Well didn’t know it did that…..

Welcome to 2020. I’m a month late (and some days). I feel like I blinked and 2019 vanished. Trying to even remember everything accomplished in 2019 hurts my brain. It made me realize I need to document 2020 or I’m going to have an even harder time remember it. So we’re back.

2020, started off with me pushing incredibly hard to earn a trip that I’d end up NOT earning. BUT the lessons learned trying to do so are invaluable. I made choices that I wouldn’t change as they will help my business growth- over what would have helped me earn a cruise out of New York to Bermuda. I still gave it my all and I can 100% say that with no regrets. It helps that I also traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii with Kylie (my sister) in January as part of our Scentsy Leadership Retreat.

We stayed at Hilton Waikiki Village – and honestly you could have never left the resort and enjoyed everything it had to offer and relaxed- but we had way too much to do.

Early Morning Acai bowls and a walk on the beach before my business meeting. I’d never had an Acai bowl before. It was creamy and cold, full of fresh fruit and the pineapples on the island are exactly as you dream.  The Dole Plantation (READ AS DOLE WHIP) and a Japanese Steakhouse marked our 1st non-travel day adventure after my business meeting.  My foodie friend Holly joined us as we walked through a zen like garden and rode a train through the whole plantation learning of its history. Cherry on top – a Dole Whip that trumped Disney’s for sure. We had the most interesting Uber driver on our way back to the village. He told us so many amazing facts about the scenery (since the drive was over an hour long he had a lot of time to kill lol).

We were starving- but food with Kylie can prove….. interesting. I was incredibly proud of her (until I found out she wasn’t 100% sure what she had gotten into) for agreeing to the Japanese steakhouse. This is very worthy of it’s own paragraph. We ended up at a table with two other groups. In each group there was a food allergy. Group 1: Onions. Group 2 & 3: Shellfish. This lead to a backwards format for the chef. Still fun, just meant I ended up eating before the rest of my party as my items had to be cooked prior to shellfish. We strolled the village shops, and then went to bed.

Day 2- We went to breakfast at Cinnamons – which everyone raved about. I was kind of disappointed but my food was not horrible. It just wasn’t worth raving about. We also got lost. What should have taken 9 minutes took 30 because Kylie and I can’t be trusted with maps. We went to the Mall, and some other shops, and eventually bought a Coastal Tour Trolley ride. It may have been the highlight of my trip (well one of them). We used Waikiki Trolley. If you purchased a tour line (ours was blue, will link below) you got pink line free for 24 hours. Waikiki Trolley Blue Line . Hanauma Bay and the Halona Blow Hole were by far the best stops. I even got video of the blow holes! Hanauma Bay is SO clear and Blue. You could see the coral from the look out points. I was so grateful for nature on this trip. We also had to be picked up from a ritzy duty free designer mall so that was fun to walk around. We had lunch at a rooftop TexMex place and feed rice to the birds. They get so close! Kylie loves birds so she had a lot of fun. We had dinner with Holly at a diner that my Mimi would have loved. Good old Burger and Tots stop.

Day 3 – Pearl Harbor Day. 5am wakeup. LOL But it was worth it. We had a great tour guide- Cousin K. She’s a senior driver so she knows her stuff and she spits knowledge at you so the stopping and picking up/dropping off others isn’t such a dreadful process. I can’t recall which company we booked through as we used the location at Hilton Waikiki Village to book. We did the USS Arizona and I wished my dad could have been there. This would have been right up his alley. The Harbor is so shallow that the boat still there, and very visible. It’s also still leaking oil. That’s mind-blowing. 1941 and still leaking in 2020. It was sobering- the stories of survivors of the boat once passing away asking to be dropped into the ship with their lost friends. There’s only a few survivors left and there is a myth that the people of Hawaii believe- that the oil will stop leaking at the death of the last survivor. Wouldn’t that just be ominous? We met Tim & Jim from Chicago area on that day and we wish we would have hung out with them more. Maybe one day our paths will cross again. I went to the pool with Holly and ended up near our CEO’s. Had fun conversation and I got in the ICE cold pool for 3 minutes and yea nope. Couldn’t hang. It started raining. Kylie and I later went out to some other shops and a flea market. We ate at Yard House which we LOVE. We do not have one in Columbus though.  One word to end your night – Leonard’s Portuguese donuts. YUM.

Last Day – Our plane takes off at 4:30pm on our last day and flies through the night. We decided to walk the beach and get breakfast in the Village. Checkout is at 11am and they hold our luggage- nice perk. Our shuttle is scheduled for 1:30pm. We just kind of took everything in for a last time and then headed on our journey home. We found turtles we’d missed the whole time! I’m so grateful that I’m able to take trips like this as a leader. It certainly – as previously stated- made the sting of not earning Bermuda hurt less. I did earn Salt Lake City, Utah so look for that adventure in July.