ALOHA FROM MAUI ~ Day #7 Sleeping in, the beach, and a little souvenir shopping

Do you ever feel like work days last forever and vacation days fly by? Why is that?

I can’t believe our Maui trip is coming to an end. We have enjoyed every minute of this trip. The weather has been perfect, the people have been so kind, the food has been delectable, and the boys found time every day to watch the World Cup. How can you ask for anything more?

After waking up VERY early the last few days, we got to sleep in today. It was so nice! And we were rewarded with a show by a huge pack of sea turtles. There must have been a hundred of them at the shore right in front of our porch. It was so cool!

Before heading out to the beach for some last time snorkeling, we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill by the pool and had a great picnic with macaroni salad, potato salad, honey dew, and baked beans.

Before we arrived on Maui, Daughter #2 made a wish. She wanted to find two things while she was in Hawaii…a starfish and a sand dollar. I told her not to get her hopes up too high because the chance was slim.

We asked all the boys what they wanted to do on the last full day of our vacation. They all wanted to go to the beach one last time. We went back to the Kahekili Park beach with the picnic tables. It was a beautiful day and we all had fun taking turns snorkeling. All except for Daughter #2. She was not interested in snorkeling. She just stayed on the shore pretending she was some Pokemon battling some other Pokemon. After she saw how much fun we were having snorkeling she decided she would do it one last time before we left. So we got her mask on and off she went. Two minutes later she pops her head up right in front of me and starts talking nonstop with the snorkel in her mouth. WHAT? are you saying???

She took the snorkel out of her mouth and yelled, “Starfish!!!!” The LOML and I both doubted there was a starfish anywhere nearby but he took a look. Nothing. I asked Daughter #2 to show her dad exactly where she saw the starfish. When she went under the water with her dad, she pointed to something in the sandy ocean bottom.

IT WAS A BABY STARFISH!!

Forgive the fuzzy picture. It was late!

When we went souvenir shopping, we bought her a starfish because we just KNEW she wasn’t going to find one at the beach.

That little starfish completely made her trip!!

While we were at the beach, there was a huge baby shower going on at the gazebo where we usually ate our picnic lunch and played soccer. They had a DJ playing great music and lots of kids and balloons. It was a fun atmosphere to end our Hawaiian beach trip.

After a great afternoon at the beach, we headed home to shower for a nice dinner later on at the Lahaina Fish Company.

We got all dressed up (you can hear the moaning in the background from all the kids) for our special dinner. The restaurant is in downtown Lahaina right on the water with small shops and lots of people all around. The restaurant was open air, on the water, surrounded by lighted tiki torches. The atmosphere was beautiful, the service was great, and we really enjoyed ourselves. The LOML enjoyed their great smoothies.

After a delicious dinner, we did a little more souvenir shopping. We bought hawaiian shirts for the boys, Maui t-shirts for the girls, flower dresses for me, a Christmas ornament so we can always remember our trip, and some jewelry. Is there such a thing as too much jewelry?

Tomorrow is a very busy travel day for us. We check out of the condominium by 11:00am but our flight doesn’t leave until 9:15pm. What are we going to do with all our free time? Come back and read all about it tomorrow. I’ll give you a hint: Dragons will be involved 😉

Enjoy a little video from our trip. It’s a lot of fun!!!