Vacation Part 1: Maui

First off... a big THANK YOU! or MAHALO! to family for taking our two children for almost 2 weeks!! We had a great, and fab-u-lous time in both Maui and Oahu. Here are only a few pictures of our trip, that I think will say it all.

It took us forever (or so it seems) to get to Maui. We left on a Thurs. afternoon to Seattle, had a 2 hour lay over, and then a grueling 6 hour flight into Honolulu that was longer than scheduled because of headwinds. We made it and took the shuttle to our little hotel, with a little room, inside the little room was a little t.v. and a little bathroom, with a little shower. Even the walls were little (we could hear everything outside our room). But it was only for the night. Friday morning, we jetted back to the airport and jumped to Maui. When we went to pickup our car, they were out. The manager said, "SUV or Convertible," we said, "Convertible." We hopped in our large Chrysler Sebring, made a stop at Costco and headed to our hotel, which was luxurious! This first picture is the view from our room, the second is a waterfall/koi pond at our place. I wish I could still see it now.

That evening we hung around the hotel, visiting the beach and watching people learn to surf. Saturday morning, we drove down the coast toward the southern edge of Maui. We found a little bay where people were snorkeling, so we jumped in. We saw some big fish, but we also forgot our underwater camera. We stopped in Lahaina that night to walk around and eat dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Sunday was spent driving the road to Hana. We drove with the top down and enjoyed being surrounded by all of the greenery. We stopped at a little roadside stand and had smoothies made with real sugar cane juice (we watched them press the juice from the cane). We ate our lunch at the Wai'anapanapa State Park famous for the black sand beach. This picture below at the state park. There were some kids jumping from some of the rocks. Crazy! After we reached Hana and onto the seven sacred pools, we continued the non-recommended portion of the road. The road is narrow, winding around corners and up & down many little hills. I had to lay down because it became too much for me.

Monday, we rose at 3 am, packed up and hit the road. We drove up to the top of Hale'akala (dormant volcanic crater) to see the sunrise. This was my first sunrise to actually see. The road is filled with switchbacks, which by the way, is more daring when it is dark and you have never driven the road before. We reached the top with time to spare. By the way, the drive to the top covers one of the greatest elevation gains in the shortest distance in the world. Beginning at sea level and reaching just over 10,000 ft. The sunrise was beautiful, but it was coooold and really windy. Not many people stuck around after the sun had made it's appearance. Neither did we. We huddled in the car, blasted the heat, and ate breakfast. While driving back to the hotel, we detoured to the Iao Valley for a stop at the Iao Needle. I couldn't believe how green it was, and also the fact that as you drive through the city, all of a sudden, you are in the lucious Iao Valley. After all of that we got back at 10 am, and took a nap.

That afternoon, we snorkeled at Black Rock, just up the beach and saw 2-3 sea turtles!

Tuesday morning brought in more snorkeling. We signed up to take an excursion out to Molokini crater to snorkel, but weather kept us away. We did still snorkel at a few other places which were awesome, filled with sea turtles and fish. Some people we know took the exact same boat the day before to the crater and said they didn't see much. So, I guess we got the better deal.

Just off the back of the boat, people were feeding the fish. This was the best picture of the fish. On the excursion, we also saw quite a few sea turtles, and even 8-10 whales (while we were riding to our destinations).Overall, it was a great time. Our boat made two stops for snorkeling. A portion of the people didn't snorkel the second time around, they were wanting the crew to open up the bar and get them drinking. We on the other hand, snorkeled the time away and enjoyed endless Coke. Later that day, we drove north and explored. We found a little path and followed it around. The trail was muddy and each step produced layer upon layer of thick mud. Our feet were getting heavier each step. Do you like the self portrait? We've been perfecting it. Wednesday morning, we attended a timeshare presentation. Because we have done one previously, we were able to get a "summarized" version. We talked with a rep, visited the Maui Ocean Club's newest two bedroom villas, and declined purchase. Both F and I would love to have a timeshare (hopefully in the future) but not right now. After that, we headed back down to the great snorkel spot we found, this time we took our camera (I need to pick up our prints). This place is literally off the road. You can see the road pass right next to it. Second time around, we saw an eel (just after we finished our roll of film) and some crab. The rest of the time on Maui, we bummed around, going wherever the wind took us. The weather was perfect. Friday, we checked out of our hotel and jumped back to Oahu. We had a wonderful time in Maui and looked forward to a few days on Oahu. A couple years back we visited Kauai, and loved it. I would say, this was just as great. I'll get our days in Oahu up soon!!