Monday August 1st

Monday August 1^st

The day began with the sounds of rain falling and birds chirping on Kauai at 6am. 8 of the guys had a tee time for 830 a.m. so we hoped it stopped before then. As per island weather, it stopped at 7 and out came the sun and up went the humidity. It was a beautiful start to the day.

We eventually got moving and made our way to the golf course a whole 300m down the road. One guy threw out his back the night before so we were down to 7. We had an amazing round of golf. Darren managed to win the closest to the hole and take a few bucks off all the young fellas. Overall score of 85 and very pleased considering the amount of ‘fluids’ consumed in the process…

We got back from the course and sat around for a while. The girls had taken the kids and gone to the Market for a couple hours in the morning and got lots of fruit and vegetables for the rest of the week. We packed up the kids and headed to the ocean for a few hours of swimming and boogie boarding. The waves were like Bondi Beach in Australia and very strong. You had to keep an eye on any kids (and a couple adults!) as there was even a bit of undertow on occasion. We met people from all over the US especially California as many of them prefer to vacation here.  After heading back to our condos and showering up, we packed up a few things and headed out again.  We made our way down to Dan and Jessica’s condo area and began the Wedding Rehearsal bbq.

Dan and Jessica (along with their parents) prepared Pork Tenderloin with potato salad, green salad and 7 layer dips. A great time was had by all as we stayed til sunset – which unfortunately arrives just after 8pm – and when it gets dark – it gets DARK! We got kids home and ready for bed. In a moment of weakness, Darren and Krista were talked into accepting Sienna(6) and Lucas(3) for a sleepover. This was going to be a long night…

Saturday July 30

Saturday July 30th

Everyone managed to sleep in until after 7 but we didn't get rolling til 9. We packed our bags intent to find a rental car and see the island. After riding the city bus for a couple hours yesterday, it was time to splurge a little.
We grabbed some breakfast sandwiches at Subway and headed to Budget. Every single minivan was gone on the island and we thought maybe a convertible would hit the spot.
After some serious negotiations and a couple coupons, we snagged one for half price.

The boys were really hoping for Bumblebee from Transformers but I couldn't resist the red one. Have always wanted to rent a red convertible to drive around on vacation. They only had two so I picked my favorite. A 2011 Chevy Camaro. What a phenomenal ride. Tunes cranked up cruising around Waikiki was fantastic. Squealing tires at Green lights was so much fun...

Alas, the gas mileage not so great! Ha!  Ah well, one more thing off the bucket list!

We cruised out of downtown and headed for the far north side of the island. Hawaii seems to be so lush all year around. We were amazed by all the different shades of green foliage. There were these really cool trees that looked like pine christmas trees but were some type of fern tree.
Oahu has quite a fee hills and valleys with spectacular views. It is very difficult to focus on GPS directions with all the scenery, the music cranked up and the wind blowing in your face ( only 2 wrong turns and detours!)
 After 30 minutes we arrived at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We went to the huge maze first and found the eight checkpoints. It was in the 2008 Guinness Book for largest maze in the world at that point. Afterwards, we had a ridiculously expensive lunch and souvenir shop. We learned how to look for the best pineapple and how to cut it properly also. We left after lunch and headed to the North Shore seeking some giant waves for the boys. Alas, the winter season is supposedly better but we did manage to find a great cliff diving beach at Waimea.
We parked a km away at St Peter and Paul RC Church and the $5 fee went to raise funds for their trip to WYD in Madrid in a week.
After walking down to the beach, it was apparent that we had to keep an eye on the kids as the North shore undertow should be taken for granted...
We spent a couple hours on the beach. Nicholas enjoyed watching the cliff divers/jumpers and joined them for 3 jumps from about 40 feet though some were 70-80 feet. Lots of people were doing backflips and belly flops so we stayed a while to watch.
After a couple hours, we headed back down the coast with the top down and tunes cranked and grabbed a couple pineapple cones at the Dole plantation. We headed back to Waikiki with a quick stop at Diamond Head crater. You arent allowed to hike it after 430 pm as it takes approx. 90 minutes to do so.
We headed back to Waikiki and sadly dropped the car off early as we didn't need it any longer. We wandered down the street crammed with thousands of people watching buskers and such.
I purchased an Entertainment book for $10 online a month ago. We grabbed a bite to eat in the food mart. We had a rack of ribs, fish and spaghetti. We got the kids back to the hotel, showered and to bed by 10. We had a busy day coming Sunday as we need to be gone by 9 to the airport to fly to Kauai at 10. Great day.

