Last day of this view and couldn’t resist one more picture

One thing we have forgotten to mention throughout this trip is the State of Hawaii’s love of “Speed Humps” versus Speed Bumps. The hump is definitely more gradual than a bump, but we have cracked up each time we saw them… guess gradual is more vacation-friendly 😂

We made it to the airport and were SO thankful we were not on Hawaiian Air today. They were having crazy computer issues so no online check in and nothing could be done ahead of time. Tempers were HOT and the line was awful!

Then we got to TSA and were again thankful for God’s provision that we had the CLEAR screening ahead of time (TSA Pre-check). Actually, we bought it last year when we were about to miss our flight out of LaGuardia. LaGuardia is the Walmart of TSA: Only open one TSA lane on Holiday weekends. Later, we did find out that the TSA delay was partially due to this being a training day for the drug sniffing dogs who were smelling everyone who went through Maui on July 5th. (The dogs were really cute in their little uniforms.)

We made it through and grabbed lunch while we waited to board our first flight. I couldn’t help but snap some airport pictures because they are such a beloved moment in our travels 🤣

Even spotted Maui, the demi-god from Moana 😀

One more technically Hawaii pic, and we were off…

We left Maui at 1:30 Hawaii time, and landed at 9:44 West coast time. We watched a lovely sunset on the way and then Hello LA

Back on the mainland, we had 1 hour to grab a snack/dinner. Then we are off for our first overnight flight. Thankfully, we snagged exit row seats for a little extra leg room.

And since we saw the sunset may as well get the sunrise as well 🤪

Not sure I’ve ever seen the sunset and sunrise in same 24 hours… so can mark that off a list.

Bags picked up, car loaded and we are headed home… but not before picking up the one thing we couldn’t find in Hawaii…

Since Mom’s Cafe wasn’t in Hawaii, not a lot of stats for this trip other than mileage. This trip definitely wins as lowest mileage ever!

Maui 314

Hawai’i 454

Oahu 209

Kaua’i 57

Total: 1,034 

And that’s it… just one more state to go 🥹♥️

One more morning with this view 🌺

Based on my alleged snoring last night, and my perfect sleep score, I think my body likes vacation 😊 Wonder if I could get a doctor’s note to stay on vacation permanently… for medicinal reasons? 🤣

We said goodbye to the Grand Hyatt and made our way back to the LiHue airport. The view never gets old… there is literally every shade of green on this island.

One flight back to Maui, and one more day in Hawaii and we’re headed home.

A quick flight and we were back in Maui. We are staying in the Wailea section of Maui tonight. It’s about 20 minutes closer to the airport, plus it gave us a chance to see a different part of Maui. We were planning to ask about fireworks for later tonight, but the hotel was one step ahead:

We grabbed lunch at the outdoor lounge while we waited for our room, and added bonus we got a 4th of July picture from Charlotte of sweet Scarlett (Sampson wouldn’t be still long enough for photo 🤪)

I think the boys are a little worn out because once we got in the room, no one was terribly motivated to do much of anything 😀

It’s a different view in Wailea versus Ka’annapali but still beautiful

We headed out for an early dinner so we could be back for the fireworks. Our bartender earlier suggested a place in Paia, so we headed that way. The drive over was gorgeous as we made our way along the coast.

The recommended restaurant was too crowded so we wandered around a bit, and found a really neat place, Ohana’s. Great food and singer/band who was hilarious!

We went in search of some ice cream for dessert, and found the cutest food truck area. We also found Reefs Real Fruit Ice Cream. Oh my word – It was awesome! It was hard dip vanilla ice cream, missed with fresh fruit and then blended until smooth. It was a cross between soft serve and milkshake consistency and WOW was it good!

We hurried back to hotel to change and get ready to watch the fireworks from the pool. Because none of us have ever watched fireworks from a pool before 😁 Added bonus, the drive back was just as beautiful!

I think Hawaii may have saved her best sunset for last…

We watched the fireworks while sitting in lounge chairs in a pool in Wailea, Hawaii. That’s a pretty perfect Fourth of July 🇺🇸

One more sleep, and then we start making our way across 5,000 miles to home. We have had so much fun, but I think we are ready for home.

