Monday, 5 February 2024

Eric Turns 40 - San Diego 2024 - Jan 16, 2024

 Well for Eric's 30th we headed skiing in the west coast, (here is the blog posts for that if you want to remember). Hard to believe that was 10 years ago already.

https://akcoolidge.blogspot.com/2014/02/eric-30th-birthday-whistler-adventure.html

So for Eric's 40th, we headed to the west coast but down south to San Diego, this time a little different company but their 2 kids :). The kids were so excited to sleep at our place before heading to the airport in the middle of the night, they were flying through Vancouver direct to San Diego, while Lola and AA flew a few hours later direct from Winnipeg to Palm Springs and drove 2.5 hours to palm springs.  




The flight was pretty uneventful. Palm Springs Airport is pretty small, so we got our bags, and car, and headed for some breakfast.  We had our typical Deny's, and it was sure good.  Lola always getting a double order of the shredded hashbrowns.





Next we made our way to San Diego Airport to pick up the rest of us gang.  We made it just in time to park at the cellphone lot, use one of the cleanest port a potties at the lot, and pick them up.


The kids were so excited to see us pick them up!

First stop was for some lunch!  Luckily Lola got her choice of Shake Shack.  A short drive we made it and ordered and all enjoyed our food.


Once lunch was over we went for a short drive by Misson Bay, then got permission to go to the rental house early so we headed there.  Checked out the awesome house Eric found, then headed to the grocery store. We had a wonderful salmon meal at the house, then headed outside to enjoy our first night in the hot tub.  Not sure who was more excited the kids or adults,  We had an early night as we were up very early.















Oahu, Hawaii - Day 9 & 10 (last day and Travel home)

 I know this is a little late, but better late then never.

Our last day in Hawaii was awesome and relaxing.  We got a late check out of 6 pm which was so nice as we our flights didn't leave till after 10pm at night.

We had a "lazy" day at the condo. Started with AA and Lola taking the twinkies to feed the koi. T and B had a great time with all the feeding and all the birds looking for the left overs.  T was was very conservative dumping 1 piece of food at a time.




Back at the condo, we ate some breakfast, and then MBMell, Lola and the kids headed to the pool. The kids were super excited to play in the water, while Lola watched and took videos. Eventually DD and AA came down to the pool.  It was a little cold, so we opted to sit on the side while the kids had a great time.






The guys went and picked up lunch that we ordered online from Zippy's, and ate at the condo. It was really good, and an easy meal to eat at the condo.

After lunch we headed to the beach for one last ocean swim.  The adults didn't get wet, but the kids enjoyed their last swim.  

We packed up and headed out for dinner.  It was sad to say goodbye to Ko Olina, and the condo.  AA found us a restaurant that was next too a pool, but it was super loud and hard to chat.  The food was pretty good, and but pretty slow, good thing we had a lot of time.



After supper we headed to the airport, AA dropped us off and went and returned the van. Lola got seperated as she had to go through a different entrance because she didn't need to take the luggage through the usa agriculteral scan, but quickly met them back to wait for AA. 

We seperated once more going through security, but then met back up.  Lola and AA went to the others gate, as their flight left earlier than theirs.  As we walked to the gate, B continued to talk about this "Fruit in da Coconut" that we saw all over that she really wanted to try every time we walked by it.  

We had a little time, so Lola treated her and MBMell to a snack.  T decided playing on his ipad was a better option than going to buy a treat.  The ladies enjoyed their snack, and it was even gluten and dairy free for Lola.  It was super good, and maybe we should have had more throughout the trip.  We cleaned them and Lola took the coconuts home :).

MBMell, DD and the kids headed on their flight back to the mainland.  It was bitter sweet but they made it safe home, and it would be only a month before we see eachother again.

Lola and AA headed to their gate where Lola was super excited to travel on the Boeing dreamliner in premium.  Food, Screens, remotes for the light and air, and a foot rest.  The goal was to sleep on the redeye home, and we did pretty good, sleeping 3.5 hours.


We made it to Calgary where we went through customs, and had some food, to get ready for our next flight.  Our layover was a little longer than we would have liked, but luckily AA had lounge passes so we headed in there to enjoy some nice seating and some beverages and snacks, before heading back to Winnipeg.

We didn't get to sit together on the flight to Winnipeg, but we made it just fine, and it was sure cold outside, but not much snow.  

It was a great trip! and always planning the next on the current :)

Here are some awesome photos of the surf session that we got back a few weeks after the surfing lesson.