Hard to believe, but our vacation is over

Somehow, today was our last day in Maui already. It doesn’t seem like it’s been a week, but the airline tickets say that we’re supposed to go home tomorrow and two of us are out of underwear, so I guess it’s true. Knowing our island time was running out, we squeezed every last drop of fun out of today.

We were out of the hotel room and on the road by 8:30 this morning (I know that’s probably laughably late for you early birds, but trust me it’s record-setting for the Salsa family). The morning’s destination was Whaler’s Village, where we made a beeline for that incredible warm sea and bobbed in the waves for hours. (Ro pink, Ree blue):

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Lunch was (naturally) at a fish place. And the sight of four Lava Flows (two loaded and two not) on the table made me grin. If anyone’s in the mood, we voted Kimo’s to have the best Lava Flows (although it was our worst dinner).

After lunch we did a little shopping, then headed back to “Minnow Beach” in front of our hotel where the girls (who have been missing their play structure) climbed, swung, and did chin ups over and over and over. They are so freaking strong it just amazes me. This kind of activity would land me in the hospital, no joke.

We had been out in the sun all day at this point and were starting to get red despite using an entire bottle of sprayscreen, so we strongly encouraged the girls to nap and hung out for a few hours in the cool hotel room. Then we scooted on down to Lahaina (wow that place is hopping!) and had dinner at Bubba Gumps. Never been there before (even though we’ve seen it a million times) and it was awesome! They are so kid friendly – a ton of toys in the foyer, cute kid dinners with jello, good seafood, just a really great last dinner. (Ree green, Ro orange)

By the way, somehow someway the lightning-fast girls always end up with the killer views in every restaurant. This one was no exception. Here’s what TubaDad and I were looking at:

While they gazed at this:

Last stop was the big old Banyan tree in downtown Lahaina. That thing is massive, and incredibly tempting for two little monkeys up way past their bedtimes:

Alrighty, that’s a wrap. This vacay is officially over. (sob) Thanks so much for all the awesome comments and suggestions. You guys deserve trophies for slogging through the incredible barrage of pictures that I posted. Please think good thoughts for safe and non-eventful travels tomorrow. Aloha.

Just for the record, Benadryl and luaus don’t make an ideal combo

Ah we had a big day today. A really great day. I guess that day-of-rest yesterday did the trick. We started by surprising the girls in bed with some sugar cane to gnaw on. They’ve been dying to try it, and it’s actually been hard to come by. Then we drove up to Kapalua, where TubaDad and I met back in 2001. Saw some gorgeous flowers on the way (are these hibiscus?), and Ro and Ree did their best America’s Next Top model poses with them. (Ro left in the grey top, Ree right in the tan top):

It was neat to stand on the driving range with our little family and talk about how their daddy and I met in this very spot.

Well at least TubaDad and I thought it was neat. The girls were more impressed with the Hawaiian apple bananas and spam musubi that we got at the Kapalua general store:

Oh man, it just kills me when they hold hands. I think it must be a twin thing, how they so often touch without even noticing:

After soaking up the gorgeousness in Kapalua, we headed to Ro’s “best” beach, at Whaler’s Village, and played until we could play no more. Ree in blue, Ro in pink.

Yes, yes, we’re still using the cast-off bucket and hotel water glasses for toys. TubaDad and I prefer to save our money for fruity drinks and really great fish dinners.

Ro throws her hands up in the air every time her feet touch the water. Adorable, and so Ro!

There’s probably something better than playing on a beach in Hawaii with your sister, but I sure can’t think of it right now:

Our island girls are having a blast. We took them to a luau tonight, but gave them a little Benadryl first (they’ve both got minor coughs) and lost them a few minutes into dinner:

Heh. That’s ok, we’ll just have to come back soon so they can experience their first luau. :-) Tomorrow is our last full day in paradise, and the plan is to spend as much of it in the water as possible. Aloha!

