First Family Vacation: MAUI

The past month has flown by! We just got home from our first 'big' vacation with Hudson to MAUI!! We had so much fun and Hudson did great with all the traveling and new experiences.

We got up early Sunday morning (April 17th) and caught our first flight from Seattle to Portland. We made sure to keep Hudson awake on this quick flight, hoping he'd sleep for the long flight over to Maui. We had a quick layover in Portland and then it was off to Hawaii! The flight to Maui from Portland was 5 hours 45 minutes or so ... I was nervous to be cooped up in 2 small plane seats for that long, but Hudson did AMAZING!! He only slept the first hour and a half, but we managed to keep him interested and happy the rest of the flight by feeding him lots of snacks, reading books, playing with some new toys and stickers and talking to fellow travelers :)

Once we arrived in Maui, we got our luggage and picked up the rental car. Our first stop was Safeway to pick up a few grocery items for the week. I was amazed at how expensive things are over there. For 2 small bags of groceries we spent $70!!! That's generally what we spend for a week's worth of groceries here...yikes! We loaded up the car and headed South to our condo in Kihei. We were all exhausted after a long day of traveling and although it was only about 3 pm Hawaii time when we got to the condo, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to our condo to call it a night.

The rest of the week was pretty relaxed and low key. We didn't want to plan a lot of activities or excursions since this was our first family vacation. We spent most of our time at the beach, talking a lot of long walks along the beach and to/from 'town' and eating at new restaurants. We were also able to meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins a couple times as well as have lunch with a couple co-workers and their families who were staying nearby!

We did attend a luau to celebrate mine and Andy's 4th anniversary on Thursday April 21st. After waiting in a LONG, hot line to get into the show we were rewarded with amazing food and an awesome show. Hudson stayed awake through dinner and tried several new foods including watermelon, kalua pork, mahi-mahi, hawaiian sweet rolls and probably others that I'm forgetting!

Overall we had an AMAZING trip and are already talking about when we can go back to Hawaii (or somewhere else warm to get away from this nasty Seattle weather ..) Hudson did great on the flight home - sleeping most of it and we're slowly getting settled back into our daily routines (I'm back at work today .. ugh ..)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week... Enjoy! :)

{Weekend in San Francisco!}

A couple weeks ago Andy had the week off, so for my 'weekend' we decided to take a quick trip to San Francisco :) We left early Tuesday morning and arrived at San Francisco International Airport around 9 or so. We took the tram to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit--pretty much their version of the subway) and made it downtown around 11 or so. We walked to our hotel and got all checked in. The hotel was beautiful (the Hilton-Union Square). We got changed and decided to go grab some lunch. We spent the afternoon checking out some of the shopping, china town, then taking a double decker bus tour of the city. The tour was cool because it gave us a chance to see most of the city that we may not have otherwise seen in such a short visit. The tour took us down to Fisherman's Wharf, near Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the US), through many different neighborhoods and finally over the Golden Gate Bridge. Once we crossed the bridge we were able to get off the bus for a few minutes and take some pictures of the bridge from the other side. Although it was very windy and cold, it was a beautiful view of the bridge and the city.

That night we were pretty tired from getting up early and traveling so we had diner at "Lori's Diner" which was a 50's style diner and I finally got my Turkey Dinner I've been craving!!! It was sooo good :) After dinner we did some walking around, then headed back to our hotel room to watch a movie and call it a night! :)

Wednesday was Andy's Birthday, we woke up early to catch a taxi down to the pier for our 9:30 Alcatraz Tour!! This was defnitely the highlight of the trip. We took the ferry across the water to the Island where we were able to take a self-guided Audio tour of the prison. It was a really good recording with tons of information about the prison and history of the island. We both enjoyed walking through the cell blocks and imagining what it may have been like living in such a place 40 or more years ago.

After the tour we returned to the Wharf and walked around the many shops and restaurants. We had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack, then went to the Museum of Wax. It wasn't the best wax museum I've been to, but it was still fun! After that we walked up to Ghiradelli Square for some of their ice cream and famous chocolate!!! My hot fudge sundae was DELICIOUS!! And Andy got the waffle cone he had been wanting all day :) The rest of the day was spent riding the double decker bus again. We got off near the City Center in hopes of finding the "Painted Ladies" (the houses like the one on Full House) but after a TON of walking realized we must have been in the wrong area or something. So we made the couple mile trek back to our hotel area. We decided to relax for a while since we walked so much, then went to a late dinner at Puccini and Pinetti which was recommended to us by Andy's aunt who travels to San Francisco often. I wasn't all that hungry so I just had soup and salad which was ok. Andy had an interesting pizza. It wasn't really our style of restaurant, but it was ok. We then walked up to a bar that had a live piano player and listened while Andy had a couple birthday beers :)

The next and last day was spent with more wandering around Union Square as well as up to Chinatown again. We also did some shopping at Ross and Old Navy. After shopping we decided a trip to San Francisco wouldn't be complete without a ride on the Cable Cars! So we got tickets and waited in line for about an hour before finally getting to ride. We took the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf where we had lunch at Boudini's (which is famous for their sourdough bread). I had some delicious clam chowder and a sandwich with sourdough..yum!! We made sure to buy any last minute souveniers before taking the cable car back to Union Square to get ready to head home.

