Hawaii - Day 6 - Wednesday!

This morning I actually slept in until 6:00!  The latest so far:)  I went down to get coffee and actually took a picture of the coffee bar:)

 

Our plan today was to let the kids swim in the morning and then head our after lunch to our house in the North Shore that we rented. 

We got out to the pool at 8:00 and the kids swam for an hour or so.  We saw that Donald (who we hadn’t seen yet) was out so we all went for one last photopass pic before buying the CD.  We had over 100 photos from the trip so it was well worth the $100.  Matt took the kids do the lazy river a few times while I headed up to our villas and got all packed up. 

They all came back up to the room around 10:30 (checkout was at 11:00) and we changed and got ready for hitting the road.  Kids were super bummed about leaving and honestly, so were we!  We didn’t expect to love it as much as we did.  It was very much like the Disney cruises we have taken- so nice to leave the kids to play in the clubs for awhile each day (and not have it be a free for all- they are actually entertained in there!), and the daily activity Ewa newsletter was really handy.  It was a great resort:)

We had bell services pick up our luggage to hold  while we spent a little more time at the resort and we all went down to eat lunch at the bar area.  The kids spilt a burger, I had a grilled veggie wrap (only so so) and Matt had a burger.  After that the kids decided they didn't want to do anything else (they wanted to go in the clubs or swim but we couldn’t) so we left.  They were upset!

 

We headed North to the Dole Plantation.  Piper got some pressed pennies and we did a little shopping there and did half of the Worlds Largest Maze (we cheated and took a shortcut out cause the kids were hot and tired) and the got Dole Whips!  We love them in Disneyland and this was right from the source:)

 

After that we headed to the North Shore to do a little grocery shopping and get a pie from Ted’s (best local bakery). During our drive we saw a rainbow which P loved:)

 Then we headed to our rental house.  I wish I could say it was fabulous but it wasn’t.  It was well appointed and spacious but seemed a little dingy compared to pics and it was HOT in there.  No air conditioning was a bad design flaw here.  Then we saw the worst of it- the pool (why we went with this house instead of booking at Turtle Bay Resort for the North Shore, or more time at Aulani) was disgusting.  Totally covered in green pool slime. Eww! 

We plan on filing a major complaint when we get back and hope to get reimbursed some.  The house isn’t unlivable or anything but the property manager knew that was why we went with the house so  I am pretty pissed.  The kids were majorly bummed and P was in a major funk all evening.  We decided within minutes to stay the night, then 2 more nights so we could get all our North Shore stuff in, then leave at 7:00 am on Saturday to go back to Aulani and spend the day there and part of Sunday before going back to the airport.  I am annoyed we feel we have to do that but the kids really love swimming and that was why we went with the house.  I just hope we don’t run into issues getting a partial refund from the property managers. 

After making that call and telling the kids our plan (to which Piper said “can we just leave now” lol and we explained that it was so expensive to stay at Aulani and couldn’t for sure get a refund of anything so that was all we could do), we headed out for dinner.  We hit up our fav little latin American/Hawaiian fusion restaurant.  It was yummy!  We both got lilikoi margaritas and fresh fish tacos and burritos.  Just what we needed!  Then we walked down to Aoki’s shaved ice for the kids.  We headed back to the house after that and were so thankful the house had cooled down as it was getting alter on in the day.  We started a puzzle we had brought and then watched a little tv and had some pie with the kids before tucking them into bed (they are sharing a bedroom even though there are more bedrooms available). 

Matt and I headed to bed to read for a bit and then all of the sudden Matt freaked out- there was a spider about the size of my hand on the wall.  And it was FAST.  It took hairspray and both of us chasing it to kill it.  Eeek!  Part of it was that we had left the sliding door to the bedroom open for awhile to air it out so I am sure it got in then.  Right after that we noticed a gecko up on our rafters.  They don’t bug me but it was kinda weird.

That’s about it.  Kinda a letdown of a day.  I feel like we are all just waiting to go back to Aulani!  Hopefully we can keep them crazy busy the next 2 days with things to do:)

PIPER CAM: