Last month we had the AMAZING opportunity to go to Hawaii over spring break with Laura’s family for a whole 9 days! I had been to Honolulu before for work, and didn’t get much down time, and Laura had never been either for more than just a day. It was part of the epic Christmas present to Laura’s mother, Marilyn, from the family, and boy were we excited!

We had 3 flights to get to our first Island, Maui, and all went smoothly for us (Unfortunately, Laura’s parents were delayed 9 HOURS in, but thankfully still arrived the same evening as us. Our first adventure was to start just a few hours later, at 3 in the morning to take the drive up a mountain to watch the sunrise. As expected, however, we got in quite late, and decided to push that back a few days.

We were staying in an owned suite of a hotel that someone rented out. We had a kitchen, 2 bedrooms (we couched it like champs!), and a huge balcony. The beach and pools were only a 5 minute walk one way, and the grocery store was a 10 minute walk the other (though it took us driving around a bit to find it).  We went to a bunch of different beaches while we were there, but we also did two of the top “must do in Maui” activities.

First, came the morning of Trip Advisor’s number 1 thing to do in Hawaii, the sunrise on Mount Haleakala. It was much colder than we thought it would be, but it was well worth the wait.

Some people decide to bike down the mountain afterwards, we just decided our time was better spent eating an ENORMOUS breakfast. We drove into town, and went to probably one of the best breakfast places I have ever been to (and I really love breakfast). This place had a serious line, but it was well worth it.
Second on the “must do” list, we went to a traditional Luau, got to learn a traditional Hula dance, and ate ourselves silly, all while we watched an amazing performance of singers, fire dancers, & musicians. It was the highlight of Maui.

We’re back there somewhere…

We spent 4 nights and 5 days in Maui, and on that last day, after checking out, piling in with all our luggage & six people all about 6 feet or taller into one car, we took a drive on the Hana Highway into the mountains, another must-do on the list. We stopped at an interesting natural plantlife reserve, where we got out and had a walk around to some beautiful views, saw a 100 year old mango tree, and several other strange looking plants, all while it rained lightly on us. If you have been to Hawaii before, you know the weather can be quite predictable in the fact that it probably be sunny, with definite showers sometime during the day… every day. We stopped off at an overly popular bar briefly, and ate lunch & watched some windsurfers and turtles battle the waves, before taking a little puddle-jumper over to Kauai, and had a completely different, and equally awesome experience!

We were excited about the baby pineapples…