Paia & the road to Hana

We finished our trip on the North Shore, in a little town called Paia. They don't have any big resorts with water slides or Hawaiian cliff divers, but there was an old pedicab in the courtyard that was good for climbing. It was just a short walk to the beach, although the water was a little rough for swimming. But there were lots of surfers to watch, and the waves were super fun with Daddy's help.

We treated ourselves to a babysitter (well, Brennan may not have thought it was much of a treat) and went out for a grown-up dinner at Mama's Fish House. The fish is so local and fresh that the menu lists the name of the person who caught it!

I think our hotel hooked us up - they arranged for the sitter and the dinner reservation, and we had one of the nicest tables in the restaurant:

We got an early start the next day and packed up Red Thunder for the long and windy road to Hana. Luckily, we could use Brennan as an excuse for not doing the whole drive, which takes about 3 hours - at which point, most people just turn around and drive back. We just went halfway, which gave us plenty of hairpin turns, one lane bridges, and stunning views of the seaside cliffs to one side and rainforest to the other.

Also, there was banana bread. Brennan liked that a lot. (Why banana bread? No idea. It's some "road to Hana" thing. We must have passed half a dozen banana bread roadside stands.)

We took a short detour off the road to the Keanae peninsula - I snapped a picture looking back at the Hana highway, which you can see as a tiny little line in the trees. There's not much on the peninsula - an old church, a handful of houses, a baseball diamond, and, of course, a banana bread stand. But it was beautiful, and the waves were pretty impressive:

The main attraction on the road to Hana - besides the road itself - are the tons of waterfalls, most a short hike from the road. Some people go swimming in these pools, but the water is actually pretty cold, and probably loaded with leptospirosis. For the sake of my Intrepid Photographer reputation, I did wade in up to the hem of my shorts to get some shots.

If I had the trip to do over - never mind that the conference in Wailea was the whole excuse for going - I'd have spent more time in Paia. Everyone was really friendly, it was easy to walk to the handful of restaurants (with fun window-shopping along the way), and it's a great jumping off point for the road to Hana or upcountry to Haleakala. And it's 15 minutes from the airport. Best of all, it has 2 gelato shops! Just west of town, we found a child-friendly beach - technically called Spreckelsville beach, but everyone just calls it Baby Beach. An exposed reef shelf breaks the waves, making a calm lagoon to play in:

We were sorry to leave, and not just because we knew it was cold & rainy back home. Traveling with a toddler is occasionally challenging, but mostly fun - and it teaches me to slow down, not to plan too much, and sometimes grab an afternoon nap. Mahalo, Maui.

West Maui & upcountry

We packed up Red Thunder (our rental car) and drove along the west coast of Maui to Ka'anapali. The Sheraton was not nearly as swank as the Grand Wailea, but it did provide easy access to snorkeling - there is a reef right off the beach, along the rocky point (Black Rock). About halfway out the point is where I finally saw sea turtles! And if you want to see a guy dive off the rocks, it's the grand finale every night at the torch lighting ceremony. (one time was good for us)

Bren continued to have lots of fun in the pool with Daddy, and the grownups enjoyed having access to some new restaurants. We also got to see some truly incredible waves - there was a storm somewhere in the Pacific that created giant waves on the north & west shores - the paper said they were the biggest waves in 40 years!

By this point, we'd been on the beach or in the pool for a week, so I declared it was time for a change of pace and forced everyone to head inland and up - 10,000 feet up, by the time we were finished. We started our upcountry adventure at Surfing Goat Dairy, home of the luckiest goats in the world:

We tried a half-dozen or so different types of goat cheese, all of it good. Brennan especially liked the spreadable mango goat cheese, and hooting at the dogs and cats that wandered around the farm begging for goat cheese. Then we headed a little further up the mountain to have lunch in Makawao, a funny little Hawaiian cowboy town. And then it was time to brave the long, windy drive up to the Haleakala summit. A lot of people come to watch the sunrise, but the prospect of getting up at 4 am to deal with traffic, a cranky toddler, and tourist groups on a downhill bike tour wasn't all that appealing - so we went for sunset instead. Here's a view looking down at the "crater" - which isn't technically a volcanic crater but some way more complicated geologic thing:

this plant - a silversword - only grows in Hawaii, usually above 4900 feet:

Anyway, it all looks like Mars up there-

And it gets cold up there! As the sun went down, the temperature dropped to about 50 degrees - the only time I needed a jacket. Daddy made a poor choice of footwear.