This may have been the laziest vacation day we have ever had. It went against every Clark Griswold instinct in me. Other than eat, we did absolutely nothing and it was wonderful!

We slept in and made it down for the biggest breakfast buffet we have ever seen: Pancakes, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Cereal, Yogurt, All Kinds of Fruit, Miso Soup, Fried Rice, Shrimp, Salmon, Seafood Ric, Eggs Benedict, Omlet Station… I cannot think of one thing the buffet didn’t have! It was pricey, but since it was brunch, I doubt we will need lunch. Plus, I’m fairly certain they lost money on these two…

As we waddled back to our rooms, we saw a little tiny Jesus ♥️

Mike and I decided to set up on the beach for a few hours and boys hung out at the pool. The waves and currents were a little less rough today, so the boys tried swimming in the Pacific Ocean for a while. The water is gorgeous, but man! These waves are CRAZY! We napped and read, and napped some more. Someone (me) may have napped so hard that their snoring woke them up. 😴

After a few hours, we headed up to pool to join the boys. Of course, we had to get a fruity drink and just enjoy being lazy together.

The boys headed for the gym for another soccer run, and we watched The Meg. (Glad we aren’t going on a boat tomorrow. 🤣)

We dressed up for dinner tonight at Tidepools here at hotel. Thankfully I remembered to get a photo, because all 4 of us are rarely dressed up together.

Dinner was delicious and was the perfect capstone to our time in Kaua’i. We will update the favorite island contest tomorrow, but I’m betting there is a new champ.

We have decided that Waikiki may not be our favorite place for morning coffee. I don’t think we would have a problem waking up in Kaua’i every morning. Although, a couple of us really aren’t interested in the view quite yet.

We don’t need to head out for today’s activity until 11:30 or so, so we took our time getting ready. We grabbed a light breakfast at the hotel and just enjoyed this view for a while.

Then it was off to the Koloa Zipline!! I booked this activity a few months ago, and Mike said then that he would give this a try. However, since we got to Kaua’i and in light of the prior motion sickness issues, he said this was going to be a game time decision. So, we arrived at Koloa Zipline, and after using the last bathroom before we took off, we headed to check-in. Koloa ZipLine is on the old Koloa Sugar Mill, so lots of old sugar cane fields, a hand-dug reservoir, and gorgeous views.

We got all of our gear, and of course had to love on their puppy named Napoleon. He’s suited up, still deciding…

We loaded the truck to head to the first line, and Michael go tickled different at all the different skins tones of our family.

Last chance – Gotta decide to jump off or head back…

Leo and Michael jumped on and were on their way. I followed for a quick line. We got to the other side, and waited…

HE DID IT! And more importantly, he liked it!

Line 2 got a little longer and faster so we snagged a video for evidence, that Mike not only ziplined, but loved it!

Every line got longer or faster or higher – it was so much fun! And we met the nicest families: one from Chicago and one from Los Angeles.

By the time we hit Line 4, we were flying like superman (which made you go even faster). But it was a little more uncomfortable for the men versus the women because of how the harness fit.

First, he’s not sure if he going to zipline and now he’s switching up positions?!?! Who is the Hawaiian version of Mike?!?!?!

This may be one of the coolest things we have learned ever… This is a Hala Tree, also called a walking tree because they will move 10-15 feet over their lifetime. The male and female versions will move toward each other. The roots are above ground and will grow, die, and grow in different directions taking the tree with it as it searches for a mate. The fruit looks a little like pineapple but it is definitely not – extremely bitter and quite the laxative 😬

At line 6, we could go upside down if we wanted to try. Micheal said “absolutely!” Leo said “if he can do it, I can do it.” And I said “when am I ever going to get this chance again?” and Mike said “yall are nuts!” 🤣

We took a break on top of one of the hills for water and some of the best granola bars I’ve had. One of our guides assured me that I could find these on Amazon. (I hope so since I have become addicted to Maui Chips which you can’t get on Amazon unless you want to pay $12 per bag??? Maybe Santa has a connection 🤪)

Before we started Ziplining again, our guide, Jaidan, asked if we wanted a dinosaur picture? We are on the island where they did film shots for Jurassic Park, of course we want the dinosaur picture! So Jaidan grabs a nearby plastic dinosaur and says look at the top of that tree and look scared…

Some people are getting tired… or maybe tired of my picture taking?

