Hi Dee Ho Peeps!!!
We are back from our whirlwind trip. Would you like to know where we jetted off to? HAWAII!!
Not going to lie, this one will probably be long so you better grab a drink and a snack!
It was the final state that my dear Hubster had not visited so he's now been to all 50 states! Things went well on the way to Hawaii, coming home was a bit challenging but let's back up to last Wednesday, the 5th, where I left you. Wednesday was a busy, busy day, trying to get everything packed, dogs to the kennel, a mani/pedi worked in and then to bed for that 2:15 am wake up call. Needless to say, we had leftovers for dinner. I think Hubster got to bed about 10 and I made it just before 11 but neither of us slept well so we were some kind of tired when we arrived at the airport. Our 5 am flight to Houston went smoothly and without a hitch, then our flight to Hawaii was equally good. We arrived safely and checked into our beautiful hotel, The Royal Hawaiian. In true fashion they greeted us upon our arrival with some beautiful lei's. You can also see what we wore to fly into Hawaii, I ended up changing but Hubster stayed in the same clothing.
I sure look happy for someone who'd had less than 4 hours of sleep, I did manage to doze off and on during the flight but I forgot my travel pillow. I'll not do that again!
He had no idea this would end up here on the blog! haha
I changed into this dress after we arrived but I didn't get a picture because we were ready to go exploring AND get some food!
We headed out of the hotel and walked the area around the hotel. We ended up eating at Duke's on the beach. But of course, we first ordered the mandatory Mai Tai's.
Hubster liked it way more than I did but you can't go to Duke's without trying the famous Mai Tai.
These however were soooo good!!
The cajun mahi mahi taco's were so good we went back another time for them.
Hubster had the fish & chips, which were good but not near as good as the tacos.
We did hit the sack a little early, the 5 hour time difference and being up since 2 am Texas time had us wiped out.
Friday morning we were up bright and early because..time change and we had to meet for our Pearl Harbor Tour at 8:30 at the hotel next door.
I showered and got ready pretty quickly but I grabbed this pic as soon as I threw my clothes on in case I never got one the rest of the day.
We grabbed juice and a pastry from the little bakery in that hotel before getting on the tour bus. I don't remember what the pastries were but they were good and the juice was POG, one of the things Hubster had to try while he was in Hawaii.
Hubster took this from our hotel beach at about 6 am, he never adjusted to the time change the whole time we were there. I was rushing to get ready because we booked nothing ahead of time and we were lucky to get spots on the tour.
Here is a pic of the USS Arizona before we headed over to the site. I'm unsure how to describe the feelings that an inanimate object gives you but reading the list of names of the young men entombed on the ship was heart breaking however, the list of the survivors who asked to be entombed upon their death with their shipmates completely ripped my heart to pieces. If you get the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor, PLEASE go, we all need to be reminded of sacrifices made on that horrible day.
Back at the hotel after the morning tour we stopped down at the Mai Tai bar in the hotel. First we ordered some yummy drinks, Hubster had the Pau Hana and I had Honolulu Beerworks Royal Sunset Ale.
Everything is Pink at the Royal Hawaiian and I'm here for it!!
Yes, my beer is a pale pink in color
The Pau Hana was Cameron tequila, cointreau, fresh lime, grapefruit rimmed with li hing and salt and it was absolutely delicious. I also fell in love with that Li Hing and ended up bringing home two packages of it. My margarita's are going to be so good!!!
We ordered the lobster roll with taro and sweet potato chips, ya'll this was BOMBtastic! There was a lot of lobster packed in that roll.
and then the truffle fries- Hubster thought they were delish but it was a little garlic/truffle heavy for me.
It was quite delicious and the view..... I mean, life is really good sometimes and I'm forever grateful for the gift of traveling.
With half the day remaining we took a walk down to the beach and decided on a Sunset Catamaran tour but we had some time to kill so we walked around the shops and then made a stop at a shaved ice stand that our Uber driver told us about, then the tour guide from the morning tour mentioned it as well. The line is always long but their syrups are made from real fruit not the fake snow cone syrup stuff.
