Well, with all the other “distractions” in my life I haven’t really written or planned too much for this trip. As some of you may recall, my parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

Dad, Mom & Sammi at Sammi's Bat Mitzvah

Dad, Mom & Sammi at Sammi’s Bat Mitzvah

So to celebrate, they’re taking all of us, my family and my brother’s to Maui for a week. My brother used to live there, so we’ve spent time there together before the children (aka grandchildren) arrived.

I want the girls to see Pearl Harbor, so in the totally untrue SlowTrav spirit, I tacked on a day at the front of the trip for Ohau (I was hoping for longer but as it is Becky’s taking a final and leaving for the airport right afterward – luckily I hadn’t scheduled that earlier flight). We’ll leave Thursday afternoon, and arrive Thursday night. Andrew and Katy’s kids finished school over a week ago, so they’re heading to Oahu on Wednesday. Mom and Dad decided to go for alone time, and are heading straight to Maui on Wednesday. On Saturday, all the “kids” will head over to Maui to join my parents – we’ll all be there for a week before catching late-night-flights and arriving home the next morning.

So here’s what we have on the “agenda” so far.

Friday morning we’re rising early (the four of us that is), to take a tour of Pearl Harbor. I found this company, E Noa Tours, and booked their Pearl Harbor Excursion. We won’t have a car on Oahu, and I wanted a tour of just Pearl Harbor, most of them combine that with other sites (e.g., Punch Bowl, Diamond Head) but I didn’t want that, I wanted just Pearl Harbor because I’m really not a “large group tour” person. And one of my not-so-great memories of Oahu was a tour we took there – the Pearl Harbor part was fantastic, but I just remember feeling completely trapped and bored on the parts afterward. I also wanted an early pick-up (because, let’s face it, our jet-lagged bodies will rise early that morning) and this one has one – we’ll get picked up at 6:30am and returned to our hotel about 10:30am. At a cost of $24 per person, I figured good deal.

Afterward, I’m meeting Girasoli of Shave Ice and Gelato fame as she graciously offered to do a tour for us of the windward side of the island or the north shore (either works for me) but of course, we’ll have lunch first!

Friday also happens to be my sister in-law, Katy’s birthday, so to celebrate we’re heading over to the Hau Tree for dinner. We have good memories of that place – not so much the food (can’t recall good or bad) but of sitting out on the beach to have dinner.

Saturday, we’re up early to catch a 9:30am flight from Oahu to Maui. I think we’ll be waiting at the airport longer than the 45 minute flight!
Once we’re on Maui, we have little to nothing organized/planned.

Chris and I have rented two road bikes from West Maui Cycle and hope to do three or more rides about the island.

I’m hoping to arrange a get together with Candi, of Candi’s Corner: Wanderlust and Passions, fame.

There is some talk of a group heading to Hana (I will not be apart of said group).

There is some talk of sport fishing (I will not be sport fishing).

There are some ideas about sailing and snorkeling cruise (I could be persuaded).

And the possibility of one or two short (three hours or less) hikes.

But other than that, not much planned yet.

Oh, and I think I forgot to mention this but we’ll be staying at, the Hyatt Waikiki Resort and the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort. Life is good.