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Day 15 – Today we begin our two-day journey home. It begins with 4:30 am getting up and leaving Aulani by 5am. We returned out rental car and made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare. We had a 5.5 hour flight to Vegas and then a quick change to our 50min flight to LAX. We got our luggage and then made our way for the hotel shuttle waited 40min for the shuttle and then checked in. Desi left his wallet at the counter, and they called us when we got up to the room. We went back for the wallet and then had an extremely overpriced meal at the hotel and went to bed so we could get up 3:30 am for second day of travel home.

Day 16 – 

We got up and made our way downstairs, we just missed the shuttle and would have had to wait for 30min for the next shuttle, so we caught an uber to the airport. The short 4 min ride to the airport and then we were checked in for our long day of plane rides. First leg to Pheonix, then an hour and half layover and then to Nashville. When we got to Nashville, we were supposed to say on the plane but southwest decided to do a plane swap so we had to change planes after all. The gate agents were a bit confused, but we got onto our flight back to Boston without any real problems. Finally, back home! We were greeted by some really great signs on our door (Thank you Allards!) and by two pets who were quite excited to see their family. After a great 2 weeks on the road its good to be home, not the long struggle of jet lag! Who knows where the rest of the year will take us and where we will venture on next summer vacation. Stay tuned for more Kaplan Family Vacations!!

Today’s plan is pool, beach, snack, and relax. Desi got up early and went to the DVC morning dance party and got some give aways. He then went and found chairs by a secluded pool by the Ulu café. After Julie and the girls made their way down, we went and got pictures with Stitch. We did coral reef snorkeling in the pool area (yes it’s what it says it is). The girls each would get a chance to feed these fish.  Carrie and Desi went off to go in the lazy river follow by pictures with Minnie, Max and Pluto, and then went up to go make sandwiches for lunch. Julie and Ellie fed the coral reef fish and then did a lot of swimming. They found the infinity pool by the beach that we had not been in yet and that was awesome, we would finish the day in this pool. We all met up to get pictures with Donald and then made our way back to the chairs to eat lunch. Carrie took her turn to feed the coral fish and then we went to spend a few hours in the ocean in the man-made lagoon at the resort. Carrie and Desi tried the watermelon soft serve and Desi’s Invisalign took a sandy bath. Desi went to rinse them off and Carrie returned to the ocean. We then all returned up to the infinity pool and some hot tub time. We then wrapped up the day of relaxing. We all went back up to the room to get showered and changed so we could go to Monkey Pod Restaurant for dinner. Julie had Saimin, Desi and Carrie had the home-made gnocchi and Ellie had a burger. We had strawberry and chocolate cream pies for dessert, Carrie was very un-impressed. After a good meal we made our way back to the room to pack up our things and get to bed for a very early wake up for our journey home.

Today we are going to the southeast corner of the Island to the Life Ocean Park, where we will go for a Dolphin Experience, Ellie’s Birthday wish. We traveled the route we had taken a few times on the H3, the most expensive highway in our country. Yeah, really crazy look it up! We made it to the park right as it opened, we had to be there by 10:15 for our 11 am adventure. We made our way into the park and got ready to hang out with the Dolphins. We were in group 1 and our dolphin was not a pure dolphin but ½ faux killer whale. Turns out this park did some cross breading that biologists did not think was possible. We got to feed and pet the dolphin and each take pictures with the Dolphin. The Dolphin did a bunch of ticks with us including playing with a ball. After our Dolphin adventure we got changed and then explored the rest of the water park. We got to learn about their California Sea Lions. Ellie, Caroline, and Julie went into an aviary and Ellie had a bunch of birds sit on her head. We saw very large sea turtles, a molting penguin, and sharks getting fed. We took some pictures along the shoreline and then started our trip back to the east side of the island. Along the way back we stopped in Pearl City at Baldwin’s Sweet Shop to try their shave ice with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. This came highly recommend by the Park family. Ellie had lemon, Desi had strawberry, blue vanilla, and lemon, Caroline had passion fruit, guava, and mango, Julie had_______. I liked the shave ice with ice cream much better than the other shave ice we had. Julie liked both ways. We got back to the hotel; Julie and the girls went swimming; Desi went to go do a little shopping. We had leftovers for dinner.

