Spring Break in Oahu!!!

 We really wanted to go to Hawaii again, but it has been closed to tourists because of Covid-19. Some of the islands have opened for visitors recently, as long as they have a current negative Covid test in hand when they arrive on the island. We decided to start looking for cheap flights again, and were thrilled to see that they were cheap over our Spring Break. As soon as we saw that, we booked tickets right away. My dad dropped us off at the airport, we got through security and found our gate, and then the kids wanted to ride the moving sidewalks. :)

I talked with a Delta employee at the gate and he got our seats together for our flight to LAX as well as from LAX to Honolulu. He even upgraded us to Comfort Plus for the first flight. It was nice to have the extra space! We all enjoyed having tv's on the seats for every flight. We did play some games and do some puzzles on the long flight, but mostly we each watched our shows. :)

It was a long day of traveling, and by the time we found the baggage claim at the Honolulu airport, I was getting pretty tired and grumpy. I knew we still needed to get our rental car and drive an hour to our hotel, and I was just wanting to be done. When we got to the baggage claim, Melanie was there waiting with a lei for each of us. She totally surprised us and it made me so happy! It seriously changed my attitude completely. It was just the lift I needed. Mel is such a generous and thoughtful person. It's been about 13 years since I've seen her in person, and I have missed her! She also brought boogie boards for us to use, and stayed and visited while Paul got everything settled with our car. That meant so much to me.

Paul decided to upgrade to a Jeep, which was really fun to drive around in!

We made it to our hotel and went right to bed. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Oahu North Shore. It was a great place to stay! We could check out towels to take to the beach, which was so much more convenient than using our own every day. It was right across the street from a great beach, it had a fun pool, and was away from the big city. I took some pictures of our views from our window. You can see the ocean right behind this row of houses.

It was also just over the fence from the Polynesian Cultural Center. We could walk across the parking lot to the Hukilau Market, which is part of the PPC, to eat anytime we wanted. That was really convenient.

There were a few different food trucks at the market. We tried most of them. :)

We thought these pay phones at the Market were pretty funny. You don't usually see pay phones anymore!

Rockwell finished his food before the rest of us one night, and went over and fell asleep in a chair. We thought he looked like a mini Grandpa Ham. Ha!

There were a couple souvenir shops at the Market. The kids each chose a stuffed animal, but Paul and I didn't find anything we wanted. I saw that they had a hummingbird at the temporary tattoo stand, and so that's what I got for my souvenir. :)

We were walking back to the hotel one night and Tess and Damon were holding hands. So cute!

On the other side of the hotel, there was a McDonald's. Paul would go get us breakfast from there most mornings. You can see the Jeep in the drive-thru. :)

The kids loved the ice cream cones from McDonald's!