We’re back from Maui and while, ahem, we will never have a trip without incident, this one was truly one of the best vacations with the Minxes that I can recall.
Can we get a humongous freaking “Whew!” over here?
I tried to downplay it, but y’all. I was incredibly nervous that things were going to be a disaster. A dramatic, moody, tear-filled, disappointing disaster. Before we left, it seemed like we couldn’t spend more than a day in close quarters without some kind of blow-up or pins/needles situation, but the girls were just about 100% lovely the entire week in Hawaii. Lovely to be around, lovely to one another, lovely to laugh with, lovely to engage in conversation with (yeah, we actually talked to each other…a lot).
Whatever was in the water during our time in the Valley Isle, I’d sure love to bottle it. Everyone just seemed lighter, righter.
However, I must admit that we stacked the deck a bit in our favor by scheduling a ton of activities to keep us active, because too much downtime is ze killer of ze vacation buzz, particularly with kids of a certain age.
We took a day-long boat trip/snorkel to the island of Lanai, we swam with turtles, we canoed around Black Rock, we crashed into many waves, and we took a very bumpy Cessna ride over the active volcano on the Big Island.
Did I say bumpy? Hoo-boy. There were several stretches there where Miss M. held her father’s hand in a death grip, and some where she had a barf bag in that death grip, because the trade winds were crazy that day. But! Nobody actually barfed and we were lucky enough to see active lava burbling up from the volcano, despite really temperamental weather and cloud cover. Turns out, all of that spewing lava (and said lava pouring into a cold ocean) creates its own actual weather pattern; it shows up on the plane radar as a whirling thunderstorm. We had sun, rain, clouds, smoke, wind, more rain, sun. The weather over a 3 1/2 hour span was more changeable than, well, a teenager. It was really hard to get pictures because of it, so you’ll just have to believe me that it was a humbling sight to see and we weren’t sorry we did it. It definitely brings home the notion that nature is a powerful and sometimes brutal thing. Our pilot, who lives on the Big Island, told us that nobody can predict what this thing is going to do and that there’s really no clear end in sight, which is pretty terrifying.
We did more water activities than usual this trip, mainly because Miss M. has outgrown her distaste for the ocean. She used to hate swimming in the ocean because the idea of fish brushing up against her body parts used to totally skeeve her out, which made her the butt of many jokes and familial teasing. I’m happy to say that she now snorkels like a boss; however, this now means that I am the biggest scaredy cat in the family where the ocean is concerned. I’ve been eaten by way too many rogue waves to fully trust it again. Call me a chicken.
The ocean did claim one victim this trip: my husband’s beloved iPhone. While we were canoeing around Black Rock, we ran into a couple of massive, Godzilla-sized sea turtles, which was quite exciting. It was SO exciting that my husband whipped out his phone to take pictures of the girls swimming with the behemoths, and darned if he didn’t plop that phone right into the Pacific. This was on the second day of vacation, so the poor man felt naked and bereft without it for the duration. I had to laugh, because before our trip, he’d been working so much that I threatened to throw said iPhone into the ocean if he took one. single. call. regarding. work. while we were in Maui. The guides on our canoe excursion pronounced me some kind of witch and begged me not to threaten them with anything.
Still, that was the only casualty, unless the size of my rear end counts, because I ate all of the poke and fresh fish and pineapple Hawaii had to offer, along with those addictive tiki-style cocktails, so it’s back to Le Regime for this traveler.
Look for future postings of healthy meal ideas; at least until we leave again, which will be fairly soon. Our summer is weirdly travel-centric this year and we’re barely home for more than a couple of weeks at a time (at least all of us under the same roof). Miss M. has her own trip, Miss D. has her own trip, my husband has business travel, there’s a long weekend in San Francisco and there’s one trip to Alaska that we’re pretty excited about, too.
I think we might have piled the plate a leetle too high, but who can blame us? We only have a couple more summers until Miss D. *sob* will have her sights set on college, leaving us in her dust.
But let’s not think about that yet, okay?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Man she’s getting so grown up so very fast. I feel a little afraid for you and my own not so far off future!
So very very glad it was a happy trip for you all. Long overdue!
Xoxoxo
That does sound quite pleasant; and with the volcanic activity it would be a neat time to go! It sounds like it was quite pleasant. Sacrificing the iPhone to the vacation gods worked out well.
Lordy I miss you and your writing. So happy your family had a great time!