Cari's Adventures: Aloha!

I'm finally getting around to blogging about our recent, amazing trip to Maui. Sorry it's taking so long but Henry got a hold of the underwater camera so I've had to weed through approximately 350 pictures, mostly of the sea floor.

So, we spent a week at lovely Ka'anapali Beach on Maui. Didn't stay at the nicest hotel but when you can get a $97/night rate compared to a $199/night rate (thanks employee discount!), you have to make compromises.

We had a blast relaxing at the beach and exploring Lahaina. Henry picked some really cool "local" restaurants which were unbelievable (barring Bradduh's Hut which was a man BBQ-ing in his front yard... stomach didn't like that one). My favorite spot was called Local Food which was literally a hut. One woman and her daughter ran it and made the best kalua pork ever. After we were done with the meal, I asked her how she made it and she totally gave me her recipe! Kalua pork for everyone next time they visit.

Side note...I can hear Henry talking about sailboats, a German couple and being eaten by cannibals. Where does he get this information?

Back to Hawaiian beaches with overweight Americans who would not make a tasty meal. I splurged this year and bought the underwater housing for my camera. As I mentioned earlier, I think Henry enjoyed it more than I did because he took hundreds of pictures. Only about a dozen turned out to be worthwhile, but we had fun in the process. During our ocean adventures, we saw hundreds of wild spinner dolphins, a lone snowflake eel, dozens of turtles and a school (?) of stingrays.

Besides water sports, we spent a lot of time in Lahaina where Henry enjoyed his first shave ice. The morning went something like this..

"Henry, I want a shave ice"
"Ew shave ice is gross, why would you want flavored ice"
"I just do"
"Ok, but I don't want one, but you can get one"
then bam, Henry steals shave ice and finally discovers the yummy goodiness of Hawaiian shave ice. We then returned every day except one to get a shave ice. Henry and I are now trying to figure out how we can open a shave ice stand in the summer. So far, we think we can break even in 3 months if we sell 58 shave ices a day, anyone looking to fund a business venture? :)

Other notable highlights were the road to Hana. I wasn't convinced that I wanted to tackle the notoriously treacherous road but Henry really wanted to. We set out pretty early in the morning and made stops on our way to Hana. The first stop we made was at a famous waterfall. When we got out of the car and made our way to the trail, there was a skinned deer hanging from the fence with a no trespassing sign. Henry started to turn around thinking there's no way in heck I was going to go under and through the deer but heck no I was on vacation (and a mission, don't get in the way of me and my photographs). Waterfall wasn't great (not pictured below), but it did make for an interesting experience. I wish now I would have taken a picture of the dead deer. Ya'll would be so proud.

After we reached Hana, we checked out Waianapanapa State Park before heading back early evening erroneously missing the BEST part of Hana, the Seven Sacred Pools. Thanks Revealed Maui... I guess we'll have to go back.

The drive back down was much more nerve wracking, but we did make it.

Another highlight was the sunset from the volcano Haleakala. Much to Henry's dismay, I refused to get up at 3:30 AM to see the sunrise, so we settled on the sunset. It was breathtaking. The volcano is so weird looking too, it looked like we were on the moon.

All in all it was a magnificent trip. We really had a blast. Henry even voted it the best tropical vacation so far. We're both thinking of ways we can find jobs and move back asap.

Other blog-worthy photos