Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Day Three: Whale Watching, Lahaina, Wailea

March 9th our family vacation officially began!  Jim was done with work, so we packed up our gear, checked out of our first hotel, Jim upgraded our rental car to a minivan (it was magic car!  All the kids had to do was say a magic word and their doors would open!), and we set off to explore the island.

We started our journey taking a drive to Lahaina.  On the way we saw buckets of whales swimming in the ocean, so we pulled over and whale watched for a bit.  We even saw one jump out of the water!  I missed it with my camera, but it was majestic.

Jim and Hunter checking out the whales
The kiddies and me posing for a pic while whale watching

My three favorite people
A family of whales!
Once we made it to Lahaina, we explored for a bit.  Lahaina is a quaint touristy town with lots of little shops and restaurants.  There's also a huge Banyan tree in a park area we explored, as well as the pier where you can purchase tickets for whale watching cruises, rafting trips, snorkeling boat tours, or catch a glass bottom boat tour like we did (we told the kids we were going on a submarine ride).
We stopped for some authentic Hawaiian shaved ice -- yum!
We went with the rainbow flavor, and as a result our tongues all turned a lovely shade of black.

I copied and pasted this explanation from a website:  This Banyan Tree was planted in April, 1873, and marked the 50th Anniversary of Christian missionary work in Lahaina. The tree was imported from India and was only 8 feet tall. It now stands over 60 feet high, has 12 major trunks in addition to a huge core. It stretches over a 200-foot area and shades 2/3 of an acre.

Tralee loved playing around the Banyan tree

Cute girl

This is what the Banyan tree looks like from outside its shade
Tralee wanted to do a photoshoot.  She told me all the poses we had to do.

Jim and the kid-os right before our submarine ride

Under the sea!
We saw lots of coral, various tropical fish, a sea turtle, two octopus, and then I got sea sick.  I spent the rest of the tour above deck.  Eventually Jim and the littles joined me up there.  This will probably be the last boating adventure our family takes for a while.
 After our fantastic time in Lahaina, we drove to Wailea where our hotel was.  We checked in, unloaded, went out to dinner, purchased some groceries (snacks for the room and a birthday cake for Jim), walked to the beach at dusk, went swimming, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jim and ate birthday cake (his b-day was actually on the 8th, but he was working all that day so we celebrated on the 9th), and then hit the hay!
Our room when we first arrived.

We has absolutely nothing planned for the next day except to do whatever our little hearts desired.
HEAVEN!  



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1 comment:

Boom said...

What a nice view from your room! Love the pictures!