The flight there was killer. 8 hours 10 minutes. It went not too bad actually but the last couple of hours seemed to drag by. There just needs to be more room on those planes with such long flights!!! I swear I was going to hurt the man in front of me. He slammed one to many times into my knee with his seat!!! I'm not that tall so I feel sorry for tall people riding in coach!
The condo was nice and a great location. The view was AMAZING!! Our balcony was 12 ft. long and overlooked the ocean. I could have sat out there forever!
The kids loved the ocean. Gabbie fell I don't know how many times from the waves and got to taste saltwater a couple of times. Zachary just wanted you to chase him down the beach and splash in the water. No relaxing laying on the beach for us with them two. In fact I don't think I look anymore tan :(
One day we climbed Diamond Head. It was described as a .8 mile hike up and .8 down. Didn't seem that bad sounding. We decided to give it a try. We took the city bus there and it dropped us off on the other side of the mountain on the street. We had to walk at least a mile up the mountain, threw a tunnel and across the crater to get to the ticket booth!! Then the hike begins. It starts out paved and not too bad. Then the pavement ends and it is rocky and not even at all. It wound round and round up the mountain and then you hit the stairs. There were like 200 something stairs up including a very steep set of 99 in a row when you are all tired at the top. After you get up those there are spiral staircases leading to a bunker you had to crawl out of...then more stairs. Finally when you got to the top it was a really pretty view of Oahu. It was a workout. I'm glad I decided to start working out beforehand. My poor Mom thought I was trying to kill her. Did I mention we had no stroller or backpack for the kids???? We carried the kids all the way up and back down. Although Gabrielle climed the stairs herself...what a big girl! Yes, in the pics we have on our swimsuits because the plan was to snorkle afterwards...hahaha. Anyways, we decided once we got down that we would take a cab home..LOL.
We did a dolphin encounter for the kids at Sea Life park...a mini seaworld. It was right next to the ocean so it had really pretty views from the park. At the dolphin encounter they kissed and danced with dolphins..well that was the plan at least. Zachary was falling asleep in the pool with the dolphins! This is the boy that sees a dolphin and gets so excited and he fell asleep. I couldn't believe it! Gabbie was scared once they came up to her. They did at least pet them. We also caught a sea lion show, looked at the aquarium and saw the dolphin show. The dolphin show was a pretty good one and they had a wholpin...part dolphin part whale.
That night we went to the luau. It was nice except in the picture once again Zachary was asleep! There was a 5 hour time difference so his little schedule was all messed up :) Gabbie was a hula expert and they pointed her out for her dancing and gave her a lei. I was a proud mama.
We did the island tour which was nice but LONG. It lasted 8 hours so the kids were antsy. I enjoyed what I could hear. No waterfalls which was a bummer but lots of other beautiful things to see. Did you know that it takes 18-22 months for a pineapple plant to make a pineapple!!!???? It makes 3 over it's life, 6 years. That's just crazy to me. No wonder that they are so expensive. I tell you though the pineapple in Hawaii was awesome!!! The pineapple ice cream not so much.
Me and Thom did a snorkle in the ocean that was pretty cool. They took us out to snorkle with turtles first. Then we found some dolphins and snorkled with them however the water was murky so we never saw them under water. We did get to see pacific bottlenose dolphins which apparantly is rare since the water is shallower where we were. We let them surf the waves and got some really great pics. It was really neat to see them in the wild instead of captivity. There was a guy on our boat to take pics so we got some awesome shots. I haven't deleloped my underwater camera but I'm pretty positive that my shots cannot compare!
The flight home was miserable! This time only 7 1/2 hours and the kids slept most of it which meant we slept for maybe 1 hour total. I had the biggest crick in my neck and I did something to my tailbone so the sitting that long KILLED me. Again more room would have really helped. I guess I might have to check out first class next time.
Overall it was a good time. It was stressful but for me traveling anywhere outside the comfort of your own home is when you have young kids. I guess vacations will just be stressful for a while since we plan on more vacations and have no intentions of leaving them anytime in the near future. Neither one of us can imagine leaving them yet if ever. They are our world!!!
Thanks Mom for a trip we will always remember :)
P.S. Sorry the slideshow is so long. I had 900 pictures so it was hard to choose :)
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