Mama and William Do Kona, Hawaii-Day 2

On Sunday January 10th William and I woke up in our hotel room in Kona, Hawaii feeling rested and refreshed... at 6:00 am. Why sleep in when you're in paradise!? We showered and got ready for the day and headed down to the coffee shop for some black coffee for me and a smoothie for William.

We went for a long walk down the street among the shops, restaurants, and hotels. Most of which were still closed since it was so early. We saw a lot of statues and took pictures outside of the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant with Forrest Gump's shoes. I wanted to eat breakfast somewhere with a really authentic Hawaiian menu, and William wanted Subway so I let him win and we split a delicious breakfast sandwich. We talked about what we wanted to do that day and decided we wanted to snorkel and go for a drive to see a black sand beach. We walked around a little bit longer and went to a farmers market and looked at all the interesting Hawaiian fruit that William had never seen before. I found a snorkel store on my phone and we went there to get our flippers and masks.

We went back to the hotel room to change into our swimsuits to get ready for snorkeling. The Seahawks playoff game vs the Minnesota Vikings was just starting and I really wanted to watch it but William reminded me, "Mom you're in Hawaii, you don't want to sit around and watch football." And he was totally right. We made our way down to the water and got right in. The water felt great. Not too cold and the beach was perfect. I was a little nervous about William snorkeling but he did so great and we held hands almost the whole time. He got so excited every time he saw a fish. I'd hear his little underwater squeal of delight and he'd point it out to me and smile. After we had our fill of flippering around we took a break and relaxed on the beach for a little while. (Of course I checked on the score of the game on my phone) We built a sand castle even though we didn't have any buckets or anything and then went snorkeling again for a while longer. It was getting closer and closer to checkout time at the hotel so we eventually made our way back to the room to pack up our stuff and check out.

Back in the room I got to watch the last few minutes of the Seahawks game and we both were so happy when they won in the final seconds due to Minnesota missing a field goal. We had considered going to the game in Minnesota instead of Hawaii that weekend but playoff tickets were expensive and flights there were pretty full so we went to Hawaii instead. We definitely made the right choice. It was like 3 degrees there and 80 degrees in Kona.

We checked out of our lovely hotel, put all our stuff into our rental car and hit the road towards the other side of the island where there was one of the worlds largest black sand beaches. It was a beautiful drive along the coast with lots of places to stop and enjoy the scenery. We stopped at an awesome park and played together for a little bit. I love that William can act pretty mature and we like to do a lot of the same things like sightseeing, snorkeling, and trying new restaurants, but he also is a kid and gets so much joy out of running around a park and sitting on a fake whale. He is one of my favorite travel buddies. Then we stopped at an authentic Hawaiian restaurant called McDonald's for lunch (once again William's choice). It was a pretty long drive and after awhile my travel buddy fell asleep in the backseat. I kept saying stuff like "Buddy look at those waves!" and "Look at those cool trees." and getting no response.

We finally made it to the black sand beach. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We grabbed our snorkel gear and made our way to the beach. Snorkeling proved to be a challenge. There were a lot of big rocks that were painful to walk on and walking on the hot and dry black sand for even a second was painful. Instead of snorkeling we found a comfy spot and watched the waves and some sea turtles. There were about five turtles 10 feet away splashing around the water. We relaxed and ate some oranges that I had bought from a fruit stand. Sitting there on the sand I couldn't believe that it was January and I was sitting in 80 degree weather on a beach in Hawaii with one of my favorite people in the whole world. I am incredibly blessed and not as day goes by where I don't stop to thank the powers that be for how lucky I am.

