Our first 3 weeks...

From the moment Pierce and I stepped off the plane in Honolulu on New Years Day we have felt welcomed by the island.  It started with Pierce's friend Ron picking us up from the airport and driving us to where we were staying on the North Shore (which is no short drive, over a hour).

Sunset at Keiki Beach

Once we arrived in the North it was straight to Shark's Cove Cafe for ono grinds (good food) before hitting up some of Ron's favorite beach spots.  After a short tour around our new hood, we headed up to where we were staying in Pupukea.

Waimea overlook from Pu'u O Mahuka Heiau State Monument.

Our new and dear friends Chris and Heather were nice enough to let us stay with them for the first 2 weeks of our trip.  This was super gracious, period, even more so since they were in the midst of moving out of state.

Left to right: Gui Alves, Pierce, Dennis Kavanagh and me.

The first weekend we were here Heather and Chris had a joint art show in Waikiki and we tagged along for the ride.  Pierce and I had a great time meeting up with friends on the island, meeting new people and just having an overall good time.

Heather and Chris having fun at the Greenroom show in Waikiki.

Sunset from Chris and Heather's lanai.

While at Chris and Heather's we were fortunate enough to be surrounded by delicious fruit trees.  Each morning Pierce and I would pick tangerines and make fresh juice.  In addition to the juice, we were spoiled with gigantic avocados that made massive amounts of guacamole.

Yard Tiki.

We spent a lot of our time in Pupukea listening to the rain, feeling the winds and just enjoying the indoor/outdoor lifestyle of Hawaii.  Life is calm and glorious when you look out over beautiful trees, plants and scenery.

Horseback ride through Kualoa Ranch.

The day before Chris and Heather shipped off for the mainland the four of us went on a two hour horseback riding tour of Kualoa Ranch.  Neither Pierce or I had been on a horse since we were in elementary school, so I'm glad that we ended up pulling it off without injury.  The views were incredible but our butts were super sore by the end.  That is definitely something that your body gets use to.

Pierce taking some shots of the Wolf Pack (from Oceanside) at the Pyramid Rock Bodysurfing Championship.

This past Saturday we were fortunate enough to be invited to go down to Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Base and watch the Pyramid Rock Bodysurfing Championship.  We had an incredible time cheering on the contestants, making tons of new friends and eating all kinds of new and delicious dishes.

It was hot and sunny down at Pyramid Rock, so we are super thankful for our friends over at Headhunter who supported our trip with some amazing sunscreen.

New friends :)

When the competition was over, that's when the real fun began.  Although we had been up since 5am, we were all super excited to keep the fun going and just hangout together and shoot the shit.  Pierce and I were super stoked to have the opportunity to try opihi straight from the ocean, this in addition to freshly made chicken katsu, lobster stew, grilled shrimp and much, much more.  The best part about the day was finding out that they were going to do it all again this next Saturday at Makaha and we are invited.

Ideas for next blog entry; gigantic waves and Makaha experience.  Stay tuned!!!

Hitting The Reset Button

So, we are officially down to the last couple of weeks in Southern California.  With some of the best sunrises and sunsets in recent history, at least as far as we are concerned, we are cherishing the last days in our hometown of San Diego.

 Sunset at San Elijo State Beach Campgrounds (Northern end).  Photo by: Petra Kavanagh

 Sunset compilation, one December evening at the reefs of La Jolla.  Photos by: Petra Kavanagh.

My Batman silhouette in La Jolla.  Photo by: Pierce Michael Kavanagh

Pierce and I have both spent some time away from this amazing and beautiful town of ours, but for me personally, this will be the longest I have stayed away from home (over 3 months), and I am looking forward to this opportunity.

Over lunch yesterday afternoon, Pierce and I discussed all that we hope to accomplish and experience while on the islands.  Although there are lots of areas we want to cover while in Hawaii, we will be spending most of out time on the island of Oahu and our biggest priorities while there, are hiking Waimea Valley, Diamond Head State Monument, Makapu Lighthouse, and Manoa Falls.  Also, while visiting, these spots, we hope to be able to swim in most areas on the island, in addition to traveling amongst the Island chain.

We look forward to sharing our experiences and milestones with everyone, so please stay tuned to our blog to learn more about what we are up to and what's coming next.

Learning never ends...

As we get older sometimes we think that we know everything (or at least all we need to know in order to survive), or we may think that there's no room for any new information, or in my case, the technology in front of me freaks me out.  Well this weekend I had to come face to face with my fears, when people I usually rely on for such things were already busy with important things as well, so I took a deep breath and jumped in.

When I graduated from high school in 1999, I still had dial-up internet at home and sought out books for answers, so this time around was much simpler when all I had to do was Google "how to use iMovie".  I was excited when all sorts of YouTube videos popped up to help me in my venture.  The one at the top of the list was by a young boy, I would guess about 12 years old, and I figured if he had done it then I sure has hell could do it too.

Here's the video I watched :)

As a film producer I do a lot of work to make films be made, but in my case that usually does not involve editing, graphics, basically anything that has to do with computers or tech items.  But when push comes to shove, sometimes you have to give yourself a bit of a kick in the ass and learn new things.  So this weekend, misfit pictures (a production company run by my husband, myself and a friend) needed to get together some clips from our upcoming film, WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME, for a local news producer, and both my husband and our partner were working on other projects, so I took the bull by the horns.

