Feb 5 2010
Well the good news is I felt all better today. No more sick body and sore throat. The bad news is Karen felt terrible and had a migraine headache.
We all headed off to the beach pretty early to let Karen sleep off her headache. Despite our early departure, Sunny hung on the door knob and screamed and stomped around shouting…”I ready to go!!!” over and over.
She has a little bit of Charlie’s urgency when it comes to making a full day of your vacation. He couldn’t have been more proud of her.
We found a pretty awesome shell on the way over to the beach. Alyssa was pretty impressed.
Until a big snail came crawling out of it. We kindly replaced him back in the bushes.
Charlie volunteered to watch the kids (audible gasp) while Steve and I snorkeled. We didn’t waste any time taking him up on that offer and headed out to the water.
The water was much clearer than before, but Steve had a piece of bad snorkel equipment and wasn’t swimming as good. He was also swallowing a lot of sea water. Not good, so we didn’t stay out too long. Every snorkel trip is appreciate and enjoyed and this was no different. Sometimes I wish I was a tropical fish who could just live like this in the ocean. It’s so very peaceful.
Charlie was down at the water line with the two girls when we got back.
It was really sweet to see the seasoned Shacka teaching the little girls to hang loose on the beach and love the water.
My mom and dad came to the beach shortly after we got back from our snorkel adventure. This was the first time my Dad came to the beach fully dressed (which is the way he dressed every time during his last trip to the islands with Randy and Leslie). We pretty pleased he participated in the beach fun so much.
Karen also showed up bearing beverages and feeling all better, so all was well. Karen and Charlie, Steve and I headed out to the water to bob around for a while. This was one of the best times of the trip for me. My parents watched the kids play on the beach and we swam in the water in Hawaii for probably an hour. Fabulous. Just fabulous.
When we got back this was what Sunny was doing. Hanging with her blankie.
(you can barely see it because it is so covered with sand. Yes she takes that thing everywhere. Everywhere)
After we got done bobbing, we got to work. Alyssa insisted there was gold under the sand, so we dug and dug and dug looking for gold. We got a pretty dang big bathtub sized hole in the sand. Then we struck gold! We found some coins! Interestingly it was the exact amount of change that my Dad had in his pocket only moments earlier…what are the chances! Alyssa was very satisfied by our gold expedition. We then enjoyed our hole and anticipated every time the water would wash over it and fill our bathtub.
At lunch time we took the short jaunt back to the condo to eat. I prefer not eating ham and cheese SANDwiches if eating on a table is possible. We ate what was left of our stash since this was our last day at the condo. We finished up the pineapple, strawberries and lunch meat. It was so good, but very bitter sweet since it was all coming to an end.
Charlie and Karen making up for lost time (migraine headache) headed back to the beach while we cleaned up and gave Sunny a much needed nap.
My mom and dad were not up for more beach time and volunteered to stay at the condo with the sleeping kids while we went snorkeling a couple different beaches with Karen and Charlie.
First was Chang’s Beach, voted Sokol Family favorite Hawaiian beach. Since we were a few minutes behind they were already out in the surf. We put on our gear and headed out. It felt so freeing to be there without our kids. Words can’t describe how much fun it was to be doing this.
Since we had been there before we knew right were the Turtles would be, so we swam out. We saw Karen and Charlie in the water, but they gave us a cold shoulder and swam right past us. (Later we found out they didn’t see us after all.)
There were half a dozen turtles all interacting with each other and some big fish!. It was so interesting to watch. Seriously, so cool. The water was fairly clam and crystal clear. These were the conditions we were hoping for each time we went out. Finally!
We saw some great big puffer fish, my personal favorite. It looks like a tissue box with fins.
(This photos were taken at the Maui aquariam since we didn’t have and underwater camera) and some Humu-humu’s.
We were hovering over a little group of turtles that were about 15 feet underneath us with a couple other snorkelers we didn’t know. One of the turtles decided to come and check us out. He slowly ascended and noticed us there. He went over to one of the other snorkelers and gonked his head right on the guy’s snorkel mask. It was a little scary/amazing/awesome! He went from that guy to another guy who pushed he shell and then the turtle swam toward me. I hurried and swam out of his path and he swam off somewhere else. It was quite an intense turtle encounter. It’s one experience I will never get. We tried very hard to observe and not touch the turtles, but that one wanted to be touched. I think he wanted to be friends and find out where were from. To cute.
