Vacation Part I (and blogging in general)

So, blogging. As I mentioned previously, it’s new to me. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while and have been talking to some people in my book club about starting one. Anyway, someone I know who is huge into blogging (even goes to Blog World, can you believe there is a Blog World?!) said something that really inspired me to get going with this endeavor. A blog is a great way to document and journal your thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc. that can be wonderful for many reasons. 1) It’s an instant “record” of what you have done to help you remember what you were thinking and doing at a particular time, event in your life. When I’m 80, I can easily look back and see what I was thinking when I was 33. 2) Think about what you know about your parents versus what your kids can know about you. If I ever have children, they can know so much more about me than I will ever know about my parents. I think that’s pretty cool. By the way, I can’t take credit for those ideas, but I was obviously inspired by them so I am sharing them.

The point of starting this was to write about my vacation. I went on a tangent about blogging.

Vacation. I should have written this a week ago so everything would be fresh in my mind. Actually, I should have written this while still there lounging at the pool sipping mai tais. The trip started out in Kauai, a quiet paradise island. I’ll just write about Kauai for now and will fish with Maui and the rest later.

We stayed at the Marriott in Lihue (awwww LIHUE….inside joke for J). The day we got there, we learned that a 30-year old flight attendant had drowned just outside our hotel in the not-so-rough surf. That made us a little leery about going into the water. In fact, on our second to last day there we realized we had been in Hawaii for a week and a half and hadn’t done more than dip our toes in the ocean. (We were definitely made fun of for this by J’s friends who live in Maui). For the first 4 days of our vacation, we didn’t do much at all. Basically vegged out at the pool, reading, sleeping, talking, making fun of J for being obsessed with his iPhone, you know, the basics.

One thing that I did for the first time on vacation was Bikram Yoga. It was crazy. They crank the heat up to like 100 degrees and you do yoga. It was amazing. And hot. And very hard. And hot. I felt so good afterwards (although I think I stretched some muscles that I hadn’t used in years, if ever). I had never sweat so much in my life (no, not even at field hockey practice in Kentucky those 95 degree August afternoons). But, it was good enough to go back, and despite being a few minutes late to our second class, we did it again. The second time was easier for me in that it was less intimidating. It was still pretty difficult, as my body wasn’t used to folding and bending like that. But still felt good. The studio was in this great little town called Kapa’a. It was a kind of laid back hippy-ish town with super nice, welcoming people. We loved it, and went back for dinner a few times.

The day of our second yoga class, we spent the afternoon at Waimea Canyon. It was amazing. Especially for someone like me, who hasn’t been to the Grand Canyon yet. They actually call it Hawaii’s Grand Canyon. We took our required pictures at the scenic overlook (you know, those great “self-portrait” photos where you can almost always see the arm of the person taking the photo, and usually someone’s head or ear is cut out of the picture), then headed out for a 3-hour hike down to some waterfalls. Let’s just say that I was not the quickest when it came to hiking on some of the paths, and definitely slowed the pace. But it was still great fun. We got to what we thought was the main attraction – Woipoo Falls. We were, understandably, a little disappointed, as we had been expecting to swim and splash and be happy in the waterfalls and pools. Not after we saw the warning sign about some bacteria with a really long name that might or might not be present in the water. Still, it was worth the hike. On our way back, we noticed that if we went to the right instead of the left, there was a narrow path that led to some other pools and falls that were fantastic. J was a little more adventurous than I was, and went further into the falls. All in all, a great hike.

Driving back from Waimea Canyon, we went and watched some surfers along the way. Pretty cool stuff. Then we went to one of the trip’s favorite restaurants (please don’t laugh here…) Brick Oven Pizza. I know I know. Pizza? In Hawaii?? We had eaten some great seafood the previous nights, and were just in the mood for some yummy pizza. This place had been recommended and we now know why. Best crust ever! And they give you garlic butter to dip your crust.

I know there is so much more to write about Kauai, but my fingers are hurting and if anyone is reading this, they are probably starting to day dream about other things, their minds wandering to their vacations, etc. I’ll get to Vacation Part II soon.

PS – Why doesn’t Word recognize the word BLOG? (I can already hear it…it’s Microsoft…blah blah blah)