Building Trails

Tag: Hawaii

  • 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.