February 2019

Top Activities on Maui

MAUI!! This is one of my favorite places to vacation too; I’ve been going since I was a little kid.  I’ve been almost 20 times, so I’ve tried a lot of different charters and activities.  When going, we always try to find a new activity to do.  Here are the top four activities that we’ve done several times, and I always tell people they should do.

Don’t worry I’ll be doing separate posts on beaches, snorkeling, and where to eat as we get closer to our next trip to Maui in May.

Hiking and Photography atop Mt. Erie

In the last post about Washington we went to Eastern Washington, this week we are going to stay close to my current home town in Western Washington.  I live on Whidbey Island, which is in the Puget Sound, about 40min north of Seattle.  To do something quick for a morning hike or a short road trip we like to drive up the island to a small, short, mountain in Anacortes Washington, Mt. Erie.

Winter Wonderland in Leavenworth Washington

In eastern Washington, there is a small Bavarian town named Leavenworth.  It is a small village with tons of character.  The town serves German beer and authentic German cuisine.  They have a nutcracker museum, my picture may or may not be inside.  My mom is a huge collector!  The reason we love visiting this town in the summer and winter is that it is centrally located in the state and it’s a great stopping point during a drive or close enough to make a fun day trip.  Here are a few of my favorite things to do and visit while in the town.

Sprint HIIT Workout template

One of my favorite ways to get cardio in is to do HIIT workouts.  HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training.  High-intensity workouts have been shown to help burn fat, increase metabolism, and increase endurance.  These are just a few reasons why I do these workouts.  Another is that the workouts are usually shorter than most cardio.  Plus, it’s a good excuse to do sprints.  I was a sprinter in college, and this is an excellent way for me to get some sprinting in.

Valentines Day Traditions

Happy Valentine’s day!!

I thought I would come on here and share our wedding ring tradition with you guys since we don’t do anything special for valentines day.

Our tradition is that for every vacation we get new QALO rings.  It all started when we eloped to Bora Bora.  I didn’t want to worry about my fancy engagement ring, because I knew we would be doing a lot of water activities.  We decided to go with white QALO rings for the ceremony, and they looked perfect.  I didn’t have to worry about losing my ring or putting it in the safe.  For the rest of the elopement and the adjoining trip to Loreto, we had aqua and black for hubby and me.  Mine glowed in the dark so way cool!

wedding ring white wedding ring

The reason we went with QALO is that we can wear these during all our activities while on vacation.  I don’t have to worry about sand, sunscreen, or losing it in the ocean.  We also wear these around the house when we are doing yard work or working out.  They come in a cute carrying pouch, that is perfect for travel as well.

About six months later we went to Maui and decided we needed a new set for this trip.  So, after scouring their website, we both decided to get the gray/silver rings.  They weren’t identical in color, but they were close enough that it was cute!

silver wedding ring wedding

We are about to go back to Maui in about three months and are trying to figure out what color we should get this year?  I was thinking pink, but they don’t make a men’s pink ring unless I get him the largest women’s size!  So maybe marble?  Or they have new ones that you can customize and are two-toned in color?  So many options can’t wait to share what we picked!

What are your Valentines’ traditions?

Not sponsored just truly love the rings!

What to see and do on Kauai

A couple of years ago my husband and I finally made it to the island of Kauai.  We went as an extension to our winter break from work, to find some much-needed sunshine from the gray Seattle weather.

Finding a deal during December on any of the Hawaiian Islands is hard to do, but somehow, I found one!  We booked about 5-6 months out and were able to find a cute VRBO at a resort in Lihue town, Aqua Kauai Beach Resort.  It was such a good deal we couldn’t pass it up. It had amazing views, three pools, and a long uninterrupted beach.  You have to get the adult shaved ice. We didn’t realize this was an actual thing until our last day and were super sad about it, because who doesn’t love Koloa rum and shave ice!

Here are the places I would recommend for some of the best food and drinks on the island.

How to see Yellowstone in two days

Yes, that’s right I said you can see all of Yellowstone National Park in 2 days.  That’s exactly what my husband and I did a couple of summers ago.  We were already in Boise, Idaho for a wedding, so we decided why not drive another 6hrs to Yellowstone!  It was very last minute, and we were lucky we even found a room close to the park, we only had two days, so we decided to cram seeing the park into those two days.  Here is a little travel itinerary, tips, tricks and photo diary of our last-minute road trip to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park Photo Diary

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our road trip through Yellowstone National Park.  You can read about the trip here!

 

 

hot spring

tower fall

river

early morning

sunrise at yellowstone

steam

canry spring

mammoth hot springs

sunrise

falls

deer

Home gym equipment must haves

If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I’ve had to take a couple of weeks off due to injury.  This has given me time to figure out what I need when doing my home workouts.  Working out at home is the only way I work out, living on an island, there are no good gyms.  I’ve slowly been acquiring what I believe are essentials to getting a good sweat on at home.

Here’s my list of must-haves for good home workouts.  And even better I was able to get a majority of these on Amazon!