Our trip is over. Hard to believe it went so fast. We arrived in Houston around 2:00 PM. The flight home was easy, it went by quicker than I expected. Now we are back to the real world….but I have plenty of pictures to remind me of our time in paradise.
Maui's Upcountry
View of Makawao & Pukalani
This was our last breakfast on the lanai….I will miss it. We slept in a little and then packed up and headed towards Haleakala. We drove up Lahainaluna Road for a view of the town before we left. What a drive to Haleakala, sea level to 10,000 feet in less than 2 hours! I was glad we had canceled our bike trip. It is very very windy at the top. In fact, it was almost impossible to stand up, but the view was nice and worth the trip. We enjoyed stopping where we wanted to on our way down. If I lived in Maui I would want to live in the upcountry area. Rolling hills, cool weather, and the views are to die for. 
We drove down through Makawoa and Haiku, stopped and had a picnic lunch watching the windsurfers at Hookipa Beach. We then stopped in Paia to look at some of the shops. A strange collection of high end art galleries and weird little boutiques. We still had quite a bit of time to waste until our flight at 11:00, so we went to the movies at Queen Kaahumanu Mall. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean. After the show we ate at the Saigon Café. It was a small place, but they were very friendly and the food was good. After dinner we stopped at K-Mart for some last minute snacks for the plane and to change clothes.
Breakfast in the condo and then we were off to Slaughterhouse Beach and the drive around the west end of Maui. We arrived to a private beach…one man was there and he was on his way out. How nice. We climbed over the rock on the right side; we sat there and watched a large school of dolphins playing in the water. The water was a little rough so we decided not to snorkel. After watching the dolphins we began our trip to the blowhole and Olivine Pools. The weather was better, but still not clear. This time the tide was out and the blowhole was not blowing! So we didn’t waste our time climbing down to it. We enjoyed the drive to the pools, but did not go in, because it was very cloudy. We drove on towards Kahakuloa Village, but when it began to rain again we headed back to the sunnier side of Maui! We stopped at Aloha Mixed Plate for lunch and then went back to enjoy our last day in the condo. Lots of relaxing and beach time. We ordered from Honokowai Okazuya & Deli for dinner. We had egg fu young and Mongolian beef with rice and stir fried vegetables for $16. Drinks and dinner on the lanai again. Wonderful!
Helmet Urchin
After dinner we walked down the beach to watch the sunset and take some beautiful pictures. Paradise has been wonderful.
This was our best beach day. We packed a lunch and headed up to Kapalua Bay. This was a great spot to spend the day: wonderful weather, great snorkeling, shade for Stan and sun for me. This was truly paradise. It is listed as one of the world’s best beaches. It was a nice place to spend our anniversary. We stayed here until early afternoon and then headed back to the condo. Stan took a nap and I did some shopping. It is nice being just a few blocks from the shops.
Now we are getting to the relaxing part of our trip! We walked down the beach to the Sunrise Café for breakfast. This café is just off the boat dock. We had two cups of coffee and a very large cinnamon roll with macadamia nuts on top. Very good.
Slaughterhouse Beach 
We drove to Nakalele Blowhole, but the wind and rain made it impossible to spend much time there. I don’t think it was raining when we got there, but we still got wet from the spray coming from the blowhole. We turned around and started back to the sunny side of the island. We stopped for lunch at Maui Tacos in Kapalua and browsed around a little sidewalk craft fair. We bought a beautiful gold bracelet there. On the way back to Lahaina we stopped at the Whaler’s Village and looked around and did a little shopping. We were trying to figure out where we wanted to eat for our anniversary tomorrow night. We decided to stop at CJ’s Comfort Zone and take some food home for dinner. Dinner and drinks on our lanai, no reason to go out, it’s too much fun here. 
We got up early this morning, we had a boat trip with Blue Water Rafting and the check in was at 6:45 in Kihei. The weather was a little windy and we knew the trip would be a little rough. The trip was fun, but the waves were huge with 7-8 foot swells. The coastline at the end of south Maui is very rugged. The snorkeling was not the best with all the wind, but we still had fun. We decided to go to Molokini crater to snorkel too. This was a beautiful place, and by the time we got there, we were the only boat. That was nice. You can see forever and the visibility is always good. They even took us to the outside edge to see where the wall drops off. We spent almost 7 hours exploring the southern coast. I feel like it was a good trip, but very exhausting.
It was great to get back to the condo and take a shower. Stan took a nap and I went to the Cool Cat Café to send an email to Kyle, since we had missed several of his calls. We bought fresh fish at the store and fixed it in the condo for dinner. Eating on our lanai is better than any restaurant in town! We enjoyed another walk on the beach and sat in the hot tub. It was a very long day. 
