Wowie Maui!

Wowie Maui!

We are all digging the “laid back”, “small town” vibe that is Kīhei, Maui! We’ve spent lots of time on or near the water. Our condo looks out over the ocean and we have a perfect sunset view every night. And because I have a baby, I’ve also seen some sunrises over the mountain in the back, too. Breakfast on the lanai has been a highlight because everyone races to be outside as quickly as possible. 

Nathan took a surf lesson and spent two days surfing. His instructor had a surfing doggy who spent time on Nathan’s board. The dog, a pitbull, being an experienced surfer, as well as a solid muscle and low center of gravity, stabilized the board so much that Nate was able to move around on it. Adorable, that was mine and Lily’s highlight of those days. Nate upped his board length and started catching all the waves! 

We took Phylis for her first ever snorkel. It was special to be part of that!  We saw some reef fish and some pretty urchins. I was able to identify the endemic Hawaiian  fish - the humuhumunukanukaapu’a (I think I got close to the correct spelling on that one). 

Nathan and I were able to dive again. This time we did a two tank dive on the Molokini crater. The boat trip out was fun, as we approached this half submerged crater, sticking out of the water. The above water part of the crater was home to squawky Brown footed Boobies. The below water part of the crater was covered in lovely coral, much of it dead from the increase in water temperature. There was lots of reef fish to see. Many beautiful kinds. Again nothing overly special to note, just a lovely, clear dive. It was neat to dive on the coral, like a wall with a sandy bottom on the floor of the ocean. 

We did some playing at the beach and saw a ton of turtles from the shore. 

Lily loved the swimming pool at the condo and was in it at least once a day, usually twice. 

The other thing, besides water that characterized our time in Maui was driving. 

We drove the “white knuckle”, “terrifying” drive to Hana. Spoiler: it was not scary at all. It’s not dissimilar to any mountain drive and certainly not as scary as made out to be. It was, however, windy. I loaded up on all my anti nausea techniques and was mostly fine. We saw beautiful rain-forested or bamboo covered mountains dropping into the ocean and some “rural” Hawaii. We did a few short hikes to see waterfalls and rainforest and other interesting natural things. We couldn’t figure out why the bamboo forests were making Lillian so upset, until I finally interpreted that she was expecting to see baboons (bamboo-baboons. Similar?) and was mad they weren’t there! We ate banana bread and organic coconut ice cream. Because a drive is about the snacks, of course. 

We also drove around the west side of the island. Destination blowhole. We were nearly swept off the side of the mountain as we watched the blowhole send waves shooting up high in the air. That same drive also allowed us to see some more rural Hawaii, “dragon’s teeth” rocks and some petroglyphs that predate a written form of Hawaiian language.  I liked the west side better than the Hana side as it was more rocky, windswept and bracing, which made it all the more beautiful to me. 

Our last drive was along the “back way to Hana”, although we didn’t get that far, It was still pretty. We drove for an hour, and ended up about 5-10 miles (as the crow flies) from our condo which was far down the mountain below. Maui needs more roads. Destination pineapple wine. We found Maui Wine, a delightful little/big winery that infuses some of their wine with Maui grown pineapples. I enjoyed the tasting, but more so the ambiance as the tasting room was once the King’s private cottage, the bar was made out of a 16 foot piece of a mango tree and the gardens were stunning.

Right before arriving in Maui there was quite a giant fire right in and around the airport and Kihei. We luckily were not affected by the fires themselves which caused road closures and some evacuations. 10-20% of the fire was under control when we landed, by our third day it was 80-90%. What we were affected by was the smoke and ash. After the fire was out, it was so dry and windy, there was not a day that wasn’t hazy and smoky. We cleaned the counters every day and within hours would have a black film on them. My feet turned black and other than the moment my shower was over, were black entirely the whole time we were there. 

Nathan and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary by flying to the Big Island and getting settled in at our new Hawai’i home. 

Highlights

Jessica - being in an awesome location where you could walk to everything. Diving twice on Molokini crater. The views from the costal drives. 

Nathan - diving and surfing, both with an awesome company. Driving the “road to Hana”, especially the bonus drive we weren’t going to do on the “backside”. 

Lillian - the “swimmmmming pool”. Church the surfing doggie. Chickens and roosters everywhere. 

Phylis - the black sand beach. Snorkelling for the very first time. Being jumped on in the pool with Lily. Sitting on the lanai and looking at the ocean. 

Bebee - can’t think of anything too special. 

Lowlights

Jessica - making the decision not to do the Haleakala sunrise and hike to not subject Nathan and Lily to 10 000 + elevation. 

Nathan - my feet being black all the time. 

Lillian - doing lots of car drives. 

Phylis - the ash everywhere. 

Bebee - nothing was bad except roosters waking me up in the middle of the night. 

Whoohoo for O’ahu!

Whoohoo for O’ahu!

We have commenced our Hawaiian adventure, this time travelling as a team of five. Nathan and I, plus Lily and Nathan’s parents, Phylis and Bebee. Phylis and Bebee are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with this trip, and we are honoured to be celebrating life with them. 

