Maui Day 2

I still cannot sleep. I woke up at 2:30 a.m. local time and could not go back to sleep. I worked on blogs and such until Jackson finally woke up at 5. He said it was the only time in his life that he'd been accused of "sleeping in" until 5 a.m. HA! :) Once Mr. Sleepy was up and at them we headed to a local restaurant called The Gazebo for breakfast. The restaurant is right on the beach so we hopped down there for a few minutes.

Beach mornings

My handsome breakfast date

Cloudy but still lovely

You can kind of see the other island in the distance

Mom snapped a photo of us taking a selfie

Our selfie

The restaurant up on the ridge

Mom and Jackson making the climb to breakfast

The Gazebo is very popular so you have to get there before they open at 7:30 a.m. to get in line. We got in line at about 6:55 a.m. and had a couple of people ahead of us. Amazing!

The view from line 

Mom got this awesome shot of the flowers by the restaurant

There is a reason this place has a line each morning. YUM!

Jackson had an omelet and we shared pancakes

Mom had french toast on local bread

The view from our table

Our meals were so good. I tried to white chocolate macadamia nut pancakes and they came topped with a sweet icing. They were so good. Jackson shared with me and called them the best pancakes he'd ever had. If you're ever in Maui make sure you hit The Gazebo. Our waitress was super friendly and the service was fast. It was just awesome. 

From there we headed out to an area called the Blowhole. One of Jackson's friends lives in Seattle and frequently visits Maui. He said it was worth the treacherous hike. He was right. The drive out to the Blowhole was just gorgeous. Winding roads through a rainforest with an ocean view? Yes, please.

Just stunning.

Windy and gorgeous

We hiked out to the edge of the rocks

Life in a screensaver 

Then we headed to the actual hike to the Blowhole. Mom stayed at the top. Weenie. ;)

A little warning before our hike

Heavy waves as we descended 

The view about halfway down. Yep. We climbed down that.

Made it! Jackson was pleased.

SO COOL!

There she blows!

It was just awesome!

Jackson's typical yoga pose

The road we traveled, gorgeous!

After we finished our hike we stopped in at Hard Rock Cafe so Mom could get her own pin this time. It was the most gorgeous Hard Rock location we've seen. It was right on the water. She also insisted on finding a bath salt store but didn't know its name or address. Ohhhh Mom. We spent a fair amount of time finding the store, but alas I did! Then Mom bought so much stuff that I got the sales lady to give me a product for free. All was well in the world again.

Famous snow cones 

We'd heard all about the snow cones here so we tried one and were not disappointed. Another thing to try if you come to Maui. We finally got to head to the beach again around noon.

Ahhh my new favorite place

Jackson and I snorkeled for a bit. He stayed out way longer than I did. He even took out the GoPro camera and shot a few fish. Very few.

A Petefish!

A fish.

A closeup of that fish

You guys, he bothered me for hours on how to work that GoPro to get those three photos. Siiigh. He's going to try again next time. Stay tuned. ;)

The first Diet Coke I grabbed had my name on it. Adorable!

We watched the Colts game BEFORE dinner. We love the time zones sometimes. We tried a BBQ place that was pretty good. Of course we were in bed by 8:30. What can I say? I'm trying not to be an old lady but I just cannot stay up late here!

Maui

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to the Indianapolis airport. Mom picked us up around 6 a.m. and we were off on the long journey to Maui. We had a quick flight from Indianapolis to Chicago where we had a two hour layover. We grabbed breakfast and tried to mentally prepare for the 9 hour flight ahead to Maui. I had selected our seats and took a gamble. I selected the last row of 5 seats in the plan and sat us every other seat thinking that since the flight was not full no one would willingly select those seats. Mom and Jackson were both uncertain of my plan. IT WORKED!!! We had a row of 5 seats for the three of us. HOORAY! I had a pillow and blanket and sprawled across the three seats between Jackson and Mom. Hey, she who figures out the seating gets to use it to her advantage! The flight really wasn't that bad. There were movies to pick from and Mom brought her own entertainment village complete with two iPads and an iPod touch. It was amazing. I watched Top Gun for the first time. It was OK. I also watched Indecent Proposal for the first time. They had lots of older movies. Again, it was OK. I don't get the fuss about either movie to be honest. That's alright. They helped pass the time on the flight. We all agreed that the size of the plane and not being sandwiched next to strangers made the flight downright doable.

Mom and I handled luggage while Jackson got the rental car. Then we were off to find our condo. It was about 45 minutes from the airport. I think we ended up having traveled like 15-16 hours door-to-door. It was an excellent tradeoff as the weather here is significantly better than that at home. Mom drive through snow on her way to pick us up that morning! We settled in to the condo then headed out for a quick dinner and trip to the grocery store. Things are not nearly as expensive here as they were in the Turks and Caicos so we were pleasantly surprised by that. I'm not saying things are cheap, $5.39 for a dozen eggs, but they're not heinous like it was in Turks. 

By the time we got home from the grocery we'd had enough and went to bed at like 8 p.m. Maui time. This meant we woke up insanely early Maui time, too. We decided to just roll with it and make breakfast at 3:15 a.m. Why not?!

