Flashback Friday: Maui, Hawaii 2003...

Back in November of 2003 (the day after Thanksgiving), we took a week long vacation to Maui, Hawaii. I had always wanted to go and had fun planning the trip. Of course as my luck goes the week before we left I was in Colorado for a business trip and found out (by myself in a hotel room) that I was pregnant. It was my second pregnancy (I had an ectopic pregnancy a year prior that resulted in termination of the pregnancy.) Before leaving for Hawaii I started having complications and was pretty much miscarrying while we were there. We still had a fun time and it was so so beautiful! We flew out of freezing cold Salt Lake (and had a layover in LA-that airport is crazy! I would've been lost and missed my flight for sure if Steve hadn't been with me) and into a very warm Honolulu airport before heading over to Maui. On that short transfer I sat by a very "interesting" guy which made for some humorous conversation that Steve and I will never forget. During that time of year it gets dark really early in Hawaii and we got a little lost trying to find our way to our hotel. We also learned real quick that most restaurants close pretty early. Our first night there we binged on chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Another night we ended up eating a burger and fries in a bar because it was the only place open and we were starving. However we did eat some awesome food! One morning we had yummy banana/macadamia nut pancakes at a little beach front restaurant at our hotel. Our table was outside on the beach, literally feet from the ocean. Talk about paradise! We ate some yummy meals at the outdoor Hyatt restaurant (the french toast and fruit were to die for!) We went to a real fancy Italian place for dinner one night. There were other times we grabbed pizza, had a McDonald's run and even made a 11am stop at Denny's for vegetable beef soup. I was nauseas and nothing else sounded good at all. We did some touristy things (excursions) and some shopping, but mostly we relaxed...

We like to call this our "post card" picture. It was so strange driving along the coast in beautiful sunny Hawaii weather while listening to "Hawaiian Style" Christmas music. Pure awesomeness! You could also not help but feel so chill and relaxed, the whole vibe of the island was that way.

Steve outside the Hyatt Hotel. We stayed the first four nights at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel which was nice (and we got a screaming deal) but we liked heading over to The Hyatt for their super yummy food.

Some penguins at The Hyatt.

Of course we made sure to get in lots of beach time. Maui is a pretty small island but it has a sunny and a rainy side. While we were on the rainy side we would literally drive to the sunny side to find the sun. As expected it was really humid and I pretty much gave up on fixing my hair (and wearing makeup.) I would blow dry my hair all nice and straight and then as soon as I walked outside it would go all wavy and frizzy. So I wore lots of hats and ponytails. Steve's hair was so curly while we were there, it was pretty funny. The humidity made your skin feel wonderful though-no need for lotion while we were there. If you are wondering if I was a bit more "fluffy" (as my Dad calls it), I was. I was about 20 pounds heavier than I am now. Probably my highest "non pregnant" weight ever... and it was before I'd had any kids-go figure!

Steve has been calling me "Mama" pretty much the entire time we've been married.

I did my homework and the Old Lahaina Luau was suppose to be the best, most authentic on Maui. So we got tickets in advance because it usually sells out. According to the locals we picked one of the rainiest weeks to visit Maui and we got rained on during the Luau. They provided rain ponchos for us to wear so it turned out OK. The food was pretty good (Steve enjoyed it much more than I did because he's had tons of exposure to it because he had several Polynesian mission companions.) For the record though, I think Poi is pretty gross. We had a very enjoyable evening and were out pretty late.

There was a guy there doing wood carving and we brought this home us. He hangs out in our main bathroom.

Steve and I with some of the dancers. Not quite sure what I was looking at.

We had planned on getting scuba certified and taking a scuba diving trip but that didn't work out because I was pregnant. So while we were there we scheduled a snorkeling trip for the morning after the luau. I don't know what we were thinking because we were out late the night before and had to get up super early for the snorkeling trip so we were really tired. We seriously had to meet at the boat dock at like 6AM. We took a little boat out to the Molokini Crater to do some snorkeling. If you look really close at the picture above you can see the Crater. It's the tiny little island in the middle where the water meets the horizon. We had lots of fun snorkeling and the water was so crystal clear and the corals and fish were so beautiful. We took a underwater disposable camera but the pictures didn't turn out very well. Steve gets seasick pretty easy (which we learned on a cruise we took) and the boat ride was really choppy so he got pretty sick. The Skipper could tell he was feeling pretty "green" and said to him "Just let it go... you'll feel a lot better." He finally ended up throwing up and did feel much better.
After snorkeling at the Crater we got back on the boat and went over to Turtle Town to check out some sea turtles. After the outing we were driving back to our hotel and the combination of little sleep and spending the day in the water had us both completely exhausted. We were so tired we ended up pulling over into a parking lot and both took a nap in the Explorer we had rented. We were soaking wet but we didn't care, we just wanted to sleep.

Hookipa Beach-it is world famous for windsurfing. There are lots of competitions held there and waves are normally more than 15 feet high. During the winter months they are reported being even higher than 30 feet.

Another picture I took at Hookipa Beach. I love this picture!

We decided to make a stop at the Maui Ocean Center one day. It is one of those touristy aquarium type places. We saw lots of cool fish and animals but I probably wouldn't go again. I would rather spend the time out seeing them in their natural environments.

We loved the sea turtles that were outside in the pools. This one seemed particularly fond of Steve and hung around for quite a while.

We spent the last three days at this secluded little cottage on a cliff on the rainy (east) side of the island. Go ahead and say it... ahhh, how romantic! Before making our way to the house (with very specific detailed directions from the owner) we stopped at a little grocery store in a tiny town (Pa'ia I believe) on the way and picked up some groceries so we could cook some meals while we were there. Talk about expensive! A gallon of milk was like $8.00 and that was nearly seven years ago.

It was even more secluded than we expected. There was no cell phone service and you could only get a few channels on TV. Which was fine... who goes on vacation in Maui to watch TV and talk on their phone? Not us. There was a guest book and we noticed a few famous names as we skimmed it. We also saw another trend among the names that Steve was less than thrilled about (but I found quite humorous), I will just leave it at that. The house was really beautiful and so was all the property around it.

The view from our backyard-it was a pretty big drop down to the water but you can't really tell in this picture.

The house had a little loft upstairs and that is where the master bed was, so this was the view from our bed.

Notice the "Please Stay Off Rocks" sign... trust me, you really didn't want to go any further because it was straight down to the ocean.

There were three other houses and this pool on this huge property. We also had a private hot tub on our back patio.

Aren't these trees just beautiful! This and the next two pictures were taken on the Road to Hana. It is a very curvy scenic road that takes hours to complete. There are lots of waterfalls, different colored beaches (like black sand) and cool places to stop along the way and it is so beautiful. If you make it all the way it leads to the little quaint town of Hana. Once you arrive in Hana you can keep going about another 10 miles and hike to the Seven Sacred Pools. We didn't get an early enough start to make it all the way (and back) before it got dark, so I was bummed because it was something I really wanted to see, but we enjoyed the hours we spent and what we saw along the way. I would probably recommend getting a really early start (it's an all day trip), staying the night in Hana and then hiking to the Seven Sacred Pools the next morning.

It had been super rainy all week so that is why the water looks muddy.

Maui sunsets are seriously breathtaking!

Our last night (before taking an 11pm flight home) we grabbed some ice cream and sat on the beach and watched the sunset together. It was so beautiful and relaxing! A perfect way to end our trip.

We had a great time and we would love to go back someday!