Paradise-day five

We woke-up for the first time at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort and took in the view. While not as breath taking as the view from the first hotel, it was still a very relaxing view. 

After a buffet breakfast at Kukui's, the restaurant in the hotel, we ventured out to stock-up on snacks at the grocery store. I also had to buy a long sleeved shirt for the afternoon. 

We completed our errands then grabbed a quick lunch from Aupaka, the beach bar by the hotel pool,and headed out for our day's adventure, a helicopter tour!

We arrived a little early, so after we checked in we took a trip down to a scenic overlook. Very pretty.

Then it was time to take-off. 

We opted for a private (meaning just the two of us), open door helicopter tour. It was amazaing. It took us all over the island. 

We saw Jurassic Falls (used in the movie Jurassic Park).

These are from the Na Pali coast which is why we took the tour. You can only access it by air or boat. 

Flying in a helicopter was a lot less scary than I though it would be. The pilot was very experienced and kept it pretty gentle. We even flew through pouring rain with the doors off and didn't get wet because we were moving so fast. It was amazing. 

There wasn't much else we could do today that would live up to the tour. We took a dip in the hotel pool....

...had dinner and called it a night. It was an exciting day!

Paradise-day four

We woke-up on our last morning in Kapolei and had a leisurely morning reading and watching the waves. We sat at our customary table for the breakfast buffet one last time.

Then we packed up and headed to the airport. We followed the Garmin to find a gas station near the airport, which was a mistake. But we did end up finding a fun lunch place. It was called da Big Kahunas. They had really good sandwiches. Joe had da Sumo Special. 

So much for a light lunch before we got on the plane-whoops!

It turned out to be a good idea. We got to the airport about two hours before our scheduled flight. We sat at the gate listening as flight after flight to the islands was either delayed or cancelled. 

Our flight time came and went and the take-off time kept getting later and later. Finally, after many announcements, conflicting stories from the gate agents, and two drinks at the airport bar, we boarded our flight to Lihue (three hours late). 

After the 27 minute flight, we were here. 

Ready to start the next part of our trip. 

Paradise-day three

Tuesday morning, we woke bright and early. With the time difference (4 hours) we were having a hard time sleeping-in. I don't think we slept past 6:30am the entire trip. It was nice to wake-up every morning without an alarm, though.

We started with breakfast by the shark pond again. This morning, though, brought on a new perk. Joe found a juicer on the breakfast buffet. He had fun squeezing strawberries and pineapples to make fresh juice. It made the great breakfast buffet, that much better.

Today was the day we had our reserved tickets to see the USS Arizona memorial. We had to be there an hour before our scheduled tour (per the reservation) but there was a lot to occupy our time. In addition to booking our tour tickets, I had purchased audio tours for the whole area. They have artifacts and photos from the time period and event.

The tour starts with the "Road to War Museum" where they talk about Oahu at that time and the events that led up to the war, including the code breakers and Japanese Expansion plans.

They had models of the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma. They even have a model of the Japanese carrier force that attacked Pearl Harbor. The amount of information and photos they had from Japan was amazing. 

Then, we went through the "Attack Museum". It started with the Japanese planes taking off their carriers and went through the entire attack. It even showed actual footage of the attack and had a lot of artifacts...

including this actual Japanese torpedo that never detonated...

and the draft of the speech President Roosevelt gave after the attack. It had his handwritten edits including changing the word "history" to the famous beginning "infamy". 

After the museums, we got on the boat to drive out to the actual memorial. 

That is the USS Missouri in the background. 

Inside the memorial, they have a wall with the names of all the victims of the USS Arizona.

This is the full memorial. It spans over the sunken ship. 

Back on the shore, they had an anchor from the Arizona. It was massive. Overall, it was a really moving experience and a must see for those traveling to the area. 

After visiting the memorial, we picked a place to eat dinner on the other side of the island, so we headed out. We were going to get to the restaurant two hours before it even opened but we couldn't think of anything else to do and we didn't want to go back to the hotel (on the opposite side). Lucky for us, on the way there, we passed the Dole pineapple plantation and thought it looked like a great place to kill a few hours. 

We wandered around the market inside and found they sold ice cream. Since we didn't really have lunch, we thought that sounded like a good idea. As we waited in line, we saw they had a pineapple split. Joe was really excited that it came in a real pineapple, so that is what we ordered. We had no idea it would serve four. 

It was three servings of pineapple ice cream, over diced pineapple, in a pineapple, topped with chocolate, carmel, and strawberry sauce. Yum!

It was pretty hot outside so it melted quickly, but we finished the whole thing. 

Then walked around outside for a while. Of course, they had pineapple plants all over.

I didn't know pineapples grew like this.

They also had a train called the Pineapple Express. We got tickets that boarded at 4:20pm. We thought that was funny. 

The train took you around the fields where they also grow bananas, koa trees, papayas, sugar cane, and macadamia nuts. It was a good side trip to bridge the gap between Pearl Harbor and dinner. 

When we were done at the Dole Plantation, we continued on our way to dinner at Haleiwa Joe's, another recommendation from Joe's friend. 

