Escape to Paradise - Maui Vacation, Pt. 4

 On Saturday, Nov. 29, we had a lazy morning at home. We knew we wanted to get out and do something fun, but it's tricky since Kaden was still napping twice a day. We really only had 3-4 hours of time between his morning and afternoon naps to go out and explore, and that period bridged the lunch hour. To save time, we decided to immediately pile into the car after Kaden woke up and go out for a big brunch before driving south to a new beach. There was a restaurant close to our condo that we wanted to try called Slappy Cakes. This restaurant concept is genius. There's a griddle in the middle of the table. You choose a type of batter, and any number of toppings to mix in or sprinkle on top of your finished pancakes, then select a specialty syrup or whipped cream to finish it off! I went with whole grain chocolate chip and banana pancakes. James went a little crazy and tried their purple sweet potato batter with fresh blue berries. Kaden got to sample a couple of my pancakes (sans chocolate), and also ate lots of the fresh cut fruit and some scrambled eggs. He must have enjoyed his meal because it put him into a little pancake coma and he needed to sleep it off in the car.

 After brunch, we drove down the coast to Kihei to play in the park and sand at Kama'ole Beach Park III. When James' brother Jon was at the Air Force Academy, he went to Maui for a few weeks for a summer work/study type TDY. While there, he stayed at a hotel right across from this beach, and highly recommended it to us. It had everything you could ask for when playing outdoors with a toddler. It has a playground with baby swings and lots of green grass to walk around on, plus a beautiful, picturesque beach, and bathrooms and a place to rinse off before getting back into the car. It was still a little chilly and windy, so we didn't get very wet. But Kaden loved playing on the playground, dipping his toes in the "osh", and "helping" daddy build a large sand castle.

I thought it was impressive that James was able to construct a sand bridge over that tunnel!

 Later that afternoon, after Kaden's nap, we made one more attempt at swimming in the condo pool. Once again, it was really too cold to enjoy the water. We snapped a few photos, let Kaden splash around for about 5 minutes, and then called it quits. It would have been SO nice to take advantage of everything they had to offer at the Kahana Sunset. Originally we envisioned traipsing back and forth between our living room, the private beach out back, and the pool. But due to the rainy weather, we spent most of our time in the car on our way to and from southern beaches where the sun was actually shining. We couldn't have asked for nicer accommodations for the price, but I do wish we'd chosen a better location.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. We spent the morning watching football, then went out for brunch at another great near-by restaurant called The Gazebo. You can find it pool side at the Napili Shores Maui by Outrigger. It's a cute indoor/outdoor restaurant, literally inside a gazebo overlooking the ocean and the pool. The wait is long because there are not very many tables, but the food was fantastic. James got a little over ambitious and ordered their chocolate macadamia nut french toast. It was so sweet it was practically inedible. Kaden loved his Mickey Mouse pancake, though.

That afternoon, Kaden wasn't feeling very well so we ended up snuggling on the couch in our condo and watching more football all day. I cooked us dinner at home, and we watched the sunset between rain showers. Normally, I'd be frustrated at "wasting" a full day of vacation sitting inside on the couch. But since we'd already enjoyed over a week and a half of fun in the sun, it was nice to just veg out and spend time as a family. Plus, we had two very big days coming up, so we needed our rest!