October 4, 2014
So this is a prospective from the last week. It is 5am on Friday and I’m standing in the hallway being very quiet listening to kids sniffle upstairs. I’m typing on Evernote at the moment but am down loading pages; the most beautiful word processor according to Apple. What it is, is a huge app that is taking forever to download. Why must I do this? Well hopefully my spelling mistakes will be reduced, but I also have iOS 8.0.2 installed so hopefully this will speed things up and be more error free. Nope still not done, 75% and I started when it was around 15%, but it is the most beautiful so too bad for me. This is a respective since I really don’t have a good keyboard so am pigeon typing… Good times.
Friday, September 26th
A work day, but I’m leaving for Maui when the new support site will be going live on Monday morning. I’ve buttoned up everything I can. (Pages finished loading so I’ve snuck back into my room with the non-sleeping Fiona. I can’t decide if I want to use pages now or not out of spite, just have to see if I hit the limit for free Evernote, then a copy paste, eh.) I’m home by 4ish and Andrew and Marjorie are in town and have been for the last 3 days. Before people pop over Fiona, the kids and I are running round finishing packing. We forgot shampoo, not too shabby if you ask me. Anywho, the Scotland referendum was put to vote today and to “no’s” had it. The 411 was not to talk about it with Andrew as he was a yes person. Always good to see them, but since it was the day before we go to Maui off to the pizza kitchen. I split a Sicilian with the Fiona and have a Guinness. I’m at the end of the table with Iain and Cheryl, and am sitting next to Andrew. Good to see Iain and Cheryl too as it has been a bit of time. It is around 7:30 and the kids a cracking up, boing over, melting down, all the above. All the high octane has fizzled out and now Niamh is kicking the table and frothing at the mouth.. No really like a rabid dog, frothing. Weird kid, but pisses Fiona off to no end which is why she does it. So the Fiona takes off with Lawson, and the I come back in and drag Niamh over the table. Good times. Make it home and kids are in bed around 8:30ish. Not too shabby. The kicker is Lawson is in his red tent in our room, and Lawson’s room is empty awaiting the Iain and Cheryl. I didn’t know they where staying over, but ok. 9pm nothing. 10pm nothing. Guess they are not coming. The Fiona is pissed. Good way to start a vacation. Not sure if it is the bugs or the kids they are afraid of? Go to bed around 11ish. The Lawson waking up around 12:30am a hot sweating sobbing mess, so I put him in his bed in his clean sheets.
Stupid Evernote is messing with my formatting or maybe it is iOS 8.0.2, eye way it is annoying. Guess I’ll make the switch and see… Whoa! It is pretty nice. Had to figure out how to name to document, but otherwise I guess we are in business.
Saturday, September 27th
Our flight leaves at 9:30am so we are up early, around 6am to make sure we have all our bits and pieces. I make sure we have bungie cords for car seats, empty pool skimmer, blah blah blah. Fiona gets text explaining that no one came over due to kid melt down. I knew they were scared of the kids, oh well. Tiffany Lofton makes an appearance at 7am and we had everything all loaded up in our minivan. We arrive at the same time as Alan and the hoard from curie court. There are 10 of us on this magical adventure (8 adults, 2 kids). We have extra hands at drop off so don’t need bungie cords. Oh well. We drag our stuff 100 feet and get in line. We are not clear how to check in 10 seats – all at once or separately. They nice counter people say separately so it is like cockroaches and daylight. The hoard scatters. Alan is confused which is pretty normal, but so am I so nothing really has changed. Our little pod of 4 makes it to the counter, and Alan and Rowena are with us. I ask how many bags Alan has to check he says two. So they is two bags of ours, two car seats, and two Alan’s. Turns out one of Alan’s bags was Andrews so we need to scratch one bag off the list. Oh well. We need to cover our car seats with southwest bags, hope they don’t break them since they say southwest on them, bummer. We get everything sorted and have to go to gate 16. We didn’t t take a laptop so no special X-ray through security for that electrical device. Still have to take off shoes, and hid things I my bag to make it through metal detector unscathed. Man it is a long walk to 16. The international terminal. The kids are running between the laggards and the fast walkers. Fiona and I are the laggards, hard to believe but true in this case. We make it to 16 and kids still want to run, we board at 9:10 and are at the gate at 8:55, so we have time to burn off more energy. So I send those little balls of fury down about 100 yards and back like 3 times. Between the walk to 16 and running back and forth and now gate running the kids are pretty much good for a 5 hour flight.