First off I had to find the clips I wanted to use and the segments within them that I needed to pull out.  Secondly, I had to upload all the clips into iMovie, which took quite a while depending on the length of the clip.  Then, after all the clips were uploaded I had to cut them down into the segments I wanted, before arranging them in the order I preferred.  Lastly I added title cards.  Unfortunately for me I didn't realize that it would then take over a hour to upload the video to Vimeo, and this after I started a WeTransfer that didn't work out, then had to figure out how to convert the file to the correct type, before the final upload to Vimeo.

So after all of my hard work, I did it, I made a video!!!  I feel very proud of my accomplishment and I look forward to making more videos soon, ones that I will be able to share, because unfortunately I can't share this one with you just yet.  But I do promise to post it once the feature film has been released.

In the mean time please take a few minutes to check out what we are currently working on :)

Teaser for WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME

Trailer for RESURF

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Our day started off with a family 5K walk around Fiesta Island, it was a great way to start off the holiday.  Pierce and I then did our normal routine, Thanksgiving Day with the Kavanagh clan and the rest of the weekend camping with my family.

 Family walk at Fiesta Island.

Thanksgiving Day meal with the Kavanahs, plus Geoffrey Smart.  Photo by Pierce.

This year we went to Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside and it was a perfect place to relax and get away from the daily grind.  We spent our time talking around the camp fire, hiking up to Mount Rubidoux, playing monster trucks with our nephew Jayden and just having a grand ole time.

View from the top of Mount Rubidoux.  Photo by Maureen Gaare

 Campground backdrop.

 A walk around the lake.  Joel & Tim tried to catch some fish, but no luck.

 Joel and Pierce enjoying the campgrounds on our walk/ride.

 Sean working his magic with the popcorn as my dad (the fire master) looks on.

 Sunrise Sunday morning, what a way to start the day :)

 Blueberry, raspberry and banana pancakes for breakfast, yummy!!!  Photo by Pierce.

Warwick (the dog and newest edition to the group) being hand fed by Jayden. 

On our way home from Riverside we stopped by Fallbrook to visit with Pierce's sister Claire and her family, which is always a blast.  I'm glad we stopped too, because we were there to welcome home the latest critters to the brood, two kittens (names to come later).

As a "short cut" to our favorite food joint Daphne's, we decided to go through Vista, since we'd really been enjoying our scenic drive thus far.  In the process, we stumbled upon Pierce's old stomping grounds, the Vista Tennis Camp, which his parents owned and operated in the late 70s and early 80s.  It was quite a flashback for Pierce as he recalled all the fun (hot girls, youth shenanigans, video games and slurpees) and not-so-fun (pulling weeds, cleaning up, and not to mention, leaving the beach) things about spending each summer going to camp.

 Old River Road Bridge

Which way should we go? :)  Photo by Pierce.

 Vista Tennis Club

Panorama of the club.

Main sign from the road.  Photo by Pierce.

Daphne's California Greek for dinner, delicious.

From Daphne's we hit the coast and meandered our way down the highway, enjoying the sunset the entire way back home.

 Photo by Pierce.

 Photo by Pierce.

 Photo by Pierce.

Photo by Pierce.

We hope that you all had just as much fun this past weekend :)
Happy Holidays!!!

We're Back in Action!!!

After a very long hiatus, 3 years to be exact, we are at it again, Kavanagh Adventures is back in full affect.

With our upcoming trip to Hawaii we thought this was the perfect time to kick this into high gear.

Hopefully you can join in on the adventure, via our blog.

Stay tuned!!!

More Elvis

On the way into Memphis' downtown, we had to swing by Graceland and pay our respects to "the King". Pierce and I didn't go onto the grounds, but it was a lot of fun to check out the souvenir shops and all of the Elvis fans that were out and about. We had a great time taking pictures. We moved on fairly quickly and before you know it we were in downtown Memphis. I have to say, I was not that impressed with the parts of Memphis that we went through, it seemed a bit dingy and rather mellow for there being so many storefronts lining the streets. In Memphis' defense it was also daytime so every flaw was completely visible. Pierce and I did give ourselves enough time to check out the Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther King Jr was shot), Sun Records, the Gibson Guitar factory, we made ourselves lunch and then scooted on our way.

The heat and humidity I think had finally caught up to us and we were both pooped. We were lucky enough to find a great place to camp for a couple of nights before heading up into Nashville.

Since we left New Orleans...

we have traveled to another 12 or 13 states. Pierce and I were told to travel up the Natchez Trace Parkway through Mississippi and we are so glad that we took that advice. We have been blessed with some amazing vistas and green landscapes, but this experience was a little more than some of the "regular" roads.

(from the national park website):
What Is The Natchez Trace Parkway?
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile drive through exceptional scenery and 10,000 years of North American history. Used by American Indians, "Kaintucks", settlers, and future presidents, the Old Trace played an important role in American history. Today, visitors can enjoy not only a scenic drive but also hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping.

Pierce and I took our time and followed the Trace from Natchez to Tupelo, before heading over toward Memphis. The drive brought us through green pastures, thick wooded forests and across the path of a few animals and trillions of bugs. In addition to all of the natural beauty around us were dozens of turnouts with trails and exhibits that described and showed the history of the Trace. We even spent the night at one of the campsites in the Parkway, which was great for we because it meant that I could wash my hair (this sometimes doesn't get to happen as often as I would like).

Although the Parkway continued up through Alabama and into Nashville, we deviated at Tupelo and went onto Memphis but not without visiting Elvis' boyhood home, the diner he would hangout at and the hardware shop that we got his first guitar.