Maui

DAY 1

I'm struggling to blog this because there are just so many precious memories, I fear I won't include it all. I loved this vacation so much. 

A few days before we came, we watched The Princess Bride...

The first morning my body woke up super early before the sun, so I used that time of darkness to go grocery shopping.  As I was driving back to the resort from Safeway, the sun was coming up and I got my first look at Maui. I said out loud to the empty car, 

"Maui. Maui is what bwings us togebbah...today."

 I brought all the groceries in, and since we got in late the night before, we hadn't seen any of the resort or the beach. So everyone got dressed and headed down to the ocean, and right off the bat Jim points and exclaims "look at that!"

And there was a whale just showing off. For an hour it flipped its tail in the air and slapped its flippers. We were so excited!

Someone who works at the hotel walked by and I asked "do you know what whale that is?"

and she seemed confused that I wouldn't know. That I would come to this side of the island at this time of the year and not know that it is WHALE SEASON?!

"That's a Humpback. It's whale season."

So I googled it and Humpbacks spend the summer eating near Alaska, then head down to Maui to breed and have babies in the winter. Their gestation period is 12 months, so they make babies, then come back the next year and have those babies. 

You can imagine all the activity out there with the frenzy of male whales trying to get the females to pay attention to THEM and not those other losers. 

Every time we looked out into the ocean we would see whales. Every morning we would sit by the ocean and watch for whales. They would breech and blow their blow holes and hump their backs. It was just so awesome and unexpected. 

This first day we were waiting for the Kelvingtons to get here, so we swam at the resort and exercised and read. I finished a book, "The Overstory."

Here is one of my favorite parts of that book:

When the Kelvington's got there, we headed down to our little beach. 

It's little, therefore we had it practically to ourselves. 

The kids had so much fun making barriers that were dangerously close to the waves. They would throw themselves in front of their creation to save it.

Remember how hostile it is when Damon and Evan get together? Well guess what, they got along so well the whole time. They were actually best buddies.

Me and Jamie sat there on the beach saying "I can't believe we are here together!"
It was such a dream come true.

Eventually Lyle wandered down with one of his boys. 

Starving! Pizza!

 The pizza owner came out and gave all the kids Mountain Dew. 

It was funny at first, but then he kept coming out and it got weird and annoying. 

We ended the day with some shaved ice/ice cream.

DAY 2

The next day I went for an early run,

then before heading out on an adventure, we watched whales breaching. 

Our adventure started at the Nakalele Blow Hole.

It was HOT. It's hard to go from PNW winter, STRAIGHT into full sun summer. It zapped my energy quickly, so I had to be careful not to get too much exposure. I looked for shade everywhere I went. 

It was so cool. We could have watched for hours. 

Back at the cars there was a local cutting open coconuts with a machete and a little stand selling banana bread and such. 

Next, we knew that we wanted to snorkel at a beach, but we didn't know which bay exactly, so we just stopped at Honolua Bay. 

It turned out to be such a fun little adventure getting down to the beach. It was shady and there were neat trees everywhere. 

Damon really wanted to swing on a vine, so he was able to check that off his list. 

Plus there were chickens running around for the boys to chase. 

The beach wasn't the most kid friendly, but the snorkeling was great. 

Jim swam with some turtles! He watched one go to the surface and take some breaths. 

Me and Lyle were the only ones who didn't see them, actually. 

We eventually went back to the hotel and swam for a while, 

then the Kelvington's went to a luau and we went to the Lahiana area to find dinner. 

We ended up going to a little hole in the wall Mexican food place that was so so gross. We all kind of choked down a few bites of the boiled chicken and peppers, sans seasoning. 

But then we went out and washed it down with more shaved ice and dole whip.

This is a fort of some kind. The blocks are made out of coral reef. 

There was this amazing Banyan tree right in the center of the village that was the coolest. It had about ten trees in its network, and later when I googled it, I found that it is the biggest one in all of Hawaii! 

Laying in bed around 9:00 (We all got so wiped out by the end of every day!), Jamie texted: 

"let's launch for Road to Hana at 7am tomorrow".

DAY 3

So we got up before the sun to an alarm clock and launched.

Road tripping with 4 cars, through a winding, scenic road...I didn't know how the kids would do. I knew that us adults would love it, but how would the kids handle the long day? carsickness? in and out, stop and go?

They did awesome. So so awesome.  

The first stop was the little town of Paia. 

We needed to find one last place to go potty. 

There was a gross port of potty right off the road at this little beach entrance, and by chance there were sea turtles lounging on the sand! 

This was the first time my family saw sea turtles (besides Jim). It was so cool. 

Next stop was 3 bears.

I can't believe this is the only group shot we got the whole time. I don't remember whose idea it was (Jamie?), but we had a stranger take our picture at this busy stop. 

It was so fun not knowing what to expect from each stop. There are soooo many options. You could spend a week on this road, so we had to pick and choose what to skip and what to see. 

On the drive, it was like we were on a Disneyland ride, winding through scenery. Except we got to drive our own cars. Jim loved it - on the gas and on the brake like it was a race course. Except the speed limit was slow and every once in a while you had to pull over for cars passing on the one lane bridge. 

Also the kids played fun car games like the alphabet game and scavenger hunt game. I can't believe how positive they were for the long drive. 

Stopping every 20 minutes helped too. 

Stop 3: Halfway to Hana. 

We bought ginger chews and pop and starburst. 

We swapped Avery for Damon and all the way to the next stop the boys were so silly/ridiculous. But they weren't fighting!

Stop 4: Black Sand Beach

The view from the top was so pretty, 

then we ventured down the stairs and it got wild. 

There were caves and the waves were intense!

We played for about an hour until Avery got a bloody knee and we were ready for the next stop. 