I had the Heavenly Lilikoi - the one on the bottom. The shaved ice is covering a frozen yogurt then there is Mochi and sweetened condensed milk on the side. It was a LOT and we weren't even hungry until much later in the evening after our catamaran sail.
Quick run to our room to grab what we needed for the sunset sail and down the beach to meet the boat.
It was a beautiful evening for a cruise on the water. The cruise was such a beautiful way to see the island from the water. The best part of the sunset happened right after we got back onshore.
We were feeling like we should eat something so we hopped into Duke's again and split the fish taco's and an order of fries. Perfect ending to the day indeed.
It's Saturday morning and Hubster is up at the crack of dawn again and we made a last minute decision to take a small group North Shore Circle Island Tour. We'd have preferred to rent a car and do the tour on our own but we couldn't get a rental car. That's the downside to flying standby and not booking anything until you arrive. We needed to be at the pickup spot by 8:30 so we used our coupon for the bakery in the hotel lobby to grab a snack before heading out on the tour.
From the bottom is the Royal Hawaiian Custard Croissant (yes, it's pink and had guava jelly and custard in the middle and was delicious!), middle is a brioche braid and the top is Hubster's ham and cheese croissant, which was also delicious. Quick run back to the room to drop off the uneaten pastries and brush our teeth then it's onto the tour bus.
Diamond head beach and a quick fit check.
We made lots of stops along the route so I won't drown you in our vacation photos but we did a long stop at Tropical Farms Macadamia Nut Outlet. This is where I grabbed the Li Hing powder for my drink making. Of course, we also tasted all the Macadamia nuts and brought back a couple of bags.
We made it to Kahuka and our pre-ordered lunches from a food truck were ready for us to pick up and enjoy. Hubster and I both had the spicy shrimp with sides of sticky rice and corn. 
We traveled around the island some more but made a stop at a beach to see if some of the sea turtles were hanging out. The rehabbed turtle with one missing flipper let us enjoy watching him swim around for a bit. He was found with the damaged flipper, some good samaritans got him to a vet and when he was ready they released him back. He generally stays in the area, he has plenty to eat and lots of locals and tourists to smile at.
We then headed on to our final stop of the day...Dole Plantation
Unfortunately, we only had time to visit the gift shop before getting back on the bus to head back to Waikiki.
But we did have time to get the famous Dole Whip with fresh pineapple and ya'll it was good!!!
That pineapple is yummy. We also learned that Dole no longer farms their pineapple on the island which is sad for the island. I also learned that the pineapple you grab in the store, takes 2 years to grow!!
Back on the bus and back to the hotel. We got a recommendation from our tour bus driver for dinner so we headed over to Liliha Bakery in the International Market Place.
Things started out well, they have a Butter Roll that is crazy good and it's served with a plum jelly. At least that was our guess, it was hard to understand our waiter.
That's where the joy ended for me, this Mahi Mahi sandwich looked so amazing when it was placed in front of me but Lordy, child, this thing was horrible. Hubster thought I was being overly dramatic but then he tasted it....yeah, it was bad. I picked at the salad and ate a few of the potatoes, which were very bland, and left 90% of it on the plate. I wasn't sure how you could mess up fish but they did.
Saturday was our last night so we walked around by the hotel and turned in relatively early since Sunday was going to be a long day. We just didn't realize how long it would actually be.
Up at the crack of dawn again today, Hubster was out roaming the grounds and I had to snap a pic of the gorgeous bathrobe in our room. It's pink and white seersucker on the outside and the most thick, lush Terry cloth on the inside. One of those robes you wish you could smuggle home.
We spent the entire morning and early afternoon with this as our view.
Hubster ran back up to the beach bar of the hotel and grabbed us a couple of drinks and lunch.
We were going to have another lobster roll but we ended up getting the Royal Hawaiian Smashburger and Fries and 2 of the Pua Hana drinks. We split the burger and fries and ate under our umbrella right on the beach. Of course, this guy hung around all day but he did NOT get my food.
He had a messed up foot but this little fella (or lady) stayed right near us all day long.
The sad part of day arrived and we had to head back to our room for a shower and finish packing. We were lucky enough to get a 4 pm late check out because our flight was scheduled for 740 pm.
