Here is a quick recap of our trip in Hawaii. :)
The flight out was horrible. Most of you know, who live in Fairbanks or have visited the only flight that you can get is the 1am flight out of here. Not sure why I can never fly at any other time...anyways. That flight is never
on time. Well, Jeff
packed my laptop - and my phone
Internet was being so slow (
didnt think to call to double check) so I couldn't check the status and Jeff was in a rush to just leave and get checked in. So we leave at 11
ish and check in at 1145 - to find out our plane is an hour late - we wont be taking off until 2am
ish. YIKES. So we had lots of time to kill - good thing too because while we were going through security - our double jogging stroller doesn't fit through the
x-ray so they
manually check it....WELL.... we forgot to wash
Jeffs bag and gloves before leaving (read:
Jeffs gloves and
backback have been sitting in the back of his
Stryker for 6 months exposed to God knows what) so what happens?? Well there was residue on his glove that got
transferred onto the handle of the jogging stroller where they swabbed for the test: The test for explosives..... All of a sudden - there are a lot of people by our stroller, taking our bags - and telling us that they have to do a search and pat us all down. They were doing there job, questioning us where we worked etc. The stroller tested positive for
RDX, ax explosive that Jeff is exposed to all the time! Just an exciting story to remember for this R&R Trip.
The boys did fairly well on the plane trip - sleeping most of the way. Blake did have a couple of crying spells, which really weren't that bad - but as a sleep deprived parent, trying not to piss everyone off on the plane the situation is 100x worse do to stress than it usually is.
By the time we got to Honolulu we had to catch a 20 min flight to Kauai. At this time Ian is just yelling no more planes I want to go to the beach. He calms down
and we finally check into our condo. We left AK 0200 am and arrived at our condo at 5pm the next day. The place was lovely. Just like the pictures on the website. 2 bedroom 3 bath condo with an wonderful kitchen! Stainless steel everything - and a view of the ocean from our bedroom and living room. :) Plenty of rooms for the kids to play and plenty of space outside that they could run around in and we could sit on the lanai and watch them as we chatted, drank tea, or
tasty tropical drinks.
Blake wasn't a fan of
the grass or sand. I
dont blame him - all he knows is snow! It took him a day or two to learn that it was
ok and he would finally walk on it. We pretty much just chilled at the condo for the first couple of days. Hanging out by the pool, the beach and taking walks along the ocean. The boys loved it. We enjoyed it.
We rented a car
Thursday and Friday and toured the South and West shores of Kauai on
Thursday.
gorgeous coasts view, and wonderful valleys - we stopped at pretty much every guide thing in the book along the way. There is only one road that goes around the Island - so you'll pretty much see everything. We stopped at Spouting Horn, and the Grand
Canyon of the Pacific.
On Friday we stayed close to the area - didn't go to the North Shore like I had wanted
because we were going to an
Luau that night from 5-9 and wanted the boys on best behavior. So we
stuck to the East side and drove around
Kapp'a and
Lihuie and found a great park for the boys to play with and play on the ocean. It was great. Then we went to the
Luau. That was fun - the
PIg that they had cooked, wasn't as good as i thought it was going to be and the Poi was just plain - kinda nasty - an
equivalent to
lettuce - really no taste. The boys loved the dancing and the drum playing of
the Hula Dancers. Very nice.
Then the rest of the weekend we stayed at the condo playing in the ocean, pool etc. As much as I would loved to do more -
I have to realize that we have 2 toddlers and traveling with children
isnt' that easy. I guess when they are older Grandma and Grandpa can take them as Jeff and I can really "vacation" .
We really enjoyed ourselves. Very laid back, slow and relaxing. Just wanted the doctor ordered.