Kay:
Hey there family, and welcome once again to the Kay & Shi Show. We’re so excited to talk to you this week about all things destinations.
Shi:
That’s right. I want to say like destination wedding but it’s more like destination podcast and the good news is you don’t have to buy a plane ticket and you don’t have to pack a bag. We are metaphorically traveling to four of our favorite places this week and got to know we’re starting off with Disney.
Kay:
Well, Shila and I have traveled to a great many places in our days. We’ve gone some places separately, but many places together and one of the places that we’ve been traveling to since we were little kids is Disney. Now we’re going to put Disney under one umbrella. We started out with Disneyland growing up but have shifted into also visiting Disney World on occasion and have gotten to both. But every time that we travel to the land of Disney, we have a great time.
Shi:
Yeah. Whether it be the land or the world, we always have a great time. Now our most recent Disney trip was a Disney World trip. So, we’ll kind of focus on that because we did something that was pretty phenomenal and life memorable for us. Kay and I, in February of 2020, yes, that 2020 traveled with our families and our spouses across the country to participate in the Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend. Kay and I both ran the half marathon, but the whole weekend has all kinds of activities, including kids’ races. So, our four children at the time, since we’ve since added number five, but when we traveled in February of 2020, we had the four kids. All four of them participated in the Disney kids’ races and that was just a joy and a delight to watch and participate in.
Kay:
Well, every single time that we get an opportunity to go to Disney, we come back with memories and excitement but this time we also got to come back with an achievement, that achievement of the half marathon. And there were so many lessons that came out of that. But Shi, you said hat 2020, and it reminded me of a particular instance while we were standing in line for, I believe it was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Danny and I were kind of cuddling up together and were looking at the news and we saw a headline that was talking about how this little-known thing called COVID-19 was starting to shut things down around the world. Danny and I used that N-word, the word of never, that that would never happen to us. Can you even imagine that there are places shutting down for a sickness and for what they’re now calling a pandemic, and what an interesting reflection to think about reading those headlines in line at Disney and just one month later being shut down in our own communities.
Shi:
Watching the pandemic unfold while we were in Disney was really interesting. In fact, the day that we left Florida, the first Florida confirmed case of COVID was announced and it felt like we were fleeing the scene in the last moments.18 days after we left Florida Disney shut down for the longest period in its history, several months, I think. It didn’t reopen doors until the summer of 2020, obviously with limited capacity and mask restrictions in place. So, in reflection, it almost feels like this honor that we got to be at Disney before the world changed forever and we got to participate in a 20,000-person respiratory event during the beginning of a pandemic. Sounds crazy now, but you just don’t know what you don’t know as you’re there and you’re in it, and boy were we in it.
We had so much fun on that trip and so many memories made and want to circle back to one of the things that we loved. II you heard a few weeks ago, we shared stories of our children. On the Annadelle episode, we shared a little bit about her motivation during the kids’ run. But getting to see our kids participate in the races. Then for us, it was so meaningful and significant to participate in the half marathon the next day, to demonstrate to our children, prioritizing fitness, to demonstrate to our families that fitness and fun can go together. To prove to ourselves that we could do it. To achieve something that was on a “bucket list” for literally five years. Sorry, my Siri got excited there even as I was talking about that. To do all of those things and be in the midst of the Disney magic was a part of what made it so unforgettable. Was the race hard? Yes. Were our joints hurting? Absolutely. Was Kay almost dead by mile 12? Yes. Did we make it over that finish line and have one of the best days of our lives? 100%.
Kay:
You know, I think Shi that I was at probably mile 11 when I started asking you, “Do we have to finish,” and you’re like, “Yes, we have to finish. We can walk but we’ve got to finish.”
Shi:
Well, it was funny. We floated the first few miles. It was like the fireworks, the band, the movie playing along the way. It’s pre-sunrise so you’re like endorphin high, the first four miles. You’re like, this is going to be the easiest thing ever. But yeah, by mile 11, you’re right. The sun was up, the charm was gone, the joints were aching, and it was like, oh, it’s still a half marathon even if it’s a Disney half marathon.
Kay:
Right. Which I guess is the lesson in and of itself. You may be in the midst of the best of the challenge ideals that you can be in. But a challenge is still a challenge, an uphill climb is still an uphill climb, and a half marathon is still a half marathon. So, thanks for joining us on our travel adventure today for Disney. Tomorrow, we’re going to take you guys on… I want to do the Wayne’s World sound effect. [does sound effect] We’re going to take you on a journey to the place that Shila and I got to go on our very first ever kind of official big family vacation and have since enjoyed many a trip to since, which is the islands of Hawaii, specifically the island of Kauai.
