My journey traveling solo, through life and across the country.
Author: Foxpartyofone
Solo traveler just trying to get a table for one😁
People ask me why I travel alone. I guess the short answer is I look at my life in terms of how much time I have left. If it works out for me to go somewhere, to see something, to do something then I’m going to do it. The future is not guaranteed and I want no regrets.
Well I made it thirtydays with no social media. It went so well that I forgot that it was over until this afternoon. Funny, I guess I weaned myself off it. I added the apps back on to my phone and tablet but I wasn’t really into checking out any updates. I guess that thirtydays made social media loose its shinyness lol. I’m okay with that. I think I will keep my rules in place and limit the amount of time spent on scrolling. Not that I really want to.
Whats on tap for February? This year? Mindfulness. It’s a pretty straightforward word. Your mind is fully attending to what’s happening, to what you’re doing and to the space you’re moving through. I want to be present in my life. So often I’m there but not really. The days roll on by and before you know it, it’s Christmas again lol.
The next thirtydays or so will be mindful consumption. 2021 I did thirtydays no sugar/junk food but I think that was too specific. I think I need to think about what I am eating. Am I really hungry? I know I am lacking in the amount of vegetables that I eat weekly. I will also need to go through the list of foods that I am sensitive to and find a few I can eat. That’s a whole other blog lol.
First task on the list? Purge the pantry. Take all the junk food for my coworkers to eat.
It’s been three weeks and how do I feel? Well, not seeing updates from friends and family is hard. Not that I am a super social person but I guess Facebook and Instagram are like social outings for me. A get together online with friends with no actual physical contact. You get to see what is going on with friends and family that live out of town/state. Which could be construed as lurking lol but it makes me feel somewhat connected.
I have replaced doom scrolling with reading my Kindle, some crocheting of potholders and a little bit of room organization. I’m not normally a big television fan but I did get sucked into a few series like Izombie and The 100.
When my thirtydays are up what will I do? Jump right back into the thick of social media or continue to take a step back? Maybe with a few ground rules?
I feel like I have been sleeping better. Probably due to the lack of blue light. Even though my iPad changed to night mode in the evening I don’t think my mind stopped when I would try to fall asleep.
Well, I made it a week without social media. Truly it hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be. The only time I seem to miss it is in the morning when I wake up or at night when I am going to bed. I wasn’t really seeing that many updates from friends. Mostly I saw a lot of ads which are annoying. You can delete them but that is time consuming. I did learn how to make plants grow and 100 uses for cottage cheese lol. Tiktok seems to be the biggest time waster for me. It’s way too easy to keep scrolling. Just one more video and three hours later I’m wondering where the time went.
I started receiving emails from Facebook, Instagram and Reddit. Updates on who was posting and what. I guess since I quit logging on they noticed. They need to feed those ads lol.
Have I been more productive? Ummmm, somewhat. I find myself reading more, organizing trips on paper and purging clothes from my closet.
No Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Reddit.
Social media definition
Interactive forms of media that allow users to interact with and publish to each other, generally by means of the Internet.
I tell myself I go on there to see what my friends are up to but in reality I get sucked into a black hole of scrolling. Scrolling through videos I don’t need to watch. Information I don’t need to know. Fake news I can do without. Sure, I might learn how to make butter, see cute cat rescues, organize my house room by room or get Christmas party ideas but 99% of the videos I watched I don’t remember. So they are just time wasters, distractions from things that need to be done.
I understand that this blog is a form of social media but I will strictly be using it to post and receive feedback. Nothing more.
Randy dropped me off at Terminal 1. I found out I needed to be at Terminal 3 so I took a shuttle over. It was not walkable lol. Both my bags had to be checked. Yikes. At least they are both hard sided. I hope nothing breaks or melts lol. My big bag weighed 50 lbs and it’s really just a medium size suitcase. Second one was 18 lbs and my backpack was 16 lbs. I also had to declare my own weight😂. Good thing they took my word for it lol.
