Thanksgiving

We just got back from Thanksgiving on Maui with Uncle Jess, Aunt Tia, Zoe, Rae, Ede, and Ava. First we dropped Paddy off at Tails of Hawaii, her new kennel. Tails is a group kennel where all of the dogs are kept together in a pack; we thought Paddy might have more fun there than being locked in a run. It is unclear if that was the case. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish Paddy's 'happy' face from her 'sad' or 'angry' faces.


We then drove to the airport, but when I handed the ticket agent our ids she crinkled her forehead and replied, "I'm sorry Mr. Merritt, but your reservation has been canceled." "What do you mean our flight has been canceled? Why weren't we notified?" She paused a moment. "Oh no, I'm sorry, there seems to be a misunderstanding, the flight has not been canceled." Great, I thought! "Only your tickets on the flight have been canceled." It turns out there had been a computer error and our tickets were never actually issued. Luckily, our flight wasn't full and we were able to buy tickets at the counter.

We made the flight and landed at Maui's Kahului Airport 35 minutes later. We were met at the airport by a driver and taken to the Grande Wailea Hotel to meet Ariel's uncle and his family. The hotel was gorgeous with waterfalls and dramatic ocean views, and we were met at the entrance by a concierge to take us to our room in the Napua Tower. The whole hotel is amazing but the Napua tower is particularly so, and we felt like celebrities being led up to our room by a concierge. We arrived at the door of our room, where the concierge paused for a moment of drama, and then opened up the door for us with a flourish as she said, "Welcome to Maui and welcome to the Grade Wailea. We do hope you enjoy your accommodations!" She swept her hand across to invite us to enter and Ariel and I walked into an amazing room that looked like it had just hosted Spinal Tap. There were plates of half eaten French fries and dirty socks under an unmade bed. The more we looked around though, we started to realize that the previous tenants were probably Ariel's cousins. Little clues were everywhere: boxes from various types of new make-up, girls shaving cream and razors in the shower, cotton-balls with make-up on the sink. Suspecting we knew these previous tenants, we went down to the beach to meet up with everyone and go swimming, and by the time we got back our room was spotless and truly deserving of the dramatic entrance the concierge gave us.

The hotel had beautiful outdoor spaces, gorgeous sunset views of the Pacific, and (my favorite) a network of water slides and pools all connected to a swim-up-bar by a lazy river. We met Ariel's relatives at their cabana by the beach and then went out to a nice dinner with them Wednesday night in Wailea.

Thanksgiving morning we woke up early. After breakfast we went down to the cabana with Ariel's relatives and read by the pool until noon. Then we hit the waterslides with Ariel's uncle. When we made it to the bottom of the network of waterslides we swam up to the water-bar and ordered Mai Tais.

That afternoon Ariel's uncle had arranged for us to have a 1 hour spa treatment and a massage before Thanksgiving dinner. I had never been to a real spa before, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect or what to do. I checked in and the steward handed me a pair of slippers and a towel and pointed me toward the locker room. I headed in that direction pretending to know what I was doing. Then I had to make a decision. Do I take off my pants? I thought the lesser of two evils would be to keep my bathing suit on for the time being, and I walked out from the locker room into the spa area. As soon as I stepped out I realized that I had chosen poorly. I was standing there, the only guy with a bathing suit on in a big room full of naked men. It was like the inverse of that horrible 6th grade dream where you show up to school naked. I went back to the locker room and adjusted my wardrobe accordingly. I decided to keep a towel on for a little discretion and spent most of the spa treatment relaxing alone in the sauna and steam room after testing out the massage shower. There were also Roman baths, mango baths, mud baths, Japanese showers, and ice baths, but I tended to avoid the areas heavily populated by naked men.

After an hour a steward came to get me from the sauna with a cold glass of iced tea and a fresh robe. He brought me to the lanai where I met up with Ariel and her uncle and aunt to cool off before the massage. After a little while the masseuse met me on the lanai and led me off. You may or may not know that I am exceedingly ticklish, and I was a little apprehensive about the massage, but the masseuse did a great job and she didn't seem to mind when I intermittently burst out laughing. Relaxed and limber, Ariel and I showered and changed and met everyone for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was delicious--a mix of traditional turkey and stuffing with some more Hawaiian items like poke, sushi and ahi.

Sadly, everyone had to leave Friday morning. Ariel and I woke up early for a few last rides on the waterslides, and then after meeting Ariel's cousins and Aunt and Uncle for breakfast we all headed off to the airport and to our respective homes.

We had an incredible time. Thank you for a great weekend Uncle Jess, Aunt Tia, Zoe, Rae, Ede, and Ava!