That ended up being our favorite and best snorkel encounter of the whole trip. Steve upon swimming back in lost one of his rented fins in the surf. Just as we were about to give up. Charlie popped up with it. Whew! Snorkeling is supposed to be free, but not when you lose the gear.
We had such a fabulous time snorkeling and hanging on the beach with Steve’s parents. They really do know how to love and make the most of a beach trip. It was wonderful to have such great company. It made being with Steve in Hawaii so much better!
When the sun started to set we headed back to relieve my parents of the kids. We sent them of to enjoy Café Ole, and hoped that they would enjoy it as much as we did. They did, they may have liked it more that even we did! What a relief.
The kids insisted we take them back to the park, which we did. We hurried them a little so we could go meet up to watch to sun set for the night. Alyssa resented us hurring her and said… “Why do we always have to watch the sunset? Why do we spend so much time looking at the sea?!” She was the only one who was ready to go home. I can’t blame her. She was really missing her cousins and friends. She was just desperate to play with some kids. Not that many kids in Hawaii turns out.
Sunny was going crazy, so we called in for some take out from Da Kitchen! Yum!
Back at the condo we had a nice talk with Karen and Charlie who told us how much they enjoyed having us on the trip.
Origionally they had intended to go with Hailey and Tim, but they didn’t end up being able to get the time off, so they thought they were going alone until we volunteered ourselves to go. (Yes we invited ourselves, you gotta do what you gotta do to get to Hawaii. ) They said they really enjoyed having our kids and my parents. What a nice complement. We really felt good about getting their approval like that. We also really appreciated them letting us come.
After one more walk down to Lappert’s Ice Cream for a cone, we called it a night.
Good-bye Maui, we will miss youFeb 6, 2010
We got up semi-early and had our last round of Banana Macadamia nut pancakes. We all, but especially Alyssa. Banana pancakes (sans the mac nuts) have become a morning staple at our house since we got home. Finally a way to get more nutrition into pancakes.
We hurried around the condo packing and repacking and worrying that our bags were over weight.
Alyssa and her trusty best friend Kiwi had a great time dressing up while we were hurrying around.
As we were hurrying around Karen called from the beach and said there was a mother and baby humpback whale so close to the beach that they had to clear the water. So instead of leaving we went down to Kameola Beach to see for ourselves.
It was incredible to see them so close. Blowing and slapping their fins and tales. They were only about 200 yards from the shore. So crazy close. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to the beach and our time in Kehei.
We packed into the cars and headed to the much anticipated Swap meet to find cheap souvineers. It was SOOOOOOOOOO hot there. The heat hadn’t been too intense until that moment. Sunny chose that moment to quit participating completely. My little she-devil. She was a crying tantrum throwing mess. Until I bought her a Popsicle. In her defense, it was hot and she was pretty worn out by all the good times we’d had.
Alyssa found herself in heaven dreched in cheap swap meet jewelry. I don't know where she gets it from...
WE braved the heat and wandered around the swap meet. Some stuff was expensive and some was reasonable. I love to buy jewelry on vacation and I found a darling little hibiscus necklace I was very pleased with. Later…I found…the matching necklace to a bracelet I bought at the same swapmeet in 2007. I was elated.
By now Sunny had finished her Popsicle. I saw her eating it, but it didn’t appear that any made it into her mouth for what was all over her clothes. Nothing could have been stickier than my child.
Luckily they had Honey Buckets with an accompanying large sink basin. She got a fully clothed bath. She was not happy about it, but we had no other choice. Poor girl. She was so mad at me to soaking her in her clothes.
We continued to find fun little jewelry to buy. Steve didn’t want anything. I offered to get him a rabbits foot key chain, but he declined. He’s not much into stuff.
Neither am I, but I do love my vacation jewelry.
After about an hour we had all the heat we could take and headed back to the car and some shade liquid refreshment and to eat up the last of our fresh pineapple sliced. We had eaten so much freaking pineapple that my mouth was shredded from the acidic nature of pineapple. I didn’t care though…it was so good I kept eating it. No regrets.
Then we capped of our last vacation lunch as we always do at…Jack-in-the-box. We love that place. Can’t beat two tacos for 99 cents. We hate tacos, and milk shakes and what Sunny referred to as “bum-fries.” On this trip she started calling fries, bum fries. I don’t get it.
