Somehow, Glenn and I found ourselves in Hawaii recently.

A month or so ago we sat slumped in our living room chairs, staring mindlessly at our iPads after a long day at work. It was dark, cold and rainy. Again. “I want to go on a trip,” Glenn suddenly proclaimed. “Me too!!” I replied.

We haven’t traveled much recently and I think we were both feeling the effects.

We found ourselves in this situation for a couple of reasons. First, following our big 6-month long trip around the world, we had the desire to stay put for a bit and reconnect with our “old lives.” Second, because of that trip, we had no more money or vacation! And lastly, and most importantly, I didn’t want to stray too far from my mother as she fought to eek out just a little more time before cancer took her life.

We quickly decided to find someplace warmer, drier and brighter for a long weekend. We sifted through our various options (Arizona? Mexico?) and settled on Hawaii – a decidedly odd choice as we tend to avoid hot sun, beaches and tourists, especially when they have children in tow. Hawaii has all of those things in spades!

We picked the island of Kauai because it tends to be less touristy, and has rugged coastlines and mountainous hiking. Just our style!

It felt good to be traveling again.

Both Glenn and I became nostalgic as we packed up the same gear we traveled the world with. The same well-worn hats, shorts and water bottles found themselves snuggly packed into the same spots, in the same bags. We laughed as we packed many of the same clothes from our big trip, still sporting the colored yarn the laundry services in Ecuador used to keep track of our things.

Laundry services, particularly in South America, would affix little colored bits of string to help keep track of which clothes were yours. I’ve never cut them off because just a glimpse brings back fond memories.  (Thankfully, I can now check “publicly post a picture of my underwear on the internet” off my bucket list!)

At one point, two miles in on a very muddy hike in Hawaii, a woman earnestly offered me good money to buy my hiking poles. “She’s traveled to five continents with those poles. She’d part with me long before she’d part with them,” Glenn told her.

It felt good to be adventuring again.

We had plane tickets, a hotel room and a rental car. Beyond that, we arrived in Hawaii with absolutely no plans. When we first set out on our trip around the world a couple of years ago I had a hard time “going with the flow.” I liked to have all of the logistics worked out well in advance. I could tell you two-months out where were we going, how we were getting there, where were we staying, and what we were going to be doing. By the end of our 6-month trip I was at the other end of the spectrum. I’d often forget to figure out important logistics…like the fact that we might need Visas to get into Australia (whoops!), or that we might want to research how best to get from our hotel to the Bangkok airport the following morning.

So, we arrived in Hawaii with our trusted gear, smiles on our faces and no idea of how we were going to fill our time. Each morning we’d check the weather report (which was pointless because it changed by the hour), pick a direction and see what happened. We often fell into that sort of “trust the universe” sort of travelling while on our big trip – it is not a natural space for me to operate in, but it sure is lovely when it happens. I was thrilled to find we could shift gears into that sort of travel again with ease.

It felt good to be physically active again.

Over the last several years I have worked to lead a healthier lifestyle – which is what much of this blog is about. But, it seems that since my mother passed away I’ve found myself struggling to do much of anything in terms of physical activity and my fitness level has all but fallen completely away. In December I had the bright idea to run a half-marathon. I’ve probably run over a dozen half-marathons since I’ve started running…never fast, never pretty, but almost always fun (except when they aren’t!).

I hadn’t been running much, and certainly hadn’t been putting in the miles needed to pull off a half-marathon. But, like an idiot, I did it anyhow and really screwed up my knees in the process. For months I’ve barely been able to walk more than a mile, much less run. I’ve been doing massage therapy and strengthening exercises to try to right the wrongs I did to my knees and they’ve been getting better – VERY slowly. It’s been both physically and emotionally draining to be limited in this way. In Hawaii I found I was able to do hard hikes, and even a 5-mile run, without much knee pain at all. Yay!

Our “Hawaii 5-0” – a five mile run (plus two mile walk) along the beach. We had a headwind no matter which direction we were headed!

It felt good to be eating healthy again.