It was really beautiful up above the clouds - we could see the West Maui mountains and coastline, Lanai, and the tips of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island. I took lots of photos.

Here's your Haleakala sunset:

Wailea

Mele Kalikimaka! I am digging out from under my hundreds (yes, hundreds) of photos from our 10 days on Maui. The excuse for the trip was an endocrinology conference and a use-it-or-lose-it continuing education stipend. We started our trip at the Grand Wailea resort, which is not the sort of place I might normally stay, but that's where the conference was.

Our room had a lovely big lanai, which came in very handy once Brennan discovered his new favorite fruit - PINEAPPLE! He got pretty quick at grabbing it off the side of any Mai Tai within arm's reach, and it is definitely an Outside Fruit in his hands (please see below).
We managed to get off the reservation a couple of times, but South Maui is mostly just a string of resorts along the coast. We went south to Makena, for snorkeling at Malu'aka beach, which is allegedly a big sea turtle hangout - we didn't see any, though. Brennan dug in the sand, splashed in the waves, and wore lots of sunscreen. Then we had lunch at a taco truck, which was a nice alternative to the $14 turkey on white bread sandwiches offered poolside at the Grand Wailea. The Wailea beach was pretty nice, though, and there's a nice walking path along the water to Ulua beach that Brennan & I took one afternoon while Daddy was in the gym.

Looking for turtles at Malu'aka

Admiring Ulua sand

Sharing snacks at Wailea

South Maui is reliably sunny, even in towards evening in winter, so we got a lot of nice sunsets-

Weirdly enough, though, the pool wasn't all that warm - sometimes Bren would get chattery teeth, and he seemed like clinging to Daddy, although I'm not sure if that was for warmth or he was just overstimulated by the pool. Because it was RIDICULOUS. There were 6 or 7 different pools, connected by slides, with a swim up bar, a rope swing, and a hot tub hidden in a cave behind a waterfall. No, really.
Brennan enjoyed some of the tamer water slides (with Mommy or Daddy, of course). We also discovered it's a) very difficult to get a picture of someone in particular coming down a water slide if you can't see the top of it; b) photos of random strangers coming down a water slide are hilarious. These are some of my favorites:

(many apologies to anyone pictured below if you ever discover these)





and finally, success!

But after 5 nights, the conference was over, we'd eaten in every restaurant on the resort, and Brennan had some sort of rash from spending half the day in wet swim clothes. So one last Wailea sunset, and then we're off to West Maui & Upcountry next...

Last of the Nice Weather

Brennan says: So this is from the end of November, but don't give Mommy any crap. She was busy getting us packed up for our big trip to Hawaii. Then when we were in Hawaii, the wi-fi was terrible, so she was forced to drink Blue Hawaiians instead of posting.

Where are the Hawaii pictures? Don't worry, they're coming. It's just going to take time for Mommy to sort through all 80 gazillion of them. And where are the Thanksgiving pictures? Ask Daddy. Mommy was at work, seeing emergencies at the animal hospital. We DO have pictures from the last pretty weekend before the winter rain started.

Even though I can't try the wine - Mommy says not 'til I'm 2 - I have lots of fun in Healdsburg, chasing cats and splashing in fountains.

I also like showing everyone how I do my Strongman face. Especially all the guys behind the counter at the sushi restaurant on Cole Street. The photos don't quite tell the whole story, so Daddy shot a little video for you. OK, bye-bye, and Mommy promises to get on those Hawaii pictures ASAP.