Kelly Trips and Tours

It's almost time to leave paradise and head back to reality.  We've had a fun filled week and this morning was once again beautiful. As we say Aloha and Mahalo, we thought we add these photos of the boys and girls. Time to check out. We arrive LAX at 8:30 pm and then grab a rental car and drive home while the Arizona Kellys change planes and arrive Phoenix around 11:00 pm.

The boys, Bob, and Kayley left the condo at 5:40 am to see sharks up close and personal.  At 7:00 am they boarded the shark boat and headed out to sea. Once in position, into the shark cage they went. Once all were in, the boat moved away 20-30 ft while they stayed teatherd to the boat. This was a real thrill although Kayley was scared to death. Around and under them were at least 20-30 or more sharks.  They were quite large and looked like great whites but were really Galapagos sharks. Austin, Jared, Bob and Chandler loved it as did Kayley although she was scared most of the time. After their tour, we joined them at a small coffee shop nearby. Jared was especially hungry since the sea was choppy and he left his peanut butter toast behind. Everyone made it back with great stories and all their fingers and toes intact. From there, off to Waimea Valley where we took a few pictures (like the one below with our adult kids) before going to Pipeline to body surf (Bo...

Finally, a morning at leisure with no plans until the afternoon. First, a late breakfast followed by touring the Aulani Disney Hotel and a stop at the ABC store. On the walk back to our condo, we stopped at the JW Marriott which is next door to the Disney Resort to see the Sharks, Sting Rays and Manta Rays and fish in there huge pond. We also saw the rare Hawaiian Humuhumunukunukuapua'a fish! We also got there just in time to see guests in the pond feeding the Rays. Once back at our condo, it was time to make your own lunch before heading out for our afternoon excursion. Since we needed to be in Honolulu by 2:15 pm, we departed at 1:15 because we would needed to stop at the bank because today's adventure requires payment in cash. Once we were on the road, we received a call from the dive company in Honolulu letting us know the boat had a mechanical issue. Although some were disappointed, we rescheduled for tomorrow - so stay tuned for Thursdays adventures. After 10-min on...

Today is Bills birthday.  What a great way to celebrate by having the whole family in Hawaii.  We spent the morning in Hale'iwa Town where everyone except Karen  went paddleboarding. She watched us go out to sea, around the jetty, up the river and beneath the historic arches of Rainbow Bridge that spans the 'Anahula River - the bridge the boys jumped off yesterday. Because it was Bill's birthday, we only included him and his two kids in the blog below, although Kayley was next to him. The boarding was great although at times it was hard due to the current and offshore wind. Along the way we saw several sea turtles and fish. This was the first time Kayley, April and Bill saw a huge sea turtle up close this trip. As it turns out, April was the only one who never fell. But for us who did fall off, it was very refreshing. The boys found a large tree along the river where a rope was hung so they stopped, climbed the tree and swung out over the river then drop...

Again this morning (July 8th) we dragged the teenagers out of bed at the crack of dawn.   We planned to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, one of the best spots on Oahu. It is a very popular place because it is beautiful with lots of fish.  The problem is that it fills up early and they close the parking lot by about 8:30 AM.  It takes a little more than a hour to drive there so we were leaving early again this morning.  The water was beautiful and the snorkeling was great.  We all went  in and saw many beautiful fish.  Austin, Bob, and Jared went out beyond the reef and saw some big schools of fish and did some body surfing. Chandler gets the prize for the longest time snorkeling and Austin is made for the water. When Chandler sat down to take a break, a couple friends surprised him by walking up his legs.  They wanted his potato chips. For lunch we headed north for a small cafe where 50 first dates was filmed.  Bill had hear...

