Hawaii June 2026: PART ONE
Ahh!! I’m soo excited to share this trip with you guys!!
Today I’m sharing our summer trip to Hawaii!!!
It was truly a dream trip! Let’s just say everything you see on TV, in the movies, or in a magazine about Hawaii is real! It’s truly a magical place!
I have been so excited to write all about it! We’ve gone to a lot of places over the past two years that I haven’t shared here on my blog or on Instagram, but I’m here to change that!
Alright, let’s get to it! We were in Hawaii for 8 days, so I thought I’d break up the blog posts over a couple of days.
Day One:
We were up early this day! Like 3 am early! Kate woke up that morning around 3 am with an earache. Not just any earache. The poor girl couldn’t stop crying about it. I was so, so worried this would be the end of the beginning of our trip. Thank God for John. I was ready to call it quits and figure this all out at home. But John urged me to see if she could make it to the airport, and then we could see how she was doing before we boarded the plane. And ya know what, thank God we did that because she never once complained about her ear once we left our house.
Our flight left at 7:45 am from Tampa with a super quick layover in Las Vegas, then it was off to Honolulu!!
This was the longest travel day we’ve ever had! And the biggest time change the girls and I have experienced. Honolulu is six hours behind us, and oh boy, did we feel it!
Our first glimpse of Hawaii! Gosh, Oahu is so beautiful!
After we landed, we went to get our luggage and rental car, and we were off to Target to pick up some random things I didn’t want to fly with, like floaties for Kate, toiletries, snacks for the trip, etc.
Kate loves Target, so it was fun to see Target in Hawaii!
After Target, we were off to the North Shore!
When we got to our hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Oahu, Turtle Bay, we received our first leis!
After we checked in, we went to our room and were completely blown away by our view! It was STUNNING!
We dropped our bags and went downstairs, ready to eat dinner finally!
Once we finished dinner, we took a quick dip in the pool and saw our first stunning Hawaiian sunset while watching surfers! It was such a great way to end the longest travel day of our lives lol! 23 hours total awake time for John and me! What a day!
Day Two:
We were up at the crack of dawn this day! Truly around 4 am! I thought we would be up earlier, but thankfully the girls slept in a bit.
Having gotten some rest, we were ready to explore the island! But first, breakfast was calling our name!
The Ritz at Turtle Bay is famous for their Banana Bread and its Banana Bread Latte. So we definitely grabbed some Banana Bread, coffee, and bagels for a quick breakfast before we were off to Mass.
Our breakfast view!
I can’t say it enough! I love being Catholic, and I always feel so lucky when we travel and get to attend Mass. I feel like we get to experience a very authentic version of the people we are visiting.
After Mass, we were so hungry, so we went to Hale’iwa, a little town on the North Shore. As we were driving, we saw this cute little coffee shop and an Acai Bowl shop. We ordered coffees and an Acai Bowl to split, and so began our love affair with Acai Bowls in Hawaii!
Thankfully, our bellies were full after we had our snacks, so we had the energy to explore a little. We went to the cutest surf shop in Hale’iwa.
Caroline got the cutest T-shirt at the surf shop! I wish I had grabbed one for myself!
We decided we were done exploring after the surf shop because we wanted to go enjoy our hotel. So we headed back and grabbed lunch at the hotel, then went down to the beach and pool!
Earlier that day, I had signed us up for an excursion to the stables. Yes, you read that right. The Ritz has its own stables on their property. Visiting the stables was so much fun! Kate still talks about these ponies and horses to this day.
Take a look at this view that the horses get to see every day!!
After the stables, we were back at the beach where we saw a seal flop its way out of the water and beach itself on the sand.
Once our time at the beach ended, we got ready for dinner at the Beach House, where we celebrated my birthday early!
This restaurant’s views were so beautiful!!
Dinner was delicious! We were so excited to finish in time to see the sunset again. We had fun walking around the grounds at the resort and soaking it all in!
I seriously can’t believe we started the summer with such a pinch me moment type trip! Hawaii is now one of my favorite places in the world and will forever have a part of my heart! I will be sharing part two tomorrow so come back for more Hawaiian vacation vibes if that’s your thing! It is totally mine! lol
Mahalo!
Aloha, my friend!
-Holley
