Growing Grays: Maui

Mike and I went to Maui for 8 days to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. It was absolutely beautiful, relaxing and wonderful.

We started our vacation in West Maui on Kaanapali Beach in a 1 bedroom condo right on the water. We had coffee in the morning and drinks in the afternoon on our beautiful lanai - enjoying the views of the Pacific, Moloka'i and Lana'i. On the agenda most days of the trip were relaxing, walking on the beach, reading on the beach, swimming in water so amazingly clear and warm, exploring a little and eating lots of good food. I ate fish (opah, ono and mahi mahi) every single day and found a new favorite food - shaved ice (nothing like the Minnesota snow cone) with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom. The sunsets were gorgeous and we saw rainbows in the mountains most days. We had beautiful weather - when people gush about their trips to Hawaii it may seem nauseatingly perfect but it's because it really is paradise - morning, noon and night it was in the low 80s and sunny with low humidity - it just always felt perfectly comfortable walking barefoot on the beach in summer clothing.

Kaanapali Beach

Sunset from our lanai

Napili Beach

We saw sea turtles this close as we strolled on the beach

Walking on some "dragon's tooth" lava

Nakalele Blowhole - a bit of a hike down but well worth it. It's supposed to be one of the largest natural blowholes in the world. Water shoots more than 70 feet high

The road to Hana - thoroughly enjoyed from our convertible - always with the top down

Hiking down to one of many waterfalls

Everything is so GREEN and lush

There isn't a lot of civilization on the east side of Maui so coming across an ice cream stand with delicious ice cream made from coconut milk was like an oasis in the desert. Coconut Glen who runs this joint really is "living the life!"

Lots of black lava sand beaches

We stayed one night in Hana and saw the sunrise

We were the only ones at this red sand beach

That little speck is me!

One of the things on my wish list was to drink out of a coconut. As we were walking around Hana a local must have identified us as tourists (I wonder why??!!) and asked if we wanted a coconut. He got a fresh one from the tree and sliced it open with his machete. Yum!

A view of the beach and condo we stayed in while in Hana

We spent the last leg of our trip in South Maui, which was busier than West Maui and Hana, but just as beautiful. Everyday we spent time on a different beach.

Wailea Beach

Snorkeling trip on a catamaran to Molokini Crater

Sunset

If you want to see all of our vacation pictures they are available here.

This vacation was truly made possible by my parents who stayed with Miles and Hadley nights and weekends and our super nannies. Doreen went above and beyond the Monday before we left for the trip helping us to get ready as we were in a flurry of work, packing and preparing things for the kids. My parents ensured everything ran smoothly on the home front (when we returned Miles announced that "Grandma gives better baths than mommy and daddy!"). While we very much enjoyed a kids-free trip we were so excited to come home to see the other half of our little family. We came home to a huge welcome home sign, autumn flowers and fall/Halloween decor up in the house and a pumpkin pie thanks to Amy!