Hawaii Day 2 - Drive to Ka'anapali, 3 beaches, and learning life lessons

 

First morning, January 2nd. Was a Tuesday, but at this point days of the week was irrelevant. of course we were all up early from the time change. Mary and I headed out to find a grocery store to get some breakfast food... We pull into the parking lot and THERE'S A CHICKEN!!! A rooster. It was so cool to see. I immediately stop to take a photo. Oh the sun coming up over Haleakala was also beautiful but didn't capture that haha. 

We turn the corner in the parking lot and there's a WHOLE SLEW of chickens! Mama's, babies, roosters! This was the first moment of learning this is just a normal thing, they run wild much like our geese and turkey's do in Minneapolis, lol. 

We got some food and headed back to the condo, meanwhile Kyle has already had some whale spotting from our balcony. Here's our view: 

We get around and dressed in swimsuits then go up to check out the roof access (this was actually the only time we went up there) 

We go down to check out the beach. 

 

Then go over to check out the condo pool. It's early, pool didn't open til 8am so we waited around. Little cold being morning and in the shade, but the kids had fun. 

View of the parking lot at our condo. 

Back at our condo we get a little more dressed and decide to go for a ride. 

We stop at a look out point. Turns out it's a great spot for whale watching and we even got to spot quite a few spouts! The sun was HOT and we were all tired. Lots of sibling bickering going on. The car was TIGHT! but we continued on... we'd packed the boogie boards but they barely fit, there was no way any more beach gear was going to fit. We continued up north along the coast. 

Hitting the out skirts of Lahaina. The main road was closed off due to the fires that had taken place five months earlier. 

We managed to pull into an area and discovered Whalers Village. It was a good time for lunch so we decided to hit a place that was recommended to us called MonkeyPod. It hadn't opened yet but was about to, I realized where it was when I saw the line. Thankfully only a few people back we were quickly seated. 

 

Kids were tired: 

But everyone was a little happier with some food in them.

After lunch we walked down to the water, hitting beach number 2 of the day. Kids had fun running back and forth on the beach, not really getting in the water. Thomas wasn't liking the salt water earlier and refused to wear his swimsuit... of course he ended up getting soaked. 

We went for a walk up along the boardwalk then back down to Whaler's Village where we were parked. 

Picked up the first of many Hawaiian shaved ices... this happen to be MY FAVORITE but we didn't find it like they made this the rest of the trip :-( 

Kids played for a minute while Kyle went shopping for some flip-flops and we got coffee. Then we said we were going to drive around and the kids HAD to try to nap. Boy was everyone grouchy! 

I had my drone with me but I wasn't able to fly it... we kept being in restricted zones. I think it was due to the fact of the big golfing tournament about to take place. We still enjoyed the views. 

 

We drove up past Kapalua, and a little ways on the windy road past Honolulu Bay, the road took us down through this really cool jungle looking area. There were trails we considered getting out to explore but we were so tired. 

We decided to drive back to the other part of the island toward our condo to find another beach. The kids wanted to use the boogie boards.

 

We found our third beach of the day: Kama'ole III

View of Molokini from the beach. 

Looking back at the part of Maui we had just driven around. 

We made it back to the condo to try and figure out dinner. Everyone still griping and short with each other and it was at this point we realized how TINY the car was and it was just NOT going to work. I wrote the owner and apologized that we were going to need to return it. We debated when to do it cuz we had a boat tour to be on at 9:30am the next day and didn't want to be dealing with switching vehicles. So we decided to get it done then. Kyle was able to lock down a van with a company at the airport so we returned the privately owned vechile after vacuuming it out, picked up the van then had dinner at a food truck park across from Costco.  

Chickens everywhere, lol. 

End of our first full day. Not gonna lie, it was a little rough. We were all tired, the beaches were gorgeous but we were asking ourselves if it was a mistake to spend all this money to come here and be miserable... when we could have had beach at South Carolina or Florida... but the best was yet to come and the next day we woke up determined to turn this around! It was also already better with the bigger vehicle you could feel the family tension immediately lesson when everyone had some space to breath for themselves. Never realize how much that makes a difference til you're in sardine car for 24 hours, lol. Well more than that given we were on the plane and super close to each other the full day prior. 

Up next: Snorkeling at Molokini on day 3. 

Hawaii Day 1 - Travel

New Years Day we set off on our trip of the year. We booked this trip shortly after Harpo died in conjunction with Kyle's 40th birthday (my 40th that happened the year prior and I had covid during), Christmas celebration, winter get-a-way, and our upcoming 15th wedding anniversary :-) haha celebrating a lot in one, lol. Also working toward that 50 before 50. (visiting all 50 states before I hit 50)

Our flight left late morning, so off the airport we went. Girls and I repping our 2024 earrings :-) 

Goodbye snowy (ish) Minnesota. 

It's pretty cool I captured this photo... as it will come into play later in our trip but I didn't know its meaning at the time. That's our shadow with a rainbow around it. 

Flying over Wyoming. Our first stop was Salt Lake City for a layover. 

Couple hours in Salt Lake City. 

Then back on to the plane for the leg over the pacific. 

Had to fill out this form to enter into Hawaii. 

Approaching Maui! Sunset. 

We arrived and found our car. Because of the recent fires we wanted to try and support the local community as much as possible. So we booked a car through a service suchlike AirBnB. The guy was very friendly and had left the car in the parking lot. It's through a secure app. However it was much smaller than anticipated. While it fit 7 people and had a third row... once the third row was up there was literally NO room for our luggage. Kids had to squeeze in so we could make it to our condo. 

Made it to our condo. Thankfully there was a restaurant on the main level (Indian food) so Kyle order carry out and brought it back up while we got settled in and ready for bed. While it was only 8:00pm local time it was in the middle of the night for us. 

That was day 1 - travel day. 

3D Printing Projects - winter

Here's what we've been printing lately. 

Mary enjoyed a little knitting loom I brought home from my childhood toys... however it got broken. So I decided to print our town. Unfortunately these two models were not sturdy enough with their pegs and both ended up breaking. I did made a better version you can see further down. 

 

My Child Life friend had requested a few items so I made her a PacMan set: 

A brain and blood cells

 

Send a set of these earrings to my bestie for Christmas/Birthday. 

Was playing connect four with Thomas and our base piece has been broken for years, I had been using a tiny rubber band to keep the piece up and realized there had to be a file out there for a replacement! Sure enough there was and it WORKS! Only downside is the two end slots aren't big enough so we have to turn it over to empty it but hey at least it holds them up now!

Made these Santa earring for Mary, Emma, and her friend. 

Isaac is learning CAD in school (computer aided design) and made this in school so we printed it. 

Made a candle ornament to replace the old one in our Jesse Tree Advent set. 

Here's the sturdy loom I've made Mary, hasn't broken yet. 

Isaac played around and made another design. It's rather big so I played around with the infill settings... choose lightening and 10%.... I couldn't believe it was print with absolutely no infill! Just under the base and then barely under the top. 

 

BUT IT WORKED! It's a pencil holder. 

An ornament I made to honor my dad, for our yearly ornament. This is a Harley bell and I 3D printed the frame around it to denote the year. 

Front, back, and you can see I put a hole in the top to slide the bell hook through.