Hawaii Trip Day #2 - Travel to Hawaii

Yup - 7:20AM direct flight from Oakland to Kona. We grabbed the 5:30am shuttle from the hotel to the airport. Check in and security in the airport went rather smoothly. We had some time to kill and roamed the airport to find a decent breakfast and snacks to purchase for the 5 hour flight. We flew on Alaskan Airlines and were thankful for pre-boarding for families. We were all able to get on the plane and get our carry on's situated and the kids in their seats before the mass hoard of people boarded. We took off on time. Logan fell asleep for the first half of the flight and Zach was content just watching some movies. I was impressed with Alaskan Airlines - they had a schedule printed of the services being offered and when they were going to be offered during the flight. You knew how many beverage rounds you were getting and when. Five hours later we were in Hawaii!

Ever been to the Kona Airport? It is all open aired! No enclosed buildings at this airport. We got off the plane, picked up our luggage and hit up the rental car shuttle. This is when I started taking pictures.....

With 6 of us on this trip we needed a larger rental vehicle. The only ones available to rent online that would seat 6 people comfortably were minivans. So we worked our coupon magic and got a good deal with Alamo. When Dustin went to pick up the vehicle...then they tried to get him to "upgrade" to a Tahoe. They wanted another $200 (we were only paying ~$300 with the coupon for the minivan) - uh, no thanks. We also decided to rent car seats from them for the kids so we didn't have to lug around our two car seats on and off planes for the entire trip....another great decision. They let us loose in the parking lot to pick what ever minivan we wanted. Our choices were either a silver, red, or black Chrysler town and country. Dustin chose the red one :) We loaded all six of us, 5 suitcases, 5 backpacks and one stroller into that minivan comfortably!

At this point it is only about 10:30am (Hawaii was three hours earlier than California time and our plane got in early). Check in at our resort wasn't until 4pm. We decided to drive to the resort early to see if we could get our room early or at least drop off all the luggage in storage. We stayed at Hilton's Kings' Land in Waikoloa - about a 30 minute drive north of the Kona airport. While Jen's dad checked in, the rest of us started exploring the property. The kids found the pool area right away and fell in LOVE with the "kiddie pool". They didn't care that they were wearing clothes - they started playing the water anyways!

Lucky for us our room was ready, so we were able to unpack all our stuff and start getting settled in. It was a two bedroom, two bathroom unit on the first floor.

The living area and kitchen:

The bedroom Dustin, Jen and Zach would stay in (Logan slept in a pack-n-play in the kitchen):

Our first floor outside patio - with an AWESOME view of a smaller pool, hot tub, waterfall. The first floor patio was great to have, the kids could go out and run on the grass.

For some reason I didn't get pictures of the bathrooms or the Master Suite (the best part!). The Master Suite had this HUGE tub that the boys took baths in the entire trip....


Now that the minivan was unloaded, we were checked into our week long digs....time to get some LUNCH! We drove down the road to Hilton's Wiakoloa Village (where Jen's parents had stayed in 2010) - to check out that resort (we had full access to it since we were staying at the Hilton sister resort) and get lunch. We ate at the boat landing pavilion. Logan ordered a PB&J and was stoked when it arrived...it was a triple decker! I don't think he has ever had a triple decker PB&J before!

Zach was more interested in the birds flying around than eating his food....

But then the boys discovered how to make the birds come closer to them.....drop food on the floor!

After lunch a bit more exploring....Logan was quick to point out the areas he wanted to see!

This is the beach coast line at the Waikoloa Village - isn't it beautiful?!

We all loaded up back in the minivan and the kids passed out pretty quickly. We took advantage of the situation and hit up Costco and Walmart to get some supplies.

We pretty much just chilled the rest of the evening. All the men went into the pool while the women unpacked the clothes and got everything organized.