After lunch we headed over to the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium to spend our last several hours. It is expensive, but very cool.
My parents were really impressed. And who wouldn't be it's totally awesome!
My dad particularly enjoyed this Jelly Fish tank.
(What??..Jelly Fish love flash photography)
We caught a show where they had a diver in one of the enourmous tanks feeding sharks and other creatures.
It was really interesting to learn all about the things we snorkeled with.
The girls really loved being so upclose to things and creatures they've never seen.
Look at this cute little thing.
Sitting on top of a turtle sculpture. So cute.
Finally we made it to the turtle tank. I don’t know why I am so obsessed with Turtles, but I am.
The girls really liked seeing them, but were more elated by seeing the rainbow refraction the sun was creating through the water in the tank. My kids, especially sunny are obsessed with rainbows.
Because we were there so late in the day and it was near closing time we saw the marine biologist feeding the turtles in the tank. He let Alyssa throw them some chopped lettuce and sliced cucumbers.
He also told us everything we wanted to know about turtles. It was like our own private show.
He told us he was going to take the baby turtles out of the tank for the night, but before he did, it let us touch and pet them. It was really cool. Once in a lifetime experience for sure. You can’t touch them when you are in the water. (or at least you are not supposed to)
We told him about the turtle that bonked head with us at Chang’s Beach and he said it was probably one of the turtles that used to live here. Apparently, that’s where they release them when they are done living at the Aquarium. Good to know.
Before heading to the airport we set off for exotic K-Mart where we loaded up on breakfast snacks so we’d have food when we arrived in Phoenix early in the morning. We also took the pleasure of feeding ourselves a Little Ceasars Hot-n-Ready $7.00 pizza. That’s right, $7.00. I bet you’re glad you live in Utah now right? You certainly do get a better price on Pizza here. That’s for sure.
Then off to the airport to face the awful journey home. What’s worse than a 6 hour flight. A 6 hour flight in the middle of the night with two children.
We made it through the hot-n-sweaty mess that was the airport. It was crazy trying to get two tired kids and two worn out senior citizens through the car rental, bus to airport, check-in and security lines.
I got really clever at balancing all our stuff on the flimsey umberlla stroller.
We finally made it to our gate which was in the north forty by the way. Steve and I were both wet from the sweat and stress of it all. We change the kids to jammies and changed our clothes in the bathroom before we boarded the plane.
We sat in the very back of the plane and there were some open seats around us thankfully. We did have to strong arm the lady that was assigned to my parents third seat in their row so we could have Lys sit with them. She reluctantly moved. And we were off.
Both kids fell asleep instantly. We took turns stretching out on the extra seats, but we had to stay buckled because the flight was really bumpy. The kids and stayed asleep until we landed an hour early in Phoenix. Apparently there were some massive winds which caused all the bumpiness and our early arrival which you think we’d be happy about, but what do you do with yourself at 4 am in Phoenix, especially carting two kids and two seniors and have a 4 hour layover? TOTAL MISERY!
We set up our beach umbrella in the airport and brought out the DVD player and let the kids watch Frosty the snowman.
I think I was the only one who didn't sleep at all on the plane because I was taking care of Sunny and making sure everyone else was okay. I laid down near the kids and totally zonked out.
When I fell asleep, we were the only ones in the area. When I woke up there were probably two thousand people moving all around me. A little embarrassing for me. Why no one in my party thought to wake me, I’ll never know.
The kids didn’t sleep while I slept. Alyssa watched movies and Sunny cried for more bum-fries. FYI, they don’t sell fries at the Pheonix airport until later in the day. So if you find your self in Phoenix before dawn, be aware that it is BYOF.
After waiting around for a few years, we finally boarded a tiny plane for salt lake. I’ll let the photo’s explain what the trip was like and what we felt like.
My poor parents were so hammered when we got back. We were all troopers traveling home. Even my dad. We all just put our heads down and did what we had to do.
This was the end of our trip. We parked at Diamond and had a great experience. They are so prompt to pick you up and drop you off. A little expensive, but very easy to use.
Getting home from Hawaii is one of the most miserable experiences a human can have, but the journey you have while you are there with out question makes it worth the work.
Maui Feb 2011. Who’s in?
