The Life of Pizza John

As I've settled into living on Kauai I have not been traveling all that much, but been enjoying little adventures along the way.  Here is what I have been up to! Lei making for Lana's birthday. Lots of reading on the beach! David came to visit and while we didn't get huge surf we caught some fun waves. My new place!  It's so cute!  Perfect Lanai for working. The view from my workstation. My new place also has bees that I am learning about.  Hopefully I can figure out how to harvest my own honey. Ukulele lessons.  So much fun with friends! My new toy!  She needs a little work and love, but we are going to have so much fun this summer! Some of the destruction from the north shore flooding. Helping friends with the new trampoline. Waves!  I love when someone gets to take pictures so I can see what I need to work on (everything!). Finally took a trip to see Oahu!  It was fun, ...

Life evolves.  Sometimes we have control over the way it changes, and other times things can be totally out of our control.  In all cases, we must learn, grow as a person and move forward. New Years celebration Crashing the Westin Solo hikes give lots of time for reflection So grateful to be living in my paradise.

Ok, so the title is a lie. I bake the crust, but the actual cheesecake is not baked.  When I was a kid, we got to choose the dessert we wanted on our birthday and this is what I always picked.  Now as an adult I can make it whenever I want!!!  Ok, so now I make it even less than once a year since I like to watch what I eat. Either way, here goes! Crust: 1.5 cups crushed graham crackers (I use a food processor) 3 TBS sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/3 cup melted butter Mix the graham crackers, sugar and cinnamon well. Then add the butter and combine.  Use your hands (or whatever else you have around) to form the crust into a glass pie dish.  Stick in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.  Take out and let cool before proceeding.  If you are really lazy you can buy a pre-made crust, but it does not taste as well. Filling: 8oz Cream Cheese (softened at room temperature) 1 can sweet and condensed milk 1 tsp vanilla 1/3 cup lemon juice In a mixer, combin...

I had a few days off work and I planned on surfing as much as possible but I irritated my shoulder so surfing wasn't going to be an option.  While I would have been completely happy to sit on the beach and relax or go hiking or whatever, I decided it would be fun to get out of town for a few days.  I started looking at flights out of Honolulu with three requirements: cheap, direct and foreign.  Since I already had to connect from Kauai to Oahu I didn't want to make another connection.  With these requirements in place I was left with one place...Osaka!  I've always wanted to visit Japan so I was pretty excited about this. I spent most of my time wandering the city, checking out the shrines and temples, eating tasty food and exploring.  Google maps is awesome about marking everything with different icons so things were easy to find. You could spend all day walking from shrine to shrine and each one is so unique, quiet and peaceful, especially for a big ci...

Alia got a job working at Princeville Ranch Adventures so as part of her 'training' we get to try out the tours.  The other day we went on one that involved kayaking, hiking, waterfalls and zip-lines.  We had a blast and Alia made a little video from the day.