Maui Trip 2009

I am so terrible about writing right after I do interesting things, but I gues better late than never...

Sterling and I left for our big Maui trip on September 2 and came back September 9. We had a blast! We were extremely lucky to stay at the Westin Resort and Spa because we got an awesome deal through costco travel. I think for every trip we make from now on, we'll be booking through costco travel. They are AMAZING! Our whole trip alone, including car, airfare, hotel, food, etc. cost about the same as it would have cost us to book only the hotel room on Orbitz, Expedia, or Travelocity. Awesome deal! Our trip from Costco Travel included a double room upgrade to Partial Ocean View (was pretty much an ocean view), free spa passes, free daily buffet breakfast for two, free $100 value dinner at the Ono Bar and Grill, all resort fees paid, $150 resort credit, car rental, and 25% of all message services! Mmm... I wish we could go back. So, the moral of the story is, if you ever want to book a vacation, check with Costco Travel first because there is probably an awesome deal. (If you don't have a costco membership, it is almost worth signing up and paying the $50 so that you can save hundreds/thousands of dollars on your trip.) Ok, enough said by trying to promote Costco. They should be paying me for this.

We took over 400 hundred pictures on our trip, but here are select few or 50 or so. It is so hard to post only the best pictures. Most of them were excellent! But here's some of the awesome things that we did on our trip:

This is some of the awesome view out of our hotel room. We were on the fourth floor in the Ocean Tower.

On our first full day here we went up to the northern tip of Maui and explored a little bit by hiking and enjoying some of the views. There were piles of stacked rocks all over the place and come to find out, they have no "sacred" meaning. Tourists just do it for fun. So, we added our own rock stack to everyone else's.

Some of the pretty, rocky north-western coast.

These rocks were brutal. You did not want to trip and fall.

This was an awesome blowhole. The ocean waves came under the rocks and exploded up through the hole in the ground. Too bad there were scantily clad models there when we were trying to take pictures. This was one of the few we got.

Hellish Highway to Hana

One very full day, we took a drive to Hana. Ugh... Hairpin turn after hairpin turn after hairpin turn. I had to tell Sterling to slow down multiple times. The drive from our hotel to Hana was probably 3.5 hours with a few stops along the way. Your supposed to drive to Hana and then come back the same way, but we thought, "heck no. Take the same hellish drive twice? No way." We ended up going completely around the island, which ended up being a good idea because once we got past Hana, there was practically no one on the road and it took us a lot less time to get back AND we got to see a whole other side of the island that rarely anyone gets to see. A lot of guide books and magazines say that you cannot go past Hana but you can. It is perfectly legal. The road was paved for a portion of it and gravel for awhile and then potholed for awhile and only 1.5 lanes practically the entire way back to civilization. But it was a lot better than going back the same way we came. Just don't tell our rental car company that we took that road. The suspension might be a little off now.

We visited the "Garden of Eden" on our drive to Hana. It was a very well-taken care of, manicured arboretum. It was very beautiful with lots of tropical plants and flowers. Did you know that Juicyfruit gum gets its flavoring from the Jackfruit plant?

This is not painted, the trunk is really these colors.

Colorful Plants!

Our car was crying!

We saw a turtle here in the water!

Ohe'o Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) These natural pools were really fun to swim in. Sterling had a little of the captain in him! :)

An upper pool. Really refreshing during a long drive!

View out of our hotel room!

Our hotel room was on the left corner, four windows up.

I got real flowers to put in my hair every night. They smelled so good!

Big Beach, next door to Little Beach/Nudist beach. And yes, there were naked people there. We didn't stay very long. (Too bad, there were some awesome boogie boarding waves. Unfortunately we never found any waves that were good enough for boogie boarding except here. :( We were very sad.)

Haleakala Crater Grand Loop Hike

This was another long, full day. It started out when we got up as early as they served breakfast and then we drove a little less than 2 hours to Haleakala National Park. We parked our car at the Halemau'u Trailhead and then hitchhiked up to the visitor's center near the summit. Luckily, we got picked up by a really nice couple from Northern California. We took one last potty break before our 12 mile hike. Our two guide books said it would take about 8 hours and another book specifically about Haleakala crater said it would take 8-10 hours. So, with 100 oz of water on my back and 50+ in Sterling's backpack, along with Power Bars and Peanut Butter Cheese Crackers and 50 SPF, we were on our way. By-the-way, it was a little chilly up there when we first started off. I'm wearing the liner of my ski jacket in this picture and Sterling is wearing thermals. We left at 9:17 am.