We made it to line 8, the longest (almost half a mile) and fastest (54 miles per hour). This has to be the longest zip line I have ever seen!

We jumped on, going Superman style to go the fastest way possible! Because why not?

BEST DAY!

After all that, we were starving, so we headed first to a little place Mike found online and our guides said was great! But they were closed on Wednesdays ☹️. So we tried another place they recommended that made Michael’s heart smile – Mexican food 🇲🇽 and the name… Da Crack 🤣.

Everything smelled delicious! Da Crack offers no seating, so we headed back to the hotel with our box of Mexican food and had lunch on the balcony. (We could have sold that food for 5x what we paid because it smelled so good on the elevator).

We decided to spend the rest of today being lazy at the pool and ocean. However since we were running out of clothes, we did do a few loads of laundry in between pool/lounge chair times. We dropped a load in the washer, set the timer on my phone, and scooted in every 43 minutes from the pool.

These two ♥️

Since we were still sort-of full from our late lunch, we decided to head back to restaurant at the hotel and have appetizers and desserts.

And of course, another astrophotograph 😊

Tomorrow is our last no travel day, so we are going to be as lazy as possible and enjoy every minute. It is starting to hit me that once this trip is finished, we only have one more state before we can check off all 50!?! And then we will have college boys.

I suppose we better start thinking of our next goal 😉

One last morning with this view and our little coffee shop, and then we said goodbye to Oahu.

We went right by what has become my new favorite road: Do you like it or do you likelike it? 🤣

Car returned, traversed the TSA line (and met the nicest lady from Lexington, NC who works there – she told us what’s been going wrong with Mike’s tickets that has forced him to go back through ticketing twice at every Hawaiian Airlines flight.) and were at our gate ready to go

We made it to Kaua’i, the oldest island in the Hawaiian island chain.

Rental car picked up… this one took a little maneuvering since it is technically an SUV but a smaller SUV. Smaller suitcase in the backseat, and we were off. We headed into Kaua’i and grabbed lunch at the Kaua’i Beer Company. The food was outstanding, and the service was … adequate. Honestly, I think we arrived at a time when most folks were just there to drink beer, so we will give them a break on being slow on service

Kaua’i is the green island and now we know why. There is vegetation/greenery everywhere! Yesterday we saw the area where they filmed a lot of Jurassic, but the scene with the waterfall was filmed here in Kaua’i. Despite those big mountains, Kaua’i is also the flatest island.

It may be the flatest and greenest, but it may also be the most beautiful. Or at the least the Grand Hyatt Resort is the most beautiful resort we have ever seen! We arrived and were greeted with leis and “alohas” all around. They definitely have it figured because you walk into the hotel and are greeted with this view: Ever seen anything more Hawaii than this?

And this place is HUGE! The resort covers over 50 acres including multiple pools, hot tubs, water slides, a lazy river and golf course. We decided we are glad we didn’t come here first, because we may never have left. For all the hustle and bustle of Honolulu and O’ahu, Kauai is just peaceful.

We got settled in our room, and then headed out to check out the beach. Again, it looks like a postcard. But these are definitely more the waves you would expect in Hawaii. Boys decided to go check out the pools, and Mike and I stayed at beach.

We finally found the boys in the pools and had to check out the fruity-drinks on this island too – the virgin daiquiris are delicious! Then we spent a few hours swimming floating and checking out the waterfalls and rocks.

We watched another gorgeous sunset… we gotten a bit addicted to watching the progression of the sunset – so if you see me standing in my backyard watching it at home, just keep walking 🤪

We had dinner at the resort and our waiter, who was nice but the fastest talker I’ve ever met, told us that astrophotography worked really well here since there very few overhead lights. (To save you the Google search, because I already had to do it, astrophotography is taking pictures of stars) Leo gave it a try and looks like the next few days of posts will now end with astrophotographic shots 🤣

Tomorrow we heading off resort for an activity 😏 and to check out the Grand Canyon of the Pacific 😊

We have done so well on this vacation only having one activity per day. Today’s activity was the Polynesian Cultural Center on the northeast side of O’ahu. But that activity wasn’t until later today so we enjoyed a nice slow morning. I think I could have coffee here every morning for the rest of my life

The bottom 2 floors of our hotel are filled with shops, an arcade and restaurants so we slept in and had brunch at the coffee/pastry shop.

Then we picked up beach chairs and towels and spent a few hours on the beach – with everyone else in Waikiki 🤣

After the beach, we changed and grabbed snacks since we are having a huge buffet for dinner and headed off to the opposite side of the island. We took a different route than yesterday so we could see other parts of O’ahu and so glad we did. We passed the ranch that was used for scenes in Jurassic Park, and saw some of the most gorgeous coastline!

The drive was gorgeous and even though there were a few twists and turns, it was nothing compared to the Road to Hana 🤣

The Polynesian Cultural Center is on every “must do” list on O’ahu. Honestly, I was a little worried that it was going to be another Pink Jeep Tour (see the blog post from Grand Canyon). But it was AWESOME! It’s like Epcot Center for the Polynesian Islands, with areas for the islands of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Tahiti. Each area had some kind of show, and lots of hands on activities and games. It has been open for over 50 years and covers 40+ acres.

The first section we checked out was the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame. Junior Seau, Marcus Mariotta, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Troy Palomalu are all Polynesian and in the Hall of Fame.

Then we began our visit to the islands. First up was Samoa. Their chief was hilarious! One of the ladies at dinner said he had worked here for 20+ years and was always one of the favorites. We learned to split a coconut, make fire and climb a coconut tree, the Samoan way.

After Samoa, we headed to Aotearoa. The boys competed in a stick game… basically, you stand in a circle with sticks. As you let go of your stick, and slide to another players spot/stick, other players grab your stick.You get eliminated when don’t catch a stick.

Then we tried our hand at spinning Poi bags… you swing these in a circle which seems easy enough until each hang is supposed to go a different direction. 🤣 The instructor told us they learned to do this when they were young and continued because it would strengthen their wrists for spear and stick fighting.

Each island also had a tribal tattoo you could get… so of course, we did.

Then we headed over to Fiji for lessons in music and coconut splitting.

Next up was Tahiti. We checked out the Men’s Eating hut and tried poi for the first time. Poi is made from the root of the taro plant and full of vitamin C and D. It is one of the main reason Tahitians didn’t suffer from scurvy like Englishmen did. And once you peel and mash the root, it begins to ferment and is good for a month. It really had no taste so Tahitians mix with things like dried fish. Boys also tried their hand at a game sort of like bowling. You rolled a puck on its side through 2 sticks. Then they also tried their hand at casting nets.

At the Hawaiian section, we tried a game similar to cup & ball, except they added an extra step of start in the cup, flip to touch the back of the cup, and then get it back in the cup… it almost made me cuss, so I quit 🤣

We briefly checked at the Tongan island but honestly we were right up against their closing time so missed most of their activities.

We then headed over to the Mission Settlement. This showed the influence of settlers to the island through Churches, schools and technology like the printing press.

(Pro Tip: we really needed a little more time, so I would give about 3-4 hours for all the islands in order to see all the exhibitions and activities in each area)

Next stop was the buffet. You never really know what to expect at a buffet… could be good, could be nauseating. So, we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best – and we were NOT disappointed! First, the building is HUGE!

Then the food: they had everything! A beef sirloin carving station, a whole roast chicken carving station, a tuna (sushi) carving station, Chinese food, Korean food, chicken tenders, fresh fruit, salad bar, sushi, seafood, ice cream… other than sweet tea, they had it all!!!

It was fantastic and we ate and ate and ate! Finally, we waddled out but not before seeing the smartphone charging station

We headed into the Pacific Theater for the show, Ha: Breath of Life. It told the story of little boy who was born on one island and then traveled to different islands for different events in his life.

They had dancing and story telling from each island as well as finger dancing and hula dancers, along with cool special effects with fire and water. It was so so good! We really didn’t know what to expect, but we all loved it! (Sorry, no pictures or cell phone use during the show)

We had the best time!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to O’ahu and head to our last island, Kaua’i. The scores in the favorite island contest have changed a bit: O’ahu is now the favorite of all four Browns! (No pressure Kaua’i but it’s going to take a lot to upset O’ahu.)