We decided to make our way back to the car and head to the green sand beach that we had heard about. It as an insanely bumpy drive down some one lane roads. Like if a car was coming the other way one of us had to drive into the ditch. It was like a stressful continuing game of chicken. At this point my phone died and I didn't have a car charger. I new where we were and I had a rough idea of how to get back to the airport but without my phone GPS it was stressful. What was I gonna do, look at a map like a cavewoman? We followed the hand painted signs to the green sign beach and parked in a desolate parking lot. We got our of the car and saw a sign with an arrow that said "Green Sand Beach, three miles" We were in no condition to hike 6 miles round trip, and we probably wouldn't have enough daylight. Instead we followed a group of people to some cliffs nearby where a sign read "Southern most point of the U.S.A." William stood at the edge of the cliff and terrifyingly leaned over so he could be "out of the USA for a second". We bought sponge Bob ice cream from an ice cream truck that was parked nearby and made our way back to the car. We drove back to Kona and took a beautiful walk near the beach. We looked for a place to have dinner and William was being goofy about every restaurant saying, "I can't go in there mom, it's a bar!" Son, I'm not just going to walk you into a bar. We decided on a place called "Humpty's" (after Humpback whales). I had a guacamole burger and William had spaghetti. We finished just before the sun was setting and went outside to watch a perfect Hawaiian sunset.

Once the sun had set it was dark (obviously) and we weren't sure what to do in the few hours we had left before we had to be at the airport for our 11:55 flight home. After moseying our way back to the car we said goodbye to the beach and headed in the direction of the airport. We had plenty of time so we stopped at Target and got a couple souvenirs. We gassed up the rental car and got to the airport a little earlier than we needed to... but what else are you going to do with a 7 year old in Hawaii at 9pm when you have a flight to catch? We were able to plug in our phones and relax for a bit in the beautiful open airport. Eventually sweet William fell asleep on my lap. When they called our names for available standby seats (thank goodness) I had to practically carry him onto the plane. He slept in my lap for the majority of the flight and I nodded in and out of sleep. When we landed and he groggily woke up he declared "We can't be in Seattle already it's only been a couple minutes." I told him time went faster because he was sleeping and he said "Nuh-uh I wasn't sleeping!" Silly, precious boy. We caught our connecting short flight to Spokane without any issues. We landed at around 7am and as we walked through the jet-bridge in our shorts and flip-flops could feel the twenty degree weather bringing us back to reality. What an amazing 36 hours we had had in Hawaii. To this day, every time I'm feeling down or like I need a little pick me up, I think of sweet little William frolicking in the white sand beaches of Hawaii in January and it puts a smile of my face.

Mama and William Do Kona, Hawaii-Day 1

Saturday January 9th at 4:00 in the morning my alarm went off. My first instinct was to push snooze and roll over and go back to sleep. I had been to a party the night before and didn't get to sleep until midnight. Then I thought about something that one of my coworkers said the other day, "You can't think too much about traveling, you just gotta do it!" So I hopped out of bed and quickly got ready and threw a random assortment of stuff into my red roller bag. I woke up a groggy William who didn't want to get out of bed until I whispered, "Remember buddy we're going to go to Hawaii today!" He excitedly got up and got himself ready. A few minutes later, after kissing my sleeping husband, daughter, and baby goodbye, we were out the door and on our way to the airport. Our flight to Portland left on time and with no issues. At the Portland airport we had a relatively short connection time so we made our way directly to our next gate for our flight to Kona, Hawaii! They were already boarding and we hadn't been assigned a seat yet so we hunkered down for a few minutes with our phones and Nintendo DS and waited. Eventually the gate agent said the words we love to hear, "Hutyler party of 2, I have your seat assignments". We got our stuff and boarded the plane. Unfortunately our seats weren't next to each other but we could see each other across the aisle. We hunkered down for a looong flight.

