Final Fun

Our flight home was on Thursday night, a red-eye, so we landed at LAX on Friday morning.

On Wednesday night, our final full "night" in Maui, we went out to a nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant that happened to be attached to our resort. We'd seen long lines outside earlier in our trip, so we knew it was probably good food. 

We kind of celebrated Stacey's upcoming milestone birthday with a nice dessert, too.
 

We decided to make the most out of our Thursday, our last day. We started out bright and early with a ride on an outrigger canoe with the Kihei Canoe Club, led by our guide captains Al and his wife Sue. 

Stace had noticed the canoe club down the street, with a big banner out front advertising rides for visitors on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We signed up and paid, and it was a great experience.

Here are a few of the canoes coming onto shore, where we came up for a break to see some resting sea turtles.

After our canoe trip, we all enjoyed a continental breakfast, and then went back to our condo to shower and pack up and check out. 

We thought of going to lunch at the Maui Brewing Co., but the local one - home of the brewery - was randomly closed for the day. So, instead, we headed back to Lahaina for one last time. 

After Lahaina, we had one more adventure planned. Not far from the airport is the Iao Valley State Park, where we went for a late afternoon hike through the jungle-like greenery.

This mountain formation is known as the Needle, and this area was home to one of the big battles in 1790 that ended up uniting all the Hawaiian islands under King Kamehameha. 

In the nearby town we had one last fabulous Hawaiian meal, before heading to the airport.  

We ate so well this week! This was the meal Stace, Violet and I had at Coconut's Fish Cafe on our first full day, while Cora wasn't well: coconut shrimp, fish tacos and a fish sandwich.

The seared ahi at Tobi's shave ice in Paia was delicious.

Tobi's shave ice

Our "night out" meal at Isana Japanese restaurant...

Tempura-fried ice cream with pound cake - yum!

Snorkeling and Waterfalls

At the advice of my sister, we made a trip up the coast to Honolua Bay for more snorkeling, and it was well worth it. This protected marine preserve was full of colorful fish! I wish we'd had an underwater camera here. 

While our snorkel cruise was a great day out, the snorkeling here was actually better, because we were so much closer to the fish. Violet, especially, had the best time. We had to call her out of the water when it was time to leave!

The bay was secluded from the road, with a little wooded forest area to walk through. No real parking lot, just roadside parking. 

Chickens, roosters and chicks were wandering around, like so much of the islands. We loved it!

So many shades of green!
 

On Monday, we drove up to Twin Falls, near the start of the famed "Road to Hana." We chose to NOT do the Hana drive, because we'd heard it's beautiful but not for a family like ours with carsick-prone members.

But, we'd heard that Twin Falls was worth the trip, and it didn't disappoint. There were three different falls, and we saw them all. The water was refreshing fresh water, a little too cool for me to get into! But Stace was game, naturally.

Bamboo forest, with Stace playing his own kind of percussion.

Stace loved this random VW bus off to the side, as we walked to the furthest waterfall.

After Twin Falls, we stopped for a snack (and new flip flops to replace Violet's, which had broken) in the fabulous beach town of Paia. We enjoyed delicious shave ice and a poke bowl, and loved the vibe as we walked up and down the streets hunting for new shoes. 

Snorkel Cruise!

 We were all relieved that Cora felt well on Sunday, because we had an early morning appointment with the fishies!

We went on a snorkeling cruise to the Molokini Crater, with a second stop at a place nicknamed "Turtle Town." We enjoyed a continental breakfast and a yummy lunch of burgers, snacks and drinks.

We rented an underwater camera, and Cora was able to do Snuba for the first time. 

This was "Turtle Town," where we did spot a couple of turtles.

This is the crater area, after our snorkeling time there.

This was Cora with her Snuba apparatus. She was breathing oxygen through a tube hooked to a large tank, shared by the other Snuba-ers. The blue weights on her waist helped her go deeper. She enjoyed the experience a lot, though her ears hurt, in combination with her cold.

Sliding into the deep.

Underwater cameras are fun!

In Maui!

 School's out for summer... and we're in Paradise!

We flew the day after the girls got out of school to Maui, for our first trip to this Hawaiian island. This summer, Cora is taking a college Spanish class that will take up eight of her nine-week break, so this was our one week to jet away. 

Walking the beach in Kihei, south Maui. This wasn't far from our condo, a lovely, big-two bedroom place with ocean views from every room. 

Those Hawaiian sunsets!

This was the view from our lanai (balcony/patio). The sun actually set over that ridge, so it didn't fall into the sea from the view from our room. But we could see the traditional beach sunset view from a mile or so further down the road.

Violet enjoyed checking out the tidepools on our first full day, as we explored our surroundings with a drive down the coast. Cora was sick, actually, and stayed at the condo to rest and recover so she could enjoy the rest of the trip.

Little red crab friend... 

Stace and Violet went to get malasadas (a filled doughnut) one morning from a popular place near our home away from home.

Our unit was the three windows on the upper left. Yes, the road separated us from the beach, so we had a LOT of road noise inside. But the views and size of the place made it worth it.

Here's the girls' room, which opened onto the lanai. Violet could see the waves from her bed! The rest of the rooms had views of the sea, if not actual waves.

Morning coffee... yes, I could get used to this!

Gorgeous coastline

Near the above photo, a lava field! Reminders of Hawaii's volcanic activity are frequent.

School Tidbits

Every month, the girls' school has a "Family Flag Day," where parents can be present for morning ceremony. This coincides with Monday drumming, when 6th graders can grab a drum and welcome the students to morning ceremony. I enjoyed listening to the drumming this week, with Cora in the back row.

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and I helped Jen and Dinorah, the other room moms, decorate Miss Lotito's door. Here she is, with our kids, on Monday morning.

We also came up with the fun idea of creating masks of Bradley Cooper, Miss Lotito's favorite actor, for all the students to wear as a surprise for her. It worked like a charm! She absolutely loved her class full of Bradleys.

Violet was chosen to be a Kindness Ambassador for her class for the final month of the school year. She is very excited about this, and has meetings to go to on Thursdays. She's expected to be a friendly face, and someone people can go up to when they're feeling lonely. Yay, Vi!

Both girls participated in the school spirit day Friday, which was Hawaii clothing day. Cora, being on the student council that plans and promotes the spirit days, helped make posters for it. Here, she's wearing my Hawaiian shirt - we've reached that stage!

Hawaii Tidbits

A few tidbits from our trip... Our home's owner graciously supplied us with a welcome basket, complete with a pineapple. It was delicious!

We'd heard great things about the food trucks, and had an outstanding lunch on one of our days.

All the yums.

The chickens! They're everywhere, and were happy to peck through any leftovers from the lunch crowd.

We took one last morning beach stroll Sunday, before finishing up packing and loading the van.

Snapshot from the airport waiting for our flight... this sweet girl used some of her Hawaii spending money to buy her mama a Hawaii bracelet. Thanks, my Violet!

What a great trip, full of memories we'll treasure!

Until next time, ALOHA!