Maui

Back in the early spring time Trent was trying to figure out what he was going to do for his CME. He knew he needed to take them, but couldn't find a course he wanted. He looked and looked and finally found an Ortho conference in Maui. He asked if I would be interested in going with him. To Maui. Uh, let me think about that one for...yup. Let's go. The conference was at the end of July. I knew Malia would have to go with us, cuz she was still nursing and wouldn't take a bottle. We had a few months to plan what we'd do with our kids and what we would do in Maui. Trent's job gives him a stipend each year of his CME's which is really nice. It covered his flight, our hotel, his food, and the rental car. So it's like getting a nice vacation for half price.

We asked my friend, Laurie, if she'd like to come stay with the kids (we paid her of course). The kids were happy with that arrangement as they love Laurie.

We drove to Seattle and spent the night in the grossest hotel I think I've ever been in. Funny thing was the reviews online were actually okay. Uh, it was so gross. The door had gaps in the frame so dirt would blow in. There was a cigarette burn hole in the bedspread. The bathtub was nasty. There was a bug in the bathroom. I cringed when I saw it. We had a reservation to stay there on the way home too as our flight got in really late. I promptly cancelled it and made a reservation at a Hampton Inn down the road. It was $50 more, but well worth my money! I couldn't stand the thought of staying in that hotel again!!

We got to the airport plenty early Sunday morning. We found some breakfast and then waited for our flight. I was hoping that the flight wouldn't be full and that we could bring Malia's car seat on the flight with us. No such luck. The flight was completely full. Thankfully I had gotten our seats on a side where there were only two seats. The plane had 2 seats on each side and 5 in the middle. I was hoping to feed Malia on take off to help her ears, but she was not having that. She wanted to eat as soon as we sat down. There is no getting that girl to eat except when she wants to. She immediately started to fuss. I couldn't get her to settle down. Even after she ate. We took off and she still fussed. I might have told Trent that this may have been a horrible idea. 6 hours on a plane with a grumpy baby. She finally did fall asleep, but didn't sleep for more than 2 hours. I fed her as often as she would eat, just to keep her happy. And of course no trip is complete without a massive blowout. Let me tell you, cleaning up a blowout on an airplane is not fun...especially when one hand is holding the baby. I didn't know it was all the way up her back until I go to the bathroom to change her. Ugh. So gross. I carried a naked (she had a diaper on) baby back to our seat since I didn't have extra clothes with me when I changed her.

We finally made it to Maui about 1 pm local time. Getting our rental car took way longer than it should have. The line for the shuttle bus was sooooo long. Our rental company was the only one with a massive line. It took almost 30 mins before we got onto a shuttle to go to the rental building. Once inside there was another massive line. Another 30 min wait. Oh, and it was so HOT! Muggy hot. So humid. I asked the rental lady when we finally go to the front if it was always so busy like that. She told me that it actually wasn't too bad, they weren't that busy. But they are always shorthanded. There are so many open jobs on the island but no one wants them. They would rather smoke pot than have a job. So crazy!!

After what seemed like forever we finally got our rental car and drove the 20 mins to the resort we were staying at. It took us 2 hours to get our car and then get to the resort. We got checked in and headed up to our room. As we rounded the corner we saw that they were still cleaning our room. Oh. My. Gosh. I was so tired. SO hot. I just wanted to come in and sit in front of the AC unit and cool off. Not to mention that Malia was hungry. We waited in the hall for them to finish the room, it took them about 20 mins. But man it was so hot! I wasn't expecting to to be so dang hot!

We got settled in our room and fed Malia then headed out to get Trent checked in for his conference and to find us some food. His conference was only about 10 mins away, but the resort it was at was SO expensive, like $400/night WITH a hefty discount. We got a 1 bedroom condo for half that where we were staying. So it was worth the drive each day.

We found a shrimp truck for dinner. So yummy, we ended up getting food from that shrimp truck a few times. They had the best little salad that went with it. We took the food back to the condo to eat so Malia could lay down for a nap. We had pushed the pack-n-play into the master bathroom so she could have her own little space. There was another bathroom right off the kitchen. It worked perfectly. She slept without being disturbed and we were able to move about with out worrying we'd wake her. We took a little rest after eating too.

