Maui

Greg's dream of taking our whole family to Hawaii before Kari graduates came true over spring break this year. We had an absolutely amazing family vacation--couldn't have asked for a better trip. 

Day 1: Travel day started out bright at early at 3:30am, so early in fact, that I walked out of the house in my slippers. Thankfully, I had other shoes in my luggage and changed into them before we got to the airport. We flew out of Seattle because it was a couple thousand dollars cheaper than flying out of PDX, but it meant more travel time. The trip went smoothly, though. We had a quick layover in San Jose, enough time for lunch, and made it to Maui around 6pm. We made it with all but one piece of luggage, which the airline delivered later that night. We loaded up on groceries at Costco, and when we came out, it was dark. We had dinner at some food trucks right across the street, then headed out for our condo. 

Day 2: Woke up to a beautiful morning, complete with a rainbow. We rented snorkel gear and boogie boards from a place near our condo, explored the beach next to us (Napili Bay), and the kids and Greg snorkeled in the bay right out in front of our condo. We walked back over to Napili Bay to swim and relax. The water was so clear and so calm. It was like a big bathtub! The kids loved their first warm water experience but wondered when they would experience boogie-board-worthy waves. We got cleaned up and headed into Lahaina for some shopping and shave ice. 

Day 3: Another beautiful morning and some early morning snorkeling with the turtles in our bay. We drove to Honolua Bay to do more snorkeling, and while we were there, the Hula Girl boat arrived with the Wilson's on it. Kari swam out and surprised them by waving from the water. We had plans to meet up with them later in the week, so it was pretty funny that we ran into them on their snorkel cruise. After snorkeling a while there, we drove up further north to another beach (can't remember the name) to swim and play in the water. The kids found some waves to boogie board, and we had the most amazing (and expensive!) meal at the Burger Shack. The food was crazy good. 

Day 4: We were up bright and early for our snorkel cruise to Molokini Crater at 6:30am. We quickly discovered that both girls get seasick (not surprising, as they both get carsick, too). I had one Zofran with me that I gave to Kari, and then we got another anti-nausea for Aubrey from the boat crew. Unfortunately, Kari felt pretty awful for the first half of the trip and couldn't put her face in the water without feeling nauseous and dizzy. She missed seeing the school of black fish we were swimming with at the crater. It was pretty cool to see fish that we hadn't seen back at our condo and just fun to be out on the ocean in a boat. We ate lunch on the boat, and then they took us to another place to snorkel with turtles, but there were only a couple. We decided we had better turtle viewing at our bay. The boat ride back was smoother than the way there and much more comfortable for everyone. Overall, seasickness aside, a success!

On our way back to our condo we stopped by Leota's Pie Shop and bought 9 mini-pies. :) We sampled them all outside in front of our condo in the shade while we waited for the cleaners to be done with our place. So many yummy flavors--guava, key lime, coconut cream, passion fruit, banana cream, chocolate macadamia nut. Mmm. 

Day 5: Wilson meet-up day. The Wilson's were staying down south in Kihei, so we drove down and met them at Polo Beach where there were some great waves for boogie boarding. One big wave caught Aubrey and Abby off-guard and crashed right on top of them. It scared Jen and I pretty good. We both went running (the guys were out snorkeling). The girls were a little beat-up but ok. Good lesson on never having your back to the ocean! We really liked Polo Beach. We drove down to find Secret Beach, a spot Greg and I had been to when were were there 6 years earlier for our anniversary. It is a beautiful spot. We took some photos and found some creepy black crabs on the rocks. We drove back to the beach near the Wilson's place and played in the water there for a while until the wind got too strong for us. The sand pelted your face and body on the beach, so eventually, we went up to hang out at the pool for a while before heading back north. It was a fun day with our friends. We experienced a quick rainstorm when we got back to our condo. It rained so hard for just a little while, and then it was over!