TUL-DFW-OGG

After finally making it to Maui around noon, we got in our rental car (Red Voltswagon Beetle, LOL) and headed to Lahaina.

We stopped for lunch at the Cool Cat Cafe, which had been voted best burgers in Maui. We agree!

After lunch we went straight to the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa. When walking in the doors, you are actually still outside with plants and birds (parrots and penguins!) all around. It was really open and beautiful! Then there is a big opening to the pool area, which was really neat with different waterfalls and cave areas. The main pool was huge! And then there were a couple other pools scattered all around.

We had a great view of the ocean, but all of the lawn chairs were focused around the pool.

We spent most of the first day just hanging out at the pool, but we did go to the gym as well. For supper we ate at the restaurant next to the pool. Cody had tacos and I had guacamole and chips.

After dinner, we went to a new section of the pool and swam around in the shade for a while. Megan spent a good while laughing at Cody for being soo white!

The view from our room was gorgeous. We were on the corner, so we had two windows and could see out to one of the pool areas and behind to the mountains.

First full day in Hawaii!

We got up early to get to the Haleakala National Forest.

The drive was around 1 hr 45 min, and very winding once we started climbing up the mountain. The views are incredible as you go up and rise above the clouds. Elevation is around 10,000.

The terrain changed a lot as we went up the mountain. The trees disappeared and it became a lot of dirt and rocks. Once at the top, we were able to look out and see the coast and the clouds all at once!

We had never been on a volcano before, so this was pretty cool. Especially the views.

Road to Hana

This was the day we set aside for the Road to Hana, and my stars... We sure did spend the whole day! We left the hotel at 6:40, and we didn’t get back until almost 10.

We used the gypsy guide app to show us the way. That app was super cool!

Here are the highlights with pictures scattered throughout. (The last stop, Haleakala National Park, is getting its own entry on a separate page.)

1. Twin Falls

First stop! We hiked to down to the falls, climbed around on the rocks/trees, took lots of photos, and hiked back out!

Road to Hana (Continued...)

Our last stop of the day was Haleakala National.

At this point, we were exhausted and racing the sunset! We sped through this as fast as we could, but the views were incredible so it was constantly a challenge to keep moving.

1. First, we hiked by Kuloa Point Trail to Ohe’o Pools

This was a half mile loop where we viewed the pools running into the ocean. We hiked down as far as we could on the rocks and it was an amazing view with the greenery and rocks around. Cody climbed to the top of the highest point!

Scuba diving at Black Rock

This was our first time doing a shore dive outside of training.

We were super excited!

We met at the dive shop, gathered all our gear, and then took a van to the black rock entry point (basically back at our hotel).

There had been a fatal shark attack about two miles up the beach from here two days before, so that was interesting.

Once we entered the water, there was coral wall to our left that we followed along the coast. Once we reached the end, we turned around and follow the same wall back.

We saw: a couple turtles, butterfly fish with mate, Hawaiian state fish, baby white tip shark hiding in hole in wall, eel, puffer fish, drum fish, star fish, etc.

We only did 1 dive and then went back to hotel for the afternoon, we were so tired at this point!

Our scuba diving standards are way too high at this point. Coming off of some great dives in Thailand and St Thomas, we were really hard to impress. This dive was great! But not the best we’d seen. The surf was way up too, and that didn’t help anything.

In retrospect, we wish we would have done a boat dive for convenience sake, and we wish we would have separated it from the Road to Hana so that we weren’t so exhausted. Diving will be much higher on our list next time around, because we probably missed out on some great dives in this area.

Surfing!

Woke up at 6:15 to head to a surfing lesson at 7:30.

Accidentally had a very expensive buffet breakfast ($66) before driving to mile marker 12 (5-10 miles south of Lahaina) for lessons.

Waves were great and we were able to catch a lot! We paddled back out through a channel where waves didn’t break because of the reef. That was so nice! Still, we were riding in and then paddling out a few hundred yards, so our shoulders were burning by the end of the session!

Paid for pictures (maybe worth it? Maybe not.)

Last Day in Maui / First Day in Kauai

Cody took another surfing lesson early in the morning. Same place/time/instructor.

Megan got lots of pictures and videos. Cody got to catch a bunch of waves!

We woke up early, grabbed breakfast sandwiches at Great Harvest Bread (surprising good!), and drove about 1.25 hours to Waimea Canyon to hike Canyon Trail.

There were so many pretty lookouts along the way, as this canyon is what they consider the Hawaiian Grand Canyon.

Today we woke up early to be at Port Allen at 7:30 (30 min. Drive) for catamaran tour of Na Pali coast by Captain Andy’s. The coast line was beautiful! We got to see Spinner Dolphins twice while we were on the boat, they even would get in front of our boat and swim with us for a while! We had great seats right in the front middle of the boat so we had a great view of everything (and didn’t get as wet as the people on the side).

We saw turtles too but not for very long and there weren’t very many of them. Both times we saw Dolphins there were SO many. I took a ton of videos. Once we had seen the Na Pali coast we headed back and stopped for snorkeling. The coral was pretty but there wasn’t very many fish in this area and we have had such amazing snorkeling experiences that we weren’t super impressed with this part. Once back on the boat they fed us burgers for lunch (best burgers, again).

The sun had come up further over the mountain on the way back so the colors of the island were even prettier on the way back.

It did get a little rough on the water so we laid on our stomachs and watched the white water a lot of the way back.

Our tour guide/captain for the day was great! We were really impressed with him. We learned about some of the movies that were filmed along the coast (Jurassic park, pirates of the Caribbean, King Kong). We learned a little bit about the Star Wars missile site that is located on the west side of Kauai (We saw a couple missles launched at the base). He talked a lot about the ‘Hawaiian legends’ along the coast. He also pointed out pieces of the 11 miles hike that winds through the east side of Na Pali coast (only access to those locations).

Once back at the resort we stayed by the pool again for the afternoon. Then we spent a little time on the grassy area by the ocean! Such a pretty view with the mountains around us.

Went back to Dukes for supper because it was so good! No Hula Pie this time because we were too full.

We slept in for our last day of vacation, and it was great!

Went to breakfast buffet (again so expensive!! $66)

Cody had another surfing lesson at 10 and I laid by the ocean and watched.

The waves weren’t great, but he still had a good time for sure.

After chilling at the pool together and eating one last Hawaiian cheeseburger, we finally had to head to the airport around 2:30.