Soakin' Up Some Maui Sun

We got to go to Maui January 19-27th for Rick to attend the C.E. conference that Pacific University puts on each year.  When the boys were in Optometry school all us wives were excited for the day the boys could finally attend this conference...the bonus of Rick's new job, they pay for C.E. trips and he doesn't even have to use vacation time!  So we bought my plane ticket and headed to Maui to enjoy some much needed time in the sun...my sister and her husband flew in from Denver to watch the kids, thanks again Tana and Nathan!

 We decided at the rental car place to upgrade to the jeep and LOVED driving around the island with the top off all week...even if it was BEAVER colors...we were told it was going to be a yellow one.

Our plane left Boise at 5:30 am, so we were pretty tired when we got to Maui, so we just played on the beach at our hotel for the day and were in bed asleep at 6:30 pm so we could get up at 1:30 am to go up to Haleakala National Park to watch the sunrise over the top of the volcano.

We got to the top of the 10,000ft volcano about 45 minutes before sunrise to be told it was only 34 degrees and crazy windy...talk about freezing our butts off!  Luckily they gave us warm gear and we were able to hang out in the Visitor Center until sunrise.  It was beautiful!

 The clouds settled in and filled the inside of the volcano and made all kinds of pretty colors.

Then we were taken to the entrance of the park, which was over 7,000 ft elevation and were given bikes, helmets and a map to find our way 28 miles back down to town.  Talk about an AMAZING ride...28 miles down the side of a volcano on a bike!  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to complete since we stopped for lots of pictures and to rest my hands that had a death grip on the brakes and our arm muscles that were supporting our weight as we rode since it was so steep we were leaning over the handle bars most of the time.

Of the 28 miles we only pedaled about 1/4 of a mile...instead we FLEW down the mountain.  I was glad that we opted to go with a company that we could go at our own at our own pace instead of going with a huge group, cause the majority of our group went WAY faster than I was comfortable going.  I figured we would have a nice bike lane to ride since it is a popular tourist thing to do...nope we were lucky to have a 12 inch strip of shoulder to ride on but most of the time we were riding in the lane with the cars...down a road that was so steep and windy that the speed limit was 20mph...it was a little nerve wracking at first!

Rick only had to be in class 4 days until noon and for 2 hours 2 other days that we were there so we had LOTS of time to see the island and have fun.  After his first day of classes we headed to Boss Frog's Dive Shop and rented snorkeling equipment for the week. Then we found all kinds of beaches on our side of the island to check out and use our equipment.  Kapelua Bay was our favorite by far...sooo pretty!

Two different days we were there snorkeling and twice at our hotel's beach, we had a sea turtle swim right up to us!  The first one that we swam with was HUGE, the others were just normal sized with their shells being about the size of our SUV's tires.

It was crazy that they didn't even seem bothered by us...we swam at arms length from them all around the bay until they swam in water that was too shallow along the coral for my liking...I got trapped in Hunauma Bay on the coral last time we were in Hawaii and was rescued by a life guard and was deathly afraid for that to happen again.  It was great to be able to snorkel on our own where ever we wanted rather than big tourist excursions...most of the time there were only 20-30 people snorkeling with us.

This is the time of year that humpback whales come to Hawaii to have their babies, so we were hoping to luck out and see at least one while we were there.  So after Rick got out of class on Tuesday we went out on a whale watching boat to see if we'd have any luck.

After about 15 minutes we stopped counting how many we saw, they were everywhere!  My camera has very little zoom, so the pictures don't do it justice but it was amazing to see these HUGE animals playing in the water.  Usually there was a momma and a baby and sometimes they were followed by an agressive male who was showing off, which was fun for us to watch.

 Usually the momma would do something and then the baby would copy it to learn various skills. So they were constantly jumping, splashing their flippers on the water or waving their fins in the air. Regulations say that a boat can only get within 100 yards of a whale and then they have to stop.  Many times our captain did this, the whale swam closer to the boat.  During the 2 hours we were out on the water we even had 3 whales swim right along the boat! The biologist on board said it was very uncommon for it to happen once during an excursion but unheard of for it to happen 3 times. 

We had a great time on the boat trip, but were shocked and the number of whales we saw while sitting on the beach!  I sat and got my tan on while Rick was in class each day and I stopped counting after the first day how many I saw.  I took a couple of books to read while we were there, but didn't even get half way through one of them because I couldn't take my eyes off the water, it was fascinating to watch them out there!  When we were out snorkeling Rick would laugh at how excited I got when we'd see them jump high out of the water and land on their back making a huge splash...it never got old.

 Thursday Rick didn't have to be in class at all, so we left the hotel around 8 am and drove to the other side of the island to do the "Road to Hana"...a 65 mile stretch of road that you drive 15-20 mph that has over 600 hairpin turns and 34 one lane bridges through the rain forest.  Many of the one lane sections had blind corners so you slowed down and honked your horn as you drove to let oncoming traffic know to wait for you on the other side.

 Talk about BEAUTIFUL!!  There were all kinds of waterfalls and swimming holes along the road, but it was raining off and on so we never ended up swimming in any of them unfortunately.

 And for some reason a few of my waterfall pictures won't flip around the right direction, but there were TONS of them along the way.  Some of them you had to hike to and others were right off the road.

One of the times along the Hana Highway we stopped at a beach that was all lava rock.  It was really random to have a beach made out of lava rock, but it was fun to climb along it and look at the tide pools.  The waves crashing on it made for some really pretty pictures.

Another beach along the Hana Highway we stopped at was the famous Black Sand Beach...

...talk about weird to have black sand!  It felt like any other sand you'd find at the beach but because it was made from lava rock it was black.  We went down and walked along it, but it was raining and the waves were WAY too crazy to even think about swimming there.

The road was full of all kinds of beautiful  scenery and view points, but once you got to the town you were suppose to turn around and go back the same way to return to the other side of the island.  The map clearly said that the road past Hana around the other side of the island was even crazier than when had just done, mostly unpaved and your rental car was not covered to travel it.  We decided we had 4-wheel drive that we wanted to test out and we were going to brave it...it was fun, but crazy!  Another 40 miles of tight corners, one lane roads, cliffs without guardrails and no pavement...we were proud to say we only needed the 4-wheel drive once, but we were glad we sat up high cause it was bumpy!

And who can go to Hawaii without catching a hula show??  Our hotel put one on each night, so after getting back from our Hana Highway adventure around 6 pm, we went down to watch and got some really yummy fruity beverages and appetizers and enjoyed the show.  We had a great time on Maui, came home with tans that our co-workers coveted, saw some amazing scenery and wild life, ate lots of tasty food and got a lot of R&R in.  Rick can't wait to go another time...I don't like to repeat vacations, but they move the conference around to different islands so who knows, but next year we are definitely going to the Vegas conference so the kids are excited to be able to come too.