BEAUTIFUL MAUI ~

Tony and I took our vacation to Maui this year. We left on the 9th and stayed till the 16th. EIGHT DAYS on Beautiful Maui! We had the time of our lives and did things a
 66 year old woman probably shouldn't do!  lol
(Above is a gorgeous hibiscus flower ... there were thousands of them)
We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon (7:30 PM our time) and we rented a car and went to our condo and checked in. We went to Costco and got some groceries and took a walk along the beach right by our condo. Then we settled in and got rested for a BIG WEEK of fun!~




We drove to Mahalea early Thursday morning and checked into our 2nd condo that we would use when we were on that end of the island. It was my favorite because our bedroom had sliding glass doors that opened to the beach! It was gorgeous! It didn't have air conditioning but you didn't need it because the ocean breezes blew in. It was so peaceful to sleep to the waves crashing on the beach! I loved it! Anyway, we went to the harbor and took a boat out into the ocean for a submarine ride.

The boat we were on pulled up along side of the sub after it emerged from the depths. (fun to watch) Then the people who had been on the tour before us, came out and got onto our boat and we got onto the sub.  The captain was so fun. As we submerged into the ocean, "JAWS" music was playing .... lol We saw 2 sharks, a manta ray, a ton of fish (all kinds) sponges and spiny urchins and a sunken whale ship. That was kinda cool. It reminded me of the Titanic! I was getting a little green down there and was worried I might lose my cookies but I made it out without an incident. Tony took me immediately to a drug store to get some dramamine for the rest of the trip.

After the submarine ride, we shopped a little and then we attended a Luau! WOW!  We were waited on hand and foot! They gave us lei's as soon as we entered and Mathi's (non-alcholoic) ....... Once seated at the table, a young man dressed in a hawaiian skirt and bare chested, waited on us like non other! He let us try all kinds of drinks and we both decided the "Lava Flow" was the ultimate!! Man, was it ever good! I think I had 5 of them! Good thing they were virgin or I wouldn't have walked outta there on my own! lol

We had three other couples at our table.  2 were young and on their HoneyMoon and the other was our age and celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary! It was fun to visit and enjoy their company. We had a wonderful meal with various meats, vegetables, fruits, poy, taro chips, breads, etc. It was so awesome but I stayed away from the things I didn't recogonize. lol

Then there was a show and the dancers were very impressive. We throughly enjoyed the evening.  Sometime later we were at a store and someone saw our lei's. They asked where we got them and we told them at the Luau. They commented that we must have attended the BEST LUAU because we got real lei's. They said some of the others gave the fake ones out.
All I know is it was FABULOUS!
 

Friday morning, we went to the airport and hopped on a helicopter. Another 1st for me and Tony! I was prepared and had taken my motion sickness medicine and the ride was smooth and totally awesome! The pilot had "Hawaii 5 o" music playing as we took off and we each had headsets so we could converse. He took us over all Maui and then out to Molokhi (another Hawiian Island) Molokhi has the highest sea cliffs in the worl and it was phenomonial!

This is Molokhi from the air....

And this is one of the highest waterfalls I have ever seen! There was a beautiful water pool at the bottom. That's one high cliff, wouldn't you agree?? I took ton's of pictures from the air and have so many beautiful things to see but for the sake of this blog, I only posted a couple. Anyway, the flight was so much fun and it was so cool to see the islands from the air and in a helicopter. I highly recommend the trip if you ever get the chance.

We also took in the "BURNING LOVE" show!  Darren Lee is a phenominal Elvis impersonator. He performed in Vegas for years and then came to Maui and is now the BIGGEST show on the island! He was fun and he sang every song Elvis ever made into a hit! He was a mover and a shaker as well! He had it all down!

YES, we even zip-lined!!  I was scared spitless to do this...seriously!!  BUT, that being said, it was my all time favorite thing we did on our vacation! I LOVED IT!!~ We did 5 different canopies and they each got longer and higher as we progressed. Ending with a 700 foot high, 1/2 mile long ride over beautiful Hawiian lush forest. SO AWESOME!!

