Lei-Day, a Long Walk, and a Big Splash

I planned to blog a couple days at a time, but some days we have too much photographic coverage to fit in one post :) So, we will begin our next day with the delicate art of stringing orchids onto a long string with a sharp, eight-inch needle-like thingy. 

Our class took place in the resort's library area next to the travel agent and the coffee shop (lol, I forgot to mention those things before!) The instructor poured out bags full of white-and-purple flowers on the table and set us to work. My brother chatted with the newlywed couple at his end of the table and suggested they name their first child after him. The husband wasn't quite sure how to take that but kept conversing because my brother is a big dude and he was a little one. Lol :) 

Meanwhile, my string started to fray and the instructor seemed a bit annoyed that she had to help me start a new one (her stringing and hole-finding instructions were weak-sauce, let me just say that upfront). She happily answered questions about the history of lei-making but seemed unhappy that she had to put up with "cute" tourists and their horrifying flower stringing skills, yet again. It was at this point we collectively agreed her upcoming hula class was off our want-to-do list, ha! Regardless of her notions, I think we all did swimmingly!

We may even go into business, now that we're back home ;) We did learn that the leis keep fresh for a week if you lightly spritz them with water and store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. But after the luau we had so many leis--nearly 20--that we stopped trying to preserve them. I also thought they were a little itchy on the back of my neck, so it probably won't be a style I wear very often, ha!

Swimmingly . . . we did swim quite a lot on this trip! I honestly cannot remember the last time I entered a swimming pool or got into the ocean past my ankles. Well, that all changed on this vacation (although on this day I did forget to wear my swimsuit on our hike--but I actually own one now, two, in fact)! Hike, you ask? Well, we sent out a message on the family group chat and decided that most of us wanted to take in the sights along the two-mile beach boardwalk that ran between our hotel and our intended destination--Kaanapali Beach and Black Rock.

It turns out that Google's walking directions aren't quite as helpful as they could be, so we *might have* taken a couple of wrong turns and *might have* walked through the properties of other resorts along the oceanfront. It's interesting how you can feel everything around you becoming more expensive and exclusive as you go . . . and there was a cat sanctuary. Apparently, all along a grassy scape (Hawaii resort grass looks like astroturf, it is so short and perfect and uniform in color!) between the beach and the hotels, cats are free to live their best lives (once spayed). Tourists can pet them, take pictures of or with them, and sometimes remark, "Ooops, they missed one!" as was the case of the very large cat on our resorts' grounds that later in the week was significantly less roundy :) I guess her litter of kittens will give the sanctuary people something to do . . .

Back to our walk, Mr. M did amazing--never complaining once on the two-mile trek through only partially shaded tropical luxury. We were all happy to reach our destination; the weather is beautiful, but walking in the sunshine gets warm after an hour or so. As soon as the kids hit the beach, Graysen almost immediately took on the 300-foot swim to the 20-foot climb to jump into the ocean. The currents are strong and the sea turtles frequent in that area, so I kept my eyes glued to him the whole time. According to the guidebook, this was the favorite cliff jumping spot of the last ruling Hawaiian king in the late 1700s. The nearby hotel does a tiki-lighting ceremony and dive every night at sunset in remembrance, and because the tourists think it's cool :)

Noah and Caelan also planned to take the plunge but decided to acclimate to the water a bit first. You can see them in the center, nearest to the beach. Graysen is the light speck on the lower right of the lava cliff, just next to the gap of blue sky between the little hill and the big hill he's climbing. Unfortunately, there was a young lady absolutely terrified to jump, but her boyfriend kept encouraging her to try. Graysen waited patiently, and we waited patiently, until apparently a local kid said, "Hey, there's a line, how about take a step back and let the rest of us jump." Graysen immediately walked to the edge and leaped into the air! Ha! So fast, I missed it completely. Buck tried to take some zoomed in pics of his next rounds. Apparently jumping off cliffs into the ocean is a thing G$ likes to do!

I had plenty of time to prep for the next video, because that same girl was back again trying to talk herself into jumping. The kids on the cliff (Caelan and Noah were out there by now) were encouraging her and chanting her name. On the beach, all the people waited . . . and waited . . . cameras raised to catch their own friends and family. One guy came up and asked what we were all looking at, expecting some dolphin or mermaid sighting, perhaps. I told him, "Just a scared teenage girl who refuses to jump into the water, but apparently really wants to, because she won't let anyone else go." He thought that was pretty boring and walked away. Agreed, random dude! FINALLY she jumped, and the whole beach cheered! It seriously had to have been 20 minutes, but it felt like an hour. My battery power was draining quick on my phone, because I wanted to keep it open for when Graysen went dashing off the cliff again :)

Noah jumped after Graysen, but I missed that one and videoed some other guy with dark hair wearing dark shorts and dark water shoes--from a distance, they looked the same! Caelan was up next, and appeared to be hesitating, but she was just waiting for Noah to complete his swim to the edge, so he could watch her jump.

Thankfully, this giant guy walked right in front of her, so she just had to ride on the back of his head to shore. Lol, just kidding :) But Buck's zoomed in pic kind of makes it look that way!

