Go to Duke’s for the breakfast buffet. Enjoy an all you can eat breakfast for $18 while gazing at the ocean and thinking about the omelette station.
Take a nap on the beach.
Go for a swim.
Get a tan.
Drink a Mai Tai.
That’s all.
On the South Shore of Oahu, Sandy Beach is a lovely sunrise spot with a powerful shore break that made for good body surfing. Getting clobbered by waves is always an effective way to wake up.
Cold brew coffee, pineapple and wifi... what more could you want.
Hawaiian chicks.
Post-swim, I'd drink a cold brew provided by the rustic road-side coffee cart and watch photographers with massive lenses (in the water!) trying to get the perfect shot of a barrel.
Sandy Beach is a great way to start the day.
In September, I traveled to Hawaii for a wedding and spent 2 weeks exploring the island of Oahu. I found Hawaii to be so excellent that it made me prouder to be an American (which can be tough at times, these days), knowing this beautiful tropical gem is part of my country.
Immediately after landing, we picked up our rental car and drove to a beach in Honolulu for an inaugural dip.
Diamond Head Crater.
Waikiki by night.
I found a lost dog wandering around in the dark in Waikiki, promptly fell in love, gave her a bath, got her a new outfit and began planning how I could take her home to Boston (You can pack a small dog on Delta, FYI). Long story short, I eventually (and begrudgingly) reunited her with her owner but I was THISCLOSE to finally owning a dog and already had a shortlist of Hawaiian names picked out for her. Her real name is "Penny" but I think she looks more like a "Aliikai" (Hawaiian for "Queen of the Sea").
For the first 2 nights, we stayed in an Honolulu AirBnB surrounded by misty mountains in the Aina Haina Valley. Jetlagged, we would wake up at sunrise and get an early hike in before hitting the beach.
I liked Hawaii so much it actually made me a morning person.
Wallace.
Lunch break browsing at Deep Thoughts
Home sweet home.
Home sweet City Feed.
One of many remote offices.
Cute JP kid.
I was very happy to be back in my neighborhood this summer.
(From my phone.)
Pre-surf at Maori Bay.
New llama friend.
Dowtown from Te Atatu Peninsula.
Vintage shopping on K Road.
Street art in Ponsonby.
Our friends who fed us satay sticks at the Henderson Night Markets every Thursday.
Auckland Sky Tower at night, from below.
Man and dog. True love.
Art on Waiheke Island.
Glorious Waiheke.
Mid-run on Waiheke Island.
Cleaned up for a Waiheke Wedding.
3/4 of the Stratford Siblings.
Bexee, Scott and I. Practically an ad for Karen Walker.
Smokey, watching foolish humans.
Smokey, one with nature.
Downtown Auckland.
Crater on Mount Eden.
Sunset on the Te Atatu Peninsula.
Most of my 3 month stint in New Zealand this year consisted of EditMate work (pitch meetings, editing videos, cursing NZ's archaic wifi when uploading and downloading said videos) but I did make sure to step away from my laptop and get out and enjoy NZ's epic landscape.
Here's a few photos from a day hiking the Mercer Bay Loop:
It's one of the oldest settled areas in the Waitakere Ranges and has a tragic past. Maori folklore says a Maori Chief's beautiful daughter drifted off from here after mourning her husband who got swept off to the ocean from a giant wave that hit the cliff.
Since then, multiple women have gone missing from this cliff (one just this past March) only adding to the Bay's haunted legend.
New Zealand in green, blue and black + white.
The hills are alive.
Some Tai Chi and the Auckland skyline.
Devonport.
Silo Park.
Bright green Devonport.
Smokey in front of Rangitoto.
Swimming in Devonport.
Beach afternoon at O'Neills Bay.
Walking on a stormy day.
Smokey the dog remains ultimate hiking, swimming, roadtripping and surfing companion.
From my phone.
Day at Piha with Smokey.
Feeding the neighbors last night's salad leftovers.
Backyard.
Kite festival on the Te Atatu Peninsula.
Cricket game, out in the country. Note tiny Smokey in the middle of a game of fetch.
Scott and Rangitoto in the distance.
Backyard dinner view.
Fetch at Piha.
Post-swim.
Scott was back in his homeland sorting out his American Business visa and a few things were happening with EditMate in the southern hemisphere -- so in January, I flew over for a New Zealand summer. It was a joyous reunion with Smokey. And Scott too.
EditMate had it's 1st birthday in January.
I use that date loosely because when we "launched" (with a post on Facebook) I didn't know that January isn't the best time to launch a business in New Zealand.
In the USA, January is a time where everyone gets back to work after Christmas vacation. Employees power walk back into the office on January 2nd, fresh from the holiday, motivated with resolutions and new year goals.
