You Only Turn 40 Once - A Pre-trip Report

[dolphingirl47]

Your plans in Honolulu sound great. A mix of reverence and fun. A shame that you can't shop with reckless abandon. Fran would find a way, but you're smart. No need to bring back extra stuff you don't need.

Well, that just leaves me added luggage space for Disneyland and I am going for quality rather than quantity this trip.

Catching up on your plans for Hawaii. Between the Dole Plantation, Pearl Harbour and shopping at Ala Moana, you have me wishing I had a trip to Hawaii planned. It all sounds great.

Hope Graham gets to see the big waves.

I am starting to get a bit nervous about it all. I keep reading that the roads on Oahu are a little confusing. I hope that we find everything OK. Graham should be in luck with his waves.

Oh you've picked yourself some gems! What a treat you are in for! I bet you are beyond excited! We should get some nice photos out of that for us to eye candy too.

Forgive me if this is intruding or out of turn but I wondered if you had seen the travel card they do in costco for £109.00 pp you can choose 4 from the following experiences...

Polynesian Cultural Center
USS Arizona Memorial - Audio Tour
USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park
Makani Catamaran Sail
Snorkel the North Shore
Sea Life Park
Stand Up Paddle Boarding (SUP) at Ala Moana Beach
Oahu Kayaking with Hawaii Beach Time
Pearl Harbor Historical-City Tour
Diamond Head Hike by Kaimana Tours, LLC
Battleship Missouri Memorial
- See more at: http://www.costco.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/***_5,***_5.9,***_5.9.1/818272#sthash.OIPzVW2U.dpuf

Thanks for the heads up. We have booked and pre-payed most of our excursions a while ago, but I think if we end up going to Aulani again, this is definitely something I would consider. I particularly like that one of the options on the 4 day card is a dolphin encounter.

Corinna

 

[petals]

Well, that just leaves me added luggage space for Disneyland and I am going for quality rather than quantity this trip.

I admire your abilty to control yourself... I'm pretty much running with see, want, have until the money runs out on this trip

 

[dolphingirl47]

I admire your abilty to control yourself... I'm pretty much running with see, want, have until the money runs out on this trip

Pins are usually my downfall, but they don't weigh much and fit in my handbag.
Handbags are my second issue with the Disney Dooney and Bourkes. One of those will follow me home from Aulani, but this will be my personal item.

Corinna

 

[petals]

Pins are usually my downfall, but they don't weigh much and fit in my handbag.
Handbags are my second issue with the Disney Dooney and Bourkes. One of those will follow me home from Aulani, but this will be my personal item.

Corinna

Everything is my downfall. Pins, Vinyls, Plushies, hoodies I admire the dooney's but they're sooo expensive I have a few items I want and then we'll see how the pennies are going

 

[dolphingirl47]

Everything is my downfall. Pins, Vinyls, Plushies, hoodies I admire the dooney's but they're sooo expensive I have a few items I want and then we'll see how the pennies are going

I rationalise the Dooney's by considering cost per use and as I never leave the house without at least a handbag and a wristlet, this works out quite well.

I have managed to resist the Vinyls although I have a couple of the ones they brought out for the 25th anniversary of the Disney Store.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Today I can finally breath a sigh of relief and finally really look forward to this trip. You probably remember that in the run up to the last trip we had a leak in our corridor that had been very intermittent, but became less though just before we left. When we came back, the leak had been fixed and our corridor repainted. A few weeks ago, we started to have an intermittent leak in the corridor again and it was dripping from our bedroom doorframe as well. It turned out that this was to do with the plumbing for the washing machine of our upstairs neighbours and this was fixed. Just as soon as this was fixed, we had a major leak in the outside hallway that also spread into Graham's office. This was constantly dripping. I lived with Chinese water torture for the past two weeks. We had two plumbers and a structural engineer out and nobody seemed to be able to figure out where the leak was coming from. It also got steadily worse and I started to wonder if we had to cancel our trip. Today I came home to a lovely surprise. All the buckets in the hallway had gone as had the dripping. The dripping in Graham's office has stopped as well. Long may it last. We have already arranged to leave a key with the building manager just in case and there has also been some suggestion that they will repair the water damage while we are away. I am so relieved. I tried to keep the excitement going by tearing through my tourist guide of Oahu, but had limited success with this.

I have a proper update as well, but this will have to wait until after dinner.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

I normally have at least a couple of special t-shirts for each trip and with this being such a special trip, there are a few. I have already shared the t-shirts that I have for my fundraising efforts for Give Kids The World and here are the rest. I am so grateful to Beverly, Cheryl, Sue, Nena and Marion (RustManFan), who have provided the designs for the t-shirts. I am absolutely in awe of their talent and generosity.

T-shirt for the day I do the A Walk In Walt's Footsteps tour (Thanks Marion)



T-shirt for the day we arrive at Aulani (Thanks Beverly)



T-shirt for my birthday (Thanks Marion)



T-shirt to wear one day at Aulani (Thanks Sue)



More T-shirts to wear at Aulani (Thanks Nena)





T-shirt for the day of our VIP Tour (Thanks Cheryl)



T-shirt for the day I do the Holiday Tour (Thanks Cheryl)



T-shirt for Thanksgiving (Thanks Cheryl)

 

[petals]

I rationalise the Dooney's by considering cost per use and as I never leave the house without at least a handbag and a wristlet, this works out quite well.

I have managed to resist the Vinyls although I have a couple of the ones they brought out for the 25th anniversary of the Disney Store.

