Last Day in Maui.... and it's pouring

Maui: Day 6

Yup... Day 5 evening began the relaxing portion of our trip and that's exactly what Day 6 ntailed: nothing but relaxing.

It rained pretty hard in the morning during breakfast, but the clouds broke and gave way to yet another beautiful day in Maui!

We never did make the trip to Hana, even after the best of intentions, renting out the "Guide to Hana" CD from the hotel front desk. Instead, we took the top down of our newly rented Wrangler, drove back into Lahaina and ate lunch at Bubba Gump's with a spectacular table that sat over the ocean.

We stayed local the rest of the day, and ate sushi for dinner. Even tried alittle geoduck (i.e. jumbo clam) - for those of you that have seen the Dirty Jobs episode!!!

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Maui: Day 5

We're planning on some long road trips to Hana and Haleakala - both of which contain spectacular views and rough terrain. So clearly we needed to prepare by going to get our rental car upgraded: Jeep Wrangler X with the top down.

We travelled back into Kahuili to get our upgraded car. Also went back to Mamma's Fish House during lunchtime to check out the ocean waves on this side of Maui. They were certainly bigger on this the north shore.

After a big lunch, we went back to the hotel to relax... a sign of what was to come later....

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Maui: Day 4

The most adventurous day of our trip: snorkeling!

Having been sea sick during previous boating trips and not completely in love with the idea of swimming with fish, this was clearly a moment of peer pressure. "You mean you want to snorkel? And you're not nervous? Oh, well then... I'm not nervous either. Sign me up!"

Turns out we were both nervous but both willing to push our comfort level just to say we'd been snorkeling in Maui. If this were an opportunity say in the CT river, we'd certainly pass.

A couple of Dramamine pills and a beautiful calm ocean day later, the experience was amazing. The water was clear down 50 ft to the coral reef ocean floor. Seeing at least a dozen species of fish, we snorkeled off the coast of Maui and also went to Molokini.

The wet suit rental was also a great decision. While not a very flattering outfit, it kept me warm and buoyant. Hahaha!

After recovering from the Drammamine drowsiness, we celebrated with a wonderful meal at Nick's Fish Market down in Wailea.

Maui: Day 3

Once again with the early rising. At this point, it's probably better
this way. Hopefully, with this pattern of sleep, there won't be much
jet lag on the return home.

Main destination for Day 3: Wailea

Very nice resort area with two of the best beaches in Maui: Black Sand
Beach and Big Beach.

Black Sand Beach is set back in the woods and would normally require a 4x4 of sorts to reach, so as to not bottom out the car on the dirt road. But the Chevy Malibu did just fine at slow speeds. The Black Sand Beach was amazing, not populated, and a nice serene spot to relax for a bit. Not able to swim though, with all the rocks near shore.

Big Beach was exactly that, BIG. Vast sand beach with a great swim
area and fun waves. The number of parking spaces paled in comparison to the number of people the beach could hold. But once we hiked in from our far away parking spot, it was well worth the trip.

Also travelled into Kihei and enjoyed a local eatery. Fish and chips
for the 2nd time, and once again with another type of freshly caught
Hawaiian white fish.

Maui: Day 2

Getting used to waking up before sunrise and ordering in breakfast. Quite the life! Day 2 was the day of polar opposite activities.

Started the day off with a trip to the hotel spa to see what menu items they offered. Turned out they had availability to take us right away for a couples hot stone massage. Being it my first time ever getting a spa treatment.... one word: amazing! While there was a short circuit in the couples cabana that prevented us from getting a hot stone massage, we "settled" for a deep tissue massage. I literally couldn't stop talking about it all day.

Then we decided to explore the mountainous roads of West Maui (during the daytime and not after just getting off an airplane... muuuuch better!). We stopped at the Nakalele lava blowhole. We had to descend the side of cliff to get down to see the lava blowhole spray water up to 70ft in the air. A couple people got too close and were drenched... one guy even fell from the hard waves crashing on the nearby rocks.

After the lava blowhole, we went to the Olivine Pools - stillwater pools that were created from the ocean spray of waves crashing against the rocks. Once again, we descended (much steeper) down another cliff to reach the destination. The lava rocks and caverns were an amazing sight. The rocks under water were slippery and the depth of the holes were difficult to determine. This resulted in a good America's Funniest Home Video moment when I slipped right into a 4ft hole, landing on my tail, and scratching my leg. It produced great laughs.

Finished off the evening with an authentic luau - that means no fire dancers or men wearing tiki masks... apparently those are of a different origin. Also, got to have a honeymoon dance on the beach.

P.S. Day 2 also included the newest family member partaking in a little Canasta, honing our skills for the next family competition.

Maui: Day 1

Woke up on Day 1 before sunrise - not surprising, given the time difference. Ordered breakfast for the room and enjoyed a leisurely morning on the terrace.

The rest of the day included highlights such as:
(1) Lahaina - shopping on Front St.
(2) Kimo's Restaurant - great ocean view dining in Lahaina
(3) Booked some more activities of for the week - snorkeling and a sunset dinner cruise
(4) Mamma's Fish House - much easier to get to Kahului via Rt. 30 instead of the "back roads" of Rt. 340

The weather is amazing! Mid-80's and a constant breeze. Supposedly, the location of our resort typically has the "worst weather" of all the resorts on Maui.... I'm not seeing it yet.

Breakfast on our terrace in Maui

Flew first class to Maui

As expected, not too many people flying to Maui on a Tues. evening...
so we were upgraded to First Class for the flight!!

Muuuuch better than coach. Food and drink aplenty. Also met a local on
the plane, who gave us some great recommendations.

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Off to Maui

Going to be a long day... but well worth it!! 19hrs door to door.

Made it to NYC in record time... 2hrs 15mins. (Thanks Veterans Day!)

Hanging out in the airport... until 6.5hr flight to LAX (ooofah).
Praying for an upgrade to business class!

To be continued...

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