Home       About Us       Salsa Store       Referral       Lifebooks       Recipes       Videos       Blog Headers

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Aloha and mahalo

Goodbye Hawaii, we’ll miss you.

We’ll miss our warm, welcoming home for the last week. Grand Hyatt Kauai you were good to us and we couldn’t have picked a better hotel for kids with those acres of water attractions. See TubaDad’s bright blue shirt up there in this pic, by the way? That was our room after we decided the first room was wayyyyyyy too far from the action and requested a room near the pools. (Great decision, no regrets.) He was still up there getting our huge mound of luggage on the cart while we walked down to the pool to give away our inner tubes to newbies on the island and leave our offering of wilted leis as goodbyes on the rocks.IMG_1455LRIMG_1471LR

We’ll miss the many funky little restaurants (like this one in the hotel called Tidepool’s, and our old favorite Roy’s, and the new one we found called Merriman’s) and the funny servers who always had time to chat about the weird and wonderful stuff on the menus (like pea shoots, micro arugula, monchong, and black rice):IMG_1457LR

We’ll miss the hotel’s salt-water lagoon and man-made beach, miles of winding pools, and wild water slide:IMG_1459LRIMG_1479LRIMG_1483LR

We’ll miss all the fantastically lush greenery and funny trees that seemed to hug the ground instead of growing under it:IMG_1476LR

We’ll miss the gorgeous flowers as big as our heads that were everywhere on the island:IMG_1490LRIMG_1492LRIMG_1487LR

We’ll miss the demanding Cheerio-munching swans, koi, and chickens around every corner: IMG_1497LRIMG_1503LRIMG_1501LR

And we’ll miss that delightful fresh-fresh food. I was in complete bliss to have fish every single day. And the girls loved all the ahi sashimi, fruit, steamed rice, and noodles. Here’s what they had at the airport before hopping on that loooooong first flight. This is pure comfort food to Ree (left) and Ro:
IMG_1505LR

The girls were troopers on the flights (due to the thrill of non-stop eating and unlimited movies and games) but were starting to droop after we landed in SFO well after midnight. Nothing that nice warm jammies and comfy carseats couldn’t fix. I think they were asleep before we even pulled out of the parking garage. :-)

Goodbye Hawaii, we’ll be back! Mahalo.

PS: It must have gotten cold here while we were gone. Actually had to turn the heater on when we got home to warm up our freezing house. I think that’s the first time this winter that we’ve had the heater on.

21 comments:

  1. We so enjoyed seeing bits of your vacation! Makes me dream of tropical places!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Cora! We sure had fun, and we're definitely a tropical-loving family.

      Delete
  2. Loved seeing your vacation pics. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome home! Hope you all snooze until noon!

    Love ya! xo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had to wake Ree and TubaDad up at 11!! I'm afraid that 7am alarm for school tomorrow is going to be painful.

      Delete
  4. Thats why i cannot go to Hawaii I would not be able to say good bye. Are you booking the next one already?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well actually TubaDad is putting on a fare watch today. Hee!! We got this trip using miles, but if that airfare goes low enough we just might jump back on that island.

      Delete
  5. Thank you for sharing all those fantastic pictures and updates of your trip. What a splendid place. The pictures brightened up my WI winter!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah, He mea iki! There were so many folks on the planes heading back to snow last night. They enjoyed every second of that island sun.

      Delete
  6. Thanks for sharing your vacation with us. I've been to Hawaii twice and would LOVE to go back. It's the most naturally beautiful place I've ever visited.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is dang gorgeous! Hey my sis-in-law's name is Jane, I thought you were her for a second.

      Delete
  7. I feel relaxed just looking at the photos.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What was the flight time from SFO to the Island?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We had a connection in LA, so it was about 5.5 hrs to LA and then another hour flight to SFO.

      Delete
  9. Thank you for sharing all those beautiful pictures from your vacation. That hotel looks fantastic!
    We'll be heading to LA next week - I hope the weather warms up because I have packed shorts and t-shirts and was hoping to leave the winter gear in Canada ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll bet it'll warm right back up. A week ago it was actually hot in LA. Beach weather!

      Delete
  10. Stefanie2/26/2012

    We stayed at "your" hotel a few years ago when we were in Kauai - your pics brought back so many memories! The kids loved, loved, loved the place (and so did we!) Yes, those pebbles in the kids area were painful on the feet! (And seriously, I think our room was right where TubaDad was in that pic.) We were only there for a few days before we moved on to a condo in Princeville, but your post reminds me that we NEED to get back to Kauai. We were just talking about vacation plans for summer - I think I know where my first choice is now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We stayed up at the Princeville and at a Princeville condo a few years ago (oh wait, it was before kids so it was way more than a few years...). Love that place too.

      Delete
  11. It is so sad when you have to leave.............

    I am so glad you all had a great time. I am a bit worried about the swans/koi. What are they going to do with out you?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Funny. That is the exact hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon. We loved it as well.

    ReplyDelete