You’ll never believe where I’m writing this from: HAWAII! We arrived late last night, and of course I was up before the chickens (literally–I read that they wake people up here on Kauai). It’s still dark as I write this.

After Paris in May, you may be wondering how we can be taking a second once-in-a-lifetime trip in a year. Here goes: a single friend who hasn’t taken a vacation since 2007 because she hates to travel alone found out in November that a big December deadline had been pushed to September. She asked if we would  like to go somewhere, anywhere, with her. Incredibly, Mr. Campbell had vacation days he needed to use or lose. Since we got married in our 40’s, we remember what it’s like trying to find someone to travel with,  so we said yes. 

That’s when  amazing things began to happen.  We discovered that we had enough Delta miles for 1.5 roundtrip tickets to Kauai. We  discovered that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the cheapest time to stay here. And when we arrived at our gate at JFK on Monday, we discovered that our flight had been overbooked, and they wanted to give each of us a $1300 Amex gift card for volunteering to come a day later. So basically we’ve been given a gift of a free vacation. Avis even gave us a complimentary upgrade to a Mustang convertible!

You know you’re going be seeing some amazing pictures soon, beginning with the Lynx ladder back sports bra that I wore for 20 hours on Monday. I have so much to say about this bra, and I tried to finish a post about it on our 6 hour LAX-LIH flight last night. But it’s not going to happen before our 5-hour boat tour of the Napali coast this morning, so I’m just going to share this airport teaser picture with you.

And because I’m proud of my layering lessons from my stylist friend Christina, here’s the complete look with my DD Atelier denim jacket.

I’m even proud of my sneakers. Do you know why? They’re evidence that I have finally said no to overpacking. We’re doing everything with carry-ons on this trip, so I also said no to every padded bra in my lingerie drawer. Except I couldn’t say no to my favorite bikini–the Curvy Kate starry-eyed bikini. That’s what I plan to wear under my Rock Cotton tunic on the boat this morning (unless I think my new swimmable Lynx crossback sports bra might be a better match for a bumpy ride!).