We just got back from our incredible trip to Maui! It was my first time on the island and I loved every minute of it. It was the first time the Andrew family has gone on a vacation altogether for a while since both Stephen and Will served 2-year missions and everyone is finally back. We left last Saturday the 26th (the day after Christmas) out of LAX. We had a direct flight to Maui and arrived in the late afternoon. We had dinner and went to bed that night.
Sunday we took a nice walk on the boardwalk near the beach and started planning for the week. We all stayed at the Royal Lahaina and had their yummy buffet breakfast each morning. It was nice to get in a great breakfast every day! I especially loved the fresh papaya and pineapple. I am a huge tropical fruit lover so I was in heaven. That afternoon, Dave and I went to a 2-hour timeshare presentation to get a huge discount on our car rental for the week. We were obviously not ready to buy a timeshare for $100,000 (who has that kind of money?!). But it was still interesting to hear about how timeshares work.
Monday we had another walk in the morning, ate a great breakfast, and headed down to the beach. We rented snorkel gear for the week so the boys went snorkeling while I read and relaxed on the beach for a while. It was so nice. That night, Dave and I went to my first luau at our hotel (he gifted that to me for Christmas). I really enjoyed all of the performances! The food was only ok, but that's what you get when you feed the masses. Overall, great night.
On Tuesday, the boys and I woke up early to go on a hike in West Maui. It was called the Waihee Ridge Trail hike and it was probably the hardest hike I have ever been on. Not only was it challenging and steep, but it was muddy the entire time. It probably rained earlier that morning or something. We were literally slipping and sliding our way to the top of this mountain. The views were beautiful from the top, though. I couldn't believe how high we were! After the hike, we went to the Olivine Pools to take a dip and rinse off all the mud from our bodies. It was such a cool place! The waves were crashing up against the rocks, and the pools were gorgeous. We loved that spot. The funny thing is we had to hike down these rocks to get to it, after just completing an intense 5-mile hike in the mud. I was exhausted! After the pools, we stopped at the Nakalele Blowhole which was amazing! I have never seen a blowhole like that before. The water shot straight up in the air every few minutes and it was a cool sight to see. There was also a rock to the right of the blowhole with a heart shape cut out of it which was fun to see. Our last stop was Napili Bay for a snorkeling sesh, although I was a party-pooper and stayed on the beach to watch our stuff and check emails. Overall, it was a very eventful day.
Wednesday was another epic day. We did the Road to Hana! Several people told us not to do it, but we were really curious to see what it was like. And I'm so glad we did. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was so green, and every few minutes we would have a beautiful view of the ocean and the coast. It took about 2.5 hours to get to our first stop at Wainapanapa State Park, which is a black sand beach. That beach was seriously so cool! I have never seen anything like it before. The greenery surrounding the beach was beautiful as well. There were fresh water caves right by the beach that we went to as well. The boys were adventurous and jumped right in to get the full experience. After the caves, we drove to the Seven Sacred Pools, however we didn't actually see them. Long story short, we followed some people on this hike thinking it would be a short one to see the pools. Nope! We ended up on a 4-mile hike to the Waimoku Falls, which was actually really stunning. We were bummed we went the wrong way, but it turned out to be fine. Once we got done with the hike, it started raining and we wanted to head back to Lahaina before it got dark on the Road to Hana (apparently you don't want to drive it at night... there are probably no street lights). We were so exhausted and hungry (didn't eat lunch) so we stopped for dinner at Da Kitchen on our way back to the hotel. It was a long day, but so glad we got to see everything we did!
Thursday was New Year's Eve so we just relaxed and snorkeled most of the day. We went snorkeling at Lahaina Beach right outside our hotel. We saw some pretty fish and two turtles! The boys and I jumped off Black Rock which was fun. That night, we had a New Year's Eve dinner at Lahaina Grill which was amazing. It was fun to celebrate with a nice meal.
On Friday, it was New Year's Day so we just relaxed on the beach, read books and enjoyed our last day of vacation since we were leaving the next day. We ended the day playing some fun card games. Saturday we went to the beach in the morning, packed and got ready to leave for the airport by 1pm. I was sad to leave, but excited to get back to normal life again. With New York, Christmas, and now this Maui trip, we have been in la-la land for a while. I am excited to get back to a routine and being productive this year.
Here's to 2016!
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