Fine Dining topped off with Dole Whip

First thing this morning, we checked out of the hotel room and moved into the guest house.

So long hotel.

Living in a hotel has some pros and cons.

PROS

• fresh towels and sheets each day
• shampoo with “Noni Papaya and Pineapple extracts” that makes my hair feel like it’s on vacation
• a free paper each morning

CONS

• putting the kids down for a nap and basically having to creep around the room or sit in the bathroom until they fall asleep
• turning off all the lights at bedtime and sitting in the dark until the kids fall asleep
• not being able to talk or watch tv after the kids fall asleep

(Of course, this would be solved if we got two hotel rooms, but the budget can only be stretched so far.)

Aloha guest house.

Oh my.

I think we should call this The Penthouse – except that we’re now living in a renovated basement. We cannot get over how wonderful this house is! There is so much space.

The living room.

The living room.

The bathroom.

Master bed.

This kitchen is three times as large as our kitchen in China!

Schäfer loves this big boy bed.

Please brace yourself for the biggest news: we have a backyard with a water hose!

Hubs set off for the grocery store while I unpacked our bags and got the kids settled in our new digs.

Hubs returned from Safeway with quite a few supplies. Fresh pineapple smells amazing! Schäfer asked if we could eat it immediately.

Yes, that would be 4.5 gallons of milk to keep the kids satisfied for a week or so.
My pregnancy request: pickles and Gatorade.

We had sandwiches for lunch & it felt so good to be sitting together around a quiet dinner table – not that we were that quiet!

Sianna easily went down for a much needed 3 hour sleep. Schäfer had a hard time getting down. He was so excited about “sleeping in the kitchen”. Eventually, he fell asleep for 1.5 hours. Hubs and I talked about going to Diamond Head, but by the time Schäfer woke up, we knew we couldn’t get to the peak and back before the park closed. We decided to have a nice dinner at Roy’s in Waikiki.

It’s safe to say that on this vacation, I’m planning the recreation and Hubs is planning the meals. My man is on a mission to eat.

We haven’t eaten at a nice restaurant since we were at SALT in Beijing in 2008. It was time for some fine dining… with kids.

There’s a reason we took our kids. I’ll let Hubs tell you about it:

One of my favorite memories as a child is when my parents took me to a “fancy” restaurant to eat with them. I remember putting on my favorite leather jacket and going to the Edgewater Resort restaurant to eat. The Edgewater was the fanciest restaurant in Sandpoint and a big deal. It was a buffet style restaurant. It was the first time I had raw oysters. I think I threw up afterwards. Nevertheless, it was a special time!

For our special supper, we had Schäfer select his “best outfit”. Of course, he chose his Thomas the Train overalls.

Our guest house is in the Menoa Valley just up from Waikiki. It only took one hour to walk to the restaurant. It was a breezy, sunny, enjoyable walk.

When we were walking, a retailer was outside her shop and said, “Thomas.” Schäfer said, “Next time, I’ll tell her I’m the conductor!”

The food at Roy’s was delicious.

If only I could make this photo scratch and sniff.

The kids did great during the meal. Schäfer and Sianna ate everything we offered. I love that they’re so willing to eat salad, portobello mushrooms, fish, etc.

Two very satisfied faces.

We had reservations for 6pm and were out of the restaurant by 7pm when the evening crowd started to show.

When I was changing Sianna’s diaper, we received the nicest compliment. A lady stopped and said that she and her husband watched our kids during dinner. She said, “Your daughter was so calm and your son was so animated.”

After supper, Schäfer requested an ice cream since he had eaten everything on his plate. We stopped in the international market for Dole Whip. We’ve heard they were so good. We just couldn’t wait until we made it to the plantation.

A Dole Whip is like a pineapple sorbet. It’s incredible. How have we managed live this long without one?

Schäfer was so excited to have his own Dole whip.

Sianna couldn’t wait to try the Dole whip.

She’s not a fan of things that taste cold.

But that doesn’t stop her from wanting more!

We took the bus home. It only took 25 minutes from the time we got on the bus to the time we entered the front door. So convenient!