more maui madness

okay, please forgive me for yesterday's bikini photo. and, to answer R's question, the hub actually thought it was cute, like i did :) when i'd originally [jokingly] suggested finding a baby bikini, he was horrified. but i'm finding that his opinions post-bean differ from those pre-bean. interesting.

anyway, on with the recap:

day three (friday):

the hub's 4:45 wake-up call came far too quickly. luckily for me and the bean, it meant absolutely nothing. we both kind of grunted and went right back to sleep. neener neener neener! he gave us both goodbye kisses and went on his merry way. no walking to the cafe for starbucks this time.

the wives invited us to join them for their morning walk along the beach and then breakfast at the shops, so the bean and i got ready and headed downstairs to meet up with them. sadly for us, our clock in the room was off and we totally missed the meeting time by about 10 minutes. boo.

but since we were already up and about, i steered the stroller onto the pathway and we took a nice long walk, with me chatting about silly stuff to the bean while she cooed back at me. i took a shortcut through the wailea marriott and ended up at the shops about 20 minutes early. and it WAS early - like 8:40 - so there weren't too many shops that were open. we walked around the general store and then went back up to the abc store to look around for souvenirs and snacks (i'm forever in search of yummy snacks, if you hadn't noticed).

breakfast was at longhi's - voted "best breakfast on maui". i hadn't been there before, and i love breakfast, so i was really looking forward to it. although once we were seated and given menus to peruse, i was slightly disappointed at what looked like a pretty ordinary list of choices. there was a crab cake eggs benedict, island fish and eggs, and the rest of it was pretty basic - quiche, bacon and eggs, waffles, pancakes. i opted for the "longhi's style" french toast - thick slices of bread dipped in egg batter with cinnamon and a touch of grand marnier, topped with diced macadamia nuts. mmmmm. this was the ONLY food picture i managed to snap over the entire vacation:

i always read my buddies' blogs and they always have such great descriptions and pictures of their fabulous meals, but i rarely get to take pictures of my meals. with the few i do manage to snap off, i endure the stink eye from the hub. oh, well. anyway, after breakfast, everyone went their separate ways - some to shop, others to change for the beach. i went into a cute little store to pick up some sunglasses for the bean - shut up, babies' eyes need to be protected from the sun too! it was such a gorgeous day, so we sat out on our private lanai to relax a little (as if we'd done much of anything else). and eventually, we fell asleep, just me and the bean. we woke up when the hub got back from his fishing expedition (unsuccessful - they didn't catch a thing, haha!) and i realized i had about half an hour before it was time to hit the spa for my cocoa butter massage and wrap. doesn't that sound lovely?

once i arrived and got checked in, i was given a tour of the facilities of spa grande. included in my massage was an hour session of what they called terme wailea hydrotherapy. there were wet and dry saunas, a roman bath, cold plunge pools, a cascading shower (which was like a massage in itself - so wonderful), and a set of five different aromatic baths. i tried them all - hawaiian healing bath, moor mud, seaweed, papaya, and aromatherapy. it was all quite fabulous, and a great way to relax BEFORE my relaxing 80-minute massage. i'm told that this spa is in the top ten in the country, and i could definitely see why!

after a quick shower, i met up with the hub and the bean at the pool, where i indulged in another order of those wonderful crab cake poppers and waited for the sunset. not surprisingly, he was catching up on e-mails on his crackberry, while the bean slept peacefully in her stroller next to his beach chair. not a bad way to take care of business, eh?

that night's dinner was at joe's bar and grill, a casual spot at the nearby tennis club. and even though it wasn't the fancy-schmancy type of joint we'd gotten accustomed to, it turned out to be the best dinner of the entire trip. the hub went for ahi (which seemed to be his entree of choice, as it seemed like he had ahi EVERY night), and i chose the special local fish (i wish i could remember what it was called, because we totally made fun of the name all night long). plus, one of the clients had this great habit of ordering one of every appetizer (and dessert!) on the menu and passing them around for everyone to try. yummy. i had so many crab cakes on this trip, and yet i could go for some right now!

the hub was looking forward to being able to sleep in the next morning. no wake-up call for us, at last! we climbed into bed and watched tv till we passed out. awesome.