Hawaii 2008 with the Hiltons
Hawaii - June 12-22, 2008
Thursday, June 12 – Today was our travel day. We met up with the Hilton clan at the airport about an hour before the flight. We were surprised to see just how busy the airport was on a Thursday morning. I guess with school out for the summer there are more people traveling. Our flight was pretty full, but luckily we were had upgraded to first class. Unfortunately for the Hilton's they were stuck in coach, Row 40. The only good thing is that they had bulkhead and were right by the bathrooms. The kids behaved wonderfully on the plane. So did Steve.
After we arrived in Kona, Mark and Jean went to pick up the van, while Steve, Sue and the kids stayed behind to pick up the luggage. Within 20 minutes, we were on the road on the way to Kona Brew Pub. The kids were hungry and tired, but of course, we hit rush hour Kona traffic from the airport through just past Honokohau – it'll be nice once the construction is completed and they have 2 lanes in both directions. Maybe it'll be done for our next trip in March 2009.
After dinner we stopped briefly at Safeway to get some breakfast items and beverages to hold us over until we could get to Costco; then headed up to the Bay Club to check in.
We were given Villa 711 for our stay; luckily it's a ground floor unit because the kids were so excited about the place they were running around checking out all the rooms. It was pretty funny. I'm guessing they had a lot of pent up energy they needed to get rid of, but it was nice to see them excited. The gang then went to the pool for a night swim, before coming back and crashing around 9pm.
Friday, June 13 – The Hilton's woke up pretty early, the Vincent's stayed in bed until about 6:30. After we got up and had some breakfast, we went for a little hike – down to Anaeho'omalu. I think at first the kids were probably a little bored and hot, but once we hit the ocean area, there was a lot for them to see and do. When we got to Anaeho'omalu, the kids went in the ocean for a little bit. We even got to see 3 turtles! Then we made the long trek back, as the kids really really really wanted to go swimming. So the kids headed down to the pool with the men and the ladies went and did some grocery shopping. We got back just in time to feed everyone lunch, then we headed back to the pool for a little while.
We made steaks and chicken for dinner and with the day of swimming and sunning, everyone crashed pretty early.
Saturday, June 14 – The Vincent's got up pretty early – 6am. We're not sure where the Hilton's are. We had expected them to be up and at 'em by now. So either they woke up in the middle of the night and fell back to sleep or someone stole them. It's only 7am now, so there's no need to panic – yet.