Day 10: Going Home

So I may be a day late, but the last day will be written. We had to leave our sweet condo on the northern tip of Maui.

Napili is a quieter part of the island and just where we enjoy spending time. We woke, packed, had our last island breakfast, and drove to the airport. Look at our sad faces 😥

We found these little friends at the airport. Funny how chickens are all over the island of Kauai but we didn't see too many on Maui. These were the first, and the second.

We got to the airport early so we had some time to eat some lunch and sit down where the twins, Todd, and the grandparents watching weightlifting. Interesting to find that on TV. Emily and I listened to Podcasts at the gate.

So off we flew. The flight was quick and we landed early in SFO. 25 minutes early, which was a blessing since we still had to drive home to Sac.

Since we were heading home in the dark, the kids went to sleep and the quiet of driving got me thinking. I began thinking about our next vacation. I plan. I'm a planner. This is why I love driving. The quiet of the road lets my mind wander. I've seen this quote before and it got me thinking...

I don't think that we escape our lives by going on vacation. I think we live them. We travel to explore new places and see new things. We discover ourselves when we are away from the chores of everyday life. Vacations allow us to let our brains rest for a bit and that actually improves thinking. Exploring new places leads us to research, plan, and learn about new places, people, and culture. Our kids are more open-minded because of what they've seen in the world around them.

So while I don't need to justify our vacations to anyone, this quote struck me as judgmental. We love spending time away and exploring new places, but other people love spending time at home, and that's fine too. I guess it's all fine as long as each of us is living the life we want. The life we choose. Until the next adventure!

Day 9: Boogie Boarding and Tacos!

Yes, tacos. There's some connection between So Cal and Hawaii. Tacos are good in both places but if you can hear the ocean while eating one, well that's the best. I'll get back to those later.

I walk downstairs from our loft this morning and find this. So this girl sleeps s little funny huh? But I'm pretty sure that I sleep the same way when left alone on the couch. A girl after my heart is what she is. I still can't believe that she brought her pillow AND blanket in her carry-on baggage. We don't check luggage so that was a lot of space that I could have filled with...I don't know. Souvenirs?

We checked out Shipwreck beach today since it was supposed to have better waves for boogie boarding. The kids had fun surfing the waves and Todd snorkeled a bit as well. I shot pictures and got sandblasted on the beach. The sand is so white and fine that the winds pick it up pretty easily. I suppose that could be seen as a beauty treatment. The kids were pleased and it's always a pleasure to see smiles like these.

The goggles shots are pretty hilarious but after a while the salt does start to irritate your eyes. And Katie, well we re-enacted a few Little Mermaid shots with a rock we found that looked to resemble the iconic shot. We make our own fun!

So I was the napper today, but it appears that nobody snapped a photo so there's no evidence of such a problem. While I napped on the couch everyone played George - our all-time favorite card game.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with other naps, card games, a walk to the store by Emily and Papa, and Todd and I went snorkeling. No photos today. Just enjoyed the fish and swimming with my honey. ❤️

Dinner was takeout at Maui Tacos and maybe a little sampling of lumpia from Joey's Kitchen. Yelp reviews said they have awesome Filipino food so I had to check them out. And yes, the lumpia was so good that no photos were taken.

We ended the night with a movie. Chicago - the musical. Our family and music are like two peas in a pod.

Short day y'all. Packing up in the morning 😥

Day 8: Gazebo, Aquarium, Flowers, & Fireworks

We used an alarm today. And I'm not talking about the tsunami practice warning alarm that went off yesterday at 11:45am because it was the first Monday of the month. Like a real alarm clock to wake you up before you're actually ready to wake up. Felt pretty sacrilegious during a vacation but we had to be the first in line at The Gazebo for breakfast. They open at 7:30am and we got there at 6:37am.

First in line baby. Waiting an hour for breakfast sounds a bit crazy I understand, but for The Gazebo...nope. Totally normal and totally worth it. 1,943 Yelpers agree with us. Breakfast was great and we will have leftovers for the next two days. Our last two days 😥 The birds were out in full force today. I caught a few peering over my shoulder attempting to gather piece of pancake from Papa's plate.

Jessica's signature breakfast 👍 It isn't what the rest of us get. We get their macadamia nut pancakes and their amazing fried rice that'll last you days. But we didn't get photos of our meals...again. I'm beginning to see a theme here.

We packed up after breakfast and hit the road early for the Maui Ocean Center aka the aquarium. The kids were pretty excited about going, and although I wasn't thrilled about it at first, it was a pleasant way to spend 2.5 hours. We haven't been since the twins were 5 so it wasn't something the remembered seeing. Funny how vacations are like that. I wonder if my kids will repeat all of these vacations with their own kids because they don't remember going as a kid. If so, I hope they invite me to tag along. I don't remember that much from family vacations as a kid, but that could also be because we didn't do it that often. Anyway, enjoy the aquarium photos!

Found this game the twins were playing oddly amusing.

Oh yeah, and check out this cool orange fish - he disguises himself to look like coral! So super cool. We also saw the turtles and sharks eat so those were some great photo ops.

Sadly we had to take T to the airport. She has grand babies to get back to but we sure enjoyed having her while we could sneak away. 😥 No pictures of the sad departure but she's home safe and that's good.

We may have stopped at a sunflower field on the way home. We may have gotten out of the car against the advice of the sign that said not to. We may evidence of said expedition.

