Category: Adventure Days

We decided to have a lazy morning in our rental house. It was really nice to wake up at 6:30 🙄 and not rush out the door. We finally left around 11 and of course it was drizzling. R woke up still sounding awful so we knew she was just going to hang in the chariot all day. But with the rain we decided to stuff L in there too. But Ty didn’t mind since the morning was going to be mostly downhill.

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This is as close to the park as we got.

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Check out these birds nests!!

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Our highest elevation sign and I almost missed it since it was so hidden.

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From here we just started our long fun decent.

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You’d think riding with a heavy trailer and packs would be heavy but really when you take away the 45 pound kid everything seems so much easier!

We made it to the black sand beach and let the kids play for a bit.

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We left about 2:30 and I again had L behind me since Ty saw we had some more elevation to climb before we got to our place for the night. I look up the road and see it just go straight up this hillside.

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It was another brutal climb. The shoulder was narrow and cars were going fast. I was just about to stop when L gave me his booster and pushed me up over the last big rise. That hill was a killer!

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We made it up that giant hill but it had wiped me out for all the small rollers that followed it. I finally had to kick L off the bike and made him run up to the top of the hill where I’d pick him up. Thank goodness he’s a team player!

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You can kind of see him walking behind the chariot here. Proud to say I didn’t end up walking the bike. It was easier to ride without his weight added to it.

R started to feel nauseous and L needed a pit stop. This is real life adventures with kids.

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She walked briefly while she wasn’t feeling good.

We finally made it to our dinner spot. We grabbed Mexican to go.

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I also found this itty bitty praying mantis on my bike.

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L being a goof.

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He thought this tiny seat was hilarious!

It was only three more miles and 300 ft gain to the house. So off we slogged. It was hot, and sunny, with again minimal shoulder. But we made it and this place is on a macadamia nut farm. It’s beautiful!

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So much for our easy day! That’s a lot of climbing still.

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Trying to entice the cats around here to play. Dinner was great and it’ll be another early night for all of us.

Well, at least I can say I survived the day…

We climbed over 4K in elevation gain today. It also took us 6 hours from leaving the hotel to arrive at our rental house. This doesn’t include a long leisurely lunch stop. There wasn’t one! 28.8 miles of mostly up hill. Yeah we knew today was going to be hard, and personally for me it delivered.

Took off from the hotel at 8am. I had R behind me since we knew it’d be level going through town. She being the older child is also larger and is harder to pull than when I have L behind me. Ty being the beast he is, isn’t bothered by either or both behind him.

We rode through town for a bit then Ty made the very wise decision that instead of riding along the highway we’d take this side road. It was my first taste of brutal. The road just kept going up. At times the grade was up to 15%. After a while I just needed a break. So Ty being the superstar took both kiddos. It was glorious! I felt light as a feather.

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Right when Ty first took both kiddos. I gleefully raced up the road. This why he’s so far behind. The only time I can make this happen is to saddle him with both kiddos.

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Please note the childless trail-a-bike!

Well after a 15% grade hill and probably 20 minutes of him working like mad, my freedom was over and I had R behind me. The theme of the day was to just keep churning those legs. Ignore the burning.

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I was beyond facial expressions.

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Just the endless road going up.

Here was a nice level bit!

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I needed a water refill, had emptied a few bottles and we hadn’t stopped for lunch yet. Nothing like some local gas station water to feel refreshed!

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On the bright side of things, there really wasn’t any wind, the sky was cloudy as well, so it wasn’t swelteringly hot. However that did not stop me from sweating like I was trying to push every ounce of liquid out of my body. Growing up in Alaska we just don’t sweat like this! (Warning gross sweaty photo ahead)

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We saw this very beautifully named church 😉

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A bit more riding and I was starting to get super hungry so we had a brief lunch break on the side of the road. Basically food we’d scavenged from breakfast at the hotel. Ty knew there wasn’t going to be many lunch options. Smart man!

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Then it was back to the slog. More climbing, followed by even more climbing!

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Finished off with the most gigantic, never ending hill I have probably ever ridden up. By this time, I couldn’t pull R any more. I just didn’t have it in me. I was worried I was going to have to dump L on Ty as well. But like the Little Engine that Could, I pumped some techno music in one ear, and just started peddling to the beat. I actually passed up Ty as well!

