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 :)