 Tomorrow Desi wanted to go do a hike, Diamond Point Crater, but as of May the state park requires reservations and is already full for tomorrow. So we’ll just have a 100% pool/beach day and enjoy the resort.

The Polynesian Cultural center does not open until 12:30 pm. So we went swimming in the morning ate lunch at the hotel and then hit road. It’s about an hour drive and we are going past Kualoa ranch on a road that we have traveled before. The Polynesian center is kind of setup like Epcot where there are different areas dedicated to a different culture. There are 6 island cultures represented Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, and Al_____ (New Zealand). We started off the adventure by taking a boat trip from the entrance down to HI where the person rowing told us a little but about each one of the islands. Each of the islands has a presentation on the hour. By the time we made it into the park and down to the islands we made it to the 3pm show at HI. We learned…need to finish this blog post…

Tomorrow we go for an adventure with the Dolphins!

Desi got up very early and took an uber to Pearl Harbor and got in line for the USS Arizona. He was on the Naval Operated Ferry to the memorial by about 8:30. The memorial was amazing, seeing the Arizona from above and just seeing the size of ship and everything and learning more stories from the morning of the Pearl Harbor Attack was an honor. Desi took an uber back to the resort and was back by about 9:45 am. Just in time after Julie and the girls were finished making Polynesian Mickey ears, we went back up to the room. After making lunches and getting everyone ready we made our way as a family to Pearl Harbor and got there about 11:30. We learned that MO and Air Museum were a shuttle ride away and you could not take food with you as the MO is docked at the Naval Base. So we took the shuttle and toured the Missouri. We learned that the Missouri is where the signing of the end of WWII occurred, and it is parked at pearl harbor to mark the book ends of WWII for the US. The beginning being the Arizona and the end being the Might MO. We learned about the life of the MO from 1944 to where it sits today, its life in 3 wars and the history of that amazing ship. We then had lunch on the dock next to the MO.  We then made our way to the Pacific Air Museum. We saw a lot of planes from the Pacific war, some windows that were shot out during the attack on Pearl Harbor. We got to see some of the advancements of the American air fleet, took a lot of pictures of planes and helicopters. There was supposed to be the command modules of Apollo 8,10,11, and 14 at the museum but we did not see them. The helicopters that were on show were also used in the recovery missions when the apollo command modules returned into the pacific. With the Pearl Harbor museums closing at 5pm and us needing to depart by 4pm we had to head back to get the tour of the submarine. We had a small adventure with the buses getting back, which took way longer than it should have. We then walked through the submarine and saw the tiny space that the sailors must work and sleep in. We then did a little shopping and departed Pearl Harbor. Tonight, at the resort we have the Wakala Lua. We got changed and went to line up for the Lua. The line was quite long, because of the pictures. We got our pictures and made out way to seats. We then did a few activities made wrist Laes, the girls got temp tattoos, and learned how to play a little ukulele. The feast and the show were a lot of fun, just a great story of the Ko’ Ohlino region. Really everything on the menu was fantastic with great desserts including guava icing cakes and coconut pudding cakes.

