The road to Hana

Yesterday we planned to do a road trip - the curvy but scenic road to Hana. I wasn't convinced that it was the best option for the girls, but P really wanted to do it. At our first lookout we met an interesting man who not only made "designer" jewelry out of Job's Tears beads but is also a spiritual advisor. We weren't aware of the latter until after our purchase when he gave us a card with his website; we mostly just bought because his wife is from Willamina and he was really nice. As we were leaving, he gave us a blessing for our trip, but as you'll soon read, it obviously didn't work. I wonder why?

We were only on the Hana Highway for about five miles before C puked up the water and Cheetos she'd just consumed (I know, thanks for the visual), and begged to return home. My mother and I were also both experiencing a little carsickness, so we didn't complain about the change of plans. We returned back to our first lookout to eat our picnic lunch while we watched the surfers and wind surfers.

On the way back we stopped in Paia in search of the perfect Hawaiian Shaved Ice. What we found was good, but still couldn't beat the shaved ice we had at a Hawaiian Christmas Bazaar a couple of weeks ago at home.

I'd thought that maybe we could salvage the day by taking the girls to the Hawaiian Nature Center, but once we finally found it, it didn't look terribly enticing for our little ones so we decided not to go in. We looked around the nearby Asian gardens and enjoyed what we could see of the Iao Valley. We stopped at another lookout on our way back and were able to see a whale in the distance.

After a little shopping in Lahaina we returned home, swam in the pool for a few hours, and then did our traditional pizza and movie night. Poor M was so tired she begged to be put to bed while Wall-E was still playing.

Today we spent the morning strolling down Front Street of Lahaina. We really got a kick out of a man that had like six parrots that you paid to get your picture taken with. He was super nice and talked to the girls about the birds and even let them hold one before he had some paying customers. It was fun to see him and the birds work with this family of three. The dad had a small parrot on his shoulder, a large red parrot on his head, the wife had a large white parrot on her shoulder, the little boy had a parrot on him, and then they were all holding a bird in their hands too. When the trainer/photographer said "Ready Freddie" the red parrot spread out his wings for the photoshoot. He said something else to a large blue bird laying on his back in the dad's hand, and the bird dropped his head backwards so he looked like he was dead. It was fully entertaining to watch, but I can't show you any pictures because, naturally, pictures (besides the photographer's) were not allowed. It would have been fun to have our family picture taken, but P still has his totally irrational fear of birds, so that would have been impossible.

We also really enjoyed the Banyan Tree park. There was a market underway so I wasn't able to get particularly great pics since there was so much else going on, but the fact that it was just one tree that was spread out over the entire park was pretty darn cool.

After finishing our window shopping, we joined my parents for lunch at Bubba Gump's. We met a server/bartender from there while out yesterday and she convinced us that Bubba's was the place to go. We were thrilled that she was on today and asked to be seated in her section. It was a great meal & the service was great. Even P thought that everything was perfect, and raved the rest of the day about his Catcher's Net Shrimp - which is really something if you know P.

When we returned home we decided to hang out at the beach just out our back door, but all the while M was begging to go to the pool. She has absolutely no interest in getting another mouthful of salt water! So we spent another three hours poolside

Once again, tonight the girls were so worn out they had to be carried to bed and were nearly asleep by the time their heads hit their pillows.