We decided to make the holidays as stress free and low key as possible this year. I always regret how our family gets so caught up in the hustle and bustle and commercialization of the season that it almost feels as though we miss out on the true meaning of Christmas. Our schedules are always packed so full that the whole thing becomes a chore rather than something enjoyable. So this year, we were determined to do something different and decided on a relaxing tropical vacation in Maui. We surprised the kids with our decision on Thanksgiving Day so everyone would have ample time to get excited for the big event. Everyone was thrilled, but when Rian found out we weren't planning on going "all out" on Christmas decorations this year, the tears started to flow. So our little one who doesn't like change or surprises ended up with a fully decorated house and every ornament hung on a fully decked out tree (Mike did get to skip out on hanging lights which he was very happy about). The night before we left we found out the condo where we were staying had suffered a lot of damage from a large fire this past September. The whole fitness center/spa building had burned to the ground, as well as the registration and lobby area. It was the largest fire in Maui history to date. We found some videos of the fire on YouTube and needless to say, we were really second-guessing our decision to stay at the Valley Isle Resort! Having such short notice, there wasn't anything we could do but go there and see how bad the damage was. The news made for a bit of a sleepless night and some serious thoughts of 'what have we gotten ourselves into'! On Thursday December 20, we left our house fairly early in the morning due to the freezing cold temperatures and snowstorm we had the day before. We couldn't believe in just a few hours we would be, well, "Walking on Sunshine". The flight from Denver to Phoenix was delayed a bit so we had about five minutes of breathing room before boarding our flight to Honolulu (Hahalulu as Jessie likes to say). The girls did great on the 6 1/2 hour flight to Hawaii (though Jessie needed to make some serious amends with the passengers seated in front of us for her behavior the last two hours of the trip) and then it was just a short 45 minute flight from Honolulu to Maui (Mawowie). The rental car was smaller than we had expected, and didn't exactly accommodate our seven bags and two booster seats very well. We were all sitting on big bags and suitcases from the airport to the condo and were exhausted by the time we settled in for the night. We had left our house at 8 am Denver time and fell into bed at what would have been 3 am our time. Mike wasn't exactly singing praises about the appearance of our condo- instead of a luxurious beachfront resort, it looked more like a boarded up crack house due to the fire. But once we stepped inside our unit, we all relaxed- it was beautiful, completely renovated and had absolutely everything we needed to make our time there a trip of a lifetime.
What was left of the fitness center, spa and front lobby.
The pool area.
Our first night in paradise, we didnt' sleep too well- it was partly the stress from all the travelling but mostly from the wind- the winds were so strong that the boards covering all the windows on our side of the building were rattling like crazy. But in the morning, we opened our sliding glass door to feast our eyes upon this beautiful sight:
The view from our lanai.
We headed to LuLu's for breakfast just outside of Lahaina Cannery Mall and enjoyed omelets with two scoops of hana rice (white and brown mixed). It was traditional Hawaiian food and would become one of our favorite places to eat throughout our trip. We stopped at the drug store and bought some sand toys and headed to Kahana beach right by our condo. The kids had never played in a warm ocean before and loved every minute of it! We saw several sea turtles up close and spotting them became on of our favorite pasttimes each day.
In the afternoon, we ventured out to buy our groceries for the two weeks we would spend at the condo. We found that there was a Whole Foods back near the airport on the other side of the island. Mike thought we should take the "scenic" route instead of heading back the direction we came from the night before so off we went. We ended up off the main highway on a road that the book 'Maui Revealed' describes the following way, "The road gets very narrow as it descends along the side of the mountain. Skittish passengers may HATE this 1 1/2 mile part. (We've seen some who had expressions as if they had just unexpectedly bungee-jumped into hell.)" I agree wholeheartedly! Though I have driven some narrow paths up in the mountains of Colorado, none have every scared me as much as this did. We came to the small mountainous village of Kahakuloa and stopped at Julia's stand that advertises itself as the "best banana bread on the planet". I don't know if it was the adrenaline or what, but it was damn good banana bread. The next 8 miles of road were extremely narrow and I had to stop and honk the horn before embarking on the endless number of hairpin turns to make sure no one was travelling from the opposite direction. After an hour and a half, we were back on the main highway again- Phew. Glad for the adventure, but even happier it had come to an end. We were all glad to finally make it to Whole Foods (some of us were more carsick than others) and did our shopping, ate dinner at Maui Tacos, and headed back to Kahana.