Friday July 29

Friday July 29


After a succulent breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage patty, hash browns and an English muffin, I headed out on the street to get my bearings. Having arrived in the dark with a tired grumpy family, we had hit the sack asap last night.
There was a guy unloading a Coke truck so I asked him the obvious question,
"excuse me, can you tell me where the ocean is?" seems it was only a block to the north so away I went. There were already at least 50 people surfing at dawn on Waikiki beach. I went for a walk down the beach for an hour and eventually made my way back to the hotel. I grabbed a small chai latte for Krista and was back at the room for 7. Everyone was just started to get moving, so a quick shower and backpack pack and out the door we went.
Back to Burger King for the Ultimate Breakfast for the rest of the family.
We headed a block down and caught the city bus to Pearl Harbour. We met three girls from Melbourne who were on a US tour from Hawaii/LA/Vegas and home...
An hour later we arrived at Pearl Harbour. Extremely strong military presence with Navy/Marine personnel everywhere, many toting two handguns.
After checking our bags, we bought the package deal to see the USS Missouri ( famed battleship since WWII and even in desert storm ) as well as the sunken USS Arizona and the submarine USS Bowfin (ranked 15/175 in sinking other vessels during WWII.)
Surprisingly, half way through our day we bumped into Kristas mom, sister Amanda and cousin Nicola as they decided to do Pearl Harbour on this overcast day. They were off on a your and we never did see them again that day. They are staying a block away from us in Waikiki.

We headed over to the USS Arizona after watching the video footage of the tragic events of Dec 7/1941. The sunken ship with hundreds of entombed soldiers was very disturbing but nonetheless very interesting.

We toured the USS Bowfin submarine. Quite amazing that they could house 32 missiles and that it was ranked 15/215 vessels in numbers of ships/vessels sunk. Alas, submarines suffered the extremely high causalities of the war.
We did a bit of shopping and headed out to the street to catch the city bus back to Waikiki. After a 15 minute wait and 1 hour bus ride through rich hour, we made it back to our hotel.
We quickly changed into our swimsuits and hit the pool for a couple hours. We ordered food and drinks which came very quickly.
We went upstairs to change and decided to wander around the ships for a couple hours. We bought some souvenirs and I found a nice dress for Krista.
We ended up at a tattoo parlor kiosk where we all got Henna Tattoos! Nicholas was very excited with his flaming soccer ball. Jacob got a dragon. Krista got a turtle and I got a turtle band around one leg. Hopefully this will not inspire them to get a real one down the road...

We watched some street performers and had some shaved ice with blue raspberry and coconut. We got the kids into bed around 10 and we called it a night. Good day!!

Off on the next adventure....

Well, the summer is cruising along and we are off on our next adventure! We arrived in Vancouver at 430 pm with all four of us. Only mishap was the boys leaving their backpacks at the Starbucks and Darren running back 30 gates to retrieve them...
Getting on our connecting flight and more updates later.....

July 28th

When we got on the plane, I sat beside a lady and immediately struck up a conversation. Her name was Elaine and she was going to Hawaii for 5 weeks for some closure. 
In getting into a conversation, she revealed that her husband has died a month ago in a freak climbing accident falling 80 feet off a cliff. 
The strange thing was that he was an experienced climber and had been around the world several times climbing anything and everything. 
We talked for a good hour about her life and 4 grown kids, all strong Mormon people who attended BYU(including the Hawaii campus). Such a sad and distraught reason to be going to Hawaii but I felt that she really needed to talk about it. She had a couple of rough weeks coming up returning to the scene of the accident and dealing with everything. 
Her kids are all coming sporadically over the next month to spend time with her (she's only 55). 
After watching a few tv shows before the satellite went down, I went to the washroom. On the floor lay 2 boarding passes with the name Moroz on it. WEIRD!
Alexa in seat 25c must have dropped them. I delivered them and struck up a conversation with the mom. They are from Calgary and her dad is from the Yorkton area so I'm pretty sure our Grandparents were first cousins. Crazy! 
It was weird chasing the sun as it never ever got dark. It was bright and sunny the whole evening!
Kids finally went to sleep at 1030/630. Arrived in Honolulu at 930(130am). Raining a bit so grabbed a cab to our hotel. Streets were hopping with people   
200 locals on every type of bicycle imaginable riding down the street. Got the kids to bed and time for some shut eye. 242am Calgary time but 1042 Hawaii time. It's been a hell of a long first day.....

