Aloha, 214

Our short trip to paradise was one for the memory books (or in this case, memory blog). We flew standby and is the case with that, there was risk. We checked and re-checked the flight availability and there were indeed, plenty of seats... even with the prior flight cancellation, we had plenty of open seats and we were thrilled to find ourselves in a row of our own with room to move. Two hours later, we were less thrilled when we still sat on the runway and learned the plane was 'broken,' the crew had gone 'illegal' (aka a new flight crew had to be called and had three hours to report to duty), and the new plane had 40 fewer seats. So we were bumped and bumped AND bumped. We finally arrived 22.5 hours after we left the house. We almost called it quits, but the allure of Maui and sheer will kept us going. Boy, are we glad it did. We arrived to 80-degree weather, beaches and a pool with a slide that kept all our boys (and Elena) happy for the better part of the trip. Though Elena never did venture down the slide on her own, she enjoyed lap trips with Papa and Daddy. Michael wasn't as impressed, but did enjoy the water and the 'kicking' (that happen to be nothing more than awkward hip thrusts). Elena found a dozen playmates at least, but couldn't be bothered to remember their names. She simply called the girls, 'friend,' the boys, 'boy' and my personal favorite was her reference to one girl in particular. She liked her a lot, but only remembered her room number. She became '214.'

We drove the Highway to Hana part of the way (beautiful), ate at the well known, Mama's Fish House and Cheeseburger in Paradise, made pina coladas in the room, snorkled (though I didn't this time), walked in Wailea and Lahaina and really just relaxed. There was a lot of sitting, sipping and eating. That's the beauty of Hawaii.

We returned this morning after very uneventful, almost enjoyable flights. We had six seats to ourselves and we all slept the whole flight from OGG to LAX. Michael continued his rest for most of the day and we are home, slightly tanned and very happy to have had the wonderful memories from the trip. I am proud of us for doing something so spontaneous and out of character. We are better for it and have created another great experience for this kids. Aloha and Mahalo, Maui. Thanks for having us, Dad.