Maui recap

So I left off on the itty bitty plane heading to Maui.  The ride offered incredible views.  One of the locals asked the pilots to swing by the waterfalls.  She said she flies the route all the time.  

She said they were some of the tallest waterfalls in the world.  Breathtaking views. 

Our resort property in Maui was great.  Pool was great and the beach was beautiful.  Our room was another story.  I called the front desk after the first night and said we would need a different room due to the overwhelming mold/urine smell.  She didn't seem surprised.  We moved down the hall a bit.  It was better but still not great. To get "great" would cost me another eighty bucks a night which I was not willing to do.  So we made it work with the so so room and enjoyed the rest of the resort.  For those of you who know about my special shower flip flops...never have I been so glad to have those and I made the kid wear her flip flops in the shower too.  For the price of the hotel I was surprised that even the older rooms were in this state.  

10-number of times we had ice cream in some shape or form.  The shave ice (no d on the end...it's blatantly obvious you are a tourist if you call it shaved ice.  Perhaps also when you say "hola" instead of "aloha.")  The shave ice people suggested we add ice cream to the bottom and man oh man was that a good idea!  We also had cookie dough ice cream from Lappert's and I kid you not the cookie dough pieces were the size of a Lego.  #heaven

The view on our walk from our resort down to Whaler's Village.  An easy walk to shops and food.  The resort also provided a free shuttle to three different areas which was awesome. Old town Lahaina is like Main Street USA except on the beach. Cute, quaint little shopping area and restaurants. Loved it.  Notice the rainbow.  Weather was perfect the whole time.  We were laying by the pool one day and I said "is it raining or is that mist from the pool waterfall?"  It was a light rain.  Pretended like it was waterfall mist and proceeded to enjoy the pool.  Maui was considerably more expensive than Oahu.  I was glad we had packed some snacks and breakfast food.  We were able to greatly save on food this way.

Our first tour in Maui was the Sunrise Crater Tour through Roberts Hawaii.  We woke up at 1:30am to get our shuttle.  Another couple was waiting with us when a shady looking van pulled up and the couple hopped on for their sunrise tour.  Except they were biking down the volcano after.  No thank you.  That sounded like a terrible idea.  We proceeded on our tour with our guide Steve who was impressingly energetic for it being 2am. 

We weren't sure at 2 in the morning what kind of sunrise we would get to see...if it would be clear or cloudy.  We had hot chocolate and delicious pastries while we waited before going out in the freezing cold.  But boy was it worth freezing for.  Stunning.  We were above the clouds and saw the light start to burn through.  Suddenly I heard one of the park rangers say "not everything worth seeing is always in front of you."  I wondered what she meant so I turned around and witnessed the moon set.  The picture below is exactly the colors I saw...shades of white to pink to blue to purple.  I think that part of the sky may have been even more beautiful than the sunrise.  That's something you just don't get to see.  She said that the blue/purple color we saw is actually the shadow of the mountain.  Amazing.  

The sun started to peek above the clouds.  

And it was just stunning.  Hands down my favorite part of the trip.  

The Silversword plant grows only on top of this crater, nowhere else in the world.  

We were up over 10,200 feet at the summit.  After a bit more time we drove back down the mountain, passing the people on the bikes who looked cold and wobbly, and stopped at Kula marketplace.  Here we sampled pineapple snow, which is white chocolate covered macadamia nuts infused with pineapple, macadamia nut peanut butter, and coconut candy.  I left with all but the peanut butter.  (Oh forgot to mention in the Oahu recap the pineapple ice cream we had at the Dole plantation....SO good) As we left the marketplace one of the little older ladies on the tour was digging through her purchases and it appeared she forgot something...we all got a kick out of her calling out "Robert" like she was talking to her son...trying to get the attention of the tour guide.  The tour guide named Steve.  But the van DID say Roberts Hawaii tours so...logic would have it Robert would be driving! 

Speaking of ice cream....Hula Pie.  Filled with mac nut ice cream covered with fudge, whipped cream, and mac nuts.  Worth every dollar of that 10 dollar price tag.  Heavenly. 

I mentioned I would come back to seeing large waves....we saw them right in front of our hotel.  We were amazed and sat and watched the waves for almost an hour.  

