Maui Recap

We've returned from Maui and had a great time. Prepare for picture overload. This isn't even half of them. We might get a video put together later. I'm just going to jounal our trip chronologically:

Wednesday, July 2: Woke up at 5 am, caught a flight at 7am. We actually had to fly the wrong way to Dallas first (1hr 45min) and then from there we flew to Maui (7.5 hours). Nine hours on a plane was A LOT to ask of anyone, but especially Erica. However, she did absolutely wonderful. She had 3 short naps and only one melt down. I couldn't have asked for anything better.


As you can tell, Troy and Erica were both very excited to arrive.


We stayed with my good friend Melissa and her family. She has a two year old daughter, Sunny, who got along very well with Erica. The first night Erica had a very hard time transitioning to the time change. She adapted quickly though.


Thursday, July 3: Troy and Melissa went surfing in the morning, then we all went to the beach by their house. Erica touched the ocean for her first time. She loved it.





Friday, July 4: Went to a different beach - Keawakapu beach (sp?). Erica loved it again. We did a little snorkeling. Erica didn't like eating the sand, although she kept trying to put it in her mouth.


Saturday, July 5: Went to a different beach - Launiopoko. Troy and Melissa surfed again and I hung out with Erica in a little ocean pool. That evening Melissa got us a gift card to a nice restaurant for my birthday and they watched Erica so we could have a romantic dinner on the waterfront.



Sunday, July 6: We went back to Launiopoko and spent all day on the beach. We both surfed. Erica got in the water 3 times. We boogie boarded. We ate good food. We slept. It doesn't get any better than that.




Monday, July 7: We went on this cool hike to Iao Valley.


No, this is not what Santa Claus does on his time off; this is our tour guide. He lived in New York long ago, but moved to Maui, changed his name to Amon and became one with nature. You can't tell from this picture, but he has Mickey Mouse shorts on and a yellow scrunchie in his hair.








Sunny liked to help give Erica a bath.


Tuesday, July 8: We went to the beach in the morning and got rained out, so we went home. We watched Sunny in the afternoon while Melissa worked and then Melissa made us an authentic Thai dinner. It was yummy. This is their backyard. It's full of mango, bananas, papaya and avocado trees. We ate really well on this trip. Erica loves mango, watermelon, bananas and purple sweet potatoes.

I guess gas prices really are hurting the tourist season. (Acutally, this is right after the downpour and everyone left).

Wednesday, July 9: We made one last trip to the beach in the morning and Erica began her first surf lesson.

We got on the plane at 5pm Hawaii time and didn't get home until 10am the next morning. We tried to make things as comfortable as possible for Erica.

However, we hardly slept all night. Erica wasn't quite as good on the way home, but she still did well. We had a 5 hour lay over in Dallas and my other good friend Jenn was so nice to come and pick us up for awhile. She took us out to this wonderful breakfast and we got to catch up. I also got to see her cute daughter Kate for the first time even though she is over a year old. Jenn saved us - thank you!! I don't know what I would have done if we were stuck at the airport for 5 hours. We made it home and we are tired, but we had a great time. We are slowly adjusting to the time change, although it was nice because Erica slept 13 hours last night. A new record! It all went way too fast. Can't wait to go back again someday.