Aloha Aulani!

Not a bad view, right?

In March, our family decided to continue our travel streak and take a long weekend in Hawaii.  We had some Alaska Airlines voucher burning a hole in our pockets from a flight cancellation last summer, and when flight prices dropped to equal the value of the vouchers, it was time to take advantage of a free Hawaiian vacation!

Since Virginia is such a Disney fan and we were not going for a very long trip, we thought this was the perfect chance to experience the new Disney resort on O'ahu, Aulani.  The Aulani was very expensive, but we worked our travel magic to get a good deal during the low season.

The trip was truly magical in every way.  The resort was authentically Hawaiian, complemented with all the Disney magic and excellent service.  Virginia loved all the kids' activities and events and got the chance to hang with her favorite Disney characters.  She spent time at Aunty's Beach House (coolest kids' club ever) while mom and dad enjoyed some nice meals out and also ran herself ragged doing the waterslides at the Menehune Bridge water playground.  We also had the chance for a nice reunion with an old law school pal and his daughters one day.  The girls played wonderfully together and Virginia especially enjoyed getting to sit at a "big girls table" with them for our poolside lunch.  Ever since our return, Virginia is begging to go back again.

(For a full review of our Aulani experience, check out the review on my travel blog!)

Shave ice was a daily treat.  Virginia always made sure she got orange.

Menehune Bridge water play area is where Virginia rode water slides.  187 times to be exact.

Breakfast with Mickey!

First time on a paddle board with daddy.

Loving on Minnie Mouse.

Our little mad scientist doing experiments at Aunty's Beach House.

Happy family in Hawaii.

Virginia hams it up at comedy hour at Aunty's Beach House.

A highlight of the vacation was getting to see an old law school pal, Brett Tobin, and his girls.

Stitch and the girls (Virginia was still learning how to do the shaka!)

Virginia Visits Virginia, Part 2

Our Saturday in Virginia was full of fun activities, but we didn't stop there!  We awoke Sunday morning bright and early and drove a half hour from Lynchburg to tiny Arrington, Virginia, where Trinity Episcopal Church is located.  Trinity was our church when we lived in Lovingston, Virginia during my third year of law school (2004-2005), and we could not wait to show off Miss V to all of our friends there.  Virginia behaved beautifully during the service, and then joined everyone for coffee hour and a little playing on the swing set behind the church.

Thomas and Bernie McGinnis at Trinity:

Virginia took our photo (again) outside of Trinity:

After church, we drove a few minutes up the road to our old stomping grounds in Lovingston, where we reunited with our former neighbors, the Boor Family and Larry Wells.  Larry was the director of the funeral home next door to the house we rented from him on Main Street and was a great neighbor and friend.  Travis Boor worked with Larry and lived across the street from us with his wife Candy.  When we lived there, Travis and Candy had two young sons, Myles and Wesley, but we were amazed to find that they had all but grown up!  In addition, a fifth Boor family member had been added, so we were thrilled to meet little Bryn (1).  Virginia adored having a little girl to take care of during our visit.  We visited with everyone and ate lunch at our favorite Lovingston pizza joint, Vito's.

Our old house (right) next to the Wells-Sheffield Funeral Chapel:

Virginia meets the newest Boor family addition, Bryn:

The boys at the Boor house (Myles, Larry, Thomas & Travis):

Thomas with Travis & Candy:

The Boor and Harvey kids: Bryn, Myles, Wesley, & Virginia:

In the afternoon, we loaded up the car yet again and headed for Charlottesville, where we met up with Steve, Yancey, and Finley Haas.  Steve and Thomas were best buddies at UVA, and the Haas family now lives in Richmond, so they kindly made the trip to see us.  Finley is a year and a half older than Virginia, and she and Virginia became fast friends as well.  We had a nice dinner and playtime on the Downtown Mall in Cville with them, and then retired to the Omni for a swim and a good night's sleep.

Virginia and Finley, clearly up to no good chasing their dads:

 Dads & daughters: Steve, Finley, Virginia, & Thomas:

On Monday morning, we had a few hours to kill before our flight home, so we took Virginia to see UVA.  We had lunch at a famous greasy spoon, The White Spot, on The Corner, and then bought lots of UVA gear for Virginia and us.  Then it was back to California for us!