Two hours until take off. Oh well. Gives me time to catch up on my blogging.
Mokulele Airlines.
The terminal is more of a hangar. Tiny waiting room with one vending machine. There is a food truck outside. Lola’s Local Grindz. Since I’m not one to experiment with food and my stomach I chose the vending machine. Lol. There was a perfectly good turkey and cheese sandwich in there.
Excited and nervous to travel solo again. Boarded the airplane. Roll call for seat assignment. Probably by weight. This is the smallest airplane I have ever been on. Ten passenger plus two pilots. Seat belts are like an automobile seat belt. Going across your chest and over your waist. Take off was a little bumpy but once we were in the air it smoothed out. It was cool to see the whole island of Oahu from the air at such a low altitude. I saw a beach I would want to go to.
Descent definitely was rough. Probably because of the wind. I had to hang onto my seat with both hands lol. Landed. Yay. I made it. Walked across the street to the rental car place. I had reserved a Jeep but it wasn’t available so I got a Ford Edge instead. It’s fine. I just won’t be four wheeling in the sand.
Oahu Molokai
Checked into Hotel Molokai which have privately owned condos through Airbnb. Cozy little cottage type room with a small lanai. Swept the room for cameras and checked the locks. One sliding door with a bar lock. I brought a portable lock for the front door. It attaches to the lock hole and there is another piece that blocks the door from opening. Pepper spray and flashlight next to my bed.
There is no traffic here at all. No anxiety about turning left lol. Went down to the local grocery store since it will be closed on Monday and they close early tonight. Apparently I didn’t do enough research and almost everything is closed on the weekends and then on Monday for the holiday and I’m leaving Tuesday lol. Oh well. This is very relaxing. There is a nice pool and restaurant here.
The ocean out in front of the hotel is brown. Like chocolate milk brown. I guess from the wind. No jumping in there lol. I will drive to a beach tomorrow.
Dinner for Foxpartyofone at Hiro’s Ohana Grill. Table by the water. Delicious 😁 I accidentally dropped some rice into my lap and a tiny bird jumped up and ate it lol. It was so fast.
Kalama Beach Park. The surf was good for body boarding. It was super shallow a long way out with a nice sandy bottom. Camden caught quite a few waves and then got rolled in the surf by a wave. He jumped up and got his goggles and went right back out! Noa loved the water and kept trying to run into it lol. We played in the sand.
Manoa Chocolate Factory for chocolate tasting. Delicious. I wanted to eat them all. Well all except the goat milk chocolate bar. It tasted a little too goaty for me lol. Since the dark chocolate was dairy free even Noa got a taste and I think she liked it. We were still wet from swimming so when we stood up we left a few butt imprints on the cushions lol. I bought four of the Maui benefit bars and some cacao nibs.
The Buffet at the Hyatt with Kasey and Liz. We made reservations and after I pushed send it said there was a cancelation fee of $35 per person! Well no backing out of this one. It was awesome. All you can eat snow crab, shrimp and dessert 😁 perfect and totally worth it. That’s all I ate. Kasey and Liz ate the fillers. Unnecessary food that takes stomach space away from the good stuff lol. I was just there for the seafood and mochi.
The super moon is tonight. Waited until 9pm. It really didn’t look that much bigger than the regular moon but it was brighter. I was able to get a couple of good pictures of it. One normal pic and one looking like there was a cat face on it😺 lol I thought it was pretty awesome lol.
Day 7 Friday
Last day in Oahu
Walked with Noa to get coffee while Krystal and Randy drove to find the perfect matcha tea. I don’t think they found it but that is their story to tell hahaha. Noa was a perfect angel. We watched birds, window shopped and she had a snack all while i got my steps in.
Dave & Buster’s for some gaming fun. I must admit I played the coin pusher the whole time but I ended up winning 2600 tickets! I gave the remaining card points to Camden and we did the Hot Wheels racing game.
