maui part one

We have been waiting for this trip for a really long time.  We always hoped to do something big for our ten year anniversary.  We dreamt of being done with school and just living it up in paradise to celebrate our ten years together.  

It had to be a month after our actual anniversary, but we didn't mind- we were going to Maui!

My sweet dad offered to drive us to the airport.  Departure time 8:30 a.m.  This meant a 5:30 a.m. alarm clock.  Ugh.

We were unlucky enough to have a crazy flight plan to get to Maui.  First stop- layover in Minneapolis.  I don't even know.  Delta Sky Miles at their best.

   

It was a suuuuper long day of traveling, but I did come across these treasures in the airport on display at the Mattel store.  I had these!  Peaches 'n Cream and Barbie and the Rockers!  I didn't know my old barbies are now iconic.  Very exciting for me.

After a TWENTY ONE HOUR day- we finally got to our place in Maui and crashed.

And the next morning we got to wake up to this.  The view from our balcony.  It never got old to look at this view.

The next day was Sunday.  We wanted to get in the water SO bad.  First, because it was so beautiful.  But mostly because it was really hot.  We decided to go to the "Blow Hole" which is a hole in the mountain where the ocean's surf comes gushing out of- kind of like a geyser, but not at all like a geyser.

It was here, at the blow hole, that I became horrified at my outfit.  Look at my earrings.  I realized that wearing a normal outfit in the middle of the day in Maui is not at all common, at least among the tourists, and definitely not comfortable.  Brian was kind of horrified at my denim shorts and I'm not really sure if it was the setting in which I wore them, or just them on their own...Anyway, I realized that I didn't bring enough of the right kind of clothes to wear while hiking around Maui.

So I took off the earrings and left on the shorts.

Okay, that's all about my clothes.  I think.

On the hike down we saw this cool heart cutout in one of the cliffs.

 See what I did there?

I also got all fancy with my new phone and took this panoramic shot.  

Brian really loved the blow hole.  He was just really into it.  In fact, we actually went twice.  The first time there was nothing happening at the blow hole except crabs crawling around it.  So we decided to go home, check the tides and come back when it was higher.  And it was a good decision because it was really awesome when it was actually blowing.

Pretty rainbow and my shorts again.

 It was hard to tear him away.

Now might be a good time to mention that we forgot to bring a camera.  This was okay, because I had just gotten a new phone with a decent enough camera, but it also means that there are many shots like this, and that also explains the quality of the pictures we did take.

A beautiful scene on the drive back to our hotel.

That night we walked along the beach with the best sunset views, and although it was pretty cloudy, the sunset was quite lovely.  

Oh look!  Another one of these.

The next day we got up bright and early- Hawaii time- and headed out on a sailboat to go snorkeling at Molikini (a small island off of Maui).

 

This was definitely one of the favorite things we did.  There are dozens of boats that go to Molikini every morning.  Huge boats that hold tons of people and have big load motors and chug on out to the island and let all their passengers snorkel in one big pile.

Brian was smart enough to book our trip on a sailboat.  In order to get to the island, we had to use the motor, but on the way back they put up the sails, fed us a delicious lunch (including guava juice which I quickly became obsessed with) and we got to just relax with only the sound of the ocean and the feel of the wind.  We found a spot to ourselves on the back of the boat and just sat there and soaked it all in.  Brian also saw a whale off in the distance.  Amazing.

The snorkeling was really fun and I'm glad we did this first.  I LOVED snorkeling.  Probably my favorite thing about Hawaii.  It's interesting because the ocean really scares me- always has.  It's so huge, powerful, unpredictable and unknown.  Plus, you can't see what's going on under there.  But put some fins on me and a snorkel mask and my feelings changed completely.  Yeah, it's still unpredictable and powerful, but it's no longer a secret once you can see it.  I loved just observing the underwater world and just taking a peek into what goes on under there.  

Another thing I loved was I was an awesome swimmer in the ocean!  I am not very strong in the water, but the way you float in the ocean due to all the salt- I felt like Michael Phelps.  Not really, but I felt pretty good.  

 That night we went to Front Street in Lahaina.  They have a million touristy, beachy shops and restaurants along both sides of the street, which is right along the ocean.  We ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse and paid probably double what we would have back home, but it was still good.  

We both really liked Lahiania.  They had this park in the middle of everything with a huge banyon tree.  It was pretty neat, but it also housed some pretty unique characters as well.

This picture is funny because I think I was about to take a picture of this hula girl statue, like you do in Hawaii, and Brian was in the middle of making fun of me for it when a nice lady walking by asked if we wanted her to take a picture for us.  I of course said yes, like you do, and this is the fine shot we got.    This is a fake smile from Brian.  

We ended the night with Hawaiian gelato (is that a thing) and it was really tasty.