Island Paradise

It's been exactly 2 weeks since we arrived back from Hawaii, and I think, finally, we've gotten over our jet-lag. I speak for myself and the kids only since Steve keeps such strange hours with work that I am pretty sure he would be able to adjust to any time zone immediately. Blast him. Our grand plan of flying home a little early so the kids could adjust back to the proper time zone failed miserably when our plane had mechanical issues but, kudos to Delta for not making us fly to our connection in Salt Lake City and for keeping us in Hawaii for 3 extra days on their dime. I won't complain about the extra vacation but boy jet lag is the pits.

Our trip was really all we wanted it to be and more - given that we were 4 hours ahead we were up so early each morning in Maui that we had prime seats by the pool or the pirate ship, depending on the day. We had some great adult only time in Paia and Makawao doing food tours with Local Tastes of Maui. I highly recommend the tours if you're ever on the island and I know when we go back, we will definitely be heading to a couple of the places we sampled this time. Speaking of great places to eat, Steve made us surprise reservations at Merriman's in Kapalua. Boy was it good. I often remember places we've been by the food and we both commented on how this was definitely one we'd remember. The funny thing was that the salad, which was phenomenal (goat cheese, beets, pineapple, and toasted macadamia nuts) came out of a local garden that we happened to pass the next day on the way up the hill to our zip-lining adventure.

One of the most memorable things on Maui was the whale watch. We've been on several, but this time we took a catamaran out of Ma'alaea Harbor which is the windiest harbor in the world (no I did not know this when I booked)....luckily, it was the calmest day of the week and we headed out with all 3 boys hoping for some sightings. Clayton has been on several of these whale watches and was not thrilled about another - he claimed that he was more likely to see a whale in his dreams. LOL. Well, he was proved wrong and we all got an amazing show. We saw tails and a breach and even got up close and personal with a mom and her baby. It was by far a memory that I will have for a long time. I am hopeful that future whale watches even come close to this one....

After a week in Maui, we boarded a plane and headed to the big island of Oahu where we had a surprise in store for the kids - a visit to the new Disney resort, Aulani. I had been watching the Disney channel one night (I am somewhat of a Good Luck Charlie fan) and a commercial came on for Aulani. I just kept thinking how fun it would be to surprise the kids and do something different so we went for it. It was pretty fun for all of us to enjoy all the Disney hospitality and friendliness, see the characters, and be in those beautiful surroundings. It was a bit like staying on Castaway Cay for an extended time :-)

Since we got to enjoy a few more days on Oahu, we had a chance to drive around to the North Shore and see the waves at Pipeline, visit turtle beach (very cool) and grab some (more) shave ice at Matsumoto's. The kids enjoyed the extra pool and lagoon time and we treated ourselves to some shopping and traditional Japanese food in Waikiki.

So, besides the jet-lag, the trip was enough to get us through the rest of the "winter" here in Pensacola. It's been much colder than last; we even had some sleet last week with temps in the 30s. Someone said we might see snow this week - I have to admit that I could be happy with one small snow a year, but overall, I definitely do not miss it more than that. I look forward to warmer weather and getting back to the beach!