Family Visits in the USA (Trips to Kauai, Hawaii & Utah)

It has been a while...

October 1, 2023

If you’ve been keeping up with us on other socials you already know this! If not, we have been back in the USA since May!

No lie, these last few months have been a bit of a struggle for us! Although we’ve been *extremely* lucky and privileged to be able to pick up and take our lives about anywhere… we aren’t set up for living here. (Plus the cost of living is WAY cheaper elsewhere! ) So it has been a bit challenging wanting to be around… but we also can’t just set up shop either. It’s super COMPLICATED! And we’ve been hating feeling like we’re stepping on toes while grappling with the next step.

But despite the last few months being very different, we’ve slowly bern adapting. We’ve had some great experiences along the way. Which is what I want to focus on and document!

Starting withhhhhh our family trip to Kauai and a family reunion in Utah!!!

So we got back to stay with our family for a bit. We settled into the suburban life again for a couple of weeks. Nothing too notable happened during this time other than catching up with family.

We went on lots of long walks because our licenses are expired and we had not had the chance to renew yet! Plus, I finally bought a cheap watercolor set off Amazon. I spent a LOT of time painting and was loving that! I chose watercolors because they dry solid. So maybe I can continue painting on the road!

And then we were lucky enough to be able to make the planned family trip back to the islands. There we had a few special moments! It felt extra special because it was the first place we ever traveled to. We feel like it was there that really inspired us to move to Hawaii. And eventually, led to us being able to travel like we do. And we got to share it with Alan’s parents – who made our first trip there possible!

It was a slower trip than normal (ya know, no licenses lol), but we still got to go on plenty of walks and easy hikes around the beautiful beaches! A couple awesome ones were close enough to get to!

We also still got to head out a few times. We got to try tons of different shave ice. Go on a few jungle hikes around the island. Hike a couple of more distant beaches! Probably the highlight of the trip was the Na’Pali coast boat trip. There we also got to snorkel at Ni’ihau! This island is also known as Hawaii’s forbidden island. Only a very small group of native Hawaiian people who live more traditionally stay there. No one else can actually visit to protect it! This was extra special for Alan who had been wanting to do this for years. Then of course we got to see some cute dolphins and ride down the beautiful coastline together. The conditions were perfec! Even though it was a different pace for us, we made some great memories. It made us miss the islands soooo much.

We only spent a couple of weeks there and then went back to California. Alan stayed back in San Diego, but I was able to make my family reunion in Utah (on my moms side!). It was awesome to spend time with my parents at a cute little cabin type thing. Then visit family I had not seen in years. I even met some family I hadn’t seen before! It was unfortunately all too short!

My grandma on my dad’s side also lives super close by. So we got to stop by and spend some time with her. I miss having her live right down the street!

I wish I could have spent more time in UT, but we had some other plans… which involve a trip to another state! Coming next!