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Big Island of Hawaii (USA), at the Lava Lava Beach Club.

Hawaii sunsets

A morning at White Sands beach

Big Island - driving North

On our first day on Big Island we decided to follow one of the routes mapped in the wonderful app we had downloaded prior to our trip. It was amazing to see the differences in the vegetation on the different sides of the Northern tip of the island - so dry and then so lusciously green.
The Polulū Valley lookout was definitely one of the highlights, and we braved the approaching rain to trek all the way down to the beach, which was absolutely stunning (and a good little workout!).

On the way back South - this time along the coast - we stopped for a swim at Hapuna beach and then at Anaehoomalu Bay where we watched what would be the first of many absolutely magical sunsets we were lucky to witness during our holiday.

A tiny bit of Los Angeles

After Boston and the East Coast I flew to L.A. where I met Mart. It was a super short stopover; we just stayed the night in an airport hotel and whizzed to Manhattan beach and back before catching our onward flight.

Salem, Gloucester & Rockport, Massachusetts

A few weeks ago I was lucky to go to Boston, Massachusetts with two of my colleagues to attend the annual NAFSA conference which brought together more than 11'000 professionals from the field of International Education. It was a super fun adventure and while we did do lots of work, we also got to go and explore a little bit of the Massachusetts coast on one of our days off. 

We drove to Salem and then on to Gloucester and Rockport; it was Memorial day and all of the towns we crossed, with their patriotic decorations, looked absolutely charming. Also, I have a particular soft spot for maritime scenery so this was right up my alley.

A quick little pennant garland for our deer