The flight was pretty uneventful. William was sitting next to a couple with a baby and had a good time making faces at the baby and talking to it when she got fussy. The flight attends assumed William was part of their family. They asked "What would your son like to drink?" and they were awkwardly like "Uh he's not ours..." and I had to shout across the aisle "he's mine!" I think the 6.5 hour flight was the longest I've ever been on. In my haste to pack I hadn't brought a lot to do and I mostly just read a random book I had on my phone and played candy crush. I would definitely recommend renting the tablets Alaska Airlines offers on longer flights that are loaded with new movies and fun games for only $10 (especially when traveling with kids). After 2,609 miles, 6.5 hours, 2 kids snackboxes, 1 breakfast sandwich (yeah, we kind of forgot to bring food too), and two free mai tais we touched down on the Big Island! William and I were so excited to see the palm trees and the bright son. We had left behind 25 degree Spokane for 75 degree Hawaii and were dressed for the former. Our first stop was the bathroom to change out of our long pants,coats, and boots into shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. In my haste to pack I had forgotten to bring any form of sandals for myself. So there I was in Hawaii in my summer clothes and grey winter boots.

It was about noon Hawaii time so we had almost the whole day in front of us to enjoy the island. We grabbed our rental car from Alamo and were off to the beach! A coworker had recommended a state park that was right next to the airport and had great beaches. He had failed to mention the awful road made of volcanic rock that my poor economy rental car could barely handle. We had to go about 3 miles an hour but we finally made it to the parking lot. We walked a little ways and finally saw the beautiful ocean! William was in heaven. He jumped right in and would have stayed there all day if I let him. The water was so blue and beautiful. I love seeing William so happy. I got in the water a little bit but mostly I enjoyed just watching sweet William play in the waves. We had a lot more of Hawaii to see so after about an hour we made our way back to the car.

We got back in the car and began driving to our hotel. We stopped along the way at a convenience store for snacks, drinks, and much needed flip flops. William saw some coconut water in the store and asked me to buy him some so I did even though I was pretty sure he wouldn't like it. He tried some and he said he loved it. A few minutes later I asked him if I could try some and it was so disgusting! I was like "Buddy, you like this stuff? It tastes like feet." He said, "I hate it! But I didn't want you to be mad at me for asking you to buy it so I was gonna drink the whole thing." Silly Willy. A short drive later we were at The Kona Seaside Hotel. Lately I've been booking my hotels through hotwire.com and so far they haven't let me down. Since I fly standby and never know for sure if I'll make it on a flight, I don't like to book hotels until I'm on the plane. Using sites like expedia and orbitz, hotels can be a lot more expensive if you book them on the day of, but on hotwire they're a lot cheaper. The catch is you don't know exactly what hotel you're booking until after you pay for it but you know the area it's located, how many stars, and customer's overall satisfaction. So far every hotel I've booked through them has been great. We were located within walking distance from the beach (actually walking distance, like a 5 minute walk with a 7-year-old), the rooms were clean and nice, there was a pool, and the staff were friendly. After checking into the room William wanted to check out the pool. We still had our swimsuits on from the beach so we headed straight there. The water was pretty cold so I left the swimming to William. That boy is such a fish, he could swim all day.

After William was done swimming and basking in the sun we showered and got ready to venture out to the town and the beach. There was a cute coffee and ice cream shop where we stopped to get some ice cream. We then walked a little further to a beach and watched people snorkeling, paddle-boarding, boating, and just enjoying the water. We had already changed out of our swimsuits so we just watched for now. It was such a beautiful area. There were two beaches separated by a pier and a bunch of cute shops and restaurants. We walked a little further and stopped at a place that was advertising half price pu pus and $5 mai tais. William got a kick out of the appetizers being called pu pus. I ordered some pork tacos and a drink and William ordered a hot dog off the kids menu. At this point William was getting a little grumpy. It was about 5pm Hawaii time (7pm at home) and he had been up since 4am Washington time. He kept whining about, "Mom this is a bar, I'm not allowed here." I kept reassuring him, "Honey it's a restaurant, not a bar. They would have kicked you out already if you weren't allowed, and they also wouldn't have a kids menu." But he kept whining about it and being cranky. My sweet, happy boy was deteriorating fast. When they placed his hot dog in front of him he burst into tears. "Buddy, what's wrong?!" I asked. "I meant to order a corn dog not a hot dog!" He sobbed through the tears. Yeah he was done. I calmed him down a little bit but the poor little guy was so tired. We boxed up most of our food and headed back to the hotel. (In the morning he was like, "Remember when I was so mad about my hot dog! haha!")

