2nd and final full day in Honolulu

Our time in Honolulu is coming to a close. Today was our second and final full day, and we leave the Hilton Hawaiian Village tomorrow morning at 5:15am for an 8:15am flight to Melbourne, Australia!

We started the day off on a bit of a later foot. The girls slept until 5:30, which made things a touch easier. We headed to Duke's Canoe Club for breakfast - right on the beach! We learned all about Duke, a swimmer / surfer Hawaiian man who traveled the world and was very well known abroad and at home. We took a taxi to Duke's and the girls got to ride sans carseats!

After Duke's we headed back to the room to get our swim stuff on, via a shop where Grandma bought C a new hat, S a new t-shirt and Ii a new dress.. Then we headed to the Hilton's "kid pool" which is a series of a small, warmish pools and about 4 slides. There's even a kid-friendly hot tub. C and Ii were content to play in the water and paddle around. But S hit the first medium sized slide and then decided she HAD to try the large slide. She went to the top of the stairs, with a bunch of strangers, and came down the slide all by herself (I caught her at the bottom). She was giddy with excitement and headed back for the staircase (probably 50 stairs up) to get back in line. She did that big slide no less than 20 times, and the final 3-4 times, I didn't have to wait at the bottom for her. She just came shooting out only to swim across to the exit and climb the stairs again. G and I kept asking her "are you hungry?" and her response was always "I am too busy on the slide to think about food." HAHAHA

We finally dragged her away from the slide only to find that her lips were a touch blue. But she was so so so happy and proud of herself. We warmed her up and then we headed back to the room for some sandwiches and fruit. Then we headed out for ice cream (Ii tried mint chocolate chip today and S and C had vanilla) and to take the "pink line" bus, a double-decker, open-air tourist bus that drives around Honolulu. The round trip took a little over an hour and we had a blast in the top desk enjoying the warm breeze. We came back to the hotel room and the kids took a bath - the first since they got here! We have definitely been in vacation mode. I had a "mommy margarita" while shopping for some snacks for the plane ride. We had a delicious vegan meal from "Peace Cafe" and went to bed early. We'll undoubtedly have to waken the girls at 5am tomorrow. Our flight to Melbourne is 11 hours. G heads back to Portland for about 10 days to finish up his work and to get the house ready for the tenants. Then he leaves PDX on Jan. 15 and arrives in Melbourne on Jan. 17 Melbourne time.