So for my 30th birthday, Lateef got me an AWESOME present. He took not only the whole family, but my mom as well, to Honolulu. Now I'm not going to lie; the trip was about a 7 out of 10 and I can't say I would do it again in the near future but we now have some guidelines to travel by.
It's funny because initially, I was so worried about the long 6 to 7 hour flights with the girls, I didn't even worry about the rest of the trip. So wouldn't you know the flights ended up being a complete breeze. Myara was only fussy for about 10 minutes on the way there as we were about to land (a lady even complimented me on how well behaved the girls were) and on the way back, both girls slept the whole way.
What I didn't anticipate was how the time change, routine change, environment change and overall CHANGE would affect the girls. Needless to say, they were cranky at times which in turn made Lateef and I cranky at times and that was no fun. And not that the trip was just a sea of cranky, but we did deal with a lot more tantrums than we were used to back home.
We also had decided not to get a rental car and use the bus or walk everywhere we went. It actually wasn't a horrible plan and we were able to get around easily. But, for some of the "excursions" I had initially planned that were further away, with melt downs possible at any moment, we ended up forgoing a few things because we didn't want to risk longer than 30 minutes on a bus.
Ultimately, we ended up staying on the resort for all beach/swimming fun and ultimately I questioned why go to Hawaii when we could go to San Diego and stay on a resort and get the exact same thrill. I guess our rules for travelling for the next few years are now: 1) We won't go longer than 3 days 2) It should always be close to a weekend to avoid disrupting the routine for the week 3) We won't go anywhere that is longer than a 4 hour flight away 4) If it has a beach and swimming pool that's all we really need (Shells are a plus)
Gosh, this sounds like a bummer trip doesn't it but truthfully it wasn't. The weather was perfect, we swam in a pool and in the beach every day, we ate wonderful food (once we got off the resort) and I had the BEST boba tea of my life while we were there. And I added another great memory to my life with my family and it doesn't get any better than that, fussiness included.
 |
| We stayed at the Rainbow Tower at the Hilton Hawaiian Village |
 |
| The view from the room |
 |
| This picture doesn't even remotely capture how beautiful sunrises were from our room |
 |
| Early morning exercise |
 |
| We had to document the crankiness |
 |
| Have you ever seen a sadder child swimming. She pepped up soon after this picture but come on Amyra! |
 |
| Do you notice all the sand around her mouth. Yikes! |
 |
| Do you like Myara's pose? |
 |
| Waikiki Beach |
No comments:
Post a Comment