'Sunday April 24th

Sunday April 24^th –

Waaaaaaah! Last day in sunny Mexico! Started a bit late as it was a late night. We got to the pools around 11 after checking out and storing all our luggage for the whole day as our flight wasn’t til 840pm.  Checkout went smoothly and we got 10% off all our food and beverages for going to the timeshare meeting (didn’t upgrade and spend any more money this year – phew!)  We soaked up the sun all day until 6pm and then headed to the airport. It is always amazing leaving the comfort and beauty of the resort, and immediately being thrust into poverty, garbage and animals on the brink of starvation. It is very alarming on the last few minutes of the trip to see that there is still a lot to be done in improving the quality of life for so many folks down here.

The cab ride was uneventful and we had an hour to kill in the airport. We got to see a bit of hockey in the pub making sure everyone was fed and watered before getting on our flight home where everything costs money and all you get is pretzels and pop.  We finally got a satellite signal about half way home and were able to watch some hockey and TV shows before arriving back in Calgary at 1240 ( 140 Mexico time)

As fate would have it, the gate wouldn’t work and we had to wait on the plane for an extra 45 minutes while it was being fixed, only to finally get off the plane with 2 other jam packed planes from the Mayan Riviera and Cabo so there was 600 people all trying to get through customs at 145/245. Randy and I went and picked up the vans and got the families packed up and home by 230/330 and in bed by 3/4. It was going to be a long day of recuperation at home tomorrow – but well worth it for an amazing trip with good friends in a very beautiful place. Cant wait for our next trips in June and July!

Saturday April 23rd

Saturday April 23^rd

Another beautiful day in paradise. Got up early and headed over to the Bliss to do some last minute studying for exam next week and check email.  Came back after 9 and got the family up and moving. We headed down to the pool and swam most of the morning. After lunch, we headed down to the beach and went for a seadoo ride on the ocean. It was very rough but lots of fun ramping the waves with the kids holding on for dear life.

The kids spent a while in the wave pools before we headed back to our rooms to get showered up and feed the kids supper. We hired a couple babysitters to watch the kids so we could have an adult night out.

We left them from 730-1030 and went over to the Rouge wine bar at the Palace for a cheese platter and 2 for 1 Caesars. We headed back to Tramonto for pasta and a nice quiet meal. Finished off the evening with a Flaming Coffee which was extremely cool! Headed back to the room for 1030 and got kids to bed. Another great day in the sun!!

Friday April 22nd

Friday April 22^nd

Another day starts at 530 am for no apparent reason. Packed up the laptop and books and headed over to the Grand Bliss to check emails and study for a couple hours. Reserved our chairs by the pool. Back to the hotel around 9 to find the family up and moving. Boys had a quick breakfast and off to the pool with mum by 930 while Darren studied til noon. The Minnings headed out at 10 to go swimming with the Dolphins and had a great morning. Not cheap, but one of those things you just pay the bill and do at least once in your life when your kids are just old enough so they remember it but the $100 CD of pictures is always a shock as you aren’t allowed to take your own when you are there.

We all met up by the pools after lunch and spent another glorious day in the sun and pools playing football and diving off waterfalls. We went for a walk down the beach and played in the ocean for an hour. Not a cloud in the sky all day and +35 everyday this week. Mid April is the totally best time to come to Mexico-especially if you are a sun worshipper.

We showered up at 530 and had the Minnings over for drinks and visiting. We headed down to the beach to eat at the Havana Moon – one of our favourite restaurants here. The kids ordered a kids pizza and it arrived shortly thereafter to shocked faces as it was a 14” pizza and huge! They put a bit of a dent in it and then headed out to the beach to play Frisbee and football while the parents enjoyed their surf and turf meals while watching the sun set into the ocean. We headed back to our rooms around 930 for a quick visit and called it a night. Last full day tomorrow. Hope to get over to the Luxxe and some other properties on the grounds to see what is here before we leave on Sunday night. 

Thursday April 21st

The day started off at the crack of 530 again as the stress of preparing for my final exam has kicked in and the brain wants to get up early and get after it. After heading down to the pools to put our towels out and reserve chairs, I popped over to the Grand Bliss to check email for an hour and get caught up on the NHL playoffs. I read for a couple hours and narrowed down the main topics and ideas for my exam and started prepping. Time will start to fly now that the weekend is upon us.

          After returning to the pool around noon, the family had had a good morning of swimming and breakfast. We all had lunch in the room and headed back to the pool for the afternoon. We headed over to the wave pools and had a blast for an hour while the waves whipped the kids around on the tubes and sent them flying off doing cartwheels along the walls edge. More relaxing and throwing the ball around til around 6pm when we showered up, changed and walked to the beach for the Fiesta. We were seated near the stage and the giant climbing pole. The 5 men climbed it, attached ropes to their bodies, and spun around 100 times before reaching the ground – quite the sight to see.

