Jumping Whales - Day 8

Our last full day in Hawaii began with us heading over to the Lahaina harbor again for our Humpback Whale Watching cruise.  Note for future travelers: if you do the 7:30am tour it is about $24 per-adult, any other time of the day and it is more than $40!

Luke was excited and had to walk up and down the water front looking at the boats, and what did he find?  He found the submarine from last Friday!  Needless to say he was pretty entertained until it was time to board.

Soon we were on our way, and within the first ten minutes we had spotted our first whale!  It was alone and just kind of floating along, so it might have just been sleeping.  But then we saw some action ahead of us and ran over there.  There was a whale that had thrown itself out of the water in the distance, which was really cool, and by the time we got there there was another whale with it.  Then they did this kind of crazy thing where they sat there and slapped their fins in the water at each other. That was really cool to see, but the craziest thing is that one of them jumped out of the water again about 100-200 yard away from us!!!  IT WAS SO COOL!!!  Marinda didn't get a picture because, well, she felt like her brain had short circuited.  It happens so fast, you barely have enough time to process "That's a whale!  It does look like the pictures!  Wait, THAT'S A WHALE!"  It was pretty incredible.

We saw a few other whales after that and had a good time, but a real treat for Luke was during one of the times we were just driving over to another spot where some whales were.  Amit had taken Luke over to see the captain and the big wheel, and she invited Luke in and actually had him drive the boat!  Her hands were completely off the wheel!  So for about two minutes, the boat was being steered by a two year old!

This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  Even Luke was talking about it afterwards!

Our little family all set up and ready to see some Humpback Whales!

Luke was really excited to be on a boat again!
So excited that he made this pretty hilarious face.

Our first whale sighting!
For most trips, this is all you would see.
But not us!

Look at that beautiful dive!

Luke was great at calling out whales,
sometimes there would even be one!

This was so cool, their fins are gorgeous close up!

Captain Luke!

Ok, I think I got this.  You turn the wheel, but how to do make it go really fast?

Saying good-bye to an awesome outing!

Near the harbor they had these old cannons that used to defend the capitol when it was here.
Luke refused to get any closer or touch them - I guess he knew that once they were dangerous!

Lahina's famous Banyan Tree - and the rocks that Luke just couldn't leave alone...

By that point, it was time to head home for some naps.  After nap time we thought we would go for another nature walk on the Kapalua Coastal Trail again, only this time starting from the other direction.  (Note: Northern Maui in the winter is wet.)  It was raining a little bit when we got there, but we figured after a half mile or so it would clear up.  Hawaii is kind of like that, lots of microclimates so we decided to risk it.  We got about a quarter mile, and it was raining so hard all of the sudden that we had to sprint back to this resort towel shack that the attendants were nice enough to let us hide under.  They even gave us some towels to try and dry off a little bit.  It never fully let up after that, but finally we decided to just do it and sprinted back to the car.  (Yes - six month pregnant Marinda sprinted.  And she did feel it later that night.)  When we got in the car Marinda and Amit just couldn't stop laughing.  Even Luke had fun telling us about how it "rained on our hike."

After that we headed back to downtown Lahaina for our fancy Hawaii dinner, but not before we tried out this amazing shaved ice shack that had been recommended to us as the best shaved ice in the area.  Our assessment:  It did not disappoint!  Amit got some macadamia nut ice cream in the bottom of his while Marinda got the special sweetened condensed milk mixture poured on top of hers - and Luke?  Why, he got a rainbow of course!  (Micro-sized, though from the picture you can't really tell.)  And he ate pretty much the whole thing!  Marinda asked if she could buy a bottle of the sweetened condensed milk mixture to take back to her dad for Christmas, but they didn't sell it.  Oh well, it still was delicious!

My Mommy and Daddy are the best parents in the whole world!

It isn't a trip to Hawaii without a stop at a real good shaved ice shack!
This the perfect picture to end our vacation in paradise!

