Rule 5 -- Denise Milani

Winding down our trip!

Our wonderful vacation is ending tomorrow evening and it's definitely bittersweet. On one hand, we have so many other great trips and events coming up and we miss Madeline terribly, but on the other hand it's always hard to leave such a place of relaxation and fun. This trip was to celebrate our two-year wedding anniversary and it definitely was a wonderful way to do so! Even though I was just here a couple of months ago, Hank wasn't with me, so it was so much fun to share this with him. We've been to Hawaii together a couple of times prior to this, but this was the first time we'd been here without other family members, so it was nice to have a little "us" time, especially before the baby arrives in November.

Today was a great day. We woke up and went down to breakfast at Lava Java (told you, can't stay away!) and enjoyed listening to a wonderful man play his ukulele and sing pretty songs. Paired with my yummy organic breakfast it was a fantastic morning. Afterward we walked around a bit, then came home and started getting things done for tomorrow- laundry, etc. The rest of the day was spent at the beach and overall just relaxing. For some reason I've been absolutely exhausted today so it was good to take it easy. Here are a few photos from the day:

another early morning!




our view from breakfast this morning


mine


Hank's






live music during our meal, so pleasant

Hello from Hawaii (again!)

Another Hawaii post! If you're sick of seeing these photos you only have a few more days to suffer through! ;) I'm definitely enjoying documenting our days though, and even though I do a pretty good job of doing the same in our non-vacationing life, it gets me excited to continue when the baby arrives. I can't imagine how neat it would be having something like this to read back through about my Mom when she was MY age and going through the same things.

Today was a fun day, and kind of a lazy Sunday, even though we're on vacation! This morning we woke up to a sky full of sunshine and immediately decided to spend the entire morning at the beach. We walked down and promptly got in the water, where we stayed for hours. All I can say is, thank goodness for great sunscreen! I got out of the water after about 2.5 hours had passed, but Hank stayed in for close to 4! I spent the rest of the morning enjoying people watching and doing some thinking while in my little beach chair. Very good morning. For lunch we came home and ate leftovers from dinner last night (and even so, I STILL have another 1-2 meals of spaghetti left!) and then we napped. And napped. And napped! haha. It was an afternoon of glorious napping! We woke up and headed down to the Farmer's Market to get some fruit to hold us over for the next couple of days, then went to dinner at Island Lava Java, which is my new FAVORITE place on Kona. Holy cow, amazing. I had a grass-fed locally farmed burger with an organic side salad, and Hank had this crazy vegetarian sandwich. This place is simply adorable, and even better- they use all local, organic products when possible, bake their own bread and baked goods, make their own dressing...and you have to love all of that! So we absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed our dinner, and then went home so Hank could spend the rest of the night back in the ocean! I sat and watched, read a magazine, and just hung out. It was super pleasant, and the sunset was beautiful tonight. I included a couple of photos below that I snapped while on the beach. After, we went back to Lava Java for ice cream where I got strawberry and Hank got a crazy Kona coffee shake. A great end to a great day.

ready for our morning




summer sandals


at the Farmer's market...how amazing does this look!?


picking out our fruit








at dinner at Lava Java






Hank's veggie sandwich




evening beach trip!


my night :)


Hank in the ocean


catching a wave

more Hawaii!

It's so nice to be able to make a quick update every night with all of our photos from the day. I love being to look back on everything when weeks, months and years have gone by, and blogging the night of keeps everything so fresh in my mind. We are so go-go-go throughout the entire day so this is a nice way to wind down while Hank gets his things done before bed. I'm also reading a really wonderful book right now that I will talk about in a later post. I don't want to recommend it before I finish it, but so far I absolutely love it. Here's a hint: it's a memoir! But that's really been filling up any down time we've had as far as relaxing outside, etc. I've said it once (okay, maybe twenty times), but I'll say it again- if you travel a lot the Kindle is SUCH an amazing thing. I used to have to bring 5-6 books on a week long vacation like this one, but now I just bring my fabulous reading machine and I don't have to worry about my suitcase weighing a million pounds. It's so convenient. It still doesn't replace "real" books for me, but it's incredibly useful and I love it.

As for today, we woke up and headed downtown to enjoy brunch at Splasher's which is primarily a burger place on Ali'i Drive, but also has delicious breakfast, namely their banana/mac nut anything! Hank got the banana macadamia nut stuffed French toast, I tried some and it really was amazing. While we were eating we watched a parade go down the street which was fun. I can't remember the day of the holiday today but it was definitely a celebratory events for the locals. So, we enjoyed our food and hung out for a bit, then decided to drive up towards the volcano to visit some coffee plantations- Hank is obsessed with coffee and has always wanted to do this! It was a bit overcast today so it was nice to do something a little different. We drove for awhile and then came upon a bunch of large coffee farms. We ended up visiting two- one with a history of Kona coffee museum, and then another family-run farm that also grew macadamia nuts. Personally, I was a little bored but Hank loves this kind of stuff so I was happy to oblige and had a little bit of fun too. After the tour we stopped by some antique stores and looked around, then came home and had some lunch. We spent some time at the pool, and then went on a walk and stopped by the beach. The ocean was a bit rougher today and all the surfers and boogie boarders were having a blast. Following our walk we headed down to eat at Boston Basil's which is an incredibly delicious Italian food restaurant that I love to eat at whenever I'm here. Their food is so, so delicious and apparently I got a little too excited because I flipped my fork somehow and TONS of marinara sauce went all over my dress. I laughed it off, because really, what could I do? It really was a mess though, but our super sweet server brought me club soda and that took the initial stain out, and then my friend Diana recommended via Twitter that we tried Shout wipes...and they totally worked! My dress is now 100% back to normal and I'm really happy. Thanks again, Diana! After the marinara mess, we ended the night with a shared sundae. Yum! Overall it was another day in paradise! ;) We're heading to bed now, but I'll leave you with some photos. Goodnight!

We look tired but we're ready to start the day!


4.5 months pregnant :)


leaving for brunch


parade downtown




at Splasher's




Hank's meal!


beautiful, huge tree in downtown Kona


summertime knees, I always take photos like this, weird I know


driving up to the coffee farms


reading up on coffee stuff





unripe coffee beans on the tree




antiques in Kona


checking out vintage dresses


beach this afternoon


I LOVE this photo!


pregnancy-friendly dress and the most comfy flip flops ever. I brought a few others pairs of shoes for this trip but so far I've worn these and only these, whether they match or not!


dinner at Boston Basil's...so good and we highly recommend it. Best garlic bread I've ever had!


wow, he looks so happy!


so.much.pasta.


so.much.sauce (on my shirt). Yes, I'm THAT awesome.


...and how we ended our night!