Dad's Life 3D: Pink eye, Maui wowie and no guard rails. Sounds like the '80s to me...

This evening the kids are enjoying a sunset swim in the pool, while I'm enjoying the actual sunset! Kaanapali is perfectly positioned so that you can sit waters edge during magic hour and watch the last sliver of light disappear into the clouds every night. Just before sundown, you can hear a horn sound from the opposite end of the property. At the same time, a young Hawaiian man, dressed in a traditional wrap and headdress, walks the grounds lighting tiki torches. Guests of the resort meander towards the beach to take it all in. The sunset was breathtaking tonight!

The great thing about Maui is that you can do as much as you want, or as little as you wish to do. For the first couple of days, we did the latter. My daughter wasn't feeling great the day we left Los Angeles, so we opted to take Maui slow! In fact, even today's drive to Haleakala, the volcano that forms most of Maui, was delayed so that we could pick up pink eye medicine from the pharmacy. Luckily our new insurance allows the doctors to deal with common ailments via pictures and phone consultation, so no urgent care visit was necessary. Genius!

For divorced families, scheduling vacations can become a little tricky. I'm not sure that I've ever discussed this in my blog before, but in our case, I get my two-week vacation with the kiddos during the first part of this summer, and my ex gets her two weeks during the second half. Last year it was the opposite. It seems pretty cut and dry. Except, nothing is ever cut and dry... And, I'm saying this because I do have people ask me my opinion on how to deal with issues that separated families encounter. The best way is to work out vacation time, is to work it out way in advance. Which we kinda' did... But here comes the curve ball.

My son made the all-star baseball team this summer. Practices were daily, immediately following the post season. And when I say daily, I mean daily. Including Saturdays and Sundays! Also, the big unknown is exactly how far the team would make it in tournament play. They are a very talented group of young baseball players, with three great coaches. And no, I was not one of the coaches! My season ended after the post season, thank you!

The first tournament was scheduled to go until the first week of July. If they were successful and made it past that, they could end up playing all summer, which makes it very difficult to schedule two separate family vacations!

I came up with a plan A and a plan B. Plan A took us up the West Coast from L.A. to Vancouver. Plan B took us down the the East Coast from New York to DC and the Carolinas. Both kids made it a point to tell me that they did not want to cover as much ground as we did last year on our summer road trip. They both wanted to go to one or two destinations only, and neither wanted to spend as much time in the car! How could this be, I thought? So soon they forget how much fun we had last year!

On July 2nd, our all-star run came to an end when we lost to Santa Monica Little League 3 to 2. It was bittersweet... But because I was up against hard dates with their trip to Long Island with their mother, it was time to put an action plan in place. And, since I too was starting to doubt plan A and plan B, it was time for a Hail Mary!

At the advice of a friend, I took a gamble. Maui. After all, Hawaii was my daughter's second choice for our trip this summer. Her first choice was Fiji. I have no idea how she came up with that, but I told her that Fiji was most likely not going to happen... To my surprise, last minute airline tickets to Maui, however, were very reasonable! This never happens. Could it be a sign...? I took it as one and three days later we were on our way to this little slice of paradise!

Other than our afternoon drive to two different skate parks so the little guy could ride his trick scooter, sunset dining on Front Street in Lahaina and hanging with our friends from back home, the highlight of this trip for me so far was our half day trip to the summit of Haleakala.

I had been to Kilauea on the big island a few years back. That's a much different experience than Haleakala, but quite impressive in its own right. Especially right now, I suspect! At it's peak, Haleakala has an elevation of 10,000 feet. There are no lava fields that make you feel like you are on the moon as there are surrounding Kilauea. But Haleakala's expansive depression filled with black and reddish lava sand definitely makes you feel like you are on another planet. Especially when a cloud streams out of the edges of the crater. And with no guard rails in certain areas, I for the first time felt how my parents must have felt when I walked along the edges of Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains at age 14. Unsettling to say the least.

Nevertheless, I did make it back down the winding mountain road with both kids in one piece! Yes, the little guy threw up out the window at the bottom, but that's normal for him. He did the same thing last week at the bottom of Big Bear Mountain. Sigh.

Now with at least one child running on an empty stomach, we headed to the old cowboy town of Makawao for lunch in a region called Upcountry Maui. It's an actual old cowboy town that's been there since the end of the 19th century. Cowboys, or paniolos, as they're called on Maui, still wrangle cattle in this area to this day. The town itself, however, is now filled with boutique artisan shops and small restaurants. It's worth a stop if you're ever in the area!

I also recommend an app called Maui Gypsy Guide. It's a $9.99 download that is definitely worth the small price. As you drive in certain areas of the island, a guide narrates points of interest and recommends stops or side trips. The kids and I learned all about the Nene goose on our way back down the mountain today. That alone was worth $9.99! Oh, and did I mention we started our day off with pink eye? Sigh.

Aloha