We flew into Maui, Hawaii on Sunday night, got situated in our condo right on the beach!! (picture of the view to come)

We spent all day yesterday from 11 a.m. to about 8 p.m. driving The Road to Hana!! It was beautiful, amazing, and fun! And I really didn’t do a great job capturing it… lol But, I did snag a few fun pictures along the way.

If you ever visit Maui I definitely suggest taking the drive to Hana and picking up the CD “The Road to Hana” and following along with this (unless you have a local with you)

We ended the evening with dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse. After being ABSOLUTELY floored by the most amazing steak EVER at the Rutherford Grill in Napa, CA a few months back, I was told by my waitress there that I needed to try Ruth Chris… I’d also heard from some other would be food critiques that Ruth Chris was definitely worth the trip. So, we decided that while in Hawaii, we should try some food we could get in California… cause that makes sense… make the drive to the nearest Ruth Chris here on Maui, and ordered up some nice filet mignon steaks!

To make the long story short, Ruth Chris wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all it was hyped up to be either. If the only good steak you’ve ever tried is from the Outback Steakhouse, then you owe it to yourself to hit your nearest Ruth Chris, but if you’ve had Rutherford Grill’s filet, don’t bother visiting Ruth Chris expecting better…

My Filet was yummy, but not YUMMY!!!!… if that makes any sense… My filet was not dense enough (I’m no professional food reviewer… just simple Tim) and was a bit “fluffy” and not at all juicy… I LOVE my steak medium rare… it was, but there was not even the slightest hint of juice coming out of the steak when I cut into it… it’s like this medium rare steak had absorbed all of it’s own juice, and there was none left for me. :-(

Cheryl had the Petit Filet and hers was cooked more accurately to medium rare than mine, and hers was definitely more “dense” and not fluffy. Hers had some juices still left to it. I did taste hers, and I’d say her steak is the only reason I don’t give Ruth Chris a huge thumbs down… Hers was good, what I’d expect, but still not mind blowing. (Rutherford Grill’s was mind blowing!)

That said, I can’t wait for our next trip to Napa!!

Our server pointed out to us as we were getting ready to leave that there was a lunar eclipse taking place! We got back to the condo, I grabbed my camera and snapped a pic…

Tonight we’re trying a local sushi restaurant - Sensei (our favorite food of all time is Sushi… we still haven’t found anything that can beat Arigato in Santa Barbara, we’ve found some close seconds… so we’ll see what happens tonight) I think we actually have two sushi restaurants to hit while on Maui.

Well, not going to bed at 2 a.m. then getting up at 4 a.m. to make a 6 a.m. flight from the Santa Barbara Airport, but getting paid to capture someone’s wedding as it unfolds in a different state all the way across the nation is AWESOME!!!

We’re in Providence, Rhode Island staying with relatives tonight then catching a ferry tomorrow morning to Block Island where we will be shooting Jon and Bridget’s wedding!!! We are sooo excited! And, I get to see a ton of people I already know from past weddings!!! (I was actually introduced for the first time to this crazy bunch by my buddy and fellow wedding photographer David Jay - I worked for DJ for a year and learned soooooo much about the business and how to shoot creatively)

Well, we had a total of three flights today to get us here (yeah, I shoulda just spent $100 bucks more for a more directly flight, but at the same time, it was sorta nice to have everything broken up so we didn’t have to sit in a place for 5 straight hours or more!!!)

And I couldn’t help but snap a few shots of my beautiful wife!!!

Cheryl and I enjoyed an AWESOME dinner tonight in Livermore, Califorinia at the Wente Vineyards Restaurant. (There was even a wedding going on with live music while we were on the patio eating.)

We’re up here to shoot April and Don’s wedding at the Garre Winery and Vineyard tomorrow.

We started with a very interesting appetizer:

Tempura Battered Baia Nicchia Squash Blossom (literally this is the blossom from the

I have a problem… and as my business has grown, so has my problem… I don’t know how to walk away from my work. We’ve been working from home since the beginning, and that has always meant, wake up, ready, eat, work, eat dinner, work, sleep. Repeat… 6-7 days a week… This has meant no hiking, no time taken out of the day to relax…

Our solution, and office!! And I must say, we actually had at least two normal work days this week!!! Now that’s moving in the right direction!!!

Prints should be on the wall within a few weeks, along with a new HUGE 3 volume sample album!!!! Some more decorations… and some candy in the empty candy dish!!

Oh, and two SUPER cool things about our office… because of the office we’re now the proud owners of a total of 5 (five!!) Macs!!! And, the office is directly upstairs from a sweet bikeshop!! (oh, and it’s on State Street)

Our good friends David and Danielle Berg live on a sail boat and have been gracious enough on multiple occassions now to take us for a sail!!! What a blast!!!

Ryan and Jaime Becker also joined us with their junior guide dog in training (Susie).