scenes from the weekend

This weekend, I ate piles of tomatoes. I got a pedicure and a haircut. I drank many glasses of rose. I went for long runs along the river. I picnicked in Tilden Park. I listened to jazz. I bought a hat. It was pure summer, and I loved it.

Hope everyone else had a lovely, sunny weekend!

feeling relaxed

Hawaii is one of those places where you can take a vacation and actually leave feeling relaxed. Something about sitting on a beach and absorbing sunshine- it really is amazing. 

Anyway, now that I'm back in California, I'm in the process of getting ready for a bunch of job interviews for next summer. Printing resumes, writing samples, lists of references, transcripts- all that fun stuff. Interviewing is always taxing- the smiling and questions and all that- but I feel infinitely more ready to take it all on now that I've had a bit of a break. Thank you again to my lovely parents for whisking us all away on vacation!

mauna kea

On Wednesday, my uncle Stanley drove over from his home in Pa`auilo to pick us up and take us to Mauna Kea. 

From the Kohala Coast, it took about an hour and a half to get to the visitor's center at Mauna Kea and from there it was another half an hour or so of driving up vertiginous, unpaved roads to the summit of the mountain. As we neared the top, the clutch on my uncle's car gave out, so we all piled out of the car to wander around and take pictures. The wind was strong enough to pick up pieces of gravel and fling them through the air. My father's hat was blown off his head and over the side of a cliff- my brother scrambled down the side to retrieve it. The car wheezed back to life and we continued on to take a look at the Keck observatories, looking down on the blanket of clouds below us.

It was cold and strangely otherworldly on top of the mountain. The observatories and auxiliary buildings gave the bare landscape a sci-fi feel. From the summit we could see to Maui. I was glad to have a fleecy jacket on. 

family holiday, hawaii

Greetings from Hawaii.

I'm here on vacation with my family. We're four days in and settling into what is, to my mind, a very nice rhythm. 

On our first full day on the island, we took a trip out to see Volcano National Park. We couldn't see the lava flows but we're able to hike around the sides of the craters and through the lava tubes. It was humid and rainy but we had the park almost entirely to ourselves (the benefits of visiting Hawaii in the off season) and marveled at the strange landscape. The craters were deep and barren- it looked as though some tremendous bomb had been touched off- and it was impressive to see the smoke rising out of the vents in the distance.

We ended up at the Volcano House, which had a magnificent view of the Halema`uma`u Crater. We lunched overlooking the wild landscape and made plans for the next leg of our trip, which involved driving across the island to Hapuna. 

summer + a recipe for slow roasted tomatoes

I started a summer job in June and now I'm heading into my last week this Monday. It's gone by quickly and I'm having a hard time believing I'll be back in school next month. In the meanwhile, I'm really hoping to enjoy some of the pleasures of summer- glasses of rosé, days on the beach (Hawaii next week!), barbecuing, white sundresses, and slow roasted tomatoes. 

Slow roasted tomatoes with herbs are pure summer- fragrant and jewel-colored, they're wonderful in everything from salads to pasta and, stored in a jar and covered with olive oil, will last for around a month. 

Happy summer.

Recipe:

cherry tomatoes

bunch of thyme

olive oil

salt & pepper

Set oven to 225F. Cut tomatoes in half and arrange cut side up on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil then sprinkle approximately 2 teaspoons of thyme and a big pinch of Maldon sea salt or some other flaky salt. Toss in a few cloves of unpeeled garlic. Bake for 2-3 hours or until tomatoes are shriveled but retain some moisture. Eat immediately or store covered in olive oil along with the (peeled) garlic cloves for up to a month.