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Never mind the fact he’s pulling more weight than I am. We were 15 minutes from our house when we crested this hill!! It felt so good to arrived but then I started to get chills and I think my body was just shot. A hot shower helped but I’ve been trying to warm up ever since.

The kids were just happy to get to be free and play. Ty seems totally unfazed by our day. I meanwhile was huddled on the couch under the only blanket I could find!

We did finally rouse ourselves enough to bike to get dinner. Which would have been find, but of course it’s drizzling. Ugh

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Then we waited for 40 minutes to get our food truck Thai. But again the kids didn’t mind because they just played.

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I was battling my hanger. A quick bike home and thank goodness the portions were generous, the food was hot, and delicious.

R seems super congested but I’m pumping her full of vitamin c, and Mucinex so I’m hoping for the best. L is back to being mostly healthy like Ty. I’m still hanging onto my health but I’m sure as soon as we get back home I’ll succumb to the sickness.

Today was the last of the hard days (knock on wood!) We’ve biked our longest day. We’ve biked our largest elevation day. From now on it should be easier distances and no major hills 🤞🏻

Our goals for today were to play another round of golf and to surprise the kids with a movie. We managed to accomplish both of these. 😁

R decided to join team sickness by waking up super congested. We are sharing one hotel room, and numerous water bottles, I’m not totally surprised.

After another hotel breakfast we walked across the street to the golf course. It was surprisingly busy till we realized it was all the regulars. The retirees that must live nearby. They were ruthless about scavenging for balls. We lost several this way!

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Poor R was wiped out. Felt a bit feverish even, so we went back to the hotel for her to rest. The boys brought up some lunch and we hung out for a few hours.

We managed to pull ourselves together to bike the kids to their surprise! We found a movie theatre at the mall that was playing Wonder Park. I was super excited to see this movie, it looked really fun. Well, apparently I should have read a synopsis of it first. Spoiler alert, the mom gets super sick and has to go away. Well this had both my kiddos sobbing. L was regularly saying, I don’t want to watch any more! For my sensitive kiddos this movie was a bit too intense.

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Little do they know what they’re in for! 🤦🏻‍♀️

We softened the blow of the movie by grabbing some Jamba Juice, more meds at Safeway, and dinner at Panda Express.

We made another early night of it since most everyone is sick, and tomorrow would be our big hill climb day, up to Volcano National Park. I’m getting super nervous about it!

We woke up nice and early, like most vacations with kids. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Had a so-so breakfast in the hotel. (Side note, our hotel is just average, we wouldn’t recommend it but we wouldn’t say not to stay here) then we grabbed our bikes and headed off to find this local Catholic Church, Malia Puka O Kalani. It was a beautiful little chapel and the residents were super welcoming. They gave us all leis made from yarn. Huge hits with the kiddos!

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They had refreshments after mass and invited us to join them. It was so much food it was a lunch! We enjoyed visiting this little church and they sang the majority of their songs in Hawaiian.

We came back to the hotel and Ty arranged for us to go play golf. The hotel has a 9 hole course right across the street. It’s nothing fancy but they let the kids play for free and even had junior clubs for them to use.

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L loves playing. R enjoys it every few holes but she’s more focused on driving the cart.

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The hunt for lost balls and then using the ball washer were also big highlights!

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It was very low key so we just fun.

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After golf we walked back to the hotel and got the bikes out for dinner. Ty found an Indian restaurant in town.

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A short ride with him pulling all the weight. 😄

Dinner was delicious! We had a rousing game of Uno as well, it finally ended in a four way tie. The bike ride home felt easy and quick. Then we got everyone ready for bed back on our usual schedule.

Thankfully L seemed better today! It seems like his cold goes through so many fluctuations. So hard to know when to take him in and when to hold off.

I went into today knowing that it was going to be a long day. We were riding over 40 miles to get to Hilo, but once there we’d have 3 days to rest! Totally worth it right?

