Mama On The Move

Ben had to watch the movie "Forrest Gump" this year as part of his 20th Century History program. While we were in Maui, we spotted a "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co." restaurant and decided to try it out. The food was good, not fabulous. The sunset was phenomenal. The gift shop was hilarious. We asked for a dairy free menu for Emily before we were seated. They only had two dairy free items and then after we were seated we found out that they no longer made one of the two items and Emily hated the other dish and wouldn't order it. We let the kids each pick a souvenir while we were on Maui and Ben picked the red tee-shirt with famous sayings from the movie. Silly me, I thought he'd pick something that would remind him of the sharks or the whales or the scuba diving or the boat ride. Instead he's got a shirt that says "Stupid is as stupid does". Ah well, he's happy.

One of the coolest things we were able to do on Maui took place at the Maui Ocean Center. It's a very neat aquarium with lots of fish and displays (and a REALLY great gift shop). But the best thing about it was........... Kerry and Ben got to scuba dive in the shark tank. Here's Kerry right next to a sting ray. Look at all the white tip sharks! Kerry and Ben got to swim into a little cave farther back in the tank. There were some sharks who stay in there and swim through the scuba diver's bubbles as they go up. It makes the sharks "drunk" and they tip over and fall to the bottom. One landed on Ben's head! Ben with his brethren, the hammerheads. Kerry with a giant puffer fish. They took raw squid in with them to feed to the fish. The puffer is well aware that all scuba divers come with snacks and she is greedy! They had been warned ahead of time that she would nibble at their fingers trying to get food. Ben got so aggravated with her, he would put his h

The Baldwin Home Museum is a restored missionary house in Lahaina. It was built in 1835 for the missionaries but became primarily the residence of Reverand Dwight Baldwin and his wife Charlotte (and their seven children). Reverand Baldwin was a missionary but also had studied medicine at Harvard. His training medical training helped enormously in the islands as the natives had no natural immunity to the illnesses Westerners brought along with them.

We were told that we had to drive up Haleakala Highway and watch the sunrise from the top of the mountain. It's apparently a spectacular view. But it took an hour just to drive to the base of the mountain, and an hour or so to drive up the mountain. Getting everyone up and dressed at 4:00 in the morning to drive up a dangerous, winding road up the side of a mountain is not my idea of vacation. I guess what I'm saying is.......we didn't go see the sunrise. We did go in the middle of the afternoon. And frankly, it was terrifying. This is a relief map which shows the Haleakala Highway as a little white line climbing up the mountain. It doesn't look so bad. Five little sharp turns and you're there! Right? Wrong. The road is a two-lane highway (very well maintained - there are no potholes or cracks in the road). But there is no guard rail and no curb. And about two feet past the edge of the road, it just drops off. Just. Drops. Off. Add to this, a driver who w

Near Banyan Tree Park is the old prison known as Hale Pa'ahao which means "stuck-in-irons house" in Hawaiian. Hale Pa'ahao was built in 1852 and was used mainly to lock up rowdy sailors. There's an old Ford out front that my father-in-law could have up and running in a jiffy. The walls surrounding the prison grounds are coral and were built from pieces of an old fort which had been demolished nearby. The cells were small and completely unfurnished. Four people would be confined to each cell. They could bring their own furnishings if they wanted. There was a framed letter from a sailor on one wall which described his stay in the prison. He actually thought it was quite nice. He had a place to sleep, three meals a day, and could lay around in the yard playing cards all day. The prison rules were fairly strict. I like #7: Every noise of whatever kind or nature, whether it be talking, laughing, singing, whistling, or otherwise, is strictly prohibited. I'm

Another great (and free - which is one reason why it's great) place to visit on Maui is Banyan Tree Park in Lahaina, home of the largest Banyan tree in the world. Although it looks like a park with a number of trees providing shade, this is actually all just one tree. Banyan trees send out their long branches horizontally....... .....and then send roots down from the branches to form new trunks. This banyan tree was planted by William Owen Smith on April 24, 1873 on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the first Protestant mission in Lahaina. Only eight feet tall at the time it was planted, the banyan now reaches a height of sixty feet, has twelve separate trunks, and covers almost two-thirds of an acre. This is a very nice shady park with benches where you can sit and enjoy the (rather expensive) ice cream you can buy in a nearby shop.

One of the really cool things we saw on Maui was an area known as the "Dragon's Teeth" on the North West side of the island. Now, it is not a difficult area to find. Our guidebook told us exactly how to find the parking area and to "walk toward the shoreline along the golf course next to the short hedge to a long point of lava that separates two large beaches". From the parking lot, we could see the golf course on one side and a long, low hedge running along next to a sidewalk. I had thought this might be something of a hike and was surprised to see that we would be walking on a sidewalk through the manicured grounds of the nearby hotel. Let me tell you now: if you are walking down the sidewalk, you are going the wrong way. When you wander down the sidewalk you will eventually come to a very pretty beach..... .....with a great view of a rocky area jutting out into the water. I stopped a lady who was walking by and asked her how to get to the Dragon's Tee

Because we'd been rained out on our first attempt at the 'Iao Needle, we decided to try it again the next day. 'Iao Valley is a beautiful area of dense rainforest as well as a botanical garden where you can wander around and enjoy nature. "Commonly called 'Iao Needle, the traditional Hawaiian name for this 2,250 foot high peak is Kuka'omoku. This peak is known as the phallic stone of Kanaloa, Hawaiian god of the ocean." I swear that's what the sign said. I'm not making that up. Maui warriors would climb to the top of the needle as lookouts during war time. 'Iao Valley was the site of the Battle of Kepaniwai in 1790, which was a horrifically bloody battle, even by the standards of the time. While you can not climb on the actual needle, you can climb 166 steps up to a lookout point where you can have a much closer view of the needle. The paths are well paved and the steps are easy, but my thighs were screaming the next day. The botanical ga

In case you didn't hear: We were given a tsunami warning again last night. A massive earthquake off the coast of Japan did damage over quite a large scale. Maui was hit hardest of all the islands, so I'm happy not to be there on vacation now. But one happened here is minor compared to the devastation that hit Japan. We are all fine, and thank you for your prayers!

