Category: Travel

Back from Hawaii!

I’m BACK! My husband and I returned from Hawaii early this morning and I just woke up from a pretty fantastic 5 hour nap in my own bed. That red eye flight + a 6 hour time change is brutal! I posted a bunch of photos on my Instagram account (find it here) with each day’s adventures, but I plan on doing a big ol’ Hawaii post very soon. I just need to unpack.

But actually, as soon as I unpack I’ll be re-packing… because my sister is getting married this weekend!!

I’m hoping to be back to my ‘normal’ blogging schedule next week with more exciting news…

I hope you all have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!

Share Your Kauai Tips!

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!

Date Weekend Fun in Northern Virginia

This past weekend, my parents generously kept Jack overnight while Travis and I had ourselves a bit of a date weekend. I HIGHLY recommend getting away for even a night if you can, because even if you are only an hour or so away from home (like we were) it is such a mental refresh!

For our date weekend, I booked us at a Springhill Suites in Northern Virginia. The hotel was super nice and clean… and less than $100 for the night, which included breakfast. Once we arrived, we checked into the hotel and immediately went rummaging for some food nearby.

After filling our bellies at Elevation Burger, we decided to go do some wine and cider tasting at a couple nearby wineries.

First stop was Corcoran Vineyards where we had the choice of tasting their ciders or their wines, so we went with a cider tasting. From there, we went to 8 Chains North where we did a wine tasting and also enjoyed some locally made chocolates!

We started to get a bit hungry again, so we went back to the Loudon One area to buy our movie theater tickets and then went by SlapFish. To be honest, we chose that restaurant because the name made us giggle… but we were too busy making yummy noises to laugh when we got our Clobster Grilled Cheese and Lobster Grinder Roll! HOLY WOW it was soooo good!

After dinner we had some time to kill, so we stopped by B Doughnut, Starbucks and killed some time in the Barnes & Noble.

And THEN… we saw Captain Marvel!

AHHH, so good! I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to love this one as much as I love the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Thor: Ragnarok, and Avengers: Infinity War. The bar was set very high, but I LOVED Captain Marvel and it was a fantastic addition to the series!

It was also a great end to our date day! We enjoyed the comfy hotel room and had the free hotel breakfast in the morning — I just love those make-your-own waffle set ups! We hung around the room and watched some HGTV until check out at noon, then hit up Lost Creek Winery for one last tasting.

After our tasting, we stopped at the Roots 657 Café for an AMAZING lunch. I got the country pulled pork sandwich with a side of corn pudding and Travis got the bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries. We did a little splitsy action, so we both got a little of everything and YUM.

All in all, it was a fantastic date weekend and I ate way too much delicious food. So yeah, it was perfect.

Do you go on date weekends?