After I calmed William down a little bit and he insisted he wasn't tired we went back outside to watch the sunset. We couldn't quite see it from our hotel so we had to walk a little ways to get the sun into view. But we just missed the sun actually setting. I was a little bummed but William said, "It's OK Mama, it's beautiful here all the time." That little boy knows how to make my heart happy. We went back to the room, watched a little bit of cable TV (a treat for us since we don't have cable at home), and were soon asleep. More to come about day two!

Don't mind the breastmilk, gotta keep up that flow for baby Benny :-)

Maddie and Mama Do San Francisco

Saturday December 12th 2015 Maddie and I woke up groggy but excited about our trip to San Francisco! We showered, packed, and left the house at 6 am for our 7:40 am flight. Upon arriving at the airport everything seemed to be in order. Our flight was on time, they assigned us seats next to each other, and going through security (Maddie's favorite part) was a breeze. Our plane should have been arriving any minute when I looked up at the screen and it read "CANCELLED". Our hearts sank. I began looking up other flights on my phone and every single one was 100% full or oversold. It was not looking good. We were only going to be there for one night so if we got there late that night what was the point? I called the hotel we had already booked. Nonrefundable. Non-changable. I spoke to the customer service representative and she asked if we'd be willing to fly into Oakland. We could get there by 6pm. A lot later than our original San Francisco flight that would have got us in by noon, but better than the only open one that would get us in at 11pm. We had a few hours to kill. So we left the airport and went shopping for a couple essentials (snacks, nail polish, and lip gloss of course) and then gave each other manicures in the car. We returned to the airport and went through security again (to Maddie's delight).

Our flight to Seattle was uneventful. Maddie and I read Harry Potter together and colored. In Seattle Maddie got an oreo frozen yogurt and we went to sit by our gate. There were four open seats and we were fourth on the standby list. It came down to the wire but Maddie and I got the last two seats available and they were even next to each other. The flight to Oakland went well minus more turbulence than usual. Maddie loved it " weeeeee bumpy!" I tried to take a nap and we read a little more. At around 6 pm we finally landed in the bay area! We took a shuttle to our rental car and picked up my shiny new Chevy Cruz. We put our hotel's address into my phone and began our 50 minute drive to Lombard Street. Our drive was beautiful but I wish we could have seen it in the daylight. We were both so excited when we saw the golden gate bridge in the distance. Driving across it was so fun! We were those annoying people driving 5-10 miles under the speed limit so we could take it all in. Once across the bridge our hotel wasn't far off. We began seeing people dressed up as Santa Clause everywhere. Apparently there was a Santa themed pub crawl going on. It looked like a lot of fun. We checked into our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and ventured out on foot looking for a place to eat. We had to navigate through the sidewalks filled with hundreds of mildly intoxicated Santa clauses, Mrs. Clauses and sexy santas (is that a thing?)

After a few blocks we decided on a nice looking pizza place. We shared a small New York pizza (New York pizza in San Francisco?!) And I had a beer. It was funny I was halfway done with my beer when the waitress asked "I forgot to check your ID, how old are you?" "Um 28" I responded. "OK good, you look like a teenager." Haha, she never did look at my ID. We finished our meal and poor Maddie girl was getting so tired. We thought about getting dessert at another restaurant but Maddie was so tired. We made our way back to the hotel room, crawled into bed, and found Mary Poppins on TV. Maddie was out before you could say "super-cali-fragi-listick-expy-ala-docious" and I soon was too.

