Building Trails

Tag: 2019

  • Exploring Maui

    Exploring Maui

    Hawaiian adventures with two spirited young children

    Our family loved Maui. Ariel continues to ask for us to move to Hawaii. We miss the sun, sand, ocean, and pool. Our explorations took us down to the beach and up to Haleakala Crater.

    On a typical day we spent the morning at the beach and the afternoon at the pool. Our kids our young so we had quite time at the condo after lunch. After dinner and getting the kids to bed, we sipped wine, wrote in our travel journal, watched the sunset, and planned the remaining trip. 

    Our favorite beach was Kamaole Beach II. It was a short walk from our condo and we found a favorite spot with shade in the morning. We also explored Kamaole Beach I, Big Beach, and even Little Beach. At the beach, our kids enjoyed running into the waves and playing in the sand. Ariel would eventually “sunbathe” on one of the mats with a towel over her. J and I took turns going snorkeling. My first time out I froze as I saw something dark approach me. A shark!? No, a sea turtle! She swam right under me. By the time I got back to shore, I was shaking with excitement to share my encounter with my family. Eventually J saw one as well plus an octopus. There was generally plenty of life to see underwater.

    Pool time was more active for the kids than beach time. Despite being unable to swim at the time, both kids loved the pool. They enjoyed moving around the kid pool, floating around the grown up pool, and jumping in to a parent’s arms.

    Our family adventures included a driving to Lahaina for a ride on the Reef Dancer and inland to hike Haleakala Crater. The first was a good fit for our two younger kids. Ariel seemed to enjoy watching the scuba divers more than the wildlife. J and I had fun watching the kids take it all in and seeing some wildlife ourselves. After the boat trip we explored Lahiana. We especially loved the Lahaina Banyan Tree. We did not watch the sunset at Haleakala Crater but we still enjoyed clear skies and perfect views. We did a decent hike down (and back up) the Sliding Sands trail. Our favorite piece of trivia from the day is that the Haleakala Crater is really an Eroasional Valley but Haleakala Erosional Valley is not catchy name. Despite recommendations, we did not do the aquarium. We saved it as a good rainy day activity, but we didn’t have any rainy days. We focused our visit on enjoying the island’s outdoors and good weather.

    J and I each did one adult activity. He did a spearfishing outing and learned some free diving. I did a snorkel excursion. Most of the excursions were on big boats and took eight hours hours. Luckily, I found a two hour excursion to Malaki. It was on a fast boat that got us there in only 15 minutes. Due to currents, we snorkeled on the outside of Malaki. I still saw a huge school of fish and heard whales singing underwater. I only wish I wore a wet suit top. I was shaking from the cold near the end of my time in the water.

    Speaking of whales, we saw many from land. Watching them emerge from the water and their tail as the swam back down was pretty amazing for all four of us.

    Last to mention are restaurants. We typically ate one meal out a day and the other two in the condo. Our best dinner out was probably the Luau at the Grand Wailea. The buffet style allowed for our kids to try a variety of Hawaiin food and enjoy dessert. The show was the highlight. Ariel enjoyed getting to dance onstage during the lesson and we all especially loved the fire eater at the end. The show is long but kept our attention the whole time. They did have ahi at the luau which was good. However, we were happy that we first had ahi from South Maui Fish Company. I was pregnant with my second when ahi became popular in Seattle. Once she was born, we decided to save ourselves for Hawaii. The ahi from South Maui Fish Company was worth the wait and was a reasonable price. It is a food truck so brought the food back to the hotel and dined by the pool. Ariel was not big on ahi but our toddler devoured it.

    A few more restaurant recommendations:

    • Breakfast at Kihei Caffe
    • Dinner and Mai Tais at Monkeypod Kitchen
    • Lunch or dinner at Three’s Bar & Grill
    • Beach Street Maui Shave Ice

    We are currently planning to go back to Maui next year. We plan on visiting the beaches and pool. On more hiking. And maybe next time I will be able to enjoy an entire Mai Tai, or two.

  • Getting to Maui

    Last winter we went to Maui with our toddler, Sebastian, and preschooler, Ariel (nicknames chosen by our oldest). We had direct flights, making life much easier, but over-packed and had two car seats, making travelling not easy. We changed much about how we pack since that trip. I want to share a mix of what we did and what I wish we did. More on where we stayed and what we did in Maui will be shared in other posts.

    Getting to Maui

    What to pack

    Renting car seats would have been a good option for this trip after we saw that Sixt offered safe looking car seats at an additional cost of only about $100 total for our ten day trip. We checked our car seats as soon as we got to the airport but we still had to get them on and off shuttles and maneuver them in and out of airports. We typically travel with our car seats and have since purchased car seat bags, which help with maneuverability.

    We also had one large suitcase, one medium suitcase, one small carry one suitcase, Ariels’s Trunki suitcase, one backpack, and a couple of small bags with miscellaneous items including dinner. It was embarrassingly too much. The small carry on suitcase had everything we needed for the first night and day in case our luggage was lost. We did not want to be in Hawaii without bathing suits. The backpack had diaper changing supplies, appliances like the laptop, and stuff for the flights (kindles and magazines). If we have followed the below list of what we should have pack, we would have skipped one of the smaller suitcases and the miscellaneous bags.

