Maui

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After a wonderful week on the Big Island we flew in a 10 seat Cessna to Maui. We spent the week in the town of Kihei. Our first day there we enjoyed an afternoon at Kamaole Beach I.
The next day we drove the road to Hana. The weather was a little drizzly but it didn’t stop us from hiking to waterfalls along the road. Ryan tried to lead us to a rumored and hidden waterfall off a small trail, but we ended up spending an hour trying to get through thick, muddy bamboo forests – with no waterfall to be found!

Once in Hana we hiked to a red sand beach. During our Hawaii vacation we saw white, black, green and red sand beaches - pretty cool! After reaching Hana we continued our drive around the southern part of the island. We visited Haleakala National Park and the Seven Sacred Pools. Also in the national park we hiked to the stunning Waimoku falls through a dense bamboo forest.

We had a great time and survived another long day in the car. The next day was Thanksgiving and we were off on a snorkeling trip to Molokini crater courtesy of the crew at Trilogy. The water at Molokini crater was so clear and true blue. The reef and fish were colorful and abundant. Ryan saw an octopus scooting along on the sandy bottom. From Molokini we went to an area off shore and snorkeled with a few huge green sea turtles. For Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed a sushi, pumpkin cobbler and another beautiful sunset.

We spent the day at two beaches near Lahaina relaxing and snorkeling. That evening we went to Warren and Annabelle’s, a magic show that came highly rated from our Maui Revealed book. The theater was small and the performances were really cool with Annabelle the local ghost playing the piano, sleight of hand tricks and comedy.

We got up super early the next morning, 2 am, and took a shuttle up Haleakala volcano to watch the sunset and ride bikes down the mountain. It was cold compared to what we were used to, but the sunrise was spectacular. On our bike ride down we stopped for breakfast and shopping. We alternated our adventurous days with relaxing beach days.

Big beach was next and lived up to its name. On a Sunday it didn’t feel crowded at all. On our last day we had some beach time, enjoyed the Maui Ocean Center, and went to the new James Bond movie before we boarded our redeye flight back to the main land. Even after two weeks in Hawaii we could have stayed longer; it was a perfect beach vacation.