The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.<\/p>\n
Here’s the short story.<\/p>\n
The Good. We had a magical time in Hawaii.\u00a0 We wanted the kids to experience all that we love about Oahu, and at 5 and 8 they are old enough to actually do some amazing things.\u00a0 We snorkeled, hiked up to a waterfall, cracked open macadamia nuts and rode horses through the jungle.\u00a0 We\u00a0went off-roading through Kualoa Ranch and saw wild pigs and amazing views. We stopped at side of the road fruit stands and ate fresh coconut, pineapple and papaya.\u00a0 We ate out of shrimp trucks.\u00a0 We rode trolleys and double decker buses. We went to the zoo. We surfed and played in the ocean. We learned about Polynesian culture and went to an amazing Luau.\u00a0We\u00a0watched fireworks off the beach.\u00a0We did amazing wonderful things together.<\/p>\n
The Bad. On our last full day on the island, we got robbed while snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.<\/p>\n
The Ugly.\u00a0 All our valuables were in the car because we were in the midst of\u00a0transferring hotels.\u00a0 ALL OF OUR VALUABLES were stolen out of the trunk\u00a0our\u00a0LOCKED rental\u00a0car.\u00a0 Several thousand dollars worth of valuables.\u00a02 laptops, an ipad, a 3dsxl, my canon camera, and all my lenses, our video camera, Dave’s cell phone.\u00a0 All of them GONE.\u00a0 Most devastating of all, is not the money amount any of these were worth…. most valuable of all were the hundreds of pictures and video we took to remember this once in a lifetime vacation.\u00a0 I sobbed uncontrollably the moment I knew our camera was gone.\u00a0 So many “should have’s, would have’s, could have’s” went through our minds.\u00a0 So many regrets and blame on ourselves.\u00a0 We should have\u00a0taken our stuff. We could have at least taken our camera.\u00a0 We could have parked somewhere else. If we would have just stayed in town.<\/p>\n
We called the police\u00a0after finally checking in to our new hotel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first question asked was, “Was it a rental car?”\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 The second question asked was, “Was it a Dodge Charger?” Yes.\u00a0 “NEVER, EVER RENT A DODGE CHARGER AGAIN.” were the officer’s words to us. The cars are NOTORIOUS for being easy targets to break into.\u00a0 I am heart broken over and over and it is really hard to cope.\u00a0 I feel violated.\u00a0 I feel sick.\u00a0 They also took a lot of my personal items, including all my makeup and toiletries, and my underwear and bras.\u00a0 SICK people.\u00a0 I am angry and so sad. I am angry that they stole something priceless to\u00a0us (our pictures and videos) and so meaningless to them.\u00a0 I am angry that my kids that are so young and innocent had to experience this horror and harsh reality.\u00a0 I am devastated for my son who lost his 3DS XL\u00a0and all his games that he got for Christmas… his most prized possession.\u00a0 I am DEVASTATED that I won’t get to look at the picture of my kids at the top of the waterfall and see the look of pride and accomplishment on their faces. I am heartbroken that we can never recreate those memories, and we can never retake those pictures.\u00a0Pictures of all of our feet in the sun while we rode the catamaran out to sea. Pictures of my\u00a0little daughter riding the biggest horse at the ranch, pictures of my son who was so proud to see a\u00a0sea turtle when we went snorkeling.\u00a0 I feel sick when I think of the heartless people rifling through our things, taking personal items. I feel so violated that they took my precious pictures and video of my beautiful children and probably just wiped out those priceless memories forever;\u00a0before selling off our stuff so they could get money for their drugs or what have you. I am angry at myself for letting this consume me and for spending the last day and a half sobbing and crying in Hawaii.\u00a0 I had a panic attack on the plane because I could not hold it together.<\/p>\n
I am trying to remember the good most of all.\u00a0 Trying to burn the memories into my head. Trying to be grateful that we are all ok. Trying not to cry. Trying not to be bitter. Trying to remember that a lot of people never even get to go on vacation.\u00a0 Trying to remind myself that we had an amazing time and we were all together experiencing these things together. Trying not to cry.\u00a0 My kids drew pictures of some of the things we did to help us remember.\u00a0I look much skinnier in those pictures, than I would in the real ones. My daughter keeps praying to Jesus and asking him for our camera back. Trying not to cry.\u00a0 My son\u00a0is being so\u00a0strong and trying really hard not to cry over his lost DS.\u00a0I know that I have to get over this, and not let this ruin our trip.\u00a0 It’s hard to go back to real life in general after a vacation. Even harder for me to not be able to look at the pictures of what we did together. Trying not to cry.<\/p>\n
Learned a big lesson. BIG lesson. Never leave your camera. Never rent a Dodge Charger- even if you have to pay more for something better. Upload your picture\/videos to some kind of internet service every night. Leave your valuables in the hotel safe or take them with you. DON’T EVER LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN. I hope it never happens to anyone dear to me.<\/p>\n
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Here’s the short story. The Good. We had a magical time in Hawaii.\u00a0 We wanted the kids to experience all that we love about Oahu, and at 5 and 8 they are old enough to actually do some amazing things.\u00a0 We snorkeled, hiked up to a waterfall, cracked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mylilfamily.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}