I just got home from spending some amazingly relaxing days in Maui with a couple of girlfriends.
Mike successfully held down the fort (though he was admittedly quite exhausted) while I was gone.
The last time I have been to Hawaii was 17 years ago, when my parents took our family for a month to several of the islands. Some of the stops we made in Maui seemed familiar, other stops looked quite different. There were hotels where there weren't hotels before!
It was so nice being greeted with these beautiful flower leis.
While it didn't really feel like Christmas temperature wise, most of the resorts were fully decorated for Christmas.
The lobby and the grounds of the Fairmont were beautiful!
There were lots of little tide pools, but they weren't the same as the tide pools that we get here.
I was surprised that there weren't a lot of creatures in the tide pools. It was fun to look never the less.
The snap of weather that we had was a bit out of the norm.
The first full day was a bit chilly (mid 70's), and the waves in Wailea were quite rough.
Great for surfers, not great for snorkelers.
Because the waves were so rough, the water was murkier than normal.
The stretch of our hotel beach on Wailea
The tide pools
We did have a car, and Lanita has been to Maui quite often, so she took us to all of her favorite spots.
We visited this beautiful church called Keawala'i Congregational Church that was built in 1855.
These adorable kids were practicing for a Christmas play.
Pretty sure, if this was the view from my pew, I would have a hard time concentrating!
I loved how on the graves, flowers from the trees would naturally fall on them.
I also thought it was pretty cool to see poinsettia's naturally growing.
We kept driving, and stopped at big beach or Makenna beach.
So many beautiful waves crashing
We stopped at this taco truck and had one of the best fish tacos ever!
We ventured further down the road and stopped at Ahihi Kinau nature preserve and did some snorkeling.
The water was a bit rougher in the preserve than normal, but it was fun to see the fish on the reefs. This spot is a favorite for snorkelers.
Further down the road, we ran into this lava field and beach.
Again, the water was pretty rough, but my guess is, it's a hidden gem for snorkelers.
We headed back into town and spent some time at the shops at Wailea.
As you can see, we were probably the youngest by at least 20 years!
I tried some Lappert's ice cream (wasn't disappointed!).
Our hotel offered a Hawaiian Canoe Experience that we went on one morning.
The day before, we were told, they saw a pod of whales, while we were out, we saw three sea turtles.
It was a really cool experience.
These are a few of the trees that we saw decorated on the island.
From left to right: The Fairmont, The Four Seasons, The Ritz Carlton
The Four Seasons Hotel was the next hotel over from us, so we dropped into check it out.
They have a beautiful florist who makes some amazing centerpieces.
One of my favorite things about the hotel was pineapple man.
Several times a day, pineapple man would wander around the beach and the pool giving out fresh Maui pineapple and ice cold water.
The pineapple people would usually let me take more than one piece (and on a few occasions, let me fill a cup!). Pretty sure I ate my weight in pineapple.
It was delish!
Later that night, we took a carry out dinner from Longhi's (Shops at Wailae), and ate it on the beach as we watched the Marriott's luau...for free!
The Marriott pool at night
After checking out of the Fairmont, we headed to the other tip of the island for a few days.
The day before, my friends had been sitting at the beach and saw four whales spouting just off of our resorts beach. I missed it. So as we drove the highway along the coastline, I had my eyes peeled.
I'm glad I did!
I managed to see a whale just sitting in the water about a quarter mile off of the beach.
He was about 45 feet long (for clarification...I am not good with numbers. The math you are reading is coming from my pilot friend. I trust her with that!). We pulled over and watched the whale playing in the water for about five minutes. I didn't get the best pictures, but I did catch a few shots of this humpback whale. The picture below on the top right is of him at the tail end spouting, and the one below that is him breaching I wish I had gotten a picture of him slapping his tail, but I missed it.
and were greeted with more Christmas decorations.
The Ritz is a HUGE property!
This is the view from our room
Lanita took us to her family favorite, the Lahaina Pizza Company to watch the surfers and the sunset.
At sunset, a Hawaiian came out to blow the conch shell.
After dinner, we toured the shops at Lahaina and visited the banyan tree.
I didn't get any good pictures of the banyan tree, but it was massive...and quite impressive.
The next morning I set off for a run, and happened upon a really cool cliff side beach trail that I would take multiple times that day, running/walking at least 10 miles!
The water started to clear up towards the end of our trip.
I found this really cool bird sanctuary preserve and kept following the trail to a "secret" cove.
This was probably my favorite place on the whole island.
These pictures are all pictures along the cliffs that the trail ran.
It had some amazing views!
The bird sanctuary. The middle picture is of the tunnel nests that the birds make.
And to cap off our trip, this lovely little guy came out to grace us with his presence a few times at my new favorite spot on the island.
Isn't he the cutest?!
So that was my Maui trip in a nutshell.
It was such a fun relaxing trip. Next time, I will bring the family! I have the inside scoop now!