Corinna

I thought vinyls were stupid when they first came out then the Dublin Disney store opened and I wanted to buy something and besides the pin the vinyls were the cheapest thing so the first one I pulled was a chaser, closely followed by Marie and it's been downhill for my bank account since then


Luvin all the t-shirt designs especially the ones with Stitch. Love him

 

[dolphingirl47]

I thought vinyls were stupid when they first came out then the Dublin Disney store opened and I wanted to buy something and besides the pin the vinyls were the cheapest thing so the first one I pulled was a chaser, closely followed by Marie and it's been downhill for my bank account since then


Luvin all the t-shirt designs especially the ones with Stitch. Love him

Stitch is the second biggest love of my life. I can't wait to see the little rascal again.

I have just never really been tempted by the vinyls. Actually, I forgot about two that I have. I bought two of the big create your owns at some point that I had signed by the characters on two of my cruises. I really love those.

Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

What relief the leaking seems fixed! But what a pain to have going on for the last two weeks!



All the shirts look great, what a fun creative thing to do

 

[dolphingirl47]

What relief the leaking seems fixed! But what a pain to have going on for the last two weeks!



All the shirts look great, what a fun creative thing to do

I am so relieved that it finally has stopped. It was slowly driving me crazy.

I can't wait to get to wear all the t-shirts.

Corinna

 

[PrincessInOz]

YAY for the end to Chinese Water Torture. Glad it's all fixed.

The t-shirts are great! I'm sure you'll have heaps of fun and pleasure wearing them.

 

[dolphingirl47]

YAY for the end to Chinese Water Torture. Glad it's all fixed.

The t-shirts are great! I'm sure you'll have heaps of fun and pleasure wearing them.

Welcome back. I am really looking forward to wear those t-shirts.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

When I originally looked at a tour to the North Shore, I always thought we would head due East and then head North with the first scheduled stop being Kualoa Ranch before a leisurely drive along the North Shore with the Dole Plantation being the last stop. Graham suggested that we head North East stopping at the Dole Plantation first and from there to Kualoa Ranch. This made sense, too and as he is the driver, this became the plan.

I recently invested in a really good guide book called Oahu Revealed which I am working through at the moment. I have also recently found and devoured a few trip reports from Aulani. Something first caught my eye in one of the trip reports and then again a couple of days later in my trusty guide book: Byodo-In temple.







The Byodo-In Temple is located at the foot of the Ko'olau Mountains in Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. The Byodo-In Temple in O'ahu is a smaller-scale replica of the over 950-year-old Byodo-in Temple, a United Nations World Heritage Site in Uji, Japan. The Byodo-In Temple is a non-practicing Buddhist temple. Around the temple are beautiful Japanese gardens with Koi ponds. It is also surrounded by breath-taking scenery. Once I saw photos of this, I was sold. I just had to see this. Fortunately Graham felt much the same way. I was looking at options how I could incorporate this into our North Shore trip and realised that this was just a short drive South of Kualoa Ranch. Suddenly my original plan to head due East before turning North made a lot of sense and only required a very minor detour. So this was settled. I am in the process of bringing our reservation for the tour at Kualoa Ranch forward . This also has the advantage that this would bring us to Haleiwa for a late lunch. I see a lunch from one of the shrimp trucks followed by Shave Ice in my future. We can then head to the Dole Plantation on the way back, but if we don’t have enough time that day, we can come back on a different way to just do the Dole Plantation. Fortunately we do the North Shore trip early in our stay so there is plenty of time to do things we have missed.

 

[PrincessInOz]

That Byodo-In Temple is worth a visit. It's stunning and quite a little oasis.

If you haven't already visited it, have you looked at Waimea Falls Park in the North Shore area?

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

So pleased the leak situation is under control! You don't need a swimming pool before your vacation!

Lovely t shirt designs.

Adding that temple is a very good bonus. How it will be amazing to see those Japanese gardens and koi fish. Sounds a great plan you have in place! Shows it pays to do your research. The sites you might miss!

 

[dolphingirl47]

That Byodo-In Temple is worth a visit. It's stunning and quite a little oasis.

If you haven't already visited it, have you looked at Waimea Falls Park in the North Shore area?

Yes, I have looked at Waimea Falls Park as it is on the way on our tour and discarded the idea once I read that it is a one mile hike to the falls. With our luggage allowance being so limited on the flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, I really cannot afford to brink hiking boots.

So pleased the leak situation is under control! You don't need a swimming pool before your vacation!

Lovely t shirt designs.

Adding that temple is a very good bonus. How it will be amazing to see those Japanese gardens and koi fish. Sounds a great plan you have in place! Shows it pays to do your research. The sites you might miss!

I am still working my way through the book so I may come across further treasures along the way.

Corinna

 

[jedijill]

The temple is beautiful! Glad you are going to be able to see it!

Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

Boy was I behind! The T-shirts all look great and I think the Temple is a great addition to the itinerary. I think I read about others who have visited there as well.

Very glad the Chinese water torture has ended.
Its coming up really soon now!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Yes, I have looked at Waimea Falls Park as it is on the way on our tour and discarded the idea once I read that it is a one mile hike to the falls. With our luggage allowance being so limited on the flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, I really cannot afford to brink hiking boots.



I am still working my way through the book so I may come across further treasures along the way.

Corinna

We took the boys to Waimea Falls Park in '02, and I'm pretty sure we didn't have boots. Probably just sneakers or surf shoes as we rented kayaks there. My son was grumpy because I wouldn't let him swim in the falls as they were handing out notices about bacteria in the water and he was only a few months out of treatment at the time.

BTW, I wanted to mention that if you have a Costco membership, they have the cheapest gasoline on the island. They also have other items at reasonable prices, such as Kona blend coffee, pineapples, flavored tea gift packs (pineapple, macadamia nut, etc.), and other gift items. We even got our Christmas cards there last year! And they had macadamia nut Hershey kisses, which are only available in Hawaii.