When we had all rested we went out for a walk. Our condo was right across the street from the beach. It was so beautiful! I think we were going out for a walk to see if we could find dinner, but we never ended up getting food. We just enjoyed our walk and then went and got ready for bed.

Monday morning we got up really early and had Trent down to his conference by 7 am. Malia and I went and found me some breakfast and she took a nap. After Trent's conference we took Trent up to go snuba diving out at a sunken volcano. There was no way I could go with Malia, so she and I went back to the condo so she could, once again, take a nap.

After Trent's snuba trip we drove around to the other side of the island from where we were staying to go to a luau. The food was excellent and the dancing was fun. It, however, was SO hot that it was hard to relax and enjoy the evening. Malia was so hot and she was grumpy. We paid a lot for the luau so I didn't want to leave early, but my goodness was it a hot sticky night! I really was so unprepared for how hot and muggy it was going to bed.

Tuesday morning was much the same, after dropping Trent off I went in search of breakfast. We picked Trent up and decided to try another shrimp truck that was a little way away from us, but on our way to the blowhole that we were going to go to. Turns out this is the most popular shrimp truck on the island and our food wait was an hour. An hour AFTER we made our order our food was finally ready. It was good, but not worth the hour wait.

We went up into Ioa Valley and hiked for just a little bit. It was a really short hike, but so pretty! I was so amazed by the jungle like conditions there. It was so green and the foliage so thick

After waiting forever for our food we headed out on the road to the blowhole. We drove for a bit before we found a little turn off to eat. We drove hoping Malia would go to sleep, she didn't.  We drove on highway 340. The roads were so narrow and windy. By the time we got to the blowhole I was not feeling so well. Funny thing; after we took the roads we found out that we weren't supposed to take rental cars on it. It is such a dangerous road they don't want tourists on it. Oops.

The blowhole was awesome! I had flip flops on and as we were getting out of the car Trent asked someone if it was worth the hike down. They said it totally was. So I changed my shoes and we got Malia hooked up in the ergo. We had to carry her on the side as she HATES being snuggled in close and the ergo does just that when she's on the front.

It was a very rocky walk down to the blowhole with no clearly marked path. We kinda just found our way down. But it was so beautiful! So worth the trip out to it. We stayed and watched the water, just taking in the beauty for a little bit before plotting our way back to the car.

We didn't take the dangerous road back, we went the right way. When we got back to our hotel we decided to go out to the beach, you know, since it was across the street from the hotel. Malia LOVED the water. I tried to let her just sit on the sand but all she wanted to do was eat it. It was pretty windy so we didn't stay too long. But it was so beautiful. I love the ocean, even if I don't love swimming in it.

Wednesday Trent's conference went a little longer than the other days. We decided that we would start on the road to Hana after he got out as we knew we wouldn't have time to make all the stops after he was done on Thursday and that is something we really wanted to do.

I knew that it was a very windy road with many hair pin turns, like around 620, and crosses over 59 bridges. There are waterfalls, swimming holes, gorgeous beaches, and little hikes along the road. I knew that there was a good possibility that the road would make me sick, so I thought I'd be proactive and take something before we left.

We stopped at the first waterfall hike and got out. The hike was short but beautiful! The water was just roaring down the falls. It must have rained higher up because there was so much water coming out. The bamboo was so thick! It was really so beautiful.

We bought an app that was like a mini tour guide in our car. It was pretty awesome. It used GPS to tell us where we were and what we were seeing. It told us where to stop and what stops we could skip if we were short on time.

We went to another hike, which was beautiful also. I was so in awe of the beauty we were surrounded by. Our next stop was a state park. I really needed to use the bathroom and there was a restroom there. Only problem was there was no toilet paper, there wasn't even toilet paper the next day when we went back. This also seemed like a good place to turn around.

