I was planning to log our Hawaii trip as the most amazing, magical trip we’ve ever taken (and it was!). What I wasn’t planning on was, midway through, watching 2 hurricanes and a tropical storm heading toward the island, while the locals began preparing for the worst: buying up the water, the gas, and other supplies — rightfully so.

While we are vacationing on their homeland, enjoying their company, stories, food, foliage, and history, they are worried about their home paradise being swept up in 130+ mile winds. At this point, the hurricane is not in danger of hitting the island directly, thankfully, but I understand why they want to be prepared. We are praying the path remains away from the island but one shift could change the trajectory.

Meanwhile, at home where our teen and young adult kids are, they are fighting severe storms, power outages, and dodging tornadoes in our neighborhood. We don’t normally get the amount of tornadoes in our state that have been recorded this year and to have a second tornado in our city (this one just 4 blocks from our home!), is unreal. The first year we begin to travel without our kids, most of whom are adults, but still, and this is what happens. This is not a good start! LOL!

Having said all that, our kids have done a great job handling these emergencies. Thankfully, in the spring we began taking the tornado sirens more seriously after a tornado hit our city, a few miles from our house. So they know not to mess around with it. This has been an unusual year in Michigan for tornadoes. We just don’t get them here in the city so it was very unusual. Yet, this year, a small tornado has hit our small city twice. Yeah, we ain’t messin’ around anymore. 😅

So I had no choice but to sit, 4,000+ miles away, and allow my kids to handle an emergency without me—which is good all around. And they really have done just fine without me, which is the whole goal.

So, here’s a taste in photos of this amazing trip.

The island was the perfect choice for us because it is the most scenic and the least touristy.

Places We Visited and Loved

Wailua Falls

Hanakāpīʻai Falls Trail

Waimea Canyon

Smith Family Luau

This was a trip of a lifetime and I enjoyed every second of it.

Hurricane Lowell

Now the sad part: the day after we left this beautiful, tropical paradise, Hurricane Lowell shifted east and hit the island with more force than was anticipated.

As I kept an eye on the aftermath, the locals understandably encouraged tourists to reschedule. 90% of the island currently had no power. The grocery stores were very low on supplies.