Maui

Ruby has had a number of firsts recently. She had her first Thanksgiving, which was fairly uneventful. I was way too busy with work this year to do my regular 48-hour cook-a-thon Thanksgiving meal, and even if I had the time, it would have been much harder with a baby attached to me the whole time. Plus we were leaving for vacation right afterwards, so we couldn't have leftovers. We decided to try the pre-cooked Thanksgiving dinner from Whole Foods, and even though I've heard lots of good things about it, it just didn't measure up to home-cooked Thanksgiving. Ruby wasn't able to partake in the dinner either because I didn't want to start her on solids right before we went on our trip. We are hoping by Christmas Ruby will be able to eat her own pureed version of Christmas dinner.

My parents flew in for Thanksgiving from the East Coast, and we all left for Maui together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. For weeks now I had been preparing all the necessary baby materials for this trip, most of which involved some form of defense against the sun (baby sunscreen, hats, UV-resistant swimsuits/rashguards, baby sunglasses, and a pop-up tent for the beach, all of which was packed along with more clothes, diapers, and toys than we ever ended up needing). As our luggage exceeded the capacity of our car, my dad drew the short straw and had to take the Super Shuttle to the airport.

Navigating the airport with the baby was pretty simple. We ended up taking Ruby's carseat and a Snap 'N Go stroller, which we gate checked, and we got to go through the special Families and Special Needs line at security. Here's Ruby excited to board a plane for the first time:



One of my concerns about air travel was possible exposure to communicable disease, so I armed both my parents and I with spray bottles of 70% ethanol from the lab to spray down our entire airplane seat and its vicinity. Fortunately, our flight was fairly empty, and we had a spare seat for Ruby next to us, as well as an entire empty row of seats next to and behind us. We brought Ruby's carseat on board, but we didn't end up using it because she was much happier being held the whole time.



It was a 5 hour flight to Maui, so two naps, two feedings, and two diaper changes later, we arrived. We stayed at my parents' timeshare at the Ka'anapali Beach Club on the western side of the island. The impetus of this whole trip was actually an attempt to use up their remaining timeshare points for the year before they expired, as my parents are workaholics and never go on vacation (yes, they were the ones checking work email on the beach). The best part of the accomodations were the sweeping ocean views in every room, as we discovered when we woke up the next morning.



The first day Steve and I rented some snorkels and tested them out on the beach. Steve was somewhat apprehensive about snorkelling because he is not buoyant. We decked Ruby out in all of her sungear, and she hung out on the beach with my parents.



The weather that day was somewhat inclement, by Hawaii's standards, with winds and intermittent showers, so we eventually had to take refuge in a nearby hotel. The following day, we took a boat out on a snorkelling trip in the morning.



The intended destination was Molikini crater, a very popular snorkel spot off the southwest coast of Maui, but due to high winds, we were redirected to a more protected cove closer to shore. Steve, my dad, and I all tried out snorkelling while my mom stayed with Ruby on the boat. Although initially Steve did not dare to enter the water without a floatation device, he got the hang of it quickly and actually took to snorkelling quite well.



I really enjoyed swimming with the all the fishies, although I discovered that snorkelling for too long made me feel a bit seasick. Since my mom didn't get to snorkel on the boat, that afternoon we took her to a popular snorkel location by the beach called the Black Rock.



There were also a ton of fish to see, but the visibility was not as good as where the boat took us. My mom had a bit of trouble with snorkelling because she had a tendency to panic and then stop breathing through her mouth. She is also not used to swimming in water deeper than what she can stand in, so she had to stay very close to shore. The one time she drifted slighly further out, she had to enlist the help of a nearby elderly gentleman to pull her back in. After all that, she claims she was only able to see one fish. :-\

The following day, we drove up to the summit of Haleakala Mountain. At an elevation of over 10,000 ft, we were far above the clouds.





We were able to enjoy some interesting moon-like topography.



Ruby was really exhausted after all that hiking.



That evening, Steve and I decided to take advantage of the free babysitting and go out to a nice restaurant, so we had our first date night in more than 6 months. Of course we just talked about the baby the whole time.

The next day we went to the northern part of the island to visit the Nakalele Blowhole. Ruby was quite pleased.



We were a bit confused because the trail to the blowhole was not clearly marked, but Steve thought it was thataway.



After a treacherous hike in flip flops and a dress, we made it to the blowhole.



Ruby was unimpressed.



Later that day we took Ruby to the pool for her first swim, which she seemed to mildly enjoy.



As that evening was our last night in Hawaii, Steve and I went to a luau called The Feast at Lele while my parents watched Ruby for us. This was sort of a more sophisticated version of a traditional luau, so there was no pig on a spick. We were all seated at individual tables and served our food course by course. Each of the courses represented the cuisine from a different island: Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Samoa. Everything was super good! The dinner included an unlimited number of yummy tropical cocktails, which we would have taken advantage of even more if I didn't have to worry about getting the baby drunk by proxy. Along with each course there was also a performance that represented that particular region. I thought it was one of the best parts of the whole trip. Next time we will take Ruby to see it.



In the end, we all had a lot of fun on our Hawaiian vacation. It's definitely somewhere we would like to return to, and we've already talked about all the things Ruby could do the next time. At Ruby's age, going on vacation is always more for the adults, so I think we will have even more fun next time because we will get to see Ruby enjoy it for herself.