Saturday, November 6, 2010

Hawaiian Vacation

So, more on our trip to Hawaii!

At around 9pm on a Thursday we hopped on a big C-17 from Kadena Air Force Base to Hickam Air Force Base. Caden fell asleep in the car on the way to the terminal and he slept until about an hour before landing at Hickam (except to eat a couple times)! Woohoo! However, while Caden got 12 hours of sleep, I only got 2. I have a hard time sleeping on planes so I was pretty exhausted by the time we got there. It was only 1pm local time so I still had to stay up for a while!


We rented a car and checked into hotel #1 (out of 4) in Waikiki. We were ready for some good food, so we scoped out a P.F. Changs (one of my favorite restaurants) and had a delicious dinner along with a mai tai!




After dinner we went to Target since they stay open until 11pm and we were in HEAVEN! We all missed Target just a little too much. "LOOK AT ALL OF THESE PEOPLE JUST TAKING TARGET FOR GRANTED!!!", Becky said as we were happily running into the store like little kids. I bought a bunch of stuff, including a little baby bathtub so I could still give Caden his nightly baths. After we got back to the hotel, I did just that (he loved it!) and crashed for some much needed sleep.

The next day we woke up fresh around noon and walked to the Starbucks next to the hotel for a delicious pumpkin spice latte before heading out to an outlet mall! We had a ton of fun shopping at American stores and later found a different Target where I bought a sleeping bag so that I could lay down on the floor of the plane (pretty cool that they let you do that!) and actually get some sleep on the flight back.


The next day we walked around Waikiki Beach. We ran across a beautiful hotel called The Royal Hawaiian. After our walk, we loaded up and drove to the North Shore, stopping at the Dole plantation on the way.








We finished off our trip to the North Shore with some wrong directions to a shrimp shack (thanks to the GPS). We think it took us to the owner's mansion at the top of a hill! We ended up eating at a nice seafood restaurant on the water instead and later had some wine on the balcony of the hotel while we people watched.

The next morning we decided we were done with hotel #1 and wanted to switch to the Hale Koa (military-run hotel on Waikiki Beach). So we did. After switching, we walked around some more, had a delicious lunch at Wolfgang's, rested at the hotel for a bit and checked out the pool, and later did some more shopping- go figure!

We went to the Ala Moana Mall and shopped 'til they closed for the night. We were starving after all that shopping, so we ate a late dinner at Bubba Gump's. We tried to get mai tais at this other place while we waited for a table, but got turned away because Caden was "under 21". I thought it was hilarious! It was just a little restaurant/bar in the middle of the shopping center, but apparently it was 21 and up only after 9pm and they would make no exceptions! Not even with big M's on his hands for "minor"? Darn.

The next day we hung out at the beach and the pool, which is where we saw this woman laying out. I couldn't NOT take a picture of her. See a resemblance to Magda from "There's Something About Mary"? And yes, those are tanning bed goggles on her eyes.




That evening we ate at an incredible restaurant called Ocean House. It was inside The Outrigger hotel right on the beach. My seared tuna with scallop risotto was my absolute favorite meal of the entire trip! Mmm. It was so good.


The next morning, it was time to try for a flight home. So we packed up and this nice man helped us with all of our bags. He was so sweet and wanted us to send him a copy of this picture we all took with him. The price of taking a limo to the terminal was the same as a taxi, so we got to ride in style and we had plenty of room for all of our bags!



Needless to say, it ended up taking us four days to get on a flight home. So we checked into the "space-a lodging" on base (hotel #3). It was HORRIBLE. And that is putting it nicely. There was duck tape in the shower, cockroaches in the living room (Andrea and Becky slept with the lights on so they wouldn't get them!), and it was OLD OLD OLD. We were going to try for another flight the next day that had a weight limit on bags, so the girls packed up all these boxes to ship home. Turns out that flight was canceled, so it was for nothing.


We checked out of the roach motel and went to a hotel near the base (hotel #4!) that was much better where we stayed for two nights before finally getting a flight! Caden and I actually got the LAST TWO seats on a KC-135 straight for Kadena! Thank GOD! While we waited for that flight home we saw Pearl Harbor and did more shopping!


It was a wonderful trip and I couldn't have done it without the girls helping me! Thanks, girls! Can't wait to do it again! :)

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