Day 6 - Sunrise in Hana

My internal alarm clock rang as it always does in the morning around 5am. Being that my body is a bit off, I wasn't sure exactly what time is was, so I opted to look at my phone. I thought - perfect timing. Sunrise - the colors on the picture just don't do it justice.

Day 5 - Road to Hana

 Another day and we were up at 5am. Today we took the Road to Hana adventure. The road to Hana is a stretch of road on Hawaii 360 which starts near Paia and is a little over 30 miles long (to Hana). Everyone told us to leave early and to be prepared for a long journey. The trek has over 300 turns and has over 60 bridges.

The road is filled with nature trails, parks, food stops and WATERFALLS! Everything is designated by or near a mile marker. The problem is that most of the spots or trails would never be visible by anyone unless you had it marked on a map. There are virtually no signs, except for state parks that indicate trail heads or waterfall locations.  Now and then, you would run across an unmarked street or driveway which would lead you to a magnificent beach, waterfall or garden.

Most of all of the road to Hana is simply just adventurous to explore. The greenery and flora are wondrous to see and smell. This is definitely an excursion you want to leave yourself at least two days for. We opted to spend the night in Hana at Travaasa Resort. They were kind enough to give us an ocean front bungalow for the night.

On the way to Hana, we stop at several trailheads and a few beaches. All were amazing and the views were stunning. You can see how people fall in love with a place like this. This place is one big ALOHA!!!

Everyone was hungry around 1:30pm and we decided to eat in downtown Hana at the food truck place. Olivia and I has Thai food, which was super delicious. We didn’t get too much because we knew dinner was going to be at 7pm tonight at the resort. Anna and LT came and sat with us while we had our meal and finally learned what the animal was we kept seeing through the island. Since we arrived, we kept seeing little ferrets or weasels – we thought. It turns out they are mongooses.

Finally hit the resort for check in around 3:30pm and everyone was ready for a shower and a little R&R. As soon as we dropped our bags, LT was off and found a path jetting off near the side of the resort which lead to a private lagoon. He quickly came back, grabbed his snorkel gear and was off. He came back a little while later and thought we should go drop a line – I agreed.

We came back a short while later and got prettied up so we could head out for dinner at 7pm. Tonight we were eating at the resort and what a view. Started out with Poke, Sashimi platter and Chili tots. Anna had a ribeye, LT had grilled shrimp, Olivia had a caeser salad and I had a Marlin. All was good, but nothing amazing. Prices out here in Hana are a bit ridiculous. It is understandable because it simply takes so much effort to get things out here. We spoke to the driver who picked us up for dinner and he stated, at one point a gallon of milk was up to $16 – now that’s a pricy vitamin C.

Back to the room and it wasn’t long before everyone was counting mongooses.

 

Day 4 - Snorkel Trip with Blue Water

This morning we made arrangements to go out with Blue Water Rafting Adventures for a 7am snorkel tour. We got up around 5:30am to give us enough time to get up, have some coffee and make it down to the boat docks by 6:30am.

We took off promptly at 7am and headed straight to the south side of Maui. Captain Larry took us right up to the lava formations along the coast. Many times we could almost reach out and touch the formations. I have a new respect for lava and a new appreciation for the beauty of it.

Our favorite dive of the day was Molokini. It is the top of a volcano crater off the coast of Maui about 3 miles west. The water was amazingly clear and dark blue. When we arrived, there were quite a bit of boats tied up. Luckily, once we got in the water about half of them departed.

The trip ended back at the docks at the Kihei boat landing at 12:30pm. Everyone was a bit done and ready to get the salt washed off.

Day 3 - Getting Hooked Up

Slept like a baby last night. It was inevitably that the lack of sleep was going to catch up with us. Everyone finally got a good night's rest. Even though Anna and I got up at 5am, it seemed like we slept in. Before I had any coffee, I decided to go out for a short run up through Kihei. Amazingly, here the sun is already up and letting you know she’s in charge early in the morning. Sunrise was at 5:40am this morning, so by 7am when I got back from my run, I felt like I was baking. Next time, I will make sure to run much earlier.

After a little coffee, Anna took LT and I down to Kam III park. The parks in Kihei are all along the ocean. All are immaculately maintained and beautifully laid out. On the edges of each of the parks are typically rock or lava formations and seem to be the ideal spots to fish. The middle is usually narrow strands of sandy beaches.

