Aloha!

November 9th 2010
Day 1

This morning we left our house for an 11 day vacation in Maui. Our flight left Sea-Tac airport at 9:20am and everything went perfectly. I always get a little nervous when traveling- especially when children are involved. My mom dropped us off and soon we were settled onto our flight and on our way. The kids were amazing on the long flight. Six hours is a long time to sit still, even for me. Especially for me actually- I NEVER sit still for that long. And there were definitely several people on the plane who sounded like they had the plague, they coughed the whole time which was really annoying. But the kids were quiet and occupied themselves for the most part during the entire flight. We landed in Honolulu for our connecting flight and had about a two hour layover. I saw that as an opportunity to have my first Mai Tai which tasted fantastic! The flight from HNL to OGG was really fast. We took off, were handed a small juice and some water, then began our descent to Maui.

Once in Maui we grabbed our luggage and headed to get our rental car- we ended up with a shiny black Dodge Charger which is a pretty cool car. It is no convertible or jeep- but we are enjoying it. I brought my GPS unit so hopefully we will maneuver the island easily. We were starving of course so we headed straight to dinner- at the Maui Brewing Company. I am in love with their Coconut Porter (I had one in Seattle over the summer) so we may have to head back there once or twice! It is not too far from our condo.



The view from our balcony

 As we were making the drive from the airport to Lahaina I decided that the island was beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. It was love at first sight. This is going to be an amazing vacation, I can’t wait to explore the entire island! Our agenda is not too jam packed but there are 3 or 4 day trips I would really like to take. Aside from that we are just going to park it at the beach and enjoy ourselves. With the time change and long day of travel we were all fast asleep at 9:45pm local time. Party animals!!!

November 10th, 2010
Day 2

This morning we were up and headed down to the beach by 6:30am. It was a little chilly out still but we didn’t let that hinder us. The beach at the condo unit isn’t the best for swimming, but we discovered that there are quite a few turtles that hang out amongst the rocks! They were so cute to watch, especially when the poke their heads out of the water or put their fins up like they are waving at us. The kids were pretty enthralled by the whole thing. We all hopped in the water and pretty soon Devan decided that the turtles were WAY too close for comfort and had a mild panic attack. I can totally relate, I am a little skittish myself with animals in the water. She got over it and was quietly chanting to herself that she was “getting over her fear of turtles” over and over again. It was really cute, I guess she thought they were killer turtles. I will try to get some pictures of them another morning- I didn’t bring the camera down today.

After that we headed into town to do a bit of shopping and have some lunch. Talk about sticker shock at Safeway! Groceries are definitely a lot more expensive here. But it will be nice to have some control over our meals and snacks so it is definitely necessary for an 11 day vacation to cook a bit! If I can manage to not gain any weight while I am here I will be happy!!!

For a bit of exercise we headed down to the pool. I am not very good at swimming laps, but I did a few and got my heart rate up a bit. The kids love the pool- they would spend the entire day there if we would let them. Devan does a great job, she swims like a fish. Niko would never participate in swim lessons so he is high maintenance in the water. He constantly ends up slipping under the water- the funny thing is that 10 seconds later he is right back in. He sucks in water, wipes his face off and jumps right back in to do it all over.

We wandered around downtown Lahaina a bit before having dinner. We found the Banyan tree which was imported from Indea and planted in 1873 when it was only 8 feet tall. It now stands 60 feet tall and has 12 major trunks as well as its main core. It stretches over 200 feet and 2/3 of an acre. When we were there it was dusk and all you could hear were thousands of birds chirping as they prepared to nest for the night!


Devan and I at the base of the Banyan Tree

 It was another early night. Well, for everyone except me that is! The kids and Will were all fast asleep around 8:30 tonight because we are getting up very early tomorrow to go check out an amazing sunrise in the morning. I think I was still awake around 11pm, just couldn’t get my mind to shut off. That’s what I get for being a night owl I suppose!