Snapshots from Hawaii 2011, Part I.

First view of Hawaii from the window of the plane. We were flying to Maui on the day the tsunami hit, but we experienced no delays or any other problems because of it. Our pilot kept us updated throughout our flight


Robert showing the beach to Vivian. She was so good on the long plane flight


Soon after we arrived at the gate, Dorothy spotted her suitcase on top of the luggage cart. Always good to know our things made it!


Waiting on our bags. Dots seized the opportunity to catch up on the eight hours of texts she missed while flying. Vivian still being very good - hooray!

Right as we pulled up in the driveway of our hotel, though, Vivian decided she had had enough of traveling and behaving well and completely melted down. When I finally got her out of the car, she lay down in the middle of the valet queue and began to cry, "Take me home! I don't like this place! Please take me home." It was not a pretty scene. I imagine the hotel employees were wishing we would go home!


Robert finally coerced Vivian into her stroller and we walked around for a bit to calm her down.


Checking out the grounds. Vivian was doing better at this point, but I had a perpetual knot in my stomach wondering what in the world we had done bringing her all this way


Checking into our room. A banana made things much better


Obviously we didn't get an "aloha" picture with our leis as we arrived the hotel! Vivian never would put her lei on, but I did get her to hold it up for this shot


Ah! Once we were in our room, the view began to soothe me a bit


Dots enjoyed a fruity drink on our lanai while watching the sunset


Beautiful Hawaiian sunset


This is what Vivian thought of the sunset!