Timm Times: Maui 2013

Gram planned an awesome trip to Maui for her 60th birthday. None of us had ever been and we all had a blast! Becki and Dallas did quite a few excursions, so it was fun to hear about all their adventures. For us, it was a week of relaxing... waking up early, spending the day at the pool or the beach, and crashing early at night! The kids were on west coast time almost all week, which meant waking up at 5:30am! Nothing like peaceful walk on the beach watching the sun come up. Our flight got us in Jan 19th around 3pm. We picked up our rental car (with a free upgrade to a van! It was nice to test drive since one similar will probably be our next car), and headed to Costco to pick up dinner and some groceries for the week. After Costco we checked into our condo at Worldmark with a beautiful view in a "no view" room. Score! We went to bed pretty early since we were all exhausted from traveling and the rest of our party wasn't due to arrive until midnight. The next morning we went to a welcome breakfast where they told us about all the activities on the island (tempting, but we passed. Maybe when the kids are older). The first two days were pretty windy, so we didn't spend too much time in the pool, but we did find a great park walking distance from the condo. The next morning we took a long walk and let the kids play. On the way back, walking along the path, we saw our first of many whales. They were everywhere and since we could see them so well from land we really didn't feel the need to get in a boat and possibly capsize to get the experience! We were fine watching them from shore! You could even see the babies with their Mama's. The kids were constantly calling out "whale, I see one!!!!!". We were told whale season is Jan-march and they love to hang out near Kihei where they're protected by the 3 islands. Well, we were in the peak season for sure! Monday night (Isaiah's actual birthday) we took the family to Mama's Fish House to celebrate both Steph and Isaiah's birthday. They got place cards that said "Happy Birthday from Mama's Fish House" and a coconut ice cream dessert. The manager also brought out a beautiful lei for Steph that smelled divine! The evening was all that we expected and more. The food was outstanding and the grounds had an absolute stunning view so we took some really nice family pictures before dinner. The service was also exceptional. I was most impressed with how we got our food, each server had one plate and they all came out in mass and then disapeared like it never happened. Voila, our food was in front of us! Pretty cool! We also ran into a couple who's kids are in Ashley and Isaiah's class (they recognized the kids). Pretty random that they were on the same island, same week, and at dinner the same time on a Monday! I think the kids even saw them on the flight back. Tuesday morning we met up with Chris and Dave Rowe for breakfast. They're Steve and Steph's long time friends, who were over there the same time we were. Chris picked a great restaurant in Lahaina and afterward we walked around the shops and visited the famous banyan tree. The next day we rented snorkel gear and parked ourselves on a beach between Kihei and Lahaina. We got lucky because the snorkeling ended up being really good. Dallas and Brian found a coral reef not far from where we were at. I even got in the water to check in out and snorkeling in rough water is not one of my favorite things to do! Thursday was Becki and Dallas' departure day, so Steve and Steph took us out to a nice breakfast at "5 Palms" in Kihei for "Loco Moco" (a local dish that was on the must do list). It was situated on a beautiful beach and although the clouds looked like they were going to dump rain, it missed us and left a beautiful rainbow. Friday morning Brian and Steph went ziplining. This was something that Steph really wanted to do for her birthday and it worked out great to make a mother/son date out of it. While they were doing that Gramps spend the day with us at the beach. It was great to catch up with him too. The last night Brian and I took a 2 1/2 hour walk along the path in Wailea. We had the best time just the two of us. We saw little bits of 4 Luau's from the walking path, checked out the magnificent hotels along there, climbed up on a rock to watch huge waves crashing and saw a whale put on a show for about 15 minutes. It was just playing out in the water having a grand old time. You could hear the fin slap the water from where we were and since it was a full moon, it lit up so we could see how huge it really was. I think that was the highlight of our trip! Saturday was our departure day. Our flight left at 11am and Grammy, Grandpa and Brody were there to pick us up. It was a great welcome home, we missed them! We had such a great time and can't wait to start planning our next trip! Maybe to Disneyland next!