By this point I was seriously not feeling well. I decided that I had better drive back as that usually helps. We were only about 45 mins or so up the road, we had seen a few waterfalls and way too many turns. The book we were listening too also happened to get a little gory, it was a scifi book, and it was making me sick too. I had to turn the book off. There were times when I didn't think I was going to make it.

After what seemed like eternity we came out of the curves and I could see a beach off to our right and so I suggested we stop there so I could just stop moving for a bit. I really thought I was going to puke! I just sat in the car for a few minutes while Trent walked around. I finally got out and wandered over to one of the vendors set up. She was selling some really cute clips and jewelry. I got a hair clip and ear rings for Hanna and a fresh water pearl necklace for myself. We're not really big souvenir shoppers and this was the first things we had bought.

We could see a pretty large crowd of people gathering on the beach below us. It looked like huge boulders on the beach. Trent thought they might be turtles as our guide app said this beach was known for having sea turtles on it. We decided to walk down there and sure enough, tons of black sea turtles on the beach. It was so amazing! There had to be someone down there to keep the turtles safe from all the stupid tourist, of course. I couldn't believe what some of those people were trying to do. The turtles area had been roped off with rocks, but people would still try to cross over it and touch them. I don't know why people lose their heads when then go on a trip. Stupid people aside it was an awesome sight! One that I doubt I'll ever see again.

I was finally feeling better so we headed into Paia to get dinner. I had read about a little fish market there that supposedly had the best fish and chips on the island. It wasn't crazy busy, but it was busy. They just had picnic style tables set up. They were pretty much full so I asked a group of older people if we could share their table. They were happy to share and we sat down and chatted with them while we waited for our food. They were a local couple, plus a local friend, who confirmed what I had read. Best fish and chips on the island! They were delightful people to chat with and I'm so glad we took the time to chat with them.  They gave us so good advice for seeing the rest of the road to Hana, that we would be taking the next day. Even told us where to find the best ice cream, though we were too full after dinner to go get any. Trent got fish tacos and I had fish and chips. Both were so good! I love eating local when we're visiting somewhere and that place did not disappoint.

We decided that in order to finish the road to Hana I would need something a little stronger than the Dramamine that I had taken. Trent called in a prescription for a motion sickness patch that goes behind my ear.  He had called it into the Safeway that was closest to where we were staying. We got there just before it closed. They were out. Said they hadn't been able to get any for a long time. Their supplier was out too. It was too late to call anywhere else that night, everything was closed. He called a few places in the morning and finally found a pharmacy that had some in stock.

After Trent wrapped up on Thursday we headed out to get the prescription and then hit the road. I still drove, but the patch made a huge difference.

We stopped at a couple swimming holes. We got out and Trent swam. We saw beautiful waterfalls running along side of the road. We stopped and hiked through a lava tube. That was really cool! It was a little tricky getting in especially with Malia, but so worth it. We saw a black sand beach (along with 5 million other people!) Trent swam at the black sand beach, I just put my toes in the water. We finally made it into Hana and found some dinner at a taco truck. We decided that we'd keep on going and go all the way around the island. Part of a national park was on that side too, and there was a waterfall hike we wanted to go on there.

Just outside of the national park the scenery changed and was drastically different. No more were we in in a tropical jungle but in a desert.   One side of the island is rain forest/jungle and the other is a desert. It was so crazy!

Friday was our last day in Maui, well really morning. We got some lunch and then went to the airport. We were lucky this time, our flight had many empty rows so we were able to move our seats and take up and entire row of 5 by ourselves. There were many people sleeping across whole rows. The airline agent told us that most flights over are packed full but the ones leaving are often half full. We were thankful! Malia was able to sit in her car seat, or on the seat, or where ever she wanted. The flight home was so much nicer than the flight over. Overall, she could have been better, but she could have been a lot worse too!

We got to our hotel around midnight and went right to sleep. After breakfast we began the 3 hour drive home. We stopped at the outlets in North Bend for a little shopping before we made it home.

It was an awesome trip! Though, if I ever get to do it again, I don't want to take any kids.