Shi:
So, for now, we’ll sign off with Disney and we’ll say, “Oh boy, everybody.” If you love Disney too, hit us up on social media and let us know and we hope you’ll tune in for the Aloha episode tomorrow.
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Kay:
Aloha and welcome to our travel week here on the Kay & Shi Show. We’re talking about different places that we’ve had the honor and opportunity to travel together and what they’ve taught us.
Shi:
So, today we are talking about Hawaii and specifically the island of Kauai, the garden isle. It is a treasured place in our hearts for many different reasons and we’ve both had the privilege of traveling there with our spouses and with our children over time and then together over time as well. But the very first trip was something that was absolutely unforgettable and a major turning point in our family’s lives. That was in the early spring, late winter of–I’m trying to remember the year here–2002. Wow. Crazy to go back that far. 20 years ago, we had our first trip to the island of Kauai, and it was momentous for our family because it was like the first cheddar vacation we’d ever been on and by cheddar, I mean like fancy. We stayed at a resort not a hotel, not a motel, not Uncle Mark’s house, like a resort on the ocean and it was paradigm shifting.
Kay:
Well, paradigm-shifting indeed. To give you a little bit of an idea of where the paradigm shifted from, before that trip to Hawaii when Shila was born our parents were on food stamps and welfare and when I was born, we had family members living in our house, actually, we had five additional family members living in our 1,200-square-foot house with the four of us that were already living there. So, that was where we were when I was born and our parents had leveraged everything that they could to put our mom through College so that she could try and give our family a better shot at life, at existence, and at financial wellbeing. So, up until this point, our vacations had really looked like the quick things we could scrape together, staying at families houses. We always joke about the one time we stayed at beautiful Hotel Circle in San Diego and smaller trips that were surrounded by things like people’s weddings or funerals, necessities for travel. So, this was one where our family picked a destination on the map and then built a trip around it and then, like Shila said, included the resort, included a plane ride to get there and the paradigm had gone from the type of family that takes vacations or trips out of necessity to the family that gets to vacation for the sake of a vacation.
Shi:
We got a convertible on that trip. We took the helicopter ride on that trip. This was also a really healing time for us. Of course, in 2001 you remember what happened September 11, so the nation was still in mourning, in shock, and in a shift from that event that had happened just six months before. Of course, being a high school student during that time was really interesting to observe, and then I had been through a really tumultuous boyfriend relationship and just teenage acting out. Us getting to Hawaii was the turning point for us as a family in terms of us coming back together, of finding cohesion, of being a family unit again and that was really healing. I had also lost a dear friend to suicide just two months before. So, the Hawaii trip was able for me to connect with my family as a teenager in a way that I hadn’t gotten to yet and was able to fill my cup, and then was able for our parents to connect in a really beautiful way that their marriage thrived after that and during that trip in beautiful ways and flourish in great ways.
Then Kay, you get to be the 10-year-old on that trip and just enjoy things from your perspective and have you bring childlike wonder. I think we just had the perfect mix for our family individually and then on that macro sense just what that meant as a nation that we could travel, that we could enjoy a destination again, that there was life after 9/11 I think was really symbolic. Since then, our parents who then brought us in on it. We have timeshare in Kauai. Our favorite is the North Shore. We’ve done baby moons there, both Kay and myself did baby moons there. That’s when you go on a trip before a baby is born. So, the twins got to go there when I was pregnant with them then we took all of the kids on a big family trip with mom and dad and have been back with our spouses and things since, and it’s just always as magical. So, if you’re trying to pick an island, we suggest Kauai. If you have been to Kauai, please shout us out, let us know where you love and what you’ve loved so we can add it to our list for next time because it really is a magical place and it holds a magical space in our heart.
Kay:
Well, Aloha and we’ll see you on the next episode where we’re going to talk about the state of Florida.
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Shi:
Here on destination week on the Kay & Shi Show one destination we definitely encourage you to visit is neuroencoding.com. This is the place where you can find out about what we do with Joseph McClendon III and the Neuroencoding Institute and how you can help take the destination of your mind to a whole new place.
