Day Seven: Aloha

Today is our last day on Kauai.  I am really sad that this vacation has already come to an end.  Yes, we have three day son Maui left but for some reason, this feels like the end.  We had been nice and settled on Kauai, knew where things were and felt like we had more of the lay of the land.  Now it’s back to square one and then by the time we figure that island out, it will be the trip from hell home  But for now, here is a recap of what we did on Wednesday.

I was really not sure what I wanted to do this day.  So many things sounded good and yet I just really wanted to relax and really enjoy this last day.  In the end, I think we really accomplished that!  We started the day a bit later after a relaxing breakfast and morning lanai time at the condo.  We drove to Poipu beach again and tried to soak up some sun.

Did I mention we saw some chickens while on vacation???...

With Mother dear And yes, our hair does always look that good!

It was quite overcast when we first got to the beach today though so not the most ideal beach day but we still all somehow managed to end up with a bit too much sun!!  We vegged out here for about 2 hours or so and then drove back to the condo to eat some lunch.  We kept it simple again today and ate up more turkey, rice tortilla wraps, potatoes and papaya.  Plus more ice cream :S  Time to chill out on the sweets I think…

After lunch we were going to go do something adventurous but no one really seemed in the mood for that and it was already about 2:30pm so we just went swimming at the hotel pool and sat in the sun for a while.  Sister and I also walked down to a little beach area by the condo and took some silly pictures

Sister the 16 year old...

and her 14 year old side kick

We were not really sure where to have our last dinner and we going back and forth about what was best to be our last meal (no pressure…) but ended up deciding on Hukilani Lanei and boy was that a great choice!!  This was the best meal I think I have ever had in my life and that is not an exaggeration!!  They had a special gluten free menu and had a sampling/tasting menu that allowed up to try 5 courses of delicious and flavorful cuisine!!  Normally gluten free food means boring and sauce-less when you go out to eat but certainly not here.  The sauces and everything about this meal was just to die for and I am so sad we cannot come back and have this again…  I’ll let these pictures do the talking…

Gluten Free Rosemary Foccaccia Bread with Balsamic oil

Course 1: Coffee and Chocolate Seared Ahi with rice

Arugula salad with basil dressing, sweet corn, beets and tomatoes

Grilled Mahi Mahi with a Chili Curry Sauce

Pork Medallions with mushrooms, creamy polenta and a delicious sauce - my favorite course for sure!!

Because we waited a bit extra, we got a free little tasting of this delicious Starfruit Sorbet

Vanilla Creme Brulee - so good also!!

After all this crazy food, we still had to finish up some ice cream at the condo (hence the aforementioned need to cut the sweets…) and then packed up a bit for our early morning flight to Maui tomorrow morning.  Only a few more hours and Kauai was just a distant memory…

Shake it up.

I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures and interesting content on this post.  I am tired.  Boo hoo I know…

Normally on Thursday’s I run in the morning and do Body Pump after work.  Today I decided to do them both back to back.  All I can say is oof da!  But it really reminded me I am NOT an evening running, I am a morning runner.  I don’t know what it is about me that makes it so much more painful to run in the afternoon.  I get a side stitch and just want to lie down and take a nap  But regardless of how bad I was whining, I still made my 3 miles of tempo plus warm up/cool down plus some because apparently maps and me don’t get along… I wanted to make the entire loop 3.7 miles to give me time before Body Pump but ended up getting a route that was 4.2 miles… oops!  So instead I had to rush around and cram a icky larabar down my throat so I wouldn’t pass out…  Oh well, I still finished in record time of 36 minutes!  So not bad considering my tortoise speed  But man did this combo make me hungry!!  I had a smoothie immediately after getting home, plus then pizza dinner and cereal and could still eat more… bottomless pit!  Good thing I only have to change to this routine this week and then change it up again next week!  Otherwise, I would run out of food for eating Friday or until grocery shopping again!

And so my half marathon is all of a sudden 9 days away!  When did that happen??  This time next week I will be officially in taper mode and sitting as much as possible!  For my past half marathon’s I started carbo loading like 3-5 days before and this has always left me feeling rather squishy in the middle if you know what I mean so for this race, I think I am going to try to stick to a good amount of protein before and then maybe just Saturday lunch and dinner load up on carby things?  We shall see… being glutenless and carbo loading creates it’s own challenges as well…. One more long run on Saturday – 11 miles!!  Crossing my fingers for an encouraging run and not a imnevergoingtorunagainwhattheheckwasithinkingsigninguptorunthiscrazything!  I’ll maybe do a post about my pre-race eats and try to think of some other interesting things to post about.  I feel very uninspired lately and I think it has to do with the total exhaustion I have by the time I get around to blogging.  Wittyness and tiredness do not get along well with me… Sorry

Question – anything in your routine you have recently switched up?  How did it go? Did you realize you had a routine for a reason??