We had a quick turn-around from the two-week grad trip to Dana’s wedding in Kauai. It was what, a week and a half? Just enough time for everyone at work to say, “Didn’t you just go on vacation!?”
Although only the North American people said that. The Europe people were like, “cool”. Since they all take 6 weeks anyway.
Anisha and I just giggle and are taking ALLLL the vacation we can because really, who knows how long this will last?
We started the morning with first class tickets courtesy of my Mama. Seriously the most luxurious thing and makes us sigh a little that we took up most of the seats. Sadly it wasn’t a “huge” plane so we didn’t get all the special lay back seats but still. It’s SO nice. We got to see the Costa family, the officiant of Dana’s wedding, and a few of her friends getting on the plane too. This was gonna be a PARTY.
My fruit plate was delicious.
The flight attendant was super mean and basically accused one of the other 1st class passengers of vaping and setting off the bathroom alarm and then had to go crawling back and apologize because the alarm kept going off so they were NOT vaping. It was such drama. We were captivated. She was also kinda mean to all of us. She was clearly not having a good day and did NOT want to be working. Oh well. Made for some entertainment!
We landed and immediately ran into Nichol and Zach and the kids. I walked up to her and said, “Excuse me, Ma’am, you are in the way!” and she was so disturbed. She has done that to me before so that was payback. haha – We then saw the two Rambo families at baggage claim, and we heard the Williams family had just landed.
We did get a picture of our (almost!) 90yo Grandma Evie with the McVicker and Skinner babies.
I was super triggered by everyone in the baggage claim, plus all the other travelers and the second we had our bags I dragged our family over to the rental car. Way too big of a crowd. Nichol was having problems with her car but they were sorting it out so we chatted for a bit. We got our car and headed over to Duke’s since check-in was not until 4pm.
They… luckily (?) sat us at a huge table by chance and after we ordered, Mom, Gregg, Katie, Justin, and Danny came in and were able to sit down at our table.
Danny was so cute. He was so upset that we were flying on American Airlines and not Hawaiian. He was having so much fun with his toy plane.
Sam then spent the week telling Danny there was a Sammie Airlines that had to be his favorite instead of Hawaiian. I think he’s starting to believe it?
I was in long cargo pants, felt SUPER sweaty, and just wanted to be on our way. Katie wanted to do a digestion walk so we parted ways and told them we may stop by the lookout point at Wailua Falls.
The drive in to the lookout was EPIC. VERY small two lane road. We may have run over a chicken (we didn’t). Sam’s vlog she started – I contributed to.
Amusing!
But the waterfall was super cool. I’m glad we did the detour, if only for the ridiculous drive.
We basically hopped back in the car and went to Safeway. JJ was 15m behind us because they went to the lookout too. Again, I didn’t want to wait in the store. Hanging out in a grocery store with 9 people is not my idea of fun. So we had a beautiful drive over to Princeville and then decided everyone’s rooms. Ha.
J and I did take the smaller one so I was fine with making the decision in the moment but I heard Katie was not happy at no air conditioning in her room, which is unfortunate. But she had the king bed and Danny sleeps with them so… that was really the only choice. We actually had an AC unit in our room which came in so handy. We turned it off at night but it was heaven during the day.
The next morning, I woke up at… 2:30am? Which was TECHNICALLY 530! I did go down around 8:30 so… Went back to bed and then hit 4:30 and there was no getting back to sleep so I did some work.
Around 6:30, I did a 3mile run. It is VERY MUCH raining this week which is a bummer, very cloudy. I decided to chance the “20% chance of rain in the next hour” and take off on my run and did not win my bet.
75 degree weather with 20m gusts of wind and driving rain isn’t the WORST to run in but it was definitely an experience.
My glasses were COVERED in rain and I was telling myself, don’t wipe them off for a fun picture. I immediately wiped them off to see my phone to take the picture and laughed at myself.
You could still tell it was raining. But 3 hours later, it was gorgeous!
(10m after that it was raining again. Oh Hawaii, you are beautiful!)
Picture proof! It amused me to take the same photo again. Especially showing off my new spray tan, ha.
Mom rented 8 bikes.
She would not let Gregg see the price on that rental. He would have been so upset but it’s so nice to have bikes! Even if I only go on them a few times, lol.
They made me lead so I went back to my lookout point and we cruised by the One Hotel where the girls would be doing spa treatments later on in the week.
Then some of them went back to lounge….
While G, JJ, Sam, and I cruised in the other direction. We saw Nichol and Trish walking back from Foodland, chatted with them for a bit. I then saw a potential beach path on the map so we drove our bikes down there.
JJ was wearing her white tennies and Sam didn’t feel like falling down (another!) hill – from the first day, that was a funny story.
So G and I said we would check it out. G loves going down weird paths.
It was SO CRAZY STEEP.
Wyllie’s Beach Trail – 1.1 miles, 288 ft elevation gain
And MUDDY!!!
I had to put my phone away on the really muddy parts because I could just SEE me falling on my ass and my phone being buried in mud. Not buried. But… bad.
We made it down with NO FALLING! Griffin was a LITTLE iffy with his no tread crocs but he made it. My on Cloud shoes were amazing.
High tide was up so there was not much beach but it was gorgeous!
