Pocketful of Joules

Back when Travis and I were planning to get married, it was our dream to get married in Hawaii. That didn’t work out, so then it became our dream to honeymoon in Hawaii. But then the heat pump at my townhouse broke. Sigh. So then, our dream became to go to Hawaii for our 10-year wedding anniversary.

We celebrated 10 years of marriage back in October…and it’s happening!

It is NOT a drill. We are GOING TO HAWAII!

As if that isn’t enough of a reason for celebration… it gets even more exciting.

This is our first kid-free vacation in 7 ½ years.

The last time we traveled kid-free was our babymoon cruise when I was pregnant. Which now that I think about it, wasn’t really kid-free since Jack hitched a ride in my belly.

So the fact that Travis and I are finally going to Hawaii AND we are going just the two of us is basically like a honeymoon all over again!

After much consideration, we decided to go to Kauai. We booked a fabulous looking condo through HomeAway in the Poipu area. Our condo is about a 5-minute walk to Brennecke and Poipu Beaches (voted ‘Best Beach’ in America by the Travel Channel). We are also within walking distance to Shipwreck Beach, if we want to mix it up a bit.

We rented a car so we can get around the island easily, but most days we will probably just walk to where we need to go. Our plans are to be really lazy, eat delicious food, spend time on the beaches, and go for a hike or two.

The only other thing I’ve booked is a mountain tubing adventure trip. We will be four-wheeling through the Lihue Plantation before hopping into a tube and taking a nice ride through the open canals and tunnels. At the end of our trip, we will enjoy lunch and a swim in a nearby natural swimming hole. I. Can’t. Wait!

Other things on our potential ‘to do’ list:

• Go to a luau (current front-runners are the Smith’s Family Luau or the Auli’i Luau)
• Catamaran tour of the Na Pali coast/dinner cruise (Captain Andy’s has been suggested)
• Eat all the food
• Drive the Waimea Canyon
• Rum tasting at Koloa Rum company
• Coffee tasting at Kauai coffee
• Visit the Kilauea Fish Market
• Hanalei Bay (shopping/dining)

So, here’s where I’d love your help! Is there anything you think we absolutely shouldn’t miss? Do you have a restaurant or food recommendation that we should be sure to add to our list? Anything you think we should know? Something that I should absolutely add to our pack list? Feel free to fill up my comments section with your tips!

You guys know by now that I love my comic book movies. I ate up Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage, etc on Netflix. OF COURSE I love the Marvel franchise and can’t wait for Avengers: End Game. But to hold me over, I’ve fallen in love with a new series on Netflix, The Umbrella Academy.

{Pssst, my Loving Right Now posts aren’t paid or sponsored or anything. They are just stuff that I’m totally digging now and thought you would like too. You can check out my previous posts here}

Short and sweet synopsis: The Umbrella Academy is the story of a super-dysfunctional family of superheroes who have eight days to get it together and save the world.

Going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But by the end of the first episode I was hooked. I plowed through all 10 episodes pretty quickly. They just announced that it was renewed for Season Two, so I’m super excited to continue the adventures with the Hargreeves family.

My current favorite characters are Five and Klaus, with a special place in my heart for Cha-Cha and Hazel. I actually started re-watching the entire series, just so I can enjoy it again and savor it a little more this time!

Is The Umbrella Academy on your watch list? If you did watch it already, which is your favorite Hargreeves?

Why do I keep signing up for these races?

The last time I ran outside was October, when I did the Baltimore Running Festival 5k. The last time I ran a 10k was in June, when I did the Wayfarer’s Annapolis 10k. I was supposed to run the Across the Bay 10k in November… but we drank too much the night before and decided sleep and coffee were a better idea.

So yeah, NO running for 6 months… why wouldn’t I shove my 41-year-old body into a running skirt and run a race?!

Running races with no preparation is kinda my thing though, so I strapped my lady lumps into my exercise bra, laced up some running shoes, stuck a few Tums in my fanny pack in case I got hit with a case of the I-haven’t-run-forever-case-of-the-pukeys and went for it.

And…

It was GREAT!

First of all, I love running with Lindsey. So any time I get to just chat with her while burning a bunch of calories is a win in my book. Especially if we get brunch after. With bacon.

Which we did, of course.

Also, the run actually felt pretty great. In fact, I have to check but I may have gotten my fastest 10k time ever (which is NOT fast for a normal person, but I run at turtle speed… so I’m cool with it).

Anyways, before the brunch (and bacon) was the beer and band!

At the end of the race, each runner got beer tickets for 2 cans of Natty Boh. But after meeting up with another friend, we ended up with a pile of beer tickets. Which did not go to waste.

The after-party band, Alter Ego, was also really fun. So we basically danced, bounced and drank our running aches away until they shut everything down around noon.

THEN we had brunch.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. Of course, once I got home and took a shower I needed a little nap to recharge. And my knees felt awful until I got a full night of sleep. But I’m totally ready to sign up again for next year!

I’m super picky about my socks. I typically don’t like ‘no show’ socks because they immediately slip off the back of my ankle and then bunch under my foot until I pull them out and throw them across the room. Normally if I’m wearing a pair of slip-on shoes like Toms, I just go barefoot. I’ve recently fallen in love with Rothy’s slip-on sneakers though and I feel like I need a little something-something to wear with them.

Which brings me to these:

Here is the link: https://amzn.to/2KmT68l

I ordered these socks on a whim off of Amazon a few months ago (6 pairs for $9.99). I liked that they actually had some top-of-foot coverage AND the entire edge of the sock has a full silicone liner around it. Once you put them on, they DO NOT MOVE at all. The silicone seals them to your foot!

The first time I wore a pair, I was annoyed because you could still see them around the edges of my shoes. But after a washed them a couple times they shrunk up just a smidge and now I rarely see a glimpse of them as I go through my day.

Here they are with and without my sneaker:

They fit great, keep my feet from getting sweaty/stinky or rubbing, and the best part is that they DO NOT SLIDE OFF THE BACK OF MY FOOT! Oh and I throw them in the washing machine and dryer with the rest of my clothes and they are holding up great.

It’s like magic!

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