They had a drink called the Outside Double Up. It's pretty much a Mai Tai for two. 

They also had a huge piece of prime rib. I couldn't finish it, but it was delicious. 

Great way to spend our last night in Kapolei. 

Paradise-day two

We woke up Monday morning to a Tropical Storm warning. Flossie originally was supposed to go south, but changed course overnight and was headed right for us. We didn't let that stop us.

We started the day with a breakfast buffet by the hotel's shark pond. Yep, the hotel has a shark pond. It was pretty cool eating breakfast watching hammerhead sharks swim around.

After breakfast, we headed back the to beach. This time, after reading for a while, we actually went swimming. If you know me at all, you know I don't swim in the ocean but I made an exception here. The water was amazing. It was so clear and warm, once you got used to it. We even swam out pretty far. Mark that off the life's to-do list.

After more sun (a little too much sun, we would find out later), we went back to the room for a light lunch. We took a que from my parents and had stopped at a grocery store and picked up some cheese, pretzles, and grapes which we enjoyed on our patio.

After lunch, we decided to hit the pool.

Before heading to Hawaii, Joe's sister told us about a store we had to go to. So, we decided this afternoon was a good time to shop at Hilo Hattie's. It was more than a store, it was an experience. They give you leis when you walk in, this location had the world's largest Hawaiian shirt. They had a pretty good selection of aloha shirts and some nice dresses. It was an interesting place to shop.

While we were flying to Honolulu, a friend of Joe's family had sent him an email requesting recommendations for places to eat in California where Joe travels a lot for work. So, in the return email, Joe mentioned where we were staying in Hawaii. This brought on a flood of very helpful information. One of the restaurants was La Mariana Sailing Club. It was a tiki bar right next to a marina. A nice, quiet dinner.

This evening, Flossie hit (at midnight). We probably would have never noticed if we weren't sleeping with the door open again. I finally got out of bed to close the doors. It was really windy but it didn't stop us from having fun. Another good day in the books.

Paradise-day one

The one place I have always wanted to visit was Hawaii. So, we decided it would be the perfect destination for our 10 year anniversary trip. (Before I go on I just want to recognize this milestone. Thank you, Joe, for the last amazing ten years. I love you more everyday and can't wait for many more years on our adventure.) so, after a few years planning, we booked our flights, got hotel rooms, and left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Weldon to take the trip of a lifetime. 

We started in Honolulu. I wanted to see Pearl Harbor so we booked three nights there first. We left home early Sunday morning and got on our direct flight.

After a very uneventful, yet long (7 hours, the longest flight I've ever been on), flight we landed in Honolulu.

We walked outside to baggage claim, got our bags, our car (a nice Ford Mustang convertible).....

...and headed out to find Teddy's Bigger Burgers for some lunch. We had purchased a new Garmin before leaving to make sure we had updated maps. Unfortunately, our first outing following it did not go well. Teddy's Bigger Burgers was not to be found. After many u-turns,  we parked and headed out on foot where we found Southshore Grill. I had a pastrami sandwich and Joe had their famous (at least a according to them) fish tacos and a steak taco (which he preferred). It was a pleasant GPS mistake. 

After lunch we headed to the hotel. The Garmin messed up again but we found it anyway. And boy was it nice. We got upgraded to an ocean-view room (way to work the system, babe!),  which was amazing.

After getting settled, we put on our suits and headed to the beach. The hotel has a man-made lagoon, which was great for me. No sharks!

We brought out some reading material, got a couple Mai-Tais and soaked up the late afternoon sun. After watching a wedding (how fitting), we went inside to change for dinner. 

Before we left, we walked around the hotel grounds for a bit and took pictures on a beach used in the show Lost. Pretty cool.

For dinner, we found Brick Oven Pizza. Not the lite, thin crust dinner we were hoping for but it was pretty good. We even finished the dinner with a snickers pizza to go, which we ate on the patio at the hotel. 

We ended the evening by falling asleep to the sounds of the waves through the screen door.

Good start to a great vacation.

Lollipop Park

There is a great indoor amusement park in Centennial that the boys love. So when a deal came up on Groupon, I jumped on it. And then forgot about it, until this week.
We were looking for something to do, and I thought this would be a good way to beat the heat and let the boys run around.

They have six rides and rotate around on the rides so the kids just go from one ride to the other.

This one is my favorite. It's called "The Whip" and it just goes around in an oval but around the tight turns, it "whips" the kids really fast. They just start laughing hysterically. It's great. 

Poor Patrick was too little to ride anything so he just had to watch. I think he still enjoyed himself. 

Patrick's 1st haircut

Patrick's hair was getting a little crazy. So I decided it was finally time to get his hair cut. It was hard. I don't want my baby to grow up. Oh well. He looks better now.

We tried to get it done one time and after we checked in an waited 10 minutes, we were told he needed socks to get his hair cut. Really?!?! Socks?!?! So we left with no haircut and went to a different place the following week.

Wild man!

He did very well. I think he is used to his brothers always bothering him. 

Doesn't he look so cute?!?!