Maui Day 2

When we arrived in Maui, it was dark, so we were eager to wake up on Day 2 and take a look outside our hotel room at the beautiful view. 


Here is what we saw:

Where was the "ocean-view" that we paid for? Well, if you squint your eyes and look toward the right of the photo, past the ugly rooftop, you can see a 10 foot stretch of water. Presto! Ocean view!  I was so disappointed! So we called the front desk and *nicely* complained and asked if they had a different room available.  They said it would be no problem to move us (it was almost like this must happen a lot, because they said, "Oh, you're in 503? We'll see what we can do for you.")

So here is the view from our new room:

Much better! This hotel is amazing.  The property is just gorgeous, with plunging waterfalls, meandering paths through jungle-like gardens, four pools, grottos, a water slide, flamingoes, parrots.....we could stay on the hotel grounds the entire trip and be perfectly content! (Especially now that our hotel room got upgraded!)

After having breakfast, we sat down in the lobby to watch the waterfalls and wild birds.  A couple of Samoan men came and demonstrated how to open a coconut (in case we ever get stranded on a deserted island, we should be prepared.)

Alex found it pretty interesting:

Then we headed over to the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium.

This was a big hit with Alex.  She loved watching the fish! She would kick her legs and laugh and squeal excitedly when we put her in front of the glass windows.

Our favorite part of the Aquarium was this huge glass tunnel that you walked through and could see sharks, stingrays, and beautiful fish all around you.  It was like being at the bottom of the ocean.

This picture is kind of blurry, but you get the idea:

When we got back to the hotel, we had some lunch and Alex got to taste her first pineapple! She LOVED it! She sucked all the juice out of the little piece that I handed her, and when I took it away she started screaming bloody murder! It was kind of hysterical, aside from the fact that she was so angry with us.

At sunset, we packed her up in the Baby Bjorn and headed to the beach.  We dunked her feet into the water and watched her scrunch up her face when the sand stuck to them.  

What a great day! As for the night.....well, Alex still didn't sleep well in the hotel crib.  She fell asleep in it, but woke up crying about an hour later and wouldn't go back to sleep.  So into the king-sized bed she went.  It is so funny, because she has NEVER slept in bed with us, even when we were sleep deprived and we wanted her to, she was so independent and could not fall asleep with us so close.  But for some reason, the hotel room or the strange crib makes her scared.  Once we brought her into our bed, she slept all night long! Oh well, but I hope we don't have a hard time breaking this habit when we get home.  In the meantime though, I love her sleeping next to us.....she reached out every now and then and stroked my face in the dark.  So sweet.