March 9th our family vacation officially began! Jim was done with work, so we packed up our gear, checked out of our first hotel, Jim upgraded our rental car to a minivan (it was magic car! All the kids had to do was say a magic word and their doors would open!), and we set off to explore the island.
We started our journey taking a drive to Lahaina. On the way we saw buckets of whales swimming in the ocean, so we pulled over and whale watched for a bit. We even saw one jump out of the water! I missed it with my camera, but it was majestic.
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| Jim and Hunter checking out the whales |
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| The kiddies and me posing for a pic while whale watching |
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| My three favorite people |
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| A family of whales! |
Once we made it to Lahaina, we explored for a bit. Lahaina is a quaint touristy town with lots of little shops and restaurants. There's also a huge Banyan tree in a park area we explored, as well as the pier where you can purchase tickets for whale watching cruises, rafting trips, snorkeling boat tours, or catch a glass bottom boat tour like we did (we told the kids we were going on a submarine ride).
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| We stopped for some authentic Hawaiian shaved ice -- yum! |
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| We went with the rainbow flavor, and as a result our tongues all turned a lovely shade of black. |
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| I copied and pasted this explanation from a website: This Banyan Tree was planted in April, 1873, and marked the 50th Anniversary of Christian missionary work in Lahaina. The tree was imported from India and was only 8 feet tall. It now stands over 60 feet high, has 12 major trunks in addition to a huge core. It stretches over a 200-foot area and shades 2/3 of an acre. |
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| Tralee loved playing around the Banyan tree |
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| Cute girl |
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| This is what the Banyan tree looks like from outside its shade |
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| Tralee wanted to do a photoshoot. She told me all the poses we had to do. |
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| Jim and the kid-os right before our submarine ride |
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| Under the sea! |
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| We saw lots of coral, various tropical fish, a sea turtle, two octopus, and then I got sea sick. I spent the rest of the tour above deck. Eventually Jim and the littles joined me up there. This will probably be the last boating adventure our family takes for a while. |
After our fantastic time in Lahaina, we drove to Wailea where our hotel was. We checked in, unloaded, went out to dinner, purchased some groceries (snacks for the room and a birthday cake for Jim), walked to the beach at dusk, went swimming, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jim and ate birthday cake (his b-day was actually on the 8th, but he was working all that day so we celebrated on the 9th), and then hit the hay!
1 comment:
What a nice view from your room! Love the pictures!
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