6th and 7th day...wrapping the trip up!

 

 Friday we reserved to go beach hopping.

We were told to go check out a part of the island called Kailua.

Kailua is supposedly where all the celebrity's live and where President Obama stays

when he vacations in Hawaii. It also has the beach that is rated on the top 5 list of best

beaches in the world!

We were told to eat at a restaurant called Boots and Kimo because it had the best breakfast

on the island. We left our hotel around 9 and got to Kailua close to 10. When we found Boots and

Kimo we walked up and tried to open the door but it was locked!

There was a note on the door saying they were closed for the day.

We were so bummed!

Luckily we had spotted a crepe place just down the road so we

walked and peeked into the window and it looked legit!  

 

It was more than legit, it was DELICIOUS!

We each ordered a breakfast crepe with eggs, ham and such then

we shared a dessert crepe.

Can you tell we didn't hold back on food on this trip?

 



This coconut syrup, macadamia nut crepe alamode hit the spot.

This restaurant ended up being a yummy find!

We drove just another 10 minutes to find the heavenly beach called Lanikai.

Lanikai beach is sort of hidden. There isn't a public parking lot, its behind a bunch of

really nice beach houses. You park on the neighborhood street then

find a public entrance between all the beach houses.

The little  path from the street to the beach was beautiful and green.



I hopped on top of a rock to get this picture.

It really was so serene. 

 

Casey was a trooper the whole week with hauling that girlie beach bag around!

It was the best $6 HomeGoods find yet!

 

We found a good spot to sit and relax.

This beach is famous for its white, soft sand.

They call it sugar sand.

And also, there are no waves on this beach.

 

It was overcast on this day and it made me mad to be honest.

It sprinkled pretty much off and on the whole day.

I had high hopes the sky would clear up like it did on Wednesday

but it never did. In fact it started to rain pretty hard so we hurried up and

grabbed our things and ran to the car for cover.

 We decided to drive over to the North Shore, again:)

I wanted to go to Waimea Bay because its another one of my favorites and
we hadn't been there yet!

Luckily the rain had stopped once we got there but it was still pretty cloudy.

We made the best of it and laid down our towels.

Waimea Bay has a big rock cliff and is famous for people jumping off of it into the ocean.

I think they are crazy. There were guys doing back flips!

You can see someone jumping off in the picture.

I miss this stuff.

We stayed until we got rained out, again.

By the time we made it back to Waikiki it was dinner time.

We parked our car at the hotel then walked to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

We had talked about how the whole week had eaten every meal at authentic,

non chain places. So it would be alright if we ate there:)

Since it was our last night we had to end in the hot tub at our hotel!

 

Saturday our flight out was at 3:15.

I double, triple even quadruple checked just to make sure!

I wanted to get as much beach time in as possible.

I headed down to the beach at our hotel at 8am, ha!

I just LOVE the beach. Seriously, it's my therapy.

Casey decided to meet me down a little later.

 

It was so relaxing being down right in the early morning.

The sky was so clear and the air so crisp.

I was pretty much the only one on the beach for awhile.

Besides all the morning surfers out in the water.

Around 9:30 is when the people started coming out.

I loved watching all of the Asians. There were plenty around to watch!

Some of them must have been worried they were going to burn their fair skin.

I would see them in the oddest swim wear.

This girl for sure took first place in sun awareness!

 

Casey came down and joined me for our last hours of basking in the

Hawaiian sun. Yes I know, so unattractive but had to document.



We gave ourselves an hour to go back up to the room, shower and pack

all last minute things. We made sure to give extra time that day for everything
so we weren't cutting it close to when our flight left.
We grabbed a bite to eat, returned our car then took the shuttle to the airport. I

went to a kiosk to print out our boarding passes. When I typed in our info it said we

were too late to check in. I thought that was odd, checked our itinerary to see if I punched

in a wrong number. Tried again, same thing. A worker came over and tried to help us but the same

notice popped up again. He took our info to a front desk then came back and said that our flight

actually left at 12:50!! It was 1:10. What the HECK! That's when my heart attack began.

He asked when I booked our flights. In my email it said Sept 15th, almost 8 months back.

He thought it was because of day light savings our flight times were bumped up.

He said they usually notify people if that happens. I had received NO notification.

He told us to go wait in line (a long line) to see what they could do for us.

My heart had never raced so fast before. When we got up front, we told the man what happened

and his facial expressions didn't help calm my worries. He explained about the time change
and that we should have been notified, blahblahblah. Then pretty much told us they
only have 1 flight to Phoenix per day, and it just left 20 minutes ago.
I asked about a flight to LA then thought we could jump on a Southwest flight home.
Nope, same thing and it left at 1 as well.
He could put us up in a hotel and get us on the flight the next day.
Which meant we wouldn't get home until midnight on Sunday.
Most people would say, sweet another day in Hawaii!
For me I was mentally done and ready to see my kids.
Especially Lindi since she is my baby and was so sick earlier in the week.

With no other options I nodded my head.
While our boarding passes were printing I lost it and starting crying!
Casey was trying to console me and I was trying to be quiet about it
and not make a scene but sometimes tears are hard to hold back!
The man said he was going to get our hotel information and to wait right there.
He took awhile coming back. 
I was starting to wonder what was taking so long.
When he did he asked us if we would like to leave for
Phoenix that night instead. Uh, ya!!!!
He said he was able to get us on a flight on US Airways and that it left
that night at 10:15.
Hallelujah!
We later learned that 6 other people missed our flight
and out of them we were the only ones that didn't get the email about
the time change.

Relieved and excited to go home that night we then sat stumped on
what to do for the next 8 hours!
I wasn't about to sit at the airport for that long then sit on an airplane for
another 6 hours.
Spontaneously we hopped back on the shuttle to Thrifty
car rental and rented our car back for the day!
Only this time we were upgraded to this baby:

We decided to drive back to our hotel and hang out by the pool.

In front of us was a bride and groom that seemed to have just

gotten married!

We laid back and busted out our Mauna Loa's.

For dinner we walked to the back of our hotel and ate

at the Shorebird one last time:)

 

When I looked around I saw the same bride and groom right next to

us eating at their reception!

 

We grilled hamburgers this time and sipped on yummy smoothies.

 

 

By the end of dinner we needed to head back to the airport.

Luckily this time our flight hadn't left early.

We bought neck pillows, miraculously found a spare outlet to charge our

phones then boarded our flight.

We were spent.

 It was 1am AZ time when we took off and landed at 7am.

 

We were SO excited to collect our kiddos at my moms.

They had all just woken up and were about to eat breakfast when we walked in.

Lindi didn't really give us a good reaction to seeing us for the first time in a week.

Which is a good, that meant she was happy and didn't miss us too much:)

I am so grateful for everybody who took care of them while we were gone.

My mom said Lindi was sooo sick and just slept for pretty much 3 days.

She loves taking care of babies so I am glad they had that time together!

The boys were spoiled by their aunts and grandmas as well!

And just like that vacation time was over and real life presumed.

 

Mahalo Hawaii for an amazing time!

Hopefully someday we will see each other again!!