Over the past two years I have been struggling to keep off the weight I’d lost. Study after study finds that maintaining weight loss after five years is almost impossible. Everyone gains it back…in fact ~97% gain it back after just three years! For some reason I was naïve enough to think I was destined to be one of the other 3%. Losing 130 pounds is a big accomplishment and eventually I got too cocky thinking I could just “wing it” and not follow a program.

I had purposely gotten rid of all of my larger sized clothes, in part to ensure that if I found myself in this situation I wouldn’t be able to just pull them out of the closet and keep going. Month after month I kept trying to eat better and get back on top of it by trying special diets like The Whole 30, or more often the “I’ll just eat this one cookie instead of two” diet plan. But, it just wasn’t working. Tick, tick, tick…one more pound, one more pound, one more pound. I’m currently up almost 30 pounds.

A few weeks ago I looked at Glenn and said, “I lost a ton of weight on Weight Watchers. Why the hell aren’t I doing that?” Weight Watchers works for me. It provides me with the structure, and flexibility, I need to stay on track. So, I went back and started up my membership again – and it’s working. In Hawaii I was able to stay out of the “I’m on vacation, I can eat what I want” mentality – mostly. Regardless of what the scale might say, being in control of my food choices again feels amazing.

We did sneak in a few treats though. Our friends Missy and Bill encouraged us to try the Hula Pie at Dukes. Glenn enjoyed recreating Bill’s “Hula Pie Face” picture from several years ago.

Glenn, travel, adventure, fitness and healthy eating…these things matter to me and make me happy. Climbing back in the saddle again (cue the Aerosmith music…or Gene Autry I guess, depending on your style) and reconnecting with those things on a somewhat impromptu trip to Hawaii was just what I needed!

Nāpali Coast and Kalalau Trail

The clouds below parted for just a minute or two, revealing this amazing view.

Such a beautiful coastline.

Glenn taking in the view at Hanakapi’ai Beach…before we have to hike back up that hill behind him!

Benefit of hiking up high is seeing the blue waters from above. We also caught glimpses of humpback whales breaching in the distance.

Waimea Canyon

Waipo’o Falls in Waimea Canyon State Park.

A grand vista as we start our climb up into the canyon. (I’m in the lower left of the image)

Waimea Canyon

Vista from the ledge above Waipo’o Falls.

We hiked to the edge of the ledge above Waipo’o Falls. It made for spectacular views.

Glass Beach

On the advice of a friend we swung by a tiny little beach in an industrial area of Port Allen. The beach, made of tiny pieces of sea smoothed glass, was interesting – but the main point of our visit was to see the McBryde Sugar Plantation Cemetery. The cemetery contains the graves of Chinese and Japanese sugar plantation workers from the late 1800 and early 1900s. The headstones were beautiful.

Glass Beach – if you look closely you can see tiny pieces of clear, green and brown polished glass.

The low hills surrounding the beach seem to be a never-ending source of broken glass – I’m assuming it was an old dumping ground. These old trash mounds make for some pretty sand, eventually.

Some of the ornate headstones in the cemetery, which had been neglected and overgrown until a local woman started cleaning it up.

Beautiful Hawaii Scenery

We got to see and experience a wide variety of landscapes as we hiked our way across the island.

The hiking conditions were tough due to all of the mud. It seemed like everything was covered in a slippery layer of chocolate frosting. Mmmm….cake.

Kawailoa Beach

I was so glad I brought my hiking poles, as they made navigating the mud a little less harrowing. I enjoyed the collections of homemade hiking poles found at many of the trailheads.

Kalalau Trail. Some day I’d like to hike the whole thing…but not in the mud! 22 miles, out and back. Ranked one of the most beautiful, and dangerous, hikes in the world.

Trees along the edge of Ke’e Beach.

Glenn taking a stroll on Hanakapi’ai Beach.

The factory didn’t look like much, but the chips sure were yummy!

Glenn working his way through a boulder field on the Canyon Trail in Waimea Canyon.

No shortage of beautiful plants to look at, and birds to hear sing.