We slept terribly because for some reason L’s cough came back last night. He was up with a coughing fit several times. Then was up for the day by 6ish. 🤪 It’s always best to get the biking done before the hottest part of the day so we’re fine with early morning on bike days. Though we’d also read in Hawaii the hottest part of the day is like 10-4 so there’s really no escaping it!

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Pit stop selfies!

It was so hot right from the get go this morning. But we just chugged right along. The goal was to ride 20 miles and then stop for brunch. We made it to brunch just around 10 or so which felt pretty good.

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We sunscreened up after fueling up and we’re back on the road. Man, it is so hard to get going again after a long rest!

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Here’s L walking after Ty kicked him out of the chariot for whining. 😂 Didn’t take him long to decide he wanted back in.

The rest of the afternoon was just nonstop rolling hills and hot sun! About two hours after brunch I was dragging! Thankfully Ty knew to throw some energy gels and gu at me.

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There were a ton of gorges we crossed on narrow concrete bridges. We finally came to one that had a large shoulder so we could stop and enjoy the view. Otherwise our goals were to get off them as soon as possible!

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Pit stop view! Those giant dead trees were just so amazing.

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I did attempt a few photos today.

This one is right when Hilo came into view. That was such a sweet feeling. That and the fact Ty said we were at 1k feet elevation and the towns at sea level so I knew we had a fun downhill ride ahead of us!

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Not the time to attempt a selfie when a car is passing. But look at R’s face.

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I was so impressed with the kiddos. L was always willing for a turn on the bike. R was so brave on the downhills. She would just remind me to look forward and hold on with both hands. 😆 She did ask a time or two if we could move over away from the cars more. But for as crazy as some of the cars and roads have been I’m surprised there’s not more freaking out. They just roll with things pretty well.

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This tree in the middle of the cemetery was so huge. It was beautiful!

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This was such a good feeling rolling into Hilo!

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Our hotel was such a welcome sight and the staff was quite accommodating considering all the bikes and gear we roll up with.

Final numbers for the day.

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Just over 4 hours of biking, and almost 43 miles! We knew it’d be a long day and it was. Felt so good to get off that bike.

We finally got checked in, amongst a volleyball team, marathon bib pick up (the race is tomorrow), and the weirdest wedding outfits I’ve ever seen!

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R was dying over these dresses! She thought the bride looked and was acting like a real princess. 😆

We spent some time at the pool but by now L’s cough was pretty miserable. We missed the walk in clinic hours so we’re hoping to just limp him along till tomorrow. Why is his cough back?!

In positive news Ty seems to be on the mend. Also we saw a sea turtle from the pool area and Ty went out and snorkeled with it briefly.

L scratched himself pretty good on the lava rocks and R’s sunburn is healing but not great to look at.

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We’re all a bit of a mess. Hoping a few days off will put us all back to normal so we can tackle our big hill/mountain/volcano climb up to Volcano National Park. 😬

I mentally was preparing myself for a hard ride. Climbing 3k feet pretty much nonstop sounded intense!

We woke up a bit early and got ready quickly. Amazing how you can do that without kids around. The only concern was Ty sounded really sick. All night long I could hear him coughing. But being Ty he said even with congestion and a sore throat he was ready to ride!

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We left Hapuna and turned up the road to Waimea and we were blasted with the sun right in our eyes.

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Beautiful by blinding, hot, and it made it difficult at times to see exactly what was on our very narrow shoulder.

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I was so thankful we didn’t have to take the chariot on here!

It was just a long steady grind up the, curvy hill.

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Ty was still kicking my butt no matter how sick.

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It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Waimea. We were so happy to finally reach some level ground! The grandparents soon arrived with the kiddos and our gear. We went to a playground to unload it all and then we had to say good bye. They’re off to another island, to relax.

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We sure will miss them. We don’t get enough time with our Lower 48 family.

The kids played for a while, Ty and I tried to repack our bags. We were both pretty wiped from the morning ride and his cold was really depleting his energy. I finally decided we needed some food, so we found a great local place just down the road.

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Then off we rode for the last 15 miles to Honokaa. The first road we were on was ok. The shoulder was hit and miss but there seemed like a lot of traffic and at one point we had a semi almost blast us off the road. (Why?!) We also went through this construction patch.