Tomorrow we are going to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Today we are headed to Dole Plantation after a character breakfast! We started off with Mickey, then we saw Chef Goofy, then Chip and Dale. We had some massive omelets and some normal Disney breakfast fare. The pastries were amazing, and they gave us 3 birthday treats for each of the Kaplan Birthday’s in the last week! After breakfast we got ready to head to the Dole Plantation.  We got to the plantation just a little before lunch time. Basically 3 things to do at the plantation, the train ride, the pineapple maze, and the self-guided garden tour. After taking a while to park and going through the shop we went and got tickets for the train ride. At this time the train had a 1.5 hour long wait. We got in line, took turns waiting and shopping. The train was a 20min audio guided ride through the plantation. Seeing pineapple plants, banana, bamboo, papaya, and a lot of different crops. We learned all about the history of dole and the pineapple industry starts on Hawaii. After the train ride we ate ham sandwiches, watching the local rooters and cats wonder around the yard. We then went and did the garden tour and saw a lot of different plant varieties and took some pictures. We finished up with a trip through the pineapple maze the average time through the maze was about 45min, with the shortest being about 10 min. We entered the maze from the side and then figured out the goal of the maze is to find 8 different terminals with stories about the different Hawaii islands. We made our way through in about 27 minutes, and we did pickup Julie along the way. We suspect that there are several pathways in the maze that were not intended but have formed over time from people. The maze was fun. We did a little more shopping, found Caroline a great chicken/pineapple/butt shirt. From there we made our way back to the resort. On the way back we realized that we missed the window for getting tickets to USS Arizona. When we got back to the resort we spoke with the concierge and found out that the tickets go away within about 30 seconds at 3pm HST. The concierge said the best chances we have of getting to the USS Arizona is to go in the standby line which starts forming at 7am. We had dole whip, mickey mouse specials for dessert before dinner and then had bacon pizza for dinner. The special dole whip was part of the anniversary of dole whip, the special included pineapple chunks that were soaked in a powder that apparently is a local delicacy which has a salty/sour taste that did not agree with any of us. The resort had a movie night, Monster’s inc, which did not really interest us so we hooked up Desi’s laptop to the TV and watched Jurassic world.

Tomorrow’s adventure: Mickey Ears, Pearl Harbor: USS Missouri, Pacific Air Museum, and Bowfin Submarine tour.

Today we got up made our way to the Ulu café for breakfast and then got ready to head to the Kualoa Ranch. We will have a character Birthday Breakfast tomorrow for Caroline. Its an hour drive across the island to the ranch. During the drive we stop at a small restaurant, Poi Factory, to get lunch to go. By the time we finally arrive at the ranch, food is all we can think about. Desi goes to check us in and everyone else sits down at a picnic table and we open our food, only to find that only one of the three items we ordered looks edible. We ordered pork, beef, and chicken. The pork was pulled pork, it was good, but needed sauce. The beef was the Loulou we had tried a previous night and was left untouched. The chicken was in some sort of soup with clear noodles, that were surprisingly good. When we were done eating we walked around the crowded gift shop for a few minutes then proceeded outside and waited for our truck. It started pouring rain for a bit, so we stayed under the eaves of the building before venturing over to where the tour would start from. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to get on the truck the truck driver/tour guide let us on. We started up the road, bouncing along to the blasting 80’s rock music. The tour guide was amazing and talked us through everything. Our first stop was a bunker, and we learned a lot about how the area was converted to different bunkers, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and movie sets in the last few decades. There were lots of little bits and pieces that were left from the different movies filmed there. After taking about 200 pictures we got back onto the tour truck and continued down our rather bumpy path. Along the way we stopped at several more bunkers and listened as our tour guide explained what had gone on where. We drove around some more and saw tons of cows. We stopped at the most famous dead tree ever: the log from Jurassic Park. We took some pictures there, then proceeded to take a video of us in slow mode running away from a “giant” dinosaur. We hopped back on the truck and went to the Hamster Ball Ride scene. There was. No hamster ball there, unfortunately, but it was still cool to be there. In the truck we went down a hill with some dramatic music. (May I mention that the tour guide was blasting the music) Some ways away from the hamster balls we ran into another dinosaur and learned what the set was mostly made of… Styrofoam and plywood, I know, shocking. We rode our way up to the control room, where everyone got little dinosaurs. Walking around, was interesting, the control room was the most impressive set we saw, with its fake iPads and giant window. There were two bright blue velociraptors. Selfies were taken, children were locked inside cages with the dinosaurs, the usual. When we were done, we continued down the path, stopping occasionally to take pictures at amazing views. There was an island that looked like a cross between a witch’s hat and a turtle. According to Hawaiian culture it is the tip of a lizard’s tail. About 10 minutes before we arrived back, the speakers gave out, which lead to a more boring trip back. (The more exciting the music the more exciting the trip) When we got back the tour guide asked everyone to say happy birthday to Caroline, she also got a dinosaur key chain. We went through the gift shop on our way out, then drove to a Costco and Target to pick up food. Before heading back to the west side of the island we drove along the coastline. While we were driving towards the highway when we found a shave ice place and stopped. We all split a ginormous pineapple, mango, strawberry. There were lots of chickens and some chicks. The highway was blocked so we turned around and went back to the hotel another way. For dinner we decided to just eat the chicken, broccoli, ziti that we had picked up from Costco. After the long day, it was a relatively early bedtime.

