2/23/25 Sunday

Travel day

Up early for the shuttle. The Radisson advertises hot breakfast so I went down to check it out. It had the standards. Eggs (hard boiled and scrambled) ham (looked too floppy),waffles, bagels, cereal and some chopped up fruit. Not a lot for me to eat being gluten, egg and dairy free so I took a chance on the bread and made a PB & J both with and without bread lol.

Check in went smoothly. Since I used my Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard to book my flight my checked bag was free.

I got in line for TSA and it was pretty quick. The agents were friendly and engaging and they even told me happy early birthday lol. Everything was fine until my backpack went through the scanner. My bag got flagged for search and the TSA guy said we have to open it. By “we” he meant him because when I reached over to open it he told me, “don’t touch it!” Then he opens it with gloves that have probably touched 10000 other germy items. He pulls the zipper back and before I could stop myself, I blurted out; “eww don’t touch my pillow!” He gave me a look and proceeded to pull my pillow out and then open the small bag that had my travel food in it. He also took out my Kindle and swabbed it for explosives. All the while I am dying inside watching the germs crawl off his dirty blue gloves and onto my belongings. For the flight back I will put my pillow in my checked bag. Which weighed 40 lbs😲. I hope I don’t buy anything lol.

No Starbucks by my gate so I went to Burgerville for a breakfast hamburger. Lol. Delicious.

Boarded. Seat 15J. Window seat with no window. 😂😂 I guess no one will be asking me to switch seats with them lol. I was so looking forward to that. That’s only happened once. That was the trip to the Big Island. I was in First Class on Hawaiian and they wanted me to switch to the middle aisle seat. I said no lol.

The flight was fine. Well except for the couple that sat next to me. The woman smelled so heavily of perfume I choked when she sat down. I reached up to turn on my air vent but it wasn’t blowing much. It was super stuffy so she pulls out a little fan, snaps it open and starts waving it on herself and all of her stink onto me. I sneezed and it wasn’t a quiet, dainty one either. Haha. I think I scared her.

There was free movies and wifi which was nice. I was able to text and watch movies at the same time.

I will say I usually don’t pay much attention to my seat belt but with all the airplane mishaps lately I made sure mine was ratcheted down. Lol.

So annoyed. The guy in front of me wouldn’t lower his window shade. The entire six hour flight. Even when the Captain suggested it. Moron.

Next flight boards at 2:20pm so I’ve got 10 minutes to find my gate. Because of this they let me off the airplane first😁

Quick 25 minute flight from Maui to Kauai. Looked for whales but didn’t see any.

Got my rental car and drove north to Princeville. Checked into the Bali Hai and it took 20 minutes to find my room. Total mouse maze and if you know me you know I don’t do directions so when the staff was telling me how to get there….well at least they gave me a map lol.

The condo is on the second floor. When you walk in there is a big kitchen/dining area, a living room with a sliding door off the Lanai, a large bedroom that also goes out onto the Lanai and a huge bathroom. It also has a washer and dryer so technically I could do laundry before I leave.

Kauai 2025

This is a foxpartyofone blogging trip. Just me, myself and I. I cannot wait to see the sun and the ocean.

2/22/25 Saturday

Drove to Portland Radisson to stay the night for the flight and park my car for the week. It’s cheaper than parking at the airport and maybe a little more secure. Plus they have a shuttle.

As I was driving, the cruise control suddenly clicked off. I looked down at the dashboard and the check engine light popped on and Eye Sight was flashing that it had shut off.

I’m not really a fan of Eye Sight. It alerts you if you travel over the lines, it will slam on the brakes if you are too close to the car in front of you, and if the car in front of you has moved it tells you to go. Much like me at a green light when Kris is driving. Go. (You’re welcome) but it also controls the cruise control. I stopped at the nearest rest area and looked at my car manual. I checked the gas cap and decided to drive the rest of the way to the hotel. It was uneventful. Just a pain that I couldn’t use the cruise so I ended up driving like Krystal. Either 80mph or 50mph. lol.

I booked the wrong Radisson lol. No restaurant and they are out in the middle of nowhere. I drove down the road to Goodwill but it seemed a little sketchy so I drove through the parking lot and came back. I didn’t see any fast food places on the way either. Oh well, I have some car food. I had pepperoni sticks, chips and fruit snacks for dinner. Super nutritious 😂

Daytona 2024

Day 3

The sun is out and it’s hot❤️

Breakfast at the Hard Rock again. We are becoming regulars lolol.