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We were able to turn off onto a side road soon after that. It was so nice not to have any traffic around us. We probably had a handful of cars pass us the whole time. It was rolling hills up and down but beautiful farm land.

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Ty took a lot more videos this day. I was pretty pooped by this point so taking photos was beyond me.

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Then we started the decent down to the town. It was super long! It started out great. I had R behind me on the trail-a-bike and we were zooming along. Till I hit a bump and it started raining on us. She got freaked out by almost being thrown from the bike, understandably and I was freaked by the rain. I wasn’t sure if it would make the road slick.

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We made it to the bottom safely, drenched, but glad to be almost done for the day.

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Total for the day was 29.1 miles with a total elevation gain of over 3,200 ft! 😬

Honokaa was a small historic and touristy town. There weren’t a lot of places to stay so we needed up in the boarding house from 1924 in a studio bedroom with a shared bathroom. Definitely a bit odd of a set up but it was clean and worked for the one night.

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We walked to get breakfast items from the grocery store and picked up dinner on the way back. Good thing Hawaiian rain is so warm.

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Early to bed for all of us.

We literally spent the whole day at the pool and the beach. It was glorious! With views like this, why leave?

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We had found that broke boogie board at the beach the day before and it was perfect for the kids still.

L played in the pool nonstop all morning long till we finally ordered some lunch. He was just diving, swimming, and making friends. R wanted a bit of quiet time in the shade due to her sunburn.

After lunch I convinced them to sit still and let me put my sunscreen on by allowing them to listen to Harry Potter.

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R convinced Papa to go to the beach with her. Ty went to take a nap, he woke up sounding pretty congested. L decided to take it easy and just continue to listen to Harry.

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We packed it up about 4 finally. Got everyone cleaned up and headed to Waimea for dinner. We went to the Red Water Cafe and it was incredible. However, the portions were overwhelming! The one cute touch about this place is the table covers are paper and any kid who does a drawing they tape it to their walls. L was so proud of his ‘frog in a dead mans hand’. 😳 I have no idea where that came from!

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Despite arriving early for our 6pm reservation dinner was super long and the kids were an emotional mess by the end of the night. We were happy to tuck them in with Gamma and Papa!

Since the next days ride was going to be a 3k elevation gain. Basically biking up a hill for 15 miles, with very narrow shoulders. We asked the grandparents if they would mind take our bags and the kids up to the top of the hill. 😁 Thankfully they agreed. So Ty and I packed the chariot, and tag-a-long with our bags into their van and called it a night since we were getting up at 6:30 for our hill climb.

L woke us all up about 6:15 and we had wanted an early morning start for our ride. Maybe not this early but we figured, why not. #vacationwithkids 😄

We made breakfast of food bagels, yogurt, and bananas. Got ourselves dressed and packed up all the last minute items into our paneers. I’m sure the hotel staff was happy to see our bikes leaving. We’d been in and out of their storage room like 6 times in two days.

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Don’t we look all refreshed and excited?! We had a few working out the kinks moments early on. But we soon settled into a rhythm and I learned that I need to get off the bike for every hour of riding. 😬 So those became snack breaks and times the kids could switch from the chariot to the trail-a-bike.

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We were making really good time until the last ten miles or so. Then we got a massive headwind with lots of large rolling hills. Ty was incredible! He was pulling R in the chariot, which must have been like having a giant sail behind him. Then he was also trying to go slow enough so I could draft off him, but the moment we got to a hill I just couldn’t keep up. So in the end I just put my head down and slogged away up those hills.

We were so happy to see the resort, but apparently the entrance was a bit tricky because we ended up at some service entrance and had to get creative.

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So happy to see the signs for the lobby and know we were close!

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We were met at the entrance by Papa and Gama. What welcome faces! It was hard but felt like a good first ride for the trip. And we couldn’t have asked for a more incredible hotel to have a rest day at!

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Makes me nervous how hard 1,200 ft elevation gain was. How will I survive 3k?! 😬

We spent the rest of the day at the pool and the beach. Just relaxing and playing.

