Scary Halloween Creature at Bus Stop!!!!

Groton Halloween Parade 2010

Had a fun time at the Annual Groton Halloween Parade today.

Gavin was Mr. Spider....

Garrett was a Mariachi music guy (with maracas)

And Gigi was Dorothy...

See more pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/skevins/Halloween2010#

Goodbye Kitchen!!!!

It was nice knowing you.....






Connie will miss the French doors the most.... :(



We let the kids have a little fun on the wall which was being torn down. BYE BYE WALL!

The schedule is set!

Kitchen remodeling about to begin!!!!!

Gigi rips up the Nashua River

Toy Story 3D

Garrett And Gigi ready for the show!

Where did all the sand go?

Gavin plays in a cornbox (as opposed to a sandbox) at Goss Farm in Dunstable.

Gigi's Dance Recital

Gigi had her dance recital last weekend. She did an awesome job. The theme of the recital was 'What I want to be when I grow up,' so her class did 'I wanna be a nurse.'

First... some practice at home...

The it's ON TO THE SHOW!!!!!!!

And then afterward, meeting with the family....

Nini & Nana with their tiny little nurse..

Bella, Emerson, and Gigi... the three amigas!

One proud mama and her ballerina!!

Afterward, celebrating with ice cream and her ever so proud big brother!!!

Great job GIGI!!!! We are all so proud of you!!!

LAST DAY - BOO HOO!!!!

Our last day in Maui we started out slow. Slept late (8am?), went to the cafe to grab some breakfast sandwiches, then went to Big Beach at Makena State Park. It was a local beach with lifeguards and some big waves. No one surfing, but a bunch of guys ripping it up on boogie-boards. We ate our breakfast watching all of the lifeguards hang out and kill themselves in waves. I was not deterred by the waves, so I got in there and hit them. Those waves were no match for me.



Later after lunch, we went up to the 'non-adult' pool, because they have a swim up bar (makes sense, right?). We grabbed a sandwich and a drink, and met a couple from LA who were very nice. We joined them in a few more drinks, and a few tequila shots, and we stumbled back to the room to get ready for our final dinner in Maui.

We had a private cabana setup by the pool for our dinner. We were worried about a large function going on nearby with Abbot Labs, but the restaurant manager was sure to keep everyone away from us so we could keep our intimate dinner intimate. We had a bottle of wine, and for appetizers I had delicious ahi roll. We don't remember what Connie had for appetizer because we were still drunk from the tequila shots. I do remember having filet & lobster tail for dinner (of which I ate hardly any of, cuz of the huge ahi roll I had already eaten), and Connie had Opha (or 'moonfish'), which was very good. Afterward we strolled to the beach to take in our last glimpse of our aloha lifestyle, as the next day we knew we were in for a long haul back to the East Coast, the kids, and reality.

Maui Thursday - ANNIVERSARY DAY

After the hell of the Road to Hana yesterday, we decided to take a well deserved rest today and do NOTHING but beach and pool. Nice....

For dinner, we went to Spago over at the Four Seasons, for the official 10 Year Anniversary Dinner (on June 10). It is a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. I'm no food snob, but this stuff was gooooooood. Holy crap! I had SPICY AHI TUNA “POKE” IN SESAME-MISO CONES for appetizer. I man was it good. We had tomato soup too... but it was no ordinary tomato soup... this was GOOD tomato soup. Con had some crabcakes for appetizer, and for dinner she had PINEAPPLE RED THAI CURRY WITH ONAGA AND SCALLOP, while I had PAN SEARED HAWAIIAN MAHI MAHI WITH GINGER-SAKE SAUCE. All was excellent. For dessert, we had mini chocolate cake and ice cream.

Road to Hana!!!

Crazy drive today around the whole south island of Maui. The road to Hana was fun. Waterfalls, great scenery, etc. There were crazy eucalyptus trees with all different colored trunks. Very strange.

We went to a black sand beach. There were Portuguese Man-o-wars washed up on shore, and a dead fish.

I swam in the Seven Sisters waterfalls.

