GrandCalifornian
Can't Wait To Go Back
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
Hi Everyone! We’re ready to kick off something a little different.
We just got back from our first ever trip to Hawaii, and yes we checked out Aulani, so you have that to look forward to, but first we have a few days at a different resort in Waikiki.
It was an amazing trip, and we can’t wait to share it with everyone!
We decided to cover all of it, because the things we did could be done from Aulani as well, and it all came together to make one awesome trip.
We gotta start with the why we went to Hawaii in the first place I think. It’s been somewhere that’s been on my list to visit but Paul was never really interested.
t just wasn’t anything I really wanted to do when we could go to Disney instead. Aulani had appeal, but I didn’t want to spend our points on it instead of a WDW trip.
So I convinced my bestie that she needed to get married in Hawaii.
And since she runs the office with Melissa I volunteered to stay home and help at work. Since that wouldn’t be a fun family vacation though she lured me onto the trip by renting points for Aulani so we got to experience it in addition to WDW this year.
I also had to rent a Jeep for the whole trip and book an ATV tour.
Those were just extras that made it so neat once we all were going. I did absolutely love the Jeep though, but we’ll get to that.
So lets get into the who what when where’s...
In case you don't know us, I’m Paul a 42 year old Mechanical Engineer and aspiring elevator mechanic, and just like for our WDW trip reports I’ll be writing in blue.
I’m Melissa, I do all sorts of things at the elevator company and am mom to our two amazing kiddos. I’ll be in orange.
This is Allie, she’s 12 and in 6th grade! She was super excited about this trip and had a LOT of fun.
And this is Marshall, our now six year old son who is very active and up for about anything. He would argue that he is actually the bride’s best friend, since they spend a lot of time together at work.
We’ve got a couple of extra characters we should briefly introduce because they’ll make an appearance early in this report. First off is Kathy and Greg, the newlyweds.
Kathy has worked for me for several years now and is my right hand at work and best friend out of work. She’s amazing and I’m so happy she has such a sweet guy as her husband.
Also joining in were Melissa’s Aunt Lorie and Uncle Steve.
Lorie is the CFO of the elevator business and works closely with Kathy and Melissa and was in on the planning as well. Steve is a cool guy and a private pilot who got to take a week off to join in.
Kathy and Greg also had their families and friends there so you’ll see a sprinkling of them too.
Now with The Who and Why’s covered, let’s get to the “Where”. The wedding was based from the Hyatt Place hotel near Waikiki on Oahu.
We figured that despite being on the same island, we didn’t want to have to commute from Aulani for the wedding so we started our trip staying at the Hyatt. This was a practical decision for the wedding, but actually wound up being a neat pairing with Aulani.
We flew in on April 26th and then moved to Aulani on the 29th and then flew home on the May 2nd.
It was a very busy 6 days but we were able to do a lot of cool stuff which we’ll share here.
Join us as we explore Hawaii for the first time.
We just got back from our first ever trip to Hawaii, and yes we checked out Aulani, so you have that to look forward to, but first we have a few days at a different resort in Waikiki.
It was an amazing trip, and we can’t wait to share it with everyone!
We decided to cover all of it, because the things we did could be done from Aulani as well, and it all came together to make one awesome trip.
We gotta start with the why we went to Hawaii in the first place I think. It’s been somewhere that’s been on my list to visit but Paul was never really interested.
t just wasn’t anything I really wanted to do when we could go to Disney instead. Aulani had appeal, but I didn’t want to spend our points on it instead of a WDW trip.
So I convinced my bestie that she needed to get married in Hawaii.
And since she runs the office with Melissa I volunteered to stay home and help at work. Since that wouldn’t be a fun family vacation though she lured me onto the trip by renting points for Aulani so we got to experience it in addition to WDW this year.
I also had to rent a Jeep for the whole trip and book an ATV tour.
Those were just extras that made it so neat once we all were going. I did absolutely love the Jeep though, but we’ll get to that.
So lets get into the who what when where’s...
In case you don't know us, I’m Paul a 42 year old Mechanical Engineer and aspiring elevator mechanic, and just like for our WDW trip reports I’ll be writing in blue.
I’m Melissa, I do all sorts of things at the elevator company and am mom to our two amazing kiddos. I’ll be in orange.
This is Allie, she’s 12 and in 6th grade! She was super excited about this trip and had a LOT of fun.
And this is Marshall, our now six year old son who is very active and up for about anything. He would argue that he is actually the bride’s best friend, since they spend a lot of time together at work.
We’ve got a couple of extra characters we should briefly introduce because they’ll make an appearance early in this report. First off is Kathy and Greg, the newlyweds.
Kathy has worked for me for several years now and is my right hand at work and best friend out of work. She’s amazing and I’m so happy she has such a sweet guy as her husband.
Also joining in were Melissa’s Aunt Lorie and Uncle Steve.
Lorie is the CFO of the elevator business and works closely with Kathy and Melissa and was in on the planning as well. Steve is a cool guy and a private pilot who got to take a week off to join in.
Kathy and Greg also had their families and friends there so you’ll see a sprinkling of them too.
Now with The Who and Why’s covered, let’s get to the “Where”. The wedding was based from the Hyatt Place hotel near Waikiki on Oahu.
We figured that despite being on the same island, we didn’t want to have to commute from Aulani for the wedding so we started our trip staying at the Hyatt. This was a practical decision for the wedding, but actually wound up being a neat pairing with Aulani.
We flew in on April 26th and then moved to Aulani on the 29th and then flew home on the May 2nd.
It was a very busy 6 days but we were able to do a lot of cool stuff which we’ll share here.
Join us as we explore Hawaii for the first time.