10-7 Hawaii day 4

the beach!!!! After making pineapple coconut pancakes, we spent the morning at the absolutely perfect, straight off a postcard beautiful beach! z rested under the shade canopy with Grammy while papa and I took the girls into the water. E loved letting the waves chase her. L loved rising the boogie boards. A was thrilled to find a friend her age to play with. We swam and played for awhile before settling into the beach to build a giant sandcastle. I loved watching L dance in the water, doing long graceful extensions. She explained later she had a song stuck in her head and she just had to dance and she felt so free as the water lifted her up. The wind kicked up abruptly so we headed home.

After a quick lunch at home, we went to the Maui Ocean Center.  We hurried to catch the turtle talk and I found it fascinating. The kids favorite part was the junior scavenger hunt. They had to find 12 petroglyphs and take a rubbing of each one to complete their activity book. Afterwards, we turned this in for a prize (a temporary tattoo of their favorite). We watched the shark dive and the girls got to sit right up against the glass, inches away from a sting ray bigger than themselves. We got to watch them feed the sharks and ask questions. Then we started over. Since we had hurried to catch the shows, we had to backtrack a little so we could take our time and appreciate all the exhibits. Overall, it was perfect size for us and very well done. We had bought our tickets in advance online for a free upgrade from a 1 day to a 1 week ticket. We spent 2.5 hours here and will likely come back.

We headed home, delighted to find husband waiting for us. We hurried to catch the sunset from our rooftop patio and had a lazy dinner grilling brats, zucchini and pineapple.

And then rather spontaneously, raced off to catch the final bit of a special event at the observatory. Grammy kept Z at the house while husband and I took the girls. But E was sound asleep before we arrived so I stayed in the car while husband took L and A to try out the telescopes and admire the stars.