Vacation: Day 1-3

After hours and hours and hours of converting files into viewable images, I can tell you about our trip with pictures. I could tell you about our trip without pictures, but that would be like Mr. Cartmill telling us about Rome and never actually seeing his slides.

I’ll warn you now, this will probably be several posts. Rather than fill your screen with endless chatter, I’ll break up our week so your eyes don’t bleed.

First and foremost it’s important to me that I publicly announce we left EARLY for the airport the day we flew out. Not just early in the morning, but actually ahead of schedule. That hasn’t happened in ten years. We were all packed, excited, and motivated.

Our flights…there were three of them…all left on time and were without issue. It sounded like a nightmare to have three legs, but it actually worked out well. We had time to walk around and consume all the snacks we could eat in the Delta Sky Club. I got very tired of trail mix and stale bagels, early in the trip.

When we arrived in Maui, it was just like I remembered and it was the middle of the night back in Indiana. I’ve already mentioned we just decided it was dinner time in Maui and got the kids on schedule just like that. Thank God for adrenaline. Worked like a charm.

Wednesday was our first full day. After an unbelievable breakfast, we drove north of our resort to see what we could see and it was all breathtaking.

We also scouted some off-shore snorkel sites. Alex was leaning out of the car window taking pictures as fast as his shutter would click. Which is completely hilarious, because his dad is known to do the exact same thing. We call it annoying when he does it.

Meredith sketched everything on a Magna Doodle. She’s really, really into drawing. That afternoon, the boys had a tee time and Meredith and I had a spa appointment.

The boys had fun, despite a pouring rain shower, which was the only one of the week. Figures. Rumor has it, Alex even played well when he wasn’t OCD about cleaning his golf ball.

Meredith and I had a bizarre spa experience. We walked into the beautiful, dimly lit, plumeria-scented spa. So far, so good. Everyone was wearing a plush robe. Yes! We love robes! The hostess made a sharp right turn and we were shuttled into the area where they cut hair. Well lit, less zen-like, but whatever, it’ll be fine.

We started off with side by side pedicures, in our street clothes. Meredith was being her usually precocious self. Not obnoxious, just excited to be there and trying to act like a big girl. The eye rolling began. Then came the, “I can’t believe mothers bring their three year olds in here for treatments.” Meredith piped up with, “Well, I’m FOUR!” I was annoyed.

Then the nail lady tells me how incredibly dry my feet are. Little did she know, I’d been slathering on lotion as thick as Crisco for a week just so my feet wouldn’t be scaly. She stuck my feet into scalding paraffin and told me to sit for 15 minutes while they took Meredith for a manicure. So much for side by side. As they were finishing my nails, some NBA player came in for a pedicure. I have no idea who he was, but he was at least 7 foot tall and had two carrots per ear…I made an educated guess. BTW, he was wearing a robe! Evidently he was 25 minutes early and they clucked like chickens and sent him out to wait in the lobby. Seriously. They went bananas. Pleasant.

When we finally checked out, she handed me the bill…$289. What?!?! For a manicure and pedicure for me and my tiny-nailed daughter. The checkout girl must have noticed the color drain out of my face and said, “Oh, well she had some nail art, that adds $20. There’s also an 18% gratuity included.” The “nail art” amounted to six stickers, that fell off an hour later, and I was delighted to fork over an 18% tip to the Gripe Sisters.

The upside: My $30 occasional pedicures are now perceived by Brandon as a screaming deal! And honestly, if these are my problems, I should be so lucky!!!

Thursday morning, we dropped the kids of at the Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment program for an underwater photography lesson. We didn’t really care if they colored pictures of fish, all we were truly interested in were three child-free hours. We found a great snorkel spot that was in no-way doable with kids. We had to park in a mud puddle, hike through the rain forest, and climb over mossy rocks. We did and it was INCREDIBLE. I saw two spotted rays and a sea turtle. Not to mention a school of fish to rival the one in Finding Nemo.

When we picked up the kids after lunch, the were so excited about their day! According to them, those were the best three hours of the trip. Here is what Alex was able to capture. Not bad, my friend. Not bad, at all!

Meredith took pictures of herself and other children in the class.

That afternoon, we ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise. It is in no way associated with Jimmy Buffet or his dreadful restaurant chain. Now I LOVE Jimmy and I LOVE cheeseburgers, so I want to love his attempt, but he fails miserably. Cheeseburger in Paradise in Hawaii (and apparently now in Vegas and Miami) is Heaven. Sitting along the shore, listening to live music, drinking a Diet Coke with a lime and eating the best damn cheeseburger on the planet is how I would like to spend my final day. The kids loved it so much, we ended up going back on our last day…more on that later.

Alright, two pages is enough for today. I don’t want to be the neighbor who won’t shut up about their vacation. More to come…much more to come!