Hawaii--day 1-2

Escapees captured after a night out

For the last 15 years, youngest daughter, Nicole, has been the impetus behind a family trip that happens every five years. The destination has to be somewhere we haven't experienced. . .or experienced in a really, really, really long time. The first time, we went to New Orleans over spring vacation and the second time, we went to Australia. (On the Australia trip, one grand was two and half and the other was four months old!) This year our destination was Maui, Hawaii!

Hawaii here we come

The day before we left, three of our neighbor's turkeys escaped. Bailey caught one; but, let it go on command. The turkeys left our property and the neighbor's couldn't find them.

A little Auntie loving

We took Bailey to the "spa" also know as the kennel later in the afternoon. She has been there several times and likes it enough to not even say good-bye to us!

Early the next morning, my husband caught site of the turkeys in the pasture. We "herded" them into Bailey's kennel and waited for their owners to retrieve their birds. These three seemed happy to get back behind wire. They sure looked like their night out had been a rough one! They and their owners were just leaving the driveway when our ride to the airport arrived!

In my lifetime, I've "wrangled" a number of animals; but, this was a first for turkeys!

It has been a sort of tradition to photograph one's feet on the carpet when leaving the Portland airport. We followed tradition.

Gran--Photo by Miss J

The grands sure love their auntie. While we were in line to board the plane, I heard one grand say, "Auntie, come down here." I heard the other grand say, "Auntie, we need you!" Then there was a whole lot of squeezes, kisses and "I love you so much!" What a fine bunch of loving!!!

What do you do when you are on an airplane for several hours? You put together puzzles, color, take photographs, read stories, eat a few snacks and you might even sleep! It takes a long time to get to Hawaii; but, the arrival is sure worth it!

Auntie provided the hip packs which were stuffed with fun items. There was plenty of space remaining to be colored on the trip home. As for the items, they were eaten, played with and zipped in and out of the bag numerous times!

Coloring

The airport at Kahului, Maui had this interesting roof detail at baggage claim. It looked like a quilt design to me. Unfortunately, not all of our luggage arrived with us. We were missing the car seats. We will catch up with how we reunited with them later.

Roof detail at the airport

We arrived at our hotel, checked in and then found a Mexican restaurant a short walk from our hotel. It was called Amigos and their chicken mole and beef fajitas were delicious! I went to bed at 8:30pm Hawaiian time which was 11:30pm Oregon time!

The next morning, we were up early and trekking to Starbucks for a cup of coffee. James decided to try the local coffee. While we sipped our coffee, we viewed a mural. On our return to the hotel, we stopped at a Whole Foods type of market and purchased items for breakfast. We purchased two types of local bananas, a small basket of mountain apples, a jar of jam, a couple types of yogurt and some almond butter. There were also vegan pastry items so we purchased a few of those too!

Mural at Starbucks

After breakfast all the girls had a dip in the pool. The swim felt great and the oldest grand commented that she could now check swimming in Hawaii off her bucket list!

Amanda had researched a spot to have lunch. It was called Tin Roof; business hours were from 10am to 2pm.  Most of us ordered something different from each other so there were a variety of menu items to sample. I had the chicken sandwich and Bob had the pork belly entree. Both were good.

Pork belly entree

We had to amend our departure plans a bit because neither car seat arrived with our luggage. The airlines delivered one car seat to our hotel while most of us were sleeping. The other car seat took a later flight and didn't arrive until after 1pm the following day! Bob, James and Nicole went to retrieve the car seat and pick up the rental car we had reserved.

The rest of us hung out at the hotel until Bob, James and Nicole picked us up. Then it was off to the condo! The girls were excited about swimming in both another pool and the ocean!

Dinner on our first night at the condo

That afternoon, we swam at the condo pool. We had a terrific dinner of green salad with poppyseed mango dressing and barbecued chicken. Some of us enjoyed the beer that those who went to the brewery tour brought back.  Who knew coconut coffee would make a good porter?