Tomorrow Dole Plantation

Today we got on a mid morning flight to O’ahu. The flight was very short, once we reach 10,000 feet we began our decent into the last and longest leg of our vacation. We will spend 7 days on Oahu. Since today is Ellie’s birthday we will begin with a pool day! After getting our car, very easy! we made our way to Aulani. The room was ready almost right away so we got our stuff up to the room and eventually made our way to the pool. Had some normal pool food fare and then it was time to enjoy the nice lazy river and the pool. We spent several hours there some birds and cat which changed names from Ghost to Tiger and later Simba. We then left the pool are and headed up to change and get ready for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We had a great meal to celebrate Ellie’s birthday and then walked out on the beach at sunset. Still a long day so we went to bed pretty early.

Tomorrow Caroline’s birthday and a trip to Kualoa Ranch (Jurassic Valley)

Tomorrow travel day, Ellie’s Bday, and a relaxing pool afternoon at Aulani.

We got up early, packed up, and were on our way to Kona by 9 am. We drove the southern root so we could see a different part of the island. We stopped at a fruit stand and bought some coconuts, passion fruits, and pineapple. We went to target after that to buy things to cut up the fruit, plus towels and Dramamine for Desi. After that we went to a burger place for lunch. After lunch we went to the harbor to go snorkeling. When we got there, we got our goggles and snorkels. The people running the boat went over some safety stuff, then everyone got onto the boat. We drove for about 20 minutes, and everyone got splashed on the way. Also on the way out we saw some dolphins in the distance and a head of a marlin, but the boat steered clear in case there were sharks. When we finally got to a good spot, we hopped into the water. It was amazing to see all the fish underwater, although we didn’t see a thing that wasn’t coral, seaweed, fish, or small spiny creatures. When we got out of the water, Desi was feeling seasick. We stayed on the boat for a while, and Ellie got some cookies as a snack and we ate some of the sugarloaf pineapple, simply amazing. After about 10 minutes, someone still in the water saw an eagle ray and a turtle. Once everyone was back on the boat, we left for shore. Once we finally got back to shore, Desi was feeling a lot better and the lady steering the boat gave Ellie and Caroline both cowrie shells which were very polished. After that, we drove to our new hotel to check in. You could see the pool and breakfast area straight from the check-in area. We got to our room and made sure we had unloaded the car. Once we were sure we were good, we walked to a restaurant for dinner. There was a long wait for most of them, but we found one that was only 20 minutes. While we waited, we walked outside and saw a beautiful sunset, overlooking rocks, grass, and palm trees on one side. There were even a few crabs skittering around the rocks, they blended in well. When we were finally seated at the restaurant, we got water Desi, lemonade for Ellie and Caroline, and a guava drink for Julie. Caroline had a pizza, Ellie had chicken fingers and fries, Desi had shrimp alfredo, and Julie had the fish tacos . Before we went back to the hotel, we did a little shopping. The only thing we bought were Donkey-Balls, although we looked at many other things. Back at the hotel, we crashed.

Tomorrow travel day, Ellie’s Bday, and a relaxing pool afternoon at Aulani.

