Greetings to all! I come to you a more worldly and experienced traveler. I have journeyed to lands far away from the comfort of our little islands and seen phenomena that has only been heard of in stories passed along our paradise chain. I have seen the mythical snow and experienced a change of seasons.

Over Christmas break, I went to California. I got to go to San Francisco, a city I had always dreamed of seeing.

I saw sea lions at Pier 39, walked the Golden Gate Bridge, toured Golden Gate Park, ate the most delicious chocolate at Ghirardelli’s chocolate shop, and ate delicious clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl that completely changed my opinion on soups.

Guys, I eat soup now. It’s ridiculous.

The part of the trip that I was looking forward to the most though, was seeing snow! Winter, such a strange season that I had only seen on television and read about in books. I got to have my very first snowball fight, make snowmen and angels, and go sledding.

Snow is such a strange thing… It seems so soft and fluffy at first, but then after you’ve been playing in it, falling in it, and immersing yourself in it completely, you start to notice that you’re getting a little cold. Maybe more than a little cold, you’re downright freezing.

It’s cold, you feel like you’re going numb and you have to wiggle your toes to remember that they are still there and in working order.

Snow, I have learned, is really only fun for a limited amount of time.

On my trip, I have also broken the record of the number of states I have traveled to. I am up to three: Hawaiʻi, California and Nevada. Look at me, such an experienced traveler. It was exciting to be somewhere that wasn’t Hawaiʻi. It was kind of like taking on an entire new lifestyle.

I had to wear more clothes because it was so cold that layers were a must. I felt a little awkward at first, like I was wearing too many things at one time and was approximately twice my normal size, but after a while you get used to it. Wearing pants, a t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, a jacket, a hat, a scarf, gloves, long socks, and boots- all this is normal. It did affect the amount of time it used to take me to get ready to go out, though.

The people are also different. People are…different. They have slightly different mannerisms, and they don’t act the same way that people in Hawaiʻi do.

When I would meet someone new who was a friend of the people I was staying with, I would go up to hug them only realize that they were holding their hand out for a handshake. Who shakes hands in Hawaiʻi?? No one I know.

Here, everyone is family and there’s a level of comfort that simply isn’t the same anywhere else. It makes Hawaiʻi seem so warm in comparison to mainland.

It was a fun trip, though, and I can’t wait to go to college up there. If there is one thing I got out of that trip, it’s a broader perspective of just how big the world is and how much more there is than just inside the little islands I call home.

Most definitely the best Christmas ever.