We get on the plane and the guy doing the announcements has a wonderful mustache and his last name is Marshall. He is cracking jokes and is pretty funny. Who wouldn’t be, we are off to Maui. We are in rows 30 and 29 on a 737, which is 3 and 3. I’m the odd one out, which is not a bad thing as I meet a newly wed couple, Eric and Monica. Eric works at google and has been there 9 years, and Monica teaches at Castillero 7th grade. I think Eric has stuck around due to the stock? The kids where good for Fiona and the flight people. The calming effect of an iPad and a movie. We did sit in the kid section and other kids had there melt downs, but we were good. Yeah! We received a complimentary Mai tai which was nice, the kids had POG (passion fruit, orange juice, guava juice)
We arrived around 11am Hawiian time (5 hour flight, 3 hour time change). We got our bags, and like sheep the heard moved through the airport in search of the rental car place. We walked across the street wait a good 15 minutes as bus after bus of car rental vans drove by. So we walked back across the street and down another 200 yards to the car rental pick up. We got the last seats on the van, but getting on and off with car seats is such a pain in the ass. As I was unstrapping a car seat other people wanted to get on, and I explained that I was doing my best to get on and Fiona mentioned that we had the last seat, so they shut them down pretty good. Man it is humid here, a big sweaty meat bag I am. We finally get to the privilege to stand inline to receive our rental car. I have a coupon for an upgrade so I upgrade too.. Come on guess… A mini van! Yeah baby. spot c-31, a silver Dodge Mini van. The interior boot is falling apart, but otherwise the AC works and has a full tank of gas. I opted to buy the entire tank at check out for 85 dollars. I get then van and pull it around instead of lugging everything out to it, smart one eh. We put the car seats in and bags in the back.
First stop, Costco. Right across from the airport. We get bagels, beer, pineapples, and bacon. The essentials for island living. If they had a fruit that started with the letter B I’m sure we would have opted to that, but pineapples are pretty tasty. One hour later, with a slice of cheese pizza and half a hot dog in us, I mean me as I ate the cheese of the pizza and half a hot dog. The Niamh has tomato covered crust, and Lawson wanted a hot dog with out any bun particles on it. Fiona had the other half of the slice that is ripped apart and Pepsi that we shared. Water for the kids. And we are off, but not before another bathroom check. And now we are off. We go through a tunnel to the great delight of the children. They want more tunnels, but we explain that there is probably only one tunnel on this entire island that we actually drive through; they succumb to reason and the fact we can drive through this one tunnel many times on this trip.
We stop at the local market a few blocks from where we are staying and pick to cream cheese and a gallon POG to round out our food purchases. We arrive and Fiona gets 2 keys and a bunch of beach towels. We are at the Napili Point Resort, down the street from the wedding proposal on the beach. The tree is still there on the beach which is nice. We park outside room C-22 and lug our junk from car to condo. Fiona unpacks into the drawers since we mixed and matched kids stuff with adult stuff in luggage.
Take out for dinner, Mama’s rotisserie and ribs. We got two half chickens and a short stack of ribs. It was delicious with the Kona beer fro Costco. Not a big day since it was a travel day, and we went to bed at 6pm Hawaiian time.
Sunday, September 28th
We get up at 5am. It is dark. I went running which was great. I found a costal trail that was about 1.75 miles which connected to the Mahana Ridge trail which which was 5.75 long the day before. According to runkeeper I’m suppose to go 11 miles, probably not going to happen on vacation in a new place? I got up which was the first achievement, got dressed, and I found the start of the costal trail. I run through a nesting area, have to go slow given all the rocks and funny steps. I make it to the end of the trail at D.T. Fleming park. The spend 15 minutes trying to find the start of the Mahana Ridge Trail. No luck. So I run up the street along the Lower Honoapiilani Road to the Honoapiilani Highway. I’m going to die. Good thing it is early. I turn around and get back to Fleming park and look again. Ask some park guy taking the trash if he knows where the trail is.. He says across the street. Not helpful. I run back to the condo. Turns out me running in circles put on 6.5ish miles.
Bagels and bacon. Yum. We go to Napili Beach and swim with the kids. We happen upon Paul and Tiffany Telles at the beach too. Niamh and Amaya go nuts and run in and out of the waves. Lawson follows suit, but knows to stay further afield from the waves. It is pretty rough looking waves for being the morning, but we make the best of it. So much so, I help Niamh eat it by letting her ride a too big body board and not having her butt in the water. The end result was a massive wipe out which Fiona caught all on camera. Fiona even did a slow-mo of the event. Oh well. Niamh is ok, and recovered to keep running like a crazed person in and out of waves. We go back to the condo for a swim and some lunch. We want the kids to chill out and we have a full tank of gas so we drive north. Lawson falls asleep for 40 minutes and we stop at a blowhole and light house (which is more like a light beacon). It is pretty much around 4 so we call it a day and go back to the condo to get cleaned up to go to the Sea House Restaurant for a fancy dinner.
