Hawaiian Adventure - Day 14 - November 4, 2014

This was our last day in paradise. I could be a little sad but it has been such a wonderful 2 weeks we will have memories that last a lifetime. Today was a day in which we communed with nature. We drove past Honolua and found a very secluded, remote beach to the north, Punalau, and spent the entire afternoon there. We almost had the beach to ourselves. The trail down was supposed to accommodate cars but given the huge ruts we walked down. Once there we enjoyed a low key day enjoying the sand and surf. Came back to the condo to freshen up before making our last trip into Lahaina. We had burger at Cool Cats, supposedly the best burger place in Maui, it was delicious and then had their hot brownie dessert. This will be our last blog for this trip as we take off tomorrow. It will be a long day - from Kahului to LAX to Cincinnati to Toronto. We actually will arrive Thursday morning in Toronto and with the time changes we won't know if we're coming or going. It has been an amazing two weeks though and now on to other places on our bucket list.

Lovely views from Honolua and Punalau

 



 



Last evening views from our balcony
 

 

One huge delicious Bogy Burger

Hot Brownie Sundae for two



Hawaiian Adventure - Day 13 - November 3, 2014

Happy Birthday Doris!

With only a few days left in Maui and having seen most of the things on our list we decided that our last days would be laid back beach days. We headed to D. T. Fleming Beach which we had visited briefly earlier in our travels. It is a quiet swimming and surfing beach with nice shade trees. It was a great spot to read, listen to music and just relax.  I think one could go to a different and exquisite beach everyday for a month and not repeat a visit to the same one.  Came home and cleaned up for the luau tonight. We went to the Old Lahaina Luau which I would highly recommend. It was very organized, the service was good, and the food was great. The drinks flowed free and freely. There was roasted pig, pork wrapped in taro leaf, poi, raw ahi, octopus, taro salad, steak, island style chicken, maui style fish, island crab salad, salmon and more. We really will need to hit the gym big time when we get back. The program was very well done and explained Hawaii's history. Again I don't know that my photos will do it justice but here goes.

Views from D.T. Fleming Beach

 



Views from Old Lahaina Luau

 

 

Hawaiian Adventure - Day 12 - November 2, 2014

It still seems strange to me to be watching football while eating breakfast. We finished up the eggs and mimosas and had a leisurely morning. Then we were off for some beach time. Decided we wanted to go to the Big Beach at Makena State Park. On our way we went through Wailea - like the Beverly Hills of Maui - and past the Wailea Golf Course. The Big Beach was sunny and relaxing at least until I made a foray into the water and lost the battle with a big wave. It tossed and tumbled me about but other than having sand where it never should be, I was fine - I did have to sweep up a huge pile of sand when I took off my bathing suit. Came home and watched a little football while we took our showers. We went to Bubba Gump's for dinner (taking a page out of Dad and Mom's past Maui vacation) and had delicious fish dinners . After we stopped by to try to avenge our loss in Scratch but Dave was the victor again.  

Breakfast at the condo

I just love our view - it's like looking at a postcard.

The best I could do at getting a picture of the sea turtles - I tried Brayden

The Big Beach - Makena State Park

The Big Beach

Who's this stud?

The Big Beach

Wailea

It was another rainbow day!
  

Life is like a box of chocolates

Great place for dinner

Tough decision on what to order

Shrimpers Heaven it is!



Hawaiian Adventure - Day 10 - October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

Our morning started with a visit from Jacquie, Sam, Debbie, Dave, and Zach. We invited them for breakfast and Jason made his famous eggs, cheese and chorizo burritos which we paired with mimosas. We enjoyed each others company and reflected on the amazing time we all had the previous evening. After they left I was outvoted and we took a trip along the north-western coast of Maui.  Now we can say that we have gone all the way around the island. Having said that I wouldn't do it again nor do I think they would. It made the Road to Hana look like a piece of cake. While the views were fantastic the road was precarious at best with no guardrails and 1000 ft. cliffs. Like the Road to Hana there were places where only one car could make it through. If you met up with another car you had to back down until you found a little spot to hug the mountain so that they could pass. We got almost around the full loop when we ran into the closed part of the road. We could either wait for about 2 and a half hours for the road to open for the weekend. I voted to wait because I didn't want to go back the way we came and the others agreed only because they wanted to say that we had gone around the island fully. When we finally hit civilization again we ran into lots of traffic heading to Lahaina. Halloween is huge here and 30,000 people were expected to descend upon this small village. We arrived home around 6:00 just in time to get showers before heading to see J,S,D,D & Z's place. We had a good BBQ at their house and then played a game of Scratch aka O Hell. Dave emerged victorious. We headed home  around 10 as we needed to get Jason and Chris to the airport tomorrow morning and the others had a 6:45 snorkeling planned.

Breakfast at our condo

Great family time

Surfer at D. T. Fleming Beach

Views from the Road from Hell - I mean - Northwestern Maui

Enjoying the view

Views of the coast

Walking on the beach

A Wild Surf

Don't get too close to the edge

The blow hole

Beautiful but a terrifying drive

From a different angle

BBQ at the Lindke-Palone House

Sam and Jacquie with some hamburgers and Portuguese sausage

A hot game of Scratch