Final day in Paradise

We seldom stay at super nice hotels and were fortunate to stay at Hyatt's during our Hawaiian vacation for a fraction of the usual cost.  The only bad thing was that the girls never wanted to leave the hotels because they loved the swimming pools so much.  After dragging them everywhere we wanted to go the last few days, we let them enjoy the pool this morning for one last time.  Trung took them while I packed everything up and picked up a couple smoothies (Chunky Monkey, of course) for breakfast.  The we stopped by a restaurant on the way to the airport for our last meal of Hawaiian cuisine.  We had such a wonderful time in Hawaii and will definitely not wait another nine years before returning.  Aloha!

Sophie getting some air

Only clear water

The Grand Hyatt, probably the nicest hotel we have ever stayed

The floats that the girls acquired after other guests left them behind

Sophie's favorite part of the room: the toilet that sprays and cleans your undercarriage

Lydia loved the blue float so much that she wanted to deflate it and bring it back home.

The pleasant drive out of Poipu

Yes, until we meet again.

Lydia and Sophie drew pictures for the flight crew; they loved them so much that they hung them up all over.

Beaches

Our last day in Hawaii, we checked out the beaches on the north shore.  After picking up snorkel equipment and some sandwiches for lunch, we arrived at Hanalei Bay Beach right around lunchtime.  The beach was beautiful and serene, but was pretty empty and had no reefs to snorkel above, so we decided to have lunch at the next beach, Haena Beach.  I thought I lost my chance to see a turtle after freaking out in Maui, but the moment I put my head under water, a turtle swam by!  It was amazing!  After snorkeling for a little while, we moved on to the last beach (literally, the road dead ends), Ke'e Beach.  

The reefs were so close and your body barely floats over them, but it was breath-taking and at times, pretty scary because they seemed to go on forever.  Trung and I took turns snorkeling as the girls built sand castles.  After we had our fill of snorkeling, we took a little hike to catch some spectacular views.  The girls didn't complain quite as much as the day before, which was definitely a good thing.     

 The picturesque Hanalei Bay Beach

 So many sailboats

My only picture of Haena Beach

Ke'e Beach

The girls' sand castles kept getting washed away

Stoked about snorkeling

The water was so clear and the fish came so close to shore

First overlook .25 miles into our hike

The girls were ready to head back down after this picture

Second overlook .5 miles in

 Green peaks

The girls entertained themselves singing Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" on the hike back down

 Sunrise our first day and sunset on our last

 The perfect end to a wonderful vacation (excuse the sunscreen overload)

Love these two

Waimea Canyon & Napali Coast

Words cannot describe how beautiful Kauai is, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves, though they don't do it justice.

Waimea Canyon (notice the waterfall on the far left)

It truly looked like a painting

Trung has been into taking pictures of clouds

Just over the hill

The Napali Coast

We considered taking a catamaran along the coast, but heard it can be a bit rough, so we will save it for next time.

We took a slight detour and hiked down to see another view of the canyon

The girls were exhausted and quite moody during the hike, but we made it

Split tree

A closer look at the waterfall

Maybe we can hike closer when the kids get older

Kauai's famous ice cream

Double licking

Poipu Beach, a few miles from our hotel

Around town

We decided to drive up to the town of Koloa for brunch and found out from the restaurant's hostess that a parade was happening in about an hour.  Since we didn't have anything planned that day (or any day in Kauai), we stuck around to enjoy the festivities.

We sat right behind the entertaining emcee.

Apparently we caught the tail end of a week full of activities celebrating the town's "plantation days"

The parade was simple with lots of old cars

 and beautifully decorated floats.  Sadly, it came to an abrupt end when an elderly lady sitting right next to Trung suffered from heat stroke and the local paramedics had to be rushed in.

After the parade, we got some awesome, very filling smoothies at Aloha Aina Juice bar located inside a grocery store.

This Chunky Monkey smoothie was to die for!

We took the smoothies to see a blow hole located nearby where a family of chickens welcomed us.

There she blows!

My friend Katja happened to be vacationing a five minute walk from our hotel, so we met her family at the pool.

We spent the remainder of the day checking out the hotel, playing in the game room, and chilling at the pool.

Island hopping

After five wonderful days in Maui, we boarded a tiny plan and hopped over to Kauai to spend the last four days of our vacation.  Trung and I had never been to this island and were very excited to share the discovery with the kids.

Lydia lost a tooth earlier on during our trip

What happens when a stubborn kid refuses to rub in her sunscreen

Boarding our Island Air plane to Kauai with a layover on Oahu

We hung out with wild turkeys as Trung got our rental at Hertz

A farmer's market located near the airport happened to be going on the day and around the time we arrived, so we stopped by

$5 for a bag of tomatoes, 3 papayas, a bunch of apple bananas, a mountain apple, and a couple of passion fruits...what a deal!

The girls were happy when we finally arrived at the hotel because they wanted to hit the pool.  A greeter with leis was ready for us.

My Hawaiian girls

The garden view from our room

Lydia was anxious to go on the infamous slide and we caught it just thirty minutes before it closed.

Sophie let out a scream each time she hit the water

Lydia's lagoon

I stayed out of the water to let my cut heal an extra day, while the rest of the family had a ball

How we should spend every evening.

We let the girls have the queen bed, but we still sent up "safety nets" in case Sophie rolled off the bed again