Hawaii Day 8/9 June 3 & 4, 2023 - ALL ONE DAY

We got up Saturday morning and Nick and I took one last walk.  We parked at the Dragon Teeth parking lot and walked down to see the dragon teeth (rocks) and the labyrinth.  

Labyrinth

We got back to the condo and showered, packed, etc.  Grant finished watching ‘The Hangover’ and then we checked out at 10:30 and had a LOT of time to kill before our 7pm flight.  We went back to Whalers Village in Kaanapali and Grant bought a cool (and very Hawaiian) baseball cap and both kids got candy at the candy store. 

We went back to Lahaina and parked at the Maui Outlet mall parking lot and had fun going into the Coach store, Gap store, etc.  Then we walked back onto the main road (Front Street) and had a good lunch at Kimo’s.  

We sat down by the water and it was lovely.  We strolled some more – Ryan & I got Dole Whip one last time and she bought a funny shirt with a chicken (rooster) on it to memorialize her irrational fear of chickens 😊 We watches some birds for a while, one of which moved his head like Stevie Wonder and then walked back to the car.  It was just another spectacular day. 

Next, we drove in to Kahului (airport city) and attempted to go see the Ioa Valley Monument but it required reservations and we couldn’t figure out exactly what we’d be paying to see. 

We made a stop at a beautiful city park – baseball, softball and soccer fields then drove over to the town of Paia and walked through very expensive shops. 

We finally made our way back to the airport and got to our gate about an hour before our flight boarded.  We grabbed sandwiches in the airport and Nick and I watched the A&M/Stanford baseball game on my phone (their regional includes Stanford, San Jose State, Cal Fullerton & A&M).  They one just before I had to turn my phone off!

Grant was impressed by the plane – his first two-aisle plane – but damn if they didn’t offer movies via wifi.  They had the seatback screens but those required wired headphones to listen to the sound and none of us brought any.  So a long flight got longer.  Plus, the plane was FREEZING.  Otherwise, it was an uneventful flight.  We got back to Dallas around 6:30am Dallas time and the kids and Nick got in a couple of hours of sleep.  I think I slept about 30 minutes – I felt strange joint pain on the plane- and we made it home around 7:30am on Sunday June 4^th.

The day was long and disorienting.  My strategy was to not go to sleep at all then go to bed at normal time and be exhausted.  It kind of worked but today is Monday June 5^th and I’m still very disoriented. 

Overall, this was a magical trip – the kids were so much fun and it was a nice blend of a normal Bomersbach National Park trip and a trip like their friends go on…something for everyone.  52 down, 11 to go!