Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts

Friday, October 5, 2012

Hawaii: A Recap

The whole trip I meant to post updates on what we were doing. Instead, I was so busy enjoying everything that I barely touched the computer. Now that I've been home for a few days, I've run out of excuses :)

For starters, we spent 7 days on Kauaii and it is possibly the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We went hiking, took a helicopter tour, spent every morning at the beach, went on a sunset dinner cruise and explored the island and all it had to offer. I would absolutely visit Kauaii again, the pace is so slow and relaxed and the people are warm and friendly. The food was also incredibly and every meal was book-ended by Pina Coladas and desert.

After Kauaii, we hopped to Oahu and spent 6 days at the Ko Olina Resort. It was a totally different experience than Kauaii, much closer to Los Angeles, but we still had a wonderful time. We also went hiking, visited Waikiki Beach, explored the north shore and went swimming with sea turtles at a local beach. The turtles were amazing, so social and friendly and they were absolutely the highlight of Oahu for me.

Hanalei Bay, my favorite beach on Kauai
E and I on Ke'e Beach
Ke'e Beach - the sand covering the roots has blown away
E watching a Ke'e Beach Sunset
Hiking to Hanakapi`ai Beach
Hiking to Hanakapi`ai Beach
E photographing the view while hiking to Hanakapi`ai Beach
The Na Pali Coast on our hike
Tiny stream on our Hanakapi`ai Beach hike
Awesome stone towers at Hanakapi`ai Beach
Poipu Beach

Could the Poipu Beach sunset be any more awesome?
Mango Pina Colada! Virgin of course :) I drank a lot of these
Red Dust Falls along Waimea Canyon
Waterfalls as seen from our helicopter tour
Na Pali coast from our helicopter
Hanalei Bay from our helicopter
Sunset behind Niihau from our Sunset Boat Cruise


Spouting Horn!
Sunset from Ko Olina
Rainbow over Pearl Harbor
USS Arizona Memorial
View from along the Diamond Head Crater hike





View from the top of the Diamond Head Crater hike
Ko Olina Resort sunset
Ko Olina Resort sunset
Alani Resort Sunset
Sea turtles! A group of 4 swam right next to me for over an hour
Gorgeous and friendly, I had no idea they were so social
Beautiful flowers all over the place, this one from Ko Olina
Flowers from Gaylord's Restaurant

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Insanity: Day 40 To The Max

After that lovely, mostly pain free recovery week, E and I have finally found out what it really means to do the Insanity work out. Holy balls, the pain! Each max work out is an hour long and involves grueling moves that you shouldn't be doing with any normal human body. They have level 3 drills, yes, LEVEL 3, which feel roughly like 1000 push ups per work out. You supposedly burn over 1000 calories per work out and let me tell you, you feel every single one.

In better news, I think the work out may finally be starting to make a visible difference! You can really see it on E who is losing any semblance of his "love handles" and whose stomach is looking much more flat and washboard-y.  I definitely still have both my love handles and belly, but E is insistent that I'm toning a bit even if neither of us are really losing weight yet. I wish it was a little more visible since we're going to Hawaii so soon but I'll take what I can get for now!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Swimsuits For The Busty

With Hawaii coming up in just six weeks, I need a bathing suit that I'll be able to wear without being completely embarrassed of myself. Fortunately (or unfortunately? No bathing suit means no wearing it!) I just picked up a new bathing suit a month ago when I saw it on super sale on Zulily.

From Modcloth: Super cute suit, flattering on almost everyone but I'm afraid the bust is too small
It's nearly impossible to find a good swimsuit when you have a generous bust, and with 36J's there are only a couple brands that I can pick from. The last real swimsuit I owned was a Panache tankini that was supportive but got too small. It was also crazy expensive from a specialty boutique so when it didn't fit anymore I was disinclined to replace it. Thus, the last time I went swimming I wore a bra with a rash guard and swimsuit bottoms.


Panache is a great brand for large cup bras and swimsuits, so when I saw them on sale I went for it and bought their Black and Fuchsia Grace Full-Fit One-Piece, which is supposed to be a figure flattering black suit with a super supportive built in bra and a pop of color. I haven't actually tried it on since it came in (it was non-returnable anyway), but I'm definitely going to have to to make sure it fits and looks good before I take it on the trip.  Maybe I'll take some before and after photos to motivate myself through Insanity.

ETA: I tried it on, and took that before photo. Never. Again. I'm not brave enough to post it, but I have to say this Insanity had better friggin' work. I thought the tummy was going to be the worst, but it was definitely the thighs. Totally gross. I need a full body suit that covers to the ankles and wrists >_< 

The right amount of coverage

Monday, July 30, 2012

Aloha Insanity

Apparently, out of nowhere, E and I are going on a Hawaiian vacation this year! It actually fell into place so perfectly that I'm still not convinced it's going to happen.  Plus, we essentially owe the entire trip to E's mother and his father.

Coral Reef I will hopefully be snorkeling at

E's father's family owns a timeshare on Honolulu that his father and uncle usually visit once a year. This year, his father called us up and asked if we wanted to go with him and his wife for 7 days. They have a two bedroom suite so we'd each have a room and E was actually off work that week. He said the accommodations would be covered, we'd just need to find a way to get there. While this was a wonderful offer, plane tickets were about $1200 which was just outside of waythefuckoutside of our price range.

Random Island View
Now earlier this year, E's mother had repeatedly mentioned that she wanted to go to Hawaii. When we heard from his father, we knew we'd need to call and discuss with his mom. Right off the bat, she says she has credit card miles for the plane tickets there. Score! Then she proposed that we spend a week with her and a week with his father. A few inquiries later and bam, she had booked her friend's 10 person house on Kauai for 10 days, giving us the flexibility to stay a few extra days with her, or for E's father to stay there for a couple days while we stayed on Honolulu.

Kauai Waterfall
E's father had his plane tickets all set up, so E's mom went ahead and booked seats for her and her longtime boyfriend R to go. E and I were kind of hesitant since we're still waiting to hear about E's job interview so we hung back for as long as possible until the plane was almost completely full and we had to book. Luckily, we got seats together (after some stupid seat upgrade charges. Apparently window seats and aisle seats are $40 extra??) on the same flight in as his mom so we can carpool together. Our return flight leaves at about the same time as his father's, so we should be able to get a ride to the airport with him too. I was going to book the inter-island flight but decided against it so we'd have the flexibility to change dates if we wanted.

Sunset!
With all this excitingness going on, it hit E and  I pretty hard that we are incredibly out of shape. Actually, I'm incredibly out of shape, E is looking pretty damn good since his job is really physical. It was clear that we'd need to do something, so in a moment of insanity (ha) we signed ourselves up for the insanity fitness program! We start tomorrow and I'm psyched to see if it's as hard and impossible as it looks. E wants to tone up while I would like to lose roughly a million pounds so I don't look completely pregnant in a bathing suit. I'm a little nervous since the weight loss plan calls for 1900 calories a day (what on earth will we be doing that allows you to eat 1900 calories and lose weight??) but we're determined to do at least the full 60 days.

Insanity ahhh!

We're going to need some serious fortitude to get through this, but I'm hoping it pays off so I can look like one of these people in the end, except I'm a lot chubbier than they are so I'd settle for a decently flat stomach and some trimmer thighs. A girl has got to be realistic.

This could be me! OR more realistically, E!

Wish us luck! We're really going to need it to get in shape for this trip!