Lately, when Mio hears the Japanese children’s song ito maki maki (ã„ã¨ã¾ãã¾ã, or “thread-winding”), she does the winding motion with her hands. She’s starting to catch onto things very quickly these days — I love observing all the new things she’s learning!
Mio couldn’t contain her excitement yesterday, while riding the swing at the park.
Here’s a funny video we took during our vacation, when Mio picked up my iPod Mini and started treating it as if it were a phone. We don’t blame her for mistaking the two different types of electronics. iPod, iPhone… what’s the difference, right? 😛
Picking up where we left off on Day Two, we explored more of West Maui on our third day. This was our last day staying in the Lahaina area, so we wanted to make the best of it! 🙂
We spent much of the early half of the day at Napili Kai Beach and Kapalua Beach, which are right next to each other. It was a great area to snorkel in, as well as to just sit back and enjoy the beach.
We got some great underwater pictures thanks to the underwater housing that we brought along for my point-and-shoot camera.
We discovered some sea turtles while snorkeling! We’d seen them last time we were at Tunnels Beach in Kauai two years ago, but it’s always such an exciting experience to see them.
Here are a couple underwater videos we took of the sea turtles!
Some more underwater pictures that we took…
Returning to the shore, we had a great time playing in the sand together.
For lunch, we went to Star Noodle in Lahaina, as a bunch of us were craving some ramen.
Next stop was D.T. Fleming Beach! It was so hot and we were experiencing some major food coma, so we just wanted to lay out in the shade and nap.
Later in the afternoon, we drove up North to see the Nakalele Blowhole. Mio was napping in the car, so Ted (who injured his foot) stayed behind with her while Dan, Kosei, Miwa, and I made the trek down to see the blowhole.
We had a wonderful time in West Maui, and thoroughly enjoyed all the beauty it had to offer! The next day, we’d move to our cottage in Kihei, and explore the central and Eastern part of the island during the rest of our stay.
With the rest of the family having arrived the night before, we could finally get our vacation off to a start with everyone on our second day in Maui. We fixed breakfast together, took a dip in the pool at our lodging, and then set out to hit the beaches!
A video of Mio giggling while playing on the beach with Uncle Ted:
After a couple hours at Kaanapali Beach, we moved a little further south in West Maui to Launiupoko Beach, which had a rocky cove, and had sand that was a lot darker, almost like a black sand beach. It was different from Kaanapali but still very beautiful!
Later in the afternoon, we drove over to downtown Lahaina area to visit the Banyan Tree Park.
We then walked around downtown Lahaina and did some souvenir shopping, and enjoyed an afternoon snack at Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice stand.
We had heard from our friend that Ululani’s had the best shave ice in all of the Hawaiian islands, and we were at first skeptical. Our favorite shave ice during our last trip to Hawaii was Waiola Shave Ice in Honolulu, which we’d found out about from our friends who had lived in Oahu who told us it was so much better than the more famous Matsumoto’s Shave Ice (and sure enough, Waiola was 10 times better than Matsumoto’s)! Dan and I have been having cravings for Waiola since our trip two years ago, so it was hard to imagine any shave ice could be better than Waiola — but we were pleasantly surprised to find that Ululani’s ice was really similar to Waiola, but even better! The ice was really fine and soft, the flavor variety expansive with their locally made syrup, combined with lots of great topping choices (like sweet cream, azuki beans, mochi pieces, and the option of adding ice cream at the bottom), and they poke holes throughout the shaved ice before pouring the syrup on so that it gets evenly saturated. It was truly shave ice perfection — so amazing! Ululani’s has since dethroned Waiola in our minds, and it’s now the new shave ice we dream of tasting again. (Thank you Komy for recommending it to us!)
Obligatory pictures of every one with their shave ice…
After a fun-filled day, we headed back to the condo to wash up, cook and eat dinner, and play board games at night (our favorite thing to do when we’re reunited with my siblings). I’ll post about Day Three next, in which we explore more of West Maui! 😀
(Special thanks to my brother Ted for taking some of the amazing photos that were used in this post.)