that there is still lots that we haven't seen.  I have made a huge list of things to see in the local area before we go and much to Chris' delight I think it's going to keep us busy most weekends until we leave!

A couple of weekends ago we crossed the first item off the list - visiting the National Geographic Museum.  We timed it well because the current exhibition is Anglo-Saxon Hoard: Gold from England's Dark Ages which is a display of the treasure found in Staffordshire in 2009.  They think it dates back to about 650AD.  It was so interesting, anyone in the DC area should definitely go and check it out.

Project 365+1

This year I've decided to take part in Project 365+1.  The challenge is to take a photo every day of the year.  I thought it would be a good way of recording our last year in Washington and would help me to improve my photography skills.

The first few days were easy when we were in Hawaii but since we've been back at home it's been a bit more of a challenge. On the days that we have plans it's much easier, I just have to remember to take my camera out with me. But the days when I'm at work all day and just want to come home and sit in front of the TV are more difficult. There are only so many things around the house that I can take photos of! I keep telling myself that January and February are going to be the hardest months because the evenings are dark.  I constantly find myself looking at things though and thinking that would be a good photo so I have a long list of ideas to keep me going for a while.

I'm not going to be putting all of the photos on here but below are the first 10 to give you an idea (number 11 was pretty bad so that's why you're only getting 10!)

1 January - Surfboards and blue sky in Honolulu on New Years Day

2 January - Byodo in Temple, Oahu

3 January - Diamond Head Monument, Oahu

4 January - Arriving home

5 January - Lots of Christmas chocolate

6 January - Nandos

7 January - Christmas dinner at home

8 January - Flag football practice (more on this soon!)

9 January - Wicker heart from our bedroom

10 January - My trainers for first zumba session of the year

State Map Update

We visited another 15 states in 2011 taking our total up to 30, only another 20 to go!

I've listed all 30 below with the ones that we went to in 2011 coloured in red:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia

Our 2010 map:
 

Our 2011 map:
 

We're still thinking about where to visit in 2012. We know that we're not going to manage to visit all 50 states and I'd rather spend time seeing the places that I really want to see rather than trying to make it to 50. However having said that, if we end up getting to 47 or 48 it will be really annoying and we may just have to plan a quick random trip!

Hawaii - Day 14, Honolulu

On our last day in Honolulu we got up early and took a taxi to the Diamond Head State Monument.  We wanted to walk up it as early as possible before it got too hot.

We planned to get a city bus back to Waikiki but a business savvy taxi driver wanting to get his empty cab back to Waikiki offered us a ride for only a $1 more than the bus, it sounded like a good deal to us and he took us right back to our hotel! We were due to fly home at 11pm that day and had arranged with the hotel to keep our room until 6pm which meant we could spend one last day at the beach. I finally actually went in the sea - my first swim in the pacific ocean!

We missed lunch so stopped off later in the afternoon for some sushi, it was the first time Chris had eaten it.

After some last minute shopping in Waikiki we packed and checked out of our hotel. We only had a couple of hours to fill before going to the airport. We watched a bit of a Hawaiian show then went for our final Hawaiian meal at a restaurant that had just opened - the Five Star International Buffet.

There was more sushi for Chris...

We flew out of Honolulu at 11pm on the Tuesday night and finally got home at about 7pm DC time on Wednesday!  We are so glad that we spent 2 weeks in Hawaii because even from DC it is still such a long way to go.

Kauai was definitely our favourite island. We liked Big Island and loved our day at the Volcanoes National Park, if we were to ever go back I think I'd prefer to stay on the Hilo side of the island rather than in Kona. We also liked Oahu and would have liked another day to explore the North Shore a bit more. One day we'd like to come back to Hawaii to see Maui and maybe one of the smaller islands but I think those plans might have to wait a few more years!

Hawaii - Day 13, Oahu

When we woke up on Tuesday we were relieved that it seemed like Chris was back to normal.  He'd slept all the way through the night so we thought we were ok to continue with our plans to explore Oahu.  We picked up a hire car then headed east around the island.

We stopped first at Makapuu Point and walked the 30-40 minutes up to the top for some great views, then back down again.

Our next stop was Byodo-in-Temple. This is a replica of the temple of the same name in Japan.

After stopping at the temple we continued driving towards the North shore. The area is famous especially in the winter for it's huge waves, this is where all the surfing competitions are held. The traffic was really busy and the sides of the roads were lined with parked surfer's trucks. We stopped in Hale'iwa for a look around the shops and some lunch.

Our final stop for our journey around Oahu was the Dole plantation.

On our way back into Honolulu the traffic on the interstate suddenly ground to a halt and we sat there not moving an inch for about an hour. It turned out that President Obama who had just spent the last couple of weeks in Oahu was leaving so they decided to shut the road down! When we had flown back into Honolulu we had seen Air Force One parked up. Eventually things started moving again and we were able to get back to Honolulu to give back our hire car.

Hawaii - Day 12, Honolulu

On New Year's Day we were up early and on a flight back to Honolulu at 8am.  I have to mention Kona airport because it is the only airport that I have ever been to that is just completely outside.  It's really weird, there just aren't walls and doors, it's only open.  There are covered areas for you to sit in then you just walk through a gate to the plane!

Chris had been up for most of the previous night suffering from the effects of his food poisoning so we were a bit worried about him getting on a flight but it was fine. The plane was really empty and it only took about 30 minutes and we were back in Honolulu. We were able to check into our hotel as soon as we arrived and Chris went straight to bed and stayed there for the rest of the day. I was pretty tired too so had a nap then spent the day wondering around the shops and taking some photos of Honolulu. Waikiki beach was absolutely packed, there was hardly a bit of sand showing and there were so many people in the sea.