Thursday, February 25th, 2010
“We’re going to take your orange and apple.”
We got out the door around 4:35, and to the Park ‘n’ Fly lot around 5:15. Yes, a.m. It was early. But we were sure Maui would be worth it.
The driver at the Park’n’Fly was ga-rumpy!! No kidding; I would be, too, if I’d had to work the night shift, bussing passengers, grumpy babies (note, not mine), and luggage across the highway and to the airport. There was also a set of 5-month-old twins on our drive over to the airport; their family was going to Mexico. Meaghan just stared at them. She was still wondering why she was actually *allowed* to be awake while it was still obviously going to be pitch-black outside for some time yet.
We had done our web check-in the night before, so we only had to weigh our luggage and get it tagged at the counter before moving on.
Our flight left Edmonton at 7:30 a.m. We landed in Vancouver only 35 minutes later… oh wait, but then when you add the hour for time change differences, I guess that made the flight about 1 hour 35 minutes. Meaghan did very well; didn’t nap, but was fairly happy regardless.
Welcome to Vancouver.
We had the nice customs rigmarole at YVR. The setup at the airport was nothing short of disastrous… before they let you through to the American side of the terminal, you have to stand in this lineup, get frisked, go to another lineup to verify your luggage, but THAT same lineup was part of a holding room for passengers who were waiting for other pieces of their luggage to show up, so really, there were two lineups bundling up into one confusing mess.
The best part was that we were already late for our boarding call. But they couldn’t find our carseat, so we were not allowed to clear this particular part of the process.
With 10 minutes having passed since our first boarding call, they finally found our carseat (there are no guarantees of carseats in Maui, so we were advised to bring ours along). Then we had to go to the customs clearing… we had filled out our form, and were interviewed about why we were going to Maui, etc. And… did we have any food?
Yes. Baby food, some granola bars (home-made), and an apple and orange.
Well, you’d have thought we’d packed a bomb.
We were promptly ushered into a further interrogation room (remember, we are already late for boarding). They’d already gone through our carry-on baggage in Edmonton, and once already at YVR, but they felt the need to do it again, as though it was a surprise that we were going to go to Maui. They took our apple and orange, tossed it in the garbage, and x-rayed/picked through our bags again.
Finally we were cleared… we raced down the terminal to our gate, where they were announcing the final boarding call for our flight. We *just* made it, even though they said the flight wouldn’t leave without us… it was hard to believe that they would wait for our little trio.
Buckled in. Flight takes off. Flight is only supposed to be 6 hours and a couple minutes. It was more like 6 ½ hours… Meaghan had one little catnap earlier in the flight, about 20 minutes, and was getting to be a crabby-bear like the other babies on the flight. I had borrowed a wrap from a friend (my brown one was too heavy for Hawaii and the ends weren’t tapered, and I didn’t want to deal with a huge knot on the flight), and finally got Meaghan to succumb to the snuggles. The turbulence totally helped – the plane was rocking and shaking and she was LOVING it!! She slept for about 45 minutes on me, and I also napped. She woke very happy. Whew!
Meaghan also learned to drink from a cup on this flight… during turbulence, no less! It does not appear as though Meaghan will be a sippy-cup girl. She loves drinking from big-girl cups.
OK… got to the airport, got our luggage, got the vehicle rented, found some lunch (McD’s here has some things that they do not in Canada, and I ate a relatively healthy grilled chicken burger!), got to the resort, checked into our room…and it was kinda yucky.
This is the risk you take when you don’t know the area or the resort. The carpet was gross, and we didn’t want Meaghan crawling around on it. The tub was even worse.
This particular place is basically a whole bunch of condos that are individually owned. Therefore, they are all in different states of repair or remodeling.
We requested a different room. The one we are in now is much newer, much nicer, and one we feel comfortable letting our wee vacuum cleaner crawl around on. And it has two bathrooms instead of one, and we’re not even getting charged for the extra bathroom!
We have an amazing ocean view. The water is actually blue-green, just like I’d always imagined. Simply gorgeous. (This picture is at dusk, so, no blue-green today!)
We can hear the waves roaring and crashing from our room. We can see people jumping off the cliff into the ocean below. The sand is beautiful, soft, and inviting – no coral or creatures to chomp on bare feet.
After we settled in, had a quick Skype call with the boys and gave Meaghan a nap, we went out to find some dinner – ended up at a food court in the local “village mall”. Not the healthiest meal, but we were hungry and didn’t have the energy to drive someplace a little nicer, nor the patience to wait at an actual restaurant. We then walked the beach for a while… I actually took off my sandals and waded in the ocean, even though it was pitch-black and I couldn’t see where the waves were coming in. The water was much warmer than I expected.
It is gorgeous here. But we are exhausted, and collapse into bed. We are going to take care of this 3-hour time difference on this first night. Meaghan only woke once this night, and we all felt rested by 7 a.m. local time… felt like a sleep-in with it being 10 a.m. Alberta time!
We are thankful to be here.
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