Today was a free day on our itinerary (see? I am capable of organising such a thing! 😉)

We started with a sleep in and a later breakfast (although not too late, as the buffet breakfast closes at 9.30am). We then split up to divide and conquer: Jarrod and Sam wanted to do a last session in the hotel gym, Ross and Zac went out for coffee and exploring , and I took Tim, Abi and Belle souvenir shopping.

We reconvened back in our room for lunch, which we picked up on our way back from shopping (Island Vintage Coffee açai bowls again!). Some of the kids were keen to find a 7/11 for a free slurpie (only on offer one day a year when the date is the same as the store name), Ross and Sam were keen to go hiking, and I was keen to explore the Ala Moana shopping centre, but we are just running out of time.

Instead, we marched down to Waikiki Beach for a final swim. After over an hour in the beautiful water there, Ross and most of the kids went exploring and hiking along the beachfront up towards the Diamond Head end of Waikiki , while Jarrod, Tim and I returned to the hotel. Tim had a uni meeting online to attend, and Jarrod needed to start packing – he leaves us in the early hours tomorrow morning as he has a 7am flight from Honolulu to Seattle and then on to Dublin and then to Manchester to meet a friend working over there.

Our hotel gave us vouchers for evening drinks by the pool each night, which we haven’t used each day, so we decided to spend some time there tonight. While there I googled the store we intended to buy Belle a ukelele from, to discover they closed at 7pm and don’t open until 11am tomorrow (long after we’ve gone!) So Belle and I left everyone else at the pool and hot-footed it down to pick up the souvenir she had been planning on for months.

Then I walked everyone down to the beachfront to watch our last Hawaiian sunset. When I was here with friends last year, the sunset was just magnificent and I wanted the family to see it. The photos don’t do justice to what we were able to see.

We then headed back to the Yard House for dinner – our final dinner as a party of eight! And then back to the hotel to begin the sad task of packing to go home.

12/7/23 Footnote: Seeing as I fell asleep before posting this, I will add that Jarrod left at 4.30am this morning on time and was at the airport well and truly ready for his flight. And when I asked the concierge to organise two taxis for us a few hours later, they provided two limos. The kids were at first concerned it was going to cost me a bomb, but they cost no more than a taxi ride, so the kids then decided such a ride helped them cope a little over their sadness at the holiday ending 😂

I am so SO thankful for everything we have been able to see and do, all we have experienced, and for the good health and safety we have enjoyed. There were no incidents except for one dropped açai bowl and Belle left a pair of socks on the first flight. We just wish we had more time to fit more in, but everything went so well, it is just hard to believe it is all over after all those months of dreaming and planning.

Today was an earlier start as I had booked a whole island tour starting with our pick up at 8.30am. We travelled the island in a minibus with our tour guide, Michael, who took me and three friends on a similar tour when I was here last year.

I had given Michael a wish list of things/places/sights I would like to include today, and he planned them out to fit best into our 9 hour tour.

We started with a deeper look at Waikiki, the went to a coffee farm for our morning coffee, and then on to the Dole Plantation to try some DoleWhip (pineapple soft serve ice cream). Michael was prepared to let us spend more time exploring there (there’s a train tour of the plantation and a maze to do for example), but everything had a 45 minute wait so we decided to continue on. Everyone is glad they tried DoleWhip, but I suspect only Sam would look for it again (sorry, Mel!)

Another item on my wish list was Haleiwa Town, so that was our next stop to explore, and also where we ticked off another item: shaved ice. We all agreed we enjoyed this more than DoleWhip or malasadas! We were also glad to find the Gallery of Clark Little, an ocean photographer that the older boys followed on social media. Michael suggested stopping there to paddle board or canoe, but we knew that would cut down time spent exploring the island so put that off for another time.

Our next stop was Waimea Bay and Waimea Valley, where we walked in to a waterfall and swam underneath it (all visitors were made to wear life jackets, which we didn’t think we needed, but enjoyed floating and swimming right underneath the waterfall once we were in there).

It was after 2pm by then and we were ready for lunch, so Michael took us to an area on the North Shore famous for all its food trucks, some having even been featured on The Food Network. I went straight for the same garlic shrimp plate I had last year, and influenced Abi and Tim who also had that. Zac came to lunch with us and had a poke bowl, while the other four walked over a hill to another group of food trucks to find their lunch.

From there Michael took us to Turtle Bay Resort for a swim and snorkelling. We arrived too late in the day to hire snorkels, but we were happy to just swim. Michael was happy to stay there so we could see the sunset or have dinner, but seeing as I had originally booked a tour finishing at 5pm, we didn’t feel we should extend it that much, especially when he said it would take 1-1.5 hours to get home from there.