Maddie slept well. I woke up a million times since I'm used to waking up with Benny and our hotel was so loud. I think it was haunted by the ghost of Colin Kaepernick ;-). We enjoyed the hotel's free breakfast that was nothing but sugary carbs and then got ready for the day. We packed up all our stuff, checked out of our hotel, and headed for China town. I had a feeling Maddie would love it and she totally did. It was raining pretty hard but that didn't stop us. Maddie played for a little bit in a Chinese themed park and we enjoyed the shops. We bought souvenirs for ourselves and for our boys back home and a keychain for aunt Megan. When we had our fill of China town we made our way over to pier 39 and fisherman's wharf. We had a fun lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and I got my souvenir hurricane glass. Then we took a beautiful walk along the pier. We saw Alcatraz prison across the bay and went to a few shops. Maddie insisted I buy her a San Francisco sweatshirt "so my friends will believe I really went here mama!"

We then walked by a street performer and watched in amazement as he did a handstand while balancing on 4 boards separated by plastic cups on top of a metal cylinder. It was pretty awesome. We left the pier and paid for our $9 an hour parking and drove to golden gate park. It was huge and so so beautiful. We  parked the car right by the beach and took some selfies with the ocean in the background. It was super windy so we didn't want to stay for too long so we went back in the car to discuss our next move. It was about 2pm at this point and we had to be at the airport at 5. We decided we wanted to to go look at the golden gate bridge again from a different vantage point. We stopped at a cool park because even though Maddie's super mature and a great little travel buddy she still loves to play! She's a beast on monkey bars and a little daredevil on jungle gyms. Next to the park we stopped at a little grocery store to get some cookies. We ate our cookies and drove to another park that overlooked the bridge and took more pics. Such a beautiful, breathtaking view.

It was raining pretty hard and really windy so the waves were crashing along the bay like crazy. We got back in the car and I plugged in the address of the house from full house. It was only 5 minutes away. So like the true tourists we were we drove by it and took pictures out the window. There were other people in front of it too taking selfies with it. I'm glad we weren't the only ones! It was just a normal looking house so it was pretty funny that a bunch of us were taking pictures of it. We had plenty of time but decided to drive to the airport. We dropped off our rental car and took a shuttle to the airport. Maddie has the oddest affinity for transportation. Whether it be planes, shuttles, trams, trains, busses, subways, or anything she is in love. She was the only one on that shuttle train dancing and smiling like she was in Disneyland. I love that girls energy. She just lights up whatever room (or mode of transportation) she's in.

What was at first looking like an uneventful flight home quickly changed when a different flight was cancelled and the 30 open seats on our flight filled up quickly. The next flight didn't leave for another two hours so now it was time to play the waiting game. Maddie was "starving to death" so we shared a $15 not even fancy cheeseburger and fries. We waited around with not a lot to do. We were tired of reading, tired of playing on our phones, and I was just tired period. Maddie had an abundance of energy and was going the wrong way on the escalator saying "mix in a little cardio!" When the next flight to seatac finally started boarding it was looking like it was full as well. There was another one an hour later but that one would have put us in to Seattle too late for the last flight to Spokane. Draaaama. There were 5 open seats and 30 people waiting for seats and we were towards the bottom of the priority list. It was looking like we were going to be stuck in Seattle, if we could even make it there. They started calling names on the standby list and we were about to head to the next gate to wait but miraculously a lot of people weren't showing up. There were two seats left when they called out "Hutyler party of two". It was like Moses parted the red Sea to let us on that plane. We got the last two seats right next to each other. We made it to seatac with no issues and had to run through the airport to make our flight to Spokane. We were the last ones on that plane as well and made it to Spokane around midnight.

Flying standby is definitely an adventure in itself. I'm so happy that everything worked out eventually with our flights. It was a short trip but it was definitely worth it. I love traveling with Miss Madelyn! She is the best travel buddy and I can't wait for our next adventure!