The Life of Pizza John

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.

I've mentioned we were in the process of buying a boat but sometimes timing just isn't right and things don't work out as expected.  After being under contract on two different boats we decided the timing just wasn't right.  We will still live on a boat in the future, but we decided to put (at least) one more life adventure before it. I've spent a lot of time on in Hawaii, specifically on Kauai.  When the boat we were looking at was damaged in Hurricane Irma we started looking around to see if there were any more Leopards for sale (in our price range). One of my searches pulled up the exact same boat we were under contract for on Kauai and I thought to myself....uhhhhh, I've been visiting Kauai for years and I've always wanted to move there....why am I not?  It just hit me!  I mentioned it to Alia and that day we decided to move. Within two weeks we sold everything we owned and were ready to make the move.  Alia drive the car to California to be shipped,...

This year we decided to extend our Thanksgiving trip from part of a week to almost three weeks!  It started off with Alia driving across the country in the Honda Fit(more on this later) and me flying to San Diego to meet her a few days later! It was Grandpa's(aka Alex) birthday so people traveled from all over to meet and camp in San Clemente.  We surfed, ate, drank and had a merry time.  I got to surf some fun breaks I've been wanting to surf for quite a while including Trestles and San Onofre. Once everyone left for the weekend, we headed back to dads place in Carlsbad where we were joined by Jordan and Dad to hang out for a few days.  Again, we ate, drank, I surfed and we all had a merry time!  It was fun to explore all the different beaches and areas since I had not spent much time in the San Diego area.  Alia and I got to eat dinner with my boss and meet his family which was fun.  We experience the horse races at Del Mar. Everyone took bets...

My mom made these treats growing up and I'm not 100% sure, but they may be the reason I am so addicted to sugary treats today.  Most people would take one bite and say "hey, these are REALLY sweet" and save the rest for later.  Not me!  I've been known to polish off a whole pan of these in one sitting.  Now, I limit myself to making these once a year and I will usually take them to a Christmas party so I don't eat the whole pan myself. 3/4 cup better 1.5 cups crushed graham crackers 1 can sweet and condensed milk 1 cup chopped walnuts (small, but not too small) 1.5 cups chocolate chips 3/4 cup coconut 1 cup butterscotch chips -Put butter in 13x9" glass dish and put in oven while it is heating to 350 degrees. -While the butter is melting, finely crush graham crackers (I prefer using a food processor). -Once the butter is melted, take the pan out and sprinkle the graham crackers evenly in the dish. -Pour sweet and condensed milk over the crust as ...

I completely forgot to add the video from our last surf trip! It's super late, but here it is! We didn't get a ton of footage so it's not the most exciting video, but oh well.

Since I really started surfing about 8 years ago, it's really been my escape from triathlon and life in general.  Not that I need an escape, but there is nothing like paddling out, catching some waves, then returning to life feeling like a new born ready to take on the world.  I've never had an interest in surf competitions and I've just enjoyed having surf in my life... ...but things change. Anyone that knows me knows how competitive I am.  I don't have to win all the time to be satisfied, I just like to compete and grow in all aspects of life.  This started with surfing at the beginning of 2017 when a couple other friends decided to set a goal to surf 100 sessions this year.  BUT, we had to decide what counted as a 'session'.  We decided on the following: 1) Must catch 3 waves 2) You cannot paddle out, catch three waves, then go back to the beach and repeat for another session.  It has to be a legitimate separate event of the day. The first...

Just when I think I've been on the best surf trip in the world, I go on another one that blows the last one out of the water.  Another year and another guys surf trip.  This was the biggest group yet with 5 guys, including the standard David, Jeff and Jay...plus we added Shawn this year. We usually have a Eukre World Championship and since it is a 4 player game, we had to get a little creative with a round robin approach.  In the end, Jay and Shawn took the Championship title from David and I, but I hope they know we will be back with a vengeance next year. When we originally planned this trip, it was only for Samoa, but when we realized we had to do a long layover in either Hawaii, Fiji Australia or New Zealand, we decided to make it a two week trip and spend a week in New Zealand as our 'layover'. We decided to rent RV's in NZ since a couple in the group had done it before and said it was the proper way to chase swell and wind.  They were right!  We ended...