Niamh and Lawson got some nice Hawaiian stuff fro Nana and Grandpa the day before, with even more nice stuff from Majorie and Andrew. Niamh got this really nice black dress with yellow flowers and Lawson a yellow Hawaiian shirt with trucks on it. I wore my nice shirt too. We walked to dinner, sat inside and I had two cocktails, Mai Tais. I had herb crusted ahi and a giant piece of ice cream cake. Alan bet me 1 dollar I could eat it. Half way through he doubled it. I ate the whole thing. Kept thinking of the Shel Silverstein one bite at a time eating a whale. In this case I was the whale at the end of it. I’m glad we walked and that I ran this morning. Walked back. Kids in bed and we go to sleep around 8.
Monday, September 29th
Wonder if the website went live? I check. Looks like it did. I post a few well placed emails, and put my out of office on my email. Bagels and bacon. Yum. Off the the aquarium to see stuff. When we rented the car they gave us some passes, but only for a free souvenir. Oh well. We pay our 90 dollars and see fish, turtles, and sharks. Our free gift are luggage tags. The good thing about the day was stopping at the Maui Brewing Pub and Grill. I had 12 samplers, and snuck a sample of Fiona’s beer too with some chili cheese fries. Lawson was asleep when we walked in from our drive back to Napili, the brew pub is two miles down the street. Lunch is over and back to Napili beach. The beach appears to be calmer. Kids have fun, no wipe outs today. Back to the pool.
Dinner was iron imu bbq which is right next door. We managed to pull together enough seating for 10. The kids section was super. A room full of toys and calk boards. So after dinner Niamh and Lawson were quite content as she did wall to wall artwork. We got a chicken and a chorizo stuffed chicken the kids had our side and bits of chicken so they didn’t starve, but we’re too engulfed with the kids section to really complain if they were still hungry. I drank my IPA castaway out off a glass boot. We walked back after dragging kids kicking and screaming from kids section.
Tuesday, September 30th
Another run, but on Sunday before the blowhole we found the start of the Mahana Ridge trail. It is at D.T. Fleming beach, but the sign is turned 90 degrees the wrong way. Anywho, I had a bummer 1.5 miles in, so took a swim in the ocean to get myself sorted and ran up the trail. It was all up hill, and stopped at the second road sign that mentioned heavy equipment. Very happy to find the trail, but not happy with bummer. Too much desserts and food. Oh well can’t have both. Found a massive snail on my down to the trail as big as my foot.
Left to Haleakala at 9am with an improvised cooler, a card board box, glass brownie pan, and a bag of ice. I would call it a red neck cooler, but Fiona thought of it, so I must be rubbing off on her. Lawson fell asleep on the way up, and Niamh complained about not feeling well. It rained on us on the way up. We only went with old people, Iain and Cheryl stayed behind.
We caught up with the old people at 7000 feet at the first ranger station. We went to the top first, and Lawson finally woke up at the top. Niamh was hungry. We took pictures. It rained on us. We grumped back to the car. Oh, wait. Niamh didn’t pack her sweatshirt so we stopped at three different places and at the aquarium got a Maui sweatshirt for 20 bucks. We are going to make her wear it daily at home. So we grumped back down 500 yards To the lower station for bathrooms and lunch. We saw Nene’s and double rainbows. Our mood was improving. Nana made it up a trail for a group picture, surprise. At around 1ish we decided to go back down the volcano. Lawson complained. Lawson got car sick. Lawson got car sick 4 times. It was cloudy and raining. People were grumpy again. Not a lot of places to pull over. We stripped Lawson, put extra pants on him, put Fiona’s sweatshirt over the mess on the car seat. It smelled like soggy Cheetos. Oh well.
We had Thai food for dinner. I was not very hungry.
