When we boarded the plane I had asked the flight attendant if our flight was full. His response, "Well last time I checked we had 20 open seats due to re-bookings because of the hurricane." Say what? A hurricane?!?! Yes, we actually boarded the plane without reading the news to see that Hurricane Ana was coming right through Hawaii during our trip... such a bummer! At that point we were already on the plane, so we had no choice but to go anyways. We stayed at the Marriott KoOlina Beach Villas, which I highly recommend. We had our own kitchen so we went to the grocery store when we got there to stock up on food for the week (we attempted to save some money and do lots of cooking ourselves). On our way out of the hotel, we talked with a bellman who told us how to get to the store, and he also told us that most all stores were out of water!!!!! WTH - as if I wasn't freaked out enough about this hurricane, this just made it so much worse. Anyways, long story short, the hurricane did pass through during our trip but did not touch down on the islands. In it's passing came lots of rain, rain, and more hard rain! Two of the days we were pretty much locked down to our hotel due to flash flood warnings. Despite the weather, we managed to have fun and the boys LOVED hotel living. They had so much fun running in circles through our villa, pushing buttons in the elevators, swiping our room key and they absolutely loved getting the rental car, lol. I guess the weather was the least of their worries!
We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and the weather was pretty nice. It was sunny, with some clouds, and warm, just how I had pictured it to be. We hung around at our hotel, went to the grocery store, and just relaxed.
We hung around our hotel a lot because of the weather, and mostly because it was just awesome and had everything you needed: a pool and the beach! The boys loved playing in the pools, go figure! They had an awesome kid friendly beach entrance pool that was a big hit with the boys. They especially loved the "waterfalls" in the pool. The beach at KoOlina is the best for kids - there are 4 man made lagoons that are protected from the open water which makes it a great place for kids to play and swim. Here are some pictures from the pool and beach.
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| watching daddy go down the water slide! |
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| beach entrance pool - we pretty much camped out here |
It rained all day Saturday and Sunday!!! Booooo =(
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| Rain, Rain, Go Away!!! |
On Saturday night we went out to dinner to a place called Monkeypod. It is literally one of my new fav spots, EVER (too bad it's not closer to me back in the OC)! Their menu was good but the atmosphere was even better. For anyone who goes to KoOlina, definitely check this place out!
On Monday the rain had stopped so we were able to get out and leave the hotel. We headed to the north shore to turtle beach where I have seen huge ginormous turtles beach themselves on the sand during the day. Well, with our awesome luck, there were no turtles on the sand. =( We (Andrew and I) did see some turtle heads pop up in the ocean near the shoreline occassionally but it was sort of a let down that the boys didn't get to see turtles. After turtle beach we headed to the best shave ice place... It was so good! Just google "best shave ice place on north shore" and Matsumoto will pop up! Then on Monday night, we stayed at the hotel and ate at the restaurant near the beach, Longboards. We had a great view and were right on the lagoon, however the food was overpriced and no bueno. After dinner, the boys had so much fun running around the grassy area and managed to meet more friends than I could count on two hands! They are both mu social butterflies!!!!
Tuesday was really nice out and we were able to enjoy some sun in the morning before our flight home later that day. We hung out at the lagoon and played all morning long. It was the perfect end to our Hawaii vacation. And since we didn't get great weather, I told the hubby we need to go back again soon!! =)
I love my boys and our family. This vacation was great for us to do some bonding and hang out. With our crazy schedules back at home and daddy away at work during the week, this was just what we needed as a reminder to what matters most in life - FAMILY!!! xoxo
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