California Adventure Park

Changing It Up

We alternated our time between Disneyland Park and the Disney California Adventure Park across the way, both are pretty neat places to visit.  The Cars town was just being built when Ted and I were last there and it was fun to see it all completed.

It was definitely a ride to Fastpass, the line-ups were crazy but the ride itself was pretty amazing, and the whole town of Radiator Springs was well done.

DJ car in the street for dance party time!

Cars characters aren't too scary so we got all three grandkids in this photo!

Mater ride at night multiple times was a definite hit, I think I can still hear the music.....

Paradise Pier

We stayed for the late evening showing of the World of Color, which is a water and light/animation show on the water in front of the Mickey ferris wheel.

There's so much to see and do, and we were able to fit in not just rides but a few other things like the live theatre production of Frozen.  It was amazing, Disney has so many ways to entertain.  Ruby and Jen took several sketch classes at the Animation theatre, and Ted and I even sketched Mickey as well.


Ted and I took a couple of hours to chill out at the Golden Valley winery on-site, it was a good way to relax and recharge mid-day.

A five day Disney pass to these two parks sounds like a lot of time but there's still things to do and see!

Scary and Sweet

There are different rides for every personality type, today we've been on both scary rides like the Matterhorn, (Miles was terrified poor guy), Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain (Bennett got the most wet).  We also had fun on the sweet classics like the Carousel, and the teacups.

The walk up the Treehouse began innocently enough, but there was a gorilla in the little hut at the top so everything began to go sideways and it was a quick trip down again!

Favourite ride of Miles has to be a Carousel - his face just lights up  :)

Plus of course we ran into a few favorite characters on Main Street, some of us were a little more willing to meet them than the youngest of our group.

While we were there the oldest two kids learned to drive at Autopia and got their first driver's licenses.  Ruby was pretty excited to drive her first car.

Blue Bayou Restaurant

Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my favourite things to go on, and the Blue Bayou Restaurant located within that ride was on the top of my list to go to for lunch.  We were able to get a table right on the edge of the lagoon, and the glow ice cubes in the drinks were beautiful, as was the lighting throughout the place.  

Disneyland 2017

Howard Johnson Waterpark and Hotel

We've just arrived and checked in, time to settle in for the week.  It's nice to come back to familiar turf, can't wait for the others to get here and liven things up a little!

Miles is going to love Pirates Cove here at the Howard Johnson 😄

Ted's snack shack

Tomorrow we will go over and get our first glimpse of Mickey and the gang!

Homeward Bound

Big Island 2017

Four Seasons Hualalai beach 

We are thankful for another fun-filled and safe vacation, and lots of great memories made with good friends.  Mahalo!

Last Beach Day

Mauna Kea

We knew that we wanted to spend our last beach day at Mauna Kea - what we didn't know was that it would be a Red Flag day, waves were up to six feet high.

This meant the lifeguards were very busy today, we saw at least five rescues of people who were out far beyond their abilities.  It's a bit stressful even watching them!

Huge wave looks like a wall of water rolling in.

Ted had a great ride for his first one of the day, and several more afterwards.  I went out on the boogie board a few times but the under currents and strong surf was too much for me today.  We'll definitely remember this day at the beach!

Waipi'o Valley

Morning dawns and it's a beautiful day for a drive.  Today we're going to take a drive up past Waikoloa Village, through Waimea and then a half hour farther up the highway to the Waipi'o Valley Lookout.

Far below us we could see the black sand beach, and the untouched valley.  Off to the west the ocean had some whitecaps on it, waves should be high tomorrow.

On the way home we were looking for Tex's malasada place but we couldn't find it so we stopped at a roadside stand - not so great, next year we'll have to come back!

A Hidden Gem

Kukio Beach

Hawaiian law states that the beaches are all open to the public, which is pretty nice.   The tricky part is sometimes finding how to get to the 'public shoreline access' if it's contained within private property, which is the case with a few beaches that we really like.  Kukio Beach is one of them, along with Mauna Kea. 
It's located on the other side of the manned entrance to the Four Seasons Resort and golf course, but if you ask to go to the public beach they will give you a pass and point you in the right direction.

There are two entrances to this beach, one for the north end of the beach and one to the south.  We first went to the north end of the beach where there were only four other people so we set up our chairs near a little bit of shade.

From where we were sitting we could see the south beach around to the far end. We drove around there later before we went home - we'll definitely be going back there with the grandkids next time they come!  There's a perfect little enclosed swimming bay there, it's on the other side of the sand bar area.

It's a bonus to find a bit of a shade tree that's close to the water at the beach, today we were able to so we parked our chairs and relaxed.  Ted went onto the Four Seasons pathway for a walk and found it went all the way to their Beach House restaurant, he loves that promenade.  (Especially when he can buy a cold beer there!)

This bird thought I would certainly have food for him so he kept coming right up to me.

The turtle slept nearby on the sand the whole time we were there.  As the sun started to get lower in the sky and the waves came up closer and closer to us we figured it was time to pack up and head out.  Kukio Beach is truly a hidden gem.