We woke up pretty early (jet lag), and made some breakfast. We were in Volcano National Park by 9am in time to hear Ranger Rick tell us all about the places to stop. We met Range John who takes groups down on a 2.7 mile hike to crater floor, but we were concerned visibility would be We stopped at the steam vents, got on our ponchos, and went out. We stopped at a few other points along the way but could not see much of the crater floor area. We decided to head down crater chain drive. We stopped and went into a LAVA tube, some large puddles and some wet feet, the lighting inside made it look orange like LAVA but it was just lighting. We then drove down crater chain drive to the end to see the see arches. At this point the rain was coming down pretty hard, we got pretty wet heading out to the sea arches but they were really cool. We walked back and drove up to the petroglyphs to make 0.7 mile hike. When we started it was. Not raining but by the time we got back we were wet again. We kind of missed the trail it was so windy and we didn’t realize that the trail was marked with piles of stones. Eventually we found the trail again and the petroglyphs. The trail back was much easier. We ate our lunches in the car and then made our way back to the cabin. We decided to go to an Astronomy Museum in Hilo. While at the museum we saw a presentation on black holes, Desi said it was “heavy”. We wandered around the museum learning about the history of the island and how the islanders use the start for sea faring and that for several hundred years from the time the people made it to the islands to the 1970’s the stopped open sea travel, until islanders decided to teach themselves again. They make canoes out of the local trees. From there we went to Kuhio Grille. We tried Kalua Pig, LauLau, Poi, and some other local delicacies. Ellie had mac and cheese. We made a stop for some birthday confections in the form of cupcakes. We went back to the cabin to enjoy them and watch a little miss marvel.

Tomorrow Volcano National Park in the day and maybe some beaches in Hilo.

Just like yesterday, we woke up before 7:00, and started our long day. We decided to get breakfast outside of California Adventure; at a small coffee shop. After that, we got into the park, booked our Lightening Lanes, and went over to Soarin’.  We wandered over to Toy Story Mania, and had some fun there. Julie, Caroline, and Ellie went to the Incredicoaster while Desi wandered around and found some cool art. After the Incredicoaster, we met back up at a shady bench and discussed how we liked the ride. (The minute there was an inch of space, it was instantly filled with people, so finding somewhere to sit is a lot harder than it sounds. Ellie loved the roller coaster, Caroline thought it was too intense, and Julie thought it was “incredible”. To further our plans, we tried to book Goofy’s Fly School, but it was closed. For our troubles it gave us a free Lightening Lane to be used anywhere. We may have exploited that multiple times. With our Lightening Lane we went on Radiator Springs, it was amazing.  Getting hungry, we walked over to the Avenger Campus and got on the new Spider Man ride: Web Slingers. There were some problems with the ride, so we had the chance to ride it twice, but, alas, we were starving and went on a hunt for food. There was a Shawarma truck, so we got some, and walked over to Pacific Wharf, got Ellie a burger, and sat down to eat. The shawarma was too spicy for us, and most of the bread was dry. When we were done we went over the Pixar Pier shops and picked out a sketch for an artist to draw for us. We finally decided on one where Stitch was playing ukulele and Lilu was dancing. However, both the artist and the shop lead were on lunch, so we decided to head to the biggest attraction of all- the Mickey Farris Wheel. We waited, and went on one of the swinging gondolas, which was highly nauseating for Desi. We headed to an ice cream place, that only had lemon and mango soft serve. Ellie and Desi both got lemon, Caroline got mango, and Julie got a lemon parfet. The parfet had lemon and blue raspberry, affectively turning Julie’s mouth green. After finishing our various delicacies, we went back to the store to order the picture. We then split up Caroline and Mommy went on Guardians of the Galaxy (formerly Tower of Terror) and Daddy and Ellie went on Monsters Inc. Guardians of the Galaxy was redecorated nicely. Although we did not know this at the time, one of the Collector’s creatures was one of the original Figments from the ride at Disney World. Monsters Inc. was “cute” and the usual story ride. After our split adventure we got some pictures in front of the waterfall and then convinced Daddy to ride the roller coaster. After the coaster Daddy was ready to sit, the high intensity was somewhat overwhelming. We then returned to the shop with the artist, to see if she had started our artwork. She was just about to start when we arrived. A few minutes in, we realized, she was doing the wrong picture, and she corrected her error, and started again. Watching her sketch was fascinating. After a short break we used our park hoppers to hop back to Disney Land. Ellie and Caroline used Lightening Lanes to  go on Dumbo. Then, we all went over to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and sat in line for 10 minutes. After crashing through several mines, and various doors, we used our last lightening lane to go on Pinnochio’s Daring Journey. In between rides we took various pictures. When we were done there, we hopped back over to California Adventure to go to our dinner reservation at Wine Country Trattoria. The food was very good all around; the steak and pastas were especially delicious. After dinner we decided to go on a few more rides. First up was Ariel’s Adventure, best clamshells ever! We ran over to Goofy’s Flight School and actually rode it this time. It was just like the one at Disney World, but still fun and goofy. After that, we went over to where we thought the World of Color Desert Party would line up, it was not there. We asked a few cast members, and found our way to a mostly empty pathway and waited for the check-in-guy to check us in. We played the hand-slapping game for a while. By the time we actually got checked in and escorted to our table we still had about 45 minutes before the show started. All of the mini-desserts were delicious, and the show began with a splash! Literally, there was water shooting up everywhere. The only problem was that they had everyone who was not sitting at a dessert table to stand up, which blocked some of our view. Anyway, the show was still amazing, the beautiful colors were magical. After the performance, we got out of the park and headed towards bed.

