I went to a time share presentation on Tuesday morning in Maui, just so I could get free golf and two free tickets to the booze cruise. I let the guy get half way through his presentation and then told him that heck no, I wasn’t buying. If I’m going to spend money on a vacation home, it’s going to be on a lake near wine country. The end.

Last week was FLIPPIN AWESOME! I seriously did not want to come home (no offense to my friends or coworkers!). We stayed at the fabulous Marriott Ocean Club in Ka’anapali, where my parents have a timeshare.

10 days is the longest I’ve been on vacation and it was perfect. You almost lose 2 full days traveling and if you’re only there for a week, it takes a couple of days to unwind, then after a couple days of relaxing, the stress of heading back begins to set in. Having more than a week there meant more relaxation time and I NEEDED IT!

Here are a few glimpses of my favorite parts of the week!

We did a cocktail sunset cruise on the Teralani. It was AMAZING. We chatted with all sorts of new friends, drank pretty decent sparkling wine (booze fast ended – YES!), and had really delicious pupus. (Recognize the necklace, Lindsay?!)
We hiked to Twin Falls and I got to swim under a waterfall. It was CRAZY COLD, but totally worth it. While we were up that way, we also ate at Charlie’s, Willie Nelson’s restaurant and then found the Kula Lodge, which had killer views of the sunset and literally the BEST prime rib I’ve ever had in my life. Unbelievable!
We went to a dinner party at our friends’ condo where there were tons of sea turtles. I kept calling “here, kitty kitty kitty” and my mom would snort and giggle!I climbed to the top of the black rock and jumped twice. It was a 20-25 ft drop and really stinking scary. I screamed bloody murder and my parents said that they could hear me way down the beach. We then played in the surf for an hour or so and I got so much sand stuck in my bathing suit, that it felt like I was wearing a sand bathing suit. Ew.I read about 10 books. No lie. My family started to wonder if I hated them or was bored. Nope, I just LOVED chillin on the beach or by the pool with my kooky Kindle! And for the record…I could NOT get through The Help. I’m still going to work on it, but I just couldn’t get sucked in like I’d hoped…anyone else feel this way?
Lastly, I had a lava flow almost every day. I could write a sonnet about my love for the LF. I think I will. I think that instead of having wine and dinner parties, I’ll have lava flow and dinner parties. OOH LA LA. DELICIOUS! Oh, and by the way, CHECK OUT MY BIKINI! Yep, I totally let down my guard and rocked two throughout the week. Was I at my skinniest? Was I super confident? No to both, but you know what? It was a step. Wearing my first bikini in at least four years made me feel like I had MAD mojo…even if I looked gross. But dang it, there were women rocking bikinis that were SEVERAL sizes larger than me and if they had confidence to do so, why couldn’t I??? It actually felt really liberating!

In addition to all these fun things, we also ate at amazing restaurants, I golfed twice with my daddio and played the best golf of my life, and ran a 5k (more on that later). I am SO thankful that my parents invited me along on the trip and that I was able to get out of here for a while!!!

My Hawaii recap will have to wait, as I heard today about the passing of a dear soul. I posted something on my photoblog, but wanted to honor her here, too. Gina Carlin was a photographer and blogger extraordinaire and she went to Heaven last week. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers…