Port A for David's B Day

In April, we celebrated David’s 30^th birthday.  His birthday wish was for all of his friends to be together, having fun on the beach.  So that’s exactly what we did by heading to Port Aransas, Texas for a weekend of sun and surf.

Unfortunately the sun decided not to make an appearance, but the crappy weather didn’t deter us from swimming all day in the ocean and the many pools of the Port Royal Resort.

On the recommendation of our friend Patrick, who celebrated his birthday in the same place, we booked three condos at Port Royal for the long weekend.  The condos were huge and accommodated everyone really well.  We had 2-3 couples in each place, plus huge living spaces complete with fully stocked kitchens. 

A few of us took a vacation day on Friday and left for the coast after work on Thursday.  David and I had a full car with Jeff and Jacque, and Molly.  Jeremy had to work late on Thursday, so he drove up Friday morning.

Jacque, Jeff’s girlfriend, was in South Austin at her parent’s house as we headed out, so we agreed to meet her on the way.  She wanted to make the pickup convenient for us, so her mom offered to drop her off at a random, pinned location directly off the freeway.

It was so random!  The address she had pinned was the creepiest ranch house we have ever seen!  It was literally in the middle of nowhere, so we felt like we were about to meet Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  When Mrs. White pulled up, we quickly shuffled Jacque into the backseat, where she smushed in next to Molly and Jeff, before we took off!  (It’s days like that that I wish we had an SUV.)

We kept busy on the 4½ hour drive by singing along to the radio, playing Heads Up (which I should probably not have been playing considering I was also driving), and stopping at Sonic for a late-night snack.

We got to the resort and were greeted by the Kainers and Gristys, who had arrived a few hours earlier.  It was past curfew by the time we checked in, which meant the pools and hot tubs were closed, but that didn’t stop us from jumping the fence and relaxing in the hot tub … at least for the next 30 minutes, until we were kicked out by a very understanding security guard.

The next morning, Cristy and Jon arrived, as well as Jeremy and the Watsons.  We spent the afternoon on the beach, the girls wading in the surf while the guys played football.  David and Patrick also went fishing from shore, and David caught a huge black drum!  We couldn’t believe there were fish that big in the waves around us.  Kind of creepy when you think about everything you can’t see in the water…

A friendly sea turtle (I swear, David is the sea turtle whisperer) also came up for air right in front of him and Patrick.  He waved a fin at the guys before descending back under the waves.

On Friday evening, we played a round of Cards Against Humanity and cooked a big spaghetti dinner.  It was absolutely hilarious listening to David give explanations of the cards to the more innocent members of the group.  Why David is the expert in all things inappropriate and grotesque, don’t ask me.   Most guests then went back down to the hot tubs, while the Simons and I waited for Katie and Dave to arrive from Houston.

By Saturday morning, the entire birthday party was in Port A!

Cristy and I took the resort’s yoga class on Saturday morning before meeting everyone from our room at the restaurant for another huge breakfast.

Port Royal offers a AAA discount to members like the Kainers.  The receptionist felt bad that she couldn’t offer our room the same rate, so instead, she gave me $100 of free breakfast vouchers for each day of our stay.  We figured for sure the plates would be tiny and cost a fortune, but we were very, very wrong.  Each meal was so filling that it lasted us the entire day until dinner.  The biscuits were the size of saucers and covered in hearty sausage gravy, then topped with cheese and hot sauce.   The French toast was equally enormous.  And on Saturday, we indulged in the Bloody Mary Breakfast Buffet.

We somehow managed to roll ourselves back down to the pool area, where we hibernated in the hot tubs for a few hours, before getting the energy to go down the waterslides and play a couple of rounds of pool volleyball.

The weather was taking a turn for the worse on Saturday evening, so we decided not to leave the resort for dinner.  Instead, we had BLTs and hung out in our PJs … a true testament of a 30s vs 20s birthday party. 

Besides being known for her amazing margaritas, Kim also makes a damn good giant cookie cake.  If I had known it was going to be that big, I would not have bought David a traditional birthday cake.

When the clock struck midnight on Saturday, it was time to celebrate David’s actual birth day.  Katie and Dave brought the decorations – Frozen-themed tiaras for all of the guys, and a Disney princess banner.  When Quinn saw the pictures on Molly’s phone, she exclaimed, ‘But Mama, David is a boy!’ 

Patrick eating peanut butter straight out of the jar (gross!) while David shows off his gift

We sang happy birthday to David and he opened his gifts, and then ran down to the hot tub for one last midnight swim … but not before he took his 30s pic!  

The entire Hawaii crew was in town, so we were not going to 

let David get away without taking a ridiculous 30s picture

The next morning, the sun finally decided to show up, so Katie, David, and I took a walk down to the beach and lied in the sand for a good hour, listening to music, talking, and watching the pelicans glide over the waves, searching for breakfast.

It was a short, but sweet, weekend trip to the coast to celebrate David.  Happy (extremely!) belated birthday!

Catching Rays with the Stingrays

After an incredibly busy spring, David and I decided to start off summer right with a week to ourselves in the British West Indies.  It had been two years since we’d been on an extended vacation alone … not since the Maldives had we relaxed on a beach for days, just the two of us. 

Now that we’re back in Texas, the warm waters of the Caribbean are closer than ever.  We chose to visit the Cayman Islands because we’d never been there before, it was just a two hour flight from Houston, and we’d heard great things.

We drove down to Houston on Memorial Day to fly out of IAH, and landed in Georgetown early Monday afternoon.  We checked into the Westin Seven Mile Beach with plenty of time left in the day to relax by the sea. 

Seven Mile Beach is absolutely gorgeous … a seemingly endless stretch of pure white sand bordering azure water.  The water was so crystal clear that on Saturday afternoon, as we were lying on a float out in the ocean, we could see the stingrays and fish swimming below us. 

Most of our vacation time was spent hanging out on the beach.  The Westin hosted different activities throughout the week, including a Flick ‘n Float on Monday night.  Unfortunately the movie was The Blindside and while it’s a great film, it is way too sad to watch on holiday.

Every day, the hotel featured live, local bands and happy hour drink specials at sunset.  So David and I made it a habit each night to be on our chairs next to the water, sipping cocktails and watching the sun go down.  We saw some really beautiful sunsets throughout the week.

We got very lucky with the weather, because even though hurricane season was right around the corner, it only rained off and on for a few hours during a couple of days.  Even then, we hung out on the beach under our umbrella or swam.  We were wet anyway, so the rain wasn’t going to hurt!

The Westin is also home to some great restaurants, like Ferdinand’s, known for having one of the best Sunday brunches on the island.  We ate lunch there one day, and the creamy mango mousse for dessert was out-of-this-world good. 

David and I immersed ourselves in the cuisine, and tried specialities like conch chowder, West Indie vegetable curry at beachside restaurant Tortuga, and crispy fish tacos at a small tiki hut down the road called The Sunshine Grill.  The Sunshine Grill is run by a British expat, and David and I spent the dinner quizzing each other with the vintage Trivial Pursuit cards at our table.  With answers like The Soviet Union and Twiggy, our scores weren’t the best!

Eats Café and Yoshi Sushi across from the Westin were favourites with the hotel crowd.  Both restaurants look like hole-in-the-wall joints from outside, but inside, they offered yummy foods like coconut-crusted shrimp and tasty dragon rolls. 

To work off all of the island food, one day David and I attempted to swim out to a small reef in the middle of the ocean.  However, the hotel staff was having none of that and actually sent someone out on a jet ski to call us back in when we were nearly there!  Oh, well. We saw plenty of cool fish and other animals close to the hotel, and at Rum Point reef.

One of the main land attractions on the Cayman Islands is the Turtle Farm.  Christopher Columbus named the Caymans ‘Tortuga,’ or turtle in Spanish, when he first arrived, as he saw so many turtles from his ship that he thought the island was surrounded by small rocks.  Sadly, this is not the case anymore and we did not see one wild turtle the entire time we were there. 

The farm was built to change that.

Since its foundation in 1968, the farm has released more than 30,000 yearlings out to sea.  At the farm, turtles are raised and bred for release, and a small portion is also harvested for its meat and other traditional island customs, like jewelry.  This ensures local traditions are kept alive in a sustainable way. 

One overcast morning, David and I took a break from the beach to visit the turtles and get up close and personal with a few little ones.

That afternoon, we rented a couple of paddle-boards and decided to try our hand at the popular activity.  People in Austin are obsessed with paddle-boarding on Ladybird Lake, but I wanted to try it, and fall off into much cleaner waters, before taking a crack at it in the ATX.

It was definitely not as easy as it looks, especially in the ocean with strong currents pulling me out past the safety buoy, but I managed to stay on the entire time, and steer myself back to land!

David also tried something new when we signed up for a jet ski tour out to Stingray City.

Our guide was fearless, and he assumed we were, too, so once he gave us a quick overview on how to operate the jet skis, he flew past us, going at least 40 mph!  I couldn’t believe how fast we were going, even getting airborne over the waves, so I started off a bit slower.  Luckily, another couple hit a wave going too fast and it pushed them both off.  This was my chance to catch up!  After that, I became a bit more fearless and really pushed it.  At one point, I even made it up to 50 mph! 

First stop on the tour was Stingray City.    

Stingray City is a shallow sandbar where throngs of wild, southern stingrays congregate.  Tourists began showing up to view the stingrays, and feed them.  Now, the stingrays swarm the area and the swimmers looking for their next meal.  They are incredibly friendly, and the moment we pulled up in our jet skis, they swam over to say hello.

From there, we visited a beautiful reef near Rum Point, and stopped at Starfish Beach. Fun fact! Starfish can actually roll themselves over if they somehow find themselves upside-down.

We ended our tour at a small beach shack called Kaibo for a midday snack.  If anyone is planning a trip to Grand Cayman, we highly recommend this excursion.  It was such a fun way to explore the waters around the island.

From stingrays to turtles and snorkels to jet skis, our week in the Cayman Islands was a sun-filled, relaxing escape.

It's My Birthday & I'll Kauai If I Want To

Well, the day finally arrived.  My birthday.  The big 3-0.

There was barely any time to say goodbye to my 20s as we spent the morning saying goodbye to Maui instead.  After soaking up the sun next to the resort’s pools for a couple of hours, we flew to Kauai and checked into our suite at the Wyndham on Poipu Beach.

Kauai's famous tree tunnel on the way to Poipu

Our Wyndham rental was amazing – three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen and living area, and even a laundry room.  After nearly a week traipsing across Hawaii, we were so thankful to be able to wash some clothes. 

The six of us had a ton of fun sharing the space.  In the evenings after dinner, we’d spend time looking through all of our photos and videos of the day’s excursions.  One night, we decided to watch Jurassic Park.  It had been years since Katie and Dave, and Cristy and Jon, had seen the movie, but we figured with our helicopter tour to Jurassic Falls scheduled for later in the week, it was a good time to break out the classic film.  The next evening, David stayed up with the girls watching the sequel, The Lost World.  But we stopped there.  The third movie is just too terrible.

Before my birthday celebration that evening, Katie, Cristy, and I spent more time relaxing by the pool, while the guys checked out a local sports bar, Kalapaki Joe’s.  Cristy made sure that Katie and I scheduled enough downtime on our vacation, and Thursday was definitely one of those days.

As the sun was starting to set, we headed down the road to the Grand Hyatt for a traditional luau.

When we arrived, we were seated at a private table directly in front of the stage.  The Grand Hyatt luau was not a huge affair like others we’d heard about.  It was a more intimate show held on the hotel’s great lawn, and included a dinner buffet, bottomless mai tais, and great performances!

Because it was our birthdays, the three ladies of our group were called on stage and taught a traditional dance by this handsome young gentleman we nicknamed the Hawaiian Magic Mike.  

Of course we made complete fools of ourselves, but it was still a good time!

After drinking many, many mai tais, David and Cristy decided it was time to take our 20s vs 30s pic.

On our second day in Kauai, we walked to Poipu beach.  David and I brought along our snorkel gear and checked out the marine life under the waves, which was surprisingly good at such a popular beach.  

Later that afternoon, we headed to Captain Andy’s.  During their honeymoon, Katie and Dave took Andy's boat tour of the Na Pali coast and raved about the experience, so the guys decided to surprise all of the birthday girls and booked the same trip for us.

Unfortunately the weather turned on us that afternoon, and the swells were too high to sail along the Na Pali coast.  Instead, we sailed back down the coast towards Poipu Beach.  I wasn’t disappointed, though.  The weather was beautiful, our steak and shrimp dinner was delicious, and the scenery was fantastic!

Along the way, we had seen a few spinner dolphins swim beneath the catamaran, but we were treated to the best show EVER on the way back to shore.  A pod of bottlenose dolphins showed up, and they couldn’t be happier to entertain us!

Even the captain and sailors were thrilled.  They told us that bottlenose dolphins hardly ever leap out of the water for boats; usually it’s just the spinners.  So it was a rare siting for everyone onboard, and you can tell by listening to the crowd clapping and the sailors cheering in the video below. 

On Saturday morning, we took a helicopter tour around the entire island of Kauai. 

If we were sad at all that we hadn’t seen the Na Pali coast the day before (and how could we be with the graceful dolphins in the stunning sunset?!), we more than made up for it with that helicopter flight.

We booked our tour through Jurassic Falls because it is the only company with permission to actually land at the waterfall where the copter lands in Jurassic Park’s opening scene, as the land is privately owned.

David had a lot of fun making this video to one of his favorite soundtracks

We had to wear little blue booties as we walked from the helicopter to the waterfall to ensure we did not disturb any of the vegetation.

Those fashionable fanny packs are actually life preservers in case the helicopter crashed in the ocean ... eek!

From there, we saw George Clooney’s land from The Descendants, Waimea canyon (which we were planning to hike that same afternoon), and one of the wettest places on earth, Mt Waialeale.  

The flight was about two hours long, which gave us plenty of time to see the entire island, including the Na Pali coast, which was breath-taking.

Back on solid ground, we decided to have a big breakfast before our hike through Waimea Canyon.  We asked the receptionist at the helicopter company where the locals ate.  She stared at us strangely before responding, ‘Are you sure?’  We were sure, so she recommended Tip Top.

Tip Top Bakery was not far from the airport.  Located inside a motel, the café was packed full of locals indulging in their large Saturday breakfasts.  We all decided to go local, so Katie and Cristy ordered the macadamia nut pancakes with homemade guava jam.  The guys ordered the restaurant's star dish – oxtail soup.  

 I was feeling just as adventurous and requested the bento box.  It came with macaroni salad (old-school, like the kind we ate at family picnics as kids), teriyaki chicken skewers, corned beef hash browns, and rice. 

It was an interesting combination of foods for breakfast, but way too much for us.  Needless to say, after we ate, we were well-fueled and ready for a long hike!

Waimea Canyon is known as Hawaii’s Grand Canyon and just like the rest of the islands, it is so beautiful.  We brought along our good friend, Yoda, and he was just as popular at Waimea as he was at Diamond Head.

We hiked the Canyon Trail, which offered spectacular views of the area, and a waterfall to cool off in at the end of the path.

The trek was a good three hours round-trip, so even after our enormous breakfasts, by the end, we were craving some shave ice!  We stopped at a local place on the way back to Poipu.  This middle-of-nowhere stand happened to have the best shave ice of the trip.  They served their ice on top of macadamia nut ice cream, and then topped it with coconut cream.  This made the shave ice extra creamy and flavorful. 

When we got back to the Wyndham, the girls went shopping before dinner while the guys headed back to their new favorite bar, Kalapaki Joe’s, to catch a game.

For those of you that have been to Hawaii before, you may have noticed all of the wild chickens running around the state.  With no natural predators, Kauai is especially known for its high population of chickens on the loose.  They were pretty bold, too, and would come close to us on the beach to try to steal our food. 

Funny story about Kalapaki Joe’s... the guys ordered a pre-dinner snack of chicken wings.  To their disbelief, they were told that the bar was out of wings.  They joked around that they could just walk outside and grab a chicken if the cook agreed to fry it up for them. Joe said no.

Lucky chicken!

Well, the boys were glad that they hadn’t spoiled their dinner because we ate a late meal at The Dolphin.  The sushi was inventive, fresh, and delicious.

The next day, Sunday, was Cristy’s birthday.  And poor Cristy…

Before the trip, Katie and I had warned her that we were going to get her out of her comfort zone with snorkelling and ziplining excursions, and we stuck to our promise.  On her actual bday, Cristy faced her fears and went ziplining with the group!  And she was a rock-star!

Outfitters on Kauai put together a great excursion for us and a few other couples.  With two guides and a small group, we didn’t have to wait long to get out on the lines.  Also, Outfitters is one of the only companies with access to Kipu Ranch, Hawaii’s main movie set.  All of their ziplines go through terrain that you've probably seen in films like Congo, King Kong, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park.

This hillside is named The Sleeping Giant.  Can you see him?

The majority of the ziplines in Kauai were tandem, which David and I hadn’t done before.  Flying through the air parallel to each other was so cool, especially since we had the Go Pro!  And because this was our third time ziplining, we felt comfortable enough to spin and go upside down!

Probably the best 20s pic of them all… David upside down, hanging who-knows-how-many-feet-off-the-ground, ziplining over the canopy.

After spending half a day ziplining, some on lines 1,800 feet long, we had lunch and cooled off at a private swimming hole.  The swimming hole used to be reserved for Hawaii’s princesses, but Outfitters was able to obtain the rights to put a zipline over the water for its clients.

After an adventurous morning, we drove across the island to Princeville to check into our fourth and final hotel, the St. Regis.  This was where it all started – the St. Regis where the Vollmars spent their honeymoon, and Katie came up with the brilliant idea of celebrating our 30th birthdays in Hawaii.

The St. Regis is situated in Hanalei Bay, and offers stunning views of the Na Pali coast.  The sunsets were unbelievable, and each evening, the St. Regis held an outdoor champagne sabering as the sun went down.

We had seen all that we wanted to see in Hawaii, and done plenty, so the next couple of days were spent relaxing on the beach.  We had Cristy’s birthday dinner that night at Bar Acuda, which served delicious tapas like pizzetta and honeycomb with goat cheese.

And, of course, we took one last 30s pic  

The next day, the guys took a deep sea fishing trip, where they caught a few mahi-mahi. 

Meanwhile, the girls stayed back at the hotel and had a relaxing spa day.  After a day of fishing and pampering, all of us dressed up in our new Hawaiian outfits and took part in the champagne saber toast.

It was an unforgettable trip to paradise spent with some of our best friends.  I can’t imagine a better way to ring in a milestone birthday.  Cheers to a new decade and many more adventures!