Hawaii 2026

Oahu and the Big Island

Planning 😁

Meeting up with Krystal and Randy and the kids on Oahu. I will hang out with them for a week and then fly over to the Big Island solo to blog and decompress.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m doing carry-on only for this trip. I know, I know, I have talked myself out of it in the past but I will be flying to two islands and I want the flying situation to be as simple as possible. I don’t want to drag a giant bag and have to check it and then wait for it at baggage claim. This does pose a problem though. No self defense weapons are allowed in your carry-on. Well knives and I don’t know about pepper spray. I will probably be fine in Oahu with Krystal and Randy but once I get to the Big Island I want to be prepared. I’m going to ask my local sporting goods store what is legal to pack on board. I guess when I go through TSA I will find out.

So, what’s on my packing list? I need to pack light and in the past I have always over packed. I also need to be able to lift it above my head into the bin lol. I’m not saying that I will be packing (Kris) light lol. I need more than three pairs of underwear and a swimsuit. So somewhere in between, Kris and Krystal (who packs her whole closet) 😂

I will have my carry-on suitcase, backpack and pillow. The backpack houses the stuff I can’t live without. Like my iPad, headphones and car food. For those of you that don’t know what car food is, it’s quick food that I can stuff in my mouth if I feel my blood sugar dropping. I keep a bag in the car and try to remember to bring it when we go out on the boat. I am gluten free, dairy free, apple free, onion free… the list goes on. So, protein bars, nuts and fruit snacks. Maybe a little candy too lol. I’m flying Delta and I don’t know what the food situation will be. Normally I go with Hawaiian Airlines and they always feed you but I couldn’t get any flights out of Eugene that I wanted.

I will wear all the bulky stuff that takes up a lot of room in the suitcase. Water/hiking shoes, pocket jacket (with all my important stuff in the internal pockets) some stretchy pants with shorts underneath, headphones and a hat. I have found if I wear a hat and headphones my seatmate won’t try to make idle chit chat with me. No, I don’t need to know your life story and although encouraged by the government, I won’t be wearing formal attire to ride six hours on an airplane lol.

2/27/25 Thursday

Up early wondering what I am doing today. Oh wait, I’m picking Krystal up from the airport lol. I still can’t believe it. That is the epitome of spontaneity. Something I definitely am not. I have no idea why she is like that😂

Technically today and Friday were free since I couldn’t book the waterfall rappel without a partner 🙄 it was through the same tour group as yesterdays hike. I talked to the guide and he said maybe he could fit me in as a single on Friday depending if they were booked up enough. Oh well, I will need to drag someone back to Kauai with me to do it at a later date. Would Krystal do it? Highly unlikely 😂

I spent 2 hours on a live chat with Hawaiian Airlines trying to switch my flight to Krystals. I found out that I could cancel my flight but I would need to book a new one since hers was on Alaska Airlines. Even though the two companies have merged everything had to be done separately. At least I got it done in time to pick her up from the airport.

Picked Krystal up and the first thing she wanted to do was go to the beach. Right off the airplane. So we went to Lydgate Beach which was only about 10 minutes away.

Swam around and walked a little farther down the beach. Picked up some plastic garbage for my collection. Every year I go to Hawaii I bring a little garbage back with me🙂

We decided to go to a chocolate tasting at Lydgate Chocolate Farm.

Drove up into the mountains and found out the tasting room was actually downtown Kapa’a😂. The address we used was that of the actual farm where the cocoa beans are grown. For a fee you can do a tour of the farm and learn about their chocolate. We opted for the tasting room instead and drove back down to Kapa’a.

We found the store and tasted a bunch of different chocolates. I mean so many and they weren’t tiny pieces either. I was on a chocolate overload lol. It was delicious!

We walked up and down the streets of Kapa’a and went into all of the cute little shops. Krystal wanted a coconut drink. Which was an actual coconut lol. I got regular water.

We drove back to the Condo to check Krystal in and go to the swimming pools. Took a walk around the mouse maze of condos and houses to see if we could get to the beach for the sunset. That’s a no. We are on a cliff lol.

2/26/25 Wednesday

Da Life Outdoors Waterfall hike and swim. Check in was at 10:30am so I left at 9. Good thing I did. Their directions were a little sketchy. They didn’t give an actual address. They gave directions and geographical coordinates (21°57’16.3″N 159°23’06.8″W) The coordinates didn’t work. It led me to the middle of Lihue. So I looked at their turn by turn directions. Kauai Community College was close by so I put that into the GPS and went from there. I made it to the driveway marker. A big orange rock. Turned down a red dirt road all while I was thinking that I was probably getting kidnapped or something. There was another woman there with her daughter. They were waiting for me lol so I had to admit I got lost.

The hike to the waterfalls was pretty easy. The first one was small but the next one was probably 30 feet high. I climbed up the rope ladder and went underneath it. Very refreshing having the water pounding down on you. I went to the lower level and jumped in and swam around. Then we hiked back. The lady and her daughter had taken an Uber there and the guy dropped them off at the end of the driveway lol. They had to walk the half a mile down the road. I gave them a ride back to the main road and they called the Uber. Who takes an Uber to go hiking?😂 I mean maybe to the Mall.

