This is part two of a three part series. You can read part one here.
Continue reading “Hawaiian Adventures Part 2: Walking Waikiki”
Author: Chris Budd
Hello. I'm Chris. I'm a good ol' Canadian boy from New Brunswick. I love Disney, the WWE, movies, books and music. I love to cook. I am a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who enjoys life with his darling wife, Isabelle, and his kitty, Roxie.
Hawaiian Adventures Part 1: Lemurian Huna
One week ago today, my wife and I returned home after a 16-day trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. For the sake of simplicity on my part, and for ease of you the reader, I have broken this into three separate blog posts – one for each segment of our trip. First, an overview.
We had been anticipating this trip for nearly a year. While we had long dreamt of traveling to Hawaii, it was about a year ago that the dreams began to form into a reality. Isabelle had embarked on a journey with a new mentor and coach, Anne Bérubé. Based in Nova Scotia, Canada, Anne has been holding retreats in Hawaii for a few years now. We had actually looked into going on said retreat a few years prior, but we couldn’t justify the expense at the time. My how the times have changed.
Largely due to COVID-19, we have had a major shift in our priorities. No more would we stand back and hesitate when opportunities presented themselves to us; who knows if we end up with some other global pandemic or other event that prevents us from doing anything for the better part of two years. As avid readers of my blog will know, Isabelle and I had been planning our 10th anniversary trip for about 7 years, putting away money monthly to allow us to have an extravagant, fun-filled trip to Walt Disney World for October 1, 2021. This would be the convergence of our 10th wedding anniversary as well as the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World. But thanks to the aforementioned pandemic, our plans were canceled. Unable to travel, we decided to repurpose our savings from Disney 2021 to Hawaii 2026. We would finally take our long talked of trip for our 15th anniversary.
Cut to Isabelle’s program with Anne Bérubé in 2023. She was again holding a Lemurian Huna retreat in Hawaii in 2024. We had money this time. We had motivation. So we booked two spots on the retreat and started planning for our big adventure.
Since we were going all the way to Hawaii, we thought we would take the opportunity to extend our trip beyond the retreat. We decided that we would stick to two islands for this visit. Anne’s retreat would be on Kaua’i, so that was island #1. We opted to choose O’ahu for our second island so that we could visit Honolulu and Disney’s Aulani resort. But more on those in the second and third parts of this series of posts.
Continue reading “Hawaiian Adventures Part 1: Lemurian Huna”
Dream A Little Dream
Do you dream?
I’m not talking about the kind of dreams where you’re flying through the clouds like you’re Superman; or where you realize you’re walking around your school or office without any clothes on; or where you’re being chased through a vast cornfield by a machete-wielding psychopath intent on liberating your head from your spinal column; or maybe one of those where you’re riding a majestic twelve-foot tall purple unicorn with a rainbow tail who farts little clouds of the most amazing cotton candy you’ve ever had as you walk through the Gumdrop Forest (mental note…there might be potential in that last one…). No, I’m talking about taking the time to dream about what your life could be. To dream about the things you could do? To imagine your wildest fantasies about the life you could live?
Today, we’re going to talk about dreaming big.
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Selflessly Selfish
I’ve decided to take a new approach to my outlook on life for 2024. Following an emotionally, spiritually, and physically taxing month of December, I am starting off the new year on a less-than-optimal level. I would daresay that I am borderline burned out. My wife may argue and say that I am well-beyond borderline, but with no official diagnosis, I’ll just go with how I feel. And I currently feel run down and a shell of my usual self.
While I haven’t been one to make resolutions for the past few years, I’ve decided to make a bold and, for me, challenging one for the new year. This year, I aim to be more selfish.
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Missing Pieces
Most people who know me would likely say that I am generally a pleasant, well-balanced individual who seems composed and happy most of the time. And they would be correct in their assessment. But much like social media, what you see is oftentimes a curated version of someone’s actual life. Sometimes, beneath that veneer is a bit of a rough surface.
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October Fun
One year ago today, my beautiful wife and I made a (very) long drive some 440 km back home from our aborted anniversary getaway weekend in Cape Breton. We had driven the same 440 km to Cape Breton the day before. A stomach bug got the best of the missus that day, and I was soon to follow after we got back home. We spent a miserable 72 or so hours for our 11th anniversary. That was when we decided we would book this year’s anniversary getaway on the spot. Booked and paid for a year in advance. Now we get to have some fun glamping.
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La Belle Province
Québec. La belle province. Over the past twenty or so years, I’ve come to love visiting the province of Québec. From concerts to food, it’s always delivered fun times. Over the course of August, I took two different trips to Québec. Let’s reminisce!
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Hot Hot Heat
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I am not a huge fan of summer. We of the larger persuasion tend to run a little on the hot side on the best of days; when we hit those dog days of summer, it can get downright unbearable. Let’s talk about this summer and how I’m handling the omnipresent heat and humidity. Spoiler – not well.
(editor’s note: Apologies for the rambling that is occurring in this post. That’s the heat and lack of sleep hitting me when I wrote it!)
An Intentional Summer part 2
I recently wrote a blog post where I discussed how I was taking a page from my wife’s playbook and setting myself some intentions for this summer. Rather than have a checklist of things that I feel like I need to do, I am giving myself the gift of simplicity for the summer.
My first intention was to watch old, classic movies, which I’ve been doing for a few weeks now. Intention number two? Disney-fy my summer.
Continue reading “An Intentional Summer part 2”
Musings of A Boxhead 