We boarded the bus again and headed home, via Kualoa (where Jurassic Park and other films were made) and another lookout spot. Michael offered to take us on a tour of downtown Honolulu or to keep going around the rest of the east coast, but we were content with what we had seen, so cut through the mountain range and back down the main highway to Waikiki.

Once home and showered and changed, we went to the Maui Brewing Co. for dinner, and then the girls and I wandered through some markets while the boys went back to the Ross store for some bargains. I interviewed everyone over dinner to see what they wanted to do on their last (😢) day here tomorrow, which I have purposely kept free, and the older boys said today was the best day of their holiday so far. They just wished they had done the tour earlier, but this was the only day I could book Michael while we were here. Everyone is a little sad the holiday is so close to ending, especially Abi, Belle and I who have been accustomed to this for a bit longer than the boys! 😉

We set off after breakfast today for a swim at Waikiki beach, and then returned to our rooms for free time…..well, Zac and Sam used the lounge room in our room to do some schoolwork, and I supervised (ie. made sure they didn’t fall asleep or get distracted) with my nose in a novel while the others enjoyed free time 😉

Lunch was açai bowls and poke bowls from Island Vintage coffee (Abi had to tick that off the to-do list for Tom), and then everyone (else) set off on the public bus to Diamond Head. Ross suggested I shouldn’t do it because my left ankle is quite swollen and painful – I’ve diagnosed myself with Achilles tendonitis and am determined not to tear it – 20,000+ steps every day of this holiday has worn me down a little. We also agreed that I don’t have anything to prove as I climbed Diamond Head last year with friends, but also that I would slow everyone down if I did climb it.

So while the others set off on their mountain climbing adventure, I decided to attack my own mountain – of washing! The family took 66 minutes to climb and descend Diamond Head, including plenty of time at the top for photos. All this photos are on Zac’s camera rather than an iPhone though, so I will need him to send one for me to add to this post. In the meantime, admire this laundry! 😂

I had time to straighten both our rooms while the washing machine was going, and while the dryer was going I went for a swim at the pool and read a book!

Once everyone returned from their big walk, we went back down to the beach (a block from our hotel) for a refreshing swim and returned to get ready for dinner. A mix-up occurred when I sent Ross, Tim and Jarrod for pre-dinner drinks – funny but long story, but after they tried out Ruth’s Chris Steak House and the rest of us examined a Denny’s menu, we decided it would be simpler and quicker to get pizzas from Giovanni’s delivered to our room (and a 10% discount, especially given we have an early start tomorrow.

This morning after breakfast we spent swimming at the main beach just steps away from our hotel. We then picked up some chicken and turkey wraps and fruit salad for lunch from our local ABC store, and ate lunch in our room.

We then took two taxis out to Pearl Harbour. Unfortunately high winds cancelled the opportunity for the boat ride out to the memorial, but we were able to explore and learn more about the attack on Pearl Harbour that changed the course of WW2.

After a couple of hours exploring, we caught a public bus (much cheaper than the taxi, but it took three times as long!) back to Waikiki, going through Chinatown, the Financial District, and past the Iolani Palace on the way.

We then visited Ross Dress for Less to look for a bargain suitcase, as the handle on Belle’s snapped as we left NYC – on our trip 10 years ago, Ross found a Samsonite suitcase in Ross Hollywood store for $50 that served us well until last year, so we have our eye out for a similar bargain! Jarrod, Belle and Abi also joined Ross and I to explore a ukelele store – we had planned to bring an authentic Hawaiian one home with us, but we need to regroup about that because the prices of them surprised us 😬

Dinner tonight was at PF Changs, a Chinese restaurant on the Beachwalk, followed by an evening in our room playing games and watching TV together (which rarely happens at home anymore!). Zac has commented that he really should be doing some study, so if even he is recognising he has been away from the books too long, I will have to schedule some time for that tomorrow 😉

Today began with a sleep in for some of the boys – lucky them….my sleep has been all out of whack since I left home, and once I am awake I can’t get my mind to switch off and go back to sleep, which is a shame when I am waking just before or just after 6 every day 😩

But I digress….. Breakfast is served in the restaurant on level 4 each day here, with a very wide variety of foods including an omelette station where they are individually made according to the ingredients you announce. After breakfast we learned a shuttle was leaving at 10am to go directly to the Waikele Premium Outlets, so we joined that and went shopping!

