Kauai!

Oh Kauai. How I wish we were still there. On vacation mode in Hawaii we’d be waking up (due to the natural sunlight streaming into our room of course), ready to hit the gym, then we’d enjoy a leisurely breakfast out on the terrace while listening to the waves crash before heading out into the sun all day.

Instead I’m in reality mode… the alarm went off at 6:15 am this morning (let me tell you: natural sunlight > alarm clock), it was pitch black outside, raining, foggy and cold. And instead of going to the gym, enjoying breakfast on the terrace and spending the day at the beach… I’ll be sitting at a desk, in an office building, working and breathing recycled air all day long.

Vacation I miss you already.

But onto the good stuff!

We were lucky enough to stay at the gorgeous Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. (The trip was a part of an incentive for our previous fiscal year, and then we extended our stay a few days to get in a proper vacation.) This place is amazing – the grounds are stunning (and huge!), the rooms are spacious with private terraces or lanai’s, the pools are plentiful, the drinks are strong, and the food is delicious.

Over the course of the week there was a snorkel cruise, plenty of delicious meals, relaxation, movie watching, ice cold Kona Longboards (and Coronas!), reading, a drive around the entire island, waterfalls, whale watching (SUCCESS!), beach and pool time, and even a private Maroon 5 concert.

Now that’s what I call a vacation!

We rented a car one of the days and drove up to Waimea Canyon, then to Wailua Falls, Opaekaa Falls, Hanalei Bay, Princeville (where we had an amazing and so fresh Acai Bowl and tropical fruit smoothie), and got a glimpse of the entire island.

We always try to spend a day exploring as much of the island we’re on as we can (on Maui we drove from Kapalua to Wailea, and on the Big Island we drove through Kona to Volcano to Hilo and back). You always find the best hidden gems that way, and really get to actually see Hawaii… not just your resort. (Although a healthy mix of both makes a vacation ideal!)

The island saw a lot of rain in the weekend leading up to (flooding up north!), and the weekend we were there, but thankfully the clouds parted and the sun came out in full force for our first few days and the last couple of days. Tans were successfully achieved.

Restaurant wise, we hit Tidepools at the Grand Hyatt (where we had some of the best crab cakes of our lives, Kalua pork pupusas, coconut shrimp and crab chowder, grilled Opah for me and seared Ahi for boyfriend), and the always delicious Roy’s in a nearby shopping center. We ordered room service, and bought groceries (a post of tips on making an expensive resort budget friendly is coming!) from a local market the other nights – we love to create “grazing platters” of fruit, cheese, prosciutto, hummus, chips, rotisserie chicken, poke, etc and enjoy it out on the patio with a couple of cold ones. By far my favorite type of vacation meal.

We also had a couple of catered (and amazing!) dinners and desserts on the nights that we were there with my company as well. They tend to do meals in a big, big delicious way, and we always fill our plates up!

Here’s hoping a trip back to the islands comes much sooner rather than later!

Aloha Kauai 🙂

Back To Life, Back To Reality

Oh, Aloha 🙂 Well the past 7 days went by faster than I actually thought was possible. I’m pretty sure I’m still in denial that I’m sitting in my office building, and not on the beach in Kauai watching for whales (WHICH WE SAW!) After a fantastic, relaxing, and luxurious week in Kauai, boyfriend and I touched down into the Bay Area last night… to fog, rain and cold.

Welcome back indeed.

I also suspiciously developed a sore throat and a cough about 10 hours before our flight was due to leave the island… a strategic move that I’m convinced is my body’s way of revolting against our vacation ending. Well played body, well played.

But I digress.

I’ll have a full Kauai re-cap later on tonight, but in the meantime I wanted to share some things that helped me transition between our 11pm arrival at our apartment to my 6am wake-up (in pitch darkness no less – Hawaii is really on to something with not recognizing daylight savings).

• Unpack the minute you get home.Call me neurotic, but I have to get everything put away and organized the minute we get home or I can’t relax. In the span of about 23 minutes I had 2 carry-ons, 2 suitcases, and a basket of laundry unpacked, and put away. It was like we’d never left. Boyfriend had dinner prepped and cooked. We make a great team.

• Leave the house the way you’d want to return to it. My mom instilled in me from a young age that when you leave for a vacation, you leave your house clean and organized. The last thing you want when you come home from a vacation is to deal with week-old dirty dishes, trip over this, that or whatever in the hallway, or crawl into an un-made bed. Returning to a clean house makes things a lot easier. And by a lot easier, its less time you have to spend cleaning/picking up when you’re already in a sour mood based off of the fact that you’re not on a beach in Hawaii.

• Come back with clean laundry. As SF residents, laundry is an expensive (and annoying!) commodity, with one load (wash + dry) running is $5 IN QUARTERS. Our hotel miraculously had free guest laundry down the hall from our room. It took us about an hour or so to do 2 loads. Thankfully a lot of other guests had the same idea, and purchases large things of detergent, which they left in the laundry room for others to use. They may see it as good karma, I see it as free laundry. Not having a full hamper of dirty clothes upon return is probably the best thing ever, and has eliminated 3 hours (and $15) of laundry from tonight’s plan.

• Workouts.The worst feeling (to me at least!) is coming back from vacation feeling bloated and exhausted and lethargic. It makes getting up for work the next day even tougher. When on vacation, we seek out the hotel gym, and make a point to head there first thing in the morning for 30-60 minutes to get a solid workout in. You keep in shape, you feel energized all day long, and you make room for those tasty mai tai’s 🙂 In Kauai, our resort had an amazing gym, complete with individual TVs on the cardio machines, chilled towels, and headphones.Definitely makes getting a run in a bit easier, that’s for sure.

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Doing all that made accepting the fact that we had to resume our real lives a whole lot easier this morning (if that’s possible – I’ve been having flashbacks of being on a beach all day).

Any other tips that can help make going from vacation to real life a little easier? (Seriously, anything?)