August 25, 2017-Hawaii Adventure!

(click here for today's pictures)


Around 6:45, Whitman, Keaton, Robby and I headed down to breakfast. We were there long enough to grab something to eat and then finished as we rode the elevator back down to our room. Everyone else was ready or almost ready, so Robby and I headed to go and get the cars. It wasn’t too far but was still a good walk so early in the morning.

Everyone was waiting outside when we arrived with the cars. We headed towards the North Shore of Kauai. The drive was beautiful and even though the drive was almost an hour, we didn’t stop until we made it to Hanalei Bay Beach Park.

There weren’t many people out and about at 8:30 in the morning. The kids were at first disappointed with the small waves but they still had a good time. We did move a bit down the beach where the waves were a bit higher. Even though the waves weren’t huge, they made a huge crashing sound possibly due to the crescent shape of the beach.

The kids could venture pretty far out and they used their goggles mostly so they wouldn’t get the salt water in their eyes. The first time today that Whitman was crashed down by a wave, he came up saying, “that water is yucky!” He isn’t quite used to the salt water yet.

Keaton worked hard on digging a hole and really wanted for the water to fill it up. She waited and waited but as we headed back towards Nonna and Pops we saw that her hole had been filled. Keaton’s bathing suit bottoms would continually fill with sand-it would get stuck in the lining so she couldn’t easily get it out. I finally had her swim out and throw me her bottoms so I could rinse them and get the sand out. She thought this was the funniest thing ever-skinny dipping!

Graham and Reagan spent a lot of time trying to handstands in the water, and Anderson enjoyed digging holes to bury Whitman’s feet in. After about an hour, it was time to head back to the boat. The cars needed to be back by 11. When we did leave the beach, we headed on up the mountain to explore for a few more minutes but soon had to turn around when we reached some traffic. There is just never enough time to explore!

We do like to take advantage of every opportunity and did take a quick detour to the Opaeka Falls. It was just another waterfall that you could see from the side of the road. We weren’t stopped there too long and ran back to the car to make it to turn in our cars on time.
We would have returned our rental cars on time except that we forgot to get gas. Robby found the gas station on his phone just seconds after he had passed the turn for it so that led us to a long stop light. We quickly bought gas and rushed to the car rental place. I think that we were exactly on time though Robby did get charged extra for being late (which he had reversed since he had to wait on the lady to check his car in.)

Then we all rode the car shuttle to the boat. Let’s talk about that ride for a minute. We have met many nice people on this trip and we have met many people that have had too much to drink. Often, it is difficult to tell if which one is which. Like on the rental car shuttle-was the lady just being nice when she asked me if all of my children were real or was she drunk? 
The lines to get on the boat were long but my kids didn’t care because they were headed to the pool. Campbell and Reagan found food at the buffet and headed outside to eat by the pool. The rest of us got our food by the pool at the pool party. We ate and the kids swam. I played some ping pong with Graham and Reagan and got everyone a few bags of popcorn.
Reagan and Keaton went down to take their showers so I ran down to help Reagan and Campbell pack their bags. Soon the boys were down as well and they were racing to change before the magic show. They were so excited because the pool water had been splashing and sploshing everywhere. The boat was really rocking this afternoon (It is pretty rocky now too-so much so that our empty hangers are whacking against the wall and my clothes line of bathing suits is swaying so much that they will be dry by the morning time) Whitman, Campbell, Anderson and Graham went to the magic show with me. It was neat because the man was teaching everyone how to do the magic tricks. The boys loved it and I am sorry to say that you will probably have to endure a few tricks when you see my boys next.

Robby dropped by and picked up Whitman. At the end of the show, the kids went to Nonna and Pops’ room to show them all their tricks. I went to the boys room to pack them up-I have some suitcases that are full of souveneirs, leis, and bags of clean clothes. Then I have some suitcases that are shoved full of dirty laundry. I do have fabreeze and have sprayed in generously on our dirty laundry this week but goodness, I hope the TSA workers don’t pick my dirty laundry bags to open or they will be in a for a smelly surprise!

Around 4:45, we were all dressed and headed up to the 6th floor to view the Napali Coast. We were very near the end of the road today and the cruise picked up where our road would have ended. The coastline is beautiful with lush green jagged mountains shooting up from the crystal blue water. My kids enjoyed watching the sights for about 2 minutes and then they were done. I sent everyone but Campbell and Whitman up to play chess (they ended up playing checkers.)
Campbell was talking to one of her friends from kids’ club and Whitman, well, bless is just Whitman and can’t be trusted! We then all met up at the Liberty dining room. This was our last night and we again enjoyed our fancy supper. Now, I will say that it takes entirely too long every single time. The food was delicious and pretty much everyone at the table had jello or lava cake for dessert.

I suggested to Reagan that she have lava cake for her Hawaiian themed birthday party. She was quick to point out that lava cake isn’t Hawaiian. This exasperated Robby to no end because we have heard the man from his app say at least 20 times this week that volcanoes formed the Hawaiian Islands. Bless that child!

After supper, my kids were in a hurry to run downstairs to change their clothes to get up to the kids’ club. It was pajama night so finding something to wear was pretty easy. I dropped them off and they were all so excited to enter the room full of kids playing games.

Robby and I had big plans to go to another show tonight but after watching the hurricane news for a bit, we just opted to nap until time to pick the kids up. Seriously, we are that old! Today, when we were watching the hurricane news we heard that there were 4 cruise ships that couldn’t get into port. Reagan said that she wished she was on one of those boats! Pops did learn yesterday that they bring enough food for 3 extra days just in case. I am sure that the folks in Galveston are thankful about that.

When I picked up the kids tonight, they had been watching a movie. We walked out to the pool area to see it. The pool water has waves so high that it is splashing out of the pool. It was crazy to see. Reagan asked, “why is the water doing that?” I guess she already has her sea legs and didn’t notice this boat rocking!

We went to the buffet to get some ice cream before bedtime. Reagan ended up getting pasta too-that girl likes to eat. Keaton was so tired that she couldn’t eat. Graham thought he spotted land out the window but we decided that it was just probably another boat or two. Once we had our fill of ice cream, it was back downstairs.

The kids were mostly already wearing their pjs but some brought me extra clothes and shoes to pack away. I wasn’t going to have our suitcases ready tonight for them to take to the terminal for us but have packed all but one. Whitman fell asleep about as soon as his head hit the pillow and Keaton was asleep soon after.

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