Our Maui trip

I realize this is a blog about our kids, but this post is about Jeff and myself. We took a trip back to Maui for our 10th anniversary. We went for our honeymoon 10 years prior. How things have changed in our lives since then. And how things in Maui have stayed pretty much the same. We had a wonderful time escaping for a few days and enjoying uninterrupted conversation, save for the "would you like a cocktail" interruption. 

We were staying in Wailea so when we landed mid-morning we took the opportunity to enjoy the sites up by the airport like Mama's Fish House and the road to Hana since they are very much out of the way from Wailea. 

The beach at Mama's Fish House

Outside Mama's Fish House

We had the most spectacular meal at Mama's Fish House. We went there on our honeymoon as well. I don't recall what we had that time, but this time we had an amazing sashimi plate, ceviche and a roasted fish. The sashimi was probably the freshest, most amazing sushi we have had. 

After our lunch, we did a little bit of the drive to Hana. I think the whole drive is 40 miles and can take several hours due to the small, windy roads. We drove 11.3 miles of the drive and made a cute little waterfall our turn around point. We picked up some banana bread and coconut candy (not at THE banana bread shack that people rave about, but a lot of them now sell banana bread probably because of the lore of THE banana bread place). 

The path to the waterfall

Our turn around

Jeff driving. He rented a Jeep, something he always raves about driving. He was a happy driver. We were even able to take the top off the Jeep before it started to rain. We headed over to our hotel since we would be able to check in. 

This was our view at the pool. One thing that did change in the 10 years we were away was that the hotel put in an adults only pool. The hotel is very kid friendly, but it was nice to have a dedicated we-didn't-bring-our-kids-area with its own pool and swim up bar. We actually learned about it from the Modern Family episode when they went to Maui. 

Our second day in Maui, we got up at the crack of dawn, actually well before it at 2:30am which was 5:30am San Diego time and drove to the top of of the volcano, Haleakala to watch the sunrise. It was amazing, but we were not prepared for how cold it was. We were told it would be cold, but not that it would be Chicago in the winter with windchill cold. We had jeans and hoodies on and the hotel gave us blankets, but that didn't even begin to cut it in 0 degree temperatures... This was one of the few times that it was rough to be coming from San Diego in that we didn't have our winter jackets with us from whatever winter destination others were coming from.

It was unbelievably cold. And here we are a bit warmer since the sun was up.

We did a little hike afterwards on the volcano.

After recovering from waking at 2:30am, the following days, we truly relaxed. We laid by the pool, swam, went in the ocean, went for a scuba dive (well, Jeff did successfully. Mine lasted 5 minutes due to my tank emptying within minutes), snorkeled and saw some awesome sea turtles, did stand up paddle boarding, and went outrigger canoeing.

Some kids built a pretty awesome castle on the beach

Jeff & a sunset

Jeff & a sunset

There were these beautiful blue eyed birds that we called "Bear Bear Birds" since their blue eyes were as stunning as Aaron's blue eyes. I believe they are actually called zebra doves.

We caught a few sunsets. Maui is just beautiful.



This was at a new lava field. Well not that new, but in the last 100 years new. It is this unpaved, unincorporated part of Maui. It's basically at the end of Wailea taking the short way to Hana, but the highway ends so you can't actually get to Hana by car. Kind of crazy to have been walking on 'new' land. 

On the flight home. Maui was amazing. Thank you Mom for watching the kids!!