    Clothes and shoes per adult

    • 3 warm and 2 cool weather outfits (at least 1 of each dressier)
    • 1 jacket
    • 2 bathing suits and 1 bathing suit cover
    • 1 sunhat and a pair of sunglasses
    • Running gear
    • lip flops and comfortable sandals good for longer walks
    • Plenty of underwear

    Clothes and shoes per kid

    • 4 warm and 2 cool weather outfits (at least 1 of each dressier)
    • 1 jacket
    • bathing suits
    • 2 reusable swim diapers for the toddler
    • 1 sunhat
    • Water shoes and shoes good for longer walks
    • Plenty of undies for potty trained kiddos
    • Enough diapers for the first two days

    Other

    • Sunblock for adults and kids
    • Mattress cover for potty trained kid
    • Toiletries including preferred kids’ toothpaste
    • 1 small backpack per kid with items of their choosing
    • Computer, kindles, journal, and magazines
    • One snorkel set for the adults (no fins)
    • One snorkel set for the older kid (no fins)
    • Medicine (daily vitamins, children’s Tylenol, adult Tylenol)

    Not included

    • Diapers for the entire trip
    • Beach mats and toys – may be left behind by past guests and available at the hotel, worth buying there otherwise for a reasonable cost

    Settling into Maui

    We arrived in Maui pretty late. We picked up our bags and luggage, took a shuttle to the car rental, and drove to our condo in Kihei. We felt lucky with our condo. We had two bedrooms, one with a queen and one with a set of twins. We had a kitchen, dining space, living room, and balcony with a partial ocean view. Especially important to us and impacting our revised packing list was the in room washer and dryer.

    We got in too late to do needed kid proofing so we did the minimal amount needed to have the kids sleep in the living room just outside our bedroom the first night. It was a little scary when I awoke to the toddler calling for me and trying to open the front door.  Coming from Seattle, we were uncomfortable with none of the furniture being anchored and did what we could to prevent potential deadly falls. The first night we blocked the dresser with the TV with the heavy coffee table. The next day we had to put their dresser in their closet, moved their beds against the wall, and put the toddler’s mattress on the floor.

    Our first morning we were exhausted but happy. We awoke to paradise. We discovered our view, our pool, and the nearby beach that was only a walk away. We first went to the beach with just beach towels and had fun discovering the water and sand as a family.

  • From Nashville to Gatlinburg

    From Nashville to Gatlinburg

    Tennessee 2019

    We had a family reunion in Gatlinburg but did a little extra Tennessee exploration the weekends before and after. We enjoyed exploring Nashville and the Smokies. And we learned both how wide Tennessee is and that it crosses two time zones.

    We stayed at Courtyard Nashville Green Hills for the first weekend. The hotel felt nice and new. We were not expecting there to be zero parking in the area and had to pay $25/night for the hotel valet parking. We typically find cheaper parking near our hotel. The staff was friendly and gave each of our kids a gift from their treasure box. And we all enjoyed the rooftop pool. We needed to drive to explore Nashville but the drive from Green Hills was typically pretty short. The Bluebird was nearby, which we didn’t visit this trip but hope to in the future.

    Skipping to the arts district
    Spying downtown

    In summary of our weekend in Nashville:

    • We loved breakfast at Biscuit Love in the Gulch. We found it worth the wait even with two small children with us. We did cheat by taking turns exploring and visiting murals while in line.
    • We parked at the east end of the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and walked over to the arts district.
    • We loved the live music and found the chaos of downtown fascinating. It was midday and already every other car seemed to be a truck carrying a dancing bachelorette party. We checked out sights on our walking tour, browsed cowboy boots for our kids, and listened to some live music.
    • Milk and Honey was also delicious and probably worth a wait, too. We got there early enough on Sunday to skip the line.
    • We enjoyed the murals. We have a variety of photos of us and the kids interacting with the murals in the Gulch.
    • There are many options for music but we found the Wildhorse Saloon to be a good fit for our little family. We stopped by for one round of beers, some live music, and a dance lesson. It felt more kid friendly than other options.
    • Some other restaraunts we enjoyed are Puckett’s and Edley’s Bar-B-Que. Edley’s was amazing but you have to get there early. They were already sold out of a couple items when we arrived.
    • We visited the Parthenon, making for fun photos with the kids. We didn’t explore inside because it was closed so I hope to on another trip. We didn’t visit a festival occurring in the park that looked fun but our kids got some energy out at the playground.
    #nashvillegulch
    #whatliftsyou

    We made the long trek to Gatlinburg. We expected a sleepy village in the Smokies but arrived to a town-sized boardwalk. We stayed in a house near downtown with extended family. We were walking distance to the aquarium, mini golf, arcades, t-shirt shops, and more. We did a little exploring downtown and took our kids to putt putt. The kids also visited the aquarium. Our favorite part of our visit to Gatlinburg, besides the pool at the house, was the Smokies. We only did a few hikes but even in the rain the hikes were beautiful and busy.

    Downtown Gatlingburg
    Smokies

    We headed back towards Nashville after Gatlinburg for a night in Brentwood. We met up with some old friends that now live on the east coast. We didn’t see more of Nashville and spent most of our time in the hotel – enjoying the pool, the continental breakfast, and catching up with our friends. We did enjoy dinner at Uncle Julio’s and getting a glimpse of the litte Franklin downtown when we went out for lunch. If we were planning to move back east, this area would be tempting.

    Our trip to Tennessee felt quick. I hope to go back to see a more of Nashville and the surrounding area. And I hope to spend more time in the Smokies one day; more likely in a tent in the woods for the full Smokies experience.

    Goodbye Nashville