That day we saw the sunrise, moon set, and of course the sunset to complete the day.,

Random Hawaii facts...there are no snakes in Hawaii-win, they have a Mongoose problem (brought over to take care of the rats....but rats are nocturnal and mongoose are dayturnal-fail), Honolulu traffic is the third worst in the nation, and housing prices are CRAZY.  Like really crazy.  My current house would probably be pushing a million or more in Hawaii, Public schooling is terrible in Hawaii because they can't keep good teachers but if you have money leftover after that massive mortgage payment you can spend another 25,000 a year for private schools.  

I was amazed at how quickly the water could change.  Nice and calm one minute to strong waves the next.  I was intimidated by it for sure.  But the first day in Maui we waded in the ocean and next thing we know the most ginormous sea turtle is swimming back and forth.  I went on to name him Simon.  Simon the sea turtle.  I have snorkeled with sea turtles before but Simon made those turtles look like babies.  I couldn't believe the size of him.  The rest of the week anytime we were in the water I was on a mission to find Simon again for a photo with the underwater camera. No luck. 

Our next tour took us on the Road to Hana. The tree above is a rainbow Eucalyptus tree.  Looks like someone painted streaks of colors down it.  So cool.

The curvy road I had heard much about.  I didn't think it was all that bad...until we reached the back half of the tour. 

We stopped at some beautiful places.  I don't know that you can travel ten feet in Hawaii and not run into something beautiful.  

Waterfalls everywhere we turned.

The state flower

This is a photo at the Pools of Oheo.  I was terrified to get any closer because they had signs up everywhere warning people how you can get swept out to sea. There were newspaper articles of people who had died and been swept away.  "Hold on let me get my ultra zoom lens out and I can just stay in the van."  Goodness.  

Soon we were on the back half of the road.  Where this totally sturdy looking, obviously trustworthy guardrail gave me peace of mind.  Mmhmm.  

I sat in the very back of the van so I kept turning around to take pictures of the road and turns we just made.  At the same time I prayed my motion sickness pills would do their job.  

After returning from the ten hour tour we decided to walk to the pizza place up the road.  On the way a bug flew in my eye which the kid just found hysterical.  But we also saw our favorite birds!  They may be a bit hard to see but these birds have pretty long legs and just mosey up to you.  The first day we were at the pool I turned the corner and the kid had set up our chairs, was lounging back and started talking to me and mid-sentence I hear "what...no."  Then I look to see one of these birds walking on up to her and she took off. I died.  I decided this bird was named Bert.  Later when I discovered the second one logically he became Ernie. 

Sunrise our last morning

Our final night we ate at Leilani's on the Beach which was where we had gone once and had the original Hula Pie.  This time we tried the seasonal Hula Pie which was strawberry for breast cancer awareness.  Not quite as good but the plate still went back empty. This place had some awesome nachos too.  As we sat here we watched a guy play frisbee with his dog on the beach.  That dog loved his frisbee.  After a bit they came over to the restaurant and must be regulars because the dog's owner walked up to the bar and they handed him a drink right away.  The dog with his frisbee plopped down right next to us at our table.  I heard the owner talking to another guy and I turned and said "oh this dog's name is Jack."  The kid replied "did you really just name someone else's dog.  First the turtle, then the birds...not the dog."  I laughed and informed her that was ACTUALLY the dog's name because I overheard.  

After ten days it was time to make the long journey home.  We hopped on the nine seater plane to head back to Oahu.  I thought it was interesting that there was no security check this time...is that safe?  Also...I hoped when people were asked their weight (because not only do they need your luggage weight they need yours too) that unlike the DMV everyone rounded up and not down. 

Then I had to wonder if one of the pilots could've used a booster seat.  He was propping himself up on his elbow and craning his neck the whole time.  I was glad nobody seemed to have pocketed any lava rock and a safe flight was made. 

10 days, 2.5 bottles of sunscreen, 7 pizzas consumed (we were eating cheap), 3 turtles purchased for the collection, 10 ice cream visits, 2 movies watched, 4 tours taken, 0 alcoholic beverages consumed, 4 swimsuits worn, 49 hours spent traveling, 7 plane rides all added up to countless photos and memories.