our Hawaii vacation

Aloha!

We are back in the real world!  Back to school, work and quite a drop in temperature!

We took at extended Spring Break (half term) vacation to the island of Kauai in Hawaii.  The Garden Island.  So tropical, green and lush.   This was a return trip to our favourite island, that we'd last visited 8 years ago when Luca was 3 years old. Now 11. Where did those 8 years go?

When we vacation, we like to split the time up.  Half the time in a hotel and the other half in a vacation rental property.  It makes the whole trip seem so much longer and we get to experience two totally different weeks.

The kids loved spending time at the hotel pool, over indulging in hotel buffet breakfasts (eating their weight in waffels and pancakes every morning!), making friends, trying out some new activities, exploring the hotel on their own etc. Whilst the Huzz and I enjoyed the odd Mai Tais and hot tubs by the pool side!

And then when we moved onto the beach house where the kiddos could exlore and find frogs and toads, geckos, roosters and chickens passing through the tropical garden.  Trees were laded with papaya (sadly not ripe yet) and coconuts.  There was a lovely bridge from the garden, across the a stream that led to the path just a few minutes walk to the beach.  We walked down to the beach first thing in the morning, with our mugs of coffee in hand, and strolled along the sand of the almost private beach (the road to the beach was so off the beaten track that barely anyone would visit it).  We discovered lots of great local food and had the most fantastic fish tacos, macadamia nut icecream, and the juiciest sweet pineapples.

My son and I took our first open water scuba dive together - I think he may be hooked!   And we all snorkeled every day seeing so many fish just steps into the ocean - Luca even saw an octopus.  We were lucky enough to swim alongside so many turtles just doing their thing in the ocean, not bothered or concerned about us being there.  And on a couple of days at the beach we got to see two turtles and two monk seals swim up onto the beach for a lazy after sleep in the sunshine!  Wild life in action right there.

We are slowly getting back on track with being home, but as usual during that first few days home, I find mind self thinking "This time last week we were….. ".  Ok, on with the laundry it is then!

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