Stopped at Kukui Grove Center. Found a pedicure place. My toes have been bare. I looked down at my feet and legs. They were still muddy from the hike lol. I’m sure they appreciated that😂. It was a little bit of torture. She used the cheese grater and then cleaned my feet and legs with a brush. Yow! My fault though for showing up all dirty😆

Drove to Lydgate Beach. Nice. Lots of parking. Long narrow sandy beach. I walked down a little ways and there is a man made pool for worry free swimming lol. Perfect😁

Drove back to the room. Went down to the pool to disinfect lol.

I’m relaxing by the pool, blogging and I get a call from Krystal. “Mom, look at your text message “. Ok.

She just booked her flight and will be here at 11:00am😂😂. A two day vacation lol. I can’t believe it! She wanted to surprise me but she was afraid I would be off on some adventure and out of cell service. She is crazy!

Well, since Krystal will be here in the morning I need to tidy up. My way of organizing my stuff while on vacation is to have it all out where I can see it lol. I know, weird but it works for me. So time to pick up my stuff😂

2/25/25 Tuesday

Kauai Backcountry Adventures tubing. Drove to Lihue. A 27 mile drive south took an hour because of construction and the weird way they block off half the north and south lanes. I assume it’s for people who are working. There are three lanes and they will allow two lanes north and one south and then switch it back. It causes some slow down on both sides.

I got checked in, bought some bug spray and scarfed down some car food just in case my blood sugar went weird. I got my helmet and I’m ready to go.

We rode a trolley over to the canal and on the way had a “get to know each other session”. We had to say our name, where we were from, tell something we loved doing, what our spirit animal was and what sound they made. Well I was last and the guy before me said he loved cats and meow😂😂So I said, ” hi, my name is Tami, I’m from Roseburg Oregon, I love water skiing and wake surfing and my spirit animal must be a fish since I love the water”. Then they asked me what does a fish say so I said glub, glub? lol. Good thing I didn’t say fox 😂

We got our safety lessons. You wear a head lamp so you can see when you go through the tunnels. If they yell, “butts up” you better lift up or you will drag on the rocks.

The water wasn’t very swift or deep. If you fell off you could just stand up to avoid drowning. Nothing like tubing on the North Umpqua in Oregon lol.. While in the tunnels I was on the lookout for spiders and bats but I didn’t see any. The last tunnel was super long and very dark. They had us shut our lights off and it was pitch black and disorienting. They told a scary story lol. Creepy.

Towards the end of the float, I ran into the bushes that were sticking out on the side of the canal. I floated a little farther and the guide wanted to get a picture with me. I think she felt sorry for me because I was there by myself 🙄. I said okay and we took the pic. Then she looked down at my shirt and said, “oh my god there’s a centipede on you!”😲 I looked down and there was a six inch centipede on my chest. I froze and screamed. She quickly plucked it off me and flung it onto the bank where one of the other guides stomped on it lol. I was so creeped out! So glad it didn’t sting me or bite me or whatever they do. Then I was thinking, what if Krystal had been here? She probably would have fainted and fell off her tube😂

Look closely at my chest next to my phone strap!

Had a quick pit stop for lunch and a port-a-potty (no I didn’t pee in the canal lol and drove back to the warehouse. Of course they had the pictures for sale and of course I bought mine. Normally I don’t let myself get pulled into that tourist trap but the centipede…..

Per Kris there is a Costco on the island so I stopped there on my way back. Eating out is a crap shoot when it comes to ingredients so I went there for precooked hamburgers but found chicken burgers instead. They will do. Seriously I wish there was just a breakfast / lunch / dinner gum. Like on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (I’ll skip the blueberry pie though lol iykyk) Life would be so much easier.

I went down to the swimming pool to disinfect from the canal water😂and blog.

2/24/25 Monday

Woke up at 5:30am which is really 7:30am back home. It’s going to be torture when I get back lol.

Waited for the sun to rise and ate some breakfast on the Lanai. Booked the Kauai Backcountry Adventures tubing tour for tomorrow and went down to the pool to check it out. Forgot my towel and debated on getting in. It’s a nice pool with a sandy beach at one end. 4 feet at the other end.

Drove over to Hanalei. Surprise! I was here in 2019😁. Walked around the different shops and did some shopping. Favorite shop name: FAFO 😂

Went to lunch at The Terrace. Got the usual look when I said I wanted a table for one. People 🙄 single eaters need to eat too. They seated me next to a big group from Australia. Probably someone famous but I wasn’t channeling my inner “Kris” vibes. He can and will talk to anyone lolol. I was eavesdropping a little though and they were talking about losing their Red Bull sponsorship?

I had the most delicious Ube Paradise drink and chicken teriyaki bowl.

Drove north to see some beaches. The roads were crazy with people, single lane bridges and roads due to construction. I ended up at Haena Beach which you could see part of Tunnels Beach from there. The beach was red flagged so, no I did not get in.

I watched the waves and some surfers. The waves were huge. I watched a bunch of stupid people walking in the surf. The lifeguard had to yell at them over the speaker to get out. You have to read the room and if no one is in the water except a couple of surfers there probably is a reason lol.

The drive back took forever. There is a famous bridge that you have to go over and its a left turn across traffic. People were nice though and took turns.

Side note. With all the stop and go traffic I wanted to open the windows in the Jeep. Ummm, where is the control? Not in the normal spot where it is in 99% of all other vehicles.

Nope. Not there.

That took me 20 minutes 😂😂

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.

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😂

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.