We finished our day with a fancy dinner on the water front at a nice restaurant where we got some crazy named local fish and the Hawaiian prepared pork ribs.  Luke was on a crazy sugar high for the first half of the meal (I wonder why?) and then promptly crashed.  How do you know when Luke really isn't feeling good?  He doesn't finish his mac & cheese and wants to snuggle with you!

To finish off our last day in Hawaii, Amit and Marinda got a slice of Hula Pie to split, then in the rain we headed back to our car.  Side note: Lahina only gets ten inches of rain a year, and we happened to be there for one of their few rain storms.  Lucky us!

What a perfect last day!

Hawaii Nursery - Day 7

Today was a chill day of just going to church, napping and having dinner.

We found the church online pretty easy (because our church has an AWESOME IT department!), but for some reason google directions were unclear.  It turned out to be ok though because around the time google started being silly was around the time Marinda could see a cross-less steeple that looked a lot like the generic chapels they now mass produce - so we found it just fine.  :)

We made some friends with the people around us (including a family from just south of Seattle!) and enjoyed the service.  It's fun because at the beginning of each meeting they start by having whoever is conducting the meetings say "Aloha!" and everyone says "Aloha!" back.

Now, we had been talking up Luke going to "Hawaii Nursery" all week, but when we walked in instead of having all the toys out they were sitting the kids down for snack time.  Great idea considering the time of day, but it didn't really make dropping off Luke easy without a massive amount of toys to distract him.  We eventually peeled him off of Amit's legs and handed him to a nursery worker, and when Marinda peeked in the window three minutes later he was fine.  By the time Sunday School was over and Marinda peeked in again before Relief Society he was being his cute self  playing with toys just like the rest of the kids.  And sense it was the Sunday before Christmas, they gave him all these presents!

After church we did nap time, and then made dinner, and by then it was time for bed.  It was a great day - but we didn't take any pictures...  So enjoy this short video about the Real Gift of Christmas!

Mathematical Nature Walk - Day 6

We decided to start today with a nature walk walking along the Kapalua Coastal Trail.  It was really nice and we saw some beautiful coastal views and ancient volcanic formations.  We also got to work on our math!  Get out your pencil and papers!

If Amit and Marinda are both walking at 5mph with 20 feet between then, and Luke runs back and forth at a speed of 8 mph - how long before he notices that Marinda is munching on peanut butter crackers?

Luke also kept us entertained the whole time with his obsession with rocks - which the trail had a lot of!  Everyone was happy!

Great Explorer!

Wait Mom and Dad, I really think we need to stop and look at this...

Help!  I'm being attacked!

Ok, admit how cool this looks!

It's like an ancient lava field!

Luke was using this stick to "clean the rocks."
Note the beautiful coast line behind him!

Afterwards we headed to downtown Lahaina to do some window shopping for Marinda.  She didn't actually buy anything, but she wanted to see some of local artist sculptures and jewelry.  It turned out to be extra cool because it was the craft fair day under the Banyan Tree.  Their favorite stand was these glass sculptures.  Check them out, especially their sea turtles with the jelly fish inside!  Marinda did find some other things that she liked, but she also knew that there would be another Hawaii trip in the future - hopefully when they have more funds to buy pretty stuff!

After that we went across the street to The Cool Cat Cafe for some really good burgers and a hot dog.  And a miracle happened!  Luke actually took two bits out of his hot dog bun!  *GASP*  For all of you who end up going to Lahaina, we recommend this place for eating!

Luke and Amit just LOVED window shopping with Mom!
Or they might have just wondered around on their own...
Luke did find these cool cement things to climb on.
And just as a side note, Marinda got, like, five compliments on his hat... oh yeah!  Go Mommy!

Luke conquering his fear of Tiki Men by watching them being made.

Best parents ever!
(or maybe there is milk in that soda cup...)

After nap we headed to the beach again by the hotel for some fun in the sun, then hopped in the pool for some more fun water play!  Why?  Because we're in the Hawaii!

Luke had no fear of the waves today!