Silly girl at the White Spot:

Virginia taking yet another photo of us - not bad at all!

Virginia Visits Virginia, Part 1

Ever since Virginia was born, we've been waiting patiently to take her to her namesake state.  So when the judge that Thomas clerked for in Lynchburg announced he was having a reunion of his clerks, we jumped at the chance to take little V to Virginia.  We planned a whirlwind weekend, leaving on a Friday and returning on Monday.  I managed to snag us seats on United for $283 roundtrip, so it was a travel success story as well.

We arrived late Friday night into Charlottesville airport and drove the one hour trek down Route 29 to Lynchburg that night.  We made an obligatory Chick-Fil-A stop along the way, of course.  After a glamorous night at the Holiday Inn in Lynchburg, we had a great Southern breakfast the next morning and then went to meet the Homiller family for a playdate.  

Lucy and Will Homiller attended UVA law school with Thomas and me years ago, and have two little ones who were just the right age to be Virginia's playmates.  Virginia and Frances (almost 5) hit it off right away, and little George (3) tagged along for all the fun.  The Homillers were so sweet to come all the way to Lynchburg (Lucy's hometown) from Richmond (where they now live) to meet us.  We visited a great park in Lynchburg with the kids, ate lunch at a restaurant by the Lynchburg River, and then the girls went to the Children's Museum, Amazement Square.

At the park:

Silly kids playing at the park:

Fast friends:

"Snowboarding" to a motion-based video game at Amazement Square:

UVA buddies and their little girls!

After our great playdate, it was off to the reunion dinner for Judge Norman Moon.  Virginia was one of the few kids in attendance, but she hung in there pretty well, with the help of some iPhone games from one of the clerks who was a mom herself and whose iPhone was well-stocked!  Everyone got a kick out of her insisting on taking the group photo of all of Judge Moon's clerks, and she continued to snap photos well into the evening. 

Judge Moon and all of his former clerks:

 Virginia took this photo of us -- not bad!

Thomas with Judge Moon:

Harveys Hit Hawaii - Part 4

Near the end of our trip, Thomas and I accompanied Nancy and Peter on a night dive with the manta rays.  Our scuba skills were a little rusty, but we had a great dive instructor who got us back into fighting form.  We saw a record number of mantas that night due to the excellent feeding conditions - some were over 16 feet tip to tip!

Virginia had a blast putting together puzzles with Mimi and torturing crazy Uncle Dave:

On our last night, we went out to dinner at the fancy restaurant on site at the Mauna Lani, the Canoe House.

And we followed up dinner with a night of singing and puzzles with the family back at the condo:

Our trip home was not without drama, as our flight was cancelled!  We ended up avoiding an overnight delay by getting on a redeye on another airline.  Virginia was dog tired but a fairly good sport....

Harveys Hit Hawaii - Part 3

Our group had quite the collection of beer aficionados, so we gathered a crew and headed to the Kona Brewing Company.  Some of the boys took a tour, and Thomas, Virginia, Chris and I joined them for lunch and beer tasting afterwards.

On the way back from our brewery visit, we stopped at a wide spot on the highway to visit a lava tube - a massive cave formed by cooling lava.  Since this was an unplanned visit, we didn't really have appropriate footwear to be hiking unstable lava, but we managed to make it happen.  Thomas carried a very wary Virginia and we marveled at the size of the cave.  

One of the highlights of our visit was our night at the Mauna Kea luau -- attended by our whole group. We dressed up and drove up the road to this gorgeous resort where we took some more formal photos and ate delicious Hawaiian BBQ.  The mai tais weren't much to write home about, but the show was quite good.  Virginia even got called up on stage to do the hula to the Hukilau song.  Instead of doing the dance, she spent most of the song bossing around two younger toddlers and making sure they were standing in the right place and following instructions.  All the parents in the audience were laughing like crazy.  Then, we had even more reason to laugh when Thomas was brought on stage to do a Tahitian dance!