Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a crazy city, but I am enjoying my life here. Gradually LA is feeling more and more like home. Which means, my short time here is near it's end. I am not sure where my next adventure will be. I am contemplating a number of different options, including staying in LA, Boston, Hawaii, Utah, DC, Seattle, Denver, etc. I have 2 weeks to decide. No pressure.

Among the things that I like about LA, is proximity to family. Last week, I took a last minute trip to Utah, to spend time with Tiff, Leena, David, my neices and nephew. We had a blast together.

After I left, Leena, David, Annuka, and Satu drove out here to spend the weekend with me. It was a wonderful week.

After 45 minutes of shopping, we had all reached our limit.

Enjoying the beach

A Small Detour

Tragically my time in St Thomas is over. I took a travel nurse assignment in Los Angeles this summer. I had very little time in between my assignments and there was driving to do, classes to take and an unrelated interview to go to. However, I had timed everything perfectly.

Three days before starting work, I began my drive to LA from Phoenix, where my class had been. About an hour into my drive, I received a phone call from my nursing recruiter. My job was delayed by two weeks.

So I turned my car around, and took a little detour to Salt Lake City.











I drove by the Hoover Dam

Through Las Vegas

(The road to Salt Lake City was closed due to a wild fire, so I had to take the long way around)



And through the Utah desert.

It was worth it.

Visitors

April was filled with visitors. It was so much fun to have more of the people I love on my islands.


Jasmine came first. We had a blast...but didn't take a single picture. Lame!

This is a photo of Jasmine and me from 2007. This was kind of what our trip was like, only sunnier.

After Jasmine left, my parents and little brother came to visit. I had been looking forward to their visit for months.

Here we are...

Beaching it...

Hiking it...

Paddle boarding it...

Kickin it...

It was so much fun to have family out. After my parents and little brother left, my friend Michele, part of my Boston family came out.

New Haven

In March I took a short trip to New York, in hopes of discovering my life plan. Although, I did not find my mission, I did spend some time with some of my favorite people: Seppo, Tiffany, Kai, Nea, Aila and Amy.



Tragically, we didn't take many photos. However, when I arrived back in St Thomas I found this on my camera:





I was so happy!

A vacation

It isn't very often that you get a break from your real life, even in St Thomas. Living here, I still have the chores of daily living. Even sunny, 85 degree days and white sandy beaches can become part of a routine...a wonderful, wonderful routine.

Last week, I FINALLY got a vacation. My sister and 5 of her friends (Arianne, Kathy, Felicia, Lisa, and Courtney) came for a visit.








The seven of us stayed in my one bedroom apartment. We crammed 5 blowup mattresses into my bedroom, shared a bathroom and we claimed corners for our stuff. It was our own hostel.























We spent the majority of our days at visiting different beaches

Magen's Bay

St. John/Little Maho Bay

Just some guy and a hermit crab fort.

Coki Beach



























Secret Harbor

















Sapphire Beach















Smith Bay

In the evenings we explored the restaurants on St Thomas. I learned that although there is a lot of really crappy food here, there are some good places to eat too.

























Of course, Leena and I decided that the most fun thing we could do on our vacation is to go for an 8 mile run, at the crack'a dawn, uphill. We climbed 1000 feet in 5 miles. We pretty much kick ass.

8 "tuff" miles























It was a seriously awesome week!