Life After Hawaii

 Hannah was only home for a couple of days before she left again - this time for Florida! One of her best friends is an only child, so her parents let her invite a friend to go on vacation with them. 

Mr. Jones kindly got up early with her each day so she could get her miles in.

In the spring, Matthew had asked me if one day this summer we could drive to Strongsville (near Cleveland) to go to "a really big Dick's". He was not wrong! This Dick's is called "House of Sport", and it has two floors, a golf simulator, and a climbing wall, among other things. Matthew had a few gift cards that he had saved from birthdays and Christmas. He used them to help pay for school shoes and soccer cleats (so he could get Jordans that were above the budget we were willing to pay) and a new shirt. We also recently discovered Dick's outlet store "Going, Going, Gone", so we stopped there, as well.

Getting ice cream at Katie's Korner with friends after volunteering at camp

For a couple of days we had hazardous air conditions due to Canadian wildfires. I had promised Kensleigh that I would take her to the pool, but Maca (and all outdoor activities) was closed. We pivoted to an indoor pool and came back home for a tea party. 

Hannah and I went to the Alive Festival to see Lauren Daigle perform. 

Gramme came over to watch the final world cup game with us, spend time with us before her travels, and bring Micah his completed graduation gift. 

more helping at camp

The first official football practice is Saturday, but they've already been having optional practices three nights a week and had a little scrimmage on Monday.

And Hannah is off to cross country camp for the week! This is the biggest team they've had in many years; it should be an exciting season!

Hawaii - Maui, part two

 Our community had a pool right at the edge of the ocean; we went to enjoy a sunset swim. 

For our last full day we decided to rent a couple of surfboards and a snorkel set and spend the day close to home. But first, coffee...

...and pastries...

...and a hot dog (which was a disappointment in comparison to the puka dog in Kauai)...

...and a few holes of disc golf (which involved climbing trees to retrieve discs). 

We went to a popular beach for snorkeling...

...then back home for some surfing and boogie boarding.

(I made him pose for this picture.)

The next morning we packed up, returned our equipment, grabbed some snacks, and headed back to the airport. Although we had a red eye flight, our travel time was significantly less (we only had one layover, and flying east is faster), so it was not as terrible as I was expecting. We returned home tired, tan(ish), and happy with wonderful memories of a special experience. 

Hawaii - Maui, part one

 Our condo in Maui was by far the nicest of the three places we stayed. Our first two homes were fine and met our needs, but to me it had the feel of being at a camp or a cabin - no air conditioning, interesting furniture, occasional bugs and lizards, making do with what was in the kitchen, etc. The condo, however, was newly updated, clean, beautiful, comfortable, and air conditioned. It was in a gated community that had pickle ball, beach access, and a pool overlooking the ocean. 

Sadly, in 2023 there were devastating wildfires in the area where we were staying. The town of Lahaina is still struggling to rebuild. It would have been sweet to have shops and coffee within walking distance like we did in Kauai, but we were able to find all we needed within a short drive. 

view from the airplane

I thought it was interesting how there was a clear line where development stopped.

The day we arrived was the 4th of July. The closest place we could find fireworks being advertised was a 45 minute drive. (We believe Lahaina used to host them, but stopped after the fire.) It was a little bit stressful trying to navigate a new area and find a place to park and something to eat. We ended up at a beach about a mile from where they were being set off.  Scott and the older kids braved slow service and limited options to get take-out for us while Matthew and I enjoyed the sunset on the beach. (I was a little worried about Hannah, as she was just recovering from being sick, but she soldiered through.)

One of the views from our community:

I had to take pickle ball pictures from every direction to capture all the different backdrops.

And now a collection of rainbow pictures:

We couldn't get a picture of one of the best ones because you had to be pretty far out in the water to get an unobstructed view, but it was beautiful!

We really appreciated that our condo included beach chairs, boogie boards, inner tubes, and a snorkel set. 

On Monday, we got up early to do part of the famous "Road to Hana". If you're not familiar, it's "a legendary 64-mile scenic drive on Maui's northeast coast, featuring 620 curves and 59 one-lane bridges." The entire road is full of hairpin turns and narrow shoulders; it's a very challenging drive. From everything we read and heard ahead of time, we knew that although there are many amazing waterfalls and sights along the way, nothing is marked. You have to use a guide and pay attention to mile markers to know where you are. We also discovered that there were very few safe places to park. 

We had an hour's drive to get to the beginning. Knowing that some of us struggle with carsickness on windy roads and the fact that we wanted to be back in time to watch the USA World Cup game, we picked a handful of potential stops to try within the first 20 miles of the Road to Hana. 

Our first stop was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. There was a small little shoulder just big enough for us to get the car off the road after one of the many one-lane bridges. Micah found a little path through the wildlife that led us to a river. We had to climb upstream through the river (the guidebook made it sound like we would be picking our way across dry boulders, but it had just rained, so we were wading and stepping on wet rocks). I think each of us slipped a little at some point, but the end result was totally worth it! We had an incredibly high waterfall surrounded by lush foliage all to ourselves!

Thanks to Meghan's advice, we all had water shoes as we waded our way upstream.

The water was mostly shallow, but moving very quickly at times.

Our next stop was the Keanae Peninsula, where you can get Aunt Sandy's famous banana bread. (It was good and warm, but not as good as mine ;) )  The peninsula was one of the few places with spaces to park so we could take pictures of the waves hitting the lava rock coastline. 

We decided not to attempt our next two potential stops. We would have had to park precariously and walk back on the narrow road with almost no visibility. Instead, we decided to stop at an overlook, then start the journey back. 

Almost back at the beginning, we had bypassed "Twin Falls" originally, but decided to stop this time since we weren't able to complete our other plans.

There were several waterfalls, but we walked to this one, where people were jumping. All three kids went for it!

We made one more stop on our drive back to Lahaina at a beach that is known for surfers and wind surfers - and had a bathroom where the kids could change out of their bathing suits. We then went straight to a local food court that was hosting a watch party. Scott and Micah had scoped it out earlier and helped us time it perfectly so we got one of the last available tables. Although the game didn't go well for the U.S., it was a fun environment.