50th State!

On Monday morning I took the boys to the orthodontist, and once we got back home we started loading up the van, packing our lunches, and left to begin our drive to Maryland. Milo was VERY excited when he saw we had parked at the Seibert's house. Their home is definitely his home away from home. We stopped at a Target on our way to my sister's house to pick up a few things for the trip. We arrived at their home around 3:00 in the afternoon. My dad was also visiting them, so we also got to spend a little time with him. Yvonne very graciously allowed Paul and I to sleep in her very comfortable bed so that we could have a quieter spot to go to bed early in light of our early flight the next morning. Usually we fly out of BWI, but this time we flew out of Dulles, which is in northern Virginia. It's farther from their home, but we didn't have to deal with traffic delays given that we left her house around 4:00 am. I had selected a flight that departed at 7:00, but they had moved up the departure time to 6:30. Everything went smoothly with that departure. I had booked the flight through Alaska Airlines, but after they purchased Hawaiian Airlines, they changed the second leg of our flight to a Hawaiian Airline flight. After we landed, we took a train to the S gate only to find out that our flight had been moved to the N gate. We had to take multiple trains to get from the S gate to the N gate. After we got to our gate, we found out that we had pilots and the plane, but the crew was delayed. Waiting for the crew delayed our boarding by more than an hour.

Since we left Yvonne's house at 4:00, we didn't want to eat breakfast before we left. We brought blueberry Nutri-Grain bars for our breakfast and Ritz cheese cracker sandwiches for our lunch. The food prices at the Seattle airport are ridiculously high, but we were a bit hungry, so instead of buying sandwiches, I spent $16 for two large chocolate chip cookies plus two blueberry scones. Within the past 24 months we've been in the Seattle airport five times! The first time our destination was Seattle, a little less than a year ago we passed through Seattle on our way to and from Alaska, and in May we were in Seattle on our way from Phoenix to Baltimore. We don't plan on taking any domestic flights in 2026 so I think a lot more time will pass before we find ourselves in this airport again. 

I did a LOT of research when planning this trip, but I didn't think to research what food is served on Hawaiian Airlines' flights. I had booked this flight through Alaska, and I knew they didn't serve any complimentary food aside from Biscoff cookies. Hawaiian still serves free food! We got a turkey and cheese sandwich on ciabatta and a small (but very delicious) pineapple shaped cookie made in Hawaii. They also had more choices for drinks. The passion orange guava juice was SO delicious. I had selected our seats for the Alaska Airline flight, but those went out the window when this flight was switched to Hawaiian Airlines. They had Oliver by himself up near the front of the plane, Nadia and I in the middle, and Paul and Ian near the back. Paul took Oliver's seat, Oliver sat with me, and Nadia joined Ian in the back. Nadia and Ian were beside a window. Oliver and I were in the middle of a section of four seats. There was a man sitting on either side of us. This flight had free wi-fi via Starlink. We used our own devices and wireless earbuds on the first flight. On the second flight there was a screen on the back of the seats, but you had to have headphones or earbuds that connected with a cord. The only way to watch the free in-flight entertainment was to buy earbuds that weren't wireless. I bought one pair for Oliver and another for Ian and Nadia to share. Hopefully the next time we fly, we'll remember to bring both wireless and wired earbuds. Considering we left Yvonne's house at 4:00 am EST and didn't arrive in Honolulu until around 3:30 pm (which is 9:30 EST), it was quite an ordeal to travel to Hawaii from the east coast. This is part of the reason decades ago Paul and I kept choosing to go to the Caribbean instead of Hawaii. In light of needing to adjust to a 6-hour time change and how long it takes to get here, I am glad we are staying for two weeks.

I rented vans through Turo for all three islands. We had to walk farther than anticipated to get from our gate to where he had parked the Honda Odyssey outside a Starbucks. Our first stop was Ray's Cafe which looks like a hole in the wall, but the food was delicious, and the prices (for Hawaii anyhow) were very reasonable. Some locals were eating at another table. They could tell we were tourists, and they asked how we found out about the place. I guess not many tourists frequent this establishment! We don't usually bring much cash on vacation, but I knew there were some places (like this one) that were cash only, so I visited the ATM to get more cash before we left our home. The owner was very nice. He gave Oliver a free ice cream novelty, and when I tried to include a tip, he gave me some of the money back. Oliver's portion was so large, that he only ate half of his meal. He finished the other half for dinner on Wednesday night. Because we were behind schedule and tired, the kids asked if we could skip the hike to the waterfall we had planned to do before we checked into our Airbnb. We only stopped at Safeway to buy some groceries. We bought bread, turkey, cheese, ice cream, some fruit, cookies, one box of Poptarts (for Ian and Paul), and one bottle of reef safe sunscreen. Our bill was $109! We basically bought food for the 5 of us for 3 lunches, breakfast for 2 of us for 2 days, dessert for 4 of us for 3 days, and sunscreen. We had packed oatmeal packets for Nadia, Oliver, and I to eat some days for breakfast. I cannot fathom what families must spend on groceries per year if they live in Hawaii. Even at those high prices (ex. we paid $14.27 for 6 nectarines), we still saved money compared to eating out.

Our first Airbnb is a unit in a 38-story building near Waikiki Beach. We have three queen size beds, a dining room table that seats 8, a couch, and a patio. There are many things here in the unit for use at the beach (snorkels, life vests, beach chairs, beach towels, flippers, beach umbrellas, flip flops, sand toys, boogie boards, etc.). Parking in the garage is also included. We went to bed at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, which meant we had been up for 22.5 hours straight. Everyone except me was able to sleep until a reasonable time the next morning. I woke up at midnight and got very little sleep over the next 5 hours that I stayed in bed. I had a bad headache due to sleep deprivation two nights in a row. Thankfully, I got more sleep on Wednesday night. I still work up too early this morning, but I didn't wake up *as* early, and I had again gone to bed at 8:00 pm. Hopefully by tomorrow my body will have completely made the six-hour time change. I am determined to stay up later tonight.

The plan had been to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay on Wednesday morning, but my attempts to get us reservations when they became available at 1:00 pm on Monday had been unsuccessful. This was disappointing at first, but in light of our flight delay in Seattle, it made it easier for me to rearrange our schedule. I moved our visit to the National Memorial Cemetery from yesterday to today and moved the visit to the Tantalus lookout and hike to Manoa Falls from Tuesday to Wednesday. Yesterday our first stop was Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. This was a very easy trail to hike although there was a significant elevation change. It ended up being our favorite hike of the day. The views were gorgeous, and at the beginning there was a beautiful rainbow! 

Next, we drove to Kailua Beach Park. Originally, I had planned for us to swim at Lanikai Beach, but due to the fact they don't have parking or a bathroom, we opted to do the Kailua Beach instead (they are very close to each other). We walked from the Kailua Beach Park parking lot to the Lanikai Pillbox trailhead. This hike was *much* harder. The views were beautiful, but if I had to do it over again, I would have skipped it. Ian was the only one who did the entire trail. I came extremely close to passing out at one point due to heat exhaustion. I fell twice, and the second time I skinned my knee pretty badly. The beach was gorgeous. The water wasn't cold, and the view was lovely. The boys had fun riding the waves with the boogie boards. 

We ended the day by driving to two lookouts and doing one last hike. The second lookout (Tantalus) gave us a gorgeous view of Diamond Head. Our final hike of the day took us through a rainforest to Manoa Falls, which was where scenes for multiple movies (including Jurassic Park) were filmed. The third trail was harder than the first trail we did and much easier than the second one. At the end of the day we decided that our two favorite parts of the day were the first hike and swimming at the beach. We got our dinner from Rainbow Drive-In and brought it back to eat in our unit since Oliver was reheating leftovers for his dinner. Ian had a meal that consisted of two eggs, coleslaw, fries, and Arabiki sausage (Japanese). 

Some days, like yesterday, the activities don't cost any money. Today was our biggest splurge for this vacation in terms of the cost of activities. For quite a few years Nadia has wanted to swim with dolphins. I had asked Aunt Janet where the best place would be to do that, and years ago she told me off the coast of Oahu. Since today is also Oliver's 13th birthday, I asked him what special activity he wanted to do during our vacation, and he picked parasailing. The kids (to Paul's chagrin) picked the highest height (1,000 feet). Our day started with going to Liliha Bakery to try their famous Coco Puffs. Paul had a cheese Danish, and the kids and I shared six Coco Puffs. Our next stop was a three-hour boat tour off the west coast of Oahu that departed from Wai'anae. This trip was amazing. They located three different large pods of spotted dolphins. The first was the largest pod, and it was a nursery pod that included baby dolphins. Each time we jumped in the water and snorkeled around the dolphins. Our boat went near two other pods of dolphins. One was a pod of spinner dolphins. It's illegal to swim with them. They were very close to our boat, and some of them jumped out of the water. The third species of dolphins we saw were false killer whales. It would have been legal to get in the water with them, but they were swimming way too fast. Our last snorkeling spot featured several sea turtles and a few different kinds of fish. All in all, it was an amazing tour. On our way back to Waikiki Beach, we made a brief stop at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific located in Punchbowl Crater. We had dinner at the Steak Shack located right on the beach. All of the meals come with rice and a salad. Four of us had chicken, and Paul had steak. The meals were delicious. Ian and Nadia usually avoid eating rice at all costs, and they even ate some of their rice. Paul said it was the best meal he'd had on the trip thus far. It was cool having the waves crashing very close to us while we ate our meal. We ended the day with parasailing, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We have 1.5 days left on Oahu as we're flying to Hawaii (aka "Big Island") on Saturday.