Maui Thursday (Day Four)

Thursday morning we ate breakfast at the fancy Westin buffet with an ocean view. It was unbelievably decadent and we were served shot glasses full of a delicious smoothie concoction. Norah charmed the waiter into bringing her a full sized smoothie and even said thank you.

What a view!

After breakfast we had reservations for a submarine ride. I had found the company online (again, under 'what to do with my toddler'), but I was a little nervous because the website specifically stated that all kids had to be at least 36 inches tall. At her 2 year appointment Norah was 34.25 inches and I knew she'd had a growth spurt recently because all of her pants were too short, so I was pretty confident she would make the cut off. When we checked in they measured her with a yard stick and sure enough she was 36.25 inches. Well, really just 36 inches. That extra fourth of an inch was all hair.

We walked down to the dock and boarded the boat that would take us to the submarine.


The boat was actually very cool and my favorite part of the whole adventure. Norah brought along Baby for the ride.


She insisted upon sitting on the side nearest the water, so I sat with her and had a Vulcan death grip on her the entire time.


Our boat pulled up right next to the submarine. The transfer from boat to submarine was a little dicier than I was expecting and way scarier. Thankfully, BVZ was in charge of Norah and we all made it aboard the sub in one piece.

Check out the portholes on the sub!

The sub had room for 48 people (I would say it was about 75% full) and everyone had their own viewing station. As soon as we walked in and Norah saw the portholes she yelled, 'Nemo, I am here! I am looking for you!' It was super cute. Then she continued to yell for about 10 minutes, 'Nemo, where ARE you? NEMO WHERE ARE YOU?' and I imagine everyone else stopped thinking it was quite so cute.




She was SO into it and I definitely recommend it for the under 3 crowd. Anyone whose ever been snorkeling would be sorely disappointed (there weren't that many fish and they weren't very colorful-although we did see a small tiger shark, which was pretty cool), but Norah literally thought it was the greatest thing ever.








We went to a depth of about 125 feet and stayed down there about 45 minutes. Afterward it was back up to the surface and back to the boat.




We could see the next group go down in the sub which was pretty cool.

There was a neat park next to the harbor that had these crazy gigantic trees which appeared to be intertwined. Even BVZ who always flaunts his science knowledge couldn't figure it out.


So, we stopped trying and ate mango ice cream instead.

We walked around the little shops and picked up a few souvenirs. BVZ (all on his own, by the way) picked out a dress for Norah. I got her a flower for her hair.

Wait for it..... wait for it....

Oh yes. Look at our hula girl.


She looked so sweet and perfect that both BVZ and I cleaned up our act and we decided to take our girl out for a fancy dinner.




We had a great dinner (where Norah put down an entire plate of grilled fish and wild rice) and walked along the beach enjoying the sunset. We could hear the luau going on at the end of our resort, so we decided to check it out. Now, BVZ and I have been to a luau before and although it was an experience, we pretty much decided it wasn't something we needed to do again. Just a little too cheesy for our taste. Little did we know that Norah would be SO into it-and we were just standing at the outskirts looking in. She was fascinated by the hula and fire dancers and entranced by the ukulele player. So, what's a good mom to do? I bought her an $8 ukulele (which she calls her guitar).








As you can imagine, she was a huge hit walking around the resort in that dress, with that hair, carrying that ukulele. She got a comment from just about everyone we passed. When we walked by the guitar player in the resort restaurant, he stopped (he was about to go on a break), asked Norah her name, and then invited her up to play her 'guitar' with him. She politely declined. (What she actually said was, 'no tank you. I shy.')

Love that kid.