Day 4: South Maui Beaches

Today was a day of beaches. Vinny and I have opposite raccoon tans- since I wear my sunglasses constantly I have the rings of white around my eyes, while Vinny has rings of red, since he will never let me get the sunscreen close enough to his eyes to keep that part from getting burned. I blame my mom. She got sunscreen in his eyes once when he was little, and ever since he's been paranoid of having sunscreen near his eyes. Haha. 

Tiana is slowly adjusting to Hawaiian time. Today she let us sleep until 5:45a.m. Actually, I was too tired to wake up at all, so Marc got up with her (isn't that sweet), but because he is addicted to swimming, he made me get up at 6:15a.m. so he could go practice (not so sweet). Oh well. I enjoyed my coffee, did some homework, did more schoolwork with Vinny, and caught up on everyone else's lives on Facebook.

Once Marc got back, we set out for a day of exploring South Maui's beaches, since we had already seen West Maui. Well, Marc swam in South Maui on Sunday morning, but we hadn't really done the beach yet. First, we spent several hours at Kamaole I. Beautiful beach. Since I had heard a lot about how popular this beach is, and since it seemed to be right in the middle of town, I expected it to be crowded, but this must be the beauty of coming in October, because there were very few people on the beach. Vinny pretty much never left the water. He does his own version of body surfing that pretty much involves intentionally letting the wave knock him over and then letting it wash him on to the shore. He ends up soaking wet and with enough sand in his pants to build a sandcastle, but he loves it. 

Vinny took this picture.  <3 my baby boy.

Next, we hit 808 Deli for some yummy sandwiches, which we ate at Big Beach, which ended up being Marc's favorite beach of all. The water at this beach is jewel-like, very much like Southern Florida. I was not as in love with it as I expected to be, but only because it was a little bit crowded and the surf was kind of strong today. I went in and pretty much got my a$$ handed to me by the first wave I jumped into, so I was super nervous about watching Vinny at that beach. Hence... I was more concerned with him not drowning than with taking pictures.  :/

Finally, after a brief McDonald's run to get Tiana the "meh" (her word for milk) she had been begging for and a shopping break, we headed back out to the beach.

This time, Wailea Beach. I fell instantly in love with this beach and wished so, so badly that we had found this beach on Day 1. I wish we could have spent more time here. It is a smaller stretch of beach in front of the fancy Grand Wailea, which is a Waldorf Astoria hotel. I can hardly imagine paying the $350-$600 a night to stay in a basic room here, but man... you should have seen this place. Here is a picture from their website of their "activity pool," which we could see, because it is RIGHT on the beach.

Anyhow, while the resort pools and stuff are obviously just for the guests, the beach is public (as are all Maui beaches)... and amazing. The water is crystal blue and probably the warmest I have experienced so far on the island. We were there in the late afternoon, so the breezes were starting to come in, and it was honestly warmest in the water. The sand is perfectly soft as far into the ocean as I could walk, and sloped at the perfect angle. There were constant waves, enough to play in, but they were the gentlest waves ever. Even Tiana wasn't afraid of them and spent a lot of time joyfully playing in the water. 

After that, she tried to escape. Either the Outrigger canoes or the pool must have looked inviting, but boy does she make good time. We've taken to calling her our little sand crab because she is perpetually covered in sand, no matter what we do. 

Day 3 - The Road to Hana

Today definitely ranks up there with the best days of my life. I cannot believe all of the amazing things I saw today. I really have to give a huge thank you to the writers of Maui Revealed. With this guidebook in hand, we adventured around the island of Maui and saw all of the best stuff. It was amazing.  And, best of all, Tiana was a total trooper! We packed well and she had a great time. Perhaps the best time of all of us.

We started out early to try to beat the crowds, and it was very effective. We were the first people at almost every place we stopped. Well, either we were just earliest, or it was the lemming effect- people stopped where we stopped because they saw us stopped there.

Since we rented an AWD vehicle, our first stop of the day was down a tiny dusty road to a little bay where we saw a black sand beach that we were pretty sure we could get to. Turns out we could. So cool.

Next, we passed by all the things that guidebook said were either not that cool or too much of a hike. We were trying to be realistic about what we could do with the kids in tow. Tiana loves the backpack (shout out to Carmen for the gift, thanks a million), but Vinny is a total baby about anything he deems scary.

We stopped at the sight I was most looking forward to, Upper Waikani Falls, also known as Three Bears Falls. As I got out to change my shoes, I realized that Marc was wearing flip flops. "Where are your hiking shoes?" I asked. "What do you mean?" he replied, "I didn't think I needed them today." Sigh. After a small discussion in which we argued over whether or not it is my responsibility to grab everything we will need for the day, we decided to brave the hike anyway. We followed the path suggested by the guidebook, or so we thought, down a rocky creek bed. Possibly the toughest thing ever, but really only because Vinny was being incredibly melodramatic and unadventurous. He cried about half the way there, yelling, "I want Grandma!" and "I don't want to die!" If you saw this hike, you would laugh hysterically, because it was not scary at all, he was just acting like a ninny. 

Fortunately, we eventually got there and I crossed off #34 from my buried list... swim in a tropical waterfall. Oh wow. Amazing.  Breathtaking. My heart was beating so fast. 

I totally have a thing for waterfalls. I climbed into my first waterfall when I was 17 years old in the mountains of Colorado on an off-roading trip with my uncle. Since then I have been hooked. Last July, while 7 months pregnant, I swam in a waterfall in Tahoe. Also amazing, but I desperately wanted to try it in a tropical one where the water was not ice cold. It was everything I hoped it would be.

Fortunately, Vinny was excited once he got there. He thought the name of "three bears falls" was perfect and loved calling them by name "Mama Bear" "Papa Bear" and "Baby Bear." (The video above is me in between Papa Bear and Mama Bear).

On the way back up, we figured out a much easier way, which was probably the "easy path" the guidebook referred to. We found some people about to start the path down and saved them the trouble. We ran into them again a few more times throughout the day and they thanked us for it. 

Next, we stopped for lunch at Pua'a Ka'a State Park. Well developed area with tables and stuff, but really, nothing that exciting to look at. We saw lots of people staring at the falls and probably thinking about going in, but the pools at the bottom were kind of gross and had lots of tadpoles. (There's another "T" word Vinny learned. Unschooling this week has been pretty awesome). 

Our next stop was a detour from the main highway to the tiny village of Nahiku. Oh my gosh. Craziest little place. Maui Revealed said it must be "where plants go when they die," and he must be right. Anyone see that movie Ferngully in the 90s?  It was one of my favorites, and this place reminded me of it SO much. Vines hanging down from the trees everywhere on the tiniest little road through the most old school "Hawaiian" village you could possibly imagine. And it dead ends at the ocean at a spot with the most breathtaking view. The waves break into colors of blue I have seen nowhere else in nature. We almost didn't want to leave. I honestly think that when I meet Jesus, I am pretty sure he will be standing somewhere that looks just like this. The photos just don't do it justice, but hopefully you can get just a hint of what I am talking about. 

 

Finally, we continued to Hana. Not that much is really in Hana, although honestly, I could retire here. I would fit right in with this lady.  

We did stop at the black sand beach, It was different from the first one in that there was greenery growing out of the lava fields and ancient burial grounds all over the place. Vinny loved the little caves; Tiana loved the sand.

Tiana could have played in the black sand all day. She thought it was way cool.

Admit it... Marc looks great! (Jealous, party of 1)

We ultimately drove on, hoping to make a quick stop at the Seven Pools before heading home, but by the time we got there (11 miles from Hana, almost an hour drive... yeah), Tiana had fallen asleep, and we were not about to wake her up and expect her to hike. Some day, I want to return to Maui without the kids (or when they are much, much older) to do all the coolest snorkeling spots, go ocean kayaking, stay in Hana for a night, and hike to Waimoka Falls at the top of the seven pools.  So... we drove on. We took the more adventurous way back to civilization,  around the dry southeast side of Maui, where the road was often one unpaved lane, and then through the upcountry. We felt like we were on an adventure ride like Indiana Jones or something. 

Once in the upcountry, we stopped at a park for the kids to play in the shadow of the Haleakala Volcano summit. 

Amazingly, we somehow made it home in time to eat an early dinner and pick up Hula Cookies for dessert. What a day!

Maui - Day 1

Maui... Wow. It is everything I dreamed it would be, and we are having the best family vacation of our lives. I am in beach heaven, and Marc, with his long crazy hair and inability to hurry anything, fits right in with the locals, despite the fact that he can't pronounce a single Hawaiian word correctly (he told me to add that part, I swear).

I bet you wouldn't imagine an amazingly relaxing day starting out at 5:30a.m... but ours did. That's right, before the sun came up, we were up. We made a valiant effort at getting the kids on Hawaiian time by putting them to bed late last night- Tiana went to bed at her regular bed time (around 7:45pm) and Vinny went to bed around 8:30pm (we were going to let him stay up later, but he eventually begged to go to bed). Our hard work paid off, since Tiana didn't wake up at her usual time, which would have meant 3am here.

Since we actually went to bed pretty early last night too, their pre-dawn wake up was somewhat welcome. We made our coffee and settled in on the lanai to watch the sunrise, which was nothing short of amazing. This precious, precious time with our children is worth more than gold. They are so adorable.

Just before 8, Marc headed out to Wailea to go join the local U.S. Masters Swimming team for their weekly ocean swim. When he contacted them last week to confirm pool practice times, they invited him on the ocean swim, which sounded like a great opportunity for adventure, so he went. Although he got some strange looks at first- not used to having a Mainlander on their team I suppose- he was eventually warmly welcomed by the locals. They all swam out to "the point" (don't ask me what that means, but that's what he called it) together, and then split off to go explore and swim in groups. Marc didn't quite know who to join, so he followed the group he had been chatting with and quickly discovered he had joined the advanced group, as they went far, far out into the ocean to an amazing snorkel spot. He had never seen so many fish in his life and watched in awe as a sea turtle zoomed by beneath him (apparently, the "slow as a turtle" thing does not apply in the ocean).

Just outside our place on Maalaea Bay.

Meanwhile, the kids and I made our way down the few steps from the condo to the beach, which was practically our private paradise at 8am. This tiny stretch of Maalaea Bay is just gorgeous. The beach has a unique reddish sand that is like nothing I have ever seen before, or felt- so thick, yet soft. It is littered with coconuts, clearly knocked off the trees in the evenings when the winds are rough. Tiana loved playing with these little coconuts. It was adorable.

Early this morning, in front of our condo 

After Tiana had napped, we had a relaxing lunch at our condo, then headed out for more exploring. We ended up at Kahekili Beach, which was highly recommended in Maui Revealed, a fantastic guidebook that was well worth the $12. This beach was soft and the water crystal clear. Although the winds in the afternoon are crazy intense, the guidebook suggested that this beach might offer a partial break from the wind, and it sort of did, enough to enjoy for a few hours anyway.

Tiana is pretty much the exact opposite of Vinny when he was her age. He was terrified of sand and even more terrified of waves. He would sit happily on the towel, playing quietly with his toys, and he'd stay there all day, as long as the sand didn't touch him. Tiana pretty much worships the sand and will dive into it face first all day long. She never sits still. :-)  Marc and I took turns feeding our little sand crab grapes while the other swam with Vinny or snorkeled.

Speaking of snorkeling... oh my! Who would have guess I would enjoy this activity so much?  Not me. I am actually kind of afraid of fish most of the time, but I found that if you stay on top of the water, they pretty much leave you alone, and it is so cool to watch them swim around the reef. I am a little bit claustrophobic, so the mask kind of gets to me after a while, and I clearly cannot swim and multi-task, since I swallowed an unexpected mouthful of seawater while trying to take an underwater video of the fish. Marc is obviously the more aquatically gifted member of this family.

We finished off this perfect day with some shopping and then dinner. We found exactly what we were looking for at Hula Grill. On a florally adorned patio, we had a great table right on the water. The food was very Hawaiian... and very good (although very pricey). Yum.

I guess we did a good job of wearing the kids out, because they both fell asleep on the way home. I almost did too, but I am trying to stay up long enough to adjust my own personal clock to Hawaiian time. Tomorrow we parasail!

And this is what family vacation is really all about...