In New Zealand, January is the smack dab in the middle of the summer... therefore Kiwis are stacking up their Christmas days off with their vacation days off (4+ weeks, which as an American is enviable but as a new business owner was infuriating) and everyone is still at their bach, sunburned on the beach, not looking at their email and not scheduling meetings with a new company that wants to talk to them about "user generated video". No one wants to think about that until at least after Valentine's Day. And so, January 2016 was a quiet month. Things really got going in February.
Nonetheless, EditMate's birthday is in January!
And since then, we've gained clients in 3 markets (New Zealand, Australia and the USA) and edited over 160 videos for 45 brands. Our website has changed (from where it started) and things have evolved. It's been a good year.
For a bit of a recap, here are a few of my favorite recent projects:
More on EditMate's Video Channel too.
I'm currently posting from New Zealand but this was back when the snow was minimal and charming, I switched hemispheres before it got real.
An accurate description of what it's like to work from home.
Let's all just start dressing in full monochrome because how great does this gal look doing it?
You know what you're probably missing in your life? An all-girl, low fi Spanish indie rock band from Madrid that wear scrunchies. Start here and here with Hinds.
Someone buy me this.
Like I needed another reason to adore Chance the Rapper.
Quite a bit of my days this fall and winter was spent sloshing around JP listening to How I Built This + 2 Dope Queens. I highly recommend both.
A Better Way to Argue About Politics
Paula Scher on the creative process: "I think your mind is like a giant slot machine. On one side of your brain, you have all the experiences of your life: every influence, everything that ever inspired you, everything that’s ever made you angry, everything you’ve ever thought, just rolling around in there. It’s fodder. On the other side of your brain is where you input a specific brief, and the specific brief has all the constraints and needs of the particular situation. It all sort of rolls around like a slot machine. You want the brief to line up with a perfect piece of fodder. You pull that fodder to make analogies and make points. It may be something that’s stylistic, or may be a pointed reference of some sort, and these things come together and solve the problem. Now, how does the machine work? How do you know it’s going to work? You don’t."
PREACH: Being Lazy Is the Key to Success.
Maggie Rogers at Higher Ground
Mojitos and post-show Jazz at Radio Bean
Gingerbread house AirBnB
Last summer I stumbled across this video then proceeded to listen to Alaska over and over and over again through the fall.
Then one night at 2 AM in January I bought a single ticket to a Monday night Maggie Rogers show in Burlington, Vermont because her first tour wasn't stopping anywhere near Boston.
I woke up the next morning with the kind of vague regret that usually only accompanies heavy champagne consumption (the $12 ticket seemed like a bit of rash purchase as she had only released 2 songs at that point). Nevertheless, I packed a bag that Monday morning and drove 3 hours in the snow to Burlington.
Going to a show by yourself is kind of like a weird form of meditation. You find yourself standing quite still (as to not bump into anyone to avoid polite conversation), very mindful as to what is going on around you (like noticing how the kids in Burlington get dressed up for a night out in what I would wear snow-shoeing) and quietly reflecting back on the last time you were in this situation (Fall 2004, early Freshman year, at a tiny John Legend show in a BC basement class room. I barely had any friends at that point and none of them had ever heard of John Legend).
To my relief, her set consisted of more than 2 songs and her modesty ("I feel like new artists shouldn't really play an encore. The Rolling Stones should play an encore but not me") and enthusiasm ("Oh my god, thank you all so much for coming! This is the biggest crowd we've ever had! Well, I've ever had. My band has played a lot more shows than me. This is only my 5th show. Thank you so much!") was sweet and genuine.
She was also amazing live. It was definitely worth the drive.
The rest of my time in Burlington consisted of coffee shop hopping (Uncommon Grounds is good for people watching and Muddy Waters is like dining in a tree house) scoring a signed copy of Maria Semple's Today Will Be Different at Crow Bookshop and talking politics and watching Trevor Noah with my AirBnB host.
It was a great winter trip to Vermont.
P.S. Maggie Rogers now has an EP out, called Now That the Light is Fading, if you'd like to check it out. It has 5 (!) songs on it. And her new US and European tours are selling like hotcakes. Go if you can.
Jess and I entered full on, basic-bitches-in-fall mode for a morning of Apple picking at Smolak Farms in North Andover.
We went so late in the season that we were the only ones in the orchard but we fully immersed ourselves in the autumnal spirit with hot apple cider, apple cider donuts and bags of apples which I had big plans for (apple sauce! apple crumble! apple pie!) but then just ate raw over the next month because honestly, who has time for that.
These boots were in no way practical for the occasion but they perfectly matched my hat which was just begging to visit an apple orchard. Look at that hat. Where else was I gonna wear that hat.
