We started the day out walking to the beach in front of our condo, Kamaole III, to enjoy some sand and sun. The water was a little choppier today, but still calm enough that I felt comfortable swimming. While we were setting out our beach stuff we saw a turtle in the water lazily swimming by. This made Ayla excited to go in and hopefully see turtles underwater. She put on all her ocean ware and was ready to explore. When we first went out she was a little taken aback by the choppier water, but quickly started to relax and became willing to go under. We had one turtle swim by us, but it was too far out for us to feel comfortable to take Ayla, but she did see it pop its head above the surface. Then we had another one swim by closer to the beach, but it was going fast enough that by the time Ayla even located it, it wasn’t able to be seen underwater. Then, all the stars aligned and we had a HUGE turtle swim directly under her. We honestly didn’t even see it until AJ said his foot hit something hard, we were treading water, so we looked down thinking we had drifted over a rock and sure enough it was a turtle. The turtle was directly under Ayla! She was scared by the sheer size of it and just wanted me to hold her at first. But then she wanted to see it underwater and it was still close enough that she was able to see it! She was so excited! When AJ got out of the water he had a nice little cut on his foot, not enough to draw blood or anything, but it just shows how sharp the shells can be. We saw a few more turtles before we left the beach, but they really had no personal boundaries, they were swimming pretty close to a lot of the swimmers.
Kam III also has a large swing set area, so Ayla and I did LOTS of swinging – if you know her, you know she’s obsessed with her swings! We got at least 30 minutes of swinging time in before we walked back to our condo for lunch and to get ready for the evening events.
The Shops at Wailea started their Keiki Halloween event at 3pm and we wanted to be there promptly at 3pm. Each participating shop had a ghost balloon in front of their store, Ayla enjoyed finding all the balloons just as much as she loved getting the candy. We were able to visit about half the stores before their magic show started. The kid’s magic show ran from 3:30pm to 4:30pm and boy was Ayla into it. It was cute to see her mimic the other kids raising their hands and clapping. She was very excited talking about each trick after the conclusion of it. I found the show entertaining only because Ayla was so enthralled in it.
After the magic show we visited the other stores to finish our trick or treating fun. Between the two trick-or-treating nights, I found this one more fun. The kids were spaced out throughout the whole shopping center, so it had a more relaxed feel. There were also a ton of trick or treating stations, so it kept Ayla entertained walking to all the stores. The Shops at Wailea also did a grand prize for best costume of TWO round trip tickets to any destination that Alaska Airlines flies. So there were a ton of families in coordinated, extravagant costumes, it was a definitely a night to remember.
Then, we headed to Waikiki Brewing located in the Shops at Wailea, it’s been a place we’ve wanted to visit for several years, but never had the chance. Ayla wanted to go through all her candy so that kept her busy while we were able to enjoy a refreshing beverage. Their Hana Hou Hefe was delicious and I would definitely go back again.
To end our night, we wanted to try to catch our first sunset of the trip. So we decided to head to Big Beach (also known as Makena Beach) to hopefully catch it. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, so while we couldn’t see the sunset, the clouds were still mesmerizing. We enjoyed the beach for about 30 minutes then it was time to go home and head to bed.
Tomorrow AJ is going on three dives; one of them may be in an area where the white tipped sharks are pupping, so he’s hoping to see a lot of sharks on that dive. Stay tuned!