Kay:
Now, if you take that destination of your mind further, faster, you can potentially even help others to work on their mind as well through the skills that you learn in the Neuroencoding Institute and then you can come and find Shila and I in our Las Vegas destination two times per year at the Neuroencoding Institute Conference. If any of this has sparked for you, we encourage you to go on to neuroencoding.com to find out more information about our project with Joseph McClendon III and the Neuroencoding Institute.
Shi:
Now let’s get back to the show.
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Shi:
Alright, next up on our destinations is the state of Florida which is more than a state of being. It’s a state of mind, man.
Kay:
It is a state where you can visit. It is a state of mind indeed and it is also the place where we have probably attended the most conferences, specifically the International Maxwell Certification with our John Maxwell team family at the Orlando World Center Marriott. But we’ve also had the pleasure of attending some Tony Robbins conferences, our Date with Destiny Conference, the Business Mastery Conference that was there. Kay here, I actually lived in Florida for like 15 months.
Shi:
And as your sister, I feel safe in saying you’re happier here and I’m glad that you’re not a Florida resident anymore. Maybe not the vibe for you in terms of living there permanently, but visiting Florida, we have done quite a bit. If you want to know anything about that World Center Marriott, Kay and I can tell you every nook and cranny of that space. We can even get you into the back hallways if you want. But we’ve gotten to travel to Florida for Disney. Of course, you heard about that in the first installment of this week but for the most part, we have traveled for conferences. So, for us, Florida and conferences and events go hand in hand, which is one of the reasons why we love it.
Kay:
Well, Florida was really built for large group gatherings, at least in the Orlando area for sure. And as we’ve gotten to know more about the state, the people there, and the way that it works, it’s been really cool to see how it really ends up being a place of coming together for so many people because of that conference energy. When you have the trade shows of tens of thousands and growth conferences in those same numbers and every kind of conference under the sun gets housed in Florida. Most people have some form of experience with the state itself and Shila and I even were regaling just earlier today on an interesting experience we got to have in Miami.
Shi:
Yeah. We’ve actually traveled to Miami Beach. Last summer, we got to have a few days there, which was a really interesting experience and maybe one we’ll profile at some other point. But getting to be in Miami was the most, I think, vibe that we’ve gotten to interact with when it comes to Florida. Because if you’re in Florida and you’re in conference life, you get to know the conference area really well, but you don’t always necessarily get to get to know the vibe of a city. But in Miami, you don’t have to get to know the vibe of the city because the vibe of the city gets to know you. It is deep. It is cultural. It is in your face. It is everywhere. There are people, there are different dialects. There are different colors. There are all kinds of different people and places and things to experience and that was something that was really interesting for us. Then a few months after that we got to go visit Delray, which is fairly close to Miami but feel even that different vibe as well. One thing that we love about Florida though, of course, is the tropical weather and one of the most interesting facts about Florida is that it is the flattest state, even though it is humongous out of all of the states. In fact, Kay, what is the tallest mountain there?
Kay:
The tallest mountain is actually a landfill. So, if you are wondering where the mountains in Florida are, just look for giant piles of trash and you will find them. But being a mountainous person who grew up around mountains, who uses mountains as a means of figuring out what direction I’m going and where I am, it was definitely difficult living there for the time that we did without having mountains. But one thing that Florida does have are amazing cloud formations. So, even if you don’t have mountains of the land, you’ve got mountains of the sky.
Shi:
Ooh, mountains of the sky. I like that. While speaking of mountains of the sky, that’s a great way to describe some of the structures we get to see in the final destination that we’re bringing forward to you and probably our favorite trip of all times. So, make sure you tune in for the last installment when we share our most recent magical trip to New York City.
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Kay:
New York, New York! Welcome to our destinations week New York City day episode.
Shi:
New York City. Kay and I visited for the first time together in October of 2021 and it was a 72-hour adventure that I will literally never forget.
Kay:
It was 100% packed full of activity. Every moment of our itinerary was completely filled but we had a wonderful time. Now in July of 2021, Shila surprised me, Kay, here with tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway. Hamilton is our shared absolute favorite musical and with that came a magical 72-hour adventure into New York City and magical it was indeed. We had the privilege of staying at the historic St. Regis Hotel right off of Madison Avenue, right close to Central Park. From there, we got to explore the city from foot, from train, and by all of our hearts.