I didn't get a picture but this is the dress I wore for approximately 30 hours to travel home. It was a bit wrinkly when I arrived home to say the least but I was comfortable but very chilly on the plane.
I threw a very non-matching long sleeve gauze shirt over the dress - fashion is lost on a plane people.
Between weather delays, airport diversions, etc. we did manage to get on a 10:55 pm flight out of Honolulu. At this point we'd been up for about 17 hours and we are on a 7 hour flight to Denver. We rolled into Denver at about 9:30 in the morning to miss our connecting flight to DFW. We walked around the airport, found the rest & relax area of the Denver airport and I think I managed to catch about an hour or so of sleep. It wasn't much but it was enough to keep me from collapsing. Then we were in Terminal A and we got a text message saying we got seats on the flight to DFW, they had completed boarding in Terminal B. Good thing I got a nap in because we sprinted to Terminal B, got on by the skin of our teeth and headed back to DFW. We got home about 8 pm, unpacked and collapsed into bed. I slept until 9:15 the next morning and I only got up because I needed to be at the kennel at 10 when they opened to get the pups because they didn't have food for breakfast that day since we planned to pick them up on Monday evening. But we're home, missing the beautiful weather, scorching in the Texas heat and catching up on all the things.
I've only taken one outfit pic since we got home and that was Tuesday evening because our neighbors called and asked us to go out to dinner with them. I snapped the pic right before I changed to go eat.
I was wearing the t-shirt I got in Chicago.
Ya'll those ten dollar amazon shorts are so good!! I mean, I seriously considered grabbing another color. They are so easy to throw on and go.
I wore a pair of black shorts and my champagne & French fries t-shirt. Nothing you folks haven't seen before but I only had like 10 minutes to change and put on makeup and comb my hair so I forgot to snap a picture because it wasn't until then did I know I had minimal time to change.
Let's talk about dinner really quick then wrap up some stuff.
Tuesday: The Henry McCarty Irish Pub. I had the cup of tomato soup and an order of fries. Hubster had the Irish Spice Bag. All was yummy
Wednesday: I made Taco Bowls at home.
Thursday: Grilled Catfish, Zucchini & onion, Lemon rice and I made a Kentucky Butter Cake served with mixed berries for dessert. A neighbor down the street went fishing and brought us some fresh catfish. The neighbors from Tuesday night came over because they had received fish too.
Taco Bowl, sometime we'll talk about how I make these bowls. Such an easy dinner.
Here's what is left of the cake after we all had cake, took some up to our neighbors who always send us cake (Ms. LC makes the BEST cakes for everyone's birthday)
I saved that recipe because it is the perfect not too sweet cake. I was supposed to sprinkle powdered sugar on the top but I forgot. It's pretty easy for a cake too so it'll get remade.
Ok, now that I've finally got you caught up let's do the final wrap up (because there is exciting news) and I'll let you know, it took me from Wednesday to Friday to get this post typed up.
Reading: On the plane ride over to Hawaii I finished The Cyclist's Guide to Villains and Vines. Then I started and finished a NetGalley ARC, The Mystic & The Missing Girl, due out Sept. 8th. I'm now reading In The Spirit of French Murder. This is the 4th in the series and I love this series, it features a fictional version of Julia Child. Now in the most exciting news of reading........ I've finished The GoldFinch!! YES, I started that crazy book on April 22 and just finished it yesterday. I gave it a generous 3 star rating, believe me that was indeed generous and it was only the last few chapters of the book that made that review go up to 3 stars. I've got a long list of audiobooks ready to go so hopefully I can get back on track with my Goodreads challenge. I also have my reading assignments for my fall classes at TCU so I'll need to get one more book ordered and get started on those.
Watching: We haven't really watched much since we've been home, just clearing out the DVR a little but we're about ready to start watching the new season of Lioness. We like to get 4 or 5 episodes behind so we can watch them close together and not wait a week. I also need to get to watching House of Dragons too! The next 10 days are more 100+ temp days so hopefully I'll be catching up on some house chores and staying in the AC.
Peace, Love, & Aloha!
