1) We had an almost 18 month in tow this time
2) We were vacationing with a bunch of Jeremy's family
and
3) Because of item #2 and the fact that both of us are now gainfully employed and not paying tuition, we did not camp in a monsoon or eat spaghetti cooked on a hot plate and PB&J the whole time. How's that for an idealized anniversary splurge?
No, I loved our first trip... maybe not waking up with 4 inches of water in our tent (we did move on to a funny little guest room), but the thoroughness with which we got to explore the outdoors in Maui. I also loved this year's trip. We did a lot more relaxing and playing on beautiful beaches, relaxing at the condo during naptimes, playing and BBQ at the condo pool area, sleeping in ideal conditions and enjoying good company, including watching Finn play with his cousins. We ate great food and went out on a snorkel trip to Molokini.
My in-laws hosted us in their timeshare condos. Theirs are based in Tahoe but they traded for a week in Maui this year instead. We stayed at the Maui Schooner in Kihei, and it really was ideal for our situation. It was centrally located, perfect for exploration of the whole island. There were plenty of nearby grocery stores and drugstores so meeting our kids' needs was super convenient. The condos sat next to a big lawn and little strip of beach, which we enjoyed for morning and evening barefoot adventures with our little one.
This location was also good for viewing the sunsets.
Oh, did I mention the lawn was also great for diaper changes?
The gardens were beautiful and the pool area was inviting. There were also shuffle board areas, putting greens, and tennis courts. The pool had plentiful (and clean) BBQs and table areas.
Our bunch had two units in the same building, a few doors down from each other. Two families stayed in each unit. They each had A/C, a balcony, beach chairs and cooler for use out and about, W/D, equipped kitched, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms and a living room/ dining room combo.
We left SF on a Friday evening in April. It was Spring Break for a lot of folks. Honestly, Maui wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be, but our flight was crowded and pretty noisy. I didn't appreciate that since Finn fell asleep but had trouble staying asleep. Our layover in Honolulu didn't help. We've found that for island destinations other than Oahu, it is often cheaper to buy a ticket from the Mainland to Honolulu, then purchase a separate round-trip inter-island ticket to Maui, Kauai, etc. You can often find these cheap inter-island fares on iflygo.com, Hawaiian Airlines, or Island Air. We would've had a layover in Honolulu regardless of whether or not we switched airlines, and this way we could create our own extended layover on the return home, and spend some time on Oahu (the nostalgic land where Jeremy and I discovered our mutual existence).
At some point during our flight I realized that I had left my cell phone at home. We kept waiting for Jeremy's parents to text us directions to the condo but the text never showed up. They had texted to my phone, not Jer's. We arrived at the airport in Maui quite late and Jer grabbed our luggage then ran to pick up our rental car while I sat outside holding dead-weight Finn with my cramping biceps. We still didn't know where we were going. Eventually we managed to wake up the parents and get our directions. It was super easy to get to the condo and only took about 10-15 minutes. There was a crib set up for Finn, provided by the condo and our room had great darkening shades. Finn ended up sleeping the best he ever has on any vacation, and actually adapted to the new time zone quite easily.
Our first day there was fairly low-key, take care of business. We went to a little local farmer's market, went grocery shopping, picked up Brandon's family from the airport, got sunscreen etc. Jeremy stayed home so that Finn could nap while I went out to the airport area. We were making dinner that night and I wanted to go to Costco (there's one right by the airport), and also grab some malasadas from a bakery. If you have experience with Leonard's Malasadas of Oahu, you will be sorely disappointed with your experience trying to find good ones in Maui. I located some at Home Maid Bakery in Wailuku with an iphone and we went out of our way to get them. I immediately regretted the detour and the purchase. Oh well!
That afternoon we took off to nearby Big Makena Beach. This is a giant beach area. The water is beautiful, but the waves can get pretty big and powerful. Poor little 4 yr old Filipe had quite a lot of anxiety about the waves, remembering the footage of Tsumami this year in Japan. He was in quite a state the entire time and his emotions were compounded by the sleep deprivation of traveling at night/ early morning. This water really was not the best for little kids to play in. Several of us got pounded. I got mopped up in a wave with a body boarder and his head slamming into my hip left a gorgeous yellow-gray bruise. Finn was ecstatic about the warm water and loved playing in the sand with his cousins (mostly smashing their attempts at sand castles or tributaries). We discovered that Finn gets totally panicked when either Jer or I goes a little further out in the ocean and especially when we go under water. If we're holding him and he knows we're alright then he's perfectly happy. Sweet little man.
Note, these photos were taken between set waves, and before the big ones started coming. I'm not that big of a wave wuss.
After a while, Filipe was near passing out from an hour of straight sobbing, and Finn needed a nap so Jeremy left with those two and the rest of us relaxed on the beach a while longer. When we came home we hopped in the pool for a bit and then got dinner made. Jeremy and I made breakfast burritos for dinner (a serious comfort food in this family) and we also had fresh local fruit and malasadas.
The next morning, being on another time zone still, Finn was up at 4:30 or so. We managed to get him to go back to sleep by leaving him alone in the room (so he didn't keep trying to play with us) while Jeremy and I tried to sleep on the living room floor. At about 5:30 we took to the outdoors to explore the waterside next to the condos. Finn loved throwing rocks into the water. There were these glassy fishing pools that had been created, following methods employed by native Hawaiians back in....forever ago. Finn liked plopping rocks in and watching the rings extend out from the point of contact with the water.
Our walk down the beach was the perfect little morning adventure. It was so pleasant out. Note Finn's lack of clothing, even at 5:30 a.m.
I'll wrap up this post now and pick up next time with the post-nap adventures of the day.
If you care to peruse a sampling of photos from throughout our trip (some but not all will be used for the blog posts), click this link.
And yes, this is just a sampling. There were many, many more photos.
Awesome Liz! Blogging is a lot of work! And now you have 2 blogs. Can't wait to hear more about Maui.
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