quinn's place

better (wayyyy) late than never - photos from our special cousins trip to oahu back in february!

i was 7 months pregnant at the time, digging big holes in the sand to be able to lay on my belly, guzzling all the most refreshing n.a. hawaiian beverages, and enjoying some time with peter just the two of us before our bambino would come into the world in early may.

pete’s cousins and aunt coordinated this trip probably 3 years ago…. and we finally got to take it this last february!

as it SNOWS out my windows today for the first time this fall (?!), on november 7th (!!!), i’m loving remembering all the hawaiian warmth, smells, beach time, tasty eats and sitting my pregnant lady arse in the surf while exfoliating my skin with sand. 😆

first stop: L & L BBQ for a huge pile of katsu plate lunch. i remember being super happy & content eating this while we drove in our rental mini van with pete & his siblings and looking out at HAWAII. 🌺

and then to the grocery store for all the hawaiian candies and tropically flavored bevvies for our stay.

pete’s cousins had their kiddos on the trip, too! sooo much fun to see them hang all together being adorable. so happy that our baby abe has a handful of “cousins” close in age!!!

mokulua islands.

baby’s first sunrise hike -pillbox hike in lanikai!

stunning, eh?

i’m weirdly obsessed with this peanut butter chocolate smoothie bowl from lanikai juice…and think about it multiple times per year (per week?).

that’s my cute sister in law!

pete and his brothers and cousins came to lanikai/kailua growing up when their grandparents had a place there…so these beaches are super special and bring back tons of memories for all of them. it’s so great that all the spouses and offspring can experience this special part of the island is when we travel here.

recreating cousin photos from their childhoods. 😊

i cannot find the original, but just imagine these people in a human pyramid but 20+ years younger. 😂

pete’s cousins hired a musician, jeff peterson, to come play for us at one of the big houses that our group rented. he was so awesome and had a lot of good history to tell us about about his hawaiian tunes and slack key. and it was a really nice way to honor their aunt pam who lived in hawaii for quite a while and who had taken all these kids on so many trips throughout their lives. ❤️

catching sunrises almost every morning after a visit to our fave kalapawai market for coffee & pastries.

a neighborhood market like this inspires me to have my own coffee/pastry/cheese/wine/beer/sandwich/ice cream/paper goods/fun trinket market one dayyyyyyy. 💫

whatever this refreshing beverage was was insanely delicious. they accidentally gave us 2 of them, and i was not mad about it!

lots of oceanside lunching pit stops!

hawaiian farmer’s market is a pregnant person’s dream scenario. i ate all the things.

amazing sunrises at kailua beach park.

it was nice to have 2 preggos in hawaii! cousin jenna was 8 months pregnant here. her son was born end of march, and ours beginning of may!

^ most perfect beach snack.

thanks, hawaii, you lovely magical wonderland!!!

pete & i went back to nyc for a few days to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary in november!

we jam packed our time with all the walking and enjoying all the foods & drinks in the city!

^ our first little airbnb was kind of like a woodsy cabin - it was cool and located in a really good neighborhood. they claim that walt disney once lived in this apartment…..can’t be sure if that was hogwash.

it was also located dangerously close to joe’s pizza.

this trip certainly made up for all the times i went to new york city and didn’t have any good pizza.

^ one of the most surprising and best things we ate the entire time was this crispy mushroom & burrata dish at rafele! it doesn’t look like much, but wowww we were impressed at how delicious it was paired with the bread and the pickled eggplant? plum? we still aren’t sure what that other side dish was, haha. but it was all so flavorful together!

back on our bullshit. back to mcsorley’s. 😈

a guy outside was doing a drawing of mcsorley’s that night - and we’d met some folks from kansas and had many a’brew at that point. we bought the drawing and paid way too much money to ship it home since we didn’t wanna shlep it around for the rest of our trip. oh well, we have such fond memories at mcsorley’s, so it was worth it.

^ i was weirdly so inspired by this cute little card shoppe - greenwich village letterpress! i could have stayed there hours and looked at every card. it made me want to have my own card shop. i am obsessT with picking out greeting cards!

^ at rosecran’s around the corner from greenwich letterpress. a great cozy florist & coffee shop to chill and write out all those cards :)

as you may know if you’ve read any of my latest posts from this year - i am fully captivated by the bon appétit mag world, so we had to visit scarr’s pizza since they named it the best slice in nyc.

we found both styles quite enjoyable - i think our favorite slices we had throughout this trip for sure! we first got the square grandma style because they didn’t have any regular slices ready. supa delicious. and once those fresh triangles came out of the oven, we hopped right back in line for more!

^ this little heart showed up right when i needed it. i wanted to remember this moment where i felt my granny watching over me :)

one of our nice neighbors down the street from us recommended the commuter ferry from pier 11 on the south end of manhattan as the best way to tour nyc by boat without spending a bunch of money on an actual guided tour. and he was right. it cost $2.75 to take the boat all the way up manhattan on the east river. it was timed perfectly after our pizza date, and we caught the boat at sunset. we were the only idiots who went out on the deck upstairs because it was WINDY & FREEZING - but we snapped a few pics and it was pretty. this was a fun trip highlight!

we popped into so many little restaurants & bars as all we did here was walk walk walk walk walk around the city. we also saw a couple of jazz shows that felt very special & new yorky and was peter’s favorite part of our trip. we went to a comedy show one night, too.

^ just after escaping our finalized basement renovation that we worked on all summer - pete finds the one home depot in the city, lol.

also, doughnut plant. yum.

^ jerry seinfeld sent us here. the italian sando was very guuuuud. all that cheese! and the meat was so thinly sliced and o mamma mia it was delicioso! also just a fun experience in a real italian shoppe with everyone shouting loudly about their various deli needs.

^ i wonder how many photos i have of pete sitting across the table from me. some of my favorite times together :)

misoya for ramen on a cold night. it was very good. i would not get corn in my ramen again though - i didn’t realize how corny that corn flavor could be.

^ biking through central park!

happy 1 year wedding anniversary to us! 11 years together.

💛

november 10th, 2019

on our last night in the city, we stayed at arlo nomad hotel in one of the king sky rooms. so so cool. it’s a very small room, but such a great city view. i was too excited about the views to sleep… also because it got super bright in there the millisecond that the sun started coming up, lol. i only had to open my eyes and got to watch the sun rise over new york city. super fun hotel experience.

& our room looked up at the empire state building!