Thursday, March 22, 2012

Day Four: Ulua Beach

We woke up on March 10th with nothing planned.  Hawaii beckoned us outdoors with its sweet scent and sunny skies, so we answered the calls by suiting up and heading to the beach.  We spent most of the morning and early afternoon at Ulua beach.  This beach is located in Wailea, Hawaii and was our favorite beach of the trip.  Our hotel (and the surrounding area) had wonderful walking paths all around its property that lead you to several beaches.  Ulua was our favorite.  While smaller, it seemed more laid back and less commercialized than the others.  There was great snorkeling, the golden sand was as soft as powdered sugar, and the waves were the perfect size to body surf on and let Tralee splash around (Hunter's afraid of the ocean -- more on that later) without worry.  

We were also infomed by some locals that the Wailea area is one of the sunniest spots on the Maui island!  While other areas were cloudy and/or rainy, Wailea offered us sunny skies and kissed us with its refreshing breezes.  Here are some pics from our day at the beach:   

The munchkins eating breakfast outside on our deck.  You could open the sliding glass door all the way and let the Hawaiian breeze flow through the room.  If we were in the room during the day, chances are the glass door was wide open.

Tralee playing in the sand

Hunter is getting too big!





I really like this pic of Stinks








I also like this picture.  Tralee had so much fun playing in the water.  We couldn't get her out most days!

Riding in a little wave.  One time Jim pushed her into a wave that was WAY TOO BIG for her little body and she got pounded pretty good!  She was a trooper and didn't give up on body surfing, although she was a bit more apprehensive!  Towards the end of our trip she was "surfing wipout a board" and riding some pretty big waves up on shore.  She would get pounded by some of those and just stand up like it was no big deal.  I swear if we lived in Hawaii she would be like the girl from Soul Surfer (preferably sans shark attack).


I like the way the water looks like a blanket over the sand in this picture.



Building a sea turtle


Finished sea turtle

One of Tralee's many sandcastle creations


I'm still finding sand on Hunty!
Tralee and Mommy working on another sand creation

After playing at the beach we went back to our room to eat lunch, rest, and then we visited the kiddie pool.  Our little kiddies thought it was a "kitty" pool and kept asking questions why cats have their own pool at the hotel when they don't even like water.  Silly kids!

While at the "kitty" pool we made Tralee go down the big green swirly slide.  She was afraid at first, but we knew once she went down she would love it.  We were right!  After her first time she went again and again and again and again.  It got to the point where we felt comfortable watching her climb up the stairs and go down the slide all on her own.  We could see her all the whole time, and besides occasionally reminding her not to cut in line or run around the pool area she had it down pat!  She even knew where to watch on the monitor to make sure the last rider excited the slide area so she could go down.

Did you notice there are no pictures of Hunter in the ocean?  That's because he's not a fan.  He LOVES the sand but HATES the ocean water.  I'm not sure why.  I asked him and he said it was, "because it's scary."  He also said, "Because it's too loud."  We did force him in a few times, the whole time he screamed and shook.  So, towards the end of the trip we stopped forcing him and just let him enjoy his vacation playing in the sand.  Hunty did LOVE the water by the kiddie pool.  He played in it a lot.  He also loved all the hot tubs.  Couldn't get him out of the nice warm hot tubs.  Maybe by the time we go to Hawaii again (soon I hope) he'll have warmed up to the ocean.  Silly boy.

I'll end this post with a joke Tralee came up with as we were flying to Maui.  Are you ready for this one?  It's pretty good for a five-year-old.

Where does a cat go on vacation?

Meow-i!  Get it?  Maui, MEOW-i!  Hardy har har! 

Day five coming right up. . . 



1 comment:

Boom said...

Send some pictures to the kodak pulse!