So Long Maui, Wish We Could Stay Longer

In case we failed to mention it, we managed to throw together a family trip to Hawaii for spring break. (I know I haven't written a blog in forever, I guess it took a vacation to give me the excuse - didn't feel like complaining about the president and stuff). We've been too tired at the end of the day from playing too hard to think about things like posting pictures on the web, until tonight we saved a little time to chill (or the kids' new word, "chillax.")

Supposedly it's been spring for almost a month at home, but hasn't been acting like it. More snow the night before we left made us even more happy to run away for some actual nice weather, and laugh at you suckers back home.

Our adventure began on Monday, with a super-early flight itinerary that was supposed to get us to Maui by 11:30 AM. We had a tight connection in LAX and barely made it on, then while taxiing, the pilot announced that we were heading back to the gate because of a warning light about a possible hydraulic leak. They left us on the plane for 90 minutes, then sent us off to get some lunch, and finally ended up switching us to a backup aircraft. A 4 hour delay followed by a 6 hour flight makes for a long day, but if the alternative is having flight control failure while 1000 miles from the nearest land, I'll take the delay.

Arriving at the condo 4 hours late, we didn't have time to do much Monday except hang out at the pool and cook some dinner. Tuesday was beach, sun, and snorkeling day (the kids got it started while I attended medical classes till 11AM), and we definitely knew we'd left Utah's spring weather behind.

The highlight of Wednesday was surfing lessons! Here's some shots of our pro surfers, with Maui Waveriders instructor J.P.:











Apparently if you play on a surfboard for 2 hours without long shorts, there can be leg chafing resulting in some grumpiness:



The grumpiness was short-lived, though, and this may have been the biggest hit activity of the week.

For Thursday, I skipped the classes, and we did the all-day drive around the east side (the lush, rainforest-y side) of Maui to the town of Hana and beyond. We were on the road for 13 hours including lots of stops, but were rewarded by some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen:









Today was another beach day and a shorter day, since we have a 6:30 AM flight to Oahu. We'll be staying on the north shore here (I'll be honest, I picked it more for the funny English than anything else) and meeting up with the Baker family, who I'm told have some fun stuff planned for us.

More to come later!