My brother (who tried this adventure on his and K's honeymoon two years ago) swam out to encourage the jumpers. Graysen made the climb and splash several times! Noah also repeated his performance, so Caelan could get some video to send his family back home. He had a few unique life adventures with our Crew this trip :) Brennen didn't jump because he didn't wear swim trunks (he was a lil' burnt from the previous day's sun on the beach) but ended up unable to resist the call of the waves. Below is Brennen, Lolocito, G$, and my bro C. Can you believe those colors? So beautiful!

We were all pretty glad mom had decided to drive, rather than walk, to this energy-expending destination. My expectant sister-in-law was the easy first pick for the first vanload back to our hotel, along with Mr. M, and C--who later returned for the rest of us. It was a short drive, so we didn't have to wait long. 

After making dinner in our room, it was nice to float around in the pool that evening, contemplating maybe jogging that beach trail like so many others we'd seen that day (for the record, I never did, but maybe next time ;)

And finally for my day-three post, in honor of the free-ranging chickens of Hawaii and our new expertise in lei-making, Buck bought me this little souvenir Hawaii chicken. It is wearing a lei. Lol, how adorable!

Aloha Hawaii

"Going to Hawaii" was one of those experiences that didn't seem real until we were on the plane (at seven o'clock in the morning) pointed toward the Pacific. It just barely seemed real when we were floating in the bluest water I've ever seen in person, surrounded by tropical plants and flowers on the shore. And it hardly seems real looking through all the pictures everyone took, trying to capture the beauty of our ten days in Maui! It was really an amazing experience, and we are grateful that mom--and dad--provided it for us.

So away we go! Everyone looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, despite getting up somewhere in the 4's a.m. and arriving at the airport somewhere in the 5's. Gabby rode to the airport with us and then drove our van home. It was nice to have her be a little part of the trip and nice to not have to pay for 10 days' parking :) When we got inside, the security line was looooooooong, but we all made it through on time without any *bonus* checks, woot woot!

The first flight to Dallas was easy-peasy. I brought lots of snacks for the Crew to munch, but the boys wanted to wander and forage the airport with their uncles. We told them repeatedly to not leave security! They didn't :) Mr. M and I went for a long wander to stretch our legs, too. He was determined to walk all the way around the airport, back to where we started, but I wasn't convinced it was a circle. Thankfully a very colorful candy store caught his eye and imagination, and that was enough to turn him around to check with his mom on the possibility of returning to find some treats. However, I think he forgot about the candy because of the endless distractions along the corridor (like the giant carts full of people that zoomed through the airport, drivers yelling for walkers to get out the way!) I was impressed that young Mr. M memorized the gate where our family was sitting, so he knew where to go to find his parents. Savvy!

On our eight-plus hour flight across the continent and the Pacific, we were scattered throughout the gigantic plane. The lady next to me said she was really hoping to sit with her son and if the person sitting next to him would switch, then she would only be sitting by me for a short while. Well, the person sitting by her son was CJ! He switched seats and we got to hang out all the way to Hawaii :) It was a nice plane, with TVs in the seats, a decent meal, and snacks. Our row only had these two seats, so I had a space to stand up and stretch my legs whenever I wanted. I also wandered around the double-aisled plane to visit the kids in their various locations. Buck and Caelan were the only two who got to sit together, well, CKM did too, because C upgraded their seats.

Random notes about the plane's cool features--the TVs had a global positioning program where you could watch your plane's current location from a global view or a close-up view or a progress view. We also had the ability to message passengers in other seats--which was cool, except everyone was watching movies, so no one messaged back :)

Arriving in Maui was hot and humid, but otherwise really easy. Everything is open--no walls, not many windows, just Pacific breeze--which oddly doesn't "smell" like the ocean. I'm still not sure why. Collecting our massive stock of luggage was quite a task, but it ALL arrived. C and mom went to get the rental vans, then we realized Buck needed to be with them, so he headed out on a shuttle while C came back and loaded the first van. I tried to take an aerial view pic of our waiting group, but missed everyone's heads and got the luggage . . . we basically could have built a luggage fortress with our gear :) M found pilot wings in the waiting area, his first treasure of the trip!

We were all 20 hours or more awake and it was only mid-afternoon in Hawaii :) This license plate holder with the pretty Hawaiian rainbow was a nice little reminder of the Giver of good gifts as we slowly made our way out of the airport traffic jam.

Time flows differently in Hawaii. There is a large time change, but we mostly went to bed not long after the sun did and awoke with the birds at dawn. Regardless of the time of day, the weather is just right. Our early mornings meant we had plenty of time for the day's adventures, and they ensured we'd be ready to be sound asleep by 9 at night :)

On the first night, we ordered pizza, which Graysen and Buck picked up when they took mom to a local grocery store. The pizzas were "large" and we ordered three and they cost $100--our first taste of Hawaiian food prices. Whew!

Of course, as soon as we were settled in the condo/hotel/resort (I'll likely refer to it as all three at some point in my blog catching up) and fed, we wanted to go the beach. It was an amazingly short sidewalk away. Yay!

Graysen made a friend!

