James' Birthday Trip - Maui, Part 2 (Aug 2016)

MAUI - Part  2

(Aug 20 - 30, 2016)

The second part of our 10 day trip was a lot like the first 5 days.  We spent time at the beach....

time at the pool.....

more beach time....

and more pool time.  We found time every single day to play at both the beach and pool.

James and I took turns snorkeling at the rocks right in front of our condo.  Lots of turtles... and Humuhumu's (Hawaiian state fish)

GG and Papa graciously offered to watch the girls so that James and I could go on a date. We went to Star Noodle in Lahaina for an early dinner.

malasadas

Then we walked around Lahaina, did a little shopping, watched the sunset and had Hula Pie on Kimo's lanai.   It was a perfect Hawaiian date night with my "true love".

The girls went out to dinner with GG and Papa then had a treat while watching the sunset.     They had a great time without us.

The only tourist activity that I wanted to do on Maui was to go to the top of Haleakala to see the sunset and the amazing view of the island from 10,000 feet.   We decided to make an afternoon/evening of it and see some more of the island "up country".  We stopped by the sugar cane factory to tour the museum and see how sugar is made.

We started up the long road to the top of the volcano.  The higher we got up, the more it rained and the worse the visibility became.  From our condo in Kihei we are able to see the volcano  summit and every evening the wind would pick up and blow all the clouds from the top of the volcano.  So, we were hopeful that the clouds would clear when we got to the top.

our view as we drove up the volcano

We got to the top and the visibility was no better, it was still drizzling and sunset was fast approaching.

This map shows what we SHOULD be looking at.  But it was just white fog.

We made the best of it.  We had a picnic in the car,

then went to the rim to look out at what should have been a great sunset with amazing views of the island.

We were supposed to see things like this:

I guess we will have to try again next time we go to Maui. 

We also took a drive one morning to find a black sand beach that was in Makena.  We drove to the end of the road to La Perouse Bay and looked around the beautiful lava rock beach, found the black sand beach (One'uli Beach)  and went to a beautiful ocean side rock church.

Guess who was hungry?

Elin and I had our toes done the day before we left (our Hawaii tradition).  Anikka still refuses to let strangers touch her feet.

Our last day in Maui we went for a walk on the beach. 

Our condo building in the background at Kamaole Beach Park 

and to Ululani's for our last (and the BEST) shave ice. No, really THE MOST AMAZING shave ice.

As always, we had a spectacular trip to Hawaii.  No matter which island we choose, we are never disappointed.  I miss having breakfast and lunch on the lanai with the amazing view

the beautiful flowers

and the amazing sunsets.

Our return flight was a red eye, our first red eye flight with our girls and they did excellent, as always.

ALOHA Hawaii, until next time.