Category: solo travel

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.

It’s Felix❤️

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

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😁

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.

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.

Weather looks good!

Oahu

Day 6 Thursday

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.

Oahu

Day 4 Tuesday

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!

Beautiful sunset.

Oahu

Day 2

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.

Total steps today 17,531/7.25 miles😅

Yes, my feet are complaining a little. lol.