In April we went with AH’s entire family to Maui, HI for 8 glorious days. Despite our 3:45am departure, to catch our 6:40am flight, we were more than happy to comply if it got us away from this dreadfully rainy winter we’ve endured far far too long (tomorrow is June 1 and it is still raining).
We stayed in Kehei (my favorite “town” on Maui) at the beautiful Mana Kai Maui resort that is situated practically in the ocean. Our room overlooked the pool and a long stretch of beach – it was a hard view to wake up to each morning. Most days were spent snorkeling at “the dump” (the best reef on the island), boogie boarding in the surf at our beach or another nearby beach or playing in the pool. The kids loved playing with their cousins all day, celebrating all the spring birthdays together at one big party, surfing, and building sandcastles.
Here’s the daily breakdown:
Sunday, April 3rd – Arrived. AH and all the other men took the kids to play on the beach while the wives got us settled in to our condos. Monday, April 4th – Went to Polo Beach in Wailea. Tried snorkeling but the water was too rough and cloudy (though Queen did see a small red octopus). We spent the afternoon at our own hotel beach and pool. That night we celebrated Grandma, Grandpa, Spencer and Mr. B’s birthdays with hamburgers and brownies for dinner.
Sarah in full gear.
Mr. B and Garrett contemplating the task before them.
The Ladies of Polo Beach
The Triplets
Beeb was a little nervous about boogie boarding so Tip took her with him. I think she liked it.
Tuesday, April 5th – In the morning we snorkeled at “the dump”. This was Mr. B and Beeb’s first successful snorkeling. I took Mr. B out and as we backed into the ocean he was freaking out. I kept telling him to just put his face (his mask was on) in the water until he finally did it and was AMAZED at the fish he saw. Beeb was freezing (silly girl has no body fat to keep her warm even in tropical water) but I made her stay out until we saw a turtle a short time later. It was amazing to see these sights all over again through the eyes of our children.
“The Dump”
There always has to be one that gets sick and for this trip it was Riley - poor kid. Thankfully he can literally sleep anywhere! (remember him from THIS post)
In the late morning we drove part way up the Road to Hana.
This road is not for the queasy:
We stopped at mile marker 11 and took a short trail to a beautiful waterfall and lagoon. AH and Tip did some cliff diving (they live to torment their mother).
While taking a break on this cool fence (AH and Tip were looking for the trail head) the ambulance carrying the boy passed us.
After leaving the boy and his family in the care of the trained professionals we backtracked our way to mile marker 6 to see another waterfall (4 in all on this trail). We hiked through a bamboo forest and stopped at the second falls. The men climbed this fall and went on to the next one (which was fantastic – I’ll have to see it on our next trip) while the women waited with the younger kids.
On the way back to Kehei we stopped for incredibly expensive shaved ices at a really dirty dog sanctuary/mini-mart (thankfully they ran out of ice so I only had to buy one) and then stopped again at Ho’okipa Beach to watch the amazing surfers. Uncle T bought a coconut and let everyone try the milk and meat and then we bought the kids some kettlecorn to snack on.
Wednesday, April 6th – I joined Grandpa, Uncle T, Spencer and Garrett on a day trip to Honolulu to visit Pearl Harbor. We took a little 9 passenger plane from Maui to Moloka’i which had the most scenic cliffs and ocean views. I was very interested in Moloka’i because I had just read a book about the leprosy colony located on that island. We actually flew right over the colony – I’d definitely like to go back some day and take the mule ride down to the colony. We then flew on to Honolulu and spent the day exploring Pearl Harbor. We toured the USS Bowfin submarine wherein I only had half a dozen or so attacks of claustrophobia – definitely not a career for me. We viewed the movie presentation about the actual attack on Pearl Harbor (it was truly amazing – pure reverence at the end by everyone on the theatre) and then took a boat over to the USS Arizona Memorial. We ended our visit by touring the USS Missouri and were completely exhausted and ready to head back to Maui.
These seats were way comfy – the big airlines could benefit from them.
Yes that is the wheel of our plane!
USS Bowfin
Target practice on the USS Missouri.
The “baggage claim” at the Moloka’i airport!
Those who didn’t go to Pearl Harbor spent the day playing on the beach or in the pool. In the evening Queen arranged for some local girls in our church to come by the hotel and teach our girls the Hula (I am sorry to have missed seeing this). The first hula taught was to the song Pearly Shells. Grandma got a little choked up as this was her mother's favorite Hawaiian song.
Thursday, April 7th – Wend to “the dump” in the morning. Beeb wasn’t interested in snorkeling so I went with Queen and we saw 6 turtles! We spent the rest of the day at our hotel beach and pool and then in the evening Beeb and I joined other family members on an outing to Lahaina to see some Polynesian dancers perform and ate ice cream – yum!
Friday, April 8th – We did our usual morning “dump” run and then after lunch we went to Black Rock Beach (hardly any parking stalls – plan ahead and take a taxi in from a nearby mall parking lot). The Triplets spent their time building sand castle, playing in the surf and then burying each other in the sand. Mr. B and Garrett spent hours playing in the surf – occasional having to be told to make their way back down to us as they seems to keep heading farther and farther down the beach. AH, Tip, Uncle T and Spencer did some fun cliff diving and had a quick snorkeling trip.
The men - standing in warm tropical water (probably gossiping).
That night AH and I took the kids to our favorite Mexican restaurant. The food turned out to be completely flavorless and gross as compared to our last visit just 18 months prior. I was so disappointed.
Saturday, April 9th – We sent to Kalama Park in Kehei and rented surf boards for the day. Beeb and Brynn were the first to try. Beeb didn’t have any luck her first ride out and was pretty ticked off. Queen captured me offering Beeb some sage words of wisdom (I
occasionally have them) – just have fun, laugh and try again.
Beeb did try again later and got up - success! Mr. B went out twice and had no trouble getting up several times and AH and I managed to surf a few times too. It was a lot of fun (be sure to get the big boards - they are way more stable).
Future pro-surfer Brynn taught us all how it was to be done.
That evening we all spruced ourselves up and had some family pictures on the beach. It was a bit stormy but we made the best of it.
Sunday, April 10th – We attended the local ward of our church for services in the morning and even ran into people we knew. We spent the afternoon at Maluake Beach (and ran into our friend again!) playing in the surf, snorkeling and building sand castles. Tip’s family left in the morning so it was our last day there with the entire group.
Some locals has pulled these creatures from the ocean for a few hours – the kids loved investigating them.
All the grandchildren (minus Riley who wasn’t feeling photogenic)
Monday, April 11th – Last day! We packed up our rooms and played in the pool until we left for our whale watching tour. No super great whale sightings (some whales but nothing spectacular), but it was fun to be on the boat. Afterward we explored a bit of the marina and then headed to the airport for our red-eye home (never doing a red-eye again!).
1 comment:
It was fun to relive that glorious week again through your post! When can we go back???
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