A really lazy day (and that’s saying a lot coming from me, ‘cause I have a high threshhold for laziness)

We had a hard time getting going today. I guess everyone needs a down day, even in paradise. The girls shunned pineapple for breakfast and didn’t really even want to leave the hotel room. They pretty much spent all morning smearing brightly colored pieces of paper all over the dang place. They said they were making books and puzzles and giftbags, but if you ask me they were making a colossal mess. Honeypies sure had fun, though. (Notice that we travel with painter’s tape and scotch tape. I think Ro and Ree use a case of tape a week. Not even kidding.)

We finally rallied around lunchtime and dragged ourselves down to the pool, which pepped everyone up momentarily. Ree is in the yellow, even though she told me this morning “I pretty much hate yehyowe now, mama” and Ro is in the pink, which apparently she still loves.

I thought it was cute that both girls insisted on “Hawaiian flowers” in their hair even for swimming.

They’re making such great strides with the swimming! Pretty soon they’re going to fly past my pathetic little dog paddling self. (Who am I kidding, they do that already.)

They also do a stellar job with their lounging. Little bathing beauties do me proud.

After lunch, we came back to the room and had grand plans to change clothes and go out adventuring. Yeah, didn’t happen. We were complete slugs and could barely move. I didn’t even bother to shower (and believe me, I really needed to). The girls played with their paper kits for hours while TubaDad read and I napped (again).

After waking, I managed to drag myself to an upright-enough position to be able to watch tv. Stunning effort, right? Little Ree took pity on my tired self and came over and snuggled with me while we watched a cooking show.

And eventually the cooking show made us hungry enough to actually leave the hotel room and go in search of food. (Hm, this day seems to be all about sleeping and eating, which really isn’t all that surprising I guess.) We ate in downtown Lahaina and then walked around the fun shops until we spied an intriguing little henna tattoo shop that the girls just had to try. Ro got a pink glitter octopus, and Ree got a Canadian maple leaf (I just know our buddy Catherine is going to love that!). We tried to convince her to get something a bit more appropriate to an island vacay, but Ree really doesn’t change her mind once it’s made up.

By the way, the girls have been going around all week saying that their names are Jessica, Julia, and Jennifer. They switch around who’s who, but it’s always one of those three names. So how funny is it they told their pretend names to our sweet tattoo artist and found out she was named Julia and her two sisters are Jessica and Jennifer? Ro and Ree were pretty much stunned into blissful silence when they heard that.

Aloha and goodnight. We’re all hitting the sack early and then are going to have a huge adventurous day tomorrow. Watch out Maui!

PS: I let Ro carry around my camera all last night and today it’s not focusing correctly. Wish me luck on trying to figure out what got changed and fixing the problem!

You can sure get a lot of blogging done when you’re not watching any tv

I don’t know what’s happening with any of my favorite tv shows, but we will have a nice record of our trip to look back on someday, so that’s okey dokey. Here are today’s pics:

We had our pineapple and are ready to head to the beach! BTW, I’m constantly slathering sunscreen on everyone, but the girls are getting deep Hawaiian tans while I remain pasty white:

Walking down to the beach before it got too hot. (The girls look quite serious about their beach going):

Today is our wedding anniversary, and I can’t think of a better place to celebrate it:

Trying (unsuccessfully) to catch minnows in the little river:

We found an awesome “coral sidewalk” on the beach today:

As usual, we are woefully unprepared in the toy department. The girls are making do with an abandoned bucket we found and two plastic hotel glasses. And they couldn’t care less:

This is how we spent the whole morning. I held the camera up from my comfy perch (way too lazy and warm and comfy to stand up) and snapped a family portrait:

The girls barely made it through lunch before heading back to the hotel room for a little snooze:

Later we drove to the other side of the island (I think?) and went to the incomparable Mama’s Fish House for dinner. We’ve been going there for years, and are still in love with the place. And it was so fun to see Ro and Ree love it too. They tried everything -- tomato ginger bisque soup, homemade honey bread, ahi sashimi, pickled cucumbers, grilled mahi mahi, and more.

An incredible dinner with an incredible view. Nice:

Alrighty, well that was about it: pineapple on the lanai for breakfast, play on the beach, play in the pool, fish tacos for lunch, nap, fish dinner, play on the beach. Pretty much the same as yesterday, and I’m guessing tomorrow and the next day will be the same too. Makes for kind of boring blogging I guess but it’s just fine with me.