It was very very beautiful... then we hit Hana!!! Our destination!
After Hana, rather than turning around and coming back the way we came, we decided to complete the loop around South Maui.... the road there is insane. Literally driving on ledges hundreds of feet above a sheer cliff into the ocean, with no guard rails, constantly cutting back and forth along the shoreline. Was like a roller coaster at times. Then it turned into a vast wasteland as we moved through the lava fields, every so often needing to stop for a cow in the middle of the road. Was an incredible experience. Connie says it was frighteningly beautiful at times....because it was scary and beautiful at the same time.

En route to Hána

Here we stopped off at the Keanae Peninsula.  Waves were amazing. Mother nature at her finest !

Breakfast at Gannons

We are having breakfast at Gannons,  who is the chef to Oprah when she is on the island. It is up at the Emerald course in Wailea, with amazing view. Last night we ate Joe's, which is another Bev Gannon place, at the Wailea tennis club. Ribs were amazing.  Con had opah fish, which wad great also.

Now we are off to Hána!

Luau is cancelled! !!!!

Crap!  Because of the fires in West Maui (see previous post) the have closed the road we would be taking to Lahaina, and therefore we can not go to the luau.  Oh well, guess that means we spend the rest of the day drinking at the pool/beach. Too bad.

Turtles, Spas, and Fires

This morning we walked over to the Grand Wielea as Connie was going to the spa. After I walked back, I did a little snorkeling off the shore. Big reefs there, and I managed to hang out with two sea turtles (sorry, no pics... no underwater camera) who were in the area. I swam around with them as they came to the surface for a breath, then they would eventually find their spot on the bottom and just sit there for a while. Saw a few eels as well, and some other crazy fish, all just off the shore in the coral reefs. Amazing that the coral is right there off the shore.

Off in the distance, there is a terrible fire going on in West Maui, and we can see it from our beach across the bay. We can smell the smoke of the fires even from our room balcony. Unfortunately, we are headed in that direction tonight to go to a luau in Lahaina, but we will just drive by the fire area as we head further around West Maui.

A lot more of nothing...

The rest of Monday was uneventful, which is exactly what we want. We went to the adult pool for the remainder of the day, then drove into Kihei. We were going to go to a restaurant recommended by one of our new poolside friends, but it was closed. We drove around for a while in this non-resorty area and it was cool to see how the typical Hawaiian lives. Hanging at the beach, BBQing, etc. We ended up eating at Freds Mexican Cafe. Had a few beers, margaritas, and Mexican fair, then headed back to the hotel, grabbed a drink at the hotel bar, and went to bed... an uneventful and very welcome day!

Part-way through Monday

Today has been pretty uneventful thus far. We woke up and had a little breakfast in our room (bagel & coffee), then we took a walk down the seaside path past some of the other hotels (Four Seasons, Wailea Grand). These other hotels are MUCH more crowded than ours, and 1000's of kids running around, yelling, screaming, parents trying to corral them. I don't miss that.

After our stroll, we headed over to the adult pool, and hung out all day... read some books. Met some people from Chicago.

The picture to the left is the view from our hotel.

This picture is of some tiki guys that some dude was carving on the hotel grounds. Pretty cool.

If we get around to it, we may eat at this Humuhumu place for lunch or dinner one night. It is at the Grand Wailea resort. You pick your lobster from a tank. Pretty cool.

This picture is our hotel from a distance. It is a little Mediterranean looking.

MAUI- Day 2... a lot of nothing... which is good!

MAUI - DAY 2
Pretty uneventful and relaxing day today... which is what this vacation is all about. We woke up, had a bagel in the room (Connie had some coffee), then we headed to the "Adult Pool," which is nice and quiet. Some girl from Saskatchewan who moved here like 8 years ago gave us all kinds of great info. Around 2pm or so, we needed some lunch, so we ate at the pool bar, and imagine this, they had TVs, and one was on the Celtics game. How ironic that the place we went to eat had the Celtics game on? Wow... After lunch we came back to the room and chilled for a while (watched the remainder of the game.. nice job Ray!!!!), then we headed over to The Shops at Wailea to scope it out, and grab some food. We ended up eating at Tommy Bahamas, where I had some great seared Ahi, and Connie had some coconut shrimp. There was a guy playing acoustic guitar, and we got him to play some Sweet Caroline. After that, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed a drink at the bar, and went down to the beach to the beach to watch the waves crashing. Very dark. Very quiet. This place is pretty quiet at night.