Overall, we had a very eventful couple days and hope to someday come back to San Francisco,maybe with a little more time for more tours and possibly an excursion to Napa Valley for some wine tasting! But that will all have to wait until after the little one is here :)

A week in Paradise ...

Well...our vacation to Cancun has come and gone ...way too fast, as vacations always seem to do!! We had an amazing time though and will definitely make it back there sometime, hopefully sooner than later!

We left on Monday morning April 20th and flew non-stop to Cancun. After we arrived waited through the long lines at customs and got on our shuttle we were off to enjoy the wonderful amenities at our all inclusive resort: The Sun Palace. We absolutely loved the resort! It wasn't huge (like some of the other Palace resorts that were in Cancun that we were able to use also), which made it much more intimate and relaxing. There were 4 different restaurants available for us to eat at as well as several bars, 24 hour room service and 3 pools and all the rooms had an ocean view and jacuzzi tub!! Needless to say, we were definitely pampered!! We took full advantage of the alcoholic beverages and food that was included.

Tuesday we woke up early and had a room service breakfast on our porch while watching the waves crash into the beach. After breakfast we got our swimsuits on and headed to the beach where we spent most of the day. We also booked our excursions and massages for the week. After a few hours in the sun we took a break and got showered and dressed and hopped on the city bus to check out city. We went up to the mall and walked around where Hard Rock, Coco Bongo, Hooters, and a bunch of other clubs were. And of course made our first trek through the flea market. On the way back to the resort we stopped at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville where we shared chips and guacamole and had some delicious cocktails. Then we caught the bus and headed back to the resort to freshen up and get some dinner. Since it was our anniversary we decided to try out one of the more formal restaurants. We went to 'La Tratto' which was Italian. The food was delcious and the ambiance was very nice.

Wednesday was our first 'excursion', we got up very early (5:30 a.m. Cancun time ...3:30 a.m. our time!) and got on a bus where we rode for just about 2 hours to a Mayan Civilization. We stopped and checked out some of their handcrafted items, then got back on the bus for a few more minutes where we saw "Chichen Itza", ancient Mayan ruins and one of the '7 Modern Wonders of the World.' Our tour guide took us through the area and explained the monuments/ruins to us as well as gave us some very interesting tidbits of info. We enjoyed the tour but it was sooo incredibly hot that we were relieved to get back on the bus! The tour lasted all day and with 4 hours total on the bus we were exhausted by the time we got back to our room. So we just had dinner at the restaurant by the pool and called it an early night since we were going snorkeling in the morning.

Thursday was another early morning. We got up and caught the tour bus that took us to a marina to get on the catamaran for snorkeling. The ride in the boat was only about 20 minutes out to the 2nd largest reef in the world!! We snorkled there for about 45 minutes where we saw several types of colorful fish and the beautiful reef and sea plants. After snorkeling we went back to the marina area where there were several other activities available to be purchased but we decided just to relax on the beach. So we did a little walking along the beach, tanning then a buffet lunch that was included. After a few hours there we returned to the resort to enjoy the rest of our night. After showering and getting ready we had dinner then headed out for a night on the town. We bought tickets and waited to see the Coco Bongo show. At first I was a little worried that the price of $50 a person wouldn't be worth it but after the first act I realized what an amazing show it would be!! There were acrobatics, performers/singers, comedians, dancing, etc. We really enjoyed the show, even though it was really crowded and there wasn't really anywhere to sit. I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Cancun!!

Friday was our last excursion..we visited Isla Mujeres, a small island off the coast of Cancun. We took a tour bus to another marina that took us across the water to another Palace Resort where we were able to use all the amenities. Andy and I hung out by the pool drinking cocktails, swimming and relaxing. We also did a little napping in the hammocks hung in the shade of the palm trees. After a few hours at the resort we rode in the boat along the coastline and stopped downtown for some shopping. After an hour there we were back on the boat and enjoyed some entertainment from the tour guides.

Saturday and Sunday were mostly spent relaxing by the pool, drinking cocktails, walking the beach and enjoying every moment we could before we had to come home!! Overall we had an amazing trip and loved Cancun! We can't wait to take another trip to Mexico or somewhere tropical and have already decided that next time we're going for 2 weeks!!