Shi:
By subway, by a black Cadillac car to the Richard Rodgers Theater, and of course by foot, as Kay mentioned. We saw the city in so many different ways, just a couple of the highlights. One, we went to the top of the Rockefeller and when we traveled was just two weeks after Broadway had reopened. So, even New York locals were like, “Oh, Broadway’s open again?” as we were telling them that we were there. So, we got to experience New York City in a way that I think most, the vast majority of people do not get to see, which is not very crowded, not a huge ton of people, and with the way that they were doing vaccines during that time, you were still allowed to be unmasked in a lot of spaces, which was of course also nice. But when we got to the top of Rockefeller Center, we were like one of 12 people up there. It was like a private deck viewing of the entire city for our delight and our leisure, which was amazing.
So, that was a major highlight. Obviously going to Hamilton was the biggest highlight of all and we’ll have to dedicate a whole week to that at some point because we got out of the theater and stood in the back alleyway and sobbed our little brains out and then made a video of us sobbing our brains out about how amazing it was and you can catch that video on our Instagram page if you ever want to go check that out. So, obviously, that was great and then that evening we did a little bit of Hamilton tribute exploring. Going to Washington Square Park, eating at Aaron Burr’s Carriage House, a former carriage house now a beautiful restaurant, and doing a little bit of Hamilton tour. Then we spent the next day in a really amazing way visiting museums and adventuring through Central Park which I think was almost equally as magical.
Kay:
Well hitting the museums, I think was probably one of my favorite things to do in New York City. We started out at the Met and had a wonderful experience there getting to wander the halls of history. We learned about Queen Hatshepsut who is one of the only queen pharaohs who actually said she was king, but we’re going to call her queen because she was a woman. She was just a BA who ruled in Egypt. We got the opportunity to see the head of Marcus Aurelius, the bust in the Hall of Busts. We walked through history and then went to the historic Central Park Boathouse where we got to enjoy a beautiful lunch before heading off to the American Museum of Natural History which was its own experience. Many of you may recognize that particular museum from the movie “Night at the Museum” which is where our family really fell in love with it. So, we had a great time getting to see one of our very favorite movies come to life, making all the jokes and saying all of the lines as we wandered the halls and magically soaked in the natural history around us.
Shi:
A few honorable mentions. Of course, we did Times Square. We did some incredible shopping. I never wear my Nikes without saying these are my New York Nikes. I have my leggings that are my New York leggings. Everything we’ve had in New York is our New York thing. We got some special mementos for the kids which were fun. We had some honorable mentions of some meals that were fantastic and then a quick honorable mention as well. If you’re a runner, like I am, sister Shi here, running in Central Park was a peak experience. It was absolutely beautiful. We adventured in the park almost all day on day two walking, obviously to the museums and throughout the park and having lunch there. What an asset that natural beauty is to the city of New York and the feeling inside of the park is not even one that I can describe. But getting to run within Central Park, it’s humongous, way, way bigger than you think it is and totally unforgettable. So, would absolutely 100% recommend you at least one time do New York City the way we got to do it, which is in the totally touristy, totally super-fun a lot of money way and totally unforgettable. But it was a trip truly that will live in our hearts forever. We probably watch the Instagram highlights at least once a month because it was that good.
Kay:
You know, one of the things that we really took away from New York is the value and the power around (a) looking forward to something but then (b) treating the time that you have if it’s something big that you know that you’re going to lean into with the utmost respect and importance. The amount of times that we went over our itinerary. The amount of times that we spent putting together what our week would look like, visualizing ourselves, getting there, and then like Shila said, enjoying the highlights and the reels on the back end of it. We’ve extended that 72 hours into many more hours of joy and now the trip forever lives in our grab bag of things that we get to pull from when we need a pick me up. So, your trips don’t have to be isolated to just the time that you spend on the vacation or on the travel itself but can be extended with just a little bit of intentional effort on both the front and the back end.
Shi:
Well, we hope you enjoyed traveling with us this week as we visited the world of Disney, the island of Kauai, the state of Florida, and the magical city of New York City. Next week, we’re not traveling anywhere except the depths of your soul. So, get ready for that because we’re talking all things tough. Tough conversations, tough situations, challenging moments. So, make sure you tune in next week for the Kay & Shi Show if you need a little help in any of those tough spots. And wherever you’ve traveled, and you’ve loved, hit us up on social media, let us know your favorite places, if we shared any of those favorite places and we hope you have an excellent weekend.