Had breakfast on our lanai and then headed to the Swap Meet in Kahului. It was a lot of fun. The weather was great, not too hot. We bought coffee, necklaces for the nieces, an ivory whale’s tale necklace Kyle, and mango bread. We found some photographs we really liked, but didn’t go back to get them. I was sorry at first, but then found the same ones at the Pacific Whale Foundation in Lahaina. The best thing I had to eat all week was at the Swap Meet, it was Teriyaki steak and garlic noodles. Nothing fancy, but very good. 
We took advantage of the happy hour at Moose McGillycuddy's in the afternoon. We had tickets for Warren and Annabelle’s at 5, so we stopped by for a few drinks and pupus on our way. We arrived at Warren and Annabelle’s just in time to go in. They only take a small group in at a time. They give you a key and you enter a library looking room and have to figure out which door leads to the parlor. It was fun. The food and drinks were good, and the show was excellent. We took advantage of walking on the beach and using the hot tube again before we went to bed.
This was our Road to Hana day. We were still waking up early so we got a good start on the day. I think we left around 6:30. No traffic and the weather was beautiful. Our first stop was at the Waikamoi Ridge Trail, it was a nice little hike. This hike makes a loop and the scenery is great, so green. Our next stop was the Lower Puohokamoa Falls. We walked down a short trail to a nice viewing spot. This is a very long waterfall. We made lots of little stops to look and take pictures. We found Ching’s Pond, but didn’t get in. After a little looking we found Three Bears Fall. We ran into another couple looking for the same falls. After finding our way down to the falls and pond, we were the only four people there. It was great. We went swimming and enjoyed the beauty. It was our best stop. We found quite a few other falls along the way, but our next favorite stop was down Nahiku Road. It is a 2.5 mile road that leads to the water, more lush than the Road to Hana. At the end there are great views of the coast, a black sand beach and a trail to some small falls. This stop was also off the beaten path. I bought flowers down this road that were wonderful; they lasted the whole time we were in Maui. I hated to leave them behind. 
Hanawi Falls
Nahiku Road 
Wai'anapanapa State Park
Our next big stop was at Wai’anapanapa State Park. We were starving by now so we had lunch first. By now the weather had gotten a little cloudy and it started to rain before we left. We did get to enjoy the black beach and a cave a little, but would have liked to stay longer, oh well on to Hana. We only stayed in Hana a short time, and took a few pictures. Because of the rain, we didn’t look for the red sand beach. I really wanted to see it. The Wailua Falls were none existing, not enough water. There were some vendors selling crafts and baked goods at this spot. It was nice to have a break. Then we headed on to Ohe’o Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools). It was pretty, but very crowded. We went swimming for a while until the rain caught up with us! We did the complete circle around Haleakala. The road was a little rough here and there, but worth the drive. It was nice to see the changes in the landscape.
The traffic going into Lahaina was even worse than Wednesday…it took us over an hour to go the last 11 miles! We were tired by the time we got back to our condo. After a little rest we went to dinner at Cool Cat Café. Their hamburgers are huge and very good. It really hit the spot.
We woke up early and took a stroll on the beach; it was nice and quiet and very cool. It was fun to see the sun coming over the mountains. We had breakfast in our condo and then went to Black Rock to snorkel. We were there pretty early and found free parking at the Sheraton. The snorkeling was great that morning. The water was clear, calm and I felt like I was in an aquarium. It was wonderful. There were hundreds of fish of all kinds, but no turtles. After a little beach time we drove up the coast to Napili to look around. 
We ate lunch at our condo and lounged around for awhile. Then we explored the little shops in Lahaina. Stopped at Lahaina Fish Company for a drink, they have a great location on the water, and it really hit the spot. 
We went to the Old Lahaina Luau in the evening. It was fun…the grounds are beautiful and we were seated personally by one of the staff. I loved the flower lies. The tropical drinks were ok, but the call drinks were better. We really enjoyed the time before the luau to wander around and take pictures. The food was good, some of it was a little different, but we tried everything. We were happy with our choice of luaus. We watched part of The Feast of Le Le several evenings from our lanai. OLL was much better. 
Old Lahaina Luau Grounds
The flight to Maui wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We arrived about 30 minutes earlier than expected…that was nice. The airport was kind of neat, open air walkways. I guess in Hawaii you don’t need much air conditioning. We rented a car from Word of Mouth Car Rental. We called them when we got our luggage and they picked us up. They were very friendly and easy to deal with. No lines! We landed at 1:40 and were on our way to Lahaina by 2:20. That was the easy part – getting to Lahaina took another hour. I had read the traffic was bad, but this is crazy. Honestly the only bad part was the last 10 miles into Lahaina. After settling in at the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort we went to Long Drugs and Safeway to get supplies for the condo. I was surprised to find out the prices weren’t as bad as I thought they would be. The liquor prices at Long’s were better than in Texas.JPG)
Views from our lanai .JPG)
