Miami, Florida

We had this trip planned for months.  It just happened to piggy back on Hawaii.  So, too bad for us – Two tropical vacations in two weeks’ time! 

Jeremy has an aunt and uncle (Ned and Judy) and two cousins (Lori and Stephen) who live in Miami.  We have been saying forever that we would come visit.  We finally decided to do it.  Gloria joined us, and we caught a plane on Monday, March 26. 

We were able to stay with Ned and Judy for the three nights and four days we were there.  They are excellent hosts.  Plus, it gave me a chance to get to know them better.  They also have a pool, which the girls were very excited about. 

Lori and her husband, Ryan, met us for a good Cuban meal at La Carreta.  We enjoyed plantains (fried, sweet, and mashed), pork, chicken, black beans, rice, and more.  It was delicious.  We went to Ned and Judy’s to relax and settle in for the night. 

On Tuesday, we ate some cheesy scrambled eggs with sausage and toast for breakfast, fixed by Chef Ned.  We gathered our things and headed to Coopertown to get an air boat ride through the Everglades.  It was a good time.  We saw a variety of animals, including some alligators.

              

At the end, we were able to hold a baby alligator!

         

From there, we went to Everglades National Park Shark Valley Visitor Center.  We walked the boardwalk a short distance.  We even saw two alligators in the wild here! (There are alligators in both these pictures in the grass.)

   

We headed home for the rest of the day.  The girls took a swim in the pool with Jeremy; I went on a walk on a really nice walking path around a park near their home.  For supper, Lori, Ryan, Stephen, and Paula (his wife) joined us for grilled hamburgers/hot dogs and sides.  It was a relaxing evening visiting with one another. 

 

On Wednesday, we started the morning with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.  It was a great place.  We went on a tram ride of the entire gardens.

              

Then, we walked back through some of it to see the Tropical Butterfly Garden, which was super cool.  It was alive with so many butterflies. 

    

The flowers were colorful; they had a whole orchid garden.

                          

The second half of the day we went to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne.  It was a nice beach.  The weather was so comfortable, the beach was almost unnecessary…. meaning, you didn’t really need to cool off.  It was still a good time.  Ellie enjoyed the water; the waves were much gentler here than Hawaii.  I think because they broke on a reef or sand bar fairly far from shore first.  So, we played, jumped in the ocean, and dug in the sand. 

                   

That night we had everyone back again for Pollo Tropical (restaurant in town) food and stone crabs – YUM!  The girls reluctantly showered and headed to bed before the party was officially over. 

Thursday morning the girls swam for about 2 hours, while we watched and chatted. 

    

Finally, we packed up, showered, and headed out around 11:30am.  Our flight left at 3:55pm which gave us time to enjoy lunch before going. 

We arrived home around 9pm and fell into bed.

Maui, Hawaii

Jeremy was asked to go to Hawaii for work.  It seemed like a great opportunity to go with him!  I talked to my school and they were supportive and generous in allowing me to go.  (No, it wasn’t a paid vacation, but I still was able to take time off right before spring break, which I didn’t think was possible.)  While looking at flights, we found a great fare for tickets.  We decided then to take the girls with us and make it a family vacation. 

We told them on a Wednesday night with a little bag of goodies and the book Junie B. First Grader Aloha-ha-ha by Barbara Parks.  We have read this book numerous times, so we just introduced their gift bags with it.  In their gift bags were a lei, a camera, and sand toys.  They weren’t entirely sure what was going on, so we finally gave them a printed flight itinerary with their names on it!  Madison squealed and smiled non-stop.  Ellie started crying – which is not really an unusual reaction when she is VERY excited or overwhelmed.  They had one week to wait to go. 

We left on Thursday, March 15 by 4:30am from our house.  (Well, the girls and I did.  Jeremy was already in Honolulu getting the first part of his work done.)  Our flight went from Cleveland to San Francisco to Maui.  Each leg was roughly 5-1/2 hours.  The girls did great.  They looked out the window, watched movies, went to the bathroom, colored (briefly), read a book, and just sat contentedly.  The views from the plane were amazing as we flew across the continent.  I was in awe of the mountain ranges this flight. 

    

While the trip went smoothly, we had one little snafu in San Fran.  Our connection in San Fran was about 55 minutes.  I checked the computer monitors when we got off the plane.  We were at gate 60 and needed to be at gate 80 for the next flight; it was a looooong walk away.  So, we walked until we were almost there, sat down, and had lunch.  When I looked at the boarding pass, I realized that we needed to get moving; it had slipped my mind how early you board.  As we got to gate 80, I saw that that plane was headed to… Las Vegas!  We were not!!!  I quickly looked at another computer monitor only to see that our plane was boarding at gat 62 – waaaaay back where we came from.  I asked an attendant at the gate to please call ahead and let them know we were coming.  We walked/ran to our gate.  They were waiting for us when we arrived, and we were the last ones on the plane!  I found out that there was some computer glitches happening – not helpful.

We arrived safely in Maui (and on time). 

We waited briefly for Jeremy to arrive on his flight from Oahu. 

   

Then, we took off to our first place of lodging – Sugar Beach Resort.  It was a great place right on the beach with a big pool to enjoy also.  We headed to the beach right away to test the water and the sand.  We finally went to bed at 7:30pm (1:30am EST) – exhausted, but happy.

  

Friday

Jeremy had a bit of work to still do this day.  In the morning, the girls wanted to swim in the pool. 

    

Then, he picked us up, and we went to his next job site with him.  He worked.  We had lunch and played on the beach. 

    

We did a little shopping around Banyan Tree Park in Lahaina.  And headed “home.”

       

Saturday

We moved housing to Kekoa Kai Resort.  Both of our places were in Kihei. 

We took this day to go exploring the island.  We headed up Haleakala Crater.  This was a curving, up-the-mountain drive.  The views were amazing.  The crater was unlike anything I had seen before.  The plant below is called a Silversward.  It blooms once every 50 years to reproduce and then it is done.  The blooms come on the tall portion that grows from the doom shaped plant.

          

On the way back, we stopped at Ali’i Kula Lavendar Farm.  It was a bit foggy and misty, but a good detour. 

         

Finally, that night we went to a Hula show at a nice mall courtyard.  It was fun to experience this without the stress of tickets, crowds, and late nights of a luau. 

Sunday

This was our beach day!  We went to Po’olenalena Beach first.  It ended up having great snorkeling for Jeremy.  He saw a leatherback turtle, green sea turtles, and colorful fish.  Madison and I tried snorkeling as well.  The water was very clear – some of us are just braver than others! 

    

We also went to Wailea Beach.  It had more sand – white sand.  The winds had picked up some, but it was still fun to jump waves and sit on the beach.

   

We topped the day off with some pool time – Ellie’s request. 

Monday

This was our big paid adventure morning.  We went with the Pacific Whale Foundation on a Whale Watching Boat Ride.  It was a drizzly day, but when we got out on the ocean, we found a hole in the clouds and enjoyed sunshine!  We spotted several whales coming up for air – mommas and babies even! 

         

We also got to hear them singing when they dropped a hydrophone in the ocean.  It was pretty cool.

Other things worth noting: Ululani’s Shave Ice stand – amazing!  Sugar Beach Bakery – malasadas (fresh Portuguese donuts) – delicious! Walks on the beach – worth it!  Flowers – colorful and unique!

           

Our flight left that afternoon: Maui to Chicagao (7 hours through the night) to Cleveland.  (Chicago at 6:30am)

It was good to be home.