Flying to Maui…
After a long, drawn out day of traveling for over 10hrs, eating the worst, bloat inducing food ever on the plane, we get to the Maui Banyan in Kihei with completely exhausted kids (about 1:30am according to their internal clocks). Checked in, hauled luggage, kids, and food (from a stop at Costco) to our room. Then, a high-pitched alarm sound goes off and will not stop. We can’t find the culprit. It is coming from the bathroom, but no actual source can be located. My boys are slumped together on the couch, laying on each other, begging to go to sleep. I call the front desk. They send security. Big burly dude, white shirt, shows up at our door, looking none to happy. He hears the alarm sound, searches the condo and can’t find the source. I tell him we obviously can’t stay in the room with this alarm going off and we need to be moved. He gives us a “good luck with that” look. My son whimpers “Mom, I can’t sleep with the noise.”
I head down to the lobby and plead my case to Nia, who is working the front desk on her own. Phone calls are coming in and more families need to check in. The quick fix is to move us into a hotel room for the night and then move us again in the morning into a condo like we have originally reserved. But, that won’t work. We have a week’s worth of food to put in the condo fridge and I don’t want my kiddos moved again if possible. In the end, Nia works her magic, says she can move us into another condo with the same setup we have reserved, but, it’s two buildings away. I am grateful that we will only have to move once more tonight. I run up five flights of stairs to the room and with the alarm still sounding off, tell my boys we are going to move. My sons are troopers. They have every right to be losing it right now, but they soldier on. Brett and I get them settled into bed in the new room and we continue to do multiple trips for luggage, food and parking the car. Good news, the condo is great and we are so grateful we are settled in.
The sun rises, it’s a new day, our first in Maui. We slept nine hours and wow do we feel good!
The day rolls out…
- Eat a happy, healthy breakfast, filling up with fresh fruit, organic scrambled eggs and whole wheat bread. Yes, finally some REAL FOOD! Drink lots of water.
- Boys do their schoolwork: math, reading and writing, while Brett and I work.
- We “roll out” our sore bodies from traveling with the therapy rollers we packed.
- Walk to the beach. The boys play in the waves while Brett and I get in our workout using the ocean waves. Check! Workout done. Drink lots of water. Meet a family from Canada with two boys who are same age as Kellen and Blake. They overhear us discussing the possibility of purchasing boogie boards and they jump in and offer to give us theirs since they are leaving that night. So cool!
- Walk to lunch at Fred’s Mexican Grill. Drink more water. Meet two couples from Seattle at the restaurant who help us out with suggestions for when we move hotels to Lahaina. Thanks Tom & Nancy and Bill & Lydia.
- Walk to the store for beach mats and swim shirts. Meet a couple from Calgary, also walking to the store, who tell us to try Kihei Café and give us tips for when we get to Auckland.
- Walk to condo, climb stairs and everyone takes some alone time to chill, read, etc.
- Walk to the beach again to experience the sunset while Kellen and Blake practice music on their guitar and ukulele. Smiles all around as people stop and listen to them on the beach. Drink more water.
- Walk to the condo. Climb stairs. Drink water.
- Open the glass doors, let the breeze wash over us, lower the lights and lead the whole family in a gentle restorative stretch. Blake keeps reaching out to hold my hand through out and my heart just melts. Drink water. We end in a circle, connecting with a beautiful family hug.
- Sweet, low key energy to end the day and we all go to bed early.
This is a dream day. Doing 3 simple things that are part of Fit Family Robinson mindset:
1 – Water
2 – Walk
3 – Connect
Drink mostly water. Walk more places. Connect as a family, connect with others and connect within. This is living happy, healthy and fit. It is, for me, living an authentic life. I want more days like these.
Tags: Beach, Costco, ffr, fit family robinson, fitfamilyrobinson, Fred's Mexican, guitar, Hawaii, Kihei, Maui, Maui Banyan, Sunset, ukulele
