We really slept in Tuesday morning, both getting up just before 5am. Well, that’s sleeping in for me, anyway, almost 8 hours of much needed rest.

I had pretty much done the blog the prior day so just did some final proofing over coffee and got it posted. Like the prior 2 mornings, Ash got coffee for us from Starbucks since they opened at 4:30am.

There was no waiting to sit at the bar so we just did that. I had an acai bowl, Ash had bagel and lox which was beautifully done.

We’d been hoping to get our checkout extended to 4pm but the best they could do was 1pm. We got out on time and decided to get some lunch.

On our way to lunch, we decided it was a perfect time to see a movie since we had the entire afternoon to kill. We went back to the food court from the night before and got $2 off chips and salsa and 3 tacos for $10 on this bar’s happy hour menu. We went to a movie theater a couple of miles away and saw “A Complete Unknown,” a biopic about Bob Dylan with Timothy Chalamet in the lead. We both enjoyed it a lot.

After the movie, we made our way back up to Kailua on the north side of the island, but took the long way around up the east coast. Lots of beautiful stuff. Just a couple of photos here from the couple of stops we made along the way.

Dinner was a Kalapawai Cafe & Deli, #2 in Kailua on TripAdvisor. Turned out to be Italian despite it’s very Hawaiin sounding name. Which was OK by us. They’d sat us outside initially, but it started raining and we moved indoors and sat at the bar since all the other tables were taken at that point. Seemed to be our place on this day!

Vasco had coffee encrusted filet mignon; Ash had ahi with risotto; I had a Bolognese which was excellent. The portions were good sized, we passed on dessert, assuming we’d get something on the plane. Which we did.

From there we went to the airport, turned the car in after filling it up with gas, and relaxed in the American lounge for a couple of hours before we had to board for our 10:30pm flight home.

We had a connection in Phoenix, with enough time to get some decent coffee in the lounge and use the restroom before got on the last leg. We made it to our house by about 10am on New Year’s Day. And boy, were we glad to be home, as always.

TieTimTime for my traditional Final Thoughts:

It’s interesting that Hawaii has only been loosely on our list as a travel destination, mostly coming up in jokes about where we could go spend time where I could also work from so we could travel more than we do now. We did that once for a week in New York and while it mostly worked, I didn’t like the weirdness of being 3 hours ahead. But being 2-3 hours behind, which Hawaii is depending on the time of year, would work great. So that’s always been my response when Ash asks where I’d be willing to spend a week or more working without taking vacation time. (I, of course, also need to see what my work says about all that!)

But in early August when Vasco said “Hawaii” to our question of where to spend his time off of school for the holidays, neither of us hesitated. We’ve both really enjoyed this, and it ignited our interest in doing more here. We’re already planning on returning. If nothing else, there’s a bridge tournament here that Ash wants to play at in January of 2026, so that’s a good excuse to come and try out me working there for a week. I’ll work while he plays bridge and then we can do stuff late in the day and on the weekends. And once I finally retire (tentatively Spring of 2028), we figured this would be a good place to spend a couple of winter months.

So, we will definitely be back. What else?

1. Hitting 3 different islands gave us a great overview. I’d only been to Oahu before, Ash had been to all of them but hadn’t spent much time as those trips were related to the Paradise AIDS Ride back in the day. I think Oahu ended up being everyone’s favorite of the 3 – we’re all city boys at heart and love that vibe with the options for other stuff readily available.
2. Maui will always be special to Vasco since that’s where he swam with turtles – twice – which was The Thing he was hoping to be able to do.
3. We ran into people that we knew, and met new folks, all recovery related, and that’s always a treat.
4. We are definitely not water people. Vasco was, but Ash and I not so much. We knew that going in. Still, we love being BY the water or ON the water, just not necessarily IN the water.
5. We had amazing weather the entire time. Coming back to 44 degrees was a bigger shock than I anticipated. Getting away during the winter could definitely become a thing.

That’s probably about it. It’s New Year’s Day, Wednesday; I don’t have to go back to work until Monday. We have little planned and have been looking forward to the next few days of “not much.”

What’s next? NYC for my birthday weekend in March to see Audra McDonald in Gypsy. And then lots of stuff coming up after Vasco goes home in June, including Vancouver, Botswana again, and an Amazon River cruise next year at Christmas. We look forward to having you join us then!