May 2, 2017 - Tanya's Trip to Hawaii - Day 1

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 21 DAYS

A look at Lei Day Festival

HEY THERE!!!
Can you believe it's Tuesday - I don't know where Monday went.  

Today happened to mark the first day of Tanya's trip to Hawaii and she was up and out early today.
But, we'll get back to Hawaii in a moment.

Today was another one of those crazy days for me - every hour on the hour I had something to do and somewhere to be.   Nothing major, just phone calls, errands and meeting people.

After getting the girlies to school, I headed to the supermarket to stock up a sparsely filled fridge.  From there, I decided to hit the Roosevelt Field mall for a while.  Actually, not my favorite place to go, however, at 10am, it's pretty delightfully empty.

I did a return I never got a chance to do on Sunday while shopping with Kelsey and after some brief browsing in one of my favorite stores - White House Black Market, I managed to accumulate a few very cute Spring fashion items!!

Tops, pants and even a jacket!  It was a very productive visit!

From my little retail excursion, I drove to meet my friend Andrea for lunch.  It was such a lovely day, so we opted to sit outside and boy was it refreshing.

After a lot of talking, and equal amount of laughing and a delicious beet salad, it was time to go and pick up the kids from school.

Weather-wise it was a pretty perfect day and as the day went on, the breeze kicked up quite a bit, which was truly invigorating.

The rest of the day was spent organizing around the house and doing some interesting research on Ireland...

Oh!! I just realized, with today being Travelin' Tuesday, I should bring you up to date on my latest "booking."  I don't think I mentioned this to you, but I am more or less definite about joining Tanya in Ireland, next March (2018)!!

I still have to get some kinks out, but I decided it was safer to book the same hotel in Dublin that my cuz is staying at, because I can always cancel, should plans change, rather than run the risk that  this particular hotel (ideally situated for the St. Patrick's Day parade) gets booked up as it gets closer to March.

So, on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd say I'm an 8-1/2 going.  My issue is whether I go for the week prior and leading up to St. Pat's weekend or arrive the day prior to St. Pat's day and stay through the weekend for the week after St. Pat's.  That's something I will need to figure out based on the girls' school schedules and activities.

Again, you'll be the first to know about my plans as they progress!

Back to Hawaii...
Today, Tanya arrived in the Aloha State and unfortunately, due to her schedule, she missed the Lei Day Festival.  I thought it would be fun to tell you about this!

Lei Day is a statewide celebration in all of Hawaii which begins the morning of May first every year and continues throughout the entire day and even continues onto the next day.

It is a celebration of Hawaiian culture, or the aloha spirit.

Officially recognized as a holiday in Hawaii in 1929, Lei Day has a very rich and colorful history. Each Hawaiian island has a different type of lei made of a a special flower that represents that specific island,  that is used for the celebration and for its people to wear.  ​

The Flowers of the Islands

Hawaii, more commonly known as The Big Island, has the beautiful red blossom of the ohia tree, called the lehua blossom, for its flower. ​

(credit: Lehua Ukulele)

Maui's flower is called the Lokelani and is pink. ​

​Oahu's flower is called the Ilima and it is golden.

(credit: alohahawaiianflowers.com)

​Molokai uses a flower named the Kukui which and it is green color.

(credit: florals.com)

​Lanai has a grassy flower called Kauna'o which is a yellow color.

(credit: pinterest)

​Kahoolawe's flower Hinahina has a silver-gray color across the top.

​Kauai has plentiful mokihana flowers of a beautiful green color.

(credit: mokihanaflowergallery)

​Niihau's "flower" is actually a shell called Pupu. 

(credit: constantcontact.com)

With each new year, the festivities have consistently grown and the state of Hawaii has had to move the location of the event. First held in the Courts and Town Halls, the celebration has since been moved to Kapi'olani park where it is still being held today.

People commonly celebrate by giving gifts of leis to one another. Schools also put on plays and elect a Lei Day court of Kings and Queens to represent the different islands.​

Expression of "Aloha"

The importance of the lei to the Hawaiian culture is that it is meant to represent the unspoken expression of "aloha."

The meaning of aloha can be interpreted in various ways. Depending on the occasion it can stand for farewell, greeting, love, hope, or joy.

These are only a few meanings, as there are no restrictions to the symbolic meaning they hold. The idea is that although the lei lasts only a while, the thought lasts forever.

This tradition is spread throughout the major islands on Lei Day. Each island has their own way of celebrating the holiday, as well as a different native vegetation that makes up the lei. Along with different techniques of assembling them
(expressions of aloha text from wikipedia)


​Well, you can be sure that when I visit Hawaii, it will be May 1st!!

That's all folks for today!

Back atcha tomorrow!
-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: HAWAII

Going on Island Time

A L O H A. 


Greetings from Hawai'i 🌸🌸🌸
​

Yet another time zone for me to adjust to, but we have gained all of 3hrs.

Do you sometimes get the feeling that I am always on vacation???


Taking a rather ridiculous route from San Diego to Los Angeles to Honolulu and then finally to Kona.

So we needed to be on the road by 3a this morning which is never fun, but when you fall asleep at 12:45a and have your alarm set for 2:15a it makes it even worse and causes my brain to obviously not function properly. ​

While I was pretty well packed as of yesterday, I felt bad for my suitcase - the poor thing was stretched beyond any limit that I've ever attempted.

With 7 pairs of shoes to be worn over the course of 9 days....I might've been just a tad excessive!

So I was hoping to either switch over to a larger bag - meaning no carrying on board.

​Or move a few of my things over to Dave's case.

However after the very LONG day that I had yesterday, there was no way that I felt up to repacking at midnight...

Which in hindsight was a mistake.

Because after getting a night's sleep of only 1.5 hours, I was forgetting things left and right and literally just shoving whatever was left into my small carry on (not the pudgy one) this morning (if you can call it that) so that we could have an on time departure.

It was so bad that I had gone to the fridge to pull out some of the snacks and bites that we bought specifically for the flights and this gal right here left everything on the kitchen counter and walked straight out the door.    Oh geesh! 


Leaving me only with the option to move things around at the airport.

Therefore bras, panties and all were making the scene - along with a touch of frustration and a buncha embarrassment.

But we made it! ​

The flights were pleasant enough, no drama to speak of and really no turbulence either. The airports were rather bustling and the passengers definitely seemed in need of some R&R - or should I say to chill out!

Getting here nice and early enough in the day to not feel that we've wasted the entire day traveling and with plenty of time to explore this new destination!

Can you believe that in all my visits to the Hawaiian Islands that I've never been to Hilo!

And with that being said - it's time for me to go and explore.

But before you leave - be sure to bop on over to Elisa's side and read all about the Lei Festival that took place yesterday!


See ya back here tomorrow with the full Daily Scoop from Hawaii!
​-T