Wednesday, October 1st
Almost out of bagels, still have some bacon. Went to a new beach next to Whalers Cove, found parking at the Sheraton for 20 bucks for the day. Found Paul, Tiffany and family in same parking garage. Walked down with them through the hotel yard and onto the beach. It was hot. We rented two umbrellas, and we’re warned about the undertow and big waves coming. They came and the kids were sucked in and out of the ocean when they where not quick enough. Paul and I watched and helped as needed when a wave got the best of the kids. The umbrella was worth it as the sand was scorching. The bar opened at 10:30 and I started with the Mai Tais. Rowena and Alan appeared. Rowena wanted to get in the ocean. She said, what is the point of coming to Maui if we are not going to get in the ocean. The ocean got her. She ate it on the way in,and needed help on the way out. The waves were to much for her knees. She needs new ones but will not listen, and hasn’t for 10 years. Perhaps now she will reconsider since she can’t walk, lift, or carry things. Oh well. She was ok enough and I helped her out and she hobbled back to the umbrellas. Went snorkeling with Niamh and saw some zebra and parrot fish. People jumped off a 20 foot rock and we judged them harshly. Some people were more impressive then others. I wanted to use my hands and feet the rest of the trip so didn’t scale the lava rocks to make the jump. At noonish we removed ourselves from the umbrellas and I had more Mai Tais. If you are keeping track that is about 4 or 5, at least someone is keeping track, I’m not. I had a very yummy grilled cheese with more Mai Tais. After lunch we decided it was too hot to stay and Paul and Tiffany’s hotel had a cool slide.
It was a very cool slide. So cool Lawson was not sure he wanted to go down for 15 minutes. So I walked up to the top, got in line, and helped him down. Niamh and Amaya told me I broke the rules since two of us went down together. I didn’t have to go back as now Lawson was hooked. He spent the next 2 hours climbing up the steps and taking the very cool slide down. Niamh was everywhere in the pool, down the slide, under the waterfall, down other parts of the pool (it is a very big pool, with more than one slide). The big cool slide closed at 5, and during that time I had a few more Mai Tais (by the point I was asking the server to Mai Tai me!), and Fiona got some cream to take the burn out of her skin, and some Maui Jim sunglasses. All direct to our chair, we might have to come back to this place. However since the slide closet the kids are exhausted, and I’m floating in Mai Tais Fiona drives back to the condo, and we just simmer and stew until around 7 and we all go to bed.
Thursday, October 2nd
After a fitful and lackluster night of sleep of me pacing the condo, drinking water, waking up Fiona it was time for another run. This time I ran even further up Mahana Ridge Trail, and got to see an amazing golf course on top of this ridge. I might have to play this course, however I didn’t bring my clubs and I have a feeling it was the Ritz Carleton. I ran to and fro without much hassle as it was an easy run day.
Today was take it easy and chill out day, in other words a regular day which involves shopping. We drive down front street in Lahina, and park at the outlet section. It is 20 bucks for the day but you can get your parking validated. So Fiona being the super shopper gets Niamh pants from the gap for 10 bucks for school. Parking now is only 4 bucks by the time we leave. Not too shabby. Between the pants and leaving we walked down front street to the banyan tree which is outside the courthouse which houses a public restroom that we visited for Lawson. On the way back I find a very fancy place to eat, but it is closed for lunch. So much for my shopping ability. So we turn around and walk 300 feet to cheeseburger in paradise. I have my hesitation since the last time we ate at this chain it was awful, which was about 5 years ago on Oahu when we traveled with my brother and his 3 kids at the time. It was much better. We managed to sneak a table by a window after first sitting down, then the kids liked the tiny umbrellas that the gal brought them each a handful. Blue for the Lawson and pink for the Niamh. The they taunted one another over the green umbrella. Oh, well. When they where done stabbing me with tiny umbrellas as we walked that is when Fiona found the pants and we too off around 1pm.
Niamh passed a level in Lexia which is great. And she also wants a water slide party. Our reply was if she got to level 10 by December we could go to a water park (she just started level 7). After exercising out brain, off to Napili beach again, but I didn’t get in but the waves were not man eaters this afternoon. The kids played until 4, the it was pool, clean up and an outdoor dinner at the sea house restaurant. I had a virgin lava flow, the a second. I was drinking ice tea by the gallon since I went for a run and was jus generally dehydrated from Mai Tai Wednesday. A wedge salad with a healthy quesadilla (it had spinach in it? weird, but good). I actually could not se my food since the table was so dark from the glorious sunset that everyone took pictures of, but me. Oh well. It was a bit too cloudy, but still a nice warm sunset. We walked back home Looking for geckos with out iphone flash lights, but instead found another big slug on the wall next to Iain and Cheryl’s room. I tried very genially to pull it off but this thing had a mean grip, and didn’t want to hurt it so didn’t go crazy trying to get it off the wall. After oohing after the snail as big as Niamh hand, in bed by 8:30. See how we we getting later, and later oh well.