We headed to the buffet and loaded up several times on the many different foods to be had as well as a couple desserts. The girls bought necklaces with sharks teeth for the boys and they ate quickly heading out to the beach to play Frisbee and tag for an hour. The show began and had the usual suspects, hordes of dancers and singers as well as a guy with a rope and a horse/rider that paraded around the area while the matador sang a song. The boys found an 8 foot plastic pipe in the sand and used it as a pole vault as well as limbo stick and had more fun with that than watching the entertainment. We had 1 minute of fireworks and wrapped up around 1030 pm. We walked back to the hotel and showered the boys and off to bed for 11. Another busy day in paradise. Another one again tomorrow to be sure.  

Wednesday April 20th

The day started late for a change with Nicholas having a sleepover at the Minnings and Jacob sleeping in until almost 830. Wow. Nicholas arrived before 9 informing us that he watched a movie last night and went to bed at 1130. It was going to be a long day. We got down to the pool at 10 and the boys swam like demons all day. We took a break from our regular pool area to go over to the wave pools with the tubes and had a fantastic time. The boys finished painting up their clay figures and they looked fantastic. We bummed around the pools all afternoon – Nicholas Austin and Jake all did the ‘jump in the tube’ competition and we all had a good laugh. Krista had the most fun of all after partaking a little too bravely in the pool side beverages. She was certainly the life of the party for a couple hours!

We packed up around 330 and headed to the rooms for a shower and change and actually convinced the Minnings to head into the city to see the sights. We caught a 10 seater van cab right downtown to Pipi’s Mexican restaurant. Upon arrival, we were bombarded with taco chips, salsa, and pails of freshly made guacamole. They brought out free quesadillas and then the biggest margaritas you have ever seen. When our food arrived, we were astonished at the portion size! Everything was gargantuan and we barely put a dent in the food having to bring much of it home.

We walked down to the beach and the long sidewalk ( Malecon ) and walked a good chunk of the beach admiring the amazing sand sculptures of religious figures and Greek gods etc. We walked back on the beach for an hour and then caught a cab back to the hotel. It was a short adventure but very fun nonetheless. The life of the party known as Krista had faded somewhat profusely and went directly to bed at the crack of 7pm and was not heard from again. The boys all went down to the swimming pool and swam til it was dark. We had a good bit of exercise before heading to the room and off to bed for 930. Another fantastic day in paradise.

Monday April 18th

               We awoke at 8am to the telephone; presumably the timeshare people wanting us to come to a meeting only to discover that Randy and family were up and at em and wanting to go seek breakfast. We said we would see them by the pool after 9 when we got moving. The mornings start out a little hazy over the ocean but burned off quickly with the blazing sun peeking over the buildings at 10am and not a cloud appeared all day.

               We found some deck chairs beside the shallow pool for Jake and Jacob and a waterfall for the kids to jump off of. There were Tiled Lounge chairs permanently fixed in the pool for the adults to relax and we settled in for the day. The kids jumped in and out of the pools a thousand times while the parents got a bit of time to visit. We took a little tour and went over to the wave pools for an hour and grabbed lunch at the restaurant. We were fortunate enough to catch two for one happy hour on Pina Colada’s so the girls were happy about that!

We went down to the ocean for a while letting the kids run in and out of the ocean a few times, but retreated to the clean pools of the resort shortly thereafter. We spent the whole afternoon taking turns on the lazy river that circled the resort. We headed up to our rooms and showered up after 5 pm and headed out to the other resorts on the property to look for a new restaurant to try.

We grabbed a shuttle cart over to the Mayan Palace, the Luxxe I and II and found many restaurants closed by 6 pm or extremely expensive and not really family oriented. We toured the new properties briefly and they were absolutely beautiful with amazing foliage of every imaginable type surrounding the pools and sitting areas. We grabbed a shuttle back to the Grand Mayan and headed into Tramonto Italian restaurant. Food was fantastic and they had a pretty good kids menu as well. It was getting on to 9pm so we sent the girls to get some breakfast groceries for the morning and got kids to bed around 10. The boys had a pretty good sunburn in different areas from not putting on enough sunscreen during the day or wearing their sun shirts. Tomorrow would be a bit tough on them I bet – hopefully a good night’s rest would help a bit.  A bit of reading for the folks and they were out cold as well. Great first full day in Mexico! ekihe kids