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July 14 - Farewell Paradise

Our trip is over. Hard to believe it went so fast. We arrived in Houston around 2:00 PM. The flight home was easy, it went by quicker than I expected. Now we are back to the real world….but I have plenty of pictures to remind me of our time in paradise.

July 13 - Last Day


Maui's Upcountry
View of Makawao & Pukalani
The road...up, up, up.
This was our last breakfast on the lanai….I will miss it. We slept in a little and then packed up and headed towards Haleakala. We drove up Lahainaluna Road for a view of the town before we left. What a drive to Haleakala, sea level to 10,000 feet in less than 2 hours! I was glad we had canceled our bike trip. It is very very windy at the top. In fact, it was almost impossible to stand up, but the view was nice and worth the trip. We enjoyed stopping where we wanted to on our way down. If I lived in Maui I would want to live in the upcountry area. Rolling hills, cool weather, and the views are to die for.

Haleakala silversword in bloom. These are very rare plants.
View of the Big Island from Haleakala
At the top.
Views from the top.
We drove down through Makawoa and Haiku, stopped and had a picnic lunch watching the windsurfers at Hookipa Beach. We then stopped in Paia to look at some of the shops. A strange collection of high end art galleries and weird little boutiques. We still had quite a bit of time to waste until our flight at 11:00, so we went to the movies at Queen Kaahumanu Mall. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean. After the show we ate at the Saigon Café. It was a small place, but they were very friendly and the food was good. After dinner we stopped at K-Mart for some last minute snacks for the plane and to change clothes.

Hookipa Beach
Queen Kaahumanu Mall

July 12 - Beach Day

Breakfast in the condo and then we were off to Slaughterhouse Beach and the drive around the west end of Maui. We arrived to a private beach…one man was there and he was on his way out. How nice. We climbed over the rock on the right side; we sat there and watched a large school of dolphins playing in the water. The water was a little rough so we decided not to snorkel. After watching the dolphins we began our trip to the blowhole and Olivine Pools. The weather was better, but still not clear. This time the tide was out and the blowhole was not blowing! So we didn’t waste our time climbing down to it. We enjoyed the drive to the pools, but did not go in, because it was very cloudy. We drove on towards Kahakuloa Village, but when it began to rain again we headed back to the sunnier side of Maui! We stopped at Aloha Mixed Plate for lunch and then went back to enjoy our last day in the condo. Lots of relaxing and beach time. We ordered from Honokowai Okazuya & Deli for dinner. We had egg fu young and Mongolian beef with rice and stir fried vegetables for $16. Drinks and dinner on the lanai again. Wonderful!
Helmet Urchin
After dinner we walked down the beach to watch the sunset and take some beautiful pictures. Paradise has been wonderful.

July 11 - Happy Anniversary

This was our best beach day. We packed a lunch and headed up to Kapalua Bay. This was a great spot to spend the day: wonderful weather, great snorkeling, shade for Stan and sun for me. This was truly paradise. It is listed as one of the world’s best beaches. It was a nice place to spend our anniversary. We stayed here until early afternoon and then headed back to the condo. Stan took a nap and I did some shopping. It is nice being just a few blocks from the shops.

We went to an oriental restaurant for dinner, called ZuiHio. It was very good and they were very nice to us. They gave us a 10% discount on our bill and free dessert to help us celebrate our anniversary. Later we walked on the beach and sat in the hot tub...this is getting to be a habit.

Kapalua Beach

July 10 - Sightseeing

Now we are getting to the relaxing part of our trip! We walked down the beach to the Sunrise Café for breakfast. This café is just off the boat dock. We had two cups of coffee and a very large cinnamon roll with macadamia nuts on top. Very good.

After breakfast we went to Slaughterhouse Beach, the water was too rough for snorkeling so we went on to Honolua Bay. This was a great snorkeling spot. The walk down to the rock beach is through a forest. Not a good beach to lounge on, but wonderful to snorkel.

Slaughterhouse Beach
We drove to Nakalele Blowhole, but the wind and rain made it impossible to spend much time there. I don’t think it was raining when we got there, but we still got wet from the spray coming from the blowhole. We turned around and started back to the sunny side of the island. We stopped for lunch at Maui Tacos in Kapalua and browsed around a little sidewalk craft fair. We bought a beautiful gold bracelet there. On the way back to Lahaina we stopped at the Whaler’s Village and looked around and did a little shopping. We were trying to figure out where we wanted to eat for our anniversary tomorrow night. We decided to stop at CJ’s Comfort Zone and take some food home for dinner. Dinner and drinks on our lanai, no reason to go out, it’s too much fun here.

Nakalele Blowhole
West Maui

July 9 - Rafting Trip

We got up early this morning, we had a boat trip with Blue Water Rafting and the check in was at 6:45 in Kihei. The weather was a little windy and we knew the trip would be a little rough. The trip was fun, but the waves were huge with 7-8 foot swells. The coastline at the end of south Maui is very rugged. The snorkeling was not the best with all the wind, but we still had fun. We decided to go to Molokini crater to snorkel too. This was a beautiful place, and by the time we got there, we were the only boat. That was nice. You can see forever and the visibility is always good. They even took us to the outside edge to see where the wall drops off. We spent almost 7 hours exploring the southern coast. I feel like it was a good trip, but very exhausting.
It was great to get back to the condo and take a shower. Stan took a nap and I went to the Cool Cat Café to send an email to Kyle, since we had missed several of his calls. We bought fresh fish at the store and fixed it in the condo for dinner. Eating on our lanai is better than any restaurant in town! We enjoyed another walk on the beach and sat in the hot tub. It was a very long day.

July 8 - Full Day

Had breakfast on our lanai and then headed to the Swap Meet in Kahului. It was a lot of fun. The weather was great, not too hot. We bought coffee, necklaces for the nieces, an ivory whale’s tale necklace Kyle, and mango bread. We found some photographs we really liked, but didn’t go back to get them. I was sorry at first, but then found the same ones at the Pacific Whale Foundation in Lahaina. The best thing I had to eat all week was at the Swap Meet, it was Teriyaki steak and garlic noodles. Nothing fancy, but very good.

We headed up to Iao Valley when we finished at the Swap Meet. I think Stan wanted to go back to the condo, but he was glad we hadn’t when he saw how pretty it was up there. It was a lot cooler than in town. It was definitely worth the trip. Our drive back to Lahaina was quick this time, no weekday traffic. When we got back to the condo Stan took a nap and I laid out by the pool. It really is very peaceful here.

Ioa Valley
We did a short little hike while we were in Ioa Valley.
We took advantage of the happy hour at Moose McGillycuddy's in the afternoon. We had tickets for Warren and Annabelle’s at 5, so we stopped by for a few drinks and pupus on our way. We arrived at Warren and Annabelle’s just in time to go in. They only take a small group in at a time. They give you a key and you enter a library looking room and have to figure out which door leads to the parlor. It was fun. The food and drinks were good, and the show was excellent. We took advantage of walking on the beach and using the hot tube again before we went to bed.