Before Isaac entered the scene, the four of us took off on a dream trip to celebrate Isabella’s birthday: a quick pit stop in Anaheim for Disneyland and LA food crawling, then on to Hawaii, and things escalated fast in the best (and worst) ways.
We decided to go big because we didn’t take a vacation in 2016, Andrea had just started a new job and had to hoard her PTO for the ultimate “project launch”, bringing Elin into the world!
In Maui, we hiked around Dragon’s Teeth, navigated the white-knuckle turns of the West Maui Loop, and made the essential banana bread stop at Julia’s. Then came the Road to Hana, which was beautiful… and terrifying. Naturally, we kept going and did the backside of Hana too, because who needs guardrails anyway?
We snorkeled at Molokini Crater, chilled at black sand beaches, swam with giant sea turtles, and woke up obscenely early to watch the sunrise from the summit of Haleakalā, which was stunning, even though we froze our butts off. Less stunning: getting side-swiped in a hit-and-run on the way back down. Cue the joy of tow trucks and swapping rentals in paradise.
Still, we bounced back with incredible meals, tropical brews, and wrapped things up with a killer luau. It was the perfect mix of sunshine, adrenaline, and mildly controlled chaos, basically, our family’s signature travel style.
Moto-Misel 