Aston Ka'anapali Shores

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 on the 8th floor.

We watched whales from our balcony every single day.

We had a fabulous view of the pool, jacuzzi, and koi pond.

And we got to watch the sun set from our balcony every single night.

If we ever get back to Maui, I'm staying here again.

Without the kids.

Comments

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Sumida Watercress Farm

This week, we went on a field trip to Sumida Watercress Farm in Aiea. Ben was not happy about going with us. He grumbled the entire way there about me waking him up early to "watch things grow". Sumida Watercress Farm grows 75% of all the watercress produced in Hawaii. It has been run by the Sumida Family for three generations. One of the most interesting things about this farm is that the Pearlridge Mall was built around it because the Sumidas did not want to sell the land. It's very cool to look at this little farm and then see the city buildings all around it. One wall has the tails of marlins they have caught, each of which weighed over 600 pounds! One was even from an 800 pound fish! Mr. Sumida brought out a giant bowl of crawfish which live in the water. He showed the kids how to pick one up and where to hold it so it couldn't pinch them. Katie picked one up and it promptly twisted itself into a backflip and pinched her finger. We got to walk out through ...

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...

Mama On The Move

Search This Blog