Beach at Aulani

Date of Visit: October 1, 2012

The beach was one of the few things Mik was interested in checking out at Aulani.  There is a beach wheelchair you can borrow to use on the beach.  It makes it easier, although it still takes a lot of muscle to move it and it did not have any working belts to strap in.



At the beach we built some sand castles.  Dad was supposed to help Mik build a castle, but he ended up building on in the shape of a Mickey for him instead of building with Mik and what Mik wanted.  Thus, I decided to add a Sorcerer Hat to it since it was not Mik's anymore anyways.  I also built a Sorcerer Hat one.

Mik had a lot of fun destroying my Sorcerer Hat, which I let him do when he was crawling back to the sand wheelchair.

Destination Info:

Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa

Ko Olina, Hawai'i

92-1185 Ali'inui Drive

Kapolei, HI 96707

Aulani Three Bedroom Grand Villa

Date of Visit: September 28 - October 4, 2012

We booked a one-bedroom accessible villa for our stay at Aulani, but at check-in we were surprised to hear that we were in a 3-bedroom Grand Villa.  It ended up being an amazing upgrade, as the villa is huge and it still has one of the bedrooms designed accessible along with the kitchen having lower counters than normal

 

Bedroom with Lower (i.e more accessible) King Bed - Room Mik claimed before even realizing the bathroom was accessible

Toilet in Accessible Room

 

Butt Cleaning Controls with Toilet in Accessible Room

 

 Accessible Shower, although no seat

 

Tub in Accessible Room

  

Laundry Closet

 

Entryway by Accessible Room

 

Other Master Bedroom with 2 Queen Beds - Mom and Dad's Room

 

Bathroom in Other Master Bedroom - Shower Only

 

Kitchen

 

Dining Room Table

 

Bar Seating in Kitchen

 

Living Room Area - Couch Folds Out

 

Main Entryway near Living Room

 

Awesome Desk Lamp - Each Room has one

 

Third Bedroom with Two Queen Beds - Kj's Room

Third Bathroom with Tub/Shower

 

Huge Porch that with Five Separate Doors Out to It - One from each bedroom, one from living room, and one from dining area

 

View of Pool Area from Grand Villa Porch

 

View of Ocean before Sunrise from our Porch

View of Ocean

Destination Info:

Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa

Ko Olina, Hawai'i

92-1185 Ali'inui Drive

Kapolei, HI 96707

Walt Disney World: Epcot - Innoventions Videogame Playground

Date of Visit: May 29, 2012

Mik loves video games and even though he had the sports video games playable in the Videogame Playground at Innoventions he enjoyed spending some time playing them.  It is also a good place to cool down or escape the rain while getting a console video game fix on vacation. 

Destination Info:
Epcot - Innoventions
Lake Buena Vista, FL

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park: Mission San Jose

Date of Visit: May 27, 2012

Mission San Jose was the mission we spent the most time at while visiting the different missions that are part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.  While we were not able to go inside the actual church part of the mission due to an event going on, unlike Mission San Juan there still was plenty to walk around and see.


The paths around the Mission are paved and there are ramps for getting down in the area near the back of the church.  It was not exactly enjoyable to walk/roll around and visit, as it was a typical hot summer day.  However, it was still interesting to be able to see how it really was a community and military fortress, since this is the most preserved/restored of the missions.  One area you could go in interested Mik the post, as you could see out the holes for guns.

Destination Info:
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park - Mission San Jose
150 Woodhill
San Antonio, TX 78214

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park: Mission San Juan

Date of Visit: May 27, 2012

Mission San Juan was the second mission we visited during our time exploring the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.  We did not spend much time at this mission, as it was under renovation, so you cannot go inside it and there is not much to see around the rest of the grounds of the mission.  The path around it is paved, though, so it is easy to explore - just not much to see at least until the mission is reopened.

Destination Info:
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park - Mission San Juan
9101 Graf Road
San Antonio, Texas 78214

Disney's California Adventure: Carthay Circle

Date of Visit: June 23, 2012

We celebrated Mik's 18th birthday at the new Carthay Circle restaurant on Buena Vista Street in Disney's California Adventure.  We all really enjoyed it, but it is an expensive place.  It was worth the splurge, though, and the $220 for 2 appetizers, 4 entrees, 4 drinks, 4 desserts, and tip  actually seemed like a bargain after spending almost $100 to eat just a regular entree breakfast at the IHOP across the street the day before.

When dining at the Carthay Circle restaurant, you check in on the first floor in the corner of the lounge.  The waiter comes and gets you from the lounge area and takes you upstairs (via elevator for us) to your table.  What is really nice is that they already know there is a wheelchair and they had a chair removed and totally out of the way before we got up there.

For the appetizer, we got the house biscuits.  Mik really loved them, as he is always a bread and biscuit type person and he really like the bacon in it.  The other appetizer we got was the grilled grape leaves stuffed with chenel goat cheese.  These were okay, but I have had way better at the local street fair not to mention actually in Europe.

For the entree Mik went with the Kobe beef cheek sliders and he enjoyed them a lot.  He also tried Mom's bacon wrapped shrimp, but was not much into them.  I had the Udon Noodle Bowl, which ended up being way more hot spicy rather than the flavorful spicy I expected.

Dessert was the best part at least for me.  I enjoyed the Fried Banana Split Monte Cristo Sundae.  It was a fried banana with three little scoops of ice cream and a banana chip shaped like a banana.  I forget what Mik's dessert was called and cannot find it on any of the online menus, but it was something like chocolate chip ice cream with a brownie.  The brownie came on the side, but the picture is of how Mik set up his dessert before digging in.  Looks much cooler the way he did it!

Destination Info:
Disney's California Adventure 
1313 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park: Espada Aqueduct

Date of Visit: May 27, 2012

The Espada Aqueduct was our second stop on our visit to the San Antonio Missions.  This was a quick stop, but totally worth it.  It is just cool to see the aqueduct that was used in Spanish colonial times and continued to be used until modern times.  I have read it is still functioning, but it certainly does not appear to be in use with it being totally dry on our visit.  However, that could be related to the whole San Antonio River revival project going on that we noticed a lot of signs for as we drove between the missions.


Destination Info:
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park - Espada Aqueduct
San Antonio, Texas