Mahalo

Where to begin! Maui was a week of pure HEAVEN!! It was like nothing I have ever experienced and now I finally understand why so many people fall in love and dream of living on the islands. We stayed in cute little beach condos with the ocean as our backyard and let me say every ones day would start out so much better if they could eat breakfast while watching the waves crash in! 

Our week was packed full of activities, starting with a drive up into the hills to find the blow hole and famous heart in the rock.  It was also our first attempt at snorkeling which resulted in gasping for air, screaming and a panicked swim back to shore and cut up feet. It's funny looking back, but at the time we were sure that was the end. 

One thing I loved was driving down the highway and seeing all of the surfers, swimmers and campers just pulled off to the side of the road enjoying the beach. One of the roadside beaches is where Drea and I made our second attempt at snorkeling, it went over much better; if you don't count getting trapped in coral.

Next day we made the trek in our minivan across the island to the Road to Hana, 68 miles of winding, TINY road through the Maui hills to the small town of Hana. We walked through forests of bamboo, swam in a COLD waterfall, found my new beachfront property and swam in the warmer waters of Black Sand Beach. And let's not forget swimming in a cave while a beach bum played a didgeridoo. 

My other absolute favorite part was our two whale watching trips. The first was a dinner cruise which made us feel classy and resulted in a lot of Titanic jokes and the second I got rocked by a giant wave and saw whales fight and a baby show off so I guess they were both a win. Lastly we took one final snorkeling trip to Black Rock at Ka'anapali Beach and it was fantastic! Tropical fish, beautiful coral and so many sea turtles! Our last night was spent celebrating Bennett's birthday (Drea's aunt) with pizza, chocolate cake and some laughs (mostly at Paige).

The next morning as we drove to the airport I took in the scenery around me trying to commit everything I saw, heard and smelled to memory. I can honestly say I have never been so sad to leave any place as I was Maui. I guess this just means I'll have to go back!