LT and I tried our best to rustle in a variety of fish, but came in short today. We walked back towards the condo while fishing along the way. The ladies were visiting the local shops while we were trying to get hooked up. Eventually around 11:30am we made it back by the boat landing and I called Mama to come and Uber us up.

All of us came back to condo and freshened up a bit before heading back out for a little grub. Three’s was the place this afternoon and it was outstanding! I believe everyone felt that this was by far the best meal yet. Olivia and Anna had some wonderful orders of oysters, while LT and I ordered sushi. Anna also got a Ramen bowl that was by all accounts the best Ramen bowl any of us had ever had! We will surely be heading back to Three’s in the near future.

 

Went back to the place after lunch and LT & I crashed for a bit whiles girls took a drive up the Pilani highway and did a little grocery shopping. They managed to head back after about two hours and were ready to relax a little themselves. The clan headed to the pool for about an hour before we all headed back down to Kamila park to view the sunset. What a sunset!!!

The ladies ready to mow on some oysters!

 

Sunset at Kamila Park, Maui

Day 2 - Additional Pictures

Church on the beach near Makena. Founded in 1832.

Posing out on Maluaka Beach

Olivia and Anna eating at Coconuts. Super Delicious Poke!

No sure about this yet. Need to research and figure out what this is.

Day 2 - Maluaka Beach

For some reason, my brain decided to wake up at 2:41am. It did not shut down again for the rest of the early morning. Since I couldn’t sleep, I ended up playing catch up on some emails and then decided to go grocery shopping at a 24 hour store. I looked up and found a Safeway about 3 miles out. Before I was able to get out of the door, Anna called out and asked what I was doing up so early. Ten minutes later after some coffee and Anna and I were off to the Walmart. It was opening at 6am, so we rolled around until then. A few bills later we had the back of the car filled and headed to the Safeway for some squid.

Thomas was up when we got back and it wasn’t much longer before Olivia woke. LT had been itching since we got here to wet the line and now that we had the weapons ready – off we went. The girls still needed a little bit of time to get ready, so what better way for us to spend the time but fish?

Thirty minutes into to fishing and the girls rang. LT and I packed up the rigs and we were excited to hit Turtle Town. Turtle Town is a general section near Maluaka Beach where the sea turtles tend to congregate. Apparently there are around 20 or so local sea turtle that stay in the area, along with others that come in seasonally. Beautiful beach…

All of us snorkeled a bit, but the water was a bit rough. It made the water cloudy and visibility wasn’t that great. LT and I tried our luck near some of the rock formations, but weren’t able to hook up at all. We ended playing around there until around 11:30am and decided it was lunch time. Hunger was impacting all of us.

Ko Restaurant at the Fairmont of Maui was the target. Let me just say – We hit the bullseye!!! Wow! The food here was very, very yummy! Got great ideas of things to do on the island from our fantastic waitress, Selina. She had a lot of great suggestions, which we are ready to try.

After Ko, we drove down the road a couple of miles to Poolenalena Beach. Definitely coming back to this small adorable beach. I snorkeled a bit and watched a sea turtle for about 5 minutes. What an amazing creature! We hung on the beach for about 45 minutes before heading back to our condo. Entering the condo, the kids grabbed some towels and off to the pool they went.

It wasn’t long before the kids were back up and got some gear and headed down to the beach. Anna and I stayed in the condo for just a bit and then headed out for a drive only to be called by Olivia stating there were some turtles resting on the beach. We turned around and went to check out the turtles. They were far bigger than I imagined. These guys come up on the beach and rest for several hours. You are to stay 15 feet away from the turtles. We of course did not know this as you see Olivia posing with one. Anna met a lady who volunteers for the turtle rescue and she gave us the low down.

Drove around a bit more afterwards with the kids to explore Kihei and get our bearings. Found some neat place we are going to check out in the upcoming days. 

Day 1 - Flight of the Schiffers

And so the journey began…We left Charlotte at 8:50am on Tuesday morning. Eleven hours of flight and 1.5 hours layover, we finally landed in Maui at 3pm. Needless to say, everyone was ready to stretch their legs and get out of the butts out of the economy seats. Setting the clocks back six hours didn’t help the tired factor all of us were feeling when we arrived.

Everyone was pretty well spent and we all called it an early night. I mean EARLY!! Like senior citizen early!

Not that my mind remembered much from the whole travel day, except I did learn that 

Humuhumunukunukuupau’a – yeah – go ahead and try to pronounce it. It is the state fish. Protected or not, we hope to catch one (maybe eat one too!)