In Maui, we stayed at the Aston Ka'anapali Shores. It's on the west coast of Maui and was worth every penny. We had a full kitchen, not just a mini-fridge and a microwave, as well as a washer and dryer. We were able to make a number of meals in our room to help save money (did I mention Maui is expensive?) as well as get the laundry done. They had a special which made our 5th night free, and gave us a $100 food and beverage credit to use in the restaurant. Katie could eat free until 4:00 as long as she ordered a kids meal, which she flatly refused to do. I can't blame her. Who wants to watch everyone else eat a gourmet meal while you look at a tiny plate of chicken nuggets? (I don't actually know what their kids meals are like as we did not have one at our table. But everything we ordered was delicious and plentiful!) Although we had reserved a room with a view of the parking lot (because it's less expensive) they upgraded us upon arrival to an ocean view o

One of the funny things (to me) about Kerry is that if he really likes something, he always really likes it. He never gets tired of the same thing over and over (which is good news for me - I shouldn't be replaced with a newer model any time soon). The man was thrilled with Velveeta cheese dip the first time he had it around 19 years ago, and to this day when we are planning what to cook for guests who are coming over he will invariably suggest that I make Velveeta cheese dip. He just knows everyone else will be as thrilled as he is over it. We live on an island with lots of exotic restaurants, most of which serve an amazing variety of seafood served in fabulous ways you can't even imagine until you've tried it. He was thrilled, thrilled I tell you, to discover there is a Red Lobster in Honolulu. Really? We could eat at Red Lobster anywhere in the country (and have , quite frankly) and he still wants to try the one here. I'm all about new experiences and trying

Another great restaurant on Maui is Bistro Casanova. I actually found it on "Trip Advisor" while searching for a different restaurant called Casanova Italian. It got great reviews and was listed as one of the more reasonably priced restaurants in the area. But the minute we stepped inside, I knew we were going to spend a small fortune. It just had that look of a high priced restaurant: dim lighting, real tablecloths, wine glasses. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the prices were extremely reasonable and the food was excellent. I was so thrilled, I forgot to take pictures. But wow, this was my favorite restaurant on Maui. While we were sitting there waiting for our food to arrive, I noticed Katie had both hands steepled on her face, mashing her nose around. I asked her what she was doing. With amazing honesty she replied, "Well, I want to pick my nose but this is a really nice restaurant and I figure I probably shouldn't do that here so I'm just rub

One of our first stops in Maui was in the town of Paia. Paia looks remarkably like many small towns on the mainland. Its just that you know it's Maui, so it feels more fabulous. Paia is apparently known for its oddball, quirky characters and its cute little local shops. We were on the lookout to see if we could spot any whacky people. We did see a lot of hippie types. They actually have a town bumper sticker which says, "Please do not feed the hippies". The only oddball we saw was a guy in black shorts and a giant black top hat hitchhiking. He had a beard like Santa Clause and I can't imagine anyone picking him up. We ate at the Flatbread Company which had been recommended to me by a friend. I guess it's also very "hippie" in that it's an organic pizza restaurant. They even cook the pizzas in a giant adobe-style oven which is fun to watch. All their meats are nitrate-free and the pizzas were great! We were especially pleased that they had a

Kerry and the girls and I flew to Maui early in the morning. Ben was running a five-mile race that morning, so he flew over that evening after the race. Our hotel was about an hour from the airport, and we didn't want to drive all the way to it and then back another hour to the airport, and then another hour back to the hotel. We decided to just visit some of the sites in the vicinity of the airport, pick Ben up, then head to the hotel. After the glorious stop at Krispy Kreme, we decided to go check out the 'Iao Valley State Park and hike around a bit. We found the park with no problem, but it was raining quite heavily when we got there. Not being strangers to Hawaiian rain, we guessed it might clear up shortly so we decided to just wait in the car for a bit to see if it eased up enough for us to hike. We'd been up since 5:00 a.m. and were quite tired, so Kerry, Emily and I kicked back and napped for a while. Katie read a book. It never did quit raining, so we final

Sorry to be so silent, but for those of you who don't know, we were on vacation...... .....in Maui. Glorious, green, lush, beautiful Maui. Let me tell you, it was the trip of a lifetime. I know you are thinking, "You live on an island. You vacationed on a neighbor island. Wasn't it practically the same?" No, it wasn't. Maui is bigger than Oahu, and lot less populated. There was actually unused land around us over there. The streets did not have houses crammed into every square inch. The houses had yards . You can't imagine how amazing that is to see when you haven't seen it in two years. The houses and building on Maui are actually set back from the road so they aren't hemming you in as you drive along. Kerry and I probably said a dozen times, "Look at all the space ! It's so open !" The mountains are taller, the roads up the mountains are twisty-er (and a thousand times more terrifying), everything is greener and blu-er, and