Mahalo Mary

A select group of my very favorite rock superstars recently embarked on an epic adventure in honor of the lovely Mary’s 50^th birthday. It had been idea in the making for quite some time, as one does tend to speculate about how to mark certain milestones well in advance of their occasion. Not that far in advance, Autumn. God. The subject came up from time to time over the last year, via group text or over cocktails or at the gym, and every time the notion was broached in any fashion, in between everyone else’s “maybe” and “I can only go if” comments, my consistent response was a steadfast and resounding HELL YES.

Eventually, finally, we found a timeframe that worked for everyone, and we booked that sucker.

And so it began

Toasting the first leg of our journey at the asscrack of dawn

then

and then swiftly   comfortably happily, we were transported to the magical island of Kauai

where there is most definitely not a drought

water, water everywhere! this was a pit stop on the way home from the aiport

Mary had prepared all of us by sending a care package that included a guidebook, cookies, a CD of hawaiian tunes, and a customized hat with our trip credo:

Hawaii 5-0

She had also rented a super rad jeep, and proceeded to drive us everywhere for the next week. She is really the most amazing friend, so thoughtful and easygoing and generous and fun.

 she's pretty easy on the eyes, too

Our days  were a beautiful blur of beaches and booze and belly laughs

By the weekend, we'd been joined by the rest of Team Mary 5-0 Posse and while one group headed down to retrieve the last arriving rock star from the airport and do some shopping (puke), the rest of us opted to take a hike.

We had perused the guidebook over pina coladas the night before and narrowed it down to two trails. We let Mary make the final decision based on relative risk of death and wilderness survival skills.

It was a very pretty, tranquil, cool, wet trail

It was also a mud swamp

Good thing Autumn squatted aggressively so that we could both fit in the frame. 

We just had to get through this

to earn this

worth it. 

LeeAnn brought an adorable little baby jeep!

After the hike we got the band back together and headed out for our afternoon adventure

Sorry mary, thanks for driving! be careful back there, Tammy!

We arrived and parked, then headed down the trail to what Mary promised would be more of the worth it

more hiking! I love when there are ropes, they are so helpful!

The trail opened up to a little peek at what was coming

and then

Hideaways. My heart. 

I  mean c'mon, right? 

After hours of ab splitting laughter and the short trek back up the trail, we decided we were due for a little pampering

at the St. Regis

Cuz we fancy

A major highlight was our outing to Queen's bath. There was a muddy trail, there were ropes, there were waterfalls and volcanic rock, and danger, yada yada. Then there was this

and this

oh yeah, and this

But everything was a highlight, it was so smooth and easy and fun! If you've never gone to paradise with 5 friends, I highly recommend. 

This pretty one lane bridge took us everywhere - the sign says "local courtesy is 4-5 cars" That rise in the background was our hike. 

We cleaned up our act one night for an official birthday dinner

Don't we look weird without our hats?

But then we remembered who we are.... klassy with a K

"they think it's over, how cute"

We kinda sorta went out with a bang on our last full beach day (sorry Mary, thanks for driving)

and were rewarded with this

On our last day, we made our way down to the other side of the island for an airport drop off, then entertained ourselves until it was time for the fab final four to flyaway home

final sunset

There are so, so, sooooo many  more photos and stories and funnies to share, but I have to stop somewhere.

Or do I?

Warmest aloha and mahalo to my beautiful friend Mary.

 Happy Birthday, sistah!