We had an early start today as we needed to get going to Pearl Harbor.  It was an educational day with a remembrance of the attack on our Pacific Fleet.  We also were treated to an outrigger canoe ride with Bill's 21-yr friend and customer, Major General Darryll Wong.  It was quite warm today but our Arizona people are not complaining about it. Our first excursion was to Pearl Harbor where the US involvement in WW II started on Dec 7, 1941. We spent time in the Attack museum where we saw the actual edited draft of Roosevelt's speech. Next we saw a a 20-min movie with actual footage of attack. Seeing and touring really puts history in perspective. After the movie we boarded a boat for a short ride to the USS Arizona Memorial where 1, 177 men gave their lives. In the memorial there is a wall with the names of all those who died on the ship. After visiting the memorial, we toured the WWII submarine Bowfin. It was interesting to see how it operated and how th...

Karen, April and Bob made us a great Friday dinner. After we were filled, we played a game then went to bed by 10 pm. After all, we all got up early and Hawaii is 3-hrs earlier which means it was near 1:00 am Calif time. Everyone slept well and a couple of us enjoyed the sunrise this morning while others - them teenagers who can sleep for hours - got some extra beauty sleep! If you look closely, you can pick out Bob running. While Bob ran, Bill and Karen enjoyed a beautiful morning walk around the lagoons. After breakfast off to lagoon 1 for some snorkling. There are 4 lagoons so we must try them all. Lagoon 1 is in front of the new Disney Resort hotel shown in the background while April and Kayley enjoy the warm water. All of us had a great time snorkeling and saw lots of fish and turtles. After lunch on the beach, more snorkeling and a swim in the pool. For dinner, we ate in our condo and enjoyed each others company on our 2nd day in paradise. For dinner, Kar...

Up at 4:00 am, picked up April, Kayley and Jared at 5:40 and met Bob, Austin and Chandler at LAX at 7:00 am. After a quick breakfast, off we went for a family vacation in Hawaii. Once we arrive in Honolulu and check into our Marriott KoOlina Vacation Club timeshare, we will blog as often as possible. Time to board group. Sit down, shut up and hang on! Once we arrived, picked up 2 vehicles and headed downtown Honolulu for lunch then a stop at Snorkel Bob's to pick up snorkel gear for the week. We finally arrived at the timeshare at 4pm, unloaded the boys, who hit the beach while Bill, Karen and April went grocery shopping and Kayley cooled her jets doing games. The boys got in some snorkeling and saw pufferfish, butterfly fish and a sea turtle. In the next days we'll add more pictures, but for tonight, here is a view from our room.

Yes,  this is Switzerland - a beautiful sunny day with no clouds - a trip out to the mountains - green everywhere - wildflowers - Swiss farms dotting the landscape - Swiss cows with melodious cow bells around their necks - Swiss chalets all along the way, some of them very high up the mountain - jagged snowy mountains - a gondola ride up to 7,000 feet (as high as Karen was willng to go - the top is at 10, 000 feet and they are skiing up there) - lunch with a view more spectacular than we could describe - nibbling Swiss chocolate on the way back to Lucerne.  Now this is Switzerland - part of Bill's bucket list. Below is our lunch view - spectacular ! Yes, we had all that and more on our excursion to Engelberg.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are more pictures.                      Enjoying the view at 7, 000 feet...what else can be said. After returning to Lucerne, we turned in o...

Friday in Lucerne began cloudy and rainy but that didn't stop us.  After a nice breakfast at the hotel we started driving along the north side of the lake and towards the towns of Weggis and Vitznau. The road was easy and Gert helped us navigate the round abouts.  The rain had stopped and we enjoyed some beautiful scenery.  Mountains come up from the lake and they are totally green - very lush and beautiful.  After turning around to head back, we saw some lovely homes on the mountain and we decided to try and find a good spot to get a picture, so we turned up a side street and started climbing up the mountain.  Before we knew it we were climbing higher and higher on a very narrow road with not much guard railing on the down side of the road.  We wanted to turn around but we weren't sure it was a two way road, and it was no wider than a car plus a few feet. We finally found a spot and decided to turn around and head back down.  It was much eas...