We have spent nearly a week on the island of O’ahu, in Waikiki, and it doesn’t seem as if any time has passed at all! 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I know your real question is, “how did the flight go with your perpetual-in-motion toddler?”. We took the advice of all our expert parent friends and packed books and toys, snacks and treats galore. We really didn’t end up using all the stuff, but we are happy to have had access to it all. The flights to Honolulu were both around 6 hours each, with a two hour layover in between. It really couldn’t have been arranged better. Lily napped for about an hour on both flights, the first one because we got her up at 3am. (Where she was so happy and thrilled to be going “up up high” on an “aeeeerplane”) and the second one because it was actually around her regular nap time. She played with my iPad and some games I downloaded. She watched a bit of Cars on the first flight. She ate lots of snacks, played with her cars and coloured. She got a little rangy towards the end of both of flights, but who doesn’t at that point? We are so blessed with a happy, easygoing baby. 

This is the first “big” trip we have attempted since Lily has come along that resembles in part the way we used to travel, pre-baby. Our road trip when she was 3 months old was pretty good, considering we were still figuring out how to be parents. Cuba, the following summer, was boring! :) We are ready to get back to it, which involves lots of moving around, activity and wandering. It helps a ton to have the extra pairs of hands with Gram and Grandpa who enjoy spending time with Lily Bean. It also helps to have a baby who’s ready to go - who upon getting up from her nap, immediately hands you your hat and shoes and says “ooussside Mommy?”

Let’s get back to O’ahu then! The place we were staying, was described differently by each member of our party, including “bohemian, dirty, wow! And eclectic”. It was a fun place, a very old building with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Lily was happy there were chickens, big fish in a pond and a cat who sat on the roof. 

We were in a great location, 700 metres from Waikiki beach, which we walked back and forth from a couple times a day. 

Waikiki beach was stunning.  There was a great long stretch that had a break wall, allowing the huge waves to chill out a bit before coming in to shore. Thankfully, this time Lillian did not cry at the waves, or the sand.  She jumped right in and loved splashing, digging and swimming. Her reported favourite part of this trip was the "wa-teeeer and sand!"
Nathan tried to surf, but the waves were really too big for him. He says he got a good nose cleaning, instead. 
The area was lovely, with fantastic trees, including a big banyan tree to play in. Lots of restaurants and touristy things to look at.  it was your typical big city beach town. One remarkable thing to note was the large presence of apparently homeless individuals. Many of these people seemed to have mental health challenges, and so navigating around/past them was sometimes a bit finicky. What I did notice was that very few of them were actually begging for anything. Many had beat up cars to sleep in and really, if you had to choose your location to live, sleeping beside the beach actually seemed pretty nice. 

We did do some hiking. One day about midday we slogged up to the top of Diamond Head crater. It was a hot hike with too many stairs, but it was worth it to be perched on the top of a volcanic crater looking down at the city and beautiful many blues of the ocean below. 

Another day we did a hike to Manoa Falls, at a higher elevation in the rainforest. This was a slippery scramble at times, but every second was worth it to see the gorgeous sweeping views, colossal trees and pretty tall and narrow waterfall in the end. Lil was happy enough in the wrap carrier on Nathan’s back for both those hikes. 

Because we are travelling with Nathan’s parents this trip, and they don’t mind spending time with Lily we got to dive together again, which is nice to dive with a buddy that’s familiar. We dove on a wreak called the Sea Tiger, an old cargo ship, that shipped among other things, illegal Chinese immigrants. It was purposefully sunk to create an artificial reef and offered some neat, intact swim through. One of the members of our group used his air really fast and unfortunately we had to come up after about 17 minutes. I still had over 2000 psi left! The second dive we did was on a reef that was not very special, but it’s always a good day when you’re diving!! 

One day while Phylis and Bebee were golfing, Nate, Lily and I went out to the Kualoa Ranch. This was a spur of the moment trip and we really regret not being aware of this place to book some activities. It was spectacular. The property is massive - three mountains are part of it!!  Imagine - I own a mountain. It is still owned by the same family line that first purchased it, when property became something you could own. It has many many uses - cattle, taro, exotic flowers and has been the set for many movies. I was very excited to find out that many scenes for Jurassic Park were filmed on the site. Specifically, when Grant is running away from the herd and jumps over a log and hides. They have the log!! This place is one for the books - to return to! 

Later that day we went to the Dole Pineapple plantation and learned all about growing pineapples in Hawaii. It was Disney-like, but fun. 

One day we attempted to go to Pearl Harbour. Being the ignorant tourists that we are, we typed in "Pearl Harbour" into the GPS.  It took us to the actual working military base, where Nathan's driver's licence was confiscated and we were escorted off the property - with directions on how to get to the Arizona Monument.  Once we finally got there we were able to wander around the impressive monuments, plaques and celebrations of American military wonder and might.  It was an interesting study in prose. The Arizona monument's dock that you can walk out on was under repair, but we did take a boat trip around the harbour and listened to the story of how that dramatic day came to be.

Highlights of O’ahu

Jessica - hiking Manoa falls in the rainforest, watching a modern hula dance presentation, watching Lillian enjoy playing at the beach. Eating pineapple. All the beautiful flowers and greenery everywhere. 

Nathan - Waikiki beach. 

Lillian - playing in the “waaTER and sand”

Phylis - the beach. Walking around Waikiki. Learning about pineapples at Dole. All the hiking. Picturesque views on the golf course. Taking Lily to the zoo. 

Bebee - The golf course. Diamond Head views. 

Lowlights of O’ahu

Jessica - The heat, as always, and completely forgetting to go to the Iolani Palace (the only Royal residence on American soil)

Nathan - the plane ride there was long and tiring 

Lillian - missing her nap and having to adjust her sleep schedule. 

Phylis - the homeless people around the city. 

Bebee - falling down stairs and hurting his knee.  :( 

That wraps up our time on our first Hawaiian Island! Two more to go!

go!!