Jackson making breakfast at the condo

We figured since we were up we'd go to Haleakala National Park to try to see the sunrise from the top of the mountain. It was clear down by the beach. Up at 10,000 feet? Not so much. I was reminded of how much I loathe driving up mountains with this trip in the dark and fog.

Fog on the mountain :(

We got to the parking lot at the top and were in the clouds. Thinking it would burn off quickly we got out into the 47 degree air and headed to the edge. It didn't burn off.

All of the people on no visible sunrise! :(

We did meet some friendly folks from Detroit and Wisconsin while we waited, though. Once we headed down and got out of the clouds the view was still amazing.

The view down at 7,000 feet

So ugly ;)

We were literally in the clouds- amazing!

We stopped to take some photos and realized that the wind was not conducive to good-looking shots.

Trying to get a good photo with Mom in the wind just was not happening...hilarious!

Petefish.

We came down off the mountain and then stopped at a viewing point to take in the sights of the water.

I love the sound of the water.

Jackson running down the trail to the water

MADE IT!

We hung out there for a bit then went to see the famous banyan tree near our condo. It did not disappoint. Yes, I do have a thing for large trees.

Massive!

Jackson by the tree to show its size

We walked around near the tree's park and shops for a bit before coming back for a nap. We'd already been at it for 6 hours by the time 9:30 a.m. Maui time rolled around. After a nap we headed down to Kaanapali beach. We grabbed lunch at an awesome place called the "Hula Grill" and had just a terrible view while we dined. ;)

Hula Grill's view

I had the BEST fish tacos ever for lunch. The service in Maui has been amazing so far. We figure it is because these folks are professionals and tourism is the main industry here.

After lunch Mom went to shop and we went to the beach. It was LOVELY.

Ahhh the beach

Jackson taking a dip

Watching sailboats

Mom putting her feet in the water

The water was so clear and warm that I actually swam with Jackson. That does not happen all the often. We spent hours just relaxing on the beach soaking in the warmth and enjoying the breeze.

A rainbow!

We've been amazed at the number of rainbows we've already seen. It is just gorgeous here!

Sunset foiled by clouds!

I think our only "complaint" would be the clouds. We had a lovely afternoon at the beach but the sunrise and sunset were cloudy messes! WAH! Trouble in paradise! ;)

Jackson taking it in

My Mom insists that this is a good photo of me.

We left the beach after the sun pretty much set and grabbed some dinner before headed to bed exceptionally early Maui time again. This whole time zone thing has really thrown my body for a loop. I've been up since 2:30 a.m. Maui time without a thing to do besides blog! You're welcome. ;)

Hoosier Hysteria!

We got to stop in Plainfield for a goodbye dinner with the Triple Daters on Friday evening. Our friends Corey and Ashley and their baby boy, Max, are headed back to Southern Indiana to live closer to grandparents. We were excited to meet Mr. Max before he left and to catch up with Chris and Jenny's little guy, August. Both boys are adorable!

Jackson giving Auggie bunny ears 

August is 10 months old now and at a really fun stage. He just plays and plays!

Playin' with Ague

He was crawling all over and pulling himself up on the furniture. He also was pretty good at stacking his little rings on that toy which impressed me.

August has gotten so big!

August's mom, Jenny, impressed us all by cooking a Julia Child recipe for dinner and nailing it. She also made homemade bread so I cheated on my Whole30 (again!) to eat home. Hey, I did skip dessert! 

We left Plainfield and headed to Bloomington to spend the rest of the weekend at Aunt Jill and Uncle Charlie's condo. We love it in Bloomington all of the time, but Fall is particularly pretty! We spent Saturday walking MacKenzie around campus and just enjoying the college atmosphere. (Yes, I work on a campus. No, it is not the same. IU has so many happy memories for me of being in college. I get nostalgic every single time I am on campus!)

The real reason we were in town was to go to the IU men's basketball team's first practice called "Hoosier Hysteria."

The cheerleaders

They make a huge spectacle of the practice. You have to bring canned goods to get in the stadium but it is otherwise free. They have the cheerleaders perform. They announce the girl's team. They have 3-point contests. Then the real excitement begins and the IU roster is announced. This year Marion High School's James Blackmon, Jr. is on the team. We watched him all last year in high school so we were excited to see how he transitioned to college. I kept referring to him as the "pride of Marion." :)

Blackmon, Jr. being announced  

Blackmon, Jr. with a layup

Action shot

Scrimmage  

Schoolin' the team

Team meeting 

Dominating the court 

Playin' hard

3 ball!

We got very close seats!

We love Yogi (#11)

Blackmon, Jr. was awesome

Blackmon, Jr. did not disappoint. We didn't get to the stadium as early as we wanted to but some weirdos left after the women's 3-point contest so we moved down to the front row. It is amazing what you can pull off if you act like you know the people you move to sit by. Smiles, waves and such at strangers fool the ushers every time. HA! :)

We really enjoyed our time in Bloomington. We had gorgeous weather, too. Thank you again, J & C!