Our first activity in Maui was a farm tour at O'o Farms, the dedicated farm for the popular restaurant Pacific'O.
The farm is set in the picturesque mountainside. They practice sustainable and organic farming methods including maintaining a balance of flora that attracts predatory bugs to feed on insects that could harm the crop. They also spray with something called organicide which is made of a blend of oils rather than from chemicals.
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For a video version of this post, you can watch this Youtube video
Baby's wet suit in this video is from Amazon - link here
As we toured, we picked ingredients for our salad for the lunch. We were also allowed to sample as we picked and Phil and I snacked heavily on these super sweet and juicy sugar snap peas.
The coffee program at O'o is fairly new but going strong with rows of coffee trees on the farm and a new roasting room. The roasting room is made from a eucalyptus tree on the farm.
Our lunch was cooked in this wood fired oven made from wood that was found on the farm. Nothing used in the food or building is found more than 100 miles radius of the farm.
The tour concluded with lunch under this shaded area.
Roasted veggies with a specially seasoned tofu.
Chicken breast that was so tender and juicy.
Catch of the day, Ono fish on a bed of daikon radishes and dill.
Here's the garden salad we picked. There was a lot left over so I periodically snacked on more beans.
For $58 per person, we got a 2 hour hands-on tour and sampling to our heart's content. Then a huge delicious buffet lunch with chocolates and coffee grown, harvest, and roasted on premise. Everything is organic, local, and sustainable. I think it's absolutely worth it. I would highly recommend a tour at O'o Farm.
A quick stop at Maui Winery to try their pineapple wines
Lokelani Rose on the left and the Maui Blanc on the right
We thought the wines were good but not spectacular enough to buy a bottle and definitely not to pay for shipping back home. I really appreciated that the tasting was free and did not require a reservation.
Who ever found the transit portion of vacationing to be any fun? You basically stand in line for everything - TSA, boarding, baggage, rental car shuttle, rental car renting. But traveling with a baby looks something like this plus all the above.
Fake smile, tired eyes.
For a video version of this post, you can watch this Vlog I posted on YouTube.
We are less mobile with little one in tow so we arrived at the airport with 2 hours to spare just in case anything went wrong. This meant I got hungry and paid $25 for a small burnt panini with side salad and a cup of juice from Plant Organic. Not at all worth it but it's airport food for ya.
A 6 hour flight later..He actually did pretty well. If no one on the plane realized there's a baby on board, it's a successful flight!
We didn't get into our AirBnB condo until close to midnight. Phil went to the nearest Safeway and bought some 50% clam poke, spicy salmon poke, and shoyu ahi poke. They're not the greatest but they do the job and we did not get sick. Hooray for half off.
We're Maui ready!
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Here are some things I learned about feeding and packing for a 9 month old on vacation:
TSA allows you to bring bottled home made baby food or sealed pre-packaged foods in up to 3.5 oz containers which you declare separately from your toiletries. No one really checked ours so I probably could've brought enough for our whole trip but I only brought a few days' worth.
If you're traveling somewhere near a major grocery store chain, like Safeway, they'll probably have baby food and diapers.
I brought a sandwich bag of rice cereal and my pump. Each morning I just pumped some milk (extra before nursing) to mix in with rice cereal. Then I added some fruit puree that I brought or from Safeway.
Use containers that have multipurpose. I use Avent bottles with sealing discs to store the food on the plane, then they became the containers I mixed the cereal in too.
Buy just enough or less than you need. If you have time in the itinerary to go buy more food, do it. Don't end up with extras that you need to carry back on the plane.
I don't check in luggage. Virgin America allowed each person one carry on up to 25lb and one personal bag. Phil carried on a big duffel bag with all adult and baby clothes. He wore a backpack with the bottles, food, toys, diapers, etc baby items. I wore a backpack with all my electronics and I carried on the Pack n' Play. This is how we saved on paying for checked baggage.
Virgin allows checking in the stroller and car seat for free.
Before heading to Hawaii, many people around me suggested a visit to a "supposed" famous shrimp truck near North Beach. This shrimp truck is called Giovanni's.
Literally a truck on the side of the road with a lot of markings on it. I wish I had a pen, I would have written "I like boobs."
Closer look at the side of the truck. Surprisingly, no drawn pictures of weiners or boobs to be seen.
Procedure is, you order in the right window and they serve you in the left window. Each side was probably 20-30 people deep.
When we first arrived, we were all the way at the end of the area.
Getting closer to the truck, I start to decide what to have. They have three options, scampi, hot & spicey, & lemon butter. The scampi is considered the "known dish."
After ordering, there was a 20-30 minute wait to get the food, so Sara was messing around with my camera. Random fact, I forgot to pack all my shirts for Hawaii. Hawaii is probably the only place you can get away with 2 t-shirts(I had to buy one to juss mix it up)
Finally!!! The famous garlic shrimp scampi(and I thought scampi meant pasta).
The full plate. This was $13. You get 12 shrimps and two scoops of rice. Each order they take, they make individually so that explains the delay, but the wait is totally worth it. The mixture of garlic, lemon, oil and whatever else they have is perfectly mixed with the shrimp. The sauce also gave the rice a lot of flavor as well.
Overall, this shrimp is awesome. I would definitely recommend a visit to this truck at least once if you go to Hawaii. The flavor of this shrimp is something I'll remember. I would like to say this was the best flavored shrimp I've ever tasted.
I would yelp it a 5 if I wasn't lazy. Yes, there is a long wait, but there's a good reason.
Phil again. Back from Hawaii after a nice trip with some HS friends. On the first day to Hawaii, we arrived around noon, but didn't get settled in till close to 3pm. At that time, we were hungry, looking for something to eat, the Hotel Concierge pointed us to "The Shack"
As you can tell, we made it to "The Shack"
Here's the group walking to our seats, we were one of the only people there, but of course we were there at 3pm might play a part in it. We would end up coming back here a few nights later to drink......good times, maybe pics to be posted?
The first of two dishes I ordered. This was their lunch special. Chicken Katsu and Teriyaki beef with two scoops of rice and a scoop of Mac salad for $10. Very good deal quantity-wise, but the chicken katsu was overcooked. The Teriyaki beef was real good though.
I got duped into this shit. Their supposed "famous" curly fries. Their description on their website "A HEAPING HELPING OF OUR FAMOUS CURLY FRIES." I would have preferred Jack in the Box's curly fries. These were dry and had no flavor. It was happy hour so I only had to pay half of $5.25 for this. For those with math problems, that is $2.625 for this appetizers. Yess, pennies can be split.
Anyways, those are the pics from our first meal. No pics of the drinks we had, but we had this tequilla called "hella grosso." Not too shabby at all, I don't have those pics with me though.
I'm glad I wasn't the only girl to bring a camera to the trip, I should have more pics soon.