We took an hour long boat ride out to Molokini Crater where we snorkled! I was seriously terrified of doing this too but Tony was so excited. He has snorkled before and couldn't wait to get in there with the fish.... The crew fed us breakfast on the way out and the ride was great!

This is the crater. The boat pulled into the center of the crater and thew out an anchor. We all had snorkle gear and in we went. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I only swallowed sear water (fish pee and poop) once!! Then I was on my way! I didn't dive under like Tony did .... I just floated serenely on top of the water.
 

We saw all kinds of fish, sponges, sear urchins and the coral was absolutely breathtaking! It wasn't as scary as I antisipated!!

Tony was always the last one back on the boat! lol He would have stayed out there all day if he could! lol The boat had stairs that would lower into the water so it made it easy access to the reef and the water temperature was wonderful! The color was brilliant blue and beautiful! After we all got on board, the crew fed us a lovely lunch of chicken, hawaiian rice, a roll and drinks. I was exhausted from swimming so didn't have much of an appetite. Maybe it was the fear of drowning, not sure but I should snorkle everyday!  lol Keep the feedbag off me!

After we left the crater, they took us to Turtle Cove and we snorkled again with Turtles!  We saw two big sea turtles and it was so cool! (this picture was taken at the Ocean Center but this is what it looked like non the less!)   It was merky there and you could feel the ocean current pushing or pulling you and I thought that was a bit scary. At one time I looked up and I was a long way from the boat so I started snorleling back and it took me a long time. It was so much fun and I loved it BUT Tony really really loved it!  lol

On Tuesday, the 15th, we scheduled a tour "ROAD TO HANA" .... Hana is a little community on the opposite side of the island where a lot of locals live. They have old beater cars and
The tour bus picked us up at our condo at 6:45AM. They took us to the harbor and we were fed a lovely lite breakfast. Then we headed out!! The road to Hana is an adventure in and of itself! The road is one lane so when someone is coming from the other direction, we had to hug the mountain wall so they could pass. If there still wasn't enough room, our driver had to back up and find a little nitch to get into so they could pass. It was truly a scary road!!  The rental car companies will not even insure the car if they are driven on a certain section of that road.
GOOD REASON TO TAKE A TOUR BUS!  

But the scenery was so beautiful! Bamboo forests, vines, ferns, flowers, fruit trees etc!
AND ....... OCEAN!~

The driver would pull off the road at certain vantage points and of course, all of us tourists took pictures of one another! lol

A lot of the beaches on this side of the ocean were full of lava rock! Trecherous!

As a matter of fact, we stopped at this paticular beach with a beautiful park. The guide told us that a lpt of people have weddings there. One paticular photographer had a couple go out onto the lava rock for that "Perfect picture" with the ocean and the waves in the background. A big wave came in and swept them both off the rock and out to sea. A local grabbed a serf  board and headed out to save them. He rescured the groom but the bride drowned. Our guide said he hoped the family sued the pants off of the photographer. How tragic!!

This beach was called "Black Sand Beach" .... The lava has actually been ground down to sand and of course it's black! There were some kids here having a blast playing in the waves!

This is "Black Sand Beach" from a higher vantage point!

There were numerous waterfalls on this side of the island and most all of them had pools at the bottom that people were swimming in. I took pictures of all of them but again for the sake of this (Lenghly blog) I didn't put them all. This paticular one was a "The Seven Sacred Pools" ...

This is "Red Ginger" and it was all over the place. The tour took 12 1/2 hours but I throughly enjoyed myself and the sites. They stopped in the actual town of Hana and fed us lunch. Tony and I had the Asian Chicken Salad with macadamia nuts and it was seriously the BEST thing I ate on the island the entire trip!  It was sooooo good! They grow all their vegetables right there in Hana and you saw chickens all over the place...no matter what part of the island your on! lol  We saw mongoose, birds of all kinds, wild horses, and cattle to name a few of the wild life. It was such an enjoyable trip and we learned a lot about the history of the islands from our native tour guide.
It was such an enjoyable vacation and I loved every single minute of it!
BUT, it's good to be home and back to the norm.... lol