Day 8-Last Day in Hawaii February 19

It was crazy how fast our vacation actually went. When we were getting ready to check out of our hotel, Brielle and Lainey started crying and they kept tearing up all day. We decided just to check out some close attractions so we went to the King Kamehameha statue. Trying to find parking was horrible, but we finally found a place where we could park for 30 minutes. We looked at the statue and took some pictures. Then we went into the building behind the statue. It was some sort of old courthouse. We walked through it and then decided we wanted to go to the Iolani Palace. It was across the street. We found a parking place where we could park for longer and walked to the palace. Cooper was too young to go in so Travis just hung out with him outside. We decided to get the headphones that told us about each part of the palace. The tour was about 1 hour long. It was interesting. We learned that the king and queen would set out on their balcony and they could see the ocean which as only about 2 blocks away. It was hard to believe since there are so many tall buildings there now and there was no way to see the ocean from there today. They had a lot of original pieces from palace. After the tour, we headed to the Ala Mona Shopping Center to eat lunch and to get some last minute shopping in. After that, we had about 3 hours until we needed to return our rental car and get to the airport, so we went to Ala Mona Beach. I wasn't sure I wanted to hang out there for very long because there is a lot of homeless people that live there, but it turned out to be really fun. We watched some kayakers and sail boats plus we found a lot of shells there. It was fun just to relax and enjoy our last few hours in Hawaii. Finally it was time to leave for the airport and the tears started up again for Brielle and Lainey. We returned our rental car and went to the airport. We had 2 hours before our flight so we ate dinner and just waited for our flight. The flew the red-eye home. It took 5 hours to get to Vegas. After we landed, Travis headed to his cousin's house to get our vehicle and then he came and picked us up and we drove straight home. It was pretty depressing because when we got to the Black Ridge, it was a BLIZZARD and it was snowing when we got home. We were all very tired, but we were so thankful that we got to spend an amazing week in Hawaii together as a family and that Grandma Bon and Grandpa Jeff came with us. It is something we'll never forget. Oh, I forgot to mention that we got home on February 20th, which was Lainey's 8th birthday. I'll post about that in my next post.

Lainey and Brielle by the statue of King Kamehameha with the old courthouse in the background.

Iolani Palace
Another picture of the palace.

Cooper just hanging out.

Funny Coop!

Cooper walking with Grandma at Ala Mona.

The girls looking for shells.

Travis and Brielle found these black crabs.

Sailboat

The kids loving the beach!

Coop and Travis

The kids looking for sea shells.

Kayakers

At the airport in Vegas

Tired Birthday Girl!!

Cooper happy to be off the plane.

MAHALO HAWAII for an AMAZING time!! OHANA and ALOHA till next time!!