Our Hawaiian Holiday: Our last few days in paradise

Day 6

When we awoke on the 6th day of our vacation, we were really on vacation.  First of all, we were sleeping in a lush king-sized bed, and secondly when we opened the curtains we had a beautiful view of the coastline as it was slowly being lit by sunrise.  In fact, thanks to Evan getting us up early all the time (4:30-5:30am was typical, thanks also to jet lag), I even got to witness the moon setting, all from the lanai (balcony) of our hotel room.

Moon set and sunrise view from our lanai.

We decided we'd first head down to the coast to take a walk along the coastal path connecting our resort (Marriott Beach Club) to the others at Ko Olina.  It was a gorgeous morning.  Evan loved getting out of his stroller to run around among the palm trees, and he especially loved all of the airplanes flying overhead (which was pretty common given we were under the approach line to the Honolulu airport; thus we had jet liners flying overhead on their way to land regularly.  This wasn't bothersome from our room, where I don't recall ever hearing them, but outside it was quite audible and Evan just loved it).

Early morning view of our ocean lagoon at the resort.

Out for a morning walk.

Playing around along the coastal path.

              

Spotting airplanes and catching a ride on daddy's shoulders

After walking up and back, we got back to the room for Evan's morning nap.  After his nap we got lubed up with lots of sunscreen, donned our bathing suits, and headed to the beach.  At our resort it was actually a lagoon, which I thought would be better for Evan to play in, given the waves wouldn't be rushing in.  However, it was still hard for him to keep his balance with the water coming up and back and his feet sinking into the sand, so we didn't spend too much time in the actual ocean.  Rather we went and got some lunch and then headed to the lagoon pool in our resort.  This pool was zero entry and lined with "sand"--really small gravel-like rocks that didn't feel good to my feet and Evan sure didn't like it either. (I felt like it was probably a good exfoliation for my feet though!)  Evan found a fountain and had some fun with that, and in a shallow part of the pool, sans gravel, he played and splahsed around in the water more.  We finished with a short dip in the whirlpool (Evan didn't want to leave!) and then headed back to the room for another nap.

What a beautiful view...

You can just see the displeasure from the "sand" on his face! But splashing in the water was fun! 

During his nap I got ready for our evening luau plans.  There are a few options for luau on Oahu, but I had read the food was the best at Paradise Cove.  We got our shell lei's and mai tai's upon arrival, along with a family photo taken at the entrance (that we unfortunately forgot to go look for and purchase!).  It was a bit hectic trying to keep Evan tamed, as he wanted to run around everywhere he shouldn't.  We tried to partake in a few of the pre-dinner activities, like a spear-throwing thing (which I tanked on) and I got a palm braid with flowers for my hair.  Dinner was great; I loved the kalua pork (even went back to seconds!).  I tried the poi, and wasn't that impressed (it was a strange purple paste-like porridge with little flavor).  The taro rolls were better at my sister's on Thanksgiving as well, but it was really the pork that defined the event.  We watched as they raised it out of the imu (basically a special hole in the ground).  You can't beat meat smoked all day underground!  Evan ate most of the food too.  We had seats on the far outer wings, which was nice for us to make an easy escape after we finished the meal.  Once they dimmed the lights for the post-dinner show, Evan was intrigued by the lights on the stage, but not long enough for us to really sit and watch.  Plus it was about his bedtime, so we skipped out on the rest.

We grabbed seats at the way back of the amphitheater to watch the kalua pig brought out of the imu, to avoid any outbursts amidst the rest of the spectators.  Evan particularly liked all the applause.

Day 7

We pretty much repeated Day 6, although we skipped out on the beach/lagoon and went straight to the pool.  We also walked down to some shops and had ice cream in the afternoon.  And instead of dining on luau food, we invited my sister and her kids over for a pizza party in our room.  My sister had just passed her promotion boards in the Army, so we had to celebrate!  Since we were in our room at dusk this day, I also got to see the sun set from our lanai.  Sadly, that was our last night in the resort, and all too quickly the next day had arrived.  We had to pack up and hit the road to finish our road trip around the island, before having my sister drop us off at the airport for our flight back home.

My cute little Hawaiian tourists.

Sunset from our lanai.

It's always the case that vacations go by so quickly.  With a toddler in tow, it certainly didn't slow things down for us either.  In fact, we had to learn that we couldn't see and do everything, to keep our expectations realistic, and then just go with the flow.  I feel we were very lucky that Evan behaved fairly well for the majority of the trip.  Sure he was scared to sleep in a strange place/crib, so he slept in our bed most of the time (the king bed in the resort was extra helpful in that case!), and he was a handful to keep track of during outings; however I think we also enjoyed the fact that we were experiencing a new place right along with him.  He got to explore new surroundings while we did the same, and that has made the memories from this trip something we'll always treasure!