Vacation Day 8 and 9: Kaanapali, Maui and Tracy, CA
Our last day! Though our flight was not until late that evening (a red eye), so we had the whole day to hang out. When we woke up that morning Trent took the older kids to the pool one last time, and I stayed around to clean and pack. And we were off! Our first stop was to return our snorkel gear and boogie boards.
Next came Whalers Village. When I was in Maui on a family vacation at age 12, I remember going to Whalers Village. It is basically an outdoor shopping mall. We spent a few hours looking through all the shops and finishing up our souvineer shopping. We also ate lunch there with some of our leftover food we still needed to eat up!
From there we headed to the aquarium and it was a great way to kill several hours. The kids loved see the giant aquariums full of fish, sharks, sting rays and other aquatic life. There were some outdoor exhibits too! While we were there, we ran into another family with a daughter named Sasha, we mentioned our baby’s name was Sasha. They then explained that their daughters name was Alexandra, but her nickname is Sasha! And of course we told them our is the same.
After the aquarium it was about time for dinner. During our trip Trent researched everywhere we ate to make sure we ate at the highest rated eateries. So, the one place we had not gone to yet was a shrimp truck. This shrimp truck was in the middle of industrial Maui, and totally a locals place. The people we ran it were true Hawaiian’s and Trent said they were missing half their teeth too. Trent ordered two shrimp scampi meals, and one Thai shrimp meal. Because it was just a shrimp truck we had no where to eat, so we found a local park to eat at. This park was definitely a locals only hang out, but it was a perfect place to go on our last day. The shrimp was AMAZING. I have never eaten shrimp so tasty in my life. It also came with rice and crab salad, and all of it together was seriously the best. I know I will go back there if we return someday. I dream about that shrimp.
After dinner we hit up the local McDonalds for some ice cream (and to kill more time). Tanner was still hungry so we ordered him a meal to eat. We laughed because one ice cream cone was more expensive than Tanner’s hamburger and fries. While at McDonalds we had the kids change into their PJ’s and we made sure everything was packed where it needed to be. We made one last stop at Walmart (we were seriously in need of killing time) and then we drove to a beach near the airport to watch the sun set one last time, and let the kids have a little sleep before we got on the airplane.
Our flight home deserves a post it self. I still shudder when I think about it. We had one baby that didn’t sleep at all (though she was happy the whole flight), a 5 year old with an ear infection that caused her to wake up screaming every 30 minutes or so, a 2 year old who had night terrors, and a mom and dad who got NO sleep. I think everyone around us loved us. The only highlight was that we got to watch X-men: First Class and Tanner slept almost the entire flight. We had a layover in LA where we had some breakfast and then boarded a short flight to San Fransisco. Our flight was empty, so we had the entire back of the plane to ourselves, and our own stewardess that just happened to be e member of our church!
My dad picked us up from the airport and I feel asleep (as did the kids) as soon as we got in the car, and I slept until we pulled into my parents driveway. I spent the first part of the morning asleep, then my Mom and I went to go visit my newest niece Anabel (who was born while we were in Hawaii). After the visit we took a quick trip to the Ghiradelli outlet to restock our chocolate supply and share a dark chocolate shake with my mom. LAter that night we went out for chineses with my parents, my brother and his family, and my grandpa. We were able to get some cute pictures of the cousins!
Trent had slept the entire day, so we deiced to leave that night and drive through the night again to go home. On our way out of town we stopped at a gas station, and seriously I thought we had entered a scary movie. There were thousands of black birds just hanging out. I was surprised Trent even got out of the car. I stayed put and had my camera ready for when they attacked.
From there I slept most the way home (and the kids did not even wake up at all until we got into Salt Lake City). We arrived home just after 9am. We had such a fun trip, from visiting family, to being in Hawaii. We feel so blessed to have been able to make this trip! My biggest fear was that one of the kids was going to drown while we were there. I am so thankful that did not happen (even with Nadia’s many near death experiences).