Tomorrow: Dad’s Birthday and a long travel day to HI

c Disneyland here we come. We got up early and decided to get breakfast in the park. We were in by 8am and in our first line of the day (Starbucks). We got into it and got our experience level up with the Genie+. First LL secured for the Matterhorn bobsleds. I remember last time here Desi didn’t want to do this ride, but this time the whole family got on the ride and had a blast! Next stop tea cups, they were like 5 feet away, and then Alice in wonderland right next door and no wait. the beautiful thing about 8am in the park no one is there! After following the rabbit we found our way to StarWars Galaxy’s edge and did smugglers run. Ellie requested a rollercoaster so we left starwars and off to Fronteirland for Big Thunder Mountain railroad. It is everything we remembered it to be, oh wait that was Disneyworld? Or was it Disneyland? Well, I guess that says it all, it’s the same ride. Next stop food! Julie picked the Bengal BBQ, mobile ordering was awesome! The food there was amazing! A very good quick service meal! 

Nothing says Disney like walking back and forth across the park, so thats what we did and went and did Startours! We then thought we would do autopia but the line was long and we had a date with Rise of the Resistance that could not be missed. So we decided to and get in its a small world line, hey it’s only a 5min and it moves quick. 45 minutes later and a lot of Caroline singing It’s a small “land” after all we got off that ride and were off to Rise of the resistance and back across the park again.  Let’s just say that was an awesome interactive experience. We booked our next LL at Space mountain so back across the park we go!! 

At this point the park is quite crowded and getting very hot! Time for ice cream break, caffeine, and some advil! We made a plan for the rest of the day, we have 5:30 dinner plans and Fantasmic tonight so we need to get through a bunch more. Next LL Buzz Blasters, a classic and also the same as DisneyWorld! At this point we’re running out of LL possibilities. While going back and forth across the park we did the canoes totally thought this was going to be more Jungle cruise, turns out it was just us and a bunch of people paddling our selves in a 2000 lb canoe. We did the Winnie the pooh adventure,  The king’s carousel, Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean before Dinner. Dinner turned out to be more linner but it was still good. The dessert was a chocolate ball shell with a tiny little raspberry cake inside all sitting on top of a pile of fruity pebbles and a mini pitcher of hot pink chocolate, amazing! Ellie got a nice chocolate in a fancy sundae glass.

After dinner Ellie and Julie went to Snow White’s Adventure and Caroline and Desi did Splash Mountain. We then met up for Fantasmic! After more than 11 hours in the park and 25,000+ steps it was time to crash!

Tomorrow California Adventure!

It all started with a van ride to the airport. Ellie would say that the classical music the driver played and the drumming that the rubber seal from the door played on the side of the van at highway speeds made the ride torture. The rest of us just sat back and waited to get to the airport. With a quick trip through security a lite lunch at B.Good we were ready to board. We got our seats, took the usual plane pictures that we take and were off on our journey!

We landed in Chicago and realized the plane was re-boarding in 5 min so we didn’t have much time to get food. Julie took a quick trip off the plane to grab probably the most expensive, disgusting meal ever and we were off again. 

Roughly 8 hours after we left we arrived at LAX. Hopped in a quick 45min Uber to Anaheim and we arrived at the Alpine Inn! A very late brinner at Denny’s and time to crash for tomorrow.

What’s on deck for tomorrow? DISNEY!!!!! Here we come Mickey!!!