"No!, Aloha!, Goodbye!"
Day 1:
Well, hello and goodbye. Goodbye for now mainland.
Our flight was direct from home to Hawaii and thankfully our kids handled those ten hours like a boss because we were super prepared with games, snacks, pillows, and more.
Little man and monkey took a snooze with three hours to go.
This one never slept, but she was so good and played quietly or watched movies the whole time.
We all "ooh-ed" and "ahh-ed" as we came in for the landing and Oahu came into sight. Okay, maybe some of us were squealing and bouncing up and down in their seat for all the excitement.
We gratefully got off the plane, stretched our legs, freshened up a bit and then waited anxiously for Gammy and Gampy to arrive.
After we collected them at their gate Gampy quickly got us to the hotel and we wasted no time in throwing down our bags and running here - to put our toes into the Pacific for the first time in 2014.
Aloha! HELLO, Hawaii!
We always try to stay up as long as we can to adjust to the time change, but TG and the babes barely made it to 6:00 before they were all sound asleep. I ventured out with my parents to stretch my legs some more with a walk down Waikiki. We saw our first Hawaiian sunset on the way out and fireworks as we made our way back to the hotel. It was the perfect welcome to paradise.
Day 2:
We were all awake by 5 am so we decided not to waste the early start and beat the crowds to Diamond Head.
It's a fairly quick hike up Diamond head, but with four little jet lagged legs we took it a bit slower. TG had to carry Cam more than half way up and cajole him through the darker tunnel, but the view, as always, was worth it.
My awesome parents, forever young those two.
Diamond Head, July 30th, 2014.
The trip down was much easier and due to our early wake up it was only about 9 am so we headed to one of my parent's favorite spots.
The spitting cave is a bit off the beaten path, and the tide was low so it wasn't particularly powerful, but the view. Even now I can barely formulate words for how I felt when I saw this spot.
The water was every shade of blue from turquoise right on up to navy. Rainbows in the mist were all around us and sea turtles bobbed on the waves intermittently as they took breaks from eating the seaweed below.
I didn't want to leave, but we had other stops planned for the day so I took one last long look and a couple pictures for our memories.
Spitting Cave, July 30th, 2014.
Spitting Cave is right near Hawaii Kai so we went to Kona Brewing Company for lunch. We ate on their deck on the bay, enjoyed the breeze, ate the tastiest kahlua pork sliders, and tasted several of their beers.
I don't want to forget how hard we laughed when - Gampy asked the waitress to add the Kona Brewing Co. water bottle he saw in the gift shop as we entered to our tab - and as he went to pay he realized that the water bottle was over $50. That fancy hydroflask became a running joke of the trip.
Kona Brewing Co, July 30th, 2014. The kids are wearing their new "I hiked Diamond Head" tees that Gampy bought them.
We always visit Grandpa and the rest of the family at Punchbowl as soon as we can on the trip. Riley was such a good helper with Gammy and filled their vases and arranged the flowers we brought.
She said a prayer for her great grandpa.
Punchbowl is beautiful so we walked around the grounds a bit before we left.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at our hotel, napping and then swimming at the pool and playing at the beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving us some love!