Mike and I just got back from a trip to Maui. We'd visited the city of Honolulu in Oahu last year, but after visiting Maui, I think this is our island of choice. It isn't as commercial and as big of city as Honolulu and there is much more beauty and many more undeveloped places remaining.I actually think it might be the best vacation we've ever had. Perfect length, great weather and good location. Here we are at a luau. I picked this one. "Feast at Lele" in Lahaina because it was known for it's gourmet food and romantic setting.
This is a pic of the beach we stayed on. The condo was great. Nothing spectacular but clean, fantastic location on the beach and it had nice ammenities like a pool, towel service, snorkel gear and boogie board in the room, coolers, beach chairs, balcony, BBQ, etc.
This was the view from our balcony. We tried some water sports like snorkeling and boogie boarding.The snorkeling was right beside our hotel on the beach and we saw all kinds of beautiful fish and coral.
The waves on some parts of the beach were great and people were surfing and boogie boarding. I managed to take a wicked tumble and had sand EVERYWHERE :) but it was fun.
The photos below are from the drive we took to the Hana Coast. We'd just done the volcano trip so after a half hour or so of the turns in the road, we'd decided that if you'd seen one waterfall, you'd seen them all and turned back, but we had managed to see a few of the sites.
A few people told us that we had to visit the volcano Haleakalā. So we jumped into the rental and started on the trip. The photos above are of this drive. Once we got to the road that goes up to the volcano, we definitely knew we were on the right path. It was a road with so many turns it was unreal. We were following other cars who were taking the same tour and Mike had to make sure he didn't run into the cars in front of us. Every turn took us further into the clouds. On one part of the trip there were tons of lavender trees. We opened the windows to let in the sweet smell. The vulcano was beautiful and there was a weather centre at the top as well.
As I mentioned above, we also attended a Luau. I picked one that was supposed to have really great food. I especially love the pulled pork they have as a tradition at the luaus. It was great. The entertainment was fantastic and the food and drinks were perfect. One of the pictures above has a Hawaiian brand of beer. I thought Dad would like that one.
Also while we were there, we took advantage of the bbq'ing ammenities, we took car rides to the different cities along the coast. In the little town of Paia, we visited the flatbread pizza company for some delicious pizza with fresh organic ingrediants, we explored the beach, running and walking on it every day and had plenty of great food and just relaxed. It was fantastic and I highly recommend that if you haven't visited Hawaii, try the island of Maui first.
Well I must get outside. We finally have a gorgeous day after nearly non stop rain in Vancouver.