I went for a pedicure at the Rock Spa. Thank you Krystal for my Christmas present. It was kind of weird though. It was super quiet with a relaxation room and no idle chit chat from the technician lol. Don’t get me wrong. I was okay with that 😁

From there we went to a Goodwill and I found a cool cat shirt lol.

Then on to the boardwalk and the pier.

We watched a surfer try to catch a couple of waves and went for dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. I got a mixed bucket of crab. King, Snow and Dungeness crab. If you know me you know I don’t like eating with my hands. It’s gross lol and I normally wear food service gloves….don’t judge me lol, but I wasn’t thinking when I ordered and they brought out a literal bucket full of crab so I had to endure and eat like a savage 😂 I just kept telling myself it was worth it lolol. Afterwards I went into the restroom to shower off haha. So disgusting but delicious.

Kris got a Coronarita. Lol beer + margarita. Weird.

I tried to get Kris to ride the slingshot but that was a definite, NO😂

We went back to the room and had this conversation.

Kris: let’s go downstairs and talk to people we don’t know!

Me: What?Why?

😂😂😂😂

Daytona 2024

Day 2

Breakfast at the Hard Rock. Special mimosas. Remind me to only drink one….😂.

And we are off to the Kennedy Space Center! We lucked out and saved $5 each because we are old lol. The center was really amazing. We watched an Imax movie about Nasa’s Webb telescope that was launched in 2021. It took 20 years to build and it is huge! Looking for life on other planets and other galaxies. The images it has taken are beautiful.

The weather has been sunny but cool and breezy. At least it’s not rainy and cold like back home.

Incidentally our rental car has cooling seats. Kris appreciated the cold air blowing on his bum lol. I’m more of a heated seats type of girl🤣

Went down to the beach. I had to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s cold lol. The sand is weird. It’s brown and hard by the water and white, lightweight and fluffy by the side. I saw two jellyfish washed up on shore which means I’m not getting in the water lol. Isnt it within two weeks of the full moon they swim around or is that just Hawaii?

Went back to the hotel hot tub to warm up my feet 😂.

Daytona 2024

Well I did it. I didn’t pack until the week of the trip. It felt slightly unorganized but I think I got everything. I didn’t really know what to bring because the trip was NOT Hawaii lol. So I winged it. I packed some hot weather clothes along with pants and a jacket. One of the days it’s supposed to rain but be in the 70’s so….🤷‍♀️

We left at 1:30 a.m. Yes, in the morning. Kris went to bed at 6:30p.m. but I couldn’t sleep. All the dogs thought we were crazy except for Ozzy who went outside and went right to bed. Lol😂 he is my early to bed dog.

Initially I cleaned out the car for the drive to the airport. I took all unnecessary stuff out including the tire chains…then when we were halfway there I saw the weather report for Eugene for our return date. ❄️😲🙄. Oh well, never owned chains till now lol.

We made it through the bag drop and TSA in about ten minutes so we were good to go by 3:15 a.m. and boarding started at 4:15 a.m. Perfect!

I’m not going to lie. I’m a little grumpy 😂 poor Kris. First flight is to Seattle. Pretty short so we both got a little cat nap in.

At the restrooms in Seattle airport I had to tell a bunch of women that red light green light was for occupied or not. They were all just milling around lolol. Get outta my way, gotta go!

The gate for Seattle was just around the corner. The gate for Atlanta was a ten minute run away😂. Come on, Kris 😂 faster!

Daytona airport was pretty small. Only 5 miles away from the hotel. We picked up our rental and headed out.

Got to the room. It’s awesome. We are on the same level as the concert for Friday!! Our Lanai faces the stage😁 for the ACDC cover band, the Razors Edge!! Can’t wait!

Grabbed some dinner at the Hard Rock and fell into bed😂

mindfulness

2/01/24

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.

You’re welcome 😂

Thirtydays no social media

1/19/24

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.

Welp, only one more week to go🤞🏽

30 days no social media

1/07/24

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.

We will see how this goes😁

No social media for 30 days

12/31/23 123123

30 days no social media.

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.

With that, wish me luck. 🤞🏽🤞🏽

Molokai

Day 1 solo

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.

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.