Loveland, CO
4 a.m came much too early this morning, but up we were. Last minute chores: feed the cat, take out the trash, turn off the water heater, make coffee -> not necessarily in that order.
The doorbell at 4:50 told us that Tom had arrived. It takes a very good friend to offer to drive you to the airport at dark:thirty in the morning. Thanks, Tom!
Our flight to Phoenix left Denver International Airport on time, wonder of wonders, and was just long enough for me to start and finish Lois Lowery’s novel “The Giver.
The time between our arrival in Phoenix and our connecting flight to Maui passed very quickly. We had time for a bathroom stop, to purchase a salad to eat later and we were boarding. Here is a picture of Miles. He is 6 and all we know about him is that he was traveling with his mom and (slightly older) sister. We know this because by the time they boarded they were getting the last 3 seats on the plane and those seats were not together. To make a long, quite funny story short, Jeff and I rearranged two rows of passengers to get Miles 
into our row and within arms reach of his mom. So, I gave up my aisle seat on a six hour flight to voluntarily sit next to a six year old – do I get a prize? Don’t let this photo fool you. Miles was WIDE awake until literally 10 minutes before we landed! We and his mom laughed and laughed that NOW he fell asleep! Seriously though, he was a good little guy.
Arriving in Maui we quickly got our rental car and after getting lost for only a short time made it to our condo at the Kahana Beach Vacation Club in Lahaina in less than an hour.
When we checked in I asked if we would be able to see the ocean. Here is the view from our balcony!! Whoopee!! 
Our condo is a studio with, get this, a Murphy bed! The kitchen is minuscule with a two-burner cook top and teensy sink. It is perfect. 🙂 Though we are exhausted we head out to the grocery store for provisions like wine, beer, and microwave popcorn along with real (and healthy) fare.
Because we are four hours behind Colorado we know we have to stay awake until our regular bedtime or wake up and be raring to go at 4 am…so, we make dinner. We had a yummy fresh salad and rotini with diced tomatoes, onions, carrots and broccoli. The “kitchen” is too tiny for both of us at the same time so we made shift work of chopping and sautéing.
After dinner we stood out on our balcony and looked out over the ocean. I am in HEAVEN. As I stood looking down at the sand something caught my eye. Yes, that big rock DID move. OMG!!! There is a sea turtle coming ashore right below us.
We grab our cameras and go charging down to the sandy beach. Really, think about it – we are dashing around trying to outrun a turtle? Yep, we’re tired. Anyway, we get to the beach and there’s the turtle – resting. We got some incredible photos. And let me apologize here – we forgot to pack the converter that moves photos from our cameras to our iPads, so no turtle photos for you unless we can think of a solution.
I can NOT believe we saw this turtle. If I had to go home right now, I would not feel cheated. Well, okay, maybe a little bit because I haven’t been in the water yet…
Finally, mercifully, it is 9:30 and I declare it close enough to a normal bedtime…we’re folding down the Murphy bed and going to sleep. I hope you enjoyed our day of travel and arrival. We haven’t made plans yet for tomorrow – please come back and vacation with us.