The Last of The Molinas: Aloha!!

We are back from our vacation in...or is it on?...Maui! What a fabulous time we had! It was the first vacation in a while where we didn't just sit on the beach the entire time. We actually did a lot of cool things! I'll sum it up with a time line of our trip:

Thursday, May 13th: We left Newark Airport at 7:30 am and arrived in Dallas for a short layover. We arrived in Kahalui at around 3:00 pm Maui time, which was 9:00 pm EST for a total travel time of 13 1/2 hours. It honestly didn't seem that long. We were very entertained with our ipods and a nap or two. We picked up our convertible rental car (a must for first-timers to the islands!) and made our way to our hotel. It took about a half hour to get there, but the ride itself was beautiful with the green mountains and sugarcane fields to our left and right. That night we walked on the beach and took in our first sunset. We ate a late dinner at the hotel restaurant and fell asleep by 10, to the sound of the ocean right outside our balcony.

Friday, May 14th: We decided to take it easy on our first day and spend it at the hotel pool & on Makena beach. 5 am wake-up call from the birds that gathered in the hotel open air atrium. Started off the day with fresh waffles and coconut syrup, my new favorite condiment. The beach was nice, not too crowded and even some shade to be found under the trees. We witnessed a live turtle rescue by the government. It was a Hawksbill turtle they were rescuing out of the water off our beach, that had a possible tumor. We saw them bring him out of the water and we took lots of pictures. It was cool to see this type of turtle up close, since they are so rare! The rest of the day involved drinks by the pool (make mine a virgin, please) and tanning on the beach. We explored the rocky coves and found some cool sea creatures to play with (crabs, snails, an urchin).

Saturday, May 15th: After another 5 am wake-up call from nature (the birds, and yes, I had to get up to pee anyway) we had breakfast on our balcony (or lanai as they call it).

Today was pancakes with coconut syrup :) Our first stop today was the Maui Ocean Center which is an aquarium and science center of sorts. We learned all about the fish & sea creatures of Hawaii. After lunch, we drove to Lahaina. Along the way we stopped at a fresh fruit stand to buy some fresh mangos and papayas. We were also amazed to see the beaches along the highway packed with surfers...it seemed like an endless stretch of tents and barbecues and surfboards! Once in Lahaina we did some shopping (got our ukulele), ate our first shave ice, saw the giant banyan tree, did some more shopping...later that night we attended our first Luau together. The show was great and the food was abundant! Driving back to the hotel that night, the stars in the sky were beautiful. And all the beaches were still packed with people partying around their campfires! We were tempted to crash the party!

Sunday, May 16th: We drove back to NE Maui today to take a Helicopter tour of Hana and Haleakala. The tour was great, a state-of-the-art helicopter and amazing views of waterfalls and the coast.

Afterward we drove into Pai'a with a couple we met on the Helicopter, Julie and Bill. This was their 8th time in Maui, so they took us to a great seafood joint for lunch, followed by the best Gelato I've ever had. Pai'a was one of my favorite little off-the-beaten-path towns. It was just a few blocks, but the Hawaiian lifestyle was uber-apparent here. I don't think it gets much more laid back than here!

Monday, May 17th: We did a snorkeling tour at 8:30 am that took us out to Molokini Crater (just a 15 minute sail away). We swam with lots of fish and saw some nice coral. The water was cold! And I was getting easily winded out there. Back on the boat, sailing to our 2nd stop, we ran into some spinner dolphins swimming alongside us. It was so cool to see them out in the wild, just doing their thing, jumping in and out of the water.

When we got to our next stop, which was close to Makena Beach we got to swim with sea turtles! We saw three altogether. They tell you to stay 10 feet away from them (for their protection) but they are so friendly and social, it is hard to keep that distance. They want to swim right up and say hi! This was quite a memorable experience!

Later that night, we went out for our "Anniversary" Dinner. It wasn't technically our anniversary. May 18th is our 13th "Dating" Anniversary which Gene says doesn't count anymore. But if it can score us a nice table and maybe a free dessert...? We went to Spago at the Four Seasons, so we were afforded a nice table and great view but not a free dessert.

The food was very good but I think the atmosphere made it even better. I had my first Molten Lava Cake, which ironically is not called a Lava Cake in Hawaii. After dinner we tried to go see the adults-only pool where Modern Family filmed, but it was closed. We did see the elevator where they lost Lily.

Tuesday, May 18th: We shuttled over to Wailea Beach today, home of the Four Season and Grand Wailea. Our shuttle driver told us the pool at Grand Wailea was amazing and suggested we "accidentally fall" into it. We went to the beach first which was beautiful but offered no shade. The water was nice because we were able to walk out fairly deep and the waves were behaving. After a while we made our way to the pool area which turned out to be a water park! I think the pool was in the shape of a volcano or something, with water slides making up the sides and waterfalls cascading down. I finally convinced Gene to "fall in" with me. We went down the slides a couple times and swam around the connecting pools (you don't even have to swim, there is a current that moves you right along!). Finally we were spotted by a lifeguard/photographer who asked us if we "forgot" to get our bracelets. Yea...we forgot...that's it...

Wednesday, May 19th: We took a tennis clinic in the morning and relaxed the rest of the day.

We played some mini golf at our hotel and got in some last minute tanning and relaxation. For dinner we went back to Kihei, about 10 minutes from the hotel. Cheap food and a cool shore kind of vibe. We had pizza (Shaka pizza, so yummy) and frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti and coffee at Starbucks (nothing screams authentic Hawaiian coffee like Starbucks).

Thursday, May 20th: Our last day in (on?) Maui. We visited Big Beach, which was the next beach over on the other side (Big Beach; Little/Makena Beach; Wailea Beach). It is the biggest undeveloped beach on Maui. It was really nice but it was a windy day so the sand hurt just blowing onto our legs. Our flight was going to be 2 hours late, so that gave us just enough time to drive the hour and a half toward Haleakala to visit the Lavender Farm! I was excited because I had given up on my hopes of visiting it...an hour and a half seemed a long ride just to see lavender. The drive was actually much shorter that predicted and it was a scenic ride as we ascended 4000 ft above sea level. The farm itself was so peaceful and it was lovely to be surrounded by lavender!

We missed the walking tour so we opted to play their "treasure hunt" game instead. It took us about 2 hours but we did it and won ourselves a free cookie! The red-eye flight back was rough. They expect you to sleep and they turn out the lights, but we both couldn't sleep. We were tired when we got to Dallas at 7 am and actually slept on the flight back to Newark. That probably messed up our sleep schedule because we couldn't sleep that night and have been jet-lagged since!