Friday, October 3rd
It was get stuff for people day so back to Lahani, but the fast way to our new parking spot. We ran out of bagels yesterday, so no real breakfast. Out the door by 10am, and proceeded to spend small fortune on clothing and gifts. At 11:30 stopped at sugar cane mill restaurant where I had the most amount of pepper on a burger in a long time. Thing they forgot it was a burger and instead a black pepper New York steak. They also killed the burger, by being super well done. I did ask for the junior burger, and some lemonades / ice teas. The kids like the guava juice and have been getting every place we go which is good. However haven’t really branched our from kitchen and ketchup, exert for today Niamh got a salad, and ate the whole thing and one of her brother’s chicken strips. The cruise ship was in which meant the town was a buzz with people and languages. Back to the car, stopping by the ABC store to pick up a bit of juice, milk. And some sort of breakfast before we leave tomorrow.
To the beach, where I find my turtle among the waves and sandy ocean. Can only see about 20 feet, but I found him and took pictures. Niamh is confident enough to go in without any thing but her suit and has been for the last 3 days which is fun to see. It helps when the waves are not man eaters, however Rowena still needs help getting in and out. Hum, when a six year old can get in and out of waves and the 65ish one can’t you know there is a problem, but perhaps Niamh is just closer to the ground and more bendable which also helps. Anywho, no pool for us as we race back to the condo to leave by 5 to the grand o luau.
We are in the cheap seats next to the bathroom, which is good since Lawson decides his new favorite drink is blue poweraid, and proceeds to drink 4/5 glasses of it since Fiona and I take him every 20 minutes to pee. Oh well. I had my lava flows, and other tasty cocktails during the show. The table fits 10 of us nicely with 4, 4, 2 so we all face the stage. It doesn’t matter much to the kids as they try to dance too during the hour long show. We see the pit where the pig has been cooking all day, we play a few Hawaiian games (roll a round puck through two sticks), we meet some nice hula girls who show how to play their instruments (feather shakers, sticks, shells, and the little beater drum). The it was back to the table where Fiona busted out the Polaroid camera and snaps some shots of Kona and Niamh, and later the dancers and Niamh as we leave. I just had the go pro, but it did a good job. Too bad we could not meet the dancers in better light. Oh well. We had our family unit picture on a canoe where the price was 1 for 30, 2 for 40, or 3 for 45. We opted for 2 pictures, but only wanted one. Oh well. They have my email and am awaiting the digital copy, hopefully. We walked back to the car where we don’t recall how we made it to and from this luau 12 years ago, but we must have parked the jeep at the time sort of like I parked the van this time, outside lucky’s and the ice shop. Back home by 8:30 where I show off my turtle video and picture, and the shots of the luau. In bed by 9.
Saturday, October 4th
Well that was rude. I just woke up Fiona saying, ‘there is a really big bug I our bed, turn on the light.’ Fiona is confused. I explain again to her. Still confused I plead for her to turn on a light. She finally jumps out of bed and realizes that yes there really is a big bug in our bed and it is not me, but a happy cockroach. Oh well. I heard a little clicking sound as he crawled through my hair, but I didn’t brush my head with hand as it would have climbed on Fiona. I just shook my head and got up and peered down and in between the pillows was mr cockroach calmly making his way to probably clean up after our kids. It was a big fellow, and Fiona gets a small plastic glass that the kids drink out of, and I calmly kid her that this is not going to contain this monster who likes to molest tourist in their sleep. Oh well. I loose it under the bed. Sucks to be me. She gets a bigger glass with a wide rim. I turn on the bed side lamp. I try and flick at it while under the bed. It knows that is has awakened the tired and grumpy tim. Where are my glasses? It flees from the light into the nice dark closet. I have it, no I don’t, damn. No I have it, with the plastic and glass wedged together to form a good solid clear trap. Not sure what to do with it now. It is alive, but cockroaches are pests, so should probably kill it? No. Fiona opens the door. I go out, reconsider, come back in am am going to flush it like a dead fish. Fiona says no just go outside. Too tired to argue, and walk out a good distance to have it menace another tourist with messy kids.
That was at 4am, which is like 7am pst so just get less sleep. Fiona can’t go to sleep again and I am caught up with my daily travel writing. We are off to the airport today. Going to drop people off first, return the car, and then get on a plane. I’ve had the sniffles, cap ugh for about 3 days now. I’m suppose to run according to runkeeper but that will probably not happen. I swam for 20 minutes in the ocean yesterday that counts right? Sure it does, maybe if I keep telling myself that I’ll believe it 😉