Sliding Sands trail, appropriately named because the trail was sand that kept on sliding under our feet the whole way down.

Only 11.2 miles to go, plus some because we did extra loops and walked to the summit and stuff. We estimate we hiked about 12 miles total in the end. Nonetheless, 11.2 miles to go. Yeah!

At the very top of the trail. We went down then across to the left and then hiked back up the mountain 5 miles down the road to our car.

We are hoping we have global cooling so that we can build a ski resort here. Perfect ski slope right there.

These Silverswords were all over the place. This one was taller than me!

Those clouds would softly descend over the ridge and then rapidly dissipate. It was so cool to see them moving in such a fashion.

About 4 miles in, at the bottom of the sliding sands trail. Only 1.5 hours in and all down hill up to this point. We were movin'. Our knees were a little tired from walking down a descending hill for 4 miles. Wo-who, only 3.5 miles to the Halemau'u trail.

Look at those cinder cones. Amazing!

We're "smiling" after we huffed and puffed up that cindercone. Rugged terrain.

Yeah, only 5.8 miles to our car. About halfway done. This is where we entered into the clouds. It felt so good to have the mist and soft breeze. It was pretty hot by this time.

Rugged

We decided to take the Silversword Loop. It was just a little bit longer of a way.

Lots of Silverswords everywhere.

I was getting tired. We had only taken one 5 minute break up to this point. But right after here, we took a ten minute break and ate some power bars and crackers at a picnic table near a lone cabin. Those stupid Nene's (Hawaiian Geese) kept on begging us for food.

Looks like the lava came out right here. Then about 9 miles in we started going straight uphill.

Switchbacks are not much fun.

But we had some amazing views.

And we were so happy to make it to the ridgeline. Unfortunately we still had another mile or so to go. Still uphill...

Look at the lava flow. Amazing!

So many switchbacks!

Only .7 miles to our car. Thanks goodness because we both had blisters on our toes.

No more crater! :)

I see our car! (Shimmering in the distance...)

We made it! I was so proud of myself. That is the furthest I have ever hiked/walked in one day. But wait... We got back to the trailhead at 2:22 pm. It only took us 5 hours and 5 minutes. That must be some sort of record. (Later I looked and the fastest I read about anyone taking the trail was 6 hours. We went fast!)

We decided after our hike to drive up to the summit and a nice young couple took this for us. We had to sit down because we were so tired from hiking. See my hair plastered with sweat to my head. I still, two weeks later, have a blister on my left big toe.

West Maui Mountains. We stayed on the west side of the island. Ka'anapali Beach near Lahaina.

One of the dozens of waterfalls at our resort. After our super-duper hike, we were so sore. I could barely move! We pretty much just stayed at our hotel and swam and went to the beach. We did get massages the day before our hike. They were most excellent. Oh, and we went to church at the Lahaina building. That was fun.

My favorite pool! Out of the five there. The only pool we never went in was the adult pool.

This is why it was my favorite pool. Waterslide! Look at that height that Sterling got on the last corner. We went on the waterslide probably 30 times.

Sterling was able to test his left-handed golfing skills with little wiffle golf balls. He almost made it onto the mat. Oh well, you won a free drink if you made it and we don't drink anyway.

Why is the safe called Elsafe? Hmmm...

One of the many beautiful sunsets we experienced on our hotel balcony.

We even saw a green flash one night.

The beautiful lobby.

Ka'anapali Beach: by our resort

Snorkeling at black rock. Probably the best snorkeling we did on the island.

Black Rock: we saw lots of colorful fish, a turtle, and a pair of sting rays every time we went in snorkeling here. Unfortunately the last, jelly fish decided to move in. Hundreds of dime-quarter size jelly fish everywhere. Very uncomfortable conditions to be snorkeling in.

Island from the plane.

Pretty sunset from the plane.

Overall, duh, we had so much fun. I love Hawaii. This was our third time going. Sterling and I both went to Oahu, seperately, when we were both in high school. We went on our honeymoon to Kauai and now we've gone to Maui. Now we'll just have to make our way to the Big Island.

So, I've been asked quite a few times now, "which is the best island?"
Come on guys, it's Hawaii, they're all great. But to sum up the differences: Oahu is really touristy with the PCC, Pearl Harbor, Waikiki Beach, etc. Kauai is more quiet, honeymoonish, a lot less touristy things to do. Maui is full of adventures, from lots of hiking, to long drives, to (if you have all the money in the world) zip lines, and cruises, horseback riding and helicopter rides. (We did the things that didn't cost money, but zip lining would have been a ton of fun too.)