Maui 2019

I have to say that I love, no adore how Maui is pretty much a month on my blog....every year it's January, Maui, February, March. Or February, Maui, March April....it makes my heart happy. Probably as happy as this fish taco makes Byron. Fred's Mexican Cantina is where it is at. Byron's in his happy place. So am I, not Fred's but Maui in general. Byron was bearing his testimony in church the other month and was saying how when we go away on trips it's always nice to come home. He compared it to the feeling we will have when we get to go home to heaven and how we will realize how much we've missed it as we are walking back in. Then he stopped himself and chuckled and said, well except Erin. She always cries when we leave Maui. I kind of broke his analogy. It's true though I do cry as we leave my island paradise. It represents at this point in our lives so many years of happiness. Time with my love, my parents, my children, my siblings, my nieces and nephews...so many sunburns...okay so its not always paradise. If I'd wear my sunblock more consistently it would be heaven on earth. 

The Cinnamon Roll Place....this is always a big breakfast especially after eating a no sugar diet for a month or so before vacation. We managed to drop a bit of weight before we hit the islands though so the healthy eating was worth this cinnamon roll. Also worth the sugar rush afterwards. These cinnamon rolls though are divine.

One of the benefits of having my parents on the island at the same time as us is we get to do awesome things like go to a luau. The Hilton luau was exceptional. We enjoy ourselves so much. The leis are gorgeous, the pig roast was so entertaining and my younger self would have been horrified. My new post marriage Montana self loved it.  How does it not both me that I could see the head of my meal right there in front of me.

The food at this luau was incredible. Especially that kahalua pork. The Poi though, gag. Skip the poi.

The uncovering of our dinner. We got to watch them prepare and shred it for dinner. Pretty much more than we ever wanted to see but since we do have a pig roasting pit on our property, maybe it will come in handy sometime. It looks pretty complicated though. The meat did just melt off the bones though. So yummy!!

We combined the cinnamon roll place with the delicious Coconuts Tacos for lunch. Chris, Rachael and Sonja stayed with my parents in their new condo. They purchased a month at the Maui Sunset time share unit. Best decision of their life I'd say. Jake and Marie are also staying with them this week. Byron and I are sticking to our Days Inn postage stamp hotel room. We love love love it. 

Hanging with Jake and Marie at our favorite shared ice stand. Alice is the owner and treats us right! She brings out all her special locals only flavors...we love this lady. She did try hard to convince me not to move to the islands this trip though. I think the key to loving it though is having enough cash on hand to enjoy it. Alice has raised her kids on her own selling shaved ice here on Maui. Tough way to make a living but we do our best to keep her in the positive whenever we are on the island.

Tidal pool hunting during an oceanfront hike. We were finding little fish in there.

This local was heading to his favorite fishing hole with his net when he spotted a pretty sizable fish stuck in this tidal pool. He threw his net in and caught it. He was laughing and so thrilled with this easy catch. We all went over and enjoyed his excitement with him. He said he'd never caught a big fish in a tidal pool before and he was only looking because he saw us checking out the pools. Win for the tourists.

We all shared a speck of shade at the beach to eat our lunch in. Luckily my skirt is also a makeshift picnic blanket.

Driving to the road to Hana. The Ulupalakua is an old ranch store. We bought sandwiches and hamburgers from them to take along with us so we'd have lunch when we got to the bamboo hike.

In the parking lot at the Pipiwai Trail this cute kitty was hanging out for scraps. She was sweet but also a bit feisty. We named her Maui and enjoyed sharing our food with her. My dad would put a piece of meat on his shoe and she would come over and snatch it off. That was the closest she would come though. Smart kitty. She got more comfortable with us after a bit and eventually bit my moms finger after we ran out of food....I guess this is another case of don't feed the bears.

Jake and Marie hiking the bamboo forest. My favorite section of this hike! My mom and dad didn't come this year. They drove into Hana and enjoyed the day in town.

Jake got a little explorer bug in him and took off on a side trail near the top of the hike. He found an entirely different waterfall and we all hiked up to it. What a fun time we had exploring a new section of the hike.

Jacob and Marie found the pineapple fields and purchased this gorgeous pineapple straight from the office. It is the most yellow beautiful looking pineapple I have ever seen. When we sliced into this beauty it was so perfect. It was the most perfect pineapple a human has consumed and we got to share it.

Another trip to Alice's shaved ice shack. We cannot get enough of this cold icy goodness. Peace, Love and Shaved Ice!!

The view from my parents new condo. It's pretty spectacular. The whales jump around in the bay and they can sit on their deck and read or paint and watch the whales. Not a bad month of winter I'd say. 

We purchased an underwater camera this year and brought it along for some sea life photos. It was fun to at least pretend that we were capturing some underwater fun but mostly we got blurry coral. These were a few of the good ones though.

Byron is always prepared for a snorkel. I think he likes to be in the water as much as I like to be on the beach reading a book.

Found this beauty near our hotel. I just love the green sea turtles.

If you lay back and clear your ears under water you can hear the whales and dolphins talking to each other in the water. It is fun to just get out beyond the wave break and listen to the ocean. I had been listening for a bit just before I popped up and took this photo. I have to check every now and then to make sure I'm not drifting out to sea when I lay back for a float.

Whale watching tour with Sonja, Mom, Dad, Chris, Rachael, Jake, Marie and Byron. We had a big fun crew on Maui with us this year! Our whale tour was awesome. It's cool how every year you get a totally different experience and learn something new. We also did a snorkel tour off of a boat as part of the whale watching. We snorkeled north of the Pacific Whale launch and saw some great new coral reefs and different fish up that way.

Byron watching whales with the binocs.

This was on our hike up to the Pipiwa trail or bamboo hike. Jake had his go-pro and was proud to use it everywhere we went. He got some cool footage and can slap a movie together in no time flat.

This star fish, if that is what it is looks pretty vicious. I'm wondering if it's native? Haven't seen one here before. Hopefully it's not one of the ones that obliterates a coral reef and breeds like mad.

We hadn't seen this variety of star fish either. This one looks more regular though, less aggressive. You can see I am wearing a thin layer, like a swim shirt covered by my wet suit shirt. I actually managed to stay quite warm this year with both of these on.

This is the sea turtle beach up near the Hippie town. These turtles come up and rest on the shore nightly. They are mixed in there with black rocks and they are very well disguised. Can't hardly tell the lava from the turtle shells.

We're still at the hippie beach looking around and for the first time......first time!!!! we saw a monk seal. I have wanted to see one for so long.

Look at this fat, warm, sunning monk seal....you're not allowed to get very close to these seals when they are resting on the beach but I had a good zoom lens on my underwater camera so I got a good photo even though we had to keep our distance. It was so exciting to finally see one for myself. Jake and Marie had already seen two this week and it was her first trip to the islands.

Byron is studying a jelly fish he picked up with a stick. Always something to look at when you're walking the beach. This beach was littered with little blue and clear jelly fish. We did not touch any to see if they were the stinging kind. I've done that as a child and they kill if you touch them. I don't know about this variety but I wasn't willing to check.

We had such a fun year hanging out with family and enjoying the beautiful island. Couldn't have asked for a better week! Thanks as always goes out to Laura, Byron's mom who saves the day and comes to stay with our kids we leave behind in cold Montana. We wouldn't be able to do this without her and are so grateful!!!