There is a video of this beach shower mayhem. They boys had actual gravel in their built in underwear. They would dig into their shorts and pull out handfuls. 

I got so frustrated because at some point I can't WILL the sand off of your body with my words and eyeballs. You have to take the initiative to stand under the water and open shorts and use your hands to WIPE sand out of crevices. 

But the boys would just stand there - stand there! and watch the water fall to the ground. 

It's not MY butt crack full of sand! You are the one who will have to sit with that for another section of the road trip...DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR OWN CLEAN UP. 

So next stop: HANA

Hana is a rural little Hawaiian town.  

At the grocery market we stopped to get some bandaids. 

Jim and Brittney were looking all around the place for bathroom, and asked a lady where to find one. She said something about turning at the ball park, but Brittney heard Walmart, 

so she walked out to the front of the store where about 5 locals were sitting. She asked them "Where's the Walmart?"

It was like the music screeched off and all the eyes were on her. The local boys just stared at her for ten minutes then laughed and said "on the other side of the island?"

That is Hana: untouched by anything corporate; it is pure Hawaiian back country. 

Next stop: Homoa Beach.

Andrew, spoken like a true mom said "but we just got cleaned up from the last beach! I don't think this is such a good idea."

But we went for it anyway.

These waves were even crazier than the last beach!

We played for a while, the boys and kids got tossed in the waves for a while,

 then Andrew had to poop in the port a potty with a sandy butt. 

Last stop! 

Say that word. Hah-lee-ah-kah-la. 

It's fun. 

This was our main goal for the day - this hike to a giant waterfall. 

2 miles in, 2 miles out. 

At the end of a lonnnggg day. 

How are the kids gonna do?

Amazing. Better than me. I was sooo tired at the end! I don't think my feet were summer/chaco ready because theyHURT. 

Another Banyan tree! They are so fascinating. 

We rested at the end. I had enough oreos for each child to have one. 

We also snacked on almonds and craisons and carrots. 

Reese's hair is THE BEST. 

As we headed back down the trail, me and Andrew were the slow ones hanging at the back. 

One of my favorite memories is talking with him as we hiked. 

He asked me questions about the future, like:

Do you stay at the school when you go to college?

Are all the ingredients in the kitchen? or do you have to put them there?

Do you come home to visit? 

Then you find someone to marry and you get a job?

After I would answer his questions he would give a very interested "huh".

It was great. He is so great. I was hurting, but he just kept us walking along asking these important questions. 

With about a fourth of a mile left, Evan really had to poop, of course. 

So Jim said, "lets run to the end", and they took off running. 

Jim, Evan, Reese. 

Jim said it was so fun to look back and see these two running along, dodging rock and root. 

We finished off the Hana loop by going the back way.

Many people turn around and go the way we came because the road is rough and unpaved if you keep going forward. 

But we kept on, and it was so so beautiful. 

Look at these sea-rusted guard rails. 

To top off the most perfect sun up to sun down day, we stopped in at Leoda's for some chicken pot pie and other delicious food (coconut pie and chicken and waffles). 

Back at the hotel, we soaked our tired bodies in the hot tube before bed. 

On one of the legs of the drive, Andrew asked if we were going on a journey? or an adventure?

So we talked about what a journey is: it has a beginning and end. you go from one place to another. there and back again.

an adventure is: trying something new, seeing something new, experiencing something you've never done before. 

So the answer is: BOTH. 

We definitely experienced both a journey and an adventure this day. 

DAY 4

This was our last day of fun. We were all a little hung over from the full day before, so we laid low in the morning. The boys played Zelda, the girls did something in the Kelvington room. 

Oh yeah, us girls met down at the lobby and ate an acai bowl, then watched the whales. 

Eventually we wandered down to our beach and played around. 

I got sucked out into a rip current, but safely worked my way back to shore. 

We went back to our room for lunch and to get ready to go to Black Rock.

In the lobby area there was a Chinese New Year celebration. 

The dragon went up to Andy and "bit" him. 

Andy was like: "nah".

haha

Geez, you can tell it was near the end of the vacation because I don't have very many pictures of the Black Rock adventure. We swam/played here for almost 3 hours! The waves were just right for the kids to play in. Not too big, not too small (a little bit too small). 

Every time they would take a rip in the waves, they'd jump back up and yell: BIG ONE! (no matter how "big" it was).

There were 8 of our kids rolling around together in the surf. 

Us adults went over near the rock for some good snorkeling. 

We got super duper hungry,

went back to the hotel to get cleaned up,

 then met for dinner at Down The Hatch (featured on diners drive ins and dives!)

It was so yummy and also so kid friendly. The kids wandered around and it didn't even matter how loud they were. 

Upstairs there were stores the girls picked out their souvenirs (something I was dreading!).

So when I went up there and found them ready to purchase their treasures, I was so happy to throw all my money at the little cashier ladies and get out of there...

because right outside the Banyan tree was waiting.

We sat under the tree and visited and played and ate shaved ice/dole whip. The kids ran around and the adults talked.

We broke up the party and went home when a bird from the banyan tree pooped on Jamie. 

We went back to the resort and swam. 

LAST DAY

I woke up so sad to leave. 

One last morning out watching whales,

then we cleaned and packed and were so sad. 

It was especially painful because the Kelvingtons were there for like two more days without us. 

I made them promise to have a terrible time without us. No having fun. 

We were so so lucky to get the very last seats on the flight together (because we flew stand by!). 

We were mentally prepared to have Jim go on another flight because this one seemed too full. 

But last minute the lady was like, "Larsen" and we walked up and she handed us our seat assignments sitting all together on the same plane. It was perfect.  

Home again. 

It's so cold. 

I miss our vacation. 

ok I'm just gonna publish this now even though it is a lame summary of something that can't be summarized.