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By 4 I was all sunned out and knew we needed to get the kids out of the sun for a bit as well. Poor R got a bad sunburn on her cheeks and back of her hands the first day in Hawaii. So we had her wear her hat all day today. I kept slathering my kids and myself in sunscreen. Hopefully by the end of this week we’ll have a bit of a tan to protect ourselves more.

We tried to go to an early dinner.

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But sometimes that just doesn’t seem to work out. The kids were so wiped out by the end of it.

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It had been a very long and wonderful day!

Update on L: his cough is almost completely gone!!! 🎉 So, so thankful for modern medicine.

However, Ty now seems to be coming down with a head cold. Which is not great timing…

As with kids on vacation we slept terribly. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Linc woke us up at 4am with a coughing spell. Then again for the day about 7am. We tried to keep them as quiet as possible in the room. But is it just our kids or does their volume suddenly just increase?!

We walked to the grocery store and got breakfast. Enjoyed some Jamba Juice!

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Then we put Ty to work assembling the bikes while the kids and I played in the lagoon and the pool. 😁

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At least he had a good view!

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He finished around lunchtime. So we dropped the bikes off in storage and took the boxes up to the room to put our suitcases in them. Then Ty got to relax at the pool. That was all on our agenda for the rest of the day!

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When in Hawaii, you have to enjoy the shave ice right?!

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By the end of the afternoon L was coughing a lot. So we went upstairs to shower and get packed up. By the time we were ready he just about fell asleep on the bed. We managed to drag him across the street to dinner.

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He ate about half before he was wiped out. By this point I was getting pretty concerned we would end up in the Hawaiian ER again due to his asthma.

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Coughing break on our way back to the room. The inhaler we had brought, along with the kids cough meds weren’t helping him at all. Thankfully I remembered I had brought a single dose steroid. This is exactly what they would give him if we went to the ER. So I gave him that and he quickly fell asleep.

Meanwhile Ty and R finished their dinner and had a photo shoot on the way back. 😍

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We went to bed hopeful for some more sleep and a healthier L in the morning.

The saga continues 😄 My kids were totally freaked out by the Forbidden Forrest. Till the workers shared a secret with them. Aragog, Hagrid’s giant spider was made using coconut fur/hair. They LOVED this movie magic and it totally eliminated he scary factor.

We then got to explore Platform 9 3/4. You can walk through the train carriages and take blue screen photos on the train, pretending dementors are after you. 😆

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We finally made it to the cafeteria area. This had something we’d all been looking forward too, Butterbeer!!!

Ty and the kids ended up trying Butterbeer ice cream, while I stuck with the original cold drink. Mine was way better!!!

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We also took some time here to finish our lunches 😉 and listen to all the extras on the audio guide. It was nice to do this while sitting down and we didn’t feel rushed.

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They then have some outside sets, the Knight Bus, The Dursley’s House, Harry’s Parents Home, Serius Blacks motorcycle. All while movie studio fake snow was falling. It was so fun!

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After being outside you can explore the special effects rooms. Again the amount of detail that when into every bit of these movies was overwhelming! They brought in a bird specialist so they could get the feather pattern on the Hippogriff (a made up animal!) as realistic as possible. 😳 That is just one example of how accurately they tried to portray every element of these movies.

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We walked through Diagon Alley. It was so fun and you wanted to enter every shop!

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Final part of the tour was the scale models and the artistic portrayals. Beautiful and incredible!

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In the entry they have these life size photos of the cast, you can measure up against your favorites.

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The best day!

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So exhausting but so incredible. But now it’s 6pm. We had to catch the bus back to the train. The train was so full we had the kids sitting on our laps for the 45 minute ride. Then we switched to the Underground for another 30 minute ride. Went to our hotel and got our suitcases before getting back on the Underground for another 30 minute ride to the airport. 🤪 Our new hotel had a shuttle from the airport but by this point we were wrecked. So we booked ourselves an airport taxi. But not just any old taxi. It was a Tesla! Ty fell in love on that ten minute ride. Meanwhile I was just trying to keep R from getting car sick.

We finally made it to our hotel and threw everyone in bed. Since we were going to get up at 5am to make our flight to New York. Gosh London was a whirlwind but it was so amazing!