We drove up to Napa, CA last night to the hotel that will be home for the next two days – the Best Western, Premier IVy just North of Napa. It is a nice clean place with a small pool area outside – hopefully we will get to test out these facilities in the next 24 hours.

we went out in search of a family suitable restaurant last night and ended up feeling pretty disappointed – not really located any nice restaurants at all, let alone one that is good for the kids 🙁 We ended up dining in the crappy Mexican restaurant next door. Think we need to do some research before we head out tonight….

Mummy and Auntie Kerrie have gone out on a wine tour today so the boys went for breakfast at Denny’s just south of the city and then to a toy shop. On the way back towards to hotel (the boys wanted to go back to play with their new toys) we found that there was a car shown the centre of Napa with some incredible models from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s on show. They were all concourse models in terrific condition and some of tem were single owner cars !!! we have taken plenty of photo graphs of these items and will post them as soon as we get back home – there really were some crackers in here. we had to cut the tour short because Elly and Olly demanded to go home to play with their toys and this whinging just got too much. Not before we had seen an incredible condition VW Bus in red with red leather interior that was for sale – very tempted to call and make an offer…..

The big packup and journey home today 🙁 It has been a wonderful break and does feel to have been. Along one which is nice.

We awoke to find a dead mouse on the carpet in the room that Elliot was sleeping in 🙁 We have decided to leave it for the owners to see first hand…

We check out in 20 minutes and head to the shops for a couple of hours then the flight is at 3pm local time, getting us back to San Jose at around 11pm California time.

Hopefully we will be able to upgrade the seats again on the plane, although we are not holding our breath given there are 5 of us and only 16 seats in 1st…

Typically the best weather saved for the last full day. 🙂

Kerrie took a hour long helicopter flight today to see the island from above, so while she was doing this the Rust clan head for a beach to play. We found (OK so Vicky found) a great beach just 5 minutes from the heliport (heliport was on the far side of the airport we came into) where there was a lot of people wind surfing and kite surfing. So it was pretty windy but the ocean where we were was pretty still so we were able to splash around as well for about an hour or so.

We stopped by Safeway on the way back to the house to get some final provisions for dinner and then played in the pool for the last 5 or so hours. Oliver is now pretty good in the pool in that he can now motivate himself pretty well even when he is out of his depth. we really must keep on top of their swimming as Elliot can now do it properly and so with a little tuition, he will be sorted. Oliver could even be swimming by Christmas with the right professional help we think 🙂

Last night so Vicky has made a pasta dish and we have two bottles of red wine, a 1.5 litre bottle of White wine, a large bottle of Whiskey and about a dozen bottles of Corona to polish off – wish us luck 🙂

The day started with a little light rain 🙂 It is so green here, that the rain must come more often than we have thus far experienced.

Elliot wanted to get in the pool this morning in his SPF shorts and shirt (the one with NO floatation goodies sewn in) so we thought we would take the opportunity to see how well he coped swimming without the help. we were somewhat amazed that he can swim !!!! OK, so it is purely doggie paddle right now, but the fact is that Elliot learned to swim finally in Maui – how cool is that as a story for his future?

We ended up having another great day by the pool, with a takeaway dinner from Panda Express to close off – the boys are absolutely shattered, with Olly pleading to go to bed and Elly being not far behind.

Simon has burned his stomach in a pretty big way today so it will be interesting to see if we have any whinging overnight and in the morning.

Tomorrow is the last full day and Kerrie is going on a helicopter tour of the island while the rest of us find a nice beach for an hour or so. Then it will be back to the pool to relax for a few hours and watch the sun go down for the last time here in paradise…..

Yesterday, one of the local dogs (lives next door) called Drummer came to play. Drummer is a yellow labradoor that is basically Max in a yellow suit :-). He brought his little foam surfboard around after playing for a while with a small “ball” that had fallen from a nearby tree. Drummer clearly wanted to play with us as he kept bringing the surfboard over and laying it on the ground, then when Elliot went to pick it up he grabbed it and ran off etc.

Elliot finally managed to get the surfboard from Drummer and threw it into the pool – Drummer simply ran at the pool and dived in !!!! It was an incredible sight and thus this continued for many more dives :-).

Drummer left the surfboard behind last night as we went out for dinner but was back this morning before 9am and was clearly ready to play again.

We played again all morning and afternoon until about 3:30pm as we needed to get showered and ready to go out. Mummy had booked for us all to go to a Lu’au in Kaanapali (The Westin Hotel). It was a great evening show with a terrific fire show right at the end. Oliver was not really that interested unfortunately so daddy had to take him out of the show for a little while and he had an accident in his shorts, and given daddy was carrying him, the accident made its way onto daddy’s shirt – nice 🙁

Looking forward to another day at the pool tomorrow – just need to be sure that we don’t let Oliver burn again…. His arms and nose got burned today 🙁