The original plan was to get off the plane, get the van, and go straight to Costco to buy affordable food for the week (I had triple meal planned before we left . . . food to pack, food to buy in HI, and food to purchase after we returned home). Well, we didn't do that, so the next morning we procured our breakfast a nearby restaurant called Slappy Cakes. CKM were already there, so we learned from them the option of making our own pancakes on the griddle in the center of the table. We did NOT do this because we were hungry and the regular menu food looked delicious :) Well, except for the SPAM. Buck said we had to order some while in Hawaii, so we went ahead and took care of that on the first morning. I think no one was impressed :) It's not as bad as I remember from the few times we had it growing up, but still not something I'm going to put on the grocery list any time soon. Also, this breakfast for six was almost $150. Wowza.

After the short walk back to our hotel, we decided to explore the grounds. There were two pools, koi fish ponds, a grocery store/gift shop, a clothing store, an art store/gallery, a fitness gym (which we never figured out how to access), a spa (for massages and such, which we couldn't afford to access ;), a salon for hair and nails (where mom later discovered she liked pedicures), a scuba/snorkel/beach gear rental hut, a grassy area for lounging and corn hole, pickle ball courts, three self-serve grills, and a restaurant. In addition to all of these amenities, the resort hosts a local craft fair each week and offers classes for guests to experience Hawaiian things like lei-making (which we did), hula (which we didn't do after finding out our grumpy lei teacher was the hula instructor, too, lol), ukelele lessons (which a bunch signed up for, but the instructor got ill and cancelled), scuba lessons (x 3 participants), and live music on certain evenings at the restaurant. Actually, the whole island seemed full of open-air musicians, adding to the ambiance of . . . everywhere!

Also, Hawaii is home to flowering trees that drop blooms on the ground--pink, yellow, white. We saw lots of locals wearing them in their hair, so we gave it a try too :) At our luau they said where you wear the flower is "supposed" to mean single, dating, married, but they said nobody really follows that anymore. It was a fun Hawaii thing to do (for free!)

At the craft fair that first morning, Buck bought me a hand-crocheted bracelet with turquoise seed pears and a little shell the designer found on the beach for a clasp. Overall, I'd say we started our trip off well! But we still needed groceries, so we made the 45-minute drive back across the middle of the island to shop at Costco--where the prices are the same as on the mainland! Noah and Caelan came with us. We bought reef safe sunblock and food to prep for our stay. We also discovered they had mango smoothies in the food court, yum! Another discovery--chickens. Chickens everywhere! Do you see the chicken walking through the food court? She had lots of friends of all ages walking with her :)

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a roadside fruit market. They had everything from Maui Gold Pineapple (which you can only get on Maui because it is so ripe when it is picked there's no time to ship it anywhere--it was very sweet and juicy!) to a guy behind the register cracking open coconuts with a machete to drop in a straw for tourists to try. We didn't do this because the coconut milk we tasted at our own home grocery back when we were being food-adventurous with the kids was kind of gross. Who knows, maybe it would have been better in Hawaii? It seems like many things are :)

While we were gone shopping, the Hawaiian-shirt-wearing guys hit the beach. Mom sent this picture of G$ and it was exactly what he had envisioned for himself on vacation--every day, board shorts, an open tropical shirt, sunshine, and sand. All his vacation boxes checked!

For our evening's adventure, we followed up on a tip from one of the ladies at the craft fair. We sent this picture out to the Hawaii family group chat, and my brother C was disturbed by the number of fingers compared to hands in this photo, lol!

But it turned out to be a beautiful night on the grounds of the 1834 missionary compound (which we intended to tour, but never got a chance!) We listened for a while and then wandered up to the park to see the famous banyan tree of Lahaina. It came from India in the 1870s (to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission on the island) and now that one plant reaches 60-feet high and boasts a dozen trunks; one of the largest in the country! 

The whole family group was somewhere in Lahaina, and we planned to meet up for ice cream (gelato pictured above) before heading back to the condos. It turns out, the other half of our party was eating dinner in the restaurant above the ice cream shop we stopped into (there were many options). They weren't able to join us for our treat, because a certain little mister had all the travel, pool, and beach time catch up to him. He was out like a light! It was a great first day in Hawaii :)

Two Week Chunkers

I hesitated when looking for a date to enjoy the next trip to puppy-land day, but Buck really encouraged me to go over the weekend, just after Piper and Fern's two-week birthday. It turns out he took Monday (my other visiting option) off as a surprise to get things done around the house--and possibly a root canal, and maybe jury duty. I'm so glad I went when I did! Those little pups are already 4.5 lbs. and still can't walk because of their big bellies. However, they grew A LOT and their legs are getting longer. I got to help with the neurological testing, leg-strengthening, and weighing again, and I got to check for teeth. No teeth yet :) Olive just loves when we visit! She was at the door ready to go home with me when it was time to leave. I said, "Sorry, you have to stay here. Remember? You're a mom now." Sweet Olive!

They make me think of the polar bear cubs on those Coca-Cola commercials years of Christmases ago! It will be fun when they can run and play like the big puppies, but I sure won't complain about the cuddle time until then.