Maui

We recently spent 5 days in Maui staying at the Hyatt Residence Club.

Here is a summary of the trip:

View from the room

Friday:

We had no food so we hit the buffet at the Hyatt next door which was probably the most elaborate breakfast I have seen in a while. So good. Hannah only cost $5 and Christopher was free! It's the little things that get me excited. Then we watched the koi fish and penguin feeding which was pretty fun. After that was pool time in the baby pool area. This was interesting b/c both Hannah and Christopher were super clingy in the pool and would just clutch at us whenever they were in water over their head. To be honest it was a bit disheartening that they were so afraid and wouldn't let me practice any of the skills from their swim classes.

Tidepooling at Kuau Cove

Saturday:
Today the kids and I were on our own while Charles biked Haleakala. I quickly realized that my children go through any activity on super speed. I guess Hannah is more like me than I thought. We first went to a local spot for tidepooling but it was drizzling a bit and then without water shoes, it was kind of painful for the kids to walk around barefoot. Definitely a gorgeous spot though.

Aquarium

Then we hit the aquarium but they were done within an hour!

At this point I was at a bit at a loss and wanted to drive around to get Christopher to nap so I took the kids to Target. But after that there was still some number of hours to kill but luckily I found this amazing playground near the mall.

A really unique playground

Sunday

We had our required timeshare presentation today but the really momentous thing that happened was that Hannah tried snorkeling and I was really shocked she was able to do it. Salt water is pretty gross to get into the mouth I would think but it didn't bother her. 

Monday

Two planned activities today which in retrospect I shouldn't have done. We did manage to squeeze in some swimming between the submarine ride in the morning and luau in the evening but the luau wasn't that necessary. It would have been nice not to rush off from swimming.

But the best part was that after the beach time, we hit the pool and she made a ton of progress - first getting rid of the floaty lifejacket and realizing she was quite buoyant herself. Then actually swimming around in shallow water. I was beyond happy because swimming lessons have been so ineffective though I have been trying for so long. 

Also as a followup (since I'm posting this so late after the trip), this trip to Hawaii made all the difference in Hannah's swimming skills that I was beyond stoked when they tested her in her lesson and she got rated as Level 6!!

All in all it was a really fun trip and during the whole ride to the airport, Hannah kept asking when we would come back.

If it was up to me, it would be soon, real soon. I have dreams of more beach trips. They are some of the best kinds of vacation. Plus the time change in Hawaii was great for bedtime. They would just keel over in 5 minutes at bedtime since I kept the same time (9pm which was really midnight) and they were exhausted from swimming.