Submarines! - Day 5

Luke checking out our awesome boat!

This was a crazy cool day because we got to go on a SUMBARINE RIDE!  Yup, we're that cool!  We decided to opt out of a snorkling trip because those things can last 5-6 hours, while this trip only was 2 hours long.  Yeah, with a toddlering you don't mess with nap time if you can help it.

We had been preping Luke since yesterday, talking it up and trying to help him understand what was going to happen today.  Then Marinda remembered a certain Daniel Tiger episoid and decided to draw pictures of what was going to happen with Luke and turn it into a book.  It actually worked really well and Luke was able to remember the steps when they happened.  Gold Star Mommy!

Can you guess what the different pictures are?

On the boat going to the submarine!

There it is!

Once we got inside the submarine a few things happened.  We realized how completely awesome this was going to be, Luke plastered himself to the window (unfortunatly he licked it too - like everything else in the world), and Marinda's anxiety flared up.

This was really strange because Marinda has only gotten clostrophobic about twice before in her life.  She has never had problems with elevators, caves or small planes.  It was pretty instantainious as soon as they got in, so she was able to go and talk to the captain while people were still boarding.  All the signed of a panic attack were there: the light head, the racing heart, the muscle's hurting like someone had injected poision into her system.  She had learned back when she had PPD that why panic attacks are so painful is because your body is litereally simulating the physical sensations of dying.  The Capitan said she should probably go back up and that they would refund us, but looking at Amit and Luke made her reconsider.

The crazy thing about all this is that Marinda was able to look at what was happening to her objectivly.  She could see that this attack was an illusion, that there wasn't actually any danger and it was all in her mind.  Don't get us wrong, the physical sensations her body was making were very real, but they were being caused by something in her mind and not by an actual outter physical impact.  We know that most of the world hated Will Smith's movie After Earth, but Marinda actually loved it and silly as it might sound, remembering it right then really helped her.  She also kept thinking "I survived PPD - I can take this on.  It is all from my mind, that means I can use mental tricks to conqure this."  She also really didn't want to ruin this for Amit and Luke by dragging them up.

So she decided to stay.  They sat on the edge by where the captine was because there was a little more room, and if Marinda didn't look out the window she could almost imagine that she was on a bus.  Once we saw our first fish and reef, things got a lot better for her.  The ride was so smooth she could almost feel like she was watching a movie, and whenever she started feeling bad again she would look away from the window until the sensations passed.

Enough about Marinda - what about the fact that they were over 100 feet under water!  What did we see?!  The answer: EVERYTHING!  We got some amazing views of two different reefs, a bazzillion fish, some eles, sea urchins, a sting ray and a SHIP WRECK!  It turns out the submarine company had bought the ship and sunk it themselves, but it was still rediculously cool to see!

Bubbles!

The stripped fish in the middle is a puffer fish!

This anchore is 150 years old from an old Russian ship!
Once upon a time, all ships coming to Hawaii had to use this harbor.

The Ship Wreck!

Cute little family under the sea!

Good-bye Submarine!

The rest of our day was spent napping and beaching.  We went to Baby Beach again and it was so warm and nice that we couldn't think of anything better.  After that we tried a pizza place in the strip mall across the street from out hotel and it was easily some of the best pizza we've had in a really long time.  We got a large so we would have left overs, but we ate the whole thing!  Luke even ate ALL of his two slices!  Ok, not all - he picked off the bell pepers, olives and mushrooms, but he ate the crust along with sausages, pepperoni and cheese!  That's huge for him!  It was actually kind of funny - he would start by picking off everything, then eating the toppings he liked, then eating the bread (with some crushed red pepper on it of course.)

Beach Babe's!

Amit loves all these pictures Marinda keeps taking of him :P

Look at that stretchy cheese!
Soooooo goooooooood!

Now we're just hanging out, going to bed rediculously early (Hey!  Don't judge!  We're tired!) and looking forward to another day in paridise.

Enjoy the beautiful bird song we get to hear every morning and night!