First eleven tips for Hawaii (or other locations that require you to fly)

My family finally got to go on a much needed vacation.  We have been home for just over 24 hours and I am happy that I have gotten two loads of laundry already.  I figured I would post some tips that came in really handy for us (in no special order).

1. Carry on luggage – Each family member was able to travel with one carry on suitcase and a backpack.  Unless you have fancy events planned you will find that you will spend most of your time in your swimsuits and shorts anyways.  But, at the same time you will sometimes find that the airlines will gate check your suitcases to your final destination (that happened to us each way).  (We even had space in our bags to bring home new beach towels and a few other new items.)
2. Roll your clothes – If you aren’t on Pinterest you might not have seen the posts that by rolling your clothes you can store more in a drawer, etc.  It really does work so I would suggest you try it next time.
3. Detangler spray & TSA liquid rules – Each person is able to take a quart-sized bag with your liquids/creams as long as each original container is less than 3 oz.  The humidity and salt water makes it so we get more knots in our hair so this time I put some detangler spray in a small bottle and took some with us.
4. Bug spray – We usually go hiking when travel and this trip wasn’t any different.  So, we bought a small container of bug spray and took it with us (in the quart-sized bag with our other liquids).
5. Breakfast in the room – The hotel we stayed at this time had a Keurig coffee maker and a mini fridge (no microwave).   We bought instant oatmeal at the grocery store and made it for breakfast most mornings.  (See #6, #7 and #11)
6. Metal fork and spoon – I packed one for each family member.  These came in very handy.  Note: You are not able to take sharp knives in the carry on luggage so I took a couple of plastic knives.
7. Plastic bowls – Since we had room in our suitcases (by not taking too many clothes and rolling what I did take) I was able to pack plastic bowls for each family member.  These came in very handy for breakfast and for eating pie, etc (see #11).
8. Plastic Ziploc bags – I took a few new quart-sized ones and a couple of gallon-sized ones.  These were very useful!  (One thing we did daily was put ice in a bag and used it as an ice pack in our ice chest.)
9. Plastic, see-through water bottle – You can take an empty water bottle through security.  We filled it with water at the airports and put ice inside of it when we traveled and it helped keep our snack foods and drinks cold.
10. Ice chest – The last few trips we have been able to put a collapsible ice chest in one of the suitcases.  We used this to keep our drinks and snacks cold for when we went to the beach or driving around the island.
11. Grocery store – Usually when we arrive we look for a grocery store so we can buy some food.  This time we lucked upon a local grocery store chain (Tamura’s Market) which definitely had cheaper prices than the big mainland chain that we found the first day.  We were even able to find locally made (Ted’s Bakery) pie.  The Macadamia Nut Cream Pie was really good!

So, hopefully these help you out and they will come in handy the next time we fly somewhere on vacation.

Later – H

Consignment store and Maui

Have you ever thought of going to a Consignment (or Thrift) Store on vacation?  Well, daughter forgot to take a belt with us on vacation so we looked up the local thrift stores.  There was a Goodwill (farther away) and a consignment store a few blocks from the condo we had rented.

Before we went I realized the long sleeve denim shirt I had brought for a cover up was making me too hot so I was hoping to find a dress type item that would work as a cover up (then I would not need to wear the denim shorts either).

So we went to Rainbow Attic in Kihei, Maui.

Daughter found a belt for $6.00 (decent price considering we were in Hawaii and not in a big town) and I looked at the dress type items.  There was a few sleeveless dresses in the $10 to $20 range that I tried on.  One was huge, another was too long (to the ground) and the one priced $20 fit nicely (over my swimsuit) and came to just below my knees.  I had to debate if I wanted to spend $20 for, but finally decided it was better than everything else so it left with us.

What I didn’t know until later was the dress brand ‘Tommy Bahama’ was a NAME brand since there was a store in the Shops at Wailea (expensive shopping center).  And, I didn’t know until now that their dress start at $88 on their website.

So, we have multiple photos of me in my ‘bargain’ dress, I spent about 5 days wearing the dress over my swimsuits and I was definitely cooler walking around in it (the last day I had to wear a shirt and short as a cover up since the dress went lower in the back and my upper back was starting to get toasted from snorkeling).

Now, I have a fun dress to wear around home in the summer also.

What bargain have you found lately?      – H

Grass fed beef – Maui

Do you eat grass fed beef?  Have you ever tried it?  When we stayed in Hana, Maui for a few days on vacation we took most of the food we thought we would eat with us (no, not from home, but went to the Safeway near the airport).

We decided we would go out to eat, etc in Hana at least once.  Well, the Hana Ranch Store had some Hawaiian made Chocolate Macadamia Nut ice cream so we picked up that (who could resist?) and we decided to pick up a package of Grass fed hamburger (from a ranch on Maui).  Our choices were really the grass fed hamburger or small steaks (hey, it is a small town).

All we had in our condo was Kirkland Sea Salt (which was completely caked over – what humidity will do for you) and pepper.  My first thought was I hope the hamburger had a good flavor since there wasn’t much we could do to improve it.

We were pleasantly shocked at how good the hamburger tasted!  Since we are now home and live in area with cows I am seriously thinking of looking for some grass fed beef to see if it tastes as good.

Otherwise, I will have another reason to hope to visit Hawaii more often 🙂

Later – H

Elm Creek Quilts book series by Jennifer Chiaverini

Do you like nice books with good story lines and/or quilting?  Well, I stumbled upon ‘The Giving Quilt’ and a book of Project Linus quilt patterns (both at the library) and am now hooked on the series by Jennifer Chiaverini.

The last book I finished was The Aloha Quilt.

    (Photo from Amazon.com)

I liked this book the best so far and already plan on rereading it (once I have finished the rest in the series).  I loved the story, the setting (Maui) and a friend had just given me an unused Hawaiian Quilt patttern (named Anthurium).

 

After reading the book I had to open the pattern and it is how they described as in the book – fold the material multiple times and then cut out 1/8th of the pattern (which goes through all layers of the material).

 

I have a big mental list of sewing (and other) projects for 2014, but after reading The Aloha Quilt the Hawaiian Pillow has come towards the top of the pile.

Which book series are you reading and would recommend?

Later – H