"What's That Smell?" Our Trip to Maui - Updated 2/16 About This Page:

[Courtney]

Who: Courtney, 25; Frank, 26; and Taylor, 6 months, world's happiest baby
What: Cross-country drive and 5 days in Maui
When: December 15-24, 2005
Why: Why not? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]


Pre-trip -

Upon finally deciding on the date that Taylor and I would be going out to Hawaii, I happened to be playing on Hawaiian Airlines' website, when I saw that they were running a special for $32 inter-island one-way tickets. (Normally, ticket prices interisland are about $75 one-way.) Those of you who know me well, know that I don't pass up a good deal! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] A quick phone call to Frank to decide where we wanted to go, and we went ahead and booked for Maui!

As is usual with our vacation plans, the dates had to get tweaked just a bit, and when I called Hawaiian to change the return flight, they told me that they would have to charge a $50 change fee. Since the ticket was only $32, I could just rebook and cancel the original reservations, which is exactly what I did. Turns out, Hawaiian didn't have a return flight back on the day that we wanted, but Northwest Airlines did, and at just $1 more than Hawaiian's special.

I then did a search for a condo that one of my clients had talked to me about; a place where her family had stayed previously, the Maui Kai. She had raved about it, so we decided that's where we'd stay. We got a last-minute special (which is pretty unheard of during the holidays, since that is high season in Hawaii) because there was a four day opening between existing reservations, so we got a studio condo on the beach for $100/night, plus an $85 cleaning fee (because we weren't staying for a week).

We booked a car through Alamo, and everything was set.

Of course, what was looming BEFORE the nice Maui trip was much more time-consuming. Not only did I need to finish packing (after driving about 15 hours back from Florida), but I needed to get the dogs' health certificates and make one (okay, it ended up being three) last trip to the UPS store to get the bigger items off. Taylor was cutting her first two teeth during all of this, and my grandmother and aunt and uncle drove down from Pennsylvania for a quick visit as well, which made things a lot more stressful for me. I also never realized how much help the bigger things like her swing, exersaucer, high chair, and playpen were until I didn't have them - how do we live without these things?!

My dad and brother took me out for one last taste of real southern barbeque, and I set off for our first stop - a visit with Auntie Mo - on Thursday the 15th. Taylor did very well this first leg, which was about 13 hours, when all was said and done. Unfortunately, the navigation system (we have one of those things where you can type in an address and it will talk to you all the way there) was set for Auntie Mo's MAILBOX, which was on the opposite side of the street as her house. Good thing I was talking to her as we drove up, because I turned into someone else's driveway! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

She and Uncle Kevan came out to see us and collect the schlumpy (Taylor) and we headed inside. Kevin was excited to see us, and excited about the dogs, and was just absolutely adorable. I told him that ChaCha was like the Taco Bell dog, and that certainly stuck with him. ChaCha tried to play with Maureen's dog Gabby, but Gabby wanted none of that! Taylor got her first present, a giraffe that plays music when you drop blocks into it, and we all stayed up way too late chatting.

Kevin and Taylor


The next day, Emily, Maureen, Taylor, and I had breakfast at Panera Bread (yum!), and then we dropped Maureen off at school to take a couple of finals. I had some things to return to JCPenney (no JCPenney in Hawaii) and some gift certificates to use up there, and something to return to Kmart, and I promised Emily a trip to Toys R Us. We had a great time trying on costume jewelry at JCPenney, and when an employee made some comment to Emily about being good for her mommy, Emily said, "She's not my mommy!" [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



I tried tricking Emily by telling her that I didn't know how to get to Toys R Us (even though the navigation system certainly could find it for me), that Toys R Us was closed, that Toys R Us had moved, anything I could think of. She, of course, wasn't buying it, and our next stop was TRU. As we pulled into the parking lot, I told her that I had decided that we weren't going to go in after all, and she was not having anymore of this joking, and she started to cry. Of course, I felt horrible, (mental note, NEVER threaten to cancel a TRU trip with a kid, even if it's a joke!) and quickly told her that I was completely kidding, and parked the car.

We spent a lot of time in the stuffed animals (Emily does NOT like monkeys that hang around your neck) and in Barbie land, but she ultimately decided that she wanted a little figure with a white cat. (I'm sure there's a technical term for the thing, but I have a 6 month old, we don't get any more complex than blocks and exersaucers.) I opened it in the car for her, and she played with it on the way to Kmart. While we were waiting in line to return something, Mo called and said she was really sick, and was going to go home. She was going to call Kevan to pick her up, and I told her that we would be happy to come by and get her. When we picked her up, Auntie Mo was seriously pale, and extremely nauseous. By the time we all got inside (oh, here's the part where I can mention how RIDICULOUSLY COLD it was. Good grief!) and settled, I think we all ended up falling asleep for a few hours. (I'll skip the details on the frequent hurling trips, for Auntie Mo's posterity and all. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ) I just remember all the kids coming in and being scared because my dogs were out (and REALLY excited to see the kids!) and I guess the kids just weren't expecting them.

We had Christmas for Taylor and Courtney that night (Auntie Mo's presents are STILL in my room at my dad's house). Taylor got more toys (spoiled!!) and her mommy got some too! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



We ordered pizza in, since we had a sick aunt in the house, and Kevan gave Taylor a little taste of what she had to look forward to at Disney when she's a little bit more grown up...

Soarin' (over the living room), which she absolutely LOVED



And the Tower of Terror, and we'll just pretend this is looking at the fireworks. (Whatever it was, it's one of my favorite pictures of them.)



The next day, we said our good-byes, gave Kevin a quick trip in the car because he wanted to see how the navigation system worked, and then headed off.

The next two days are kind of a blur. We stopped at a motel in Grants, NM (next door to the one Frank and I stopped at when we drove across a year and a half ago) and spent the night before our flight to Honolulu in a motel next to the San Diego airport. Of the trip, I only remember it being REALLY cold, and listening to a LOT of CDs, because the radio stations out there are few and far between. And talking on the phone. A lot.

I also remember putting my finger in Taylor's mouth at some point the night in San Diego and feeling her two bottom teeth had come in! (No wonder she had been WAILING across California!)

I spent most of the night in San Diego packing and repacking, because I was having a hard time getting everything into the bags that I had brought. I also had to have the dogs to Air Cargo by 6:30am, for a 7am flight. They were scheduled to fly from San Diego to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to Honolulu, arriving at about 8:30pm Hawaii time. (Bet everyone can guess the airline they were on!) We were going to put them on the flight with us, but someone had already taken up the two dog spots on our flight (and Delta was about half the price, too!) Delta also has the pressurized, temperature controlled compartment that I was adamant that they have. (Sidenote: I was REALLY nervous about flying my dogs. ChaCha had flown before, but she is also a tiny chihuahua, and Tinkerbell is easily frightened. Unfortunately, due to Hawaii's laws, ALL animals, no matter if they can fit under a seat or not, MUST fly under the plane when coming into the state. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] )

Also in the morning, I would have just enough time to drop the dogs off, get back to the hotel and get the bags into the car (no room for two kennels that were assembled AND all those bags and a baby), drive to the airport and switch off with an old co-worker of Frank's who would be car-sitting until the Navy had room to put it on a ship, get checked in and on our way. There was very little room for error.

Would we make our 9am flight? Would the dogs make THEIR flight? Would I lose my mind doing it all by myself in the process? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!