Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Part of the fun of this trip has been trying to get to all 50 states. We drove through Florida to Maine in 2022’s adventure home from Dominican, so we had a solid head start. There are some obvious ones that are harder to get than others. Hawaii has always been Madeline’s dream destination and this week we were able to make that come true. We broke the news to the kids at dinner on Valentine’s Day. Their reaction did not disappoint.

We had an early morning flight from LA to Honolulu so we dropped Roland off and got ourselves checked in to an airport hotel. The three kids settled in for a short nights sleep. We were up and at the airport with a perfect amount of time to get through security, grab a coffee and breakfast and board the flight. It was a nice change from our previous attempt at flying.

We booked ourselves a 7 days and 6 nights on Oahu at Waikiki Beach and were treating this like an actual vacation. While we might not be at home, what we have been doing and experiencing isn’t exactly laid back and relaxing. Don’t get me wrong – I love it – but a few days lounging around on a beach is exactly what I wanted. We landed at the airport, grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel. It was still only early afternoon by the time we got in so we managed to squeeze in some pool time and a walk on the beach before sunset!

We spent a lot of the time over the next week the same way as the first afternoon – hopping between pool and beach with a stop at the ABC store to fuel up for the day. It didn’t feel right though to come to Hawaii and only see the two square kilometres around our hotel so we did venture out a little.

Our first non-water activity was a visit to Diamond Head park where we got to hike the now extinct volcano that dominates the background to the beach. Luckily our breakfast server let us know that reservations were necessary before we set out for our hike. We got ourselves booked in, grabbed a taxi and headed to the park. We are a hiking family now, remember. The hike was definitely the hottest one we have done so far (yay!) but was worth it for the pretty spectacular views at the top.

After our climb, we rewarded ourselves with a night out at a Luau! I 100% recognize that this is a very touristy activity. I also recognize that at this moment I was a tourist in Hawaii, and sometimes you just have to embrace that. The girls got all dolled up and we headed to dinner. The Luau was great! The meal was delicious – like seriously amazing – and the kids got to try all of the cultural activities and go on stage.

Every Friday night one of the hotels sets off fireworks on the beach. We headed down just after happy hour to catch the show. The beach was not surprisingly very busy. As we were walking along we noticed thatthere were a bunch of kids shooting toys into the sky. Our kids were obviously interested in getting their hands in a set. We found the guy selling the flingers for some reason that we still don’t understand there was another guy who felt very strongly that we should not buy them from the first guy, and said if we bought them from the second guy, he would give us the $20. I’m fairly confident he did not think people would take him up on it, but he doesn’t know Jacob. Jacob gladly took the $20 gave it to the second seller and we walked away with 4 flingers. Those things continued to be a highlight of the trip and we spent a couple of evenings on the beach sending them skywards.

Other than soaking up as much sun and beach as possible, we decided to rent a car for one day to venture beyond the Waikiki area. Oahu is quite a small island, which makes it much easy to get around in a single day. We circled virtually the whole island stopping at a coffee farm, the Dole plantation, a macadamia nut farm and a beach on the opposite shore. The island was spectacular. We saw greenery and landscapes that look like nowhere else we’ve ever been. It really did make us excited to come back to the other islands someday.

Our flight “home” didn’t go quite as smoothly as our flight to Oahu – as soon as we got checked in, through security and to our gate, they announced that the flight was cancelled. Thankfully I was already standing in line when they let everyone know that the first 80 passengers would be rerouted on a different flight that night. Unfortunately, they hadn’t cleared that with the other airline and virtually no one was transferred. Hawaiian Airlines went above and beyond to get us rebooked and taken care of. We were given a free hotel for the night (a family suite in the Marriott that normally clocks in at $1000/night), free transfers back and forth from the airport to the hotel, food vouchers for dinner and breakfast. In the end it was a bit of a hassle but they made it as seamless as possible.

We all loved our time in Hawaii and would go back in a heartbeat. It will definitely be a highlight of the trip.