The Jurado Journal: Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Our first family Christmas with Addy was wonderful. We were able to spend time with a lot of friends and family, and the time off was refreshing. Addy showed us her first smile at 4 weeks and now she is doing it daily. It's amazing to watch her grow and change each day. She is not allowing us to sleep in yet, but it's well worth it to be able to spend more time with her. We don't want to miss anything! Addy can be quite fussy at times, and she's not afraid to let you know when she wants something. The funny thing is that when friends and family come to see her, she's just the perfect little angel. Looks like we're going to have to have friends and family over more often. Here's wishing all of you a very merry Christmas and a blessed and happy new year!

We also wanted to announce that Carrie and Dave welcomed James Michael to the world on December 20. He weighed 8 lb. 4 oz and we hear he looks a lot like Ben (we'll be meeting him soon). Carrie had some complications after she returned home and unfortunately had to return to the hospital. But we are so thankful that she is doing much better and gaining more strength each day. We posted a few pictures of James in "Addy's first Christmas" album.

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Our Hawaiian Voyage

We started the trip in Detroit, for a scheduled 3 hour layover in Las Vegas. When we loaded the plane in Las Vegas, we were greeted by an announcement that there was an issue with one of the lavatories and the Captain’s chair, and that we needed to wait for them to fix both before we took off. They expected to have things fixed in 15 minutes or so. Well, a half hour came and went, and still nothing was fixed. An hour came by, and we were told that things were fixed; now they were just waiting for the paperwork. A couple more hours went by, and then we were told that if the pilots took us to Maui, they would be past their required daily work limit of 15 hours. They would need to take us Phoenix, and a new crew would take us from Phoenix to Maui, but in order to do that, they would need to de-fuel the plane so that we wouldn’t be too heavy to land in Phoenix.

At this point they allowed people to get off the plane, but warned us to stay close so we could leave as soon as we could. Not knowing how much longer it would be, we decided to stay on the plane. A couple more hours passed, and we were told that the truck that came to take some gas off the plane wasn’t big enough, so they were waiting for another truck to take the remaining fuel off.

Meanwhile, we were hearing rumors that car rental agencies only stay open until 10:30pm Hawaii time. With all the delays we weren’t certain if we would make it on time. We frantically tried to call to make sure that our hotel and car accommodations would still be there no matter what time we arrived. Finally after a 5 ½ hour delay, we left Las Vegas for Phoenix. Once in Phoenix, we needed to refuel and get a new crew aboard, and then we were off.

We finally ended up in Maui by midnight, and after picking up our rental car we didn’t arrive at our hotel until 2am. With all the delays, we lost a day of our vacation. It ended up being a 23 hour voyage!

Our original plan was to get up to watch sunrise on the Haleakala Crater on our first morning, since we wouldn’t be adjusted to the time difference yet. Since we came in so late, we decided to just play it by ear, and see when we could do it later in the week.

Day 1

We decided to begin the day with an Island Orientation Breakfast. After the orientation, we booked our snorkel trip to the Molokini Crater, and at Turtle Town. We also asked where the closest grocery store was so we could save some money on making our own breakfasts and lunches during our hikes. We were told that it was just down the road on Front Street. We stopped for lunch along the way, and got to check out Old Lahaina Town. There were a lot of cool shops and restaurants along the way. About a half hour into our walk to the grocery store we decided to ask someone how much further the Safeway Grocery Store was. A local let us know that it was only about 15 minutes up across a bridge. Another half hour passed, and so we asked another person. We finally made it to the Safeway about an hour and a half after leaving the hotel. We couldn’t buy a lot of groceries though, because we knew we had to walk back. On our way back, we stopped at the mall to watch some local hula dancers. We also needed to pick up some comfortable shoes (we probably should have done this before we headed out, but we didn’t think the walk was going to be as long as it was). Marie got some cool crocs. When we got back to the hotel, we decided to just spend some time hanging out. It was nice to just hang out, hearing the waves and wind hit the palm trees. Not being fully adjusted to the time difference yet, we still felt pretty tired. We later had dinner at Buzz’s Warf in Maalaea Harbor.

