Hawaii-Part 3

Saturday we woke up and decided to head to the surfing town of Paia, which is on the north shore of Maui. The concierge said it was a hippie town, but I don't think we realized how serious she was. We stopped at Maui Coffee roasters on the way for a light breakfast and then headed toward Paia. When we got there, we saw many hitchikers and tree hugging hippies. It was a neat town! We went to all of the shops and in one shop, the owner was definitly on some kind of drug. Still, she gave us the lowdown on where to go for lunch. We went find beach access to let Jackson play, but all we found was one access point with a ton of people sitting around playing guitar and smoking the wacky tabacky! ;) So instead of taking Jackson down there for a contact high, we let him run in a nearby field. He had a blast! Then we stopped at The Flatbread Company for lunch. They use all organic ingredients and cook in a wood fireplace. It was so good, but Jackson got fussy toward the end. We packed up and headed to Hana. Jackson fell asleep immediately and so Justin and I really got to enjoy the drive without too much distraction. The road to Hana is a 68 mile stretch of highway that is EXTREMELY windey and often goes to one lane. It takes about 2 1/2-3 hours just to get to Hana one way. There are many bridges and waterfalls along the way, but the views are simply breathtaking. You see black sand beaches, rainforest, and I even saw a mongoose! Since Jackson was sleeping, we werent able to get out and go exploring much but the drive in itself was enough. We made it withing 5 miles of the end and then we decided to go ahead and turn around. Jackson slept about half of the way back before waking up peacefully. We made a couple of stops along the way. One of which was Twin Falls, which we decided to hike to. We ended up passing right by it (nothing is marked) and then turned around and finally found it. I got so excited every time we saw a waterfall! Finally we drove back to the hotel and ate dinner at 808 cafe in Wailea. We had an excellent dinner in the terrace. I definitely recommend it!

Sunday was our last full day in Maui, so we had breakfast at Mala, the restaurant inside the Marriott Hotel and Spa. Then we drove to Mackena to the Maui Ocean Center so that Jackson could see all of the fish and run around. He was a WILD man inside the aquarium! I think he was so excited and he just kept running wild from tank to tank. We really had to run to keep up with him. We then grabbed lunch at the 808 deli and took it back to the room to eat. Jackson crashed and took a good long nap! Justin and I watched a little superbowl while Jackson napped. That night we went to a nearby restaurant, Pita Paradise for dinner. It was a cute boutique-y restaurant that served Greek Food. The owner is a fisherman and brings his catch to the restaurant every morning. They determine their menu on what he catches. The fish we ordered was literally caught less than 24 hours before we ate it. Everything was so good! We were sorry we didnt find the restaurant sooner. That night we had the most perfect sunset. It was our last sunset in Hawaii and was the most beautiful one of the whole trip. We were definitely sad to say goodbye.

Monday we had breakfast at Mala again because it was so convienient and then packed. We headed to the airport for our flight to LA. Jackson, once again, did great and once we boarded our flight from LAX to ATL, he passed out cold. He slept the whole night, although all but 2 hours were in my arms. Nothing says comfortable like holding a 30 lb child most of the night :) Neither Justin nor I got any sleep that night, but at least Jackson was getting some good shut-eye! We finally got into Charleston when Jackson woke up. Then we headed home to begin our life back in reality. Jackson took about 2-3 nights to fully adjust back to sleep, but it wasn't bad at all...just a few nights where he woke up for about 2-3 hours around 10 PM. Now we are back to normal.

Some highlights of the trip:

Jackson learned to say Hawaii out of nowhere. We landed in Hawaii and Justin said "It feels good to be back in Hawaii". All of the sudden, Jackson goes "HAWAII!" with a big grin on his face. We looked at eachother like "did he just say that?" but then he continued to say it constantly. Everyone we met just melted when Jackson said it to them. The locals really loved it. One night in Maui, Jackson said it in his sleep. He still says it every now and then. I swear, it is just the cutest thing ever!

If Jackson could tell you his favorite part, it would be the elevators. He was obsessed with the elevators everywhere we went and would get so excited. We had to take MANY rides for fun to keep him happy. All of the other hotel guests thought he was so adorable with how excited he was.

We were all healthy!! There is so much crud going around here in Charleston (croup, RSV, pneumonia) that we made the decision to pull Jackson out of Mothers Morning out a few weeks before our trip to try and prevent any sickness. We were also crazy with the anitbacterial gel (more so than usual! :) It all paid off and made our trip that much more enjoyable.

One major highlight was just all of us being there together. We were worried about how it would be traveling so far with Jackson, but he exceeded our expectations. Many people thought we were crazy for taking him, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Although Justin and I are pretty adventurous and there are things we would have like to have done (hikes/ziplines!!) that we werent able to do with him, nothing was more fun than having our sweet boy with us. We made so many fun memories as a family together and I know Jackson won't remember it, but me and Justin will. We hope to be back soon. It was a perfect vacation from start to finish!