The shuttle return trip was at a choice of 2pm or 4.30pm. We thought the later return time might be a bit long, so opted for 2pm, which was the right decision but we all had one or more shops we would have spent more time in if we had more time. Well….Tim and Sam were well and truly over the shopping after the first hour, so they sat in Hagen-Daaz with Ross and had milkshakes instead.

Jarrod and Abi like to plan ahead and think about their choices (which is my polite way of saying they can be indecisive and mull over decisions for a long time 😂), so they probably both needed more time, but Belle, Zac and I were satisfied with our purchases and length of time there. There was a Leonard’s Bakery food truck (amongst others) in the parking lot, so I did buy everyone a malasada to try (a type of donut Hawaii is famous for).

Upon our return, Tim watched a wedding online he should have been a guest at today, the other boys went to avail themselves of the gym on-site, Abi and Belle messaged friends and I DID LAUNDRY 🥳 The laundry room here is great, and open 24 hours (although I have lost my ability to stay up late – I’m nodding off early evenings because of our busy days and my lack of sleep!).

After the gym, the kids walked down to the beach for a swim, and then we went down the Beachwalk to Giovanni’s, a sports bar where I had booked dinner. Now as the tour director, I am trying to coordinate times and activities to maximise our experiences. I booked dinner early enough (and even discussed with our waitress how) to see the Friday night Fireworks, a tradition that has been put on by Hilton Hawaiian Village every Friday night since 1988. I had heard about and read about these fireworks, so my expectations were high.

We left the restaurant at 7.53pm and headed towards the beach. As we turned the corner we could see the reflection of the fireworks on a building as they began. Before they came into sight, we heard applause and I checked my watch and it was 8.04pm. We hadn’t made it to a viewing spot and the fireworks were over within 4 minutes?!?!?! (And the waitress had told me we didn’t need to hurry because they could go on for up to 30 minutes?!?!?!). Even if we HAD seen them, they did not look as impressive as the June long weekend fireworks our local soccer club puts on over Oyster Bay!

Back at our rooms, Jarrod and Zac went to the spa, the others showered and got ready for bed, while I looked up the internet for footage of the fireworks we missed while walking towards them. I have now sent on the family chat links to two TikTok’s which are videos filmed of the fireworks, and can go to sleep ticking that experience off my list!

After yet another uneventful flight (thankfully!), Abi, Belle and I arrived in Honolulu, collected our bags and caught a cab straight to our accommodation where some very excited boys were waiting for us!

After catching up, we all donned our swimmers and went down to the main beach for a quick dip and to earth ourselves before we walked Kalakaua Ave exploring. We visited a market stall inside of the International MarketPlace, and we walked up to the famous statue where the boys had a quick swim.

Once we explored some more along that strip and the boys dried off, we lined up for dinner (at 5pm!) at The Cheesecake Factory. The meals filled us up enough that we chose two cheesecake slices to share for dessert to go and took them back to our hotel.

Our accommodation comes with two free drink vouchers per adult per day, so my photos today are mainly of the free cocktails we were given and cheesecake! 🤭 They are served at the pool bar each evening, so we sat and listened to the live music and supervised the kids in the spa. We missed out on Pearl Harbour tickets for tomorrow (there is a lottery released at 3pm each day for the next day, which is gone literally within a couple of minutes), so tomorrow is now quite free! Which I think will turn out to be a good day to chill – everyone is very tired after all their travel to get here and lack of sleep. To prove my point, everyone was in bed well before 10pm!

As we are all feeling a little weary, I thought a little sleep in might be a good idea. According to Belle it was a terrible idea, as we didn’t get to the front gate until 8.20 when the gates open at 8am! We could not waste any time and need to maximise our day at Disneyland! Mind you, there were no real queues at the gate to slow us down on either day. We stopped long enough to get Abi a birthday badge, and then the many (25,000+) steps began!

As we overachieved our original list planned for yesterday, today we decided to focus on the rides with long wait times that we didn’t do yesterday. The girls were worried about leaving me at the entrance of the roller coasters to wait for them, but I am absolutely fine – I’d rather sit and people watch than ride a roller coaster! It also gives me some quiet time to get a bit nostalgic – this is only my second visit (out of about ten 🤭) to Disneyland without my parents, so I spent some time “in memory lane” while waiting for the girls.

Abi kept a list of the rides in the order we did them. At home as Belle was planning this leg of the trip, I told her to not have expectations too high given it is summer holidays and 4th July as well, so we chose 10-12 rides we hoped to do each day. After achieving 26 yesterday, today we did 21 rides. The only ride not achieved at all was the new Star Wars one called Rise of the Resistance (which temporarily closed a couple of times during the day and had no fast pass and wait times over an hour for the rest of the day). We managed to do the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean both three times; the Matterhorn, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid and Mickey’s Runaway Railway (the newest ride in Toontown and one of our must-do faves) twice, and the girls even humoured me to do Its a Small World twice 😉 Crowds never bothered us, we only noticed them at the parade and fireworks.

We made good use of the Lightning Lane fast passes again, and also discovered the time saver of going single rider. At the CarsLand Radiator Springs ride for example (my version of a roller coaster!), the cars seat 6 in two rows of 3, so when say a family of four enters, there is a seat in each row left over for the single rider. Doing this ride this way, we got to do the ride twice, and I got to ride with Abi first and then Belle. This ride is one that is not eligible for the fast pass, but you can pay $20 per person to skip the queue. As we arrived, there was a 70 minute wait for the ride, which made us decide to go as single riders. We sauntered up the lane and were on the ride within 10 mins. I chatted to the couple next to me (their two teenage daughters sat with Abi in front of us and Belle was in the car in front), and discovered they had paid the $80 to avoid the line – the conversation became slightly awkward as they discovered we had not paid and made it onto the ride in a similar amount of time to them! 🤭

After another long but rewarding day, our weary legs stopped after the evening fireworks to share a Mickey Mouse-shaped beignet (pastry covered with powdered sugar) and a hot chocolate to determine our final moves. We planned to do Mickey’s Runaway Railway and Pirates one more time, but Abi suddenly felt unwell – she felt the hot chocolate was too sweet and mixed with marshmallows – but I felt as well as that, she had probably just reached exhaustion point. Let’s be honest, I have been known to break people on busy family holidays before now 🤭, and Abi was working full-time plus her part-time jobs right up until the day before we left.

We did the Pirates ride one more time, but decided to then head home rather than walking back through the length of the park to Toontown. Both girls this morning say they regret that decision and wished they’d done Mickey’s Railway again, but at 11pm it was the correct decision, especially given our transport to the airport was arriving at 6.30 this morning!

Poor Belle was quite teary as we exited the gates for the last time – she has spent months excitedly planning these two days, and watched countless hours of videos that gave her back stories and minute details of rides, and it was suddenly all over (exhaustion may have also been a factor in her tears, because…..well, going until we expire is how some think I holiday 😉). Through her tears she was very thankful she was able to join Abi on her adventure.

Today’s post is being written as we wait for the plane to depart from LAX to Hawaii. After falling into bed after midnight, we were up before 6am to pack and meet our shuttle service to the airport at 6.30am. We did not have time to have the breakfast included at our accommodation (it opens at 6.30am), so once we checked our bags in we stopped at Starbucks for coffee (acceptable, but not as good as at home) and chocolate croissants for our breakfast (acceptable, but not as good as the Mille-Feuille Bakery on the Upper West Side) 😉

Belle is still sad this morning that we are leaving Disneyland, but also that the girls’ trip is coming to an end. Abi is feeling much better after a good sleep, and I will make sure she has some decent sleep tonight as well (after all, I have monitored her sleep and eat schedules for nearly 21 years now….). While Belle and I bought Mickey Mouse ears to wear while at Disney, Abi brought from home the pair she bought here on our last trip 10 years ago to save me money. I did tell her to choose another shirt/bag/something as a souvenir of this trip, but between being low maintenance, indecisive and exhausted, she never chose something so is leaving with her birthday badge, and with wonderful memories of her girls’ trip 😉

Up at 6.30am to get ready and have breakfast in the restaurant downstairs and be at the front Disneyland gate before 8am (per Belle’s instructions- this part of the trip she planned!).

26 rides today. Almost 20,000 steps. Plus Parade plus 4th July fireworks. Lunch at the Hungry Bear restaurant where Mickey-shaped beignets were a favourite (like a donut covered in powdered sugar). Home at 11pm, exhausted but thankful for great weather, no waiting line longer than 20 minutes (helped by use of the Lightning Lane fast pass). Now need to sleep to be able to do it all again tomorrow! 😊🇺🇸

We had to leave behind the Upper West Side and our little French bakery today 😢 We are all quite sad about our time in NYC coming to an end, although the girls say what helps them overcome their sadness is the next stop of Disneyland, and what helps me overcome my sadness is…..the fact our next accommodation has a guest laundry!! 🥳

Our driver was waiting for us as we checked out, and took us through the Lincoln tunnel and into New Jersey to reach the Newark Liberty airport. Check-in and security went well considering we had no idea what we were doing and the airport is full of people. We had a couple of hours waiting at our gate before departure, during which time we sorted and shared the hundreds of photos we took in New York.