And then the sun came out! Hawaii is so beautiful. G has been saying it’s his favorite.
We headed back to the house and got ready for the Welcome Party!
We walked out to Hanalei Pier because G wanted to jump off and I got this snapshot of the party from here. Some fun EZ ups for the rain that was happening off and on and everyone brought beach chairs and towels.
It started POURING while Sam and I were under the roof of the pier so we just stood there awhile, haha. I had curled my hair, darn it. I was wearing my hat though.
G was swimming in the water – he did jump from the pier but it was SUPER shallow. He was basically standing. I’m glad he didn’t hurt his legs!
The party was lovely. The rain stopped, the sun peeked out, but it was still fairly cloudy and no waves in the bay but fun seeing family. I think there were a few snacks and some coolers of beer.
It made me laugh but both kids AND Justin grabbed the vodka soda things they sell at Costco now and all three of them hated it. I said, I guess I was driving then!
Dana looked lovely in her wedding bikini. She was GLOWING. She was SO happy to see everyone and having the best time and it was so fun to see.
I snagged a few photos of her and her friends. We talked to Evie, as she was sitting down in some of the beach chairs under the umbrella.
We had brought the boogie boards and Danny was having so much fun kicking around the shallow areas.
We then headed home because… sand and stuff was no fun. haha. I had to pee and the only bathroom was by the car!
Once we got home, I think we relaxed for a bit but JJ, Gregg, Katie, her Justin, and Danny were a few minutes behind us. Katie had not been feeling good, basically since we arrived, so her energy was fairly off. She wanted to stay home but we wanted FOOD.
We invited Justin and Danny but he thought they should stay home to be with her – but he said he regretted it later – haha – he was hungry that night!
We went over to the plaza and it was SO much fun!
We went to B’s Kitchen which said it was a pizza and burgers joint but OOOooo it was high end! JJ got a bottle of Veuve for us girls, and J got a… something with rum, probably. Griffin had a delicious pineapple juice.
We loved our meals. I got the swordfish and it was local, and not meaty at all. So perfect!
Our waitress was so sweet. She had a beautiful name – Sophira – and she said she was an Elixologist when she wasn’t working at B’s. JJ thought that was AMAZING and hired her for our party on Sunday! We were just laughing. But I really liked her, she was a go-getter.
After dinner, we got G some shaved ice and the rest of us got ice cream. There was a man playing guitar and I walked into Foodland to buy a million Hawaiian rolls for the party on Sunday because the catering place didn’t have rolls and of course, we HAD to have rolls.
Especially squishy Hawaiian rolls.
I walk out and J, Sam and GG make a beeline for me. The guy that JJ was talking to? Horrible. He recited the Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiian and went on for FAR too long, he was… blinking? And he was telling horrible stories. And she was trying to hire him to play guitar for the party and… NO.
I looked over to see JJ smiling her smile and this guy talking a million miles a minute. So I swept over, smiled and said HI! And then said, Mom I got our groceries so we gotta go! Let’s get a card from this nice man and talk to him later!
Basically I took away her toy.
She was slightly upset – in a laughing JJ way – that i took away her toy. She proceeded to find a whole group of musicians and some hula dancers for our party on Sunday and that was our running joke the whole weekend. haha
But no, I’m sorry, we could NOT hire Uncle Mikey who we realized later was the owner of the activities business and he probably would have tried selling us on trips the whole evening. haha
The next morning – i was up early because of course I was. But the sunrise was worth it.
Le sigh.
I ran the OTHER direction the next morning, did about 3 miles, and then ran into JJ and walked with her a little bit so I ended up doing FOUR MILES.
My legs are tired. But ZOMG the stuff I’m eating, I probably should run 8 miles. haha
Came home to relax… and the fam was relaxing too.
I don’t what else we did, now my days are all running together and it’s Tuesday… but alas, I will try to keep remembering!
Sam and I were hanging at the house and JJ went down with Katie to THE ONE for our spa treatments and also to keep Grandma Evie company because we were all switching in and out but also wanted to make sure Evie had company.
JJ ended up texting me at 2 and asking us to come down so Sam and I high-tailed it down.
We sat with a few people for a bit, then JJ and Katie went in for theirs around 3, and I had Sam go into the quiet room at 3:30 because she needed alone time with her book – haha.
I sat with Evie until 3:45 and then went in for my 4pm massage.
It was heavenly. So nice.
Sam and I were the last ones so we walked through the hotel – SO beautiful. I wish I could spend more time there. But then we headed back to get ready for the Costa party!
Luckily, their house was 4 houses down from ours. haha.
So I felt comfortable wearing the dress I was THINKING about wearing to the wedding and THOUGHT I would wear to the welcome party – until we realized the welcome party was a beach party. Not to waste my rental, I threw it on!
Seriously love this dress. Tempted to buy it but no idea where I would wear it so I enjoyed it for the few hours I had it on!
The dinner they put on was so lovely. Zach BBQ’d the BEST chicken and ribs – and it had seasonings that were good for me – and they had the best veggies too. YUM!
JJ and I brought over champagne and continued our spree… the kids enjoyed the hot tub.
They had specialty mai-tais. Such a fun evening.
Love this family.
All my days are running into one another so going to post this and hope I can remember the rest of the days now that it’s almost done!
