02
2012
Tulip Festival
We’ve traveled to the tulip festival a few other years but haven’t made it up there with Jacoby yet. We had a really nice weekend so we – along with the rest of Seattle it seemed – headed north to the Tulip Festival in Mt Vernon. It was a peak weekend for tulips and everything was beautiful! I’m not going to say too much more, just post pictures.
15
2012
Aulani
A few people have asked about the Disney Aulani Hotel so I took a bunch of pictures while we were there. In a few words – it was an amazing place to stay. The hotel was beautiful, the pools were awesome and the beach was really great for little kids since it was sheltered from waves. We only had 2 complaints: the food was very expensive and it felt kind of crowded. It was completely booked while we were there and most deck chairs were filled all day long. Overall though we’d love to go back sometime.
The lobby:
Looking out from the lobby over the pool area below:
The beach:
The “snorkeling” pool. They actually have a pool with lifeguards stocked with tropical fish that you can snorkel in
The little kids play area. Jacoby actually hated it because the water sprayed all over but lots of other kids seemed to like it
The “lazy river”
Looking back at the lobby from the pool area
The view from our room. We had a “garden view” room which was really more a view of the spa down below and the hotel next door. But look – there is the ocean in the middle!
15
2012
Hawaii Part 2
I’m not sure I even mentioned in our last post how SAD we were to leave the Disney resort. Things to remember for the next trip – don’t go from a really nice hotel to a dumpy one. Start off in the bad one and then move up. Aulani was so calm and peaceful and Waikiki Beach was so… busy! I was so surprised how big Honolulu is, how bad the traffic is and how built up Waikiki Beach is. Ryan and I got a preview of it early in the trip when we did a day trip to Waikiki for surf lessons. Unfortunately I have no pictures from surfing… but I promise you that we both were able to stand up on the board and get a few waves in.
We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach hotel which was very convenient to everything. Across the street from the beach, at the end of the road for shopping and reasonably priced. The first full day we were in Waikiki we went to Pearl Harbor. We only expected to spend a few hours there but there was so much to see we spent all day.
Jacoby not so thrilled to be at “boring” old Pearl Harbor:
Touring the USS Missouri:
Those are some big guns!
We took a boat trip over to the USS Arizona which was one of unrecoverable ships that was sunk when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of men were trapped inside the ship and it was never retrieved from the bottom of the bay. They stationed a memorial that sits over the top of the ship:
Then we went over to the Aviation museum to look at some airplanes. Bumpa can’t get enough of airplanes!
Lastly we toured a submarine. I can’t remember the name because I didn’t actually on on the boat. I’m a bit claustrophobic on ships (I can’t believe sailors actually LIVE on these things!) and someone needed to watch Jacoby because little kids aren’t allowed on the ship because they don’t have all the safety precautions there:
At the flight museum Grammy bought Jacoby a “big boy” Lego set. I say big-boy because he’s only had Duplo legos at home and hasn’t been too interested in for a while. Lately though he’s been very interested in imitating anything in pictures. We have a play-doh kit at home where he has to recreate every scene on the box. The Legos were a hit – he LOVED following the directions and after a while started doing it all by himself.
The next day we decided to take a day trip to the North side of the Oahu. We first stopped off at the Dole plantation to see some pineapples!
Pineapple fields:
Being silly!
Then we drove to a beach on the North shore. Look at this hunky dude on the beach!
Coconut!!!
Fun at the Hard Rock Cafe
Jacoby was learning to take pictures as we were checking out. “SAY CHEESE MOMMY, GRAMMY and BUMPA!”
Being silly with Bumpa
Photos