Pedicure at Tami-A nails with Krystal and Liz. Of course we had to go here lol. Halfway through the pedicure I remembered that most nail places don’t take credit/debit cards. I wasn’t sure how much cash I had but I lucked out. Krystal had some cash and I had enough for me and Liz.
Fireworks show to end the night by the lagoon. They were shooting them off of the docks. Very cool.
Pu’u Pia hike. 1.9 mile out and back. Or should I say up and back down. Elevation was 721 ft. Very beautiful hike. Through the jungle with vines and vegetation all around. Muddy and slippery at times with tree root steps. Yes there was falling involved lol. Just on the way down. Me and Camden. We made it to the top and the view was amazing. Took a group photo. The last one was four years ago. We added one small human👶
Back to the room. Since there was no running water we went swimming instead. I took my muddy shoes and scrubbed them with sand. Refreshing 😁
Hard Rock for dinner. It reminded me of the old days. Traveling and eating out with the kids. Even though they are grown it’s still the same. Although Krystal didn’t get nachos and Kasey didn’t get chicken strips lol.
Day 5 Wednesday
Tragedy. Camden dropped his lip balm in the toilet. I said five second rule. He got it out of there pretty quickly and the toilet hadn’t been used. I said clean it with a disinfectant wipe but Krystal didn’t agree and threw it in the garbage. 😭
Thrifting at Savers. I found some t-shirts and a small carry-on for the trip back. I think my stuff expanded lol.
Razor Sports. Drift carts. So much fun. A mix of Mario Kart and go-carts on tiny wheels. There is a lever you can pull to lift the back end of the cart up to drift around the corners. I think Liz screamed every time she turned a corner. Kasey and Randy couldn’t catch me though lol. Hard as they tried they couldn’t pass me and Camden was in front the whole time.
Lunch at the mall Rainbow drive in. Hamburger and rice plate. Delicious!
Woke up at 4am which was really 7am at home. Made myself go back to sleep and ended up sleeping until 6am/9am lol
We walked down to swim in the Hilton lagoon. It was a little over half a mile. It started raining but it was more like taking a shower. The water in the lagoon was a tiny bit chilly but refreshing. I walked out towards the middle and looked down and a school of fish surrounded me. Not small ones. These were around 12-15 inches long and pale blue in color. There were 8-10 of them swimming in a circle around me. So amazing. I wonder if they live there full time or got sucked in through a filter?
Kasey and Liz flew in at noon and we went to Costco to pick up supplies. It was a zoo. The parking lot reminded me of the old days when we would go to Costco in Eugene. Searching for a parking spot for fifteen minutes. The inside of the store was no better. Bumper to bumper shopping carts. I like to see what local snacks they carry and I found these. Hmm. I love crab and I was curious as to how they would taste but I just couldn’t do it lol.
Walked down to get shave ice and shopped a bit.
Day 3
Woke up early and walked down to get a Matcha with Krystal. The coffee shop we tried to find on Google/Apple maps couldn’t give us directions so we settled on Honolulu Coffee. Not three minutes later we found Dean & DeLuca lol. Oh well. Doesn’t look like they had matcha anyways so we are all good.
Drove to the Dole Plantation and rode the train. Noa loved it. No bugs this time.
Krystal chose lunch at Beet Box Cafe. Vegan organic vegetable food lol. Yes, nothing there for me to eat so I walked down the street to McDonald’s lol.
Stopped at Green World Coffee Farm and then headed back to the hotel.
Found this notice slipped under our door…. That is so awesome 🙄 in addition to not having a pool, due to reconstruction, we will not have any water from 9am-3pm.
Went swimming at the lagoon again and the ocean side. The ocean side is so much warmer. Like bath water. You just have to watch out for rocks.
Walked down the street for some Spam Musubi for dinner. Yum! Then we walked back down to watch the dancers at the mall.
This trip for packing has been much different from my past trips. Normally I am packed at least three months in advance and ready to go. Not this trip. As I came across things I knew I wanted to take I put them into a big plastic container. That started three months ago but there was no organization involved. Two days before travel day I started going through what was in that box. OMG I stayed up way past midnight packing into a small suitcase and then switching to a medium sized one. I won’t go into all the details because I don’t want you all to think I’m crazy lol. I loaded my suitcase and backpack into the car and left for work. No turning back now.
Stopped at Krystal’s. They were still packing lol.
I am staying at the Country Inn and Suites, taking the shuttle to PDX at 6am. Long term parking is $10 per day and I don’t have to drive to the airport. I was assured there would be plenty of time to check my bag, get through TSA and board at 7:15 am. Makes me nervous but okay….
I got stopped at TSA🙄 No pat down this time. TSA agent holding up my backpack and waving my Nintendo Switch: “Whose bag is this? All electronics larger than a cell phone need to be taken out of your bag”, people staring…….oh well, I made it to the gate by 6:20am and I beat Krystal and Randy.
PDX
First one on the airplane and sitting in First Class. Hawaiian Airlines sends out an offer to bid up to first class and I won! Scored seat 3G. It’s a middle seat so no window but hey, first class lol. Worth it!
Mai Tai in hand. Flight attendant said she would keep them coming until I said when. Um, on number one and, when lol. Coffee please. Well one third coffee and two thirds cream lol. Does that really count as coffee? Or coffee flavored cream?
Krystal and Randy are in the back of the airplane. I think I hear Noa…
8:14am and we are in the air. There is a three hour time difference so when we land it should be around 11:14am. Coming home will be brutal though lol.
Ipad loaded with movies? Yes please. Movie=The Weird Al Yankovic Story. 😂😂 I love Rocky Road! Like a Surgeon! My Bologna! Sing it😂 If you know, you know.
Touchdown 11:00am. I love that we have the whole day ahead of us.
Called the hotel for an early check-in. They will text me when available. Randy took the shuttle to get the rental car so we are hanging out at the airport. Otherwise we would all be grumpy lol.
Checked into the hotel. It’s in a cute little shopping area that is convenient and walkable to the beach. Five minutes in the room Noa locked herself in my bedroom. By herself. Poor baby was so scared. Ten minutes of coaxing her to unlock the door while she was wailing and calling the front desk for help. Second call stressing that she was locked in the bedroom and she is one and a half years old. Mimi to the rescue. I asked Krystal if she had any pens and used the barrel to unlock the door. I know. Genius right? lol. That’s from all my years of taking those pens apart to create chaos in school. That’s a whole other blog though.
Noa didn’t sleep much on the flight so she went down for a nap with Randy while Krystal, Camden and I walked to the beach and looked for food. We decided on PF Changs. Camden ate like a ravenous animal, devouring almost everything in sight. Poor kid was starving.
Walked back down to the beach for sunset. Perfect ending to a great day.
Wow. The town of Lahaina on Maui burned down along with the surrounding residences. It’s unbelievable that a wildfire sparked and blew through the town and homes so quickly. We were just there in January of this year and I was thinking about going back there for this trip but decided on Oahu instead.
Is the trip still a go?
So many mixed messages on social media regarding travel. I understand, people are mourning and some say to stay away from Maui and to stay away from all of the islands. That tourists are using up all of their resources. Others say, please come. Even to Maui. That their businesses and jobs will be affected without tourism. Some are afraid it will go back to covid times. Conspiracy theories flying. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. So many questions unanswered. I feel the answer is a double edged sword. The big corporations on the islands do benefit from tourism but they also provide jobs and use services from small businesses on the islands. If the vacationers stay away will it affect the islanders negatively?
Well, I am still going but not without much consideration and forethought. I will make sure to shop small, tip with cash and leave as small of a footprint as possible. I think that we all need to consider this when traveling anyway.
My heart goes out to everyone affected and sending ❤️ always.
foxpartyofone 