Day 8: We have had some pretty fun-filled days, so we decided to make Day 8 a total beach day. We went back to Maluaka Beach. We spent the morning and into the afternoon playing in the sand, floating in the ocean and just enjoying the beach time. My mom and others in our group decided to go snorkeling before the afternoon wind/waves kicked up. While snorkeling they saw eels, lots of fish and even an octopus!
That night we decided to grill at home for dinner, so we went to Foodland to pick up some steaks and deli salads. My parents joined us for dinner and brought Caesar salad and apple pie with ice cream for dessert. It was a very enjoyable, restful day. Once Ayla said she was ready for bed, we packed everything up, said our goodnights and went to bed ready for another beach day tomorrow.
Day 9: We wanted to have an early start at Ulua beach. This beach is best known for its easy, accessible snorkeling. The parking lot gate opens at 7am and typically showing up any time after 8am can make it difficult to park, so we got up early and packed breakfast and lunch and headed out. We got there around 7:30am; the parking lot was pretty empty. Starting the day early also allowed for best snorkeling conditions. So after eating breakfast on the beach, those that wanted to snorkel headed out. Ayla got to see several fish and a few turtles during her snorkeling adventures. Others saw lots of eels, fishes and AJ experienced a lot of octopus ink, but couldn’t locate the octopus. When comparing the two beaches for snorkeling, Maluaka offered better snorkeling, healthier coral, and a lot less people, but it may be more for the intermediate snorkeler since you have to swim further from shore to see anything noteworthy. There was a guy working on a big sand castle off and on during the morning. Once Ayla was done snorkeling she wanted to help build the sand castle. She spent almost the entire rest of our day adding onto the castle and protecting it from the waves by surrounding it with large coral found on the beach. She also would just lay in the sand and look out over the ocean. It was a great beach day.
We left the beach mid-afternoon to get ready for our Monkeypod Kitchen reservations at 3:15pm. We had a group of 10 for happy hour and it was all happy times! We tried their pizza special of the night, pear and arugula pizza with a Caesar salad. The pizza was good, but their best is still the kalua pork & pineapple. The Caesar salad was a nice portion, very generous, thick parmesan shavings and the side of garlic bread was very garlic forward (I would order again). I also tried a new drink tonight, the blind tiger – hibiscus, lavender, lemon and soda, it was a refreshing drink that I would order again. We ended dinner with the perfect amount of time to drive home and walk to the beach for sunset. We got there with about 5 minutes to spare.
As the sun went down Ayla waved goodnight to it and then started crying because she wanted her sun back. I tried to explain to her that it was time for the sun to go to bed and it will wake up tomorrow and be back in the sky again. But she just proceeded to wave to it and cry. It was pretty cute. After sunset we decided to do a late night pool swim. Ayla has been going to bed around 6:30pm local time, but we told her she could stay up later to enjoy a nighttime swim. So her and her Dad went swimming and I went to the gym. I did a cardio workout on the elliptical and was able to watch them in the pool the whole time. At 7pm we all headed back to the condo and went right to bed.
Tomorrow is our date night. We have a special dinner planned at the Fairmont Kea Lani and Ayla is doing her first ever sleepover at my parents condo. It’s a big step for everyone. Stay tuned to hear how that goes!