So that alarm from this morning, well that thing kinda threw some of us off and forced a few of us to nap in the afternoon. It kinda seemed like we were all fading out and the afternoon was spent watching Ellen and maybe some other talk show with a lady named Wanda. That girl has some sass. We aren't used to watching TV as today was the first day we turned it on in our condo. We became entranced by the news and all the coverage of the fireworks. So....we dragged our butts out around 6pm and planned to watch fireworks at 8pm in Lahaina. A quick 30 minute stop at Longs...and we were there. Note sarcasm. Longs, maybe since you are right on Front Street and it's the 4th of July, maybe it would have been wise to have more than 2 cashiers. There were seriously, no exaggeration, 15 people in EACH line. Mama needed a drink after that visit. But alas, we found only toothpicks and a Tide pen. Yup - we are living it up.

I forgot to mention that some peeps got Panda today. Loved this fortune. I'll just leave it here for anyone to ponder.

So we found this little beach called Lahaina Baby Beach and quickly discovered that we were having super good luck. We stumbled upon a Buddhist temple (enter super excited Todd and Gina). We LOVE this kind of stuff. It was called the Lahaina Jodo Mission. There was also a beach cemetery right there as well. That was kinda weird but I thought, "well that seems easier to dig in than dirt."

It was busy but the perfect spot for watching the fireworks over the ocean. So glad we made it out.

We not only watched amazing fireworks, we shared our sparklers with some other kids and paid it forward. Then this guy came over and showed us how to take "long exposure" pictures on our new camera (Canon Rebel T6). Oh now we had a game changer. We were enthralled by trying to create pictures with this timed setting. It was pretty cool. Pictures below show Emily making a Mickey Mouse, Katie spelling, well her name Katie, and Jess creating a super cool star.

Then the kids thought about a cool wedding picture they'd seen where the couple stands together and you run sparklers around them. Todd and I obliged and stood awkwardly staring at each other while the camera did its thing and Jessica ran around us. Here's the final product. We are blurry, but we think that's because we don't have a tripod. So, Amazon cart will be getting a tripod! Very cool learning experience for us. And a fun family activity to create cool photos with this exposure.

Back home at the condo there was Snickers again. Snickers is a cat that Jess wants to adopt. It's pretty skinny but doesn't eat when we give her food. Oddly, the condo we are staying in has a lot of cat decor. And since this cat just walks right into our condo we are beginning to wonder if the owners feed her too. So she kinda walked in and then crawled around the vaulted ceiling window panes. She didn't stop for the photo so it's a bit blurry. Jess loves it but it's staying in Maui.

So overall I kinda felt like we didn't do anything today and now after writing this I realize that while we did take a 3-4 hour siesta/downtime, we actually did a lot today. And tomorrow, well that's the last full day - so who knows what's in store for us!

Day 7: The Beach

We are certainly on Hawaiian time - meaning we aren't moving very fast and that's okay. We spent some time this morning hanging out and enjoying the ocean view from the lanai. Eventually we discovered boogie boards in the hall closet and decided to try them out at Napili Beach. Todd and I brought the snorkel gear (see video posted on FB earlier). We saw an spotted eel which was super scary for me but ultimately cool when I realized it was staying on the sand below. Sadly the girls didn't find waves for the boogie boards so their expedition was rather quick. Stay tuned for the afternoon though because we found another beach for them. So the snorkeling was pretty killer. Enjoy the pictures. I wish they were a little cleared but you get what you get with a $5 waterproof case.

For lunch we enjoyed leftovers and a repeat of the amazing coconut rice that T makes. Papa was on a walk anyways so he grabbed a can of coconut milk at the local store. Leftovers in Hawaii are somehow better than on the mainland. Maybe everything is just better here.

So the afternoon was filled with more card games - George is a favorite around it. It often ends with certain people "going out" and others being left with a pile of negative points. Today Katie was the winner.

So kids and phones. Does your child just lay in their bed and do things on their phones? Yup, mine too. Even in Hawaii. So we dragged these people out of the house after lunch and look what happened to their faces...

It's like they are teenagers who have no knowledge of the interwebs and are only connected with the sand and sea in front of them. It's awesome to see the pure joy and excited on their faces. More moments like these are needed. More moments like these.

Dinner - uh huh. We went out again! Tonight was a throwback to Grandma and Papa's honeymoon where they are here when it was called Swan Court. It's now called Sonz Steakhouse and it's inside the Hyatt in Kaanapali. We started with drinks in the bar. Eh-they weren't the best, but we got wine later and that made it all better.

We walked around the resort and noticed that this looked like the kind of place we'd like to stay - hey Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa! We'll come and stay at your resort in exchange for an honest review! Check out these adorable penguins and the plaque that tells you that they don't all live in cold climates.

We stuffed ourselves. The adults slacked on taking photos but the kids remembered. Here are their dinners and the view from the table.

Between salads, bread, fish, pasta, and rack of lamb, we didn't think we had room for dessert...BUT we prevailed! We pushed through and took one for the team. So glad we did because they brought Gma and Papa a special creme brûlée with a message to honor their 21st wedding anniversary. So glad that we got to celebrate with them.

It's T's last night with us and we had a wonderful dinner, and a serene walk on the beach before heading home to our condo. There might be packing, but we are trying to ignore that right now. We've enjoyed having an extra travel buddy and Auntie T is a great addition to any getaway. We will miss you T!.

Cute photo after dinner - highlighting how we can never get grandma to stop moving for a photo 🙄