My reflections of New York: not long enough! Although I recognise we always had a very ambitious schedule which we were never going to fully complete, and I feel we did well with what we fit in. I loved where we stayed, and the fact it is walking distance to Central Park (which I love and could visit very regularly if I lived there), but I think next time I would actually spend half a week each in two locations – down in the Financial District to easily access Brooklyn, DUMBO and the Statue of Liberty and see some shows, and then Upper West Side again to explore from Columbus Circle on up.

Of course my thinking is biased by the fact that the week we were there was summer break, so no shows were on at Carnegie Hall or around the Lincoln Centre, shows that we definitely would have considered given Abi’s future career if we could have.

We also missed two things in particular because opening hours changed in the months between my initial planning and our arrival, and I didn’t double check. I had written down to visit the National Jazz Museum in Harlem on the weekend, forgetting it was closed on Sundays, and I had intended to do a free tour of the NY Public Library at 2pm on Sunday, but over the summer it is closed for renovations. Both were my stuff up though.

But we are so thankful for everything we have seen and done, and for good health and legs that kept going! The weather was fantastic – it rained on our last night there but never affected our plans – and we felt very safe. Being a harbour city, the mayor is taking in refugees from other states and putting them up in hotels, which has some tourists complaining online, but we didn’t see any of that, and I think it is only happening around Times Square. The main guests at our hotel were airline crews. I had read online that the city smells of weed everywhere because now it is legal there the locals smoke it constantly on every street corner. While that was true in some places, it didn’t bother us, we just really noticed it as we would cross the odd road.

We had another uneventful flight to LAX, and caught a shuttle to our accommodation at Anaheim (after Abi and Belle recognised a celebrity and bravely asked for a photo with him!). We checked in and then…..DID LAUNDRY!!!!!! We are actually staying literally next door to the hotel we stayed in 10 years ago, so we wandered over there to reminisce while the washing was on, and had a milkshake at the Cold Rock as we were not fed on the 5 hour flight.

Waiting for the dryer load to finish, I had a little siesta, so the girls went and collected it and brought it all back to the room to fold. Then we went over to Downtown Disney to explore and had dinner at Tortilla Joe’s (one Mexican caesar salad between the three of us because the meals are so big!). Belle is beside herself with excitement and very much looking forward to tomorrow!!

Our last day in NYC! We held a meeting over breakfast to review what we have not yet done that we still want to do, so those decisions would direct our last day here.

After our morning routine, we headed over to Pier 83 to take a Circle Line cruise. It went down past Hudson Yards, New Jersey, the Financial District, Governor’s Island, Ellis Island, and under the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. The boat also hovered near the Statue of Liberty to give plenty of time for photos. Seeing the crowds lining up on that island to climb the Statue made me glad we had decided not to do that – the queues were very long and they were standing in the sun, and today is the hottest day we’ve had here. We are all a little sunburnt on our arms and legs from our time on the water.

Once we were back at the Pier, we travelled back to the Upper West Side to another bookstore Abi wanted to explore: Shakespeare & Co. While there was a cafe inside the bookstore, we noticed a little diner next to it that looked authentically like one would expect an American diner to look, so decided to have lunch in there instead. The Westside Diner fed us all omelettes for lunch (such an extensive menu, and we all separately picked an omelette!), and then we explored the bookstore.

From there we went a few more blocks to return to Central Park. One place our pedicab tour yesterday didn’t get to was Belvedere Castle, so we walked through the Ramble to there, and then bought some fruit (large cups of freshly cut fruit for $5) from a cart vendor at the exit and sat and enjoyed some mango and watermelon while we people-watched. Well…..Belle people-watched, while Abi and I were on the lookout for anything suspicious seeing as many Law & Order scenes occur in The Ramble.

From there we walked back down W77th Ave to our hotel, stopping briefly at a local public school that has a market every Sunday in their grounds (Grand Bazaar NYC). It was a good excuse to explore an NYC public school, and see how another Art/Craft-type festival is done!

Back at our hotel we freshened up and headed to the East Village, another neighbourhood to explore with another bookstore Abi wanted to review. This bookstore was HUGE, with 18 miles of books over three floors! We bought a Golden Book about New York City to keep as a souvenir, and walked two blocks down to the famous Joe’s Pizza for “a slice” for dinner (one of the items the girls mentioned this morning that they still wanted was a NY slice of pizza!).

We then caught a taxi back to our hotel for the last time, and I am sitting in bed at 8.30pm writing this while the girls pack their bags while watching a Star Wars movie on the TV we haven’t had time to turn on! We have an early start in the morning to get to the airport for our flight to LA, but have all agreed it is really exciting to be in bed so early after so many long and busy days 🙂