Day 2

We got up early to take the Road to Hana, which is 52 miles of windy road that passes by some of the most beautiful scenery that you could ever imagine. The trip is not for those in a rush. The locals drive in a kind of an aggressive manner, so it’s smart to just get out of their way. The road meanders through 617 curves. Many parts of the road narrows to only one lane bridges. Although the drive can be very frustrating, it is well worth it. Because there a many blind curves, you often need to honk your horn to let oncoming traffic know that you are on the way. There were a couple of times where we were nearly run off a few bridges. The locals would just flash us the hang loose symbol and keep driving. I, of course, wanted to flash a different hand signal, but I held back. Along the road you could smell the exotic flowers and fruit. We stopped along the way at a fruit stand to pick up some apple-bananas and papayas. We even stopped at a black sand beach to take a few pictures which was beautiful. In Hana, there is a red sand beach. It’s pretty secluded; so many nudists come to this beach. To get there, we headed up a sandy/gravel trail. On the way, our feet would start to slip. Looking over the edge didn’t help, because you saw a slope that only led down into a rocky beach about 30 feet down. When we made it to the top, there was another trail that led further up. This time, the slope to the right was even greater, but you could hold onto some tree roots on your left. At the top of that trail was this red rock that looked so beautiful against the ice blue water. We stopped to soak in the scenery. We could see the red sand beach, but weren’t sure how to get there. We were going to turn around and leave, but we ran into a family from Michigan. They told us that we needed to go further to get to the beach, so we followed. In order to get down there, you needed to follow a narrow path down, clinging to the rock as you worked your way down. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. We finally made it down to the beach, where we saw a few nudists frolicking in the surf. I’m glad we didn’t take any pictures of that. We hung out there for a little bit, and then decided to head to the O’heo Gulch. The beginning of the drive wasn’t bad, until it got to a point where the road narrowed…a lot. I thought the drive to Hana was narrow...this was even worse. We arrived at the O’heo Gulch state park to more beautiful waterfalls and landscapes. We saw the Seven Sacred Pools, but unfortunately we couldn’t swim in them because the tide was too high. We worked our way up to the Pipiwai Trail where we saw some strange children who told us to watch out for the wild boars because they might kill us. We thought they were strange, but we kept walking. We made it to this beautiful bamboo forest. It was beautiful hearing the trees sway. It was a little dark in the forest because the trees were so tall, so at this point I began to think about how bad it would be to drive back to the hotel in the dark. We decided to keep heading on to the end of the trail. We arrived at the end of the trail to this amazing 200 foot waterfall. It was well worth it. We took some beautiful photos there, and then headed back. We made it through the worst part of the drive by the time the sun came down. What a relief. We got to Paia, for dinner and a drink. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. By the time we got back to the hotel we were too tired to do anything more.

Day 3

We took a drive to the Tedeschi Vineyards on the Ulupalakua Ranch. It’s another beautiful drive. Not as windy as the Road to Hana, but after taking that drive we feel like we can drive anywhere now. Along the drive you could smell the eucalyptus forests. We packed a few sandwiches for a picnic. At the winery we tasted a few nice pineapple wines. They were so good. We picked up a bottle or two, and I picked up some cigars. We started to look for a spot to set up our picnic, when a wild pig jumped out into the road. We almost ran it over, but it quickly ran back to where it was coming from. We ended up finding a beautiful overlook to stop and have our picnic over looking the Haleakala Crater on one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other. After our picnic, we headed back to our hotel to spend some time relaxing on the beach. We needed to head back to make sure we made it on time to check in at the Old Lahaina Luau. We were excited to taste the wonderful food and sip many, many Mai Tai’s!!! We met some really nice newlyweds from Baltimore. Hopefully we’ll get to hang out with them again sometime, as they will be in Ann Arbor in the spring. The Luau was awesome. Just seeing the tradition, tasting the food, and drinking the drinks could make anyone fall in love all over again.

Day 4

We got up early for our snorkel excursion. The snorkeling trip was out of the Pacific Whale Foundation in Maalaea Harbor. It was very windy, so we weren’t sure if we were going to get the opportunity to head out. The captain wanted to make sure that wind wouldn’t affect visibility under water. The captain decided to take us out hoping that the Haleakala Crater would block the wind enough for some calmer waters out at the Molokini Crater. He was right, and the water was calm. It was a bit cool at 70 degrees, but it was bearable, and the fish and coral were gorgeous. On the way out to the crater, we were greeted by many humpback whales. We only caught the backs of many whales as the dove deep into the water. After our first snorkel adventure in Molokini Crater, the captain headed us to Turtle Town to swim with the turtles. On our way we saw many more humpback whales. The captain would slow down so that we could marvel at their beauty and size. Every time we would spot a whale, however, it would start at our 1:00 position, and end up closer to our boat at our 9:00 position. We sat on the right side of the boat, so we ended up missing the best parts! A whale even breached out of the water, but we missed it! We got to Turtle Town, and saw a turtle swimming out to see. When we got into the water there were more beautiful coral and fish. Every time someone said they saw a turtle, I headed in that direction to find out that they had already gone. At one point, I thought I saw one under the reef, but it only ended up being a scuba diver. Oh well, it was still beautiful. We ended the evening with dinner at the Hula Grill in Kaanapali.

Day 5

This was our last day in Maui which was pretty depressing. We packed our bags and checked out of our hotel room at around 10am, and headed to the Haleakala Crater. The couple we met at the Luau suggested that it was something we needed to see. We headed up to it where it is a 10,000 foot view from the top of the world. We missed the sunrise, but it was still awesome. We saw beautiful views of what looked like a moon-scape looking down onto the clouds. On the way up, there were signs warning of free ranging cattle that might possibly be crossing the road. The roads were slow and windy again, but not as narrow as the Road to Hana. The difference was that we drove in through the clouds, and there weren’t a lot of guard rails along the way. It seemed that the drop off the road was quite steep, but it wasn’t that bad. It was such an incredible drive. We stopped for dinner at the Blue Marlin in Maalaea Harbor, and after headed to the airport for our flight home. We flew from Maui to Phoenix, and Phoenix to Detroit. We finally made it home. Although there were many things that challenged our patience throughout the trip, we would still love to go back. The trip was well worth it, and we can’t wait to go back!