When we originally booked our trip to Hawaii, we were going to leave on Thursday and return on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). As we went to book our airline tickets, we could save $1000 if we went Wednesday to Wednesday instead! So, I called Disney and was able to change our reservation and we were on our way!
Aloha beautiful Hawaii!
The beautiful view from our room! Loved sitting on the balcony each day and watching the sun rise!
Welcome, Burr Ohana! (On our TV)
We got to the Aulani in the early afternoon and re-familiarized ourselves with the resort.
(Another view from our room of the beautiful resort!)
We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the beach!
Thursday, we enjoyed a relaxing day at the resort. We swam and hung out by the pool.
Trav and I also did some stand up paddle boarding.
Stopping to take a silly picture on our way back from dinner.
Gorgeous sunrise the next morning and a rainbow!
Friday, we got up and headed out to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.
We did the maze in 33 minutes!
And then we enjoyed some pineapple and a Dole whip. YUM!
Next, we headed to Wiamea Falls. Here is a gorgeous Monkeypod Tree!
We had a beautiful, peaceful walk up to the waterfall.
We were on one of the trails when we heard a crash up above. All of us moved except Conner, and he got hit on the head by this huge leaf!
We laughed pretty hard!
It's such a beautiful place!
The falls.
The family!
We saw this "Surinam" plant and thought of Parker serving his mission!
After leaving there we headed to get a picture at Sunset Beach,
and then stopped for some yummy shave ice at Matsumoto's!
So yummy!!!!
Sunday, we got up bright and early and drove to Diamond Head. I'm glad we went early because it was soooo crowded! We had some beautiful views from the top!
On the way back down.
Then we drove over to Manoa Falls to hike to the waterfall.
This hike felt like we were hiking in the Garden of Eden!
It was sooo lush and beautiful!
We made it to the waterfall!
After lunch in the "Treetops,"
we rewarded ourselves with another Shave Ice at Waiola. This one was even better than the other one!
After that, we drove to the Pali Lookout and enjoyed the view,
and the wind!
Laughing in the wind!
Funny sign about bees!
Monday, we got up and headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center.
We stopped at Fumi's for some lunch.
Our lunch buddy!
We had a fun day at the Polynesian Cultural Center enjoying all the presentations.
The parade of boats.
After the parade the threatening rain, actually came and we got pretty wet for about an hour. We watched a movie about the islands and then went to our Luau. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then went to the show, "Ha: Breath of Life." We saw it several years ago when we were there, but enjoyed it even more this time.
In the car on the drive back to the resort, Conner was looking at Instagram. He follows Yasmani Grandal (the Dodger catcher) and saw that he had been at our Luau that night at the PCC! He then saw that his wife had posted a picture at our resort a few days before. Conner was bummed that he hadn't seen him!
The next day as we were hanging out at the resort, he ended up right behind us in the lazy river! Conner and Travis were pretty excited! Conner was bummed because he didn't have his camera with him, but as we were headed to go get lunch, he was able to see him and snap a picture (on the sly) as we walked by. That may have been the highlight of the trip for the two of them! :)
(One thing we did throughout our trip was watch the whole first season of "Once Upon a Time." We watched all 22 episodes during the time we were there!)
Wednesday morning, we hit the water-slides one more time. Unfortunately Trav tweaked his back on the first ride down and was in quite a bit of pain, but he made the best of it. We were sad to say goodbye to this beautiful resort and we had a terrific vacation together as a family.
One last selfie on the balcony of our room!
Goodbye Aulani! Hope we come again soon!
We drove to the airport for our flight home, but had to stop one last time at Waiola Shave Ice!
Aloha!
