Well, we are back from a magical week in Hawaii. We booked this trip last July (right before our Alaska companion ticket was about to expire), so I feel like we had been looking forward to this vacation forever. We were all very eager to get away and spend time together. It's hard to turn everything off at home sometimes. It feels like something is always coming up with work (an email we have to answer or a call we have to take in the evenings), and our weekends are typically jammed full of errands to run, things to clean, places to go, etc. For this week, I actually turned my work email off (something I rarely do - even when out of town) and it was the best decision :)
I took last Friday off to finish packing (although if I'm being honest, I have basically been packed for weeks because i hate it so much and I always want it checked off my list as soon as possible). I also had to get the house clean, get a brow wax and get my nails done. :)
Bags packed:
I cannot say enough amazing things about Ben and his travel attitude on this trip! Traveling at age 4.5 is absolutely better than traveling at age 3.5. This time, he happily hustled along through the airport, insisted on rolling his own bag and wearing his backpack, and was so excited about each new part of the process. I was so proud and happy to be with him on this adventure!
As we made our way through security, Ben quickly made friends with the guy in line in front of us - Brock. Brock was returning to Canada after spending 4 months traveling. He was so sweet with Ben asking him all kinds of questions about what we were going to do on our trip. We learned that Brock has a travel blog. Ben told him that he had his own wallet (LOL), so Brock gave him his card and his first piece of foreign currency (a cordobas from Nicaragua - yes, I had to look that up). He told him the world is a big place and that travel is incredible and that he hopes he has a lot of adventures in his life. Ben talked about Brock all week. People can be so awesome.
And the flight, despite being long, didn't feel that way at all! Greg rented a movie player and caught up on some movies he had been wanting to see, Ben enjoyed all the new stuff I had stashed in his backpack, and they handed out complimentary Mai Tai's as we got closer to landing! (And Greg gave me his because he thought it was too sweet - double score for me)!
We rented a car (and got an opportunity to test drive the Nissan Rogue - one of the cars we were considering purchasing later this year - and learned we definitely don't like the sport version they gave us). Ben loved it though. All week he kept referring to it was our "new car" and the hotel as "our new house". ;)
And after a long drive all the way across the island to The North Shore, we arrived at Turtle Bay Resort. Paradise. Truly the nicest place we have ever stayed and I can't wait to go back some day.
We decided to rent on of the ocean front beach cottages. After our trip to Cabo last year, we decided that being on the ground level closer to the pool and beach would be the ideal option for Ben. And we were right.
Here is the room (I made sure to take pictures before we lugged all of our stuff inside)!
Cats were all over the resort!
Coloring on the porch :)
As we were unpacking an settling in, one of the cottage hosts knocked on the door and presented us with our welcome gift. (More on their impeccable service in a later post).
He presented each of us with a Lei. He had Greg put mine on me, and me put Greg's on him, and then together we put Ben's on him. It was really sweet. He also brought fresh squeezed watermelon and pineapple juice, Hawaiian cookies, bottles of water, fresh ice, and a little card that had a Hawaiian word on it. (Ben absolutely loved these - and now we have Show and Share items for the next 2 months) ;)
Ben apparently had my phone during this time - he is quite the photographer!
Then he took a few pictures of us all together before he left us for the afternoon.
On our private patio:
On the lawn right in front of our patio:
Ben and I testing out the hammock:
That evening we visited the pool briefly (it was a little cold and windy that evening), and then hung out on the patio watching the waves. We managed to stay up only until 8 pm or so (11 pm Pacific Time).
Forgive the numerous posts covering this vacation, but it was so much easier uploading them at the end of each day while we were away :)
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