Day 5: Planes and Pig

As I write this blog from our 300 (or so) square foot hotel room, I realize how terribly spoiled we were with the beautiful two-bedroom condo this week. We spent a lazy morning at the condo today before boarding a plane to Kona on the Big Island (caps? no caps?) for the final leg of our vacation journey at King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel. Frankly, vacationing in general may never be the same; I think once you go condo-rental, you can never go back to plain old hotel rooms.

Truth be told, it is a decent hotel, but I know that tomorrow morning I am going to miss lounging in the living room, sipping coffee, while Tiana drinks a bottle on the sofa, and Vinny watches tv in his bedroom.
It was a nice calm morning, even as we packed to leave. Oh condo. I miss you.

However... we booked this hotel mainly because it has a little beach, which Vinny did enjoy this afternoon, and because hotels do have their benefits- like resort-style pools open late at night, which Vinny and Marc are currently enjoying. We also booked this hotel because the most highly recommended luau in Kona is here, and it was an awesome luau. After several mai tais, it was nice to just take an elevator back to the room, and it was very nice that sleeping Tiana did not need to be transferred to the car, and is still happily asleep as I write this. At some point, I will probably transfer her to the pack-n-play... probably.

The Luau included a "Royal Court" ceremony. 

I liked the luau- the dancing was awesome- but Vinny loved the luau. He was very excited about it to begin with. Last week, when the new neighbors across the street were moving in at night, Vinny shouted out the window to them, "I get to see guys take pig out of the ground next week!"  Hahahaha. And boy did he ever. We sort of accidentally got a super close view of the pig removal ceremony. (Natalie, I apologize for the following pictures- look away).

Several times during the luau, Vinny jumped out of his seat to dance. I think we should enroll this kid in Polynesian dance lessons. It was a hoot. He is definitely Marc's son when it comes to food; he excitedly tries all the exotic meats like alligator at the Cajun festival and Kalua pork at the luau. He is such a nut. He refused to eat his pasta last night because it was whole grain (not white), but today he begged for "pig" (and pretty much ate a whole plate full). Whatever. I am glad he enjoyed it. 

 Tiana was a bit difficult (until she fell asleep). With the flight this afternoon, I guess she didn't get enough time or space to just run around and enjoy herself. She was sick of being strapped into places and didn't want to stay in her high chair. So I gave up and let her sit and play with the lava rocks. 

I don't really have too much else to say today. The luau was fun. I am tired. Tomorrow we set out on an adventure around Hawaii. First, we are going to try to get to the remote Makalawena Beach, and then we will head out to the volcano park. I was really bummed that we couldn't afford the boat tour... 'til I realized that there is no lava flowing into the ocean right now. In fact, the only real "view" of lava that we will get to have is a glow from the crater that is best viewed at night, so we are going to head out there a bit later in the day with hopes of staying until nightfall to see the lava. At least Vinny is more excited about hiking the lava tube than about the lava. I am certain we can do that. Well, if I can recover. My legs still hurt from Tuesday. I gotta hike more often.

Day 2 - Parasailing and Hula Cookies

Marc "getting high" with West Maui Parasail today.

Hello Readers! Guest blogger today! Marc wanted to write our vaca-update today. So here goes...

Once again, our second day of Hawaii stated off with a very early morning.  Tiana got me (Marc) up at 4:30am, and by 5am she had both Niki and I awake, ready to enjoy the good life of Hawaii.  Since I was up early anyway, I decided to take advantage of early morning swimming at Kihei Aquatic Center.  In fact, I was so excited, I forgot my towel.  I ended up drying off with paper towels.  The drive was amazing. Great views everywhere in Maui, Hawaii.  Kihei is about 5 miles from our condo, but it takes a good 20-25 minutes to get there, since everyone here is on "Hawaiian Time," and I am not talking about the time zone.

When I arrived home, we quickly packed up lunch for the day and got the kids ready to go to Ka'anapali to go parasailing.  We claimed a shady spot on the beach (which was great, since the sand was way hot today) and I signed in to go parasailing first.  Vinny was planning on watching me parasail from the boat, but as we were loading to go in a small speed raft to the parasailing boat he got scared and backed out. Too bad, since he would have enjoyed the boat ride. 

 Now, I must admit, I was a little scared at first, watching people from the boat being pulled 1,200 feet in the air.  Crazy... but I managed to finally go, and I was pumped.  I brought along the waterproof camcorder/camera and took pictures as I was parasailing.  Maui is a whole lot different from way up in the air.  What a great experience.  

 

Tiana caking herself in sand.

Meanwhile Niki, Vinny, and Tiana enjoyed the beach while I went parasailing.  Not the best beach ever, but it was convenient. 

After, Niki got to go, and she ended up having to go with an older man (who was planning on flying solo) because she is so light and skinny.  (Okay, I have to jump in here- perhaps the best compliment I have ever received was when the parasailing guy said he didn't think I would meet the minimum weight requirement for solo parasailing. He said I might end up upside down. He was probably wrong, but I was sort of happy for the company since I was a little scared). 

As Niki was enjoying her time parasailing, I loaded the kids up in the car and took them for a drive, since Tiana was done being on the beach. As soon as I pulled out of the beach parking lot, Tiana fell asleep. Vinny and I drove and drove and discovered some neat beaches (and a MickeyDs drive thru). Vinny also discovered Angry Birds. Hahaha. 

Maui from the air. 

We arrived back at the condo around 3, where Vinny did some more school work, and then we went swimming. Niki headed back to the store for a few things (Tiana has eaten her way through an entire bag of grapes), while I took the kids to the beach in front of the condo. 

 Tonight, we cooked dinner. A delicious steak dinner (for about $20 for all three of us- couldn't get that in a restaurant). We cleaned up quickly to rush down the street to Hula Cookies, since they close at 6pm. We got there just in time. They were just closing up, but they let us in anyway. Oh man. Worth the rush. Delicious homemade ice cream sandwiches. The Kona mud pie ice cream was to die for. We may be returning before the trip is over (and she probably should not have told us that they ship the cookies anywhere in the world).

Vinny playing on the beach, waiting for Daddy to finish parasailing. 

The kids fell asleep early